to haften from the abyss The smallest delay may

embrace the only means ftill left me to employ, for avoiding utter ruin, before it be too late and all repentance be in vain. I will exert the little strength I have remaining, that lies open before me. be fatal to me. To regain my fquandered hopes fhall from this inftant be my fole concern; and nothing shall be too hard for me to undertake that can favour my defign. Let the fhame and confufion be as great as it may, into which the conscioufnefs of my follies and the fight of my injured father will throw me; let the reproaches I have to expect from him be as cutting as they will to my vanity and pride; coft what labour and felf-denial it may at first to renounce my wicked habits, and to fatisfy my fo long neglected duties: nothing fhall prevent me from returning to him whom I have fo fenfelessly forfaken, and asking fuccour of him who alone is difpofed and able to help me. I will go and throw myself at his feet; I will prevent his reproaches by an humble and frank confeffion of my tranfgreffions and errors; and, instead of thinking on evasion or excufe, will condemn myfelf, and caft myself entirely on his mercy. It is not an auftere, an inexorable mafter; it is a compaffionate and tender father with whom I have to do. What has not a fon to hope for from fuch a father? Yes, his own heart will fpeak pity for me, he will fhew mercy towards me; and this hall be my inducement to teftify my gratitude to

him by a willing and faithful obedience, and to render myself worthy of his favour by a total alteration of my sentiments and my conduct.

The fame refolutions, my friends, are adopted by the repentant finner. He trufts not to a deceitful and inefficient forrow. He is not contented with making bitter lamentations on his wretched condition, or barely wishing to become better, without putting his hand to the work. He wastes not his time in ufelefs doubt or in dangerous hefitation. My life, fays he, is paffing quickly away; it may unexpectedly come to an end. Death, judgment, and eternity, are ever advancing towards me; they may feize me at unawares. Shall not I then haften to deliver my foul? Shall I not work while it is day, ere the night come when no man can work? There is but one way left to avoid perdition. Shall I hefitate one moment about betaking myself to it? Life and death, bleffing and curfing, are now before me. Stili I have an opportunity of chufing between them. Who can tell whether that will continue to me if I ftand longer doubting? Is it difficult for me now to fubdue my finful defires, to quit my bad habits, break with my bad companions, and reform my diffolute life will it not every day become still harder? Will not my fervitude be growing conftantly more fevere, my propenfity to vice more strong, my whole temper more corrupt, and confequently my amendment still more impracticable? Shall I not by these

means

means be heaping fin upon fin, and punishment. upon punishment, and fo at length deprive myself of all hope of forgiveness? No! to-day, that I hear the voice of God, while his grace is yet offered to me, to-day will I follow his affectionate call, and earnestly implore that divine compaffion which alone can make me happy. My resolution is taken, and nothing fhall hinder me from bringing it to effect. I will arise and go to my heavenly Father, from whom I am now at so great a distance, whose favour and protection I have fo madly caft off. I will bow myself before his offended majesty, acknowledge my tranfgreffions, and intreat his compaffion with a broken and a contrite heart. I will folemnly renounce every fin, and devote myself to the fervice of God and the practice of virtue. Have I hitherto fhaken off his juft and gentle authority; it fhall now be my greatest delight and my glory to pay him an unreserved obedience, and faithfully to fulfil the duties of a fubject in his kingdom. Have I hitherto followed my irregular defires and the corrupted principles of the men of the world; henceforward the law of the Moft High fhall be the fole and unalterable rule of my conduct. Have I hitherto cared only for my body and my earthly condition; henceforward, the care of my foul, and my happiness in the future world, fhall be the ultimate aim of all my endeavours. The support which God has promifed to the fincere will be mighty in my weakness. He will affift me in con quering

quering every difficulty; and I truft affuredly that I fhall find his yoke to be eafy, and his burden light; that I shall experience that his commandments are not grievous.

If the refolutions of the repentant finner be thus formed, my friends; if they be grounded on felfinspection, on confideration and firm conviction; if they be taken with ferioufnefs and fincerity; they will certainly be brought to effect. Without determined purposes of amendment, contrition is unavailing and ineffectual. The deity is not delighted with the fufferings of man. Sorrow for fin is fo far pleafing, as it foftens the heart and makes it better. It is the refolution of amendment, the purposes pointed to reformation, that make the broken heart and the contrite fpirit an acceptable facrifice; fuch is the nature of true repentance; it flows not fo much from the fenfe of danger as from the love of goodness.

In true repentance, there is not only a change of mind, but a change of life. When the dayfpring from on high arises on him who is in darkness, when God fays let there be light, the fcales fall off from his eyes, a new world breaks upon his view, futurity becomes prefent, and invisible things are feen; then first he beholds the beauty which is in holiness, and tastes the joy which flows from returning virtue. In that happy hour he forms the pious purpose, and feals the facred vow to be holy for ever. Then he prefers the peace derived

from

from virtue, and the joy which arifes from a good confcience, to every confideration. Then the devoted fervants of God appear to him the only happy men, and he would rather rank with the meanest of these than enjoy the riches of many wicked. His heart is convinced that none can enter into the kingdom of heaven, and fit down at the right hand of the Father, but they who prefer the testimony of a good confcience, the fmiles of heaven, and the fentence of the juft, to all the treafures of the world.

Had the penitent not been in earnest, false shame might have prevented or retarded his return. Confcious of guilt, and covered with confufion, how fhall he appear before his friends and acquaintance? I know, might he have faid, the malice of an illjudging and injurious world. The fins which are blotted out from the book of God's remembrance are not forgotten by them. Let me fly rather to the uttermost parts of the earth, retire to the wilderness untrod by the foot of man, and hide me in the fhades which the beams of the fun never pierced, than be exposed to the fcorn and contumely and reproach of all around me.

But the penitent was determined and immoveable, he would not suffer himself to be diverted from his purpose. He immediately began to put it in execution. He arofe and came to his father, and faid unto him, "Father, I have finned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy fon." I have outrageously offend

VOL. II.

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