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When they repented, therefore, their repentance must necessarily have had a paramount reference to this; and have mainly consisted in a transition from the obstinate infidelity in which they were living, to the exercise of that faith by which they accepted of Jesus of Nazareth as a suffering Saviour, and depended upon him in that capacity, for pardon and salvation. In like manner the predominant and overruling sin of such, within the pale of Christendom, as have not yet repented, is that Christ has been offered to them, and that they have refused the offer. So that when they repent, -as repent they must, or perish, the great thing they have to do is to open their ears and their hearts to the message which the Gospel brings them concerning the Saviour, and " to flee for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before them," in the divine person and finished work of Christ. And even in the case of those whom the sound of the Gospel has never previously reached, the same thing obtains; for they also must repent and their repentance means their return to that God, from whom it is their characteristic as fallen creatures that they have apostatized and are estranged, and this return implies at its very outset, and all along its course, a simple and cordial reliance upon the divinely instituted Mediator, as being essential to the movement which they are understood to be making back to God, as forming a constituent part of it, as the very thing which, so far as the penitent is concerned, makes it answerable to its destined purpose.

Repentance, then, as used by the Apostle, does neither exclude the operation of faith, nor cast it at all into the shade. On the contrary, it involves that as its master principle, and leaves it to oссиpy its proper place. Faith might have been em. ployed with perfect propriety; and must, in that case, have been understood in the same large sense, in order to make the doctrine here stated consistent and complete. But repentance is a term of more appropriate application, because it is naturally and scripturally of more comprehensive import. It signifies-not any one principle or grace-but the whole of that change which a sinner must undergo in his character so that he may be saved, and supposes the possession of every principle and every grace which he is required to have, these principles and graces holding that relative station, and exercising that particular office, which are assigned to them by the Author of the Gospel dispensation.

II. That this statement of the Apostle is in no way and in no degree derogatory to the grace of the Gospel, will appear from what we have to observe in the second place, namely, that though repentance is first in order, it does not bear to forgiveness of sins the relation of cause to effect, and is not to be considered as the condition on account of which the forgiveness of sins is to be obtained.

Were there nothing in the passage itself to indicate that there is no such connection between the two things, or were it so ambiguous in its phraseology as to admit of that interpretation, still we should be entitled to explain it by attending to the nature of repentance and of forgiveness severally, as these are represented in the Holy Bible, -from which it would be seen that repentance cannot meritoriously contribute to the attainment of any blessing from God; and we should be entitled to explain it also by attending to the general analogy of Scripture, one of whose great objects seems to be, to strip all human moralities, however useful or however excellent they may be deemed, of every thing like good desert in the sight of heaven, and of every thing like efficacy in cancelling the guilt of man.

But we have no occasion to wander from the very text we are discoursing on, in order to be satisfied that though repentance stands before forgiveness, it is not for the sake of our repentance that forgiveness is bestowed upon us. Forgiveness comes to us from divine mercy, so it is here asserted. Christ is exalted to give it. And, represented as his gift, it is not at the same time, either by express statement, or by indirect implication, traced to repentance as its collateral,

subordinate, or conditional source. Nay, the very juxta-position of the two benefits, accompanied, though it is, with a priority in point of announcement being given to repentance, serves to put them on the same footing, rather than to establish any such difference between them, as that the one could be said to take its rise in the other. They are thus placed together that they may be referred to a common origin. Repentance is here declared to be just as much a gift as forgiveness of sins is, and forgiveness of sins as much a gift as repentance is. They are both said to be imparted by Christ in the exercise of his sovereignty, without any other mutual dependance than what proceeds from their being united in the administration of divine grace, and in the treatment of reclaimed sinners. Christ was exalted for this very end, that he might not only pardon sinners, but also renew and sanctify them. And if repentance is a communication from Christ-the fruit of his purchase-the bestowment of his grace, in the same sense that forgiveness is to be reckoned so, does not this exclude altogether the idea of forgiveness being earned or deserved by repentance ? Does it not virtually prohibit us from attaching any merit whatsoever to the change that is effected in our character, more than to the change that is effected in our condition? And by teaching us to assign the whole of our salvation-even what we must become in our moral feelings and conduct, no less than in our judicial status before the tribunal of God to the achievement of Christ, and to his achievement alone, does it not discountenance and discourage every feeling of confidence in our own performances, and bid us cherish as profound humility, in respect to our need of repentance, as in respect to our need of forgiveness ? Supposing them to be inseparably united, and so united that in the language which Peter used on a previous occasion, we must "repent and be converted that our sins may be blotted out," still their union as here described, by resolving them both, and equally, and altogether into a free gift, in. terdicts every measure of expectation, that we shall get the latter, because we have done the former. We must have the forgiveness of our sins, otherwise we shall inevitably and eternally perish. But we must not demand that necessary blessing as a right which cannot be justly withheld from us; we must ask it as a privilege to which we have no independent title, and according to God's plan of salvation, we must look to Jesus Christ as its exclusive author. And be it that we cannot be forgiven unless we repent, which is a great and revealed truth, there is here no ground for self-righteousness; for when we set about the acquisition of this grace, we are instructed at the outset, and it never ceases to be a lesson of the Holy Ghost, that we cannot

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