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You may fee how vile we are by nature, that it requires fo great a change to be made upon us, to recover us from this ftate of fin, and therefore the confideration of our dreadful ftate should make us earneft with GOD to change our condi tion, and that change, true repentance implies; therefore, my brethren, confider how hateful your ways are to God, while you continue in fin; how abominable you are unto him, while you run into evil: you cannot be faid to be chriftians while you are hating CHRIST, and his people; true repentance will entirely change you, the bials of your fouls will be changed, then you will delight in God, in CHRIST, in his law, and in his people; you will then believe that there is fuch a thing as inward feeling, though now you may esteem it madness and enthusiasm; you will not then be ashamed of becoming fools for CHRIST's fake; you will not regard being fcoffed at; it is not then their pointing after you and crying, "Here comes "another troop of his followers," will difmay you; no, your foul will abhor fuch proceedings, the ways of CHRIST and his people will be your whole delight.

It is the nature of fuch repentance to make a change, and the greatest change as can be made here in the foul. Thus you see what repentance implies in its own nature; it denotes an abhorrence of all evil, and a forfaking of it. I fhall now proceed

Secondly, To fhew you the parts of it, and the caufes concurring thereto.

The parts are, forrow, hatred, and an entire førfaking of fin.

Our forrow and grief for fin, muft not fpring merely from a fear of wrath; for if we have no other ground but that, it proceeds from felf-love, and not from any love to God; and if love to GoD is not the chief motive of your repentance, your repentance is in vain, and not to be efteemed true.

Many, in our days, think their crying, God forgive me! or, LoŔD have mercy upon me! or, I am forry for it! is repentance, and that God will efteem it as fuch; but, indeed, they are mistaken; it is not the drawing near to GOD with our lips, while our hearts are far from him, which he regards. Repentance does not come by fits and ftarts; no, it is one continued

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continued act of our lives; for as we daily commit fin, fo we need a daily repentance before GOD, to obtain forgiveness for those fins we commit.

It is not your confeffing yourselves to be finners, it is not knowing your condition to be fad and deplorable, fo long as you continue in your fins; your care and endeavours fhould be, to get the heart thoroughly affected therewith, that you may feel yourfelyes to be loft and undone creatures, for CHRIST came to fave fuch as are loft; and if you are enabled to groan under the weight and burden of your fins, then CHRIST will eafe you and give you rest.

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And till you are thus fenfible of your mifery and loft con dition, you are a fervant to fin and to your lufts, under the bondage and command of Satan, doing his drudgery: thou art under the curfe of GOD, and liable to his judgment. Confider how dreadful thy ftate will be at death, and after the day of judgment, when thou wilt be expofed to fuch miferies which the ear hath not heard, neither can the heart conceive, and that to all eternity, if you die impenitent.

But I hope better things of you, my brethren, though I thus fpeak, and things which accompany falvation; go to GoD in prayer, and be earneft with him, that by his Spirit he would convince you of your miferable condition by nature, and make you truly fenfible thereof. O be humbled, be humbled, I befeech you, for your fins. Having spent fo many years in finning, what canft thou do lefs, than be concerned to spend some hours in mourning and forrowing for the fame, and be humbled before GOD.

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Look back into your lives, call to mind thy fins, as many as poffible thou canft, the fins of thy youth, as well as of thy fiper years; fee how you have departed from a gracious Father, and wandered in the way of wickedness, in which you have loft yourfelves, the favour of GOD, the comforts of his Spirit, and the peace of your own confciences; then go and beg pardon of the LORD, through the blood of the Lamb, for the evil thou haft committed, and for the good thou haft omitted. Confider, likewife, the heinoufnefs of thy fins; fee what very aggravating circumftances thy fins are attended with, how you have abused the patience of GOD, which fhould have led you to repentance; and when thou findeft thy heart hard, beg of

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GOD to foften it, cry mightily unto him, and he will take away thy ftony heart, and give thee a heart of flesh.

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Refolve to leave all thy finful lufts and pleafures; renounce, forfake, and abhor thy old finful course of life, and serve God in holinets and righteousness all the remaining part of life. If you lament and bewail paft fins, and do not forfake them, your repentance is in vain, you are mecking of GOD, and deceiving your own foul; you muft put off the old man with his deeds, before you can put on the new man, CHRIST JESUS.

You, therefore, who have been fwearers and curfers, yous who have been harlots and drunkards, you, who have been thieves and robbers, you, who have hitherto followed the fin ful pleasures and diverfions of life, let me befeech you, by the mercies of GOD in CHRIST JESUS, that you would no longer continue therein, but that you would forfake your evil ways, and turn unto the LORD, for he waiteth to be gracious unto you, he is ready, he is willing to pardon you of all your fins g but do not expect CHRIST to pardon you of fin, when you run into it, and will not abstain from complying with the temptations; but if you will be perfuaded to abstain from evil and chufe the good, to return unto the LORD, and repent of your wickedness, he hath promifed he will abundantly pardon you, he will heal your back-flidings, and will love you freely. Refolve now this day to have done with your fins for ever; let your old ways and you be feparated; you must refolve against it, for there can be no true repentance without a resolution to forfake it. Refolve for CHRIST, refolve against the devil and his works, and go on fighting the LORD's battles against the devil and his emiffaries; attack him in the strongest holds he has, fight him as men, as chriftians, and you will foon find him to be a coward; refift him and he will fly from you. Refolve, through grace, to do this, and your repentance is half done; but then take care that you do not ground your refolutions on your own ftrength, but in the ftrength of the LORD JESUS CHRIST; he is the way, he is the truth, and he is the life; without his affiftance you can do nothing, but through his grace ftrengthening thee, thou wilt be enabled to do all things; and the more thou art fenfible of thy own weaknefs and inability, the more ready CHRIST will be to help thee; and what can all the men of the world do to thee when CHRIST

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CHRIST is for thee? thou wilt not regard what they fay againft thee, for you will have the teftimony of a good conscience.

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Refolve to caft thyself at the feet of CHRIST in fubjection to him, and throw thyself into the arms of CHRIST for falvation by him. Confider, my dear brethren, the many invitations he has given you to come unto him, to be faved by him; "GOD has laid on him the iniquity of us all." O let me prevail with you, above all things, to make choice of the LORD JESUS CHRIST; refign yourselves unto him, take him, O take him, upon his own terms, and whofoever thou art, how great a finner foever you have been, this evening, in the name of the great GOD, do I offer JESUS CHRIST unto thee; as thou valueft thy life and foul refufe him not, but ftir up thy felf to accept of the LORD JESUS, take him wholly as he is, for he will be applied wholly unto you, or else not at all. JESUS CHRIST must be your whole wifdom, JESUS CHRIST must be your whole righteoufnefs, JESUS CHRIST must be your whole fanctification, or he will never be your eternal redemption.

What though you have been ever fo wicked and profligate, yet, if you will now abandon your fins, and turn unto the LORD JESUS CHRIST, thou shalt have him given to thee, and all thy fins fhall be freely forgiven. O why will you neglect the great work of your repentance? do not defer the doing of it one day longer, but to-day, even now, take that CHRIST who is freely offered to you.

Now as to the causes hereof, the firft caufe is GOD; he is the author, "we are born of GOD," GOD hath begotten us, even GOD, the Father of our LORD JESUS CHRIST; it is he that ftirs us up to will and to do of his own good pleasure : and another caufe is, GoD's free grace; it is owing to the "riches of his free grace," my brethren, that we have been prevented from going down to hell long ago; it is because the compaffions of the LORD fail not, they are new every morning, and fresh every evening.

Sometimes the inftruments are very unlikely a poor defpifed minifter, or member of JESUS CHRIST, may, by the power of God, be made an inftrument in the hands of GOD, of bringing you to true evangelical repentance; and this may be done to fhew, that the power is not in men, but that it is entirely owing to the good pleasure of GOD; and if there

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has been any good done among many of you, by preaching the word, as I truft there has, though it was preached in a field, if GOD has met and owned us, and bleffed his word,, though preached by an enthufiaftic babbler, a boy, a madman; I do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice, let foes fay what they will. I fhall now

Thirdly, Shew the reasons why repentance is neceffary to falvation.

And this, my brethren, is plainly revealed to us in the word of GOD, "The foul that does not repent and turn unto the LORD, fhall die in its fins, and their blood fhall be required at their own heads." It is neceffary, as we have finned, we fhould repent; for a holy GoD could not, nor ever can, or will, admit any thing that is unholy into his prefence: this is the beginning of grace in the foul; there must be a change in heart and life, before there can be a dwelling with a holy GOD. You cannot love fin and GOD too, you cannot love GOD and mammon; no unclean person can stand in the prefence of GOD, it is contrary to the holiness of his nature; there is a contrariety between the holy nature of God, and the unholy nature of carnal and unregenerate men.

What communication can there be between a finless God, and creatures full of fin, between a pure GoD and impure creatures? If you were to be admitted into heaven with your prefent tempers, in your impenitent condition, heaven itself would be a hell to you; the fongs of angels would be as enthufiafm, and would be intolerable to you; therefore you must have these tempers changed, you must be holy, as God is: he must be your GOD here, and you must be his people, or you will never dwell together to all eternity. If you hate the ways of GOD, and cannot fpend an hour in his service, how will you think to be eafy, to all eternity, in finging praises to him that fits upon the throne, and to the Lamb for ever.

And this is to be the employment, my brethren, of all thofe who are admitted into this glorious place, where neither fin nor finner is admitted, where no fcoffer ever can come, without repentance from his evil ways, a turning unto GOD, and a cleaving unto him: this must be done, before any can be admitted into the glorious manfions of GOD, which are prepared

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