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and which, even in the enjoyment of their most favourite objects, so far from conferring true peace on the bosom in which they reside, serve only to distract and harrass it with care, anxiety, remorse, and Think what it is to have these enemies of our. real happiness destroyed, and in their place to feel the sweet dominion of love toward God, and goodwill to man.

woe.

Repentance produces this happy change. Peace of conscience, and joy in the Holy Ghost, reign within the bosom. All is calm and cheerful. Indeed, God himself, the source of all good, condescends to occupy the heart of the truly penitent. "For thus saith the High and the Holy One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is holy-I dwell in the high and holy place, with Him also that is of a humble and contrite spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones." And here, my brethren, we are furnished with a test of the sincerity of our repentance. Do we seek and exercise repentance, in order to purify the heart, and free it from the dominion of sin? Do we grieve for our past and present guilt, because it is such base ingratitude against the Best of Beings? In fine, do we sorrow for sin, because we detest it in all its shapes, however fascinatingin all its forms, however disguised so as to be taken by a corrupt world as innocent and lawful-in all its subtle and ingenious devices, seducing us to comply with certain maxims and customs of this sinful age, under pretence of rendering virtue more

lovely and attractive;-I say, do we sorrow for sin, because we detest it in these its more refined workings, as well as in its grosser attacks upon our purity of heart and life? Much, however, as this disinterested detestation of sin is necessary, as a constituent, and indeed prominent trait of genuine repentance; and much as we ought to be excited to this duty, that the influence of sin on our hearts may be entirely destroyed; there is still another motive to repentance in our text, addressed to that love of our own safety and happiness, which no principle of our religion forbids us to indulge.

The expression," that your sins may be blotted out," when compared with other similar phrases in Scripture, evidently refers to a deliverance from that punishment justly due to transgression. God, then, has been pleased to declare, that sincere repentance, which always implies a cordial faith in Christ, is necessary to save us from the wrath to come. How terrible is the danger, how tremendous the doom, to which we are exposed by sin; and yet how simple the condition of deliverance !-repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Alas! could we hesitate a moment to comply with this condition, did we but fully realize the importance of these words "The wrath to come ?"

Painful is the task, my hearers, with the ministers of God's word, to point to sinners the sad termination of their career of wickedness. And, sometimes, this would seem but to render more callous

the heart of the sinner; perhaps, because of the familiarity of most minds educated in Christian lands with this awful subject; or, in some cases, because it attacks that disdain of cowardice, which, in a few souls, lofty, bold and heroic amid all the dangers of this life, would shrink from the suspicion of fearing even that dread Being, who can, with a word, sink them to their original nothing, or consign them to irremediable woe.

But, my hearers, if such be your choice, lay aside for a moment, I beseech you, this sad insensibility, -this presumptuous daring. Be alive to your own true interest-mock not the information of your real danger. Look forward a little through the successive changes of your future life. Like the present, they will, perhaps, continue to rouse some of you to the ardour and bustle of business; some to the fascinations of pleasure; and others to the chase of fame. Day after day will roll by, furnishing, each in its turn, a sad memento to your weary minds, that all below is "vanity and vexation of spirit." Think not the world will ever afford you more happiness than at present. The hour of your departure will at length arrive, of your final adieu to this world, of your entrance upon that future state of being, in which God has declared, that he that enters unholy, shall be unholy still; and if unholy, then miserable, and miserable for ever.

O! tremble, then, at the sentence which awaits the finally impenitent. Our Saviour will himself pronounce, "Depart, ye cursed, into everlasing fire,

prepared for the devil and his angels." Shudder at the thought of entering that dismal abode of woe, "where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." Fear him who thus holds the awful sceptre of a dominion most just and holy. His justice is arrayed in dreadful majesty, and well may strike his enemies with terror. His mercy is clothed with condescension and pity: it breathes pardon to all the truly penitent: it points to Jesus Christ, who is able to save to the uttermost all who come unto God by him: it addresses us, this day, in the language of our text, "Repent ye, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out."

DISCOURSE XIV.

HEBREWS xii. 2.

Looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith.

In the chapter preceding that from which the words of the text are taken, the Apostle traces, in a brief outline, the history of the faithful. From Abel to the prophets, he describes the lineage of the children of God, and by a succession of illustrious examples, shews how the same spirit of faith confirmed and cheered the hopes of all the saints of old, under their severest trials and sufferings. God was the object of their firm and unshaken confidence. Leaning on the arm of Omnipotence, and looking for their final reward beyond all that lies on this side the grave, they trusted every promise and obeyed every call of Jehovah, through whatever. path of difficulty and danger it might lead them. The proof of their faith, though severe, was short. The pilgrimage was soon ended, and its wanderings, though often sad and weary, conducted them, one after the other, to the Canaan of eternal rest. "Wherefore," says the Apostle, animated by the

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