cold and languid performances of an ever feeble devotion, certain vague projects of future repentance, rather than hearty resolutions and sincere endeavours.-Ah! what in common have these empty seemings, this sickly glow of devotion, these dreary shadows of piety, with what Scripture tells us, of an efficacious repentance, when she represents it as the deliverance from a state of death, as the passing from the power of Satan to God, as a resurrection, as a being born again? Oh, then, I implore you once more to ask yourselves, while yet there is time, with earnest solicitude, whether you would be led by the various cares, the various honours, the many delights of a world, which, after all, is but "a fashion that passeth away," should it be found, at the last day, that you are not of Christ's flock, that " your heart is not right in the sight of God," that you are yet in the bond of iniquity," and that, to speak the language of Scripture, you have "neither part nor lot, in this matter?" SERMON IV. LUKE xiii. 1-5. There were present at that season some that told him of the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. WHAT IS REPENTANCE? A complete answer to this important question would, doubtless, lead us far beyond the limits which we must at present prescribe to ourselves. Without proposing, therefore, to explain to you the nature and various marks of a genuine repentance, we shall content ourselves with submitting to you a series of such questions, respecting its leading features, as will enable you of yourselves, if you are sincerely disposed, to know the condition of your souls before God. Previously, however, to addressing them to you, it is necessary that you be here put in mind of a leading principle, which too many persons among us forget or overlook; which is, that, although, doubtless, the real children of God are to be known by their fruits, repentance is not properly an outward work. It is the heart which God regards; it is the heart which must change. And as the most indulgent parent would reject with disgust the most officious respect and assiduous attentions of his child, if he knew that that child, weary of his presence, and entertaining no affection for him, served him merely from the slavish fear of incurring correction, or in order to secure a more considerable portion of the paternal inheritance; much more would God, who claims our undivided love, who searcheth the reins and |