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punishments, check, or prevent, the repetition of similar offences, but it is not the oil that will heal the wound. I do not say that a beneficial use may not still be made of penance properly so called; such as it once was by the apostle, that the soul might be saved in the day of the Lord': but the infliction of it, in these days, is of a delicate nature; and when the wish of the Church is expressed, that such discipline may be restored again, it is presumed that the primitive simplicity of the Christian Church should also be restored; that those times should be recalled when spiritual fathers and spiritual children were of one heart and of one mind, and “being many were one body in Christ, and every one members one of another?" In such a case as this, the chastisement should be that of a child, solely arising from the necessary conviction of radical reformation.

But in whatever light we view the doctrine of penance, we cannot consider personal reformation as of an easy, or engaging nature. The compound state of man involves body and spirit in the same conflict. An assurance and feeling of the corrupt principles of our hearts, will show us the deep necessity of attending to this duty. "Let no man think that to give the heart wholly to God is to be accomplished without difficulty, without pain, or even without reluctance. It is the last, the great effort of long labour, fervent

1 1 Cor. v. 7.

2 Rom. xii. 5.

prayer, and diligent meditation. Many resolutions are made, and many relapses lamented, and many conflicts with our own desires, with the powers of this world and the powers of darkness, must be sustained, before the will of man is made wholly obedient to the will of God."

"Facilis descensus Averni,

Sed revocare gradum, superasque evadere ad auras,
Hoc opus, hic labor est 2."

VII.-Penitence and Repentance.

OPEN penance may delude, and personal sufferings deceive, but humbleness of mind, and deep prostration of spirit, are true to themselves: a broken and a contrite heart, God will not despise. Here the just distinction lies. To make the remark profitable, the contemplation must be particular. Penitence does not attach itself solely to the commission of specific wickedness, but to the habit of mind, which, even good men, so called, may be supposed to possess; and though at every period of life this holy disposition may be excited, yet the spring and source of holy feelings are most effectually developed at seasons distinguished by the recurrence of interesting and sacred circumstances. It is a mistake in judgment to imagine that outward deportment, and visible institutions have

1 Dr. S. Johnson ut supra.

2. Virg. Æn. 1. vi. v. 126.

no connection with inward principle. They cannot, indeed, implant the principle, but they can mature it. The experience of every age has found this to be the case. I do not say that extravagant conduct ought ever to be a state to be imitated. But situations of different degrees, appropriate to circumstances, may be respected and made beneficial to the regulation of the mind. The manners, indeed, of every age, must be consulted in the appropriation of those circumstances. For instance, ancient penitents wore sack-cloth and strewed ashes on their heads; others cast themselves on the ground in token of deep depression. Such expressions of penitential discipline have passed away in our renovated Church, which still retains the necessity of penitence in its best and purest sense. Superstitious fastings and degrading austerities, are no longer recommended as works of merit, for the sign differs widely from the reality; but to call the mind home at peculiar seasons of holiness, by a more than ordinary abstraction of every kind-by enjoining piety and solemnity of deportment on every member of a Christian family, and by extending the grave measures of a master and a father over his children and dependents, as a temporary correction of acknowledged errors and failings; this it is, not to establish gloom and dissatisfaction in an happy society, but to celebrate the penitential fast which God has chosen, and to sanctify an holy end by holy and appropriate distinctions.

The root, indeed, of that personal reformation which we are enjoined at this season to attempt, and which the grace of God will enable us to accomplish, is that frame of mind usually denominated penitential. A sorrowful recollection of committed sin, and a general perception of failure in all our duties both to God and man, are, through the grace of God, the chief impulses of conversion, and the foundation of that Christian conduct, which alone gives evidence of an established faith, and are the genuine seeds from which all holy dispositions grow.

But however genuine the seed, the cultivation of the soil is too often defective. It is sometimes permitted to lie waste, and to be filled with thorns and thistles, or any thing that is vile and refuse, rather than with that which produces thirty, forty, sixty fold of good and precious grain. Here indolence is vice, and negligence an unpardonable sin. Hence blindness happens to our Israel, and danger lurks unseen. The loss of the soul is set at hazard, and irretrievable destruction is before us. When the impression of danger is really in our view, then is there some hope; for God hath not left himself without witness. spring of divine grace, like the morning-dew, sinks insensibly into the sinner's soul. It becomes visible by its effects; but it requires fostering to bring it to perfection. The storm, or the blast may blow ungenially upon it; and without Divine protection it will perish. Means of grace are ready to assist-one of

The

the first of which is penitential sorrow.

Conviction

begins at this point, and affords that blessed gleam, the quickness of whose beam is designed to lighten every man that cometh into the world. Many have felt this who have been arrested by common calamity even at the entrance of life: many in the high-day of health many on the bed of sickness, and some in the hour of death. The penitent thief is an instance of the last. "We, indeed, suffer justly," is his free and frank confession. It was accepted by the Saviour under most peculiar circumstances; so peculiar, that the dying sinner dares to raise no assured superstructure upon it. It was, however, penitential sorrow, and the expiring criminal was cheered by the consoling accents of the world's Redeemer, "To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise1."

Penitence implies punishment; or rather mental pain occasioned by acknowledged transgression. To be perfect in its nature, it must be wholly spiritual, and consist of the mortification of every vile passion and inordinate affection. But penitence, it must be carefully remarked, differs essentially from repentance. Penitence implies, turning from sin and Satan; repentance turning to God, through all the valued motives of a sound religious faith. By repentance is clearly to be understood, a restoration of our sound intellectual powers, a recovery of our senses, a change

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