cast thee? Art thou desirous, to be restored to the enjoyment of the reconciled countenance of thy God? Art thou desirous to enjoy the exalted and pure delight that enlivens the conscience which the blood of the Saviour hath cleansed from guilt? Art thou desirous to experience the powerful and glorious efficacy of that body and blood, by which Jesus redeems and renews his penitent people? Art thou desirous to enjoy the refreshing and invigorating streams, which flow from the throne of grace, erected by the Saviour on the altar of his love?-Let thy most ardent desires be excited, let thy most vigorous exertions be roused, let thy most fervent prayers be directed to heaven, for that holy and evangelical repentance which is the only passport to purity and peace, to the merciful arms of thy God,-to the affectionate bosom of thy blessed Redeemer.

Examine then, faithfully, my soul! the characteristics of thy repentance. Recal to view the sacred and penetrating properties of this evangelical grace. Recollect, there are false and unhallowed counterfeits of genuine repentance, by which many flatter and fatally deceive their own hearts. Ah! when God inflexible and holy sits in judgment on the soul, he will institute a profound and penetrating scrutiny which will detect and confound the base hopes of the hypocrite.

Holy Spirit! repentance is thy gift-descend,

Sayest thou, man is a perfect being? Display then his resplendent virtues in the long records of his history? Alas! these boasted records are dyed in blood. They exhibit the portrait of human guilt in colours more deep and glaring, then even the boldest imagination would be willing to conceive. Do the fair forms of justice, benevolence, and mercy rise to view, and, extending their benignant reign over the human race, pronounce that man is blest and happy? Does one soul of celestial love pervade the family of mankind, united by the strongest and most endearing ties, by common wants, by common feelings, by an exalted and eternal destiny?-Ah! oppression sweeps her relentless sceptre over her sullen victims; ambition rides her devastating course, erecting the trophies of triumph amidst the ruins, into which her merciless and insatiable spirit has madly swept the fairest works of man, the proudest boasts of human grandeur; the spectre of revenge, brandishing the steel streaming with human gore, urges guilty man to seal, with fell and remorseless fury, the purpose of vengeance, in his brother's blood.

Alas! the world groaning under the curse of God, and waiting, in awful despair, the final execution of the sentence of his wrath; the history of human nature, presenting the dreadful picture of crimes and misery, illumined only by some scattered and feeble rays of virG

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to the adorable source of goodness and mercy. Oh then, what overwhelming emotions of reverence should confound a worm of the dust, polluted, in his most perfect state, with the deep taint of sin, when he contemplates that resplendent holiness and justice, which encircle the throne at which he is to receive his eternal doom. Into the emotions of penitence, therefore, an apprehension of divine wrath arising from the combined view of the justice, holiness and power of God, and of our guilt and demerit, may justifiably enter. But when it is the sole, the supreme, or even the dominant spring, it destroys the efficacy, the purifying and consoling virtue of repentance. For, a repentance which is founded only on an apprehension of divine wrath, is selfish and disingenuous in respect to its motives, it will be feeble and superficial in its sacrifices and in its services. When uncontrolled and uninfluenced by other, more ingenuous and noble, motives, a repentance characterised by the fear of divine wrath, regards only the consequences of sin as incurring punishment, and wholly keeps out of view its more aggravated and heinous characteristics, its ingratitude, its baseness, its criminality. This kind of repentance, therefore, may very well comport, with an entire insensibility to the intrinsic deformity of sin, and to its guilt as the violation of the law of God, the just and holy judge of the world. A penitent influenced only by an

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Tuesday Evening.

MEDITATION.

MAN IN HIS NATURAL STATE,

THE SUBJECT OF THE MORNING MEDITATION,

CONTINUED.

BOASTEST thou, that thou art exempt from the stains of guilt which pollute the rest of thy wretched race? Bring thy powerful pleas to the tribunal of conscience. Estimating highly the opinion of the world, perhaps, thou hast always sought to regulate thy conduct by the laws of honor. Calculating from motives of worldly prudence, thou hast been, in all thy dealings, honest and just, Desirous of the applause of men, or, from the impulse of a blind and undistinguishing sympathy, thou hast been generous and charitable. Are these then thy pleas, for exemption from the general sentence of guilt passed on mankind?

Carry thy claims to integrity and virtue higher. Allow, that thou hast been honorable, that thou hast been just, that thou hast been generous and liberal, from the best motives. Allow, that no gross crimes have marked thy conduct; that thy life, on the contrary, justly

claims the reputation of being exemplary and upright. Allow, that thou hast not obtained, the homage due to virtue, by imposing on the world a correct and honorable exterior, while thy principles have been base and sordid. Allow, that when urged by interest, and restrained by no fear of detection, thou hast not secretly practised the arts of injustice and dishonesty, which thou dost affect openly to abhor. Allow, that while just and true in thy intercourse with others, thou hast not been regardless of the sacred duties due to thyself. Allow, that thou hast faithfully cherished the virtues of temperance, soberness, and chastity, and hast never indulged in the secret commission of vices which dishonored and defiled thy

nature.

Carry still higher thy pretensions in the scale of virtue. Allow, that thou dost cherish just and reverential ideas of the attributes, the providence, and the dispensations of God; that thou hast never wilfully profaned his name, or spoken lightly of his sacred word. Allow, that thou dost entertain a high esteem and reverence for this sacred word, resolutely and ably defending it, as an excellent code of religious and moral duties, against the libertine attacks of infidelity and scepticism. Allow, that from some sense of thy obligations to God, and regard for the order and peace of society, thou dost reverence the ordinances of religion, and attend on the ministrations of the sanctuary.