SERMON XL.

Of Converfion from a bad courfe of Life.

GOD, we present ourselves before thee this day to acknowledge our fins and tranfgreffions. We would not conceal them, we would not attempt to justify ourselves in thy fight; we could not anfwer thee one of a thoufand. Notwithstanding all that thou haft done for us, moft merciful Father, to draw us to thee by making our duty a delight, we have yet refused to obey thee, and have fwerved from thy commandments. Virtue and religion are not of fo much weight with us as they ought to be with the wife, with chriftians; fenfuality, unbelief and doubt have weakened their respect and rendered fome of us indifferent towards them; the world and its deceitful, fugacious pleafures too forcibly attract our appetites and affection; we are more intent upon gratifying our intemperate paffions and unfubdued defires than on rendering ourselves worthy of the glorious appellation of chriftians. We are thy creatures; but rebellious and guilty crea

tures:

tures: we prefume to call thee our Father; but we are mostly disobedient, ungrateful children, who will not fubmit to thy chaftening hand, who offend thee in thought, in words, in deeds. Neither thy benefactions nor thy chastisements have been effectual to bring about thy gracious defigns upon us. Often have we vowed amendment; but our vows yet remain unpaid. Often have we attempted to fet about the performance of our good refolves; but they still remain unperformed. God, of what unfaithfulnefs, of what reiterated fins and tranfgreffions are we not guilty in thy fight! Yes, we confefs them, we bewail them, we are ashamed of them. Our own confciences condemn us. How then could we fubfift before thee, wert thou to enter into judgment with us; before thee, who art a righteous judge, and of purer eyes than to behold iniquity? Lo, as criminals worthy of death, we proftrate ourselves at the foot-ftool of thy mercy-feat. Spare us, o Lord, and be gracious unto us! Though we are caft out of thy fight, yet will we look again to thy holy temple. We arise and come to thee, our Father; for though we have offended thee, thou art a father ftill. Thou now art feated on a throne of mercy, and wieldest a sceptre of grace. At thy mercy-feat former offenders have been forgiven, and former finners have been taken into favour. To thy ears the cry of the penitent has never afcended in vain. Thou art ever nigh to all who call upon thee in fincerity of heart. When

we

we tend to thee, at the first step of our return, thou ftretcheft out thy hand to receive us. Remit the punishment we deferve for our fins, and deliver us from the power and dominion of them. Thou defireft not the death of the finner, but that he fhould be converted and live: thou rejecteft not the prayer and fupplication of those who flee to thee for fuccour thou haft fent thy fon into the world, that the world by him might be faved: let us alfo be partakers of his falvation, and for his fake forgive us all our tranfgreffions! - And that we may no more have the misfortune to displease thee, our almighty father and beft friend, grant us the affiftance of thy holy fpirit! That it may ever operate and refide within us, diffipate all our prejudices and errors, cleanse and fanctify all our affections. Do thou eradicate from our heart's whatever is difpleafing to thee; rescue us from the violence of all base, inordinate lufts and paffions, let the fincere, effective defire, the earnest endeavour to please thee and to do thy will, be the governing principle of our future behaviour. Remove from us, by thy wife and kind providence, all temptations and allurements to fin; and, if we be tempted, grant that we may not fall under the temptation, but that, ftrengthened by thy fpirit, we may conquer all and perfevere to the end in our fidelity to thee. Hearken to our fupplications, o merciful God, turn again to us thy propitiated countenance, no more to be intercepted or eclipsed,

for

for the fake of thy everlasting love, by Jefus Christ, in whofe comprehenfive words we conclude our prayers: Our father, &c.

LUKE XV. 18, 19.

I will arife and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have finned against heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy fon; make me as one of thy hired fervants.

IT

T would lead us too far from the particular appointment of this day, my friends, were we to enter upon a circumstantial investigation of the prejudices and errors which furnished our faviour with an occafion for delivering the parable to which our text belongs. Let it fuffice in general to observe, that Christ justifies himself by it against the unjust accufations of the scribes and pharifees, who imputed it to him as a crime that he converfed with finners, took an intereft in their condition, and vouchsafed them his inftruction. And how could our lord better refute the unfounded fufpicion of a criminal intercourfe with finners which that accusation was intended to convey, and at the fame time more confound his malicious accufers, than by fhewing them in feveral eafy, beautiful and affecting parables, that nothing is in ftricter conformity with found reason, with the general sense and con

VOL. II.

T

duct

duct of mankind, than to be principally concerned about that which is loft, to take all poffible pains to recover it, and when that object is attained, to rejoice more over it, than over what we have long quietly poffeffed? Who but muft, judging impartially, naturally draw this conclufion, that it was by no means unbecoming in the faviour of the world to concern himself about the information, the improvement and the confolation of such persons as were utterly defpifed and neglected by their hypocritical teachers, though, as it appears, they were more fincerely defirous of the falvation of God, than their haughty defpifers? Was not Chrift fent into the world by God for the very purpose of preaching to the wretched, of announcing good tidings to the meek, of binding up the broken-hearted, proclaiming liberty to the captives, and seeking that which was loft? Was it not rather the fick and the infirm that were in need of a phyfician, than the really or imaginary healthy and robuft? This, my dear hearers, is the connection wherein the words of our text stand with the purport to which they were delivered by our divine inftructor. Let us now proceed to make a more general application of them, by confidering the narrative of the forlorn fon as the fimilitude of a penitent and returning finner.

This edifying parable contains three particulars extremely interefting. The firft comprehends what paffed previous to the return of the prodigal fon to