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SERM. the tempers and manners of men, when, III. from a doleful depravity, wherein reason and confcience, and all the best fentiments and affections of human nature, feem to be loft or asleep, and all the designs and pursuits of men are directed by selfish inferior appetites, or contracted vitious propenfities; when, I fay, from this wretched degeneracy they are recovered to the love and practice of the things that are pure, and true, and just, and vene rable, and virtuous; to seek the things that are above, to approve the good and acceptable, and perfect will of God, and to walk in newnefs of life. These representations fhew the efficacy of the gospel and the grace of God, for effecting such a change in men ; but as it is all a voluntary change, wherein their own natural powers actively exert themselves, the whole is comprehended under the duty of Repentance. Still it is to be remember'd, that the effence of repenting, confifts in prevailing good inclinations, contrary to the evil ones which had the afcendant before, and good works directly oppofite to those wicked ones of which finners had been guilty. Thus, John Baptift who first de clared the coming of God's kingdom, and taught the doctrine of repentance for the remiffion of fins, when, having in general,

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exhorted

exhorted his hearers to repent, they asked SER M. him more particularly what he meant by it, III. and what he would have them to do, explains it thus, Luke iii. from ver. 11. accommodating his exhortation to their various circumftances; the common people he directed, instead of outward ceremonies and forms, in which the religion of that time chiefly confifted, to abound in works of fubftantial piety and charity, and to give out of their plenty for the relief of their indigent fellow-creatures; the collectors of taxes, called Publicans, he exhorted to perform what was given them in charge justly and mercifully, never extorting from any man more than what the due and faithful dif charge of their truft required; and the foldiers, that they should not behave themfelves infolently and oppreffively, but be content with their wages. This was the Baptift's doctrine of repentance, and it may very eafily, by parity of reafons, be applied to all the various relations, circumftances, and conditions in human life. In general, let men forfake their wicked ways and unrighteous doings, and turn to the Lord, practifing the virtues which are contrary to their former vices. And in particular, Let him that ftole, freal no more; let him that has been covetous,

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III.

SERM. break off his fins by fhewing mercy to the poor; let the lewd and voluptuous become chafte and temperate; the wrathful and contentious put on bowels of mercies, humblenefs of mind, forbearing and forgiving the weak and the injurious; in fine, let us * put off the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lufts, and put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. All the facred writers with one confent, continually urge men to this, as the only effectual way to obtain reconciliation with God, and the remiffion of all their fins. The prophets under the Old Teftament infift upon it as well as Chrift and his apostles, affuring the Jews, that without it all their facrifices and other external rites would be unavailable to their acceptance with God; that indeed God was ready to forgive their iniquities; though their fins were as fcarlet, and red like crimson, he would make them white as fnow and wool; but it is upon the condition of their washing and making them clean, putting away the evil of. their doings, ceafing to do evil, and learning "to do well . No more taking pleasure in their former finful courfes, rigorously exacting the labours and fervices of the poor, and grinding

* Ephef. iv. 22, 24. || Ifaiah i. 16. 18.

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grinding their faces by oppreffion, but SER M.
dealing their bread to the hungry, and cloath III.
ing the naked ||: in fhort, exercifing themselves
univerfally in the works of true piety and
righteousness. Sorrow for fin, and what is
called contrition, humiliation for having of-
fended God, and perverted that which is
right; the confeffing of our iniquities with
shame and grief, and pious virtuous inclina-
tions, a defire to become holy as God is
holy; all these are neceffary to repentance,
but it is a fatal mistake to imagine, that it
effentially confifts, and is compleated in any,'
or all of them; or, that any thing will be
accepted without what I have already men-
tioned, a thorough and effectual forfaking all
fin, and turning to God, and to the practice
of our duty, univerfally. These prepara-
tory exercises and difpofitions of the mind,
arise from the reason of things, and the very
frame of our nature. As repentance is the
rational exercise of the foul, wherein its in-
tellectual and active powers are deliberately
employed, what first and naturally occurs
to the reflecting thoughts of a penitent, is,
his former conduct; and he cannot review it
otherwise than with an ingenuous remorfe
and felf-abhorrence. When a Man confi-

§| Isa. Iviii. 7.

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SERM.ders that he has done wrong, it is impoffible
III. to avoid a deep concern; for it is the highest

pleasure to be juftified to our felves, and the
reproaches of a felf-accufing heart are most
painful; and this is the best and most effec-
tual preservative from a relapse into former
follies. * Sorrow after a godly fort, as the
apostle fays, is naturally productive of fear,
and zeal, and carefulness; fear of offending
God for the future, a zeal and care to please
him in all things. And as this is the true foun-
dation of repentance, that it may be firm
and stable, nothing is more neceffary for us
to attend to, than that our forrow be of the
kind I just now mentioned, after a godly
fort. There
may be a grief even for fin,
which is of another character; that is, when
the penal and pernicious confequences of it
only are confidered, especially, the difgrace
and the miseries to which it expofes finners
in this world. Such a forrow is really no
more than a painful fenfe of natural evil or
unhappiness; and if fin is only confidered,
as the occafion of that, without entering into
its moral deformity, we can never imagine
that forrow arifing thence, has any thing in
it of that ingenuous remorfe which is accept-
able to God; or that it will produce, or in-

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* 2 Cor. vii. 9---II.

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