his own humiliation and comfort. "O my God," he would say, 66 can such a creature as I, who have denied "thy being, and contemned thy power, be accepted by "thee? Can there be mercy and pardon for me? "Will God own such a wretch as I am?" His faith now rested on Christ alone for salvation, and often would he entreat God to strengthen it; crying out, "Lord, I believe: help thou my unbelief." He gave numerous proofs of the depth of his repentance: amongst which his earnest desire to check and diminish the evil effects of his former writings, and too uniform example, deserve particular recollection. His abhorrence of sin was now as extraordinary as his former indulgence in it: he said more than once, "he "would not commit a known crime to gain a king"dom." "He told me (says the Bishop) he had overcome "all his resentments to all the world; so that he bore "ill-will to no person, nor hated any upon personal "accounts. He had given a true state of his debts, “and had ordered to pay them all, as far as his estate "that was not settled could go; and was confident "that, if all that was owing to him were paid to his "executors, his creditors would be all satisfied. He "said he found his mind now possessed with another sense of things, than ever he had formerly. He "did not repine under all his pain, and in one of the "sharpest fits he was under while I was with him, he "said he did willingly submit; and looking up to "heaven, said, God's holy will be done, I bless him "for all he does to me.' He said he was contented 66 66 I "either to die or live, as should please God: and though it was a foolish thing for a man to pretend to "choose whether he would die or live, yet he rather "wished to die. He knew he could never be so well "that life should be comfortable to him. He was con"fident he should be happy if he died, but he feared "if he lived he might relapse: and then said he to me, "In what a condition shall I be, if I relapse after "all this? But (he said) he trusted in the grace and "goodness of God, and was resolved to avoid all those "temptations, that course of life and company that ઠંડ was likely to ensnare him: and he desired to live on "no other account, but that he might by the change of his manners in some way take off the high "scandal his former behaviour had given.' All these 66 things at several times I had from him; besides some messages which very well became a dying penitent to some of his former friends, and a charge "to publish any thing concerning him that might be a mean to reclaim others. Praying God, that as "his life had done much hurt, so his death might do some good. 66 έσ 66 66 "Having understood all these things from him, and "being pressed to give him my opinion plainly about ❝ his eternal state, I told him, that though the pro"mises of the Gospel did all depend upon a real "change of heart and life, as the indispensable con"dition upon which they were made, and that it was scarce possible to know certainly whether our hearts are changed, unless it appeared in our lives; and "the repentance of most dying men being like the 66 66 66 howlings of condemned prisoners for pardon, which "flowed from no sense of their crimes, but from the "horror of approaching death; there was little reason "to encourage any to hope from such sorrowing: yet "certainly if the mind of a sinner, even on a death“bed, be truly renewed and turned to God, so great "is his mercy that he will receive him, even in that "extremity. He said, he was sure his mind was " entirely turned; and though horror had given him "his first awakening, yet that was now grown up into "a settled faith and conversion." (f) This narration naturally suggests several reflections: but these I must leave to be the result of your own meditations; and proceed to answer a few questions which arise out of the subject now before us. 1. Is conversion absolutely necessary? If this question is to be decided by the uniform tenour of Scripture, it must be answered in the affirmative. Some persons, I am aware, will tell you, that, however necessary this great change may be among heathens, it is not universally requisite in a Christian country. But this notion is founded upon a very inadequate view of the subject. By nature all are Gentiles. We are 66 by nature the children of "wrath, even as others." (g) Whether men bow down to idols of wood and stone, or are immersed in (f) See Bishop Burnet's work entitled "Some Passages in the Life "and Death of John Earl of Rochester," a work which cannot be recommended in more appropriate terms than those of Dr. Johnson, who said "the critic ought to read it for its elegance, the philosopher for its 66 arguments, and the saint for its piety." (g) Eph. ii. 3. the cares, or idolizing the amusements of this world, they may be equally distant from God, and equally need an entire change of heart to bring them to his spiritual presence, and restore them to his favour. "Those (says Bishop Tomline) who call themselves "Christians, but attend neither to the doctrines nor "to the duties of the Gospel, seem to differ but little, "with respect to the point now under consideration, "from those to whom the Gospel was first preached. "The process in both must be nearly the same.” (h) Both classes are descended from the corrupt stock of Adam, both are influenced by improper motives, both are strangers to "Christ the hope of glory; both are "in the bond of iniquity," whether they are conscious of it or not; and therefore," must "be born again." The necessity for this change is doubtless as extensive as that great moral declension, from which it is the object of the Christian dispensation to restore mankind: so that since "all "have sinned," all are "shapen in iniquity and "conceived in sin," all must undergo a total "change, or they cannot see the kingdom of God.” (i) Indeed nothing in religion can be more evident than that" if we be bound on earth, we shall be "bound in heaven;"" if we be absolved here, we "shall be loosed there:" for, in this sense, "where the "tree falleth there it shall lie." (k) Hence the pro phets who preceded our Lord, Jesus Christ himself, (h) Refutation of Calvinism, p. 59. (i) Rom. v. 12, 14. Ps. li. 5. John, iii. 3. and the apostles who were commissioned to succeed him, all agreed in declaring that no unregenerate person shall enter the kingdom of God. The reason of this is obvious, both from the nature of God, and from that of man. "No unclean thing" can be admitted into the presence of God (who "cannot behold ini"quity" but with abhorrence), nor into the regions of universal holiness and purity. And on the other hand, if an unregenerate soul could be admitted, heaven would yield it no delight. Such a spirit would be incapable of relishing the happiness of a future world for the knowledge there communicated, the enjoyments there experienced, are of a kind it never aspired after. The holiness of heaven, the sight and service of God, and of a glorified Redeemer, the society of angels and of saints made perfect, the " singing the song of "Moses and the Lamb," would all be tasteless and insipid, if not disgusting, to one who had been a stranger to the employments and gratifications of religion while on earth. To believe otherwise would be to believe that a man could be regenerate and unregenerate at the same time. "The happiness of heaven "(said good old Richard Baxter) is holiness; and to "talk of being happy without it, is as palpable nonsense, as to talk of being well without health, or of being saved without salvation." 66 66 2dly. Is the exact era of this great renovation of character always assignable? Certainly not; though in many cases it is. In the most momentous business of regeneration "there are "diversities of operations, but it is the same God |