to him. Accordingly, he determines immediately to arise, and go to his father. Without such a hope he would have continued where he was; and perished on the spot.

The promises of the Gospel contain and proffer to returning sinners, all the blessings which they need. In this situation the sinner begins to make the case his own; and to hope, and in some degree to believe, that these promises are addressed to him. His hopes are well founded and Evangelical. The promises of the Gospel are directed to just such persons as he is. They were intended to encourage, allure, and support, sinners in this very situation; to keep them from despair; and to stregthen and uphold them in the mighty concern of turning to GOD. Every such sinner will find every such promise fulfilled to himself.

Thus have I followed the progress of a sinner through the sev eral stages of his corruption and ruin, to the commencement of his return to God; exhibited, in so interesting a manner, in this most instructive and beautiful parable. I will now conclude the discourse with a single Remark. It is this. How happily adapted is the salvation of the Gospel to the circumstances of sinners. Had this salvation not been offered freely, it would have been offered in vain. We owe ten thousand talents, and have nothing to pay. Unless therefore, the debt be forgiven; we must be sent to the prison of punishment. But this forgiveness is in its nature free and sovereign.

In plainer language, we are sinners, have broken the law of GOD, and are rebels against his government. But the Law, of which not a single jot or tittle can possibly fail, has said, “The soul, that sinneth, shall die ;" and "Cursed is every one, who continueth not in all things, written in the book of the law, to do them.' Every sinner, therefore, is absolutely condemned by this most holy law; and, if left to himself, must perish.

In this miserable situation, Christ with wonderful love, with divine compassion, has interposed on behalf of our race; made an end of sin; "finished transgression; made reconciliation for iniquity; and brought in everlasting righteousness." The expiation, which he has accomplished, may become ours by faith

in him, and repentance towards GOD. Thus we are introduced. to the glorious hope of immortal life; and are called upon by a voice from heaven to return, repent and live. Here every reason is furnished for comfort which in such a state can exist; every reason to bless GOD; every inducement to seek salvation.

But no hope is here presented to him, who is quiet in his sins, and satisfied with his own righteousness. He is the prodigal in the text, in his most forlorn situation. He may be, and often is, not less at his ease; not less gay; not less riotous; not less unconscious of his situation. He may say, as others before him have said, "I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing." Still he is not the less wretched, and miserable, and in want of all things. All within him is beggary; all without is famine. His only food is husks, and his only destiny, to perish with hunger; and that while "bread enough, and to spare," is prepared for his enjoyment, and ready for his acceptance. GoD is waiting to be gracious to him. Christ holds out to him the bread of life. Heaven opens its gates for his reception. Angels are prepared to welcome the forsaken wanderer to its immortal blessings; and saints, to see him added to their number, increasing their happiness, and mingling in their praise; while he, poor, starving, famishing wretch, clings to his misery; hugs his ruin; and, wiser in his own eyes than the GoD who made him, glories in the wisdom which plans and executes the eternal destruction of his soul.

SERMON VI.

THE PRODIGAL SON.-SERMON II.

LUKE XV. 18-24.

I will arise, and go to my father; and will say unto him, “Father I have sinned against Heaven, and before thee,

And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.”

And he arose, and came to his father. But, when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.

And the son said unto him, "Father, I have sinned against Heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son."

But the father said to his servants, “Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet;

And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry:

For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found."

In the preceding discourse from the former part of this parable, after explaining its general nature, I observed, that we were taught by it the following doctrines.

1st. Sinners regard God no farther than to gain from him whatever they can.

2nd. Sinners waste the blessings, which they receive from his hands, and reduce themselves to absolute want.

3rd. Afflictions are very often the first means of bringing them to a sense of their condition.

4th. When they first acquire this sense, they usually betake themselves to false measures for relief.

5th. This situation of a sinner is eminently unhappy.

6th. The repentance of the Gospel is the resumption of a right mind.

Under this head I observed, that among the things which the sinner realizes, when he first comes to himself, are the following. First, His own miserable condition:

Secondly, That in the house of his Heavenly Father there is an abundance of good:

Thirdly, A hope, that this good may be his.

I shall now proceed in the consideration of the progress of a sinner towards his final acceptance with GOD, as it is exhibited in the text. With this design, I observe

1st. True repentance is a voluntary exercise of the mind.

"I will arise," said the prodigal, "and go to my father." The determination expressed in this language, was spontaneous; and flowed from the present state of his heart as naturally, as any effect from any cause: for example, as his former determination to leave his father, flowed from the disposition, which he possessed at that time.

There are those, who believe that GoD creates, immediately, all the volitions of the mind. There are others, who reject this doctrine, and who nevertheless appear at least to admit, that he creates all its virtuous volitions. Both are, in my view, erroneous. The Scriptures appear to me every where to speak of man as an agent, in the true and proper sense. When angels were created; they were furnished with all the powers of such an agent, and with a disposition, propensity, (or what in the Scriptures is called heart,) to use them in a virtuous manner. Such a disposition is communicated to the human soul, by the Holy Ghost, when it is renewed unto repentance. This disposition; unknown, I confess, and mysterious, in the metaphysical sense, as all other causes are as to their nature, but by its effects as clearly proved to exist, as any other cause whatever; is the real source of all virtuous volitions and conduct, in every virtuous being. It now became the

disposition of the prodigal; and is the distinguishing characteristic of every penitent. His determination to arise, and go to his father, sprang from a solid conviction of the propriety of this conduct, and a real change in his disposition: a complete persuasion, that it was alike his duty and his interest. The state of his mind was new; but its agency was entire, and its actions perfectly voluntary. The determination was freely and cheerfully made; and made at all hazards; without even the knowledge, that he would be accepted. It was, therefore, certainly sincere.

This is an exact description of the state of mind, which prevails in every penitent. A sense of danger and of suffering, as was remarked in the former discourse, is very often employed by God as a mean of bringing a sinner to repentance. But, were the sinner to stop here, he never would become a penitent. To this sense must be added, a realizing conviction of the evil nature of his past conduct, felt in such a manner, as to make it exceedingly desirable in the sinner's view to forsake his former, guilty, pursuits, and renounce his former, sinful character.

2dly. True repentance is a filial temper; disposing us to regard GOD as our parent, and ourselves as his children.

"I will arise, and go to my father."

Originally the prodigal used this compellation with a design to obtain the portion of goods, which, as he said, fell to him, and then to separate himself from him forever. Now he adopted the same language with the proper temper of a child. Now he designs to return to him; and, if it may be permitted, to live with him, to honour him, to love him, and to serve him even in the humble station of a hireling.

Such is the spirit of the penitent. Willing as he was in his former state of sin to forget God, and little as he thought of his character, of his presence, or even of his existence; rarely as he felt a sense of duty, or realized that there was any relation or connection, between himself and his Maker; he now remembers all these things with delight, and esteems them his only honour, comfort, and hope.