CLXI. quent evil of fin; either the evil of fin in itfelf, or SER M. the mischiefs and inconveniences which it will bring upon us. For every one that is forry for any fault he is guilty of, is fo upon one of thefe two accounts; either upon the fcore of ingenuity, or of intereft; either because he hath done a thing which is unworthy in itself, or because he hath done fomething which may prove prejudicial to himself; either out of a principle of love and gratitude to GoD, or from a principle of felf-love. And though the former of these be the better, the more generous principle of forrow; yet the latter is ufually the firft; because it is the more fenfible, and toucheth us more nearly for fin is a bafe and ill-natured thing, and renders a man not fo apt to be affected with the injuries he has offered to God, as with the mischief which is likely to fall upon himself. himself. And therefore I will begin with the latter, because it is ufually the more fenfible caufe of our trouble and forrow for fin. 1. The great mischief and inconvenience that fin is like to bring upon us. When a man is thoroughly convinced of the danger into which his fins have brought him, that they have " made him a child of "wrath," and "a fon of predition," that he is thereby fallen under the heavy difpleasure of Almighty God, and liable to all thofe dreadful curfes which are written in his book, that ruin and deftruction hang over him, and that nothing keeps him from eternal and intolerable torments, but the patience and long-fuffering of GOD, which he does not know how foon it may ceafe to interpofe between him and the wrath of GOD, and let him fall into that endless and infupportable mifery, which is the juft portion and defert of his fins; he that lays to heart the fad eftate and condition into which he hath brought himself by F 3 fin SERM. fin, and the mischiefs which attend him every moCLXI. ment of his continuance in that state, and how near they are to him, and that there is but a step between him and death, and hardly another between that and hell, he cannot furely but be very forry for what he hath done, and be highly displeased and offended with himself, that he fhould be the author of his own ruin, and have contributed as much as in him lies to his everlasting undoing. 2. Another and better principle of forrow for fin, is ingenuity; because we are fenfible, that we have carried ourselves very unworthily towards GoD, and have been injurious to him, who hath laid all poffible obligations upon us: for he hath made us, and hath given us our beings, and hath charged his watchful providence with the continual care of us; his bounty hath miniftred to the neceffities and comforts of our life; all the bleffings that we enjoy, are the effects of his mere love and goodness, without any hope of requital, or expectation of any other return from us, than of love, of gratitude, and obedience; which yet are of no advantage to him, but very beneficial and comfortable to ourselves: for he does not expect duty and obedience from us, with any regard of benefit to himself, but for our fakes, and in order to our own happiness. Nay, his kindness did not stop here, but after we had abufed him by our repeated provocations, yet he ftill continued his care of us; and when we had farther provoked him to withdraw his love, and to call in his abufed goodness, and had done what lay in us to make ourselves miferable, he would not fuffer us to be undone, but found out a ranfom for us, and hath contrived a way for the pardon of all our offences, and to reconcile us to himself, and to restore us CLXI. us to happiness, by the moft ftupendous and amaz- SERM, ing condefcenfion of love and goodness that ever was, even by giving his only Son to die for us. And can we reflect upon all this, and not be forry and grieved at our very hearts, that we should be fo evil to him, who hath been fo good to us; that we fhould be fo undutiful to fo loving a father, fo unkind to fo faithful and conftant a friend, fo ungrateful and unworthy to fo mighty a benefactor? If any thing will melt us into tears, furely this will do it, to confider that we have finned against him, who made us, and continually preferves us, and after all our unkindness to him, did still retain fo great a love for us, as to redeem us from hell and deftruction, by the death and fuffering of his Son, and notwithftanding all our offences does ftill offer us pardon and peace, life and happinefs. Such confiderations as thefe, feriously laid to heart, fhould, one would think, break the hardeft heart, and make tears to gush even out of a rock. I proceed in the IIId Place to confider the meafure and degree of our forrow for fin. That it admits of degrees, which ought to bear fome proportion to the heinoufnefs of our fins, and the feveral aggravations of them, and the time of our continuance in them, is out of all difpute: for though the leaft fin be a juft caufe of the deepeft forrow; yet becaufe our greateft grief can never bear a due proportion to the vaft and infinite evil of fin, GoD is pleafed to require and accept fuch measures of forrow, as do not bear an exact correfpondence to the malignity of fin, provided they be according to the capacity of our nature, and in fome fort proportioned to the degree and aggravations of our fins; i. e. Though the highest degree of our forrow doth neceffarily fall below the evil of SERM. of the leaft fin; yet GOD requires that we should be more deeply affected with fome fins than others. CLXI. But what is the lowest degree which God requires in a true penitent, and will accept, as it is impoffible for me to tell, fo it is unprofitable for any body to know: for no man can reasonably make this enquiry with any other defign, than that he may learn how he may come off with GoD upon the cheapeft and eafieft terms. Now there cannot be a worfe fign, that a man is not truly fenfible of the great evil of fin, than this, that he defires to be troubled for it as little as may be, and no longer than needs must: and none furely are more unlikely to find acceptance with God, than those who deal so nearly, and endeavour to drive fo hard a bargain with him. And therefore I fhall only fay this in general, concerning the degrees of our forrow for fin; that fin being fo great an evil in itself, and of fo pernicious a confequence to us, it cannot be too much lamented and grieved for by us: and the more and greater our fins have been, and the longer we have continued and lived in them, they call for fo much the greater forrow, and deeper humiliation from us : for the reasoning of our SAVIOUR concerning Mary Magdalene, "She loved much, because much was "forgiven her," is proportionably true in this cafe, those who have finned much, fhould forrow the more. And then we must take this caution along with us, that if we would judge aright of the truth of our forrow for fin, we must not measure it fo much by the degrees of fenfible trouble and affliction, as by the rational effects of it, which are hatred of fin, and a fixed purpofe and refolution againft it for the future: for he is moft truly forry for his mifcarriage, who looks upon what he hath done amifs with abhor rence CLXI. rence and detestation of the thing, and wifheth he had SER M. not done it, and cenfures himself feverely for it, and thereupon refolves not to do the like again. And this is the character which St. Paul gives of a godly forrow, 2 Cor. vii. 10. that "it worketh repentance," μláviáv, it produceth" a real change in our minds," and makes us to alter our purpose and refolution: and though fuch a perfon may not be so paffionately and fenfibly afflicted for fin, yet it appears by the effect, that he hath a deeper and more rational refentment of the evil of it, than that man who is fad and melancholy and drooping for never fo long a time, and after all returns to his former finful course; the degree of his forrow may appear greater, but the effect of it is really less. IV. As for the outward expreffions of our grief and forrow. The ufual fign and outward expreffion of forrow is tears; but thefe being not the fubftance of our duty, but an external teftimony of it, which some tempers are more unapt to than others; we are much less to judge of the truth of our forrow for fin by these, than by our inward fenfible trouble and affliction of fpirit. Some perfons are of a more tender and melting difpofition, and can command their tears upon a little occafion, and upon very short warning; and fuch perfons that can weep for every thing else that troubles them, have much more reafon to fufpect the truth of their forrow for fin, if this outward expreffion of it be wanting. And we find in fcripture, that the forrow of true penitents does very frequently discover itself by this outward fign of it. Thus when Ezra and the people made confeffion of their fins to GOD, it is faid, that "they wept very "fore," Ezra x. Peter when he reflected upon that great fin of denying his master, it is faid, "He 66 went |