the import and value of the Gospel. Mere reading of the Word of God will never effect it-mere reasoning upon the Word will never do it-mere preaching will never accomplish it-else had the Lord's Ministry been more efficient-else had the Lord's Ambassadors been more successful-else had it never been stated, when recording the result of their preaching upon a certain occasion, that "as many as were ordained unto eternal life believed" (Acts, xiii. 48); nor again had it been written "unto you it is given (ɛxapısðn) in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake" (Phil. i. 29).

But with the secret purposes of Jehovah we have not here to do. Who they are whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life, and whose are not, is not declared to us. The ministry of the Apostles, who authoritatively declared the Lord's message to sinners, is to be our guide as to what we must deliver; and the wretchedness of our race supplies us with ample materials to work upon. Independently then of the hidden designs of God-designs wisely hidden from man-we are to deal with men as rational creatures: independently of the primary source of their apostacy, we are to persuade them as estranged from God; we are to "set forth Jesus Christ evidently crucified before them" (Gal. iii. 1); we are to bring forward the truth as testified by those "whose eyes saw, and ears heard, and hands handled, of the Word of Life" (1 John, i. 1); but nevertheless, Paul might preach, and often did preach in vain; Apollos might,

and doubtless did water in vain; God alone gives the increase (1 Cor. iii. 6): without Christ, neither can Apostles or any other order of Disciples testify to any saving effect, nor can their auditors be profited. Does not experience daily furnish us with a most melancholy, yet convincing and satisfactory comment upon the Scripture statement connected with this subject. Have the wise, and the learned, and the men of intellectual habits been invariably enabled, by the efforts of their genius to persuade their minds respecting the truth, that the Son of God, having become man, "by the sacrifice of Himself, hath put away sin?" (Heb. ix. 26). No-but we find the wise-such of them as are untaught by the Spirit of God-not only among the several denominations of Infidels, but among the professors of Orthodoxy, rejecting the simple testimony of God-closing their eyes against the glory of the Gospel-discovering the darkness of their understanding, and the blindness of their mind, and manifesting their native enmity against God by unbelief.

It may be asked, whence arises this incapacity to believe? Now, without adverting to the stability and certainty of Jehovah's purposes, which, as respects individuals, is confined to his own eternal mind-without insisting on the Scriptural axiom-" All whom the Father hath given me shall come to me" (John, vi. 37): or the promise-"All thy children shall be taught of the Lord" (Isai. liv. 13); without urging the statement - "my sheep hear my voice" (John, x. 27); without alluding moreover to the

alienation of mind derived by inheritance from Adam ; we shall find an answer to this enquiry, such as comes under our immediate cognizance; and we can assign from the word of God a moral reason for this disrelish toward the truth, and this inability to believe it—and this is all that is necessary in reasoning on the subject. Our Lord, indeed, addressing the obstinate Jews, accounts for their unbelief, by referring to the secret of the everlasting covenant-" Ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep" (John, x. 26). And again, "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me, draw him" (John, vi. 44). But, upon another occasion, he addresses their experience, and assigns the moral cause of their incredulity, declaring,

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ye will not come to me that ye might have life" (John, v. 40). Yes, friends, when stating man's natural inability, let it be well understood, that it is not because he wants a moral capacity, but a will, that he discredits the Gospel; it is just because there is a natural disinclination towards what it states, from its opposition to the prejudices and the passions of the mind, that it is rejected. "Men love darkness rather than light"-why? because their deeds are evil" (John, iii. 19). Would the objector to the truth, the rejector of the Gospel be candid, (and there is a time coming, when candour will form a feature in every man's character) he would admit that there is a shrinking of his soul from the Testimony of God, because it will not suffer him to make the least addition to the work of Christ, in order to his acceptance with God;

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because it puts him on a level with the most wretched outcast of society, in the matter of justification; and leaves the amiable, and the religious, nothing more to boast of for the purpose of salvation, than the most profligate and profane. "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor. ii, 14).

One will say, "admit this particular-yet a man can repent, and thus qualify himself for the impartation of faith.' But the next link in the chain of subjects which I am desirous to bring before you, denies this position, and the Scriptures teach us, that

An unregenerate man cannot, without. Christ repent.

True, such a person may reform; be may abandon that which is disgraceful in the eyes of the world, and injurious to his own character, or property, or health -the profligate, by the mere exercise of his judgment may be satisfied of the detriment which his evil habits entail, and magnanimously determine to forsake them, and be successful. The outward expression of ungodliness may be restrained or altered, but the state of mind as it respects God and his revealed will, is unalterable by any energy of the creature. Now let me remark that Repentance, in the book of God, has reference to the state of the mind, and simply means the change which is produced upon it, by the persuasion of the Gospel. If I were to ask the question of many, (might I not say, of most?) who profess the religion

of the New Testament, and to record their answer as to the import of repentance, would it not be defined as "a sorrowing for sin," a "hatred of sin," and "a resolution to forsake sin?" and were I to be guided by the word of truth, and to pass a judgment upon such a definition, it would be most solemnly to deny that repentance (μɛtavola) means any such thing.

In the Bible, this term is used to mark that change of mind which takes place as soon as the things concerning the finished work of Jehovah Jesus, are believed to be true. It is not prior to believing the Gospel, nor is it in any way preparatory thereto-it is not a state or habit of mind unto which the sinner must attain as a qualification for believing the glad tidings; but it is that astonishing revolution in his estimate of God-of sin—of the source of real felicity-of this world-and of the world to come, which arises from an intelligent perception of the truth that "Christ died for the ungodly" (Rom. v. 6.)

Accordingly we find our Lord, in His commission to the Apostles to bear witness to all things written concerning his sufferings and resurrection, commanding that "repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name" (Luke xxiv. 47). Not repentance, as a doctrine distinct from, and independent of the remission of sins which is preached through Him; but his words teach us that the very same announcement, in which is unfolded the sovereign love of God for the forgiveness of sins by the obedience unto death of Jesus, shall effect, together with the remission of