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SERMON IX.

REPENTANCE,

2 COR. ii. 10.

Godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death,

THE

propose to

words we have read, and with which we cherish your devotion in this exercise, are connected, not only with the preceding verses, but also with a part of that epistle, which St. Paul had written to Corinth before this. This connection is the properest comment on the sense of the text; with this, therefore, we begin, and this part of our discourse will require your particular attention.

Our apostle had scarcely planted the Gospel at Corinth, and formed the professors of it into a christian church, before one of the most atrocious crimes was committed in the community. Ought we to be surprised, that we, inferior disciples of the apostles, fail in attempting to prevent, or to correct some excesses? Churches founded and edified by inspired men were not exempt from them. In the church of Corinth we see impure, and even incestuous practices. How abominable soever the crime was, St. Paul was less chagrined at it, than at the conduct of the Corinthian church towards the perpetrators of it. It is not astonishing to find some in a large congregation, who are the execration of nature. Of the twelve disciples, whom Jesus Christ chose for apostles, one was a devil, John vi. 70. But that a whole congregation, a christian congregation, should consider such a monster with patience, and, instead of punishing his crime, should form pretexts to palliate, veils to conceal it, is surely the height of depravity. Such, however, were the Corinthians. Our apostle says, ye are puffed up, 1 Cor. v. 2. With what

pride

pride does he reproach them? How could any men possibly derive a giory from an abomination, which naturally inspires mortification and shame? The pride, with which he reproaches them, is a disposition too well known among christians. It is a disposition of man, who pretends to free himself from the ordinary laws of moral rectitude, and to leave that path, in which the gospel requires all christians to walk, to the vulgar; who treats the just fear of a well-regulated conscience, that trembles at the approach of sin, as meanness of soul, and pusillanimity; and who accommodates the laws of religion to the passions, that govern him, and to the seasons in which he has, or has not an opportunity of being wicked. These were the dispositions of the Corinthians in regard to the incestuous person. Perhaps they derived some exculpating maxims from the Jews. The Jews thought, that a man, who became a proselyte to their religion, was thereby freed from those natural ties, which before united him to his relations, so that a man might innocently espouse his sister, or his mother, and so on. The pagans reproach the Jewish nation with this, and this, perhaps, might furnish Tacitus with a part of the character, that he gave the Jews. What is considered by us as sacred, says this celebrated historian,, they treat as profane, and incestuous marriages, which shock us, they think lawful.,

St. Pauls rebukes the Corinthians for marking with a character of infamy, not only their own church: but in a manner the whole christian world. Do you, as if he had said, consider a crime with indifference, which is unknown even among heathens? It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named amongst the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife, 1 Cor. vi. 1. Indeed there are in pagan writings most severe laws against incest, and, what is very remarkable, the apostle seems to allude in the words just now cited to a passage in Cicero, who, speaking of incest, calls it scelus inauditum, an unheard of crime, Accordingly, we find in Tertullian, in Minutius Felix, and in other famous apologists for christianity, that incest was one of the disorders with which the pagans reproached the primitive christians; the beathens either did, what has been too often done, charge a whole family, sometimes a whole city, sometimes a whole nation, with the fault of one member; or they thought nothing could blacken christians more then taxing them with a vice, although falsly, which was held in the utmost detestation by all professors of paganism. “

* Hist. v. 4.

The

The apostle tells the Corinthians, that instead of having adopted, as they had, maxims, which seemed to palliate incest, they should have imitated the conduct of the Jews, when they were obliged to excommunicate any scandalous offenders from their community. On these sad occasions, it was customary with the Jews to fast, to weep, and to put on mourning, as if the person were dead. Ye are puffed up, and have not mourned, as if he, who had done this deed, had been taken from you, ver. 2. This custom was followed afterward by christians, witness a famous passage in the book entitled apostolical constitutions*: witness also these words of Origen, Christians mourn as over the dead for those, whom they are obliged to separate from them; however odious and infectious a member of our body may be, we always do violence to ourselves, when we are under a necessity of cutting it off. This is not all. St. Paul, not content with general censures and reproofs, thought this one of the extreme cases, in which the honour of his apostleship would oblige him to take his ecclesiastical rod, and to perform one of those formidable miracles, which God enabled the primitive christians to work. You cannot but know, that among other miraculous gifts, which God communicated for the establishment of christianity, that of inflicting remarkable punishments on some offenders was one of the most considerable. St. Peter employed this power against Ananias, whom he caused to fall dead at his feet, and against the wife of this miserable prevaricator, to whom he said, Behold! the feet of them, which have buried thy husband, are at the door, and shall carry thee out, Acts v. 9. St. Paul speaks of this power in this style, The weapons of our warfare are mighty through God, in readiness to revenge all disobedience, 2 Cor. x. 46. Our apostle used this power against Elymus the sorcerer, and against Hymeneus and Alexander; he thought, he ought also to use it against the incestuous Corinthian, and to deliver him to Satan, 1 Cor. v. 5. thus was this terrible dispensation described.

Such an exertion of apostolical power was indispensibly necessary it reclaimed those by fear, whom mildness could not move; while an indulgence for such a crime as this would have encouraged the commission of many more. the apostle, while he used this power, was extremely uneasy

* Constit. Apostol lib. i. cap. 41 Orig. lib. iii. cont. Celsum.

But

on

on account of the necessity, that forced him to exercise it: I wrote unto you, says he, out of much affliction and anguish of heart with many tears, 2 Cor. i. 4. He not only declares, that he had no intention by punishing the culprit to destroy his soul; but that he even feared, those sharp censures, which his letter had engaged the Corinthian church to inflict, would produce impressions too terrific on the soul of the incestuous sinner, or, as he expresses it, that he would be swallowed up with over much sorrow, ver. 7.

He goes further in my text, and in the whole chapter, from which I have taken it. He wishes to indemnify himself for the violent anguish, that he had suffered, when he was obliged to treat his dear Corinthians with extreme rigour. He comforts himself by recollecting the salutary effects which his zeal had produced, Though I made you sorry with a letter, says he in the words immediately before the text, I do not repent; though I did repent; because ye sorrow in repentance, for ye were made sorry after a godly manner. In the text he establisheth this general maxim for all christians, Godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.

The connection of the text with the whole subject, that we have been explaining, was, I said before, the best comment, that we could propose to explain the text itself. By what we have heard, it is easy to understand what godly sorrow is, and what the sorrow of the world. Godly sorrow has for its object sin committed against God, or rather, godly sorrow is the grief of a man who repents of his sins as God would have him repent; it is the sorrow ot a man, who afflicts himself not only because he is miserable, but because he deserves to be so; and because he hath violated those laws of righteousness and holiness, which his own conscience approves. The sorrow of the world is that, which hath worldly blessings for its object; or it is the grief of a man, who repents of his sins as worldly men repent; it is the sorrow of one who is more concerned for his misery than for sin, the cause of it, and who would even increase his crimes to get rid of his troubles. The ground of St. Paul's reasoning then is this. Godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation, or, as it may be rendered, saving repentance, not to be repented of; that is to say, a man who afflicts himself on the accounts, which we have mentioned, will be exercised at first, indeed, with violent anguish: but

in a little time he will derive from this very anguish substantial comfort and joy, because his sorrow for sin will induce him to subdue it, and to pray for the pardon of it. On the other hand, the sorrow of the world worketh death, that is to say, either the sorrow, which is occasioned by the loss of earthly enjoyments, is fatal to him, who gives himself up to it; for, as the wise man saith, a broken spirit drieth the bones, Prov. xvii. 22. or the sorrow of the world worketh death, because such a repentance as that of worldlings will never obtain the forgiveness, that is promised to those, who truly repent. In this latter sense I take the words here.

This is a general view of the scope of the apostle, and of his ideas in the text, ideas, which we must develope in order to lead you into the spirit of the holy supper of the Lord, that so the sermon may contribute to the devotion of the day. I speak of those ideas, which St. Paul gives us of godly sorrow, saving repentance, not to be repented of; for, we cannot enlarge on that, which he calls sorrow of the world, without diverting your attention from the solemn service of this day. We will, therefore, content ourselves with tracing a few characters of it in the body of this discourse, that ye may perceive how different the virtue, which the apostle recommends, is from the vice, which he intends to destroy,

Godly sorrow, then, is the principal object of our contemplation, and there are three things, that demand a particular attention. The causes, which produce it; the ef fects, that follow it; and the blessings, with which it is accompanied. The first of these articles will describe your state a few days ago, when, examining your consciences, (if, indeed, ye did examine them,) ye were overwhelmed with a remembrance of your sins. How could ye cast your eyes on these sad objects without feeling that sorrow, which a penitent expresses thus, O Lord! righteousness belongeth unto thee: but unto me confusion of face, Dan, ix. 7. Against thee, thee only, O God! have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight? Psal. li. 4. The second article will describe your present condition. How can ye feel godly sorrow, without resolving by reiterated acts of love to God to dissipate that darkness, which covered all the evidences of your love to him, during the whole course of your sins? The third article will describe your future condition, through life, at death, in the day of judgement, and VOL. II. throughout

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