Baxter - HP BV4920 B38 1829

lV of immediate repentance. In his" Call to the Unconverted," he endeavours to move the~ by the most touching of all representations, the tenderness of a beseeching God waiting to be gracious, and not willing that any should perish; and while he erpploys every form of entreaty, which tenderness and compassion can suggest, to allure the sinner to "turn and· live," he does not shrink from forcing on his convictions those considerations which are fitted to alarm his fears, the terrors of the Lord, and the wrath, not merely of an offended Lawgiver, but of a God oflove, whose threatenings he disregards, whose grace he despises, and whose mercy he rejects. And aware of the deceitfulness of sin in hardening the heart, and in betraying the sinner into a neglect of his spiritual interests, he divest<> him of every refuge, and strips him of every ·plea for postponing his preparation for eternity. He forcibly exposes the delusion of convenient seasons, and the awful infatuation and hazard of delay; and knowing the magnitude of the stake at issue, he urges the sinner to immediate repentance, as if the fearful and almost absolute alternative were "Now or Never." And to secure the commencement of such an important work against all the dangers to which procrastination might expose it, he endeavours to arrest the sinner in his career of guilt and unconcern, and resolutely to fix his determination on " turning to God this day without delav." There are two very prevalent delusions on this subject, which we should like to expose; the one regards the nature, and the other the season of repentance; both of which are pregnant with mischief to the minds of men. With regard to the first, much mischief has arisen from mistakes respecting the meaning of the term 1·epentance. The word repentance occurs with two different meanings in the New Testament; audit is to be regretted, that two different words could not have been devised to express these. This is chargeable upon the poverty

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