Of Repentance. 67 t$Ze profperity and joy of his fervants. If S E R Nr. we could at all fuppofe that the griefs of fin- III. ners are pleafing to the Deity as feparated from the proper effeft of them in their re- formation ; then 1E11 the more intenfe their griefs are, the more pleafing they would be, and confequently the hopelefs anguifh of the accurfed objeEts of his wrath, would, as be- ing the bittereft and the molt painful, be the molt acceptable, the howlings of the damned be more grateful in his ears, than the ingenuous mournings of the penitent, which every one will judge to be abfurd. Let us put the cafe of a human fuperior who has bowels of compafon ; will he take any pleafure in the forrows of an offending fub- jeff any farther than as they are the falutary prefages of amendment ? Will a father de- light in the piercing griefs of his child, or even a judge in the afliiétion of _a malefa6tor ? No otherwife, certainly, than as their future obedience may be thereby fecured. We ought not, then, to think that the heft of all beings, the molt merciful father even of his prodigal children, the molt compaffionate judge, who does not afflia willingly, nor grieve the children of men, will regard with pleafure and approbation, the deepeft farrows and humiliations of (inners on any F 2 other
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