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the groffeft fenfualities; and the very gods whom they adored were represented as guilty of crimes too fhocking to be fpecified, but which all who fought their favour would certainly take care to imitate*. You fee then what little prospect there was, that men under fuch circumstances fhould ever be prevailed on, by a mere preacher of righteousness (even though fent from the realms, and endued with the eloquence, of Heaven), to repent and reform. Before they could do either, they must be sensible that they were acting wrong. But they, on the contrary, thought themselves right. They not only acted wickedly, but acted fo on principle. Their moral sense was inverted. "The light that was in them was " become darkness." They had no check within to stop their mad career of wickedness; and every thing without, every thing that ought to have taught them a better leffon, their philofophers, their priests, their religion, their worship, their gods themselves, all contributed to confirm and ftrengthen them in their corrupt practices, and to bar up every avenue to reformation.

Ego homuncio hoc non facerem? See the whole paffage. Terent. Eun. iii. v. 43.

It is therefore evident, that, without fome awakening call, some striking, and astonishing, and extraordinary event, (like that of the crucifixion of Chrift) to affect the hearts and alarm the fears of the ancient Pagans, and to imprefs them with a strong sense of God's extreme indignation against fin, it was morally impoffible they could ever have been brought to a ferious, effectual, and permanent amendment of heart and life †.

It is in vain then to talk of the great efficacy of repentance in averting the anger of the Almighty, and atoning for past offences. You ought first to settle the previous question, whether, if this had been all the expiation] required, there would have been any repenting finners in the world to have tried the experiment?

It is a fingular clrcumftance, which I have from unqueftionable authority, and which tends very much to show the powerful influence of a crucified Redeemer, that in almost every part of the world, from Greenland to the Weft-India islands, thofe Heathens that have been profelyted to Christianity were principally and moft effectually wrought upon by the hiftory of our Saviour's fufferings, as recorded in the Gospel, When these were forcibly stated, and repeatedly impreffed on their minds, they scarce ever failed to produce in them both a lively faith and a virtuous life,

But

But to grant all this power of expiation to repentance, is granting a great deal more than truth will warrant.

For from whence do you learn, that repentance alone will obliterate the stains of past guilt; will undo every thing you have done amifs; will reinftate you in the favour of God: will make ample fatisfaction to his infulted juftice; and fecure refpect and obedience to his authority, as the moral governor of

the world?

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Do the Scriptures teach you this? No, They plainly tell you, that" without the "fhedding of blood there is no remiffion of "fins *" But, perhaps, you collect it from the very nature of the thing itself. Confider then what repentance is. It is nothing more than forrow for what we have done amiss, and a refolution not to do it again.

But can this annihilate what is paft? Moft affuredly it has no fuch power. Our former tranfgreffions still remain uncancelled. They are recorded in the books of Heaven; and it is not our future good deeds alone that can wipe them out. They can only answer for

Heb. ix. 22,

themselves,

themselves, (if they can do that): they have no fuperabundant or retrospective merit to fpare, as a cover to paft offences. We may as well affirm, fays a learned divine, that "our former obedience atones for our present "fins, as that our prefent obedience makes amends for antecedent tranfgreffions."

If you think this doctrine harsh and unna→ tural, fee whether your own daily experience, whether the ordinary courfe of human affairs, will teach you a different leffon.

Look around you, and obferve what is páffing every moment before your eyes. You fee men frequently deftroying by fenfuality, by intemperance, by every act of profligacy, their health, their fortune, their character, their happiness here and hereafter. You fee them, perhaps, afterwards most heartily forry for what they have done; fincerely repenting of their wickedness; refolving for the future to lead a virtuous and religious life, and perhaps fulfilling that refolution. But does this always restore to them their health, their fortune, or their good fame? No: they are often gone for ever, loft beyond redemption, notwithstanding their utmost efforts to recover

them,

them. The wretch that has committed a murder, may be ftruck with the deepest remorfe and horror for his crime, and may moft feriously determine to make every amends for it in his power. But does this fave him from the hand of justice, from the punishment denounced against his offence by law? We know that it does not. Unless fome powerful mediator or friend interpofe to obtain his pardon, he will fall by the hand of the executioner. And in a multitude of other inftances, nothing but the generous kindness of our friends, and their readiness to encounter great inconvenience, expence, trouble, and mifery, for our fakes, can avert the fatal confequences which our indif cretions, follies, and vices would, in fpite of the fincereft repentance and remorfe, infallibly bring upon us *. Since then, notwithstand

ing

It is remarkable, that our Lord himself compares his in terpofition to fave us from ruin to the generous interference of a man to rescue his friend from deftruction. "Greater "love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life " for his friends §;" alluding, evidently, to this inftance of his love for us. This, perhaps, might fuggeft the idea of that noble principle of analogy, by which Bishop Butler has fó admirably illuftrated, and fo unanfwerably defended the great Scriptural doctrine of our Redemption, by Chrift interfering § John XV. 13

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