particulars it is of the utmost impor tance that you be right. Search therefore diligently, and as the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, pray God to search your hearts, and try your ways, and see if there be any evil way in you, and lead you in the way everlasting. He can guard you against Satan's devices, and prevent his getting any advantage over you.

HYMN.

O GOD of wisdom, hear my pray'r,
And guide my wand'ring heart to thee;
Make me of every sin beware,
From every path of folly flee.

Temptations stand thro' all my road,
And youthful passions scorn controul,

And urge me to forget my God,
And lose for sinful joys, my soul.

How vain my natural wisdom is,

My strongest resolution vain: The tempter cheats with some disguise, And lures my soul to sin again.

May I remember God beholds,

And hates the sin of slighest dye:

Nor ere forget, that hell enfolds

Thousands, who sin'd no more than I,

Thou oft forgiving Jesus, speak
Afresh thy pardons to my heart;
Nor may I wish thy yoke to break,
Nor from thy pleasant ways depart,

X.

IE NATURE OF REPENTANCE.

Acts xi. 18.

Repentance unto life.

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REPENTANCE is much spoken of in the gospel. It is the very essence preaching it, that God commands men every where to repent: it is the first lesson, Repent ye, that your sins may be blotted out: its necessity is forcibly represented by our Lord himself, when he says, "except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." Seeing the gospel finds men sinners, and proposes salvation; it is no wonder that it requires of them repentance. Were men righteous, they

would have nothing to repent of; as they are sinners, repentance is absolutely necessary. As without faith it is impossible to please God; and as without holiness no man shall see the Lord; so if men do not repent, God hates them, and will pour out his bitter vengeance upon them.

On the other hand, repentance is the sure way to heaven. He that repents shall be accepted of God, it is not in vain then to seek the Lord: he shall be. pardoned, all his sins shall be blotted out: he shall be saved, it is repentance unto salvation; or as our text has it, repentance unto life.

But if repentance be so important, so necessary, so beneficial, it becomes us to enquire, not only whether we possess it, but whether our repentance be of the right sort; because there are counterfeits, with which many deceive themselves: many content themselves with a repentance which is not after a godly sort, but will need to be repented of.

You allow it to be a desperate case, if God calls a man to his bar who has no repentance; who stands therefore guilty before him, with all his sins upon his head but is it not a sad case too, when

:

a man thinks he has repented, goes therefore confidently into the presence of God, and then finds that his repentance is false, such, as God will not accept.

Let us then ask, for it is a very important question, what is this repentance, that genuine sort of it, which is unto life.

Now the simplest meaning of the term repentance is, change of mind. Keep this idea in view, and it will guard you against many false notions about it. Some think they have repented, only because they have changed their sentiments, and obtained some new, and perhaps better notions of religion than they had before: this may be, without repentance. Some change their conduct, and this looks well, when a man leaves off sins, and begins to attend to religious duties; yet this, though it gives us hope, often takes place without repentance: for repentance is a change of heart, an alteration not only in the understanding, but also in the affections, and the will: the whole soul is changed, and of course the life and conduct. There is a change in all a man's feelings, as to sin and holiness; as to the object a man chooses as his portion, and as to the means he uses to obtain it.