ingly the duty of all to consider their

repent and turn to God.

ways, and

You have heard further that the Holy Ghost is "the author and giver of life," that by his grace the eyes of men are enlightened and their hearts changed; and that, therefore, by his sacred influences you must be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and must humbly devote yourselves to God in a course of faith, contrition, spirituality, love, obedience, and good works.

These truths you hear. And not only so, but, if we are faithful to our office, you hear them applied forcibly to your particular cases. By manifestation of the truth we commend our selves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. Like the Apostles in the discourses we have noticed (and which are recorded for our imitation in treating with unconverted persons, as their Epistles, generally speaking, are our model in preaching to professedly serious Christians), it is our duty to appeal to the heart, ta adapt our instructions to the several errors, prejudices, and circumstances of our hearers, to display to them the truth in the plainest and` most affectionate manner; aiming to rouse their consciences, to convict them of guilt, and to lead them to repentance and conversion. It is our object to disturb every careless sinner, and make him acquainted with his character and danger. We are anxious to lay open to the se

cret transgressor his guilt; to strip the mask from the hypocrite; to expose to the covetous man his idolatry; to teach the cavilling objector the broad features of truth; to instruct the selfrighteous person in the doctrine of the atoneinent and righteousness of Christ; and to show the unholy professor of evangelical truth the power and effects of real godliness. In a word, our duty as ministers is rightly to divide the word of truth, so that every different class of persons may hear the Gospel in a way most exactly suited, under the blessing of God, to inform their understandings and touch their hearts,

Nor shall such instructions be given in vain; for I am now to point out,

II. THAT THEY WILL PRODUCE SORROW AND COMPUNCTION OF MIND FOR SIN.

Our text informs us, in the case of the Jews whom St. Peter addressed at the day of Pentecost, that, When they heard this, they were pricked in their heart. They were pierced through with grief and confusion. The Apostle's words penetrated their hearts like an arrow, and left a deep wound behind. It was not so much a gradual conviction slowly and reluctantly wrought on their minds, as a sudden and powerful emotion which at once overwhelmed every obstacle. They had been blinded by prejudices, misled by notions of a temporal Messiah, and

inflated with haughty conceptions of their law. They had been stimulated by their priests to demand the crucifixion of Christ, and had joined in the guilt of that unjust and dreadful tragedy. But no sooner did they hear the solemn and convincing appeal of the Apostle, than conviction flashed upon them. Remorse, shame, sorrow, took possession of their minds. They instantly discovered that the person whom they had ignominiously crucified, was their long-promised Saviour. They saw in the miraculous gift of tongues an unanswerable proof that the Messiah was come. The lovely character and

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beneficent miracles of Christ rushed into their thoughts. They recollected what they had themselves seen and heard of Him. All his purity and benevolence rose like a vision before them. The conviction of their obduracy in rejecting his, mission and consenting to his death, burst upon their minds. They felt that they could make no excuse for their crime. They saw no way of escape from the wrath of the Saviour whom they had provoked; and who, as they now believed, was enthroned at the right hand of the Father. Thus the word of God was, in their case, quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged,

sword. They became at once sensible of their folly, ingratitude, wickedness, and blindness; and were touched to the very quick on account of their guilt and danger,

Such was the beginning of true repentance in these Jews; and such the efficacy of divine grace in blessing the words they had heard. It might appear incredible that hearts so hard should be so soon impressed; that they who had lately crucified their Messiah as a blasphemer, should thus sink at once from the height of presumptuous iniquity to the depths of contrition. And in truth the change would be beyond belief, especially when we consider the accumulated evidence of our Lord's personal character and miracles, and the obstinate unbelief of many of the very same Jews when they witnessed them; if we did not know that the Holy Ghost, the purchase of the Saviour's death, had been communicated to remove the veil of pride, prejudice, and sinful affections from their minds. Thus the truth had its due effect in convincing their understandings and piercing

their hearts.

Effects of the same kind follow in our own days, the faithful instructions of the ministers of Christ. The conviction of truth indeed is not always so immediate and so powerful; the work of conversion is often slow and imperceptible; and neither the time of its commencement nor the exact steps of its progress can be traced. And it is especially gradual among those who have had the blessing of a religious education, or who have been much accustomed to religious

reading and inquiry. Still the commencement of true repentance is substantially the same in all. Men must be convinced of their sins, or perish. And whether this conviction resemble the sudden alarm of the Philippian jailor, and of the Jews in my text, or the gradual illumination of Cornelius, Lydia, the Ethiopian eunuch, and the Bereans, the results are the same. The careless and wicked are effectually brought to feel their sins and their danger, and to inquire after the way of salvation. They are pricked in their hearts with remorse and confusion, their vain excuses are silenced, they feel their lost condition, they humble themselves in contrition of soul before God; and admit without reserve the charge of guilt and condemnation which his holy law prefers against them.

In many cases, where there has been previously an entirely wicked and ignorant life, truth is more suddenly communicated to the soul. Like the Jews in the text, such men often discover at once, what they never felt before, their extreme danger and misery. The sword of the Spirit lays open their hearts; their mouths are stopped; their sins arise in terrible array before them. They feel for the first time their accountableness, their ingratitude to God, the abuse of their talents, the neglect of their souls, the wickedness of their hearts and affections. They compare them