another, lust ; in another, covetousness ; in another, ambition and the love of praise : in another, sloth ; but, whatever it be, our victory over it is a just criterion of our state : if it lead us captive, we are yet carnal aiid unrenewed : whatever repent- ance we may fancy ourselves to have experienced, it has all been ineffectual ; we are yet in our sins ; we are " in the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity." A right eye must be plucked out, if it cause us to offend, and a right hand must be amputated : no alternative remains to us, but to part with that, or to suffer the miseries of hell \
Such is the view which God himself gives us of repentance ; and to this alone does he annex any hope of salvation : " Re- pent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruiny."]
These views of repentance will appear in all their importance, if we consider, II. The necessity of it —
The word which we translate ' likewise/ may possibly be intended to mark a resemblance between the calamities that awaited the impenitent Jews, and those which had befallen the persons just spoken of z. But, as we are more interested in what relates to ourselves, we shall rather take a general view of the subject, than attempt a parallel, which would be more curious than useful. We say then, in reference to repentance, that the necessity for it is,
1. Indispensable — [On this, eternal happiness and eternal misery depend; " except we repent, we must all perish." It is not for us to say what God might do : it is sufficient to know what he ivitl do. He has appointed repentance, as the means of obtaining reconciliation with him: and he has given his own Son to die for us, in order that, the guilt of sin having been expiated by the blood of the cross, he may be able to receive returning sinners in a perfect consistency with the demands of law and justice. Let this matter be clearly understood. He has not appointed repentance to atone for sin ; for if we could shed rivers of tears, they never could wash away the smallest sin : it is the blood of Christ only, that can cleanse from sin : no other fountain ever was, or ever can be, opened for sin and for unclean- ness, but that which issued from the wounds of our adorable Redeemer. But repentance is necessary in order to prepare
x Mark ix. 43 — 48. y Ezek. xviii. 30.
1 In ver. 3. it is waav-coe, and in the text opoiwc.