perception of its truth, either intuitively, or by a process of argument; or without any countenance from credible testimony. Such a gratuitous belief carried into human affairs would be accounted little better than insanity. What, for instance, should we think of a man, who, upon no probable grounds, should take up a persuasion, that a vast estate was bequeathed him, or that he was appointed to a station of high dignity in some distant country; and then should argue the reality of the fact, merely from his own wild presumption? We should at once deem him disqualified for all the intercourse of civil life. And how much wiser he would be, who should conclude himself a child of God, and an heir of heaven, upon the bare strength of his own opinion, without any ground from reason or scripture to support it, and especially without a strict regard to that great moral change which the gospel uniformly attributes to the heirs of its promises, deserves the most serious consideration of all those who are concerned in the inquiry. The faith of a sinner is, in the first instance, not to believe that he is a saint, but that he may be a saint; not that he is pardoned, or that he is saved, but that he may be pardoned, and that he may be saved; that a foundation is laid for his return to God through the mediation of Christ, who (in the language of our church*) hath made a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, and hath procured that divine aid which might enable us to participate in the blessings of this redemption; among which, repentance is one of primary importance. It is by repentance that we are admitted into Christ's spiritual kingdom. At * See the communion service.-The same is still more fully expressed in the 31st article: "The offering of Christ once made," (it is there said,) "is that perfect its commencement we hear a voice crying in the wilderness, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand; and the same proclamation introduced the ministry of our Saviour and his apostles. We may further argue its importance from its connection with remission of sins. Jesus is exalted, to give repentance and forgiveness of sins *; and in his name repentance and remission of sins were to be preached among all nations. Repent, says St. Peter, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out. And St. Paul is sent to the Gentiles, to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they might receive forgiveness of sins ||. Lastly, to express its importance, if possible, still more strongly, we are told that without it our ruin will be inevitable; Except ye repent, said the redemption, propitiation, and satisfaction, for all the sins of the whole world, both original and actual." * Acts, v. 31. + Luke, xxiv. 47. + Acts, iii. 19. compassionate Redeemer to the people of Jerusalem, ye shall all likewise perish*. And that this commination is generally applicable, may appear from that passage in St. Peter, where the Almighty is represented as not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance; which evidently implies that all men are naturally in a perishing condition, from which there is no escape but by repent ance. Of the nature of repentance I would only observe, (omitting what is more obvious) that it involves a supreme regard to our Maker as our highest Lord and chief good; for being immediately connected, as we have now seen, with remission of sins, and this with a state of divine favour and reconciliation, it must com * Luke, xiii. 3. In proof of this latter connection, the two following passages may be thought sufficient. Blessed is he (fays the Pfalmist) whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. (Psalm xxxii. 1.) And the Apostle Paul thus prehend whatever in the dispostion of the heart is essentially necessary to such a state. And since a supreme regard to God has before been shewn to be thus necessary, both according to the nature of things and the constitution of the gospel, it follows, that it must be included in the interior change of which we are speaking; and, I may add, constitutes one of its most eminent and distinguishing characters. The doctrine of repentance, as above stated, appears to me so agreeable to the best reason of our minds, so correspondent to the reality of our present state, and so solidly founded in scripture, that I conceive it impossible for any one born in a speaks to the Corinthians: All things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation: to wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses. (2 Cor. v. 18, 19.) In the former of these passages, we see that a state of blessedness, and in the latter a state of divine reconciliation or favour, is connected with the remission or non-imputation of sin. |