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the formation of a particular self; if it may be said that the sinner is the necessitator of his Judge, rather than that the Judge is the Chooser, and that he punisheth himself, rather than that God punisheth him; and that all this cometh to pass in its measure even in this present world;-it is also true that in this world the sinner may judge himself; and thus so realize the individuality of the final account, as to ward off the retribution of the Most High. So far as we judge ourselves we shall not be judged. We may anticipate the verdict of the last day by self-judgment now. Nothing can be told us at that day of the nature, the guilt, the demerit of sin, as to what is sin, and what not, which the Word of God, the cross of Christ, our own consciences, have not already told us. One of the chief reasons why we fail to realize the individuality of the last judgment is, that we compare ourselves with those about us, and are satisfied if we be no worse than they. On the contrary, we must keep at home; look within, not abroad; to see how personal our sins are, how personal their retribution will be. We must deal severely with ourselves if we hope for God to deal kindly; we must show no mercy to ourselves if we expect God to show us mercy. There is neither peace nor penitence without self-severity: we cannot repent unless we know what to repent of, and that it is ours to repent of it as if there were no sins in the world but ours, no sinners but ourselves. Repentance," as a certain one saith, “is a virgin fair and lovely; and the tears which seem to do

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The Pastor of Willington.

violence to her beauty do the rather grace it. Her breast is sore with the strokes of her own hands, which are always either in Moses' position on the mount, lifted up towards heaven, or the publican's in the temple, smiting that bosom. Her knees are hardened by constant praying, her voice is hoarse with calling upon God; and when she cannot speak, she delivers her mind in groans. There is not a tear that falls from her but an angel holdeth a bottle to catch it. She thinketh every man's sins less than her own; every man's good deeds more. Her compunctions are unspeakable, known to God only and herself. She could wish not only man, but beasts, and trees, and stones, to grieve with her. She thinks no sun should shine, because she taketh no pleasure in it; that the lilies of the field should be clothed in black, because she is so apparelled. Mercy comes down like a sweet cherub, and lighteth upon her bosom with the message of God, 'I have heard thy prayers, I have seen thy tears;' so drieth her cheeks; tells her she is accepted, and to go 'sin no

more.

Doubtless this is such as repentance used to be, in the days that are past. God grant that in this lax and easy age ours may be any thing like it, for His Son Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.

SERMON XI.

PREACHING A PREPARATION FOR CHRIST'S ADVENT.

MALACHI iii. 1.

"Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the before me."

way

THERE is, so to say, a great sameness in the history of the world. The dispensations of God are various and yet very similar, just as there is a likeness amongst all the children of men, though no two individuals are identical in the minute features of character. The history of nations, which is in fact the history of God's government, is full of repetitions. In the rise and fall of all the great empires there is traceable the same process, slower or speedier, more or less palpable, according to accidental circumstances. So in the Bible it is ever the same tale of human depravity, divine long-suffering, and ultimate vengeance. Sodom, and Egypt, Babylon, Jerusalem itself are all examples of this,they transgressed more and more; warnings were disregarded, till at last there was left no place for repentance. There is, we repeat, a terrible sameness in the records of man's race, and of God's deal

ings towards it. Every age revives the same wilfulness on the one side, the same manifestation of wrath upon the other; and all these local judgments of the Almighty are designed to lead us on to the thought and the fear of the universal judgment yet to come. The annals of the life of one man are in many respects the annals of the entire species; the career of great cities and empires is a miniature of the career of the whole earth, their catastrophe a foreshadowing of the final revelation of Almighty vengeance, in which sin shall be crushed for

ever.

This consideration will go far to explain the language of many passages of Scripture, which, while they confessedly point to the overthrow of some early empire, are yet couched in terms apparently too awful and sublime for such an event. You will recollect our Blessed Lord's own prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem as illustrative of this: He is plainly predicting the desolation of Zion; but when He speaks of the signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars, we seem to be hearing of the tokens which shall usher in the fires of the last day. And it is not that He herein mingles up two subjects, but that the nearer event was a type and shadow of the more distant; the divine utterances were twice fulfilled, first in a less, then in a greater degree. Sometimes there are several fulfilments of the same prophecy, each successive one more adequately coming up to the measure of the inspired language.

Now if this be a true principle, we may expect to find it exemplified in the case of the two advents of the Son of God. The first advent will be a foreshadowing of the second; the circumstances of the

first may be taken as a means of anticipating the circumstances of the last. Accordingly, the sacred writers repeatedly speak of both comings of Christ in the same words,-words which are only partially applicable to the coming in humility, eighteen hundred years ago, and which await their thorough accomplishment in the awful circumstances of His return at the last. The prophet Malachi, in the chapter from which the text is taken, does this: "Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to His temple. But who may abide the day of His coming? and who shall stand when He appeareth?" We have here a prediction of the Saviour's first coming, preceded by John the Baptist; but the language evidently looks farther, the mention of all flesh quailing before Him carries us onward to the period of His second coming. So again in the next chapter: "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord." The first advent answers the words in a degree; the first advent repeated with more tremendous accessories, completely absorbs them.

This analogy between the two advents of Christ is very fully kept in view in the proper services of our Church at the present season. You will notice that the two events are always brought into juxtaposition; they are, in short, two different exhibitions of the same great act,-" God visiting the earth." The collect for this week suggests one remarkable point of coincidence between the circumstances of Christ's first and second advent, which we desire to make the subject of meditation to-night; we pray

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