The Repentance of Believers

1This is a listening version of John Wesley's sermon, The Repentance of Believers. It is the sermon as printed in John Wesley's 1771 Works. The printing closes it at Londonderry, on 24 April 1767. Rendered in modern English.

Repent and believe the gospel. Mark 1:15.

2It is generally supposed that repentance and faith are only the gate of religion. People suppose they are necessary only at the beginning of our Christian course, when we are setting out on the way to the kingdom. And the great apostle may seem to confirm that. When he urges the Hebrew Christians to go on to perfection, he teaches them to leave these first principles of the doctrine of Christ, and not to lay again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God. That must at least mean that they should leave these things comparatively. At first, repentance and faith took up all their thoughts. They are to leave them in that sense, so that they may press forward toward the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

3And this is undoubtedly true. There is a repentance and a faith which are needed especially at the beginning. That repentance is a conviction of our utter sinfulness, and guiltiness, and helplessness. It comes before we receive the kingdom of God, which our Lord says is within us. And the faith that goes with it is the faith by which we receive that kingdom: righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.

4But there is more. There is a repentance and a faith needed at the beginning, and there is also a repentance and a faith after we are justified. Take the words in another sense, a sense not quite the same, and yet not entirely different. They are not quite the same. This later repentance and faith are required after we have believed the gospel. They are required at every later stage of our Christian course, or we cannot run the race that is set before us. And they are every bit as necessary if we are to continue and grow in grace, as the first repentance and faith were if we were to enter the kingdom of God.

In what sense, then, are we to repent and believe after we are justified? This is an important question, and it deserves the utmost attention.

5First, in what sense are we to repent?

Repentance often means an inward change, a change of mind from sin to holiness. We are not speaking of it in that sense now. We speak of it as one kind of self-knowledge. It is knowing ourselves to be sinners, guilty, helpless sinners, even though we know we are children of God.

After justification, repentance here means a conviction of sin still remaining in our hearts, cleaving to our words and actions, sins of omission, inward defects, guiltiness in a careful sense, and utter helplessness.

6When we first know this, when we first find redemption in the blood of Jesus, when the love of God is first poured out in our hearts and his kingdom is set up there, it is natural to suppose that we are no longer sinners. It is natural to suppose that all our sins are not only covered, but destroyed. We do not feel any evil in our hearts then, and so we readily imagine that none is there.

Some well-meaning people have imagined this not only at that time, but ever after. They have persuaded themselves that when they were justified, they were entirely sanctified. They have laid that down as a general rule, in spite of scripture, reason, and experience. They sincerely believe, and they earnestly maintain, that all sin is destroyed when we are justified, and that there is no sin in the heart of a believer, but that the heart is altogether clean from that moment.

We readily acknowledge that the person who believes is born of God, and that the person who is born of God does not commit sin. Yet we cannot allow that he does not feel sin within. It does not reign, but it does remain. And a conviction of the sin which remains in our heart is one great branch of the repentance we are speaking of now.

7It is seldom long before the person who imagined that all sin was gone feels that there is still pride in his heart. Pride remains. He is convinced both that, in many respects, he has thought of himself more highly than he ought to think, and that he has taken to himself the praise of something he had received, and gloried in it as though he had not received it.

And yet he knows that he is in the favor of God. He cannot, and he ought not to, cast away his confidence. The Spirit still witnesses with his spirit that he is a child of God.

8Nor is it long before he feels self-will in his heart. Self-will remains, a will contrary to the will of God. A will every person must have, as long as he has an understanding. This is an essential part of human nature, indeed of the nature of every intelligent being. Our blessed Lord himself had a will as a man. Otherwise he would not have been a man. But his human will was invariably subject to the will of his Father. At all times, and on all occasions, even in the deepest affliction, he could say, Not as I will, but as you will.

This is not the case at all times, even with a true believer in Christ. He frequently finds his will, more or less, exalting itself against the will of God. He wills something because it is pleasing to nature, which is not pleasing to God. And he is set against something because it is painful to nature, which is yet the will of God concerning him. If he continues in the faith, he fights against that self-will with all his might. But this very fight implies that the self-will really exists, and that he is conscious of it.

9Self-will, as well as pride, is a species of idolatry. Both are directly contrary to the love of God. The same may be said of the love of the world. True believers are liable to feel this in themselves. Every one of them does feel it, more or less, sooner or later, in one branch or another.

It is true that when he first passes from death to life, he desires nothing more than God. He can truly say, All my desire is to you, and to the remembrance of your name. Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides you.

But it is not always so. In the course of time he will feel again, though perhaps only for a few moments, either the desire of the flesh, or the desire of the eye, or the pride of life. If he does not continually watch and pray, he may find lust reviving, and thrusting hard at him so that he may fall, until he has scarcely any strength left in him. He may feel the assaults of disordered affection, a strong leaning to love the creature more than the Creator, whether it is a child, a parent, a husband or a wife, or the friend who is as his own soul. He may feel, in 1,000 different ways, a desire for earthly things or pleasures. In the same proportion he will forget God. He will not seek his happiness in God, and so he will be a lover of pleasure more than a lover of God.

10The desire of the eye and the pride of life remain. If he does not keep himself every moment, he will again feel the desire of the eye, the desire to gratify his imagination with something great, or beautiful, or uncommon. In how many ways does this desire assault the soul? Perhaps with the poorest trifles, such as dress, or furniture, things never meant to satisfy the appetite of an immortal spirit. Yet how natural it is for us, even after we have tasted the powers of the world to come, to sink again into these foolish, low desires for things that perish as we use them. How hard it is, even for those who know the one in whom they have believed, to conquer even one branch of the desire of the eye, curiosity. How hard to trample it under their feet constantly. How hard to desire nothing merely because it is new.

11And how hard it is, even for the children of God, wholly to conquer the pride of life. Saint John seems to mean by this nearly what the world calls the sense of honor. It is nothing else than a desire for the honor that comes from people, and a delight in it. It is a desire and a love of praise, and, always joined with that, a matching fear of blame. Closely allied to this is evil shame, being ashamed of the very thing in which we ought to glory. And this is seldom separated from the fear of man, which brings 1,000 snares upon the soul.

Where is the person, even among those who seem strong in faith, who does not find in himself some degree of all these evil tempers? So even these believers are only in part crucified to the world. The evil root still remains in their heart.

12And do we not feel other tempers, as contrary to the love of our neighbor as these are to the love of God? Tempers contrary to the love of our neighbor remain. The love of our neighbor thinks no evil. Do we never find anything of that kind? Do we never find any jealousy, any evil guessing, any groundless or unreasonable suspicion? The person who is clear in these things, let him cast the first stone at his neighbor.

Who does not sometimes feel other tempers, or inward motions, which he knows are contrary to brotherly love? If there is nothing of malice, hatred, or bitterness, is there no touch of envy, particularly toward those who enjoy some real or supposed good which we desire but cannot reach? Do we never find any degree of resentment when we are injured or insulted, especially by those we particularly loved, and those we had worked hardest to help or to oblige? Does injustice or ingratitude never stir in us any desire for revenge, any desire to return evil for evil, instead of overcoming evil with good? This also shows how much is still in our heart which is contrary to the love of our neighbor.

13Covetousness, in every kind and every degree, is certainly as contrary to the love of our neighbor as it is to the love of God. Love of money remains. Call it the love of money, which is too often the root of all evils. Or call it a desire of having more, of increasing in what we own. How few, even of the real children of God, are entirely free from both?

One great man, Martin Luther, used to say that he never had any covetousness in him, not only after he was converted, but ever since he was born. If that is so, I would not hesitate to say that he was the only man born of a woman, except the one who was God as well as man, who was born without it. No. I believe there was never anyone born of God, who lived any considerable time afterward, who did not feel more or less of this many times, especially in that second sense, the desire of having more. We may therefore set it down as an undoubted truth that covetousness, together with pride, self-will, and anger, remains in the hearts even of those who are justified.

14It is because they experience this that so many serious people read the latter part of Romans 7 as a picture of those who are justified, of those who are under grace, freely justified through the redemption that is in Christ. That is undoubtedly not the apostle's meaning. The apostle means those who are under the law, those who are convinced of sin.

They are right only in this. Sin does still remain in those who are justified. There does still remain, even in them, a mind which is in some measure carnal. A mind in some measure carnal remains. The apostle tells even the believers at Corinth, You are carnal. A heart bent to backsliding remains, a heart still ever ready to depart from the living God. There remains a leaning toward pride, self-will, anger, revenge, love of the world, and all evil. A root of bitterness remains, which, if the restraint were taken off for a moment, would instantly spring up. A depth of corruption remains, such a depth that, without clear light from God, we cannot possibly conceive it. And a conviction of all this sin remaining in their hearts is the repentance which belongs to those who are justified.

15We should likewise be convinced that, as sin remains in our hearts, so it cleaves to all our words and actions. It is to be feared that many of our words are more than mixed with sin, that they are sinful altogether. Such, undoubtedly, is all uncharitable conversation, all talk that does not spring from brotherly love, all talk that does not agree with that golden rule: what you would want others to do to you, do the same to them. Of this kind is all backbiting, all tale-bearing, all whispering, all evil speaking, that is, repeating the faults of people who are absent. For nobody would want others to repeat his faults when he is absent.

How few there are, even among believers, who are not in some degree guilty of this. Who steadily keeps that good old rule, Of the dead and of the absent, nothing but good? And suppose they do. Do they likewise keep from unprofitable conversation? Yet all of this is unquestionably sinful, and it grieves the Holy Spirit of God. For every idle word that people speak, they will give an account in the day of judgment.

Suppose they continually watch and pray, and so do not enter into this temptation. Suppose they constantly set a watch before their mouth, and keep the door of their lips. Suppose they train themselves so that all their conversation may be in grace, seasoned with salt, and fit to give grace to the hearers. Do they not still slide, day by day, into useless talk, in spite of all their caution?

And even when they try to speak for God, are their words pure, free from unholy mixtures? Do they find nothing wrong in their very intention? Do they speak merely to please God, and not partly to please themselves? Is it wholly to do the will of God, and not their own will as well? Or, if they begin with a single eye, do they go on looking to Jesus, and talking with him, all the time they are talking with their neighbor?

When they are reproving sin, do they feel no anger, and no unkind temper, toward the sinner? When they are instructing the ignorant, do they not find any pride, any preference of themselves? When they are comforting the afflicted, or stirring one another up to love and to good works, do they never notice an inward self-congratulation: Now you have spoken well? Or any vanity, a desire that others should think so, and esteem them on that account? In some or all of these ways, how much sin cleaves to the best conversation even of believers. The conviction of that is another branch of the repentance which belongs to those who are justified.

16And how much sin, if their conscience is thoroughly awake, may they find cleaving to their actions as well? Are there not many of these actions which the world would not condemn, and which yet cannot be commended, no, nor even excused, if we judge by the word of God? Are there not many of their actions which they themselves know are not to the glory of God? Many in which they did not even aim at that, which were not undertaken with an eye to God? And of those that were, are there not many in which their eye is not fixed on God alone, in which they are doing their own will at least as much as his, and seeking to please themselves as much as, if not more than, to please God?

And while they are trying to do good to their neighbor, do they not feel wrong tempers of various kinds? So their good actions, as they are called, are far from being strictly good, because they are polluted with such a mixture of evil. Such are their works of mercy. And is there not the same mixture in their works of piety? While they are hearing the word which is able to save their souls, do they not often find thoughts that make them afraid the hearing will turn to their condemnation rather than their salvation? Is it not often the same while they are trying to offer their prayers to God, whether in public or in private? Even while they are engaged in the most solemn service. Even while they are at the table of the Lord, what kind of thoughts rise in them? Are not their hearts sometimes wandering to the ends of the earth, sometimes filled with imaginations that make them fear all their sacrifice will be an abomination to the Lord? So they are more ashamed of their best duties than they once were of their worst sins.

17Again, how many sins of omission are they chargeable with? We know the words of the apostle. To him that knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin. But do they not know 1,000 instances in which they might have done good, to enemies, to strangers, to their brothers, whether for their bodies or their souls, and they did not do it? How many omissions have they been guilty of in their duty toward God? How many opportunities of receiving the Lord's Supper, of hearing his word, of public or private prayer, have they neglected? Even that holy man, Archbishop Usher, after all his labors for God, had great reason to cry out, almost with his dying breath, Lord, forgive me my sins of omission.

18But besides these outward omissions, may they not find in themselves inward defects without number? Defects of every kind. They have not the love, the fear, the confidence they ought to have toward God. They have not the love which is due to their neighbor, to every child of man. No, nor even the love which is due to their brothers, to every child of God, whether those who are far from them, or those to whom they are immediately joined. They have no holy temper in the degree they ought. They are defective in everything. Deeply conscious of this, they are ready to cry out with Mr. de Renty, I am a ground all overrun with thorns. Or with Job, I am vile. I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.

19A conviction of their guiltiness is another branch of the repentance which belongs to the children of God. But guiltiness after justification must be cautious. It must be understood carefully, and in a sense of its own.

For it is certain that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus and walk after the Spirit. They believe in him, and, in the power of that faith, they do not walk after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Yet they can no more bear the strict justice of God now than they could before they believed. That justice still pronounces them worthy of death, on all the accounts already named. And it would absolutely condemn them to death, were it not for the atoning blood. They are therefore thoroughly convinced that they still deserve punishment, although that punishment is turned aside from them.

Here there are extremes on either side, and few steer clear of both. Most people strike on one or the other. Either they think themselves condemned when they are not, or they think they deserve to be acquitted. The truth lies between. They still deserve, strictly speaking, only the damnation of hell. But what they deserve does not come upon them, because they have an Advocate with the Father. His life, and death, and intercession still stand between them and condemnation.

20A conviction of their utter helplessness is yet another branch of this repentance. I mean two things by it.

First, they can no more think one good thought by themselves than before they were justified. They are no more able, of themselves, to form one good desire, to speak one good word, or to do one good work, than they were before. They still have no kind or degree of strength of their own, no power either to do good or to resist evil, no ability to conquer, or even to withstand, the world, the devil, or their own evil nature. They can, it is certain, do all these things. But it is not by their own strength. They can overcome, because sin has no more dominion over them. But the power is not from nature, either in whole or in part. The power is the mere gift of God, given from moment to moment, not a stock laid up for years. It is not given all at once, as if they had a store set aside for a long time ahead.

21Second, by this helplessness I mean an absolute inability to deliver ourselves from that guiltiness, or that desert of punishment, of which we are still conscious. They cannot deliver themselves from the desert of punishment or root out the remains of sin. By all the grace we have already, to say nothing of our natural powers, we cannot remove the pride, the self-will, the love of the world, the anger, and the general leaning to depart from God, which we know by experience remain in the heart even of those who are born of God. Nor can we remove the evil which, in spite of all our efforts, cleaves to all our words and actions. Add to this an utter inability wholly to avoid uncharitable conversation, and, still more, unprofitable conversation. Add an inability to avoid sins of omission, or to supply the numberless defects we are convinced of, especially the want of love and of other right tempers, both toward God and toward man.

If anyone is not satisfied of this, if anyone believes that a justified person is able to remove these sins out of his heart and life, let him make the experiment. Let him try whether, by the grace he has already received, he can drive out pride, self-will, or inbred sin in general. Let him try whether he can cleanse his words and actions from every mixture of evil, whether he can avoid all uncharitable and unprofitable conversation, and all sins of omission, and, last, whether he can supply the numberless defects which he still finds in himself. Let him not be discouraged by one or two trials, but repeat the trial again and again. The longer he tries, the more deeply he will be convinced of his utter helplessness in all these respects.

22This is so plain a truth that nearly all the children of God scattered abroad, however they differ on other points, generally agree in this. By the Spirit we may put to death the deeds of the body. We may resist and conquer both outward and inward sin. We may weaken our enemies day by day. Yet we cannot drive them out. By all the grace which is given at justification, we cannot root them out. Though we watch and pray ever so much, we cannot wholly cleanse either our hearts or our hands.

We most surely cannot, until it pleases our Lord to speak to our hearts again, to speak the second time, Be clean. Then only is the leprosy cleansed. Then only is the evil root, the carnal mind, destroyed, and inbred sin exists no more. But if there is no such second change, if there is no instantaneous deliverance after justification, if there is nothing but a gradual work of God, and nobody denies that there is a gradual work, then we must be content, as well as we can, to remain full of sin until death. And if so, we must remain guilty until death, continually deserving punishment. For it is impossible that the guilt, or the desert of punishment, should be taken away from us as long as all this sin remains in our heart and cleaves to our words and actions. In strict justice, all we think, and speak, and do, continually increases it.

23In this sense we are to repent after we are justified. And until we do so, we can go no further. Until we are aware of our disease, it admits of no cure. But suppose we do repent in this way. Then we are called to believe the gospel.

24This faith, too, is to be understood in a sense of its own, different from the faith by which we believed in order to be justified. Believe the glad news of a great salvation, which God has prepared for all people. Believe that he who is the brightness of his Father's glory, the exact image of his person, is able to save to the uttermost all who come to God through him. He is able to save you from all the sin that still remains in your heart. He is able to save you from all the sin that cleaves to all your words and actions. He is able to save you from sins of omission, and to supply whatever is lacking in you.

It is true that this is impossible with man. But with the God-Man, all things are possible. For what can be too hard for him who has all power in heaven and on earth? His bare power to do this is not, by itself, a sufficient ground for our faith that he will do it, that he will use his power in this way, unless he has promised it. But he has promised it. He has promised it over and over, in the strongest terms. He has given us these exceedingly great and precious promises, both in the Old Testament and in the New.

So we read in the law, in the most ancient part of the oracles of God: The Lord your God will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your children, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Deuteronomy 30:6.

So in the Psalms: He shall redeem Israel, the Israel of God, from all his sins.

So in the prophet: Then I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you will be clean. From all your filthiness, and from all your idols, I will cleanse you. And I will put my Spirit within you, and you will keep my judgments and do them. I will also save you from all your uncleannesses. Ezekiel 36:25.

So likewise in the New Testament: Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people, and has raised up a horn of salvation for us, to perform the oath which he swore to our father Abraham, that he would grant to us that we, being delivered out of the hands of our enemies, should serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life. Luke 1:68.

25You have therefore good reason to believe that he is not only able, but willing, to do this: to cleanse you from all your filthiness of flesh and spirit, and to save you from all your uncleannesses. Faith after justification is believing that Christ is able and willing to cleanse you from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, today, now. This is the thing you now long for. This is the faith you now particularly need, namely, that the great Physician, the lover of my soul, is willing to make me clean.

But is he willing to do this tomorrow, or today? Let him answer for himself. Today, if you will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. If you put it off until tomorrow, you harden your hearts. You refuse to hear his voice. Believe, therefore, that he is willing to save you today. He is willing to save you now. Now is the accepted time. He now says, Be clean. Only believe, and you also will immediately find that all things are possible to him who believes.

26Continue to believe in him who loved you and gave himself for you, who bore all your sins in his own body on the tree. He saves you from all condemnation, by his blood continually applied. This is how we continue in a justified state. And when we go on from faith to faith, when we have faith to be cleansed from indwelling sin, to be saved from all our uncleannesses, we are likewise saved from all that guilt, that desert of punishment, which we felt before. So that then we may say, not only,

Every moment, Lord, I need the merit of your death.

But likewise, in the full assurance of faith,

Every moment, Lord, I have the merit of your death.

For by that faith in his life, death, and intercession for us, renewed from moment to moment, we are every bit clean. There is not only now no condemnation for us, but no such desert of punishment as there was before, the Lord cleansing both our hearts and lives.

27By the same faith we feel the power of Christ resting upon us every moment. By that alone we are what we are. By that we are enabled to continue in the spiritual life. Without it, in spite of all our present holiness, we should be devils the next moment. But as long as we keep our faith in him, we draw water out of the wells of salvation. Leaning on our Beloved, even Christ in us, the hope of glory, who lives in our hearts by faith, and who is also ever interceding for us at the right hand of God, we receive help from him to think, and speak, and act what is acceptable in his sight.

So he goes before those who believe, in all that they do, and he helps them with his continual help, so that all their designs, their conversation, and their actions are begun, continued, and ended in him. So he cleanses the thoughts of their hearts, by the inspiration of his Holy Spirit, that they may perfectly love him, and worthily magnify his holy name.

28So it is that, in the children of God, repentance and faith exactly answer each other. By repentance we feel the sin remaining in our hearts, and cleaving to our words and actions. By faith we receive the power of God in Christ, purifying our hearts and cleansing our hands. By repentance we are still aware that we deserve punishment for all our tempers, and words, and actions. By faith we are conscious that our Advocate with the Father is continually pleading for us, and so continually turning aside all condemnation and punishment from us. By repentance we have an abiding conviction that there is no help in us. By faith we receive not only mercy, but grace to help in every time of need.

Repentance refuses the very possibility of any other help. Faith accepts all the help we need, from him who has all power in heaven and on earth. Repentance says, Without him I can do nothing. Faith says, I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me. Through him I can not only overcome, but drive out, all the enemies of my soul. Through him I can love the Lord my God with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength, and walk in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of my life.

29From what has been said, we may easily learn the harm of that opinion, that we are wholly sanctified when we are justified, and that our hearts are then cleansed from all sin. It is true that we are then delivered, as was said before, from the dominion of outward sin. And at the same time the power of inward sin is so broken that we need no longer follow it, or be led by it. But it is by no means true that inward sin is then totally destroyed. The root of pride, self-will, anger, and love of the world is not then taken out of the heart. The carnal mind and the heart bent to backsliding are not entirely rooted out.

To suppose the contrary is not, as some may think, an innocent, harmless mistake. No. It does immense harm. It blocks up the way to any further change. For it is plain that those who are whole do not need a physician, but those who are sick. If we think we are already whole, we stop seeking any further healing. On that supposition it is absurd to expect any further deliverance from sin, whether gradual or immediate.

30On the contrary, a deep conviction that we are not yet whole, that our hearts are not fully purified, that there is still in us a carnal mind, which is still, in its nature, enmity against God, that a whole body of sin remains in our heart, weakened indeed, but not destroyed, shows, beyond any possible doubt, that a further change is absolutely necessary.

We allow that at the very moment of justification we are born again. In that instant we experience that inward change, from darkness into marvelous light, from the image of the brute and the devil into the image of God, from the earthly, sensual, devilish mind to the mind which was in Christ Jesus. But are we then entirely changed? Are we wholly transformed into the image of him who created us? Far from it. We still retain a depth of sin. And it is the consciousness of this which forces us to groan, for a full deliverance, to him who is mighty to save.

So those believers who are not convinced of the deep corruption of their hearts, or who are convinced only slightly, and as it were in notion, have little concern about entire sanctification. They may possibly hold the opinion that such a thing is to be, either at death, or at some time they do not know, before death. But they have no great uneasiness for the lack of it, and no great hunger or thirst after it. They cannot, until they know themselves better, until they repent in the sense described above, until God unveils the face of the inbred monster and shows them the real state of their souls. Only then, when they feel the burden, will they groan for deliverance from it. Then, and not until then, will they cry out, in the agony of their soul,

Break off the yoke of inbred sin, and fully set my spirit free. I cannot rest till I am pure within, till I am wholly lost in you.

31We may learn from this, secondly, that a deep conviction of our demerit after we are accepted is absolutely necessary. In one sense that demerit may be called guilt. A deep conviction of demerit after we are accepted drives us to Christ, not away from him. We need it if we are to see the true value of the atoning blood, and if we are to feel that we need this blood as much, after we are justified, as we ever did before. Without this conviction we cannot help treating the blood of the covenant as a common thing, something we have no great need of now, because all our past sins are blotted out.

But if both our hearts and our lives are unclean in this way, there is a kind of guilt which we are contracting every moment, and which would therefore expose us every moment to fresh condemnation, except that he ever lives to plead for us.

He ever lives above, for us to intercede, his all-atoning love, his precious blood to plead.

It is this repentance, and the faith closely joined with it, which are expressed in those strong lines.

I sin in every breath I draw, nor do your will, nor keep your law, on earth as angels do above. But still the fountain open stands, washes my feet, my heart, my hands, till I am perfected in love.

32We may observe, thirdly, that a deep conviction of our utter helplessness teaches us truly to live upon Christ by faith, not only as our priest, but as our king. It is a conviction of our total inability to keep anything we have received, and, much more, to deliver ourselves from that whole world of sin remaining both in our hearts and in our lives. By this we are brought to magnify him indeed, to give him all the glory of his grace, to make him a whole Christ, an entire Savior, and truly to set the crown upon his head.

These excellent words, as they have often been used, have little or no meaning. But they are fulfilled in a strong and deep sense when we, as it were, go out of ourselves in order to be swallowed up in him, when we sink into nothing so that he may be all in all. Then his almighty grace has abolished every high thing which exalted itself against him. Every temper, and thought, and word, and work is brought to the obedience of Christ.

He dated the sermon at the end. Londonderry, 24 April 1767.