duces him to love them, who have offended him, who are his enemies, who are unworthy of his love. In what strong terms is this represented in the text! God will have mercy upon the sinner: he will abundantly pardon him. There are many other affecting passages of the same kind in the sacred volume. The Lord, says Moses, is long-suffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression. To the same purpose the Psalmist speaks: The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide; neither will he keep his anger forever. He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. Can we forbear to love a Being, who is so compassionate? Can we forbear to comply with the easy terms, which are necessary to obtain his favour?

2. The mercy of God ought to lead us to repentance. If, when we had sinned, our doom was irrevocably fixed, and we had no hope of obtaining pardon, we should have nothing to do but to give ourselves up to despair, and not make any useless efforts to retrieve our character. But the Bible declares, that there is room for hope, that there are still many motives for exertion. It teaches us that it is never too late to attempt a reformation. God will forgive, not only one offence, but innumerable transgressions. Though we have rendered our souls

as scarlet with sin; yet God will make them, if we are humble and contrite, whiter than the pure wool. For his thoughts are not our thoughts; neither are his ways our ways. We cannot easily forgive, when we have been repeatedly injured; but the compassion of God is abundant in pardon; and though we grievously offend him, yet if we return and repent, he will still forgive us.

Let a knowledge of this important truth induce you, who are bewildered in the mazes of sin, and who are wandering in the paths of destruction, to return, like the penitent prodigal, to the house of your Father and Friend. The ways of vice are dark, intricate, and dismal. No light, no peace, no comfort can be found in them. The pleasures which it promised are soon experienced to be illusions. Your heart is torn with a thousand conflicting passions. Whithersoever you turn, the sharp points of conscience wound your soul. Would you remain in this painful situation, if you believed it possible to escape? It is possible: divine revelation assures you that it is. The text authorizes me to declare, that there is a passage, through which you can flee: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

Perhaps you are conscious of having been guilty of so many offences, that you think it impossible that

you should obtain favour. You fear that you have outlived your day of grace, and that you have now no hope of pardon. But the mercy of God is not limited to any particular number of offences. It is a broad and deep ocean, of sufficient capacity to receive them all. Look into the sacred history, and you will find that atrocious sinners have been forgiven; the idolatrous Manasseh; the persecuting Paul; Peter, who profanely and ungratefully denied his Master; and even David, who was guilty of the crimes of adultery and murder. Some of these persons became afterward by their eminent virtues the ornaments of human nature. You perceive by these examples, that it is possible to reform, and to efface your sins, however black they may be.

The apprehension, that the mercy of God is limited, is not then a reasonable motive; and it ought to have no influence upon you: there are other causes which obstruct your conversion. You experience that the way of the transgressor is hard; but you are afraid that the way of the righteous man is still more difficult. It is laborious to begin on a new course, and to alter your former habits of life. You have to study the elements of virtue, to learn a new language, the language of heaven, and to unlearn the language of sin, which you now speak. This is a double labour; and you think that it cannot be overcome. But let me beseech you to make

the effort. You will find the task easier the farther you proceed. God, who is your Master in this great science, will assist you with every necessary instruction; good men will applaud your industry, and animate you to persevere; and unless you acquire this knowledge, you know that you cannot be happy; nay you are certain that you must inevitably be miserable.

Another cause which may prevent your returning to God is the fear of what the world will say, should you attempt to reform. But what is this world, of which you are so much afraid? Is it composed of the wise and the good; of men whose advice you would ask or follow in any transaction which affected your temporal interest? Does it consist of persons for whom you have the least esteem? No: but it is made up of the idle, the impertinent, and the profligate; men whose understandings are commonly as contemptible, as their morals are depraved. The greatest number of sinners, though they neglect to imitate, will approve your conduct. For virtue is so lovely, that it forces applause even from them, who violate its duties. But if you do not reform, the whole world, including the despicable fragment of it which I have mentioned, will condemn you. The wicked will openly slander you, and even represent your crimes worse than they are; and the good, if they do not openly blame you, will at least censure you in their hearts.

Whence proceed the severe observations on abandoned characters which you sometimes hear? You do not find that the vitious are disposed to treat the faults of their erring brothers with compassion, and much less, with commendation. I repeat it: you have no reason to be afraid of the world, when you are conscious that you are doing what is right; for though the world, through misinformation and prejudice, may condemn for a time what it ought not to condemn, yet in general its opinion becomes correct at last.

The most powerful cause, which prevents your reformation, is pride. You are ashamed to acknowledge that you are in a false way; and you are too obstinate to give up a mode of life, which you have once pursued. It is pride, and not a fear that God wants mercy, which detains so many persons in the way of sin. They are too haughty to bend their knees to the Father of mercies; they disdain to ask forgiveness even at his hands. There are persons who confidently pronounce, that they never did any thing which is wrong. They acknowledge that human nature is frail; but they insinuate that they are exempt from fault. In all altercations with their fellow men, in all clashings of interest, they pertinaciously maintain, contrary to justice, and sometimes to the convictions of their own consciences, that they have done nothing, which they ought not to repeat in like circumstances.