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assist, and complete their repentance, and to number them among his favourite children, is openly and explicitly declared. The parable of the labourers who are sent into the vineyard at different hours of the day, agrees with all experience as to the different periods of life in which religious impressions are made upon the mind; and summons every age to the service of God by the strongest incitement, the assurance of acceptance and reward. These and other parables to the same purpose exemplify the leading and peculiar argument of the Gospel ; -repent, and be forgiven, for the price of your redemption has been paid.

The suitableness of this to the condition of human nature will hardly be disputed. If the favour of God were limited to those who have continued stedfast in their allegiance, and made his laws the guide of their youth and life, mankind must either be a different race of beings, or the divine favour confined to a very small

8 Matt. xx. 1-16.

number. We cannot imagine a revelation which did not require a righteous and holy life. But we can conceive a revelation which allowed no repentance for an unrighteous or unholy life; while at the same time we see that such a revelation would be a source of despair rather than of comfort; would not be available to creatures like mankind; would confirm some in their sinful state, through want of inducement to reformation; and would condemn others to a hopeless remorse, when they reflected upon irretrievable transgression, and looked forwards to inevitable punishment. Considering the condition in which men are actually placed, by birth, circumstances, and irregular education, often conspiring to add fuel to a corrupt nature; we cannot hesitate to allow, that a revelation which admits repentance, and contains a covenant of pardon, is the one most beneficial to mankind.

We could not indeed call it beneficial, if that, which offered comfort to transgressors, proved an encouragement to sin. And some, in

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all ages, have brought this charge against Christianity; arraigning it on this very ground, as a religion which holds out an amnesty to the worst offenders. Others, even of its friends, have shown a tacit acquiescence in this allegation, when they have systematically enforced the precepts rather than the doctrines of the Gospel, from the supposed danger of encouraging mankind to the abuse of mercy by the display of mercy. But Jesus" knew what was in man" better than those who call his wisdom in question; and founded his religion on the surest principles of expediency. Suppose the case, of a part of the inhabitants of a country in rebel

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9 Celsus complained, that " Jesus Christ came into the world to make the most horrible and dreadful societies; for he calls sinners, and not the righteous: so that the body he came to assemble is a body of profligates separated from good people, among whom before they were mixed. He has rejected all the good, and collected all the bad."

"True," says Origen, 66 our Jesus came to call sinners :but to repentance. He assembles the wicked :—but to convert them into new men; or rather, to change them into angels. We come to him covetous, he makes us liberal; unjust, he makes us equitable; lascivious, he makes us chaste; violent, he makes us meek; impious, he makes us religious. See Origen contr. Cels. 1. iii. s. 59,

lion against their lawful sovereign: the object is, to reduce them to order and obedience; and how would that object most probably be answered; which would be the method most promising success; to make a public declaration of the duties of subjects, accompanied with a denunciation of grievous penalty against all who had violated them; or to issue a proclamation of amnesty to all who should return to their allegiance and persevere in future loyalty? The method which, calmly considered, approves itself to our judgment, is the method pursued in the Gospel. And the method which approves itself to our judgment, is sanctioned by the results of our experience; and wherever it is simply acted upon, is daily swelling the triumphs of the Gospel with new converts to the service of God.

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In this manner a constant experiment is in operation, wherever the Gospel is preached or read, upon the moral faculties. It is going on

10 This illustration occurs in a preface, by Mr. Erskine, to a recent edition of Gambold's works.

from youth to age; employing every motive by which the human heart can be swayed, and using every means by which it can be governed: teaching, exhorting, inviting, encouraging. No wiser system can be imagined, for beings naturally disposed to evil, and placed in circumstances of temptation. We can easily figure to our imaginations men differently constituted, or more securely fenced in. But for such moral agents as mankind actually are, we can desire no fitter dispensation.

III. I consider it as a third point deserving particular remark, that wherever the Gospel is established as the national religion, provision is made for elevating the general character of men, by raising them to a higher rank as intellectual beings. The condition of the bulk of mankind is inevitably poor and laborious; and we know the effect of poverty and labour, how they depress the mind, and keep it as it were stagnant, till it has neither inclination nor ability for reflection. Each succeeding generation is content to know what their fathers

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