they omitted actions which were right and their bounden duty, by which they might have advanced the glory of God, the good of their neighbor, and the salvation of their souls? I know that the sins of this description have neither ruined nor indeed suspended the rights which their Christian adop. tion has given them. I know that God has not on account of these, refused to regard them still with his love. But is that a reason which should discharge them from the necessity of a sincere and lively grief? Though these may not be as great sins as others into which the wicked fall so habitually, yet they still are sins, and are consequently proper subjects of grief; they are always criminal imperfections, which we must endeavor to correct, and which but ill accord with the character of children of God, which we have the honor to sustain. I admit that God does not punish the imperfections of our virtue admit that he bears with them. But upon what principles does he bear with them? Is it upon the principle of his justice? By no means. If he followed no other rule than his justice, he would rigorously punish these sins, nay he would punish them with hell. For in fine, according to the laws of a severe and rigorous justice, these sins merit hell, and if God does not thus threaten his ewa dear children, it is in consequence of his condescending goodness, and by no means an act of his justice.

Such being the case, Christians should not forgive themselves, they should groan sincerely before God, acknowledging themselves unworthy of the forbearance which it has pleased him to manifest toward them.

This is the more just, since indeed one of these sins, though of itself not great, yet when accumulated with others, of the same, or of a different description, creates an amount, the malignity of which, must always be very considerable. A single drop of water is a small thing; but there may fall a sufficient number of these to occasion a deluge. It may in like manner happen to one of God's children to fall into so great a number of these faults that they give just cause of confusion to him, and indeed the occasion of serious apprehension. Besides, how few are there of believers to whom it never happens that they commit any of those great sins which according to St. Paul shut up against us the gate of heaven? How few are there, whose life has been so pure, that it has been passed in the exercise of an uninterupted piety. Thus the greater part, and nearly all without exception, have but too much reason “ to groan, being burdened" with the remembrance of their sins. It is nothing to the purpose to say that these their sins have been forgiven. It is nothing to the purpose that they have sought and obtained the pardon of them, and that they have reason to believe that this favor of God has indeed been granted them. The assurance of this may possibly banish all the fears of the soul, but I main·tain that it should not banish its grief. Never does the true child of God remember the faults into which he has fallen, without deep self-reproach. I am persuaded, for instance, that Adam never forgave himself his sin. That David never lost, either the remembrance, or the penitence, which his doubly aggravated crime of adultery, and murder, occasioned. That St. Peter never forgot his thrice repeated denial of his Master, and that each of these saints unceasingly grieved for their offences, after they were even assured of the Divine forgiveness. I maintain therefore that no dying person, of whatever description he may be, and whatever may have been his life, when he approaches his great change, can be discharged from the duty of repentance. But this will more fully appear in the sequel.

CHAPTER VI.

FAITH IS NECESSARY TO A GOOD DEATH.

FAITH is not less necessary than REPENTANCE to a good and happy death. It is not even possible to repent holily and effectually without faith. Is it not this supernatural light which discovers to us both the deformity of sin and its fatal consequences if not pardoned, as well as how greatly we are interested to avoid it, and the reasons for our confident persuasion that our repentance shall not be in vain? Thus it being impossible to die well without repentance, or effectually to repent without faith, it is evident that faith is absolutely necessary to a good and happy death. As faith gives birth to repentance, it produces also the other virtues which are necessary to a good death: it inspires the hope of a blessed immortality; the love of God, and of our neighbor; submission to the will of Providence; spiritual joy, humility, and other graces. It enables us to perceive the motives which awaken all these sentiments; and it is self-evident to every one, that they can none of them be formed in the soul of the unbeliever. But besides this, who

does not see, that faith alone could sustain a dying man, and that without the help which this grace gives him, it is impossible but that he should sink beneath the power of those temptations which may proceed, either on the one hand from nature, or on the other from conscience. That death appears frightful to nature, it is not necessary to prove. Every man sufficiently feels the truth of this in his own reflections, without needing the effort of an argument for his conviction. How then are we to contemplate the approach of this formidable enemy without fear; or - more properly to speak, without dismay, unless - sustained and fortified by faith? All other help is useless; this alone can establish and assure us, by discovering to us a felicity of which death is about to give us the possession. “We know," says St. Paul, “ that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven.” (2 Cor. v. 1, 2.)

Faith enables us further to triumph over another temptation, which is not less dangerous than the one preceding. We shall not be armed against the fears of death, except by the persuasion that God loves us, and that he will shortly