repent of ourselves,-that this is not a work to which our energies are adequate,-that for its beginning, its progress, its accomplishment, we must have recourse to the Saviour, that it is Christ's prerogative to restore us from the death of trespasses and sins, as much and as entirely, as it is his prerogative to restore us from the death of guilt and condemnation,—and that if we do not apply for it, and if we do not receive it, as the result of his undertaking, and as the operation of his saving grace and princely might, it never can be ours, and we must live and die in impenitence.

If, therefore, we be guided by what is declar ed in my text on this vital point, so far from being high-minded as to our repentance any more than as to our forgiveness, we will simply regard ourselves as the mere undeserving recipients of both. We may recognise the distinction, that while the one is bestowed upon us, the other is wrought in us; but still for neither of them will we feel indebted to any virtue or efficiency of our own. Regarding each in its own peculiar light, and in its own proper connection, we will yet ascribe each to that cause which lies far above the resources of human power, and seek for it in him who is the sole fountain of whatever is needful for all the departments of man's salvation. We will say to the Redeemer, " Grant us the forgiveness of our sins, for thy great name's sake:

and as we cannot obtain or enjoy forgiveness except we repent-as it is essential that we be revolutionized in our moral nature, as well as justified before God-we beseech thee to grant us this also out of the abundance of those benefits which, by thy merit alone, thou hast secured for ruined and helpless transgressors. It is our shame and our misery that we are guilty and depraved, beyond any power of our own whereby we can either escape from condemnation, or turn ourselves to him from whom we have revolted. But it is our comfort that thou art "exalted as a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance and the forgiveness of sins." And we come unto thee,

under the conviction of our own utter insufficiency, and in the faith of thy perfect fulness of grace and strength, that thou mayest convert us, and pardon us, and take to thyself the honour of all our salvation."

III. But although it appears from the very language of the text, that grace reigns and must be submitted to throughout the whole process of our redemption, it should never be forgotten that repentance is indissolubly linked with forgiveness, and that unless the first is wrought in us, most certainly the second is not conveyed to us.

It is of great consequence to attend to this, not only because the thing is so, but also because men are very apt to neglect it in practice. The fear

of hell, which accompanies the consciousness of transgression, is felt to be so awful and overwhelming, that they are desirous to escape from it. The hope of heaven, which is natural to them as beings who long for happiness and rest, is felt to be so consoling and delightful that they willingly entertain it. And as the Gospel proposes to their consideration and belief a plan, whose tendency is to deliver from the fear of hell and to encourage the hope of heaven, and as the Gospel has the aspect and reputation of coming from God, they accept of it and cleave to it in their own way with steadfast attachment, and cherish the confident expectation that, through divine mercy, all will be well with them. at last-that they shall be pardoned, and acquitted, and made eternally blessed. But all this while they have overlooked that moral change which must be accomplished upon them, according to the will of Him who devised the scheme of human salvation, and according to the work of Him who executed it, and according to the office of Him who is appointed to apply it—that moral change without which future punishment cannot possibly be shunned, and without which future felicity cannot possibly be reached. They overlook this, and they go on to live as if the Gospel had said nothing at all, or had said nothing explicitly and decidedly, on the necessity of repentance, but just allowed them to act as they

pleased, and yet to reckon assuredly on ultimate safety and happiness.

Now it requires no elaborate train of argument -it requires no lengthened deduction of particulars it requires no minute exhibition of texts, to demonstrate the utter groundlessness, absurdity, and danger of all such views. However superficially acquainted with our Bible we may be, there is not one of us but must know this much at least, that "God commandeth all men every where to repent"-that Christ has said, "Except ye repent, ye shall all perish❞—and that, with all the rich mercy which it unfolds, the Gospel record gives no person the slightest ground to hope for salvation, if the exhortation to repent is neglected or despised by him. And don't you perceive, my friends, that this disregard of what is so plainly taught and so easily understood-this indulgence in the expectation of final redemption, while living in impenitence-this confidence that God will take sinners to himself at last, though they are refusing to walk in the way by which he proposes to conduct them to his presence-don't you perceive that all this is itself a proof most ample and conclusive, more ample and conclusive than any thing else, that repentance is to them absolutely essential? They are so much in love with sin--so profoundly enamoured of its gratifications so firmly determined to persevere in its ways-that they not

only cherish the prospect of going into heaven, though unprepared for it, but resolutely shut out from their view all that the God of heaven has told them of the necessity of a moral renovation, and deliberately rest upon the grace he has manifested, and on the promises he has given, while they as deliberately maintain the character with which that grace and these promises are declared by him to be completely irreconcilable, and nei ther pray nor labour for the character of which they are necessarily productive, and with which they stand in immediate and everlasting connection. This shows that sin has entire dominion over their inner man-that they are depraved beyond ordinary measure-and that if any need to be reminded of the chain that binds repentance to forgiveness, and that never can be broken, they above all others need to have this set before them in the clearest light, and pressed upon their attention in the most energetic terms.

Wherefore, I would say to all such, look to this declaration of the Apostle Peter, in which he is telling the people of Israel, and through them telling all the people of the earth, what the salvation of the Gospel consists in, and what they must be, and what they must do, in order that they may become partakers of the life and immortality which it has brought to light. Repentance is specially mentioned. It is as emphatically announced as forgiveness. It is honoured