awhile for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended." There are other hearers of the gospel, who speculatively understand its instructions with a great degree of correctness and are convinced of the reality and importance of experimental and practical religion; but they resemble the thorny ground. "He also, that received seed among the thorns, is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word and he becometh unfruitful." These three classes have, doubtless, formed in past ages and do at the present time form far the greater portion of the hearers of the gospel. But no individual of these classes does ever properly and profitably receive divine instruction. If they imagine they perform any duty in the manner, in which they hear the gospel, they wholly deceive themselves. good and honest heart no person ever did or ever will receive the pure and holy instructions of the gospel. Divine truth must be desired and regarded with supreme love to God and holy delight in his law, or it will not be received with approbation and complacency. If the minds of persons be divided and distracted by other objects, God and his word can have no place in their hearts. Or if a person's mind be heavy and stupid, it will be unaffected by the great objects, which are exhibited by the light of divine truth. No person will properly receive the word of God, unless he has a heart to obey the following counsel of the wise preacher in Israel. My son, if thou wilt receive my words and hide my commandments with thee, so that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom and apply thine heart to understanding; yea, if thou criest after knowledge and liftest up thy voice for understanding; if thou seekest her as silver and searchest for her as for hid treasure, then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding." Again he says, "When wisdom entereth into 2. From what a proper reception of divine truth implies, it is evident that no persons will receive it, unless their minds be prepared for it. Whether they, who hear the word of God, receive or reject it, depends upon the state of their own minds.-Persons may read the word of thine heart and knowledge is God and hear the preaching of the gospel as long as they live, but they will not receive divine truth without proper attention and proper affections. Without a pleasant unto thy soul; discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee." Without a holy and ardent affection for divine truth, no person will, as a new-born babe, desire the sincere struction is the most favourable milk of the word. 3. If the growth of Christians depends on their proper reception of religious instruction, then christians always decline, whenever they become careless in respect to this duty. While, as new-born babes, they desire the instructions of the gospel, they do, in all respects, advance in the divine life. But if they become indifferent and inattentive to the word of God, they neglect the means of their growth. And then they decline in their views, feelings, exertions and enjoyments. Negligence and carelessness in respect to divine truth are decisive evidence of spiritual declension. 4. Since the growth of christians depends on their receiving the instructions of the gospel, whenever christians are restored from spiritual declension they will experience a renewed and increased desire for divine truth.-As a person, who has been sick, on the return of health, has a strong desire for food; so christians, when recovered from spiritual disorders, will constantly and eagerly desire the pure and wholesome instructions of the gospel, which are the proper food for their souls. This desire for divine truth is the best and surest sign of recovery from spiritual stupidity and declension. 5. Since the growth of christians depends upon the reception of divine truth, a desire for in appearance in religious professors. It is more favourable than a high degree of confidence, that they are christians. Such confidence in religious professors very generally arises from ignorance and delusion. A desire for instruction is more favourable than a confident profession of religious enjoyment. Such a profession often arises from a false hope and a false faith. Without a desire for divine truth, there is no prospect of christian growth in religious professors. Nor is there any evidence of christian life. The best sign of life and the fairest prospect of growth in the professors of religion consist in an ardent, humble, and obedient desire for spiritual nourishment. 6. If the growth of christians depends on a proper reception of divine instruction, then, in order to their growth, they must remove and avoid whatever prevents their reception of the truth. In our context Peter says, "The word of the Lord endureth forever, and this is the word, which by the gospel is preached unto you."-— He then says, "Therefore, laying aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings, as new-born babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby; if so be ye have tasted, that the Lord is gracious." SINNERS CANNOT BE SAVED WITHOUT turpitude and baseness. REPENTANCE. There are many sinners, we have reason to conclude, who live in the hope that they shall be saved when they die, without exercising that repentance which is described and required in the word of God. Some sinners appear to hope for salvation on one ground, and some on another. Some sinners appear to hope for salvation on the ground of their morality. Others hope for it, because, in their view, they are such small sinners, that it would be unjust in God not to save them. And others hope for it, because they think God is so merciful, that he will save all mankind, let them live and die as they will. But if such hopes are delusive and must fail in the trying hour, it is desirable, if possible, to convince sinners of it, before it is forever too late. I shall attempt, therefore, to make it appear that sinners cannot be saved without repentance. To do this, I propose in the first place to describe repentance, and then show why sinners cannot be saved without it. 1. Repentance is to be described. Repentance is a change of mind in respect to sin. The feel ings of a true peniten t towards sin, are opposite to the feelings that he once had towards it. While impenitent, he loved sin, and delighted in the practice of it. But now he hates sin for its own sake, or on account of its own inherent Sin con sists primarily in selfishness, in a person's loving himself as much as he is bound and required to love God; and it operates in supreme and deadly enmity to him. The true penitent no longer loves and cherishes this selfish, sordid temper, but feels it to be the greatest of evils, the most grievous of burdens, from which be longs to be delivered. He loathes, abases and condemns himself on account of his sinfulness, and turns from it with all his heart. And he utters the feelings and desires of his broken and contrite spirit in such language as this: "Mine iniquities are gone over my head. I am, troubled, and bowed down greatly. I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." Such exercises and feelings were evidently included in the repentance of Job, in the repentance of David, and in the repentance of every humbled sinner, whose character is delineated in scripture. It may also be remarked, that although sin is the object of repentance; yet this is called "repentance towards God," because it flows from supreme love to God, against whom sin is committed, and whose character and government the commission of it tends to injure. Repentance, then, is a change of mind in respect to sin, which arises from a change of feelings towards God and his glorious government, and which issues in a new and holy life. I am to show, II. Why sinners cannot be saved without repentance. reasons. made repentance an indispensable condition of forgiveness. Now, The following are some of the since God never does, and never can pardon the impenitent, they cannot be saved without repentance; for they cannot be saved without being pardoned. Surely, those who are under the curse of God's law, and on whom his wrath abideth, cannot see life. I add, 1. Sinners cannot be sayed without repentance, because without this they cannot be pardoned, cannot be freed from the penalty of the law. Pardon is procured only by Christ's atonement, which prepares the way for the bestowment of that blessing upon penitent sinners; but does not prepare the way for the bestowment of it upon the impenitent. It would be just as inconsistent for God to pardon the impenitent through the atonement, as it would be for him to pardon the penitent, had no atonement been made. The impenitent are God's mortal foes. Hence, were he to pardon them he would deny himself, and blot out all the glory of his reign forever. In a word, should God remit the penalty of his law to the impenitent transgressors of it, he would exhibit himself, not as the hater and punisher, but as the lover and rewarder of iniquity; and his character would sink at once in the view of all his intelligent creatures. He can no more do it, therefore, than he can cease to be God. Jesus Christ is set forth to be a propitiation, that God's righteousness may be declared, and that he may be just, in justifying or pardoning the penitent and believing. Accordingly, he promises to forgive the penitent, but not the impenitent, and has 2. That without repentance, sinners cannot participate in that pure and holy happiness, which is an essential part of the gospel salvation. Were it not inconsistent with the moral rectitude of God, for him to forgive the impenitent, and were he to do it, still, it would be impossible for them to enjoy the blessedness of heaven. Love to God and complacency in his government are essential to true happiness, which is to be found only in him. But the impenitent are hostile to God, and highly displeased with all the operations of his hand. How then could they be happy in heaven itself, where they would be forever surrounded with objects of their supreme aversion and abhorrence? The transcendent manifestations of Jehovah's glory, which swell the joys and wake the songs of the celestial hosts, who love him, must be a source of ceaseless anguish to all who hate him, to all the impenitent. It is impossible in the nature of things for them to be saved, for them to be made happy with such hearts as they possess. Their sinfulness, their impenitence must totally disqualify them for any true enjoyment, either in this world, or in that which is to come. 1. If what has been said of the nature of repentance is true, then they are mistaken, who suppose it consists in a person's being sorry for sin, because it exposes him to punishment, or in wishing that he had not been born a sinner, or that Adam had never fallen, or that moral evil had never entered the universe. If a just view has been given of repentance, then such sorrows and wishes constitute no essential part of it. They are, indeed, if not associated with other affections, the sorrows and desires of an impenitent heart. He who truly repents, is delivered from that worldly sorrow which the slavish fear of punishment produces. In his heart, he says amen to the curse of the law, and accepts the punishment of his iniquities, as God requires. And instead of wishing that he had been born sinless, or that Adam had retained his original purity, or that evil had never existed, or that God's plan of government had been different from what it is; instead of having such idle wishes, such criminal desires, he voluntarily lies in the deepest self-abasement before God, on account of the treasonable part he has acted against him, and desires and prays to be saved from sin and made holy. And while he has an affecting view of the evil of sin, and of its tendency to reproach the divine character, and destroy the universe, he rejoices in the assur ance that God will cause even this evil, hateful, all-destructive thing to praise him, and promote the blessedness of his holy kingdom 2. How gloomy are the prospects of impenitent sinners! We have seen that there is both a moral and natural impossibility of their ever being saved in impenitence. There is no true happiness for them on earth. There is no true happiness for them in heaven. There is no true happiness for them in the universe. They must, persis'ing in their impenitence, be eternally miserable.They do feel miserable here, in proportion to the clearness and strength of their impressions of divine truth. And when they shall be summoned into the world. of spirits, and open their eyes to its cloudless light, to shut them no more forever; when they shall be made to see God, and Christ, and all spriritual objects, as far as the impenitent can see them ;when divine truth shall thus shine into their understandings and consciences in all the brightness of eternity, their souls must, in the nature of things, be filled with the keenest remorse, and anguish, and despair. And besides, that God who is faithful to execute his threatnings, as well as to fulfil his promises, will inflict upon them the just but awful penalty of his law. Nothing then awaits them, but the endless wailings and torments of the damned. |