warder of the just will confer on those who love and do good to their brethren. I pray you to remember, that he who in proportion to his means "soweth little, shall then also reap little: but he that soweth plenteously,"-she, who of her poverty gives but the widow's mite,-" shall reap plenteously; for God loveth" the "cheerful" and bounteous" giver."

1 2 Cor. ix. 6, 7.

SERMON IV.

MATTHEW Xviii. 2, 3.

And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, and said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

a

THE Services of our Church at this season of the year invite our attention to the subject of repentance: and the reasons of this appointment are, not that repentance is supposed to be more necessary at one part of the year than at another; but that we may follow the example of the primitive Church, which, as we learn from the testimony of Polycarp the disciple of St. John, commemorated, even from the days of the Apostles, our blessed Saviour's fast of forty days at this time: that by the seasonable and more protracted use of

This Sermon was preached before the University of Oxford on Sunday afternoon, Feb. 28, 1836, being the Second Sunday in Lent.

abstinence, which is one part of practical repentance, we may acquire or improve the habit of keeping under the body, and of bringing it into subjection to the motions of God's most holy Spirit: and that as "there is not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not," and all more or less need repentance; so all who call themselves by the name of Christ, may be exhorted to conform themselves to the example of his humiliation; may with one mind and one mouth solemnly confess their sins, and turn to God; and may, with the livelier faith and more heartfelt joy, celebrate, at the approaching season of Easter, that unspeakable mercy, which, “ through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for alle," has "taken away the sin of the world"," and by the resurrection of the same our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, "hath quickened us together with Him, having forgiven us all trespasses." Repentance may be considered, as it denotes a change either in our apprehen

b Eccl. vii. 20. e Col. ii. 13.

C Heb. x. 10.

d John i. 29.

sion of the great doctrines and duties of our religion, in the objects of our affections, or in the course of our conduct: but all these must be united, to constitute repentance in the true and scriptural sense of the word. Or it may again be considered according to the different degrees in which the just man that doeth good, or the unjust that doeth evil, requires it. And in this latter case, repentance is to be regarded as synonymous with conversion.

Under this name of conversion, however, doctrines are not unfrequently promulgated, which are highly dangerous to religion. The nature of conversion is misrepresented: it is set forth as indispensably necessary to the salvation of all: and when it is once effected, the individual is declared to be safe. The perturbation or paroxysm of feelings, which may have accompanied it in some cases, is required in all; and certain exhibitions even of physical infirmity are sometimes, if not required, yet deemed incontestable proofs of the operation of the Holy Spirit, and of the reality of conversion. Thus by substituting what,