It is of no small importance to entertain clear views of the character of those confessions which indicate true Repentance.

They are comprehensive, entire, and unreserved. The heart is laid open. The conscience seeks relief from its burden, by an acknowledgment of all that has been evil, with all its peculiar aggravations. There is an end of all dissimulation, all concealment, all reserve. There is a conviction, that were any single sin intentionally passed over, because still indulged, it would vitiate the whole acknowledgment, and nullify the entire act of confession.

They are minute and particular. General confessions will not satisfy the convictions and lamentations of a contrite heart. That which once appeared too trivial to be attentively regarded, and too venial to be severely censured, is now viewed under an aspect of turpitude, which may well call forth the grief of the soul and the confession of the lips. If the minuter acknowledgments belong not to the hour of so

cial prayer; they will, at least, give a character to the exercise of retired devotion. They will bear some resemblance to the particular and detailed confessions of Nehemiah, and David, and Daniel; and, like theirs, they will be the effusions of a prostrate spirit, in deepest self-abasement.

Genuine confessions will extend to the evil of

our nature, as well as to the evil of our lives. Sinful actions being traced to evil inclinations, of which the heart is the seat, there will be the most humbling confessions of the entire depravity and awful corruption of our nature. The polluted streams will be traced to the polluted fountain. Instead of any disposition to boast that there is, notwithstanding appearances to the contrary, real goodness of heart, there will be such a detection of its impurity, as will extort the most explicit and the most lamenting acknowledgment of its sinfulness. The declaration of Jehovah will not be deemed too humiliating to become the confession of the sinner "that the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked."

Confessions such as these are not only required by the God whom we have offended, but are obviously and unquestionably due to the glory of his holy name. "Give glory to God," said Joshua to Achan," and make confession to him." If, then, there was a requirement of confession, even without any promise of forgiveness, how much more powerful is the inducement to penitential acknowledgment under the hope of pardon! If confession be due to the justice which condemns us, how obviously is it due to the patience which has tolerated us, and to the mercy which encourages our hopes of the remission

of our numberless iniquities! Let us then take the station which belongs to us, and adopt the language which correctly describes us, and place ourselves in the attitude, in which alone we can expect to receive favours from Him against whom we have ungratefully rebelled. Thus will the confessions of our lips give still greater intensity to the emotions of our hearts; and at the throne of Him who delighteth in mercy, we shall feel more deeply than ever, that unto us there must of necessity belong shame and confusion of face!

There belongs to the Repentance required of the sinner,

Fifthly, CONVERSION, or that entire change of character which is indicated by a correspondent change of conduct.

By Conversion is to be understood an entire turning from sin to God, with determined and unhesitating decision. This might, in strict accuracy, be distinguished from Repentance; but it is distinguishable only, as an inseparable concomitant, or an immediate result. It is subsequent in the order of nature, but separated, by no perceptible interval, in the order of time. In the language of the Assembly's Catechism, it is included in the nature of Repentance. In that form of sound words, Repentance is defined"a saving grace, whereby a sinner, out of a true sense of his sins, and apprehension of the mercy

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of God in Christ, doth, with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from it unto God, with full purpose of, and endeavours after, new obedience." As sin is the turning of the soul from God, so conversion is the returning of the soul to God; and without this it is certain, that there can be no true Repentance. "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon."-" I have sent thee," said the Saviour to his servant Paul," to open men's eyes and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God:" and the Apostle himself, in explaining to Agrippa the object of his ministry, declared it to be" that the Gentiles might repent and turn to God, and do works meet for Repentance." The sorrow for sin which enters into contrition will excite the hatred of sin which will be displayed by conversion. Let sin be truly hated, and it will then be resolutely abandoned, and habitually dreaded. For offences committed against our fellow-creatures, there will be the desire and the endeavour to make restitution, whenever this appears practicable. If any have been injured in their property, or in their reputation, or in their principles, or in any of their interests, there will be a determination, to the very utmost, to repair the

injury, or to counteract the evil, whatever sacrifice it may require, whatever degree of self-denial it may exact. With regard to the blessed God, against whom, indeed, all our transgressions have been committed, the repenting sinner will feel, that no compensation can be attempted; but that immense as is the debt he has contracted by his omissions and offences, he has absolutely nothing to pay. He finds himself entirely without resources and without a plea, till hope dawns upon his contrite spirit from the substitution of the sinner's Surety, and the sinner's Saviour. But from a believing and admiring view of that very substitution of the "just for the unjust," instead of gathering encouragement to the indulgence of sin, he derives his most stimulating incentives to the practice of holiness. The love of Christ is now the grand impulse he obeys; and that love constrains him to live no longer to himself, adding iniquity to iniquity, "but to him who died for him and rose again,"-" that being made free from sin, and become a servant to God, he might have his fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life."

The subject on which our thoughts have been now employed, has required us to be chiefly occupied with explanation and discussion. It is not, however, to be dismissed, without a serious and affectionate appeal to those heart-awakening