Imagens das páginas
PDF
ePub

of that sphere of duty in which we are directed

to move.

When, therefore, we consider the divine motives in the appointment of our religious conduct, we must unavoidably conclude that a moral and practical, not a ceremonial or formal worship, must be what he requires from us.

Hence it must well become us to reflect, that sincerity in our resolutions of amend ment must be the essential, and, indeed, the only acceptable part of repentance. Unless we are serious in the design of reformation, a few transitory sighs or tears will by no means avail us-will never atone for our past offences, and much less entitle us to any future indulgence. How replete with folly, moreover, must such a conduct be for what is it else but to dissemble with infinite knowledge, while we solicit Heaven for a while to spare the interposing rod, that we may have respite and convenience for the repetition of our crimes!

Man, though a short-sighted creature, is frequently guilty of an act of involuntary impiety, and is apt to measure the capacity and conduct of his Creator by his own. He forgets, while he is offering him this format worship, that he searcheth the heart, and

knoweth our thoughts long before. Blind, and foolish, and unthinking as he is, he is even less circumspect in his conduct towards the Almighty, than in his transactions with his fellow-creatures: never would he hope from these any favour or indulgence, while he scrupled not to do every thing that was injurious or disagreeable to them. To expect favour from an object which he voluntarily offends, is an insult which man only practises on his God.

But is it then in vain he is told that the hopes of the hypocrite shall perish? Is it in vain he is summoned from his dream of mistaken security by that voice, which calls him to arise from dead works?

But let him, nevertheless, be told, that tổ make a form of reconciliation with God, without a design never more to offend him; to lift up our hands towards him, before they are washed in innocency; and to pray for assisting grace, without taking one step for reformation; is nothing else but to mock the presence of the Almighty, and to deride the counsels of the Most High.

The villain who deceives under the sanctity of friendship the vicious servant, who, by the professions of officious honesty, secures to himself his master's favour, that he may

се

enjoy longer and more easy opportunities of committing his depredations, have, in human consideration, something of the same guilt with these unreforming penitents—if to call them penitents be not an abuse of the term; for repentance necessarily implies conversion, and without it is nothing.

Sorrow and contrition and humiliation by no means effect the main business. If the heart is not made better; if the springs of action and the principles of conduct are not influenced; if our lives are not rectified, nor our inclinations changed; sorrow and contrition and humiliation, whether real or affected, are equally vain.

A sudden emotion, a transitory impulse, a constitutional turn of passion, may fill the breast of vice with an involuntary sigh, and force from the eye of wantonness an unmeaning tear.

The solemn form of humiliating severity may be put on by the hypocrite of every denomination; but the firm resolution of amendment, the sincere regret for past offences, and the heartfelt acknowledgment of guilt and frailty, are the distinguishing characteristics of the true penitent. He knows that the resolutions of future piety must be the only acceptable sacrifice he can make for

[ocr errors]

those errors in his conduct of which he is now ashamed, and, through the merits of the Divine mediation, the only means of a reconciliation with that offended Power, whose laws he has broken. He will studiously endeavour to fortify his heart against the future insinuations of vice, and avoid, with industry, every occurrence and invitation that might again engage him in the service of sin. Conscious of the weakness of his moral powers, and convinced, by lamented experience, of the natural depravity of the human heart, he will not place his last confidence in himself, but will apply to that gracious Being for protection and assistance, who has promised his supporting grace to every faithful prayer.

Like the penitent here described, let every one who undertakes the great business of repentance regulate his conduct and direct his heart.

Let him who humbles himself, and lifts up his hands towards God, form, in the mean time, these determinations of obedience; for well may he be assured that, without them, his professions of sorrow and humiliation will be as impious as they are impertinent, as odious as they are vain. His petitions for the divine indulgence and forgiveness, without concurring resolutions of moral reformation,

shall rise up against him as so many dreadful testimonies of his audacious hypocrisy, and abandoned guilt.

But are these arguments, you will say, at all necessary? Is it not universally obvious, and as universally allowed, that no repentance can be acceptable to God except that which brings an actual reformation of manners along with it? It is indeed universally obvious, and, I hope, universally allowed; but nevertheless the general conduct of mankind convinces us, that arguments on this subject are, by no means, superfluous.

Let every man appeal to his own heart, and ask himself whether he has not, some time or other, made a form of ineffectual repentance-whether he has not, during the transitory prevalence of a pious disposition, implored the forgiveness of heaven with feeble and unconfirmed resolutions of future virtue; resolutions that have been quickly overborne by the influence of the world, and have yielded to the first attacks of temptation! Yet if there are few who have thus vainly repented in private, who is there that, in the forms of public worship, has not joined in the general confession of sin? who has not thus publicly acknowledged his transgres-. sions? has not prayed that he might hereafter

« AnteriorContinuar »