SERM. God. If it were true, that repentance conIII. fifts in these things, yet is it not evident from

a multitude of fcripture declarations, indeed from the intire strain of them, that a good life according to the mercy of the gofpel covenant, that is, fincere prevailing, though imperfect holiness in all manner of converfation, is the condition of eternal life? and therefore to understand the gospel confiftently, we must conclude, that either repentance is not sufficient of itself, to entitle to forgivenefs and acceptance with God, or a persevèring conformity to the divine law is included in it, which feems to be the jufter expli

cation.

But, we may be farther fatisfied, that repentance, as the term of forgiveness and reconciliation to God, does not confift wholly in thefe particulars already mentioned, by trusting to which many deceive themselves; we may, I fay, be fatisfied of this, by con fidering the reafon of the thing; for, in the first place, it cannot be reasonably thought that God has any delight in the forrow of his creatures, meerly for its own fake, because, that is contrary to his perfect goodness, which takes pleasure in the happiness of all beings who are capable of it; and the fcripture tells us, that he delights in

the

III.

the prosperity and joy of his fervants. If SER M. we could at all fuppofe that the griefs of finners are pleasing to the Deity, as feparated from the proper effect of them in their reformation; then ftill the more intense their griefs are, the more pleafing they would be, and confequently the hopeless anguish of the accurfed objects of his wrath, would, as being the bittereft and the most painful, be the most acceptable, the howlings of the damned be more grateful in his ears, than the ingenuous mournings of the penitent, which every one will judge to be abfurd. Let us put the cafe of a human fuperior who has bowels of compaffion; will he take any pleasure in the forrows of an offending subject any farther than as they are the salutary prefages of amendment? Will a father delight in the piercing griefs of his child, or even a judge in the affliction of a malefactor ? No otherwife, certainly, than as their future. obedience may be thereby fecured.

We ought not, then, to think that the best of all beings, the most merciful father even of his prodigal children, the most compaffionate judge, who does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men, will regard with pleasure and approbation, the deepest forrows and humiliations of finners on any other

F 2

SERM.other account, than as they are means in III. order to the end which he certainly approves, 'the bettering of their hearts, and reforming their converfations; and therefore we must conclude, that the repentance which God accepts is not confummated, nor principally confifts, in forrow for fin.

I

Secondly, The fame judgment is to be made of confeffion, in which our penitence muft not reft, nor will God approve it unless it end in the forfaking of fin; which Solomon comprehends in the condition of our obtaining mercy. Prov. xxviii. 13. He that covereth his fin, fhall not profper, but whofo confeffeth and for faketh shall have mercy. do not speak here only of a formal acknowledgment in words, which without the fincere and ingenuous contrition of the heart, cannot be pleafing to God, for it is hypocrify; but, let us fuppofe it ever so serious, and accompanied with the deepest remorse and self-abasement, it is only fo far valuable as it terminates in holinefs of heart and life. Confider how we would judge in a parallel cafe of our own. Suppofe a child, a fervant, a friend, or a neighbour, is guilty of a trefpafs, and makes profeffion of grief for it ; humanity and christian charity require us to forgive

forgive the wrong; but it is always taken for SER M. granted, that the injurious fhall not relapfe III. into his former offences, but that his future conduct shall be juft, refpectful, and obliging; when it happens otherwise, and the conduct continues uninfluenced, and as bad as before, a repetition in that cafe of fuch fruitless profeffions is in itself offensive, and rather ferves to heighten the provocation; and, if it be fo, we cannot but imagine that God will count it an indignity, if his finful creatures treat him after the fame manner; if after many provocations, they, in order to obtain his favour, only make a confeffion of their guilt, and inftead of forfaking their evil ways, return to them again.

And, in the last place, the difpofitions and purposes of the mind will be unavailable, and are not true repentance unless they care followed with a fuitable practice. Let us judge in this cafe as we do in all others concerning the abilities, the qualities, the accomplishments, natural and moral, of the human foul. Reafon itself, the diftinguishing ¡ excellence of our nature, is discovered only by our conduct; if a creature in human fhape fhould fhow by its actions no other faculties than thofe which belong to the brutal kind, it could not be acknowledged

SERM, to be of our fpecies. But, particularly, in III. determining characters and qualities of men,

we have always a recourse to their behaviour. Thus we distinguish between a wife man and a fool, between juft and unjust, between grateful and ungrateful, between a friend and an enemy; for these are never confidered as, nor indeed are they in their own nature, idle, unactive qualities, resting in the mind, Difpofitions are in order to action, and have a neceffary relation to it, particular difpofitions to particular courses of action and without them, are to all intents and purposes to be confidered as if they had no being.

After the fame manner let us judge of repentance, confidered as a difpofition in the mind. To what is it a difpofition? surely to obedience, to the expreffions of love and gratitude to God and hatred of fin, to a courfe of action oppofite to the former which is now repented of. Without that obedience, therefore, thofe expreffions of love and gratitude to God, and hatred of fin, and without that change of our course of action, it must be accounted empty and void. The finner very well knows how his former difpofitions, he now pretends to repent of, and to have changed, exerted themselves; they

were