hath take so deep root in our mind, will, and affection, it will demand an extremely toilsome labour to extirpate it.--_Barrow,_ 1630-1677. Repentance is entirely in God's disposal. This grace is in the soul from God, as light is in the air from the sun, by continual emanation; so that God may shut or open His hands, contract or diffuse, set forth or suspend the influences of it as He pleases. And if God gives not repenting grace, there will be a hard heart and a dry eye, maugre all the poor frustraneous endeavours of nature. A piece of brass may as easily melt, or a flint bewater itself, as the heart of man, by any innate power of its own, resolve itself into a penitential humiliation. If God does not, by an immediate blow of His omnipotence, strike the rock, these waters will never gush out. The Spirit blows where it listeth, and if that blows not, these showers can never fall. And now, if the matter stands so, how does the impenitent sinner know but that God, being provoked by his present impenitence, may irrevocably propose within Himself to seal up these fountains, and shut him up under hardness of heart and reprobation of sense? And then farewell all thoughts of repentance for ever.--_South,_ 1633-1716. A PLAIN COMMAND. i. 16. _Cease to do evil._ One of the pretexts by which wicked men endeavour to excuse their neglect of religion is, that many of the doctrines of the Bible are mysterious. They are so necessarily, and that they are so is one proof that the Bible is from God. But however mysterious the doctrines of Scripture may be, its precepts are plain enough. How plain is the command of our text! No man can even pretend that he does not understand it. If he does not obey it, he will not be able to plead that it is beyond his comprehension. We have--+I. A universal requirement.+ Certain of the precepts of Scripture concern only certain classes of individuals (sovereigns, subjects, husbands, wives, &c.), but this command concerns us all. Your name is written above it, and it is a message for _you._ +II. A most reasonable requirement.+ It is wrong that needs justification, not right. The worst man in the community will admit that he _ought_ to "cease to do evil." And he _can,_ if he will, not in his own strength, but in that which God is ever ready to impart to every man who desires to turn from sin. And not only ought and can men "cease to do evil," it will be to their advantage to do so. Sin has its "pleasures," but they are but "for a season," and they are succeeded by pains and penalties so intense that the pleasures will be altogether forgotten. To exhort men to "cease to do evil," is to exhort them to cease laying the foundation for future misery.[1] On every ground, therefore, this is a most reasonable requirement. +III. A comprehensive requirement.+ It