their hardness and impenitent heart, treasure up unto themselves wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God!" There is nothing of which you may be more solemnly assured, that that God "waits that he may be gracious." His tenderness never speaks out more truly than when he says, "How shall I give thee up, Ephraim! how shall I deliver thee, Israel! How shall I make thee as Admah! how shall I set thee as Zeboim! Mine heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together!" But if you pervert this divine clemency to presumption, and abuse the goodness which thus prolongs your day of grace to impenitence and sin; better had it been for you not to have lived out half your days. God will destroy you, but not until the measure of your iniquity is full. Woe,-woe betide the man on whom the vials of his wrath will be poured out, because he thus hardens himself against God, and bids defiance to the fears and hopes of eternity! And "what wilt thou say when he shall punish thee?" The universe will have visible evidence that such a man deserves the woes he feels.

SERMON XXIV.

TRUE AND FALSE REPENTANCE.

PSALM li. 3. For I acknowledge my transgression, and my sin is ever before me.

And

MATTHEW Xxvii. 3. Then Judas which 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.

I HAVE thrown these two passages together, because, thus considered, they furnish a clear exemplification, both of a true and false repentance. When Peter, on the day of Pentecost, exhorted the multitude of the Jews to forsake their errors and sins, and turn to God, he gave them this summary direction: "Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ." When our Lord himself would declare, in the briefest manner, the revealed condition of eternal life, he told the people who heard him, "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." His forerunner also, "came preaching the baptism of repentance, saying, Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." In the Old Testament, also, we find the same comprehensive injunction; for the prophet thus exhorts ancient Israel : Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin." Thus, when the ministers of the everlasting Gospel, under either dispensation, have fulfilled their commission, "they

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have gone forth everywhere preaching that men should repent."

A duty so solemnly and frequently enjoined, deserves our serious attention, and we are interested to know in what it consists. It is implicitly recognized as a compend of the Christian graces, while the joys of heaven, and the sorrows of hell, are suspended upon the performance or neglect of it.

Yet all repentance is not true repentance. An apostle declares, that "godly sorrow worketh repentance not to be repented of; but the sorrow of the world worketh death." There is, therefore, a repentance that needs to be repented of, and which is not unto salvation. Instances of both these we may expect to find in our acquaintance with men, and especially in Scripture history. Accordingly, we are furnished with specimens of both in the word of God. We shall occupy ourselves, in this discourse, in placing two of these side by side, and as we proceed with the comparison, we may hope to discern and fix in our minds some characteristics of evangelical repentance, that shall distinguish it from all counterfeit and spurious similitudes. The instances selected are those of David and Judas, both of which are strongly marked, and in our exposition of which, we place ourselves under the guidance of an infallible interpreter of the actions, and expositor of the spirits of men. We propose to show wherein their repentance was alike, and wherein it differed.

I. We shall show wherein the repentance of David and Judas was alike.

It appeared alike, and was alike in many particulars. 1. In the first place, we remark that both Dávid and

Judas were sorry for their sin. They both indulged sincere grief on account of their iniquity. They had deep impressions of its turpitude and heinousness; they saw its evil consequences to themselves and others, and truly regretted what they had done. Though the sorrow of the one was godly sorrow, and that of the other the sorrow which worketh death; yet they were both sorry. In view of their base conduct, the emotions of both, though from causes radically and essentially diverse, were, in their outward expression, alike. No one who reads David's penitent acknowledgment of his sin in the 51st Psalm, can doubt the sincerity or depth of his regret; and as little question can exist in the other case, since the inspired historian declares, "Then Judas, which betrayed Christ, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself." Nor is this mere form of expression all. His convictions of his sin, and his grief, were so intense and overwhelming, that he preferred death by his own hand, with all its attendant horrors, and all its fearful issues, to the sorrow and agony which consumed him. He could not live in such distress; and if this be not evidence of the reality and depth of his grief, then we know not where to look in any case, for proof of this frame of mind.

2. In the second place, both David and Judas confessed their sin. Hear the Psalmist: "I acknowledge my transgression, and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight; that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and clear when thou judgest." He prays to be delivered from. "blood guiltiness," and professes to offer the sacrifice of a "broken and contrite heart.” Equally explicit is the confession of Judas. "I have

sinned, in that I have betrayed the innocent blood." Many a sinner is so thoughtless and unconcerned, as rarely to admit the conviction of his guilt; and multitudes, who are convinced of it, satisfy themselves with the acknowledgment of their offences to God only. But these offenders confessed their sins to men. David did to Nathan, and to God's Israel; and left his confession on the public records of his nation, for the benefit of the church, and the instruction of men in every age. And we have seen how public and open was the acknowledgment of Judas. In both cases, there was a frankness of confession that puts those who make it above the suspicion of artifice, or concealment. They seek for no extenuation of their guilt. They hide no circumstance that exhibits its aggravation. All is open and candid, like the plain dealing of men who felt the stings of conscience, and were willing to be confounded before God and man.

3. In the third place, both David and Judas endeavored to make some recompense for the wrong they had done. After the shameful fall of the King of Israel, and his acknowledgment to Nathan of his transgression, he renounced his guilty course of conduct, and repaired the injury as far as was in his power. He raised the deluded partner of his crime to the highest rank in his kingdom, and Solomon, her son, became, by the express appointment of the king, the heir of his possessions and crown.

Scarcely less explicit is the proof that Judas was actuated by a desire to make some recompense for the wrong of which he had been the guilty perpetrator. When he saw that Christ was actually condemned, he was seized with consternation, and hastened to the