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SERMON: LXXVII.

REGENERATIO N.

ITS ATTENDANTS.

FAITH. REPENTANCE.

THEN JUDAS, WHO HAD BETRAYED HIM, WHEN HE SAW THAT HE WAS CONDEMNED, repenTED HIMSELF, AND BROUGHT AGAIN THE THIRTY PIECES OF SILVER TO THE CHIEF PRIESTS AND ELDERS; SAYING, I HAVE SINNED, IN THAT I HAVE BETRAYED THE INNOCENT BLOOD. AND THEY SAID, WHAT IS THAT TO US? SEE THOU TO THAT. AND HE CAST DOWN THE PIECES OF SILVER IN THE TEMPLE, AND DEPARTED, AND WENT AND HANGED HIMSELF.

MATTHEW XXVII. 3-5.

IN my last Discourse I gave an account of the work of regeneration, and particularly of its immediate effects on the mind, which, because they apparently co-exist with it, I styled its attendants. Of these I particularly mentioned faith in Christ, repentance, love to God, and love to mankind. All these exercises of the renewed mind are of such importance in the scriptural scheme, as to demand a distinct and particular consideration.

Faith, the first of them in the order which I have adopted, has heretofore been largely examined. In so complex a science as that of theology it is impossible not to anticipate particular subjects of discourse; because, among several things which are collateral and not regularly successive, and which

are also variously connected, it becomes almost necessary to select, (for reasons irresistibly occurring,) some one out of the several connections, which will prove in a measure injurious to the consideration of others. On some accounts the natural order would have induced me to discuss the subject of faith in this place; on others, it seemed desirable to give it an earlier examination. As the mind can very easily transfer it to that period at which in the order of time it begins to exist, the disadvantage will be immaterial, should it upon the whole be thought a disadvantage.

The next subject of consideration is repentance unto life, usually called evangelical repentance.

In the text we are informed that Judas, after he had betrayed Christ, seeing that he was condemned,' repented himself.' It is therefore certain that Judas was in some sense a penitent; yet it is equally certain that his repentance was not genuine'; or, in other words, was not the repentance which is required by the Gospel. As one of the most useful methods of distinguishing that which is genuine from that which is spurious is to compare them, I shall in the discussion of this subject,

I. Examine the repentance of Judas; and,

II. The nature of true repentance.

Concerning the repentance of Judas, I observe. 1. It was rea.

That Judas actually felt, and did in no sense counterfeit the sorrow which he professed for his treachery and its consequences, is evident beyond a possible doubt; its existence being evinced by the highest of all proofs, its influence on his conduct. False repentance therefore, by which I mean all that which is not evangelical, has a real and not merely a pretended existence. Of course it is not in this respect at all distinguished from the repentance of the Gospel.

2. It was deep and distressing.

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This also is equally evinced in the same manner. son who was present to hear what Judas said, and to see the things which he did, could entertain a doubt that he was exceedingly distressed by the remembrance of what he had done. False repentance may not only be real, but deeply distressing;

and cannot by this circumstance be distinguished from that which is genuine.

3. It was attended by a strong and full conviction of his guilt.

This is also amply declared both in his words and in his actions, so as not to admit even of a question. False repentance therefore cannot be distinguished from the true by this circumstance.

4. It was followed by a frank confession of his guilt.

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'I have sinned,' said this miserable man, in that I have betrayed the innocent blood.' This confession he made before those to whom we should naturally expect him last to make it; viz. the very persons who had hired him to sin. It was also a confession extorted from him by a sense of his guilt alone, and not by any human persuasion, art, or violence. It was sincere; being not only really, but intentionally true; a frank declaration both of his views and his conduct. Such a confession is therefore no decisive proof that repentance is genuine. 5. It was also followed, so far as was now possible, by a departure from his former conduct..

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Whatever motives of a different kind prompted Judas to his treachery, it is plain covetousness had its share of influence. The attainment of money, he himself informs us, was an object primarily in his view. 'What will ye give me,' said he to the chief priests, and I will deliver him unto you?' The sum which they offered was indeed very small; still it plainly operated with commanding force upon his mind. Nor need we wonder that he who, when he kept the bag which contained the little means of subsistence on which, when not supported by hospitality, Christ and his apostles lived, could from time to time basely plunder so small a part of it as not to be detected by his companions, should be induced to undertake a very base employment for thirty pieces of silver. But on the present occasion, covetous as he habitually was at all former times, he voluntarily returned the money which he had received to the chief priests, and in the anguish of his heart overcame for a season this ruining propensity. Beyond this, he was desirous to do justice to the character of Christ. 'I have sinned,' said he, in that I have betrayed the innocent blood.'

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6. It was followed by the voluntary infliction of great evils upon himself.

Beside the voluntary surrender of the money, which, if we may judge from what the attainment of it cost him, must have been given up with great difficulty, he went immediately away, and put a violent end to his own life: thus choosing to encounter the greatest evil which can be suffered in the present life, rather than endure the anguish of heart produced by the dreadful sin of which he had been guilty in betraying his Lord.

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From this melancholy fact it is clearly evident, that no voluntary penance furnishes the least proof that the repentance, which occasioned it was genuine. We may give all our goods to feed the poor,' nay, we may, ' give our bodies to be burned,' and yet it may profit us nothing,'

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From these observations it is unanswerably evident, that a false repentance may wear many appearances of the true, that it may in many respects be followed by the same or similar conduct; and that it may on the whole go very far in its resemblance; and still not be evangelical.

In other circumstances the false penitent may exhibit still farther such resemblances in his character. Thus Saul, when he pursued David to the cave of Engedi, and David, by cutting off the skirt of his robe while he slept, had proved to him that he had spared his life while it was in his power to have killed him, was strongly affected by a sense of David's superior righteousness and benevolence, and exhibited a deep conviction of his own inhumanity and injustice. Nor was he in a small degree grateful to David for preserving his life when so entirely in David's power. In the indulgence of this emotion he prayed, and so far as we can judge wished, for a blessing upon David. From this example it is evident that under clear and strong views of sin, persons may exercise a species of repentance in which all these emotions shall exist, together with all the conduct naturally springing from them, and yet their repentance may not be that of the Gospel.

In proportion as any counterfeit approximates towards that which it is designed to resemble, is the importance of the discrimination by which its real nature is to be distinguished. Since false repentance therefore can în so many particulars approach towards the true, it is indispensably necessary to

examine them both in such a manner as to acquire distinct apprehensions concerning their different natures. To complete this design, I now proceed

II. To examine the nature of true repentance.

Of this important evangelical subject it may be observed, that it includes,

1. Just views of sin.

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Fools,' or wicked men, make a mock of sin;' that is, they regard it as a thing destitute of any real importance; as a trifle, about which they have no reason to be seriously concerned; as an object of sport and diversion, rather than of solemn or even of sober thought. To these views of sin the convinced sinner, so long as his conviction continue, has bidden a final farewell. To his eye sin appear as a great and terrible evil, fraught with consequences of the most dreadful nature. But even his views are principally generated by an alarming sense of its dangerous consequences, rather than by any just emotions arising from its nature. The views formed by the penitent differ from both these. While he realizes all the apprehensions of the convinced sinner, he adds to them also a new and peculiar sense of the importance of sin, as an evil in itself. To him it appears as a great evil, primarily, as it respects God. The character of God is in his view so great and so good, and his commands are so reasonable, that obedience to him appears supremely excellent and desirable, and disobedience supremely undesirable and unworthy. Both are estimated by his eyes with a steady reference to the glorious character of the Creator, the excellence and importance of the law by which he governs the universe, the auspicious efficacy of obedience to it, and the malignant influence of disobedience on the character and happiness of intelligent beings. Wherever God is concerned, all regard to creatures must be secondary and comparatively unimportant. But when we consider the number of intelligent creatures, the dignified nature of their faculties, the importance of their actions in producing happiness or misery, and their capacity of enjoying happiness or suffering misery throughout eternity, their combined interests become an object to a created eye literally immense. The interest of one immortal mind, and the virtue of that mind living and operating throughout endless ages, severally

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