THE TRUE PENITENT. 493 cious. Let not a false humanity detain thee, under pretence, that " thou art not yet humbled and broken enough for sin." Alas ! who can humble thee, but Jesus, that says, " Without me ye can do nothing ?" And how canst thou be broken, but by falling upon the chief corner stone ? If humiliation and contrition are part of the salvation which he merited for thee, is it not the quintessence of self - righteousness, to attempt to attain them without him ? Away then, for ever away with such a dangerous excuse. Nor let the remembrance of thy sins keep thee from the speediest application to Jesus for grace and par- don. What! though thy crimes are of the deepest dye, and most enormous magnitude; though they are innumerable as the sand on the sea - shore, and aggra- vated by the most uncommon and horrid circum- stances, yet thou needest not despair : he has opened a fountain for sin of every kind, and uncleanness of every degree : his blood cleanses from all sin. He is a Redeemer most eminently fitted, a Saviour most completely qualified to restore corrupt, guilty, apostate, undone mankind; the vilest of the vile, the foulest of the foul, not excepted. He is almighty, and therefore perfectly able to restore lapsed powers, root up inveterate habits, and emplant heavenly tempers. He is love itself : compassionate, merciful, pardoning Love, became incarnate for thee. And shall he, that spared not his own life, but delivered himself up for us all shall he not, with his own blood, also freely give us all things ? Behold, O behold him with the eye of thy faith : cruelly torn with various instruments of torture, he hangs aloft on the accursed tree, between two of the most execrable malefactors ; and there, insulted more than they, he bears our infamous load of guilt. He knows no sin, and yet he is made sin for us : he be- comes a curse, to redeem us from the curse of the law : his own self bears our sins in his own body on the tree : he is wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities : the chastisement of our
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