from one, and producing the other. And fo diftin&t is this change of mind from forrow, that of all its effects it is the happiest; ease and comfort attend on it, joy and hope flow from it. This is a change not to be repented of; it can never cause us any grief or pain, or give us reason to lament any effect proceeding from it.

Sorrow then is not repentance, though it be the cause of repentance in moft cafes. The alliance between them will be beft explained by confidering the nature of forrow in general, and the impreffions it makes upon every man's mind. Whatever is the cause of our forrow muft needs be the object of our averfion; fince to take pleasure in the thing that grieves us, and caufes us pain, is a contradiction in nature. Many things occafion us forrow which are out of the reach of our power, which come without our feeking, and go without our bidding. In all these cafes forrow is an useless paffion, for the averfion arifing from it brings torment without fecurity; for to what purpose can our love or our concern serve, where the objects are neither to be obtained or avoided by our utmost care? Should we afflict ourselves with the thoughts of death, and raise in our minds the utmost horror and dread, yet death will move with the fame pace to us, not retarded by our fears, or stopped by our averfion. And this fhews how ridiculous a paffion forrow is in all these cafes.

But where good and evil are fet before us, and we are left to choose for ourselves, if through weakness or folly, or the prevailing power of any paffion, we have chosen amifs, the pain we fuffer from these evils

of our own inviting is the beft fecurity for the future: we cannot lament the folly of our choice, without condemning ourselves for making it, and hating the thing which has brought fo much forrow along with it. This felf-condemnation will teach us to correct our choice for the future, this averfion will turn the stream of our affections from the thing which brings fo much mifery with it. But this can extend but to very few inftances of worldly concern, fo little is there in our own power; for which reafon worldly forrow can only make us feel our misfortunes, without enabling us to redress them. But in fpiritual concerns the cafe is otherwife: virtue and vice are placed within our choice; and we cannot do evil till we have firft determined ourselves to do it: and, when we have done it, the fooner our minds recoil and grow fick of their unhappy choice, fo much the better; fince the correction of folly is often the parent of wisdom, and the mifery we fuffer through vice the best guide to the paths of virtue. Sin cannot be the cause of our forrow, but it must likewise be the object of our averfion: the natural confequence of which is repentance, or a change of mind, by which we shall hate the vices we once delighted in, and fly to the arms of virtue, to taste those pleafures which experience has taught us are there only to be found. And thus you see how naturally a change of mind arifes from godly forrow, or forrow for fin: which is a farther confirmation of the interpretation we have given of the Apostle's words.

Secondly, Godly forrow is not faid to work falvation immediately and of itself, but by means of that repentance, or change of mind, which it produceth,

This fhews you, that a change of mind, and consequently a change of life, is abfolutely neceffary towards the obtaining the mercy and forgiveness of God; and that it is to little purpose to lament your fins, unless you refolve to forfake them. So many are the fad effects of fin, with respect to our health, our reputation, and our fortune in the world, which always fuffer, and often fink, under the oppreffion of vice, that the finner who has no fear of God before his eyes has reafon enough to be forry for his fins. But forrow arifing from these motives is mere worldly forrow: one laments the decay of his health, another the lofs of his reputation, and a third the ruin of his fortune, and often one laments the lofs of all: and equally they would have lamented these loffes, had they come from any other cause befides fin. He that is forry for his fin because it has destroyed his health, would have been as forry had a fever destroyed it; he that grieves for the lofs of his fortune, would have grieved in the fame manner if fire or the rage of the sea had been his undoing. From whence it is plain, that in fuch forrow as this no regard is had to God, whom we are principally to refpect in our repentance, as being the perfon against whom we have offended, and whofe mercy and pardon we labour to obtain.

In true forrow that produces repentance, the fense of our guilt is a great ingredient, as well as the sense of our mifery. The very hopes we have of obtaining pardon at the hand of God will fill our minds with indignation against ourselves for having offended fo gracious a master. For if we can think him good to forgive us, we must needs think our

felves wicked, and loft to all fense of gratitude and goodness, that we could offend fo kind and compaffionate a Lord. From this fenfe of guilt will arise indignation, and fear, and zeal; and every paffion will be roused to act its part in making us hate and abhor ourselves and our iniquities, and will never let us be at peace with our own hearts, till we have purged them of every evil luft, and confecrated them anew to the fervice of our Maker. And this is that bleffed change which is true repentance unto falvation never to be repented of.

Fear may fometimes prevail against the power of luft, and the wretch who hates to think of God may not be able to exclude the fear and dread of him: when the flames of hell play before the finner's eyes, and guilt, confcious of its own deferts, fills the imagination with all the horrors of damnation; in this cafe there will never want forrow, though perhaps there be no figns of repentance. Thus Judas grieved, in his grief he died, and in his death he found the pains of hell.

In the Gospel there are no promises made to grief and forrow; the mercies of God are offered upon the condition of repentance: and though in the nature of the thing repentance muft arife from forrow, and therefore forrow may be efteemed as a part of repentance; yet forrow that produces not repentance, that is, a thorough change and reformation, is of no account in the fight of God. Such forrow may be the finner's due; if he suffers under it, he has but his reward; it is the just punishment of his iniquity, but can never be the condition of his pardon. One would think this were too plain a cafe to be

mistaken; yet so commonly it is mistaken, that repentance is grown almoft into a form and method, and, instead of reforming their fins, men fet themfelves fo many days to be forry for them. Alas! it is a fruitless grief they labour to affect themfelves with; and they may affure themselves their hopes of pardon will be as empty and delufive as their forrow. Were you truly fenfible of your guilt, there would need no art to produce forrow, you would want no rules to limit your grief by; nature would be your best instructor, and teach you to lament your misery and your guilt with unfought-for tears and groans: were you fincere, you would fly the viper that had ftung you, and not cherish and carefs the beaft, whilft with falfe tears you bathe the wound you have received.

Godly forrow is that which refpects God. This forrow will always produce repentance, and be followed by falvation, in virtue of the many promises of God, by which we are affured, that when the finner is converted, and turns to the Lord, forfaking the evil of his ways, he shall save his foul alive.

Repentance unto life is the gift of God to a finful world, and the greateft that heaven ever beftowed on it for though nature is no ftranger to the grief and forrow of repentance, yet is repentance our title to life through the Gofpel of Chrift Jefus. And therefore, when the Gentiles were admitted to be partakers of the Gofpel, and the news thereof was brought to the Apostles and brethren at Jerufalem, they blefs God for his great goodness in having granted to the Gentiles also repentance unto life.

The nature of this godly forrow we shall still bet