into " the fountain opened for sin and for uncleannessh :" so shall all " your sins be blotted out, as a morning cloud," and you shall stand before God " without spot or blemish." So shall your " repentance be unto life," even " a repentance to salvation not to be repented of." The very Saviour in whom you trust, shall be your Judge ; and he will award to you the glory he has purchased for you ]
11 Zech. xiii. 1 .
Acts xvii. 31. He hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the ivorld in righteousness by that Man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.
IN order to form a just estimate of the benefits which we have received from revelation, we must not look to the sentiments of philosophers in this day, but to those which were entertained by the wisest of the heathen world. Modern philosophers, even while they pretend to despise the sacred oracles, have de- rived from them, either immediately or remotely, all that light which has elevated them above the heathen. We must therefore go back to the Sages of Greece and Rome, who had no other guide than unassisted reason. Among them we shall find the most asto- nishing ignorance respecting truths which, amongst us, are universally received, and familiar to the meanest capacities. Athens had been the most dis- tinguished seat of learning in the world ; and even at the time when this history was written, was still in very high repute : yet there did the most stupid idolatry prevail, insomuch that the number of idols there was greater than in any other city in the world. Their wise men, not content with deifying almost every thing that could come into their minds, raised an altar To the unknown God : from which circum- stance St. Paul took occasion to " make known to them Him, whom they thus ignorantly worshipped."