to desire it justly. Nor is there any danger of his setting an excessive or disproportionate value upon his own true, spiritual and eternal happiness? The general fault of mankind is that they do not desire their own real good, do not seek their own salvation, as they ought. The thoughtless and impenitent do not desire and seek it at all. But if while we earnestly desire and seek our own real good, we have a heart sincerely to desire and seek the good of others; this is Christian virtue. This is obedience to the divine. precept," thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." Love thyself with a just and holy love; and love thy neighbor in like manner. Let thy love to thyself, if that love is right, be the pattern of thy love to others.

It is however manifest, that the command to love our fellow creatures as ourselves does by no means require, that we should give the same degree of attention to their interests, temporal or eternal, as to our own. By the ordering of God's providence, as well as by the authority of his word, our own interests are committed specially to our care; not because they are in reality more important, or should be regarded by us as more important, than the interests of others; but because, in this way, both our own interests, and those of others, can be best promoted. With our limited capacities, we can give attention to only a few things at the same time, and can never give attention to more than a very small part of the interests of the intelligent creation. And if, because we love our fellow creatures as ourselves, we should undertake to bestow the same care and labor upon their concerns, as upon our own, we should fail in regard to both, and should really be guilty of an officious and unlawful meddling with what belongs appropriately to others. Neither the divine law nor divine providence involves us in any such mistake or difficulty as this. The law does indeed require a cordial, impartial, and enlarged affection to our fellow men, and persevering endeavors to do them good. But the same law requires us, first of all, to look well to our own souls and to take care of our own welfare, to repent, to believe and obey for ourselves, a work which no one can do And here we see the wisdom, the harmony, the goodness

for us.

of the divine economy. For it is clear that this special attention to our own welfare will contribute most to the amount of that general welfare which we are required to seek, and which it is the object of the divine benevolence to secure. We thus arrive at the pleasing conclusion, that the most expansive general benevolence not only consists with private, individual good, but certainly promotes it; and that it not only consists with our private, individual duties, but directly and certainly leads us to discharge them with the utmost diligence and fidelity.

LECTURE XCII.

THE NATURE OF REPENTANCE.

IMPORTANCE OF THE DUTY.

THAT moral excellence or holiness, which results from the renovating influence of the Spirit in the heart, and which we have dwelt upon in previous Lectures, is one simple principle. It has a real, spiritual unity. But it is developed in all the particular virtues and graces of the Christian character. These are all branches of holiness. How multiplied soever they may be, and how plainly soever they may be distinguishable from each other, they all have the same nature; they come from the same source; and they are only the proper development of the same general principle, the same right affection in the renewed heart.

It might be well for us to go into a full consideration of each of these branches of Christian virtue. But we shall confine our attention particularly to two principal ones, namely, repentance and faith.

In the common version of the Scriptures, the two Greek words, μετανοέω and μεταμέλομαι, are both translated, to repent. But it is evident, as Dr. Campbell and others have shown, that these words, in their current use in the New Testament, have very different senses. The first signifies a change of mind, a change of one's views, affections and conduct in regard to the things of religion. It denotes a turning from sin to holiness. In Acts 8: 22, this idea of turning from sin seems in the original to be directly indicated. "Repent of this thy wickedness," anò, literally, from this thy wickedness, that is, penitently turn from

it. This I apprehend to be the real import of the word, μɛravoέw, whenever it is used to point out the duty required of the sinner. And so it denotes the same as is denoted in the various passages, which speak of sinners as turning from their wicked ways, ceasing to do evil and learning to do well, etc.

The other word, perauehouai, generally denotes an anxious, painful feeling, which arises in the mind in view of transgression -a distressing sense of guilt-the acting of conscience reproaching the sinner for having committed wickedness, and pointing him to a future retribution. It is the feeling of remorse; and it was strikingly exemplified in the case of Judas, who repented of his treachery, that is, had a painful sense of remorse, and then, instead of turning from his ungrateful and wicked conduct, filled up the measure of his guilt by committing the heinous sin of self

murder.

One who has true, saving repentance, sees the evil of sinsees it truly, though not perfectly. He has not a clear view of every sin which he has committed, nor of all the evil which belongs to any one sin. But his eyes are opened, at least opening; and he beholds, or rather begins to behold, the hatefulness and malignity of sin. In his view, sin is, as the Apostle expresses it, exceedingly sinful, and deserves to be abhorred by all rational beings. His eye is chiefly fixed, not upon the punishment of sin, dreadful as he considers it to be, but upon its own vile and odious nature. If at any time he does not think of the punishment threatened, or if he hopes to be saved from it, he still sees sin to be altogether criminal and vile, hateful and ill-deserving; and all its criminality and vileness and hatefulness and ill-desert he ascribes to himself. It is he that is the criminal. He is convinced that there is nothing on earth or in hell worse than to be a sinner. Instead of excusing himself, or in any way palliating his guilt, he is ashamed and confounded before God, and abhors himself, saying, with Job, "behold I am vile."

Without a conviction of the real, intrinsic evil of sin, no one truly repents. A person will hardly give up and avoid that which is desirable and lovely in his view. Or if for any reason he gives

1

it up in his visible conduct, he will not give it up in the affections of his heart; and his giving it up visibly will be contrary to his inclinations, and from an unwelcome necessity. His change is external, and reaches not the predominant state of his mind.

The penitent sinner has some true knowledge of God. His repentance is " repentance towards God." His relation to God is far more important than any of the relations he sustains to other beings. And he can never adequately conceive how inexcusable and ill-deserving he is, unless he considers himself as standing in this highest of all relations. He who repents, sees God to be infinitely excellent; and the idea of his having sinned against so good and so glorious a Being does at times so engross his attention, that he can scarcely think of anything else; and he says, with penitent David," Against thee, thee only have I sinned, and done evil in thy sight." And it is this view of his sins, not exclusively of other views, but more than any other, which lays him low in self-abasement, and produces a conviction in his inmost soul, that his condemnation would be just. Now this state of mind directly involves what is appropriately called repentance, that is, turning from sin. For how can a man continue to sin against a Being who in his view possesses infinite goodness as well as infinite power, who is altogether lovely, and whom he has already begun to love with all his heart? As he entertains some right apprehensions of the glorious character of God, he is of course sensible of the reasonableness and goodness of the moral law. For nothing can be more evident, than that the justice or equity of the law which calls for the supreme love of rational creatures, depends primarily on the character of him who is set before them as the object of love. If then God is such a Being, as the Scriptures represent him to be, he is worthy of all the love, the worship and the obedience which his law demands. Hence follows the great evil of transgression, and the justice of the punishment threatened. We are by no means able to comprehend the whole demerit of sin; but if we have the Holy Spirit to enlighten and sanctify us, we shall tremblingly and submissively acknowledge, that God is righteous both in giving the law and in