which diffuseth far and wide. Hence, we generally see, if a father be ignorant of religion, his children are ignorant of religion. You are a master, who cannot sin without emboldening your apprentices and workmen to sin, not without making your families schools of error, and your shops academies of the devil. Dreadful thoughts!

4. The weakness of motives to sin is the fourth cause of the sorrow of a penitent. What proportion is there between the motives to vice and motives to virtue. Motives to sin are innumerable and various, but what are they all, when he begins to consider them in their true point of view.

5. Uncertainty of his state. For although the mercy of God be infinite, and he never rejects those who sincerely repent, yet, it is certain, the sinner, in the first moment of his penitence, hath reason to doubt of his state, and till the evidences of his conversion become clear, there is almost as much probability of his destruction as of his salvation. Terrible uncertainty!

The gospel says plainly enough, "If any man sin, there is an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ;" but the same gospel declares, as plainly, that "it is impossible for those, who were once enlightened, if they fall away, to renew them again unto repentance." (Heb. vi. 4. 6.) I see indeed, in the New Testament, a Peter who repented and was pardoned, after he had denied his Saviour; but the same book shows me also a Judas, who died in despair. Have I committed only pardonable offences, or have I been guilty of those crimes, for which there is no forgiveness. Are the riches of the goodness and forbearance of God yet open to me, or are they closed against me? Am I a real penitent, or am I only an apparent one? shall I be damned? shall ĺ be saved? Perhaps the one, perhaps the other; perhaps heaven, perhaps hell. O fatal uncertainty! dreadful horror! cruel doubt! This is the fifth arrow of the Almighty, that wounds the heart of a repenting sinner.

6. Perhaps hell. This is my sixth reflection. Hell is an idea, against which there is no philosophy to comfort, no profaneness to protect, no brutality to harden. Who can support the idea of the torments of hell, especially when their duration is added; yet this is the, idea that strikes a penitent; he condemns himself to suffer this punishment, he places himself on the edge of this gulf.

7. The last arrow that woundeth the heart of a penitent is an arrow of divine love. To have offended a God whom he loves, a God, whom so many excellences render lovely, a God whom he longs again to love. These thoughts excite such sorrow in the soul, as nothing but experience can give men to understand.

II. St. Paul speaks of the effects of godly sorrow only in general terms in our text; he says, "It worketh repentance to salvation:" but in the following verse he speaks more particularly, "Behold this self-same thing."

The first effect of godly sorrow is what our apostle calls carefulness; or as I would rather read it, vigilance. I understand, by this term, the disposition of a man, who, feeling a sincere sorrow for his sins, and being actually under the afflicting hand of God, is not content with a few general notions, and a little vague knowledge of his own irregu larities; but uses all his efforts to examine every circumstance of his life, and to dive into the least obvious parts of his own conscience, in order to discover whatever is offensive to that God whose favour he most earnestly implores. God has taken away my fortune, but perhaps I abused it; perhaps it excited my pride. God took away my child, the whole comfort of my life; but probably he saw I made an idol of it. God sent a sickness; but perhaps health was a snare to me. "What clearing of yourselves," adds St. Paul. The Greek word signifies apology, and it will be best understood by joining the following expression with it, "yea, what indignation." In the sorrow of the world, apology and indignation are usually companions: indignation against him who represents the atrocity of a sin, and apology for him who commits it. Now change the objects of indignation and apology, and you will have a just notion of the dispositions of the Corinthians, and of the effects which godly sorrow produces. Let your apology have for its object that ministry which you have treated so unworthily; let your indignation turn against yourselves, and then you will have a right to pretend to the prerogatives of true repentance. The apostle adds, "yea, what fear." By fear, in this place, we understand that self-diffidence which an idea of the sins we have committed ought naturally to inspire. In this sense St. Paul says to the Romans, "be not high-minded, but fear," (xi. 20.)

Fear, that is to say, distrust thyself. I do not mean a bare speculative diffidence, that persuades the mind: I understand a practical fear, which penetrates the heart, inspires us with salutary cautions against the repetition of such sins as we are most inclined to commit.

In the fifth place, "what vehement desire." This is another vague term. Godly sorrow produceth divers kinds of desires. Here I confine it to one meaning; it signifies, I think, a desire of participating the favour of God. "I will arise, and go to my Father. Cast me not away from thy presence." Ps. li. 11, 12.

Finally. Zeal is the sixth effect of godly sorrow; and it may have three sorts of objects, God, our neighbours, and ourselves.

III. The blessings with which it, is accompanied : repentance produceth godly sorrow, not to be repented of." This is one of those turns of expression, by which, while a subject seems to be diminished, the highest ideas are given of it. "Godly sorrow worketh repentance," that is to say, it is always a full source of consolation, joy, &c. Godly sorrow reconciles us to three enemies, who, while we live in sin, attack us with implacable rage.

1. The first enemy who attacks us while we live in sin, is the justice of God. There can be no other relation be tween God and an obstinate sinner, than that which subsists between judge and criminal. "God is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity." (Hab. i, 13.) Godly sorrow reconciles us to Divine justice. This is, perhaps, of all propositions the least disputable, the most clear, and the most demonstrable. Consult your own reason, it will inform you, "God is good;" it will prove, by all the ob jects that surround you, that it is not possible for God to refuse mercy to a penitent. To reason add authority, and it will appear, that all mankind profess to be guilty of sin, and to adore a God of pardoning mercy. To reason and authority, add revelation. But how is it possible for me, at present, even to hint, all the comfortable testimonies of revelation on this article. Revelation gives you ideas of the mercies of God, the most tender, the most affecting, the most sublime; it speaks of bowels troubled, repentings kindled together, at the sound of a penitent's plaintive voice. (Jer. xxxi. 20; Hos. xi. 8.) Revelation

speaks of oaths uttered by God himself, whose bare word is evident enough. "As I live, saith the Lord." (Ezek. Xxxiii. 11.) St. Paul tells us, "Because God could swear by no greater, he sware by himself." (Heb. vi. 13.) "As I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked." Revelation opens to you these fountains of life, which were opened to the house of David. (Zech. xiii. 1.) Consult experience, and it will show you a cloud where repentance was accepted. Witness, many a time, the whole people of Israel, witness Moses, witness David, witness Hezekiah, witness Manasseh, witness Nebuchadnezzar, witness Ninevah, witness that prostitute which wept in Simon's house, witness the poor publican, witness the thief.

2. As godly sorrow reconciles us to Divine justice, so it reconciles us to our own conscience. We sometimes lull conscience into a deep sleep; but it is very difficult to keep it from starting and waking. Wo be to them who throw it into a deep sleep, to wake no more. But how dreadful when it awakes! does it arise from its sleep? What blows does it strike! what wounds does it make! When it says to a sinner, miserable wretch! "My punishment is greater than I can bear; mountains cover me; hills fall upon me." Gen. iv. 13; Hos. x. 8. 3. In fine, godly sorrow reconciles us to death. While we live without repentance," the sting of death is sin," (1 Cor. xv. 56,) and sin has no sting for a penitent. Death appears, to the repenting sinner, as a messenger of grace, sent to conduct him to a merciful God, and to open to him ineffable felicity, flowing from boundless mercy. Ah! my brethren, would to God it were as easy to prove, that you bear the marks of true repentance, as it is to display its prerogatives. But, alas! I dare not even move this question: and yet, what wait you around the pulpit for, why came you to hear this sermon? Tell me in what period of your lives were you in possession of all those characters of godly sorrow: was it in your closet, was it in company, was it at the table of Jesus Christ? Perhaps we may repent when we are dying. What a forced submission! Let each of us close this solemnity, by saying, "Thou art my portion, O Lord." Ps. cxix.

MINISTRATION OF ANGELS.

Are they not all ministering spirits ?—Heb i. 14.

We are certain, from the scriptures of truth, that there are holy angels. But, if we inquire what is their exact number, their distinct orders, their different degrees, when created, and how far they agree with, differ from, or in what particular qualities they excel the souls of men ; these, and many other such unnecessary questions, neither reason nor revelation say any thing about; and therefore it is impossible to answer them. (Col. ii. 18,) "Let no man beguile you of your reward."

I. What may be learned of this subject from scripture. 1. The text tells us, that to minister for our good, is a part of the ordinary employment to which they are appointed.

2. This is not the work of one angel only, but "they are all sent forth to minister." Ps. xxxiv. 7; Heb. i. 14. 3. They have had distinct employments assigned them on different occasions, as the honour of God and necessities of his church required. Luke i. 13; Acts x. 17; xii. 8, 9; Dan. iii. 28.

4. In this office they are servants of Jesus Christ, as the great Head of the church. "He took upon himself the form of a servant;" yet we may always discover a very striking difference between him and them. He came voluntarily; they, from the state and condition of their creation, must act according to his appointment. (Col. i. 15, 16.) He ministered only for a little time, during his abode among us; they, from the beginning to the end of the world. He was sent on the great and mighty work of mediation, which none was worthy to undertake, none able to effect, but himself; they are employed about the ordinary concerns of the saints. He, as the Son of God, "whose throne is for ever and ever;" they, as our fellow servants, worship him with us. (Rom. v. 11, 12; Eph. i. 20-22.) He, as the sole author of our eternal salvation; they, as subordinate assistants in the particular promotion of it.