Behold, then,
1. How desirable is true repentance —
[I grant that repentance, considered without relation to its consequences, is not a pleasing exercise of mind : nor would a husbandman find any pleasure in casting his seed into the ground, if he had no prospect of a future recompence. But both the husbandman and the penitent sow in hope. Each of them knows, that without sowing he can never reap ; and each of them expects, that if he " sow in hope, he shall be partaker of his hope." Hence the employment is that which each of them affects. But there is this difference between the two: the husbandman is confined to a few weeks for the discharge of his duty, whereas the penitent prosecutes his labours to the very end of life ; seeing that there is no day or hour which does not give him fresh occasion for penitential sorrow. He is to go forth bearing " a seed-basket1 ;" and exactly as the sower, bearing the seed-basket, scatters the seed as universally as he can over the whole field, so does the penitent, every step he takes in the field of life. And whereas one may sow too early and too much, the other knows that he never can too soon begin the blessed work ; and that the more profusely he sows, the more abundantly he shall reap: God having ordained, in reference to this as well as to every other duty, that " he who soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly, and he who soweth bountifully shall reap also bounti- fully k." To all then I say, " Be afflicted, and mourn and weep: let your laughter be turned into mournings and your joy into heaviness : humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God,
h Isai. ix. 3. ' So it is rendered in the margin of our Bible.
k 2 Cor. ix. G\