godly sorrow that worketh repentance to salvation, not to be repented of. 1 Cor. vii. 10.

Weep still, and make not too much haste to dry up these tears; for they are precious, and held fit to be reserved in the bottle of the Almighty. Psal. Ivi. 8. Overspeeding remedies may prove injurious to the patient; and as in the body, so in the soul, diseases and tumours must have their maturation, ere there can be a perfect cure. The inwards of the sacrifice must be three times rinsed with water; one ablution will not serve the turn. Lev. i. 9.

But when thou hast emptied thine eyes of tears, and unloaded thy breast of slow and heavy sighs, I shall then, by full commission from him that hath the power of remission, say to thee, Son, be of good comfort, thy sins are forgiven thee.'

SECTION 2.

The well-grounded declaration of pardon.

THINK not this word merely formal and forceless. He that hath the keys of hell and of death, hath not said in vain, Whose sins ye remit, they are remitted.' The words of his faithful ministers on earth are ratified in heaven. Only the priest, under the law, had power to pronounce the leper clean, Lev. xiii. 3: had any other Israelite done it, it had been both unprofitable and presumptuous.

It is a precious word that fell from Elihu ; • When a man's soul draweth nigh to the grave, and his life to the destroyer, if there be a messenger with him, an interpreter, one among a thousand, to show unto that man his uprightness; then he is gracious unto him and saith, Deliver him from going down into the pit; I have found a ransom.' Job xxxiii. 22-24.

Behold, this is thy case, my son. The life of thy soul is in danger of the destroyer, through his powerful temp

tations. I am, howsoever unworthy, a messenger sent to thee from heaven; and in the name of that great God who sent me, I do here, upon the sight of thy serious repentance, before angels and men, declare thy soul to stand right in the court of heaven. The invaluable ransom of thy dear Saviour is laid down and accepted for thee thou art delivered from going down into the pit of horror and perdition.

SECTION 3.

Aggravation of the grievous condition of the patient, and its remedies applied.

Oн happy message, thou sayest, were it as sure as it is comfortable! But, alas, my heart finds many and deep grounds of fear and diffidence, which will not easily be removed. That smites me, while you offer to acquit me; and tells me, I am in a worse condition than a looker-on can imagine. My sins are beyond measure heinous, such as my thoughts tremble at, such as I dare not utter to the God that knows them, and against whom only they are committed. There is horror in their very remembrance; what will there then be in their retribution ?

These are bitter things that thou urgest against thyself, my son no adversary could plead worse. But I admit thy vileness. Be thou as bad as Satan can make thee, it is neither his malice, nor thy wickedness, that can shut thee out from mercy. Be thou as foul as sin can make thee; yet there is a fountain opened to the house of David, a bloody fountain in the side of thy Saviour, for sin and for uncleanness. Zech. xiii. 1. Be thou as leprous as that Syrian was of old, if thou canst but wash seven times in the waters of this Jordan, thou canst not but be clean. Thy flesh shall come again to thee, like to the flesh of a little child; thou shalt be at once sound and innocent. 2 Kings v. 14. Be thou stung unto death,

with the fiery serpents of this wilderness; yet if thou canst but cast thine eyes to that brazen serpent which is erected there, thou canst not fail of cure.

Wherefore came the Son of God into the world, but to save sinners? Add if thou wilt, whereof I am chief;' thou canst say no worse of thyself than a better man did before thee, who in the right of a sinner, claimed the benefit of a Saviour. 1 Tim. i. 15. Were it not for our sin, what use were there of a Redeemer? Were not our sin heinous, how should it have required such an expiation as the blood of the eternal Son of God?

Take comfort to thyself, my son: the greatness of thy sin serves but to magnify the mercy of the Forgiver. To remit the debt of some few farthings, were a small praise; but to strike off the scores of thousands of talents, is the height of bounty. Thus doth thy God to thee: he hath suffered thee to run on in his books to so deep a sum, that when thy conscious heart hath proclaimed thee bankrupt, he may infinitely oblige thee and glorify his own mercy, in crossing the reckoning and acquitting thy soul.

All sums are equally dischargeable to the munificence of our great Creditor in heaven as it is the act of his justice to call for the least, so of his mercy to forgive the greatest. Had we to do with a finite power, we should have reason to sink under the burden of our sins; but there is neither more nor less to that which is infinite. Only let thy care be to lay hold on that infinite mercy which lies open before thee; and as thou art an object fit for mercy, in that thou art in thyself sinful and miserable enough, so find thyself as thou art, a subject meet to receive this mercy as a penitent believer. Open and enlarge thy bosom, to take in this free grace; close with thy blessed Saviour; and in him, possess thyself of remission, peace and salvation.

A

SECTION 4.

Complaint of impenitence and unbelief.

SWEET words, thou sayest, to those who can receive them. But what is all this to me, who am neither a penitent nor a true believer? Alas, that which is honey to others, is no better than gall and wormwood to me, who have not the grace to repent and believe as I ought.

Why wilt thou, my son, be so unwise and unjust, as to take part with Satan against thine own soul? Why wilt thou be so unthankfully injurious to the Father of mercies, as to deny those graces which his good Spirit hath so freely bestowed upon thee? If thou wert not penitent for thy sins, wherefore are these tears? What mean these sighs and sobs, and passionate expressions of sorrow, which I hear from thee? It is no worldly loss that thus afflicts thee; it is no bodily distemper that thus disquiets thee. Doubtless thou art soul-sick, my son. Thy spirit is deeply wounded within thee; and what can thus affect thy soul but sin; and what can this affection of thy soul be for sin, but true repentance?

SECTION 5.

Misgrounded sorrow lamented.

ALAS, thou sayest, I am indeed sorrowful for my sin, but not upon right grounds. I grieve for the misery that my sin has brought upon me, not for the evil of my sin; for the punishment, not the offence; for my own danger, not for the displeasure of my God.

Beware, my son, lest an undue humility cause thee to belie the graces of God's Spirit. Thou art no meet judge. of thyself, while under temptations. Had not thy sorrow a relation to thy God, why wouldst thou thus sigh towards heaven? Why would thy heart challenge thee for unkindness in offending; why dost thou cry out of

the foulness, as well as of the peril of thy sin? What is it that makes the act of sin to be so sinful, but the offence of the divine Majesty? How canst thou then be sorry that thou hast sinned, and not be sorry that thou hast offended?

Tell me, what is it, that thy conscience primarily suggests to thee in this deep impression of thy sorrow? Is it, thou shalt be punished; or is it not rather, thou hast sinned? And were it put to thy choice, whether thou wouldst rather enjoy the favour of God with the extremest smart, or be under his displeasure with ease; which wouldst thou prefer? Or if liberty were tendered thee, so that thou mightest freely sin without the danger of punishment; whether doth thy heart rise at the condition, as ready to fly in the face of the offerer?

Besides fear and horror, dost thou not find an inward kind of indignation at thy miscarriage; and such a hatred of thy sin, that were it to be done again, if it were possible to be hid from God and men, and if there were not a hell to avenge it, thou wouldst abhor to commit it? All these are strong convictions of the right grounds of thy repentance; and of the wrong which thou dost to thine own soul, in the unjust scruples which thou raisest against it.

SECTION 6.

Complaining of insufficient sorrow for sin.

If the grounds thou sayest, of my repentance be right; yet the measure is insufficient. I am sorrowful for my sins, but not enough. An effectual grief for sin should be serious, deep and intense: mine is slight and superficial. I sigh, but my sighs come not from the bottom of a humble heart. I can sometimes weep, but I cannot pour out myself into tears. I mourn, but I do not dwell upon my sorrow.

My son, thou hast to do with a God, who in all the dispositions of our souls, regards truth, and not quantity