SERMON XL.

LUKE XV. 17-20.

And when he came to himself, he faid, How: many hired fervants of my father have bread enough and to fpare, and I perish with hunger! I will arife and go to my father, and will fay unto him, Father, I have finned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy fon; make me as one of thy hired fervants. And be arose, and came to his father...

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HAVE on former occafions represented to you the precipitate folly of the prodigal in leaving his father's house, and the heavy miferies which befel him in confequence of it. My prefent bufinefs fhall be to examine, what use he made of his afflictions; that every X 3 young

young libertine, who begins to fee the error of his ways, may, by his example, learn what course he ought to take to wash out his fins, and regain the favour of his God.

And firft, "He came to himself." He was not therefore himself before. He awaked as out of a deep fleep or lethargy; he arose, as it were, from the dead, and was restored to new life. This is a just description of the ftate of a finner. He is buried in a lethargic fleep; he is dead to reason and virtue; he has no fenfe of God and religion. And under this image flagrant finners are frequently represented in the Gospel. Thus St. Paul, fpeaking of the Ephefians before their converfion to Chriftianity, tells them, Ye were dead in trefpaffes and fins." And And agreeably to this, the work of repentance is called an awaking out of fleep, a fort of refurrection from the grave:-" Awake, thou that "fleepest; arise from the dead, and Chrift fhall give thee light."

Again. He came to himself:" he recovered the use of his reafon and understanding; he was restored to fpiritual life. The

young and inconfiderate think it not fo; but let the wifer voice of age and experience tell them, what they will one day find to be true, that fin is a state of madness; it is a contradiction to all reason and wisdom; it is giving

up the enjoyments of a man for the pleasures of a brute it is exchanging health for ficknefs: it is buying a momentary enjoyment at the expence of an eternity of pain. Can there be greater madness? Can there be stronger proof of the decay of reafon? Nothing therefore but a kind of miracle can recover the finner from this deplorable state of phrenzy. That God, who opens the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf, can alone remove the mifts of clouded reason. And when he is pleased to do this, by fickness or affliction, by the voice of confcience or the terrors of impending judgment, then the finner comes to himself; the dead man rises, and begins to fhew figns of life; the poor madman recovers his reason, and fees the circle of folly, in which his days have paffed. Here then is the first step to a recovery. But let him not think, that this coming to himself consists in a fuperficial review of his past life, or a few flight reflections upon his prefent condition. There

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There are many, indeed, who think they are come to themselves, if they make some general reflections upon their conduct, are forry for their irregularities, and resolve to be better, if they can, for the future. I would not discourage any man in his defign of returning to God: even the dawnings of repentance are better than the inveteracy of unfeeling guilt but let no man deceive himself with this general and fuperficial fort of repentance. To come to himself to any purpose, a man muft call his ways to remembrance carefully and diligently: he muft confider his former course of life, and compare it with the unerring touchstone of the word of God: he must not judge of his conduct lightly, or ask how it will appear in the fight of men like himfelf; but how it will appear, naked and undisguised, before a juft God, at the last great day: he must therefore fearch into the fecret corners of his heart, he muft drag forth to view every fecret and lurking iniquity, he muft mark every deviation from duty, and endeavour also, where he roots out a vice, to plant a virtue in its room.

This is the true work of repentance. Let me not, however, be understood, that these precautions are at all times necessary, or required equally from all men. If there be a happy few, who, like the eldest fon in the parable, have continued in their father's house, and never tranfgreffed his will at any time; who have nothing to charge themselves with but fins of infirmity, ignorance, or furprize; to them the work of repentance certainly lies in a narrower compafs, and is attended with lefs pain and remorse, But the prodigal, whofe life has been attended with a long fucceffion of iniquities, muft pafs through all the bitter ftages of contrition, if he ever hopes to taste the sweet fruits of a quiet confcience and reconciled God, the affurance of forgiveness and the hopes of immortality.

The first thing which comes into the mind of the prodigal, after his coming to himself, is the peace and plenty he once enjoyed in his father's houfe :-"How many hired fervants," fays he, ❝ of my father have bread "enough and to fpare, and I perish with "hunger!"-Hitherto he had felt no regret for leaving his father; he was happy