— to be under strong convictions of guilt, and express deep remorse, — to be imcked in conscience, and exhibit much distress of* mind, — and yet, for all this, not repent with his heart. Present danger, or the fear of death, may account for all his feelings, and the Holy Ghost may have done no work whatever in his soul.
Let us beware of trusting to a late rcpentance. " Now is the accepted time. To-day is the day of salvation." One penitent thief was saved in the hour of death, that no man might despair, but only one, that no man might presume. Let us put off nothing that concerns our souls, and above all not put off repentance, under the vain idea that it is a thing in our own power. The words of Solomon on this subject are very fearful. He speaks of men who " shall call upon God, but he will not answer ; who shall seek him early, and not find him." (Prov. i. 28.)
Let us see, for another thing, in the end of Judas, how little comfort ungodliness brings a man at the last. We are told that he cast down the thirty pieces of silver for which he had sold his Master, in the temple, and went away in bitterness of soul. That money was dearly earned. It brought him no pleasure, even when he had it. "'•'•■ The "treasures of wickedness profit nothing." (Prov. x. 2.)
* It is a great and undeniable difficulty, that the words quoted as having been used by " Jeremy the prophet," are not to be found in any writings of Jeremiah that we possess, and that they are found in the prophet Zechariah. The following solutions of the difficulty have been suggested.
1. Some think that the prophecy quoted by Matthew was really de- Hvered by Jeremiah, though not written, and only handed down and recorded by Zechariah. In favor of this view, we must remember that we have a saying of our Lord's at Acts xx. 35, which is not re- corded in the Q-ospels, and a prophecy of Enoch's in Jude. (Jvide 14.)