the kingdom of heaven hath approached? Oh, how many legal professors are there among professors! As there are two sorts of men in the world, some that live in dark places and prisons, and others that walk up and down in the light; so some there are among professors, some legal, that walk up and down in the dark, and see no light; others, again, that walk up and down in the light of the gospel: many, many legal professors.

Beloved, the more evangelical your repentance is, the more it will cure your souls, and not hurt your body. Legal repentance soaks into the body, and frets out the very strength of one's body. Pray look a little into Job xxxiii.; see what the Holy Ghost says there: "God speaks once, yea, twice, yet man perceives it not;" here is man in his natural, pure natural state: "In a dream (at verse 15), in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed;" that is, before a man is aware: "then he openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction, that he may withdraw man from his purpose, and hide pride from man." What then?" He is chastened also with pain upon his bed, and the multitude of his bones with strong pain; so that his life abhorreth bread and his soul dainty meat: (verse 21) his flesh is consumed away that it cannot be seen, and his bones that were not seen stick out; his soul draweth near to the grave and his life to the destroyers." Here is legal work. Then comes the gospel. "If there be a messenger with him, an interpreter, one of a thousand, to shew unto man his uprightness; then he is gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver him from going down into the pit, I have found a ransom." Then, at verse 25, "His flesh shall be fresher than a child's, he shall return to the days of his youth." His flesh shall be fresher than a child's. Thus evangelical repentance is a friend both to soul and body. Mere legal repentance eats out the strength of one's spirit, even of one's very body.

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Again, the more evangelical your repentance is, the more you will be humbled and grieved for sins against the gospel. "I will send (says Christ) the Comforter, and he shall convince the world of sin." What sin? Of sin and of unbelief. Oh, says the soul that repents evangelically, who more guilty of unbelief than I? Oh, never any one more ignorant of Christ than I! Oh, the unkindness of my soul towards

Christ! Legal repentance, it pitches upon some breach of the law, and there it rests.

Again, Evangelical repentance complies with spiritual joy, and is a friend unto it. You grieve for sin, and you rejoice in God; and when you rejoice in God you grieve for sin, I will send the Comforter, says our Saviour. He does not say, I will send the Spirit; no, but, I will send the Comforter, and he shall convince the world of sin and of unbelief. The Comforter, because it shall be a work of comfort unto the soul that is convinced of sin gospel-wise. And the more a man rejoices in Christ, the more he grieves for sin; and the more he grieves for sin, the more he rejoiceth in Christ again.

Again, When your repentance is evangelical, the more you apprehend or hope that your sin is pardoned, the more you will grieve for it. Ye read in the Psalms of one special penitential Psalm of David, the list. But when was that made? A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came to him; that is, after the prophet Nathan had been with him. And what did Nathan the prophet say to him? Says Nathan, Thy sin is forgiven thee. Upon that message David falls into a penitential Psalm, a Psalm of humiliation and of repentance. The more a man hath assurance that his sin is pardoned, the more he doth grieve for it.

And the more evangelical your repentance is, the more your heart will be enlarged to and for Christ. The sight of God's free love in Christ will make your heart free in love unto Christ and for Christ. When the poor sinner, the woman spoken of in Luke vii., had much forgiven her freely, she came and brought her precious boxes, and poured them out upon Jesus Christ. So when a soul hath tasted of the free love of God in Christ, then no boxes of ointment are too precious to pour out upon the feet of Jesus Christ.

Further, The more of the gospel and the more of the kingdom of heaven is in your repentance, the more of the gospel will be in your obedience, the more of the gospel will be in your assurance, the more of the gospel will be in your performance, in your prayers and other duties. Beloved, repentance is foundation work; it hath an influence upon all your service. If your repentance be legal, your obedience legal, and your performance legal, and your assurance legal; ever tying God unto such conditions as he never tied you to,

through the improvement of your own unbelief. But now, when as your repentance hath the gospel in it, drawn up and raised upon such motives as these; then your obedience, your comforts, your duties, your assurance will have the impression of the gospel also upon them.

And the more of the gospel, the kingdom of heaven, is in your repentance, the more your hearts and spirits will be meekened and sweetened towards the saints, towards your fellow servants, the people of God. What is the gospel but a dead Christ? As Jesus Christ was a living gospel, so the gospel is a dead Christ.

When the gospel approaches, when the kingdom of heaven draws near to a soul, and Christ therein, the heart is meekened and made like to Christ. The law is called a fiery law, the law of fire, compared unto Hagar; and says the apostle, The children of the bond-woman will persecute the children of the free-woman, of Sarah. And what is the reason that there is so much bitterness among professors, but because there is no more of the gospel and of the kingdom of heaven in our profession? Beloved in the Lord, ye see into what sad times of discord and bitterness we are now brought; as ever do desire to be free from this spirit of hitterness, as ye do you desire that ye may not have a hand in opposing your fellow servants, and acting a spirit of bitterness towards the children of God, oh, labour for more of the gospel, get more of it into your repentance and into your obedience; oh, let us labour to be more evangelical than ever we have been.

I had need call upon my own heart for this; and give leave to measure your own hearts by mine. Beloved, I do not now come to call for repentance, barely, but I come this night unto you, calling for refined repentance, gospel repentance : these are refining times; your public worship refined, the government refined; christians had need refine all their duties, and all their graces, and all their comforts, and all their assurance we had need even take our whole garment, and look into every seam, brush every seam, there is so much dust gotten into it. Oh, labour, labour to be more evangelical, to get more of the gospel of Christ into all your duties. The gospel is the ministration of life; and the ministration of the law is called the ministration of death. The ministration of the gospel is called the ministration of righteousness; the

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ministration of the law is called the ministration of condemnation. The gospel is called a glorious gospel, a glorious gospel: as ye do desire that glory may be upon you, get more of this glorious gospel into you; more of the gospel into all your duties, into your repentance; which that you may do, now even repent that ever you have been so legal in your repentance. A man will never be evangelical in his repentance that does not in some measure grieve that he hath been so legal in his repentance.

And, to end all, if at any time, man or woman, thou dost find thy heart dead and dull, and sayest, thou canst not pray, thou art unapt, and thy heart is hardened; then go, go to the word of the kingdom, go to the gospel, go, lay out thy soul before the word of the gospel; consider the kingdom of heaven, the word of the kingdom, free remission unto poor sinners; and this is the only way for to break your heart: for certainly this is a truth that I have spread before you; think of it: the appropinquation, approaching, or drawing near of the kingdom of heaven is the highest and greatest motive in the world unto true repentance.

END OF VOL. IV.

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UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

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