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indeed, without which we could have no relish for its enjoyment; so that unless a miracle were wrought in our favour, which we have no reason to expect, we must necessarily be doomed to endless misery. The nature of repentance, therefore, has been much mistaken: it consists not only in grieving for our past sins, but in having for some time forsaken them; not only in entreating God's forgiveness for having learned evil habits, but in having laid them entirely aside, and substituted virtuous ones in their room. is a great work, and cannot be done in a moment, and more particularly at such a moment, when we are scarce equal to any work at all. Far be it from the minister of the Gospel to pronounce peremptorily in all cases against the efficacy of a death-bed repentance; and still farther be it from him to dissuade those, who have never thought of it before that awful period, from having recourse to it then! It is all that is left for them: they must therefore do what they can. But he would be wanting in his duty, if he did not tell you that the case is infinitely hazardous; that no dependance is to be placed upon it and from thence to warn you to do what you know to be of such inexpressible importance, during the time that you can call your own, while you are in health and strength, "before the Lord your God cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and while ye look for light, he turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness.”

SERMON XVI.

ON THE DESCENT OF THE HOLY GHOST.

PREACHED ON WHITSUNDAY.

ACTS II. 1, 2, 3, 4.

And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from Heaven, as of a rushing, mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues, like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

THIS day is appointed by our church to be kept holy, in remembrance of the miraculous circumstance related in the text, the descent of the Holy Ghost in the shape of cloven tongues, like as of fire, on the heads of the Apostles, and their being enabled thereby to discourse in languages which they had never learned. This happened on the day called by the Jews Pentecost, that is fiftieth, because it was the fiftieth day from their celebration of the feast of the Passover. This Pentecost, likewise, was one of their great feasts on which

they offered the first fruits of the productions of the earth, then newly gathered in; and they commemorated, likewise, the deliverance of their law to them from Mount Sinai. The day has obtained among Christians, the name of Whit or White Sunday, either from the splendour which accompanied the descent of the Holy Ghost on this occasion, or from the custom of the early converts to Christianity being baptized at this time, and wearing (as tokens of the purity which they promised to maintain) white garments.

If we consider the miracle described in the text, in itself, it is of all miracles the most extraordinary; if we consider it in its effects, it is the most important. Let us take a more exact view of it.

Fifty days after the resurrection of their Lord, and ten after his ascension, his twelve constant companions, called Apostles, were met together in one place, when suddenly there came a sound from Heaven, as of a rushing, mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting; and there appeared unto them cloven tongues, like as of fire, and they sat upon each of them : these cloven or divided tongues were to represent the various languages, which from henceforth the Apostles would be able to speak, and their sitting upon each of them was a mark of this great gift being communicated to them all; possibly their being like unto fire was to signify the great efficacy of those powers of preaching which they were meant to bestow; their sitting upon the

Apostles is thought to signify permanency or continuance, to shew that the gift of tongues was not like several other miraculous powers which did not constantly reside with them, but that they were to have the perpetual and uninterrupted use of it, because in their spreading the Gospel among foreign nations they would have perpetual occasion for it. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance; they were immediately enabled to converse and preach in other languages besides their own mother tongue, languages which they had never learned nor had any knowledge of before. There have been some who have thought that this miracle was not in the speakers but in the hearers, that is, that the Apostles spoke in their own language, and that all those nations who were assembled together at this time heard them in theirs ;-for this conceit there seems to be no ground; it is very contrary to the whole story of this miraculous event, and to several particular circumstances of it: it is said in the Scriptures, those on whom the fiery tongues settled began to speak with other tongues; but how can this be true, if they continued to speak with their own in reality, but were only understood as speaking with others? It is said also, they were accused by some of their hearers of drunkenness; and why? not surely because their countrymen still heard them talking in the language in which they had been educated, which

would have been the case on the supposition above; but because they were seen and heard addressing foreigners, where those who knew them, and were sensible that they never studied any foreign tongues, were likely enough to conclude that they were only uttering unmeaning sounds, and consequently that they were not in their right minds. Besides, among the signs which our Saviour, before his ascension, promised should follow those that believed, was this,

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They shall speak with new tongues ;" and St. Paul, in his first epistle to the Corinthians, mentions" diversity of tongues," among the gifts bestowed on the Church. Others have thought that the Apostles spoke various languages at the same time, and that a Jew heard them speaking in the Jewish, a Mede in the Median, and a Parthian in the Parthian language, all at once; but this is scarcely, if it all, possible, and the supposition is quite unnecessary: it was sufficient for the purpose, if the Apostles were able, when they wanted to teach the truths of Christianity to any person, to speak to him in his own tongue. This they were enabled to do in a moment, and it is the greatest of all miracles: it is of a nature which was never experienced before the times of the first publishing of Christianity, nor has it ever been heard of since; nor can we imagine any which would have a greater effect in exciting wonder and admiration at the divine power and goodness. Our Saviour appears to have reckoned this the