dure it, do now even cherish and indulge it. It is a voluntary sorrow; they mourn and would mourn like him that cried out, "Labour not to comfort me a;" that is, till God will comfort me. As a sore that is not ripe will not break nor run, and that which is not suppurable is oft incurable, but when it is brought to suppuration and ripeness, then it will even break of itself, and run without any more ado: so is it with the impenitent soul and the penitent; till repentance comes, the soul is not ripe; ministers are every day applying to it all the mollifying, dissolving remedies they can devise, to bring it to suppuration, but all will not do; their hearts will not break, not a tear of unfeigned repentance will come forth; they hide their sin, and scorn to make a penitent confession. But Oh! when grace hath done the work, and softened the heart, and ripened the sore, then it will come out of its own accord. I would not have you take this upon my bare word, but see whether the Scripture say not so before me, Acts ii. 37. They were once a stubborn generation of sinners that the apostles had there to deal withal, that durst have their hands in the blood of Christ himself; but when they were once converted," they were pricked at the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?" This did imply a confession of their sin: q. d. We confess ourselves guilty, and we find our souls in a miserable case under the wrath and curse of God: O give us your advice what we shall do. These were three thousand people at once that were brought to this conviction. and confession. See how freely all comes out, when the heart is once pricked by the Word and Spirit! The like you know was the case of Saul at his conversion, Acts ix. 5, 6. as stout a hearted sinner before as another; but when God overpowered him by converting grace, then he calls out with trembling and astonishment, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" And when he relateth his own life and manner of conversion, Acts xxii. 4, 5. how freely doth he confess his former persecution! And again, in Acts xxvi. 10, 11. confessing that he was a persecutor, "yea, and punished Christians in the synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme; yea, was mad, yea, exceedingly mad against a Isa. xxii. 4. them." The like doth he confess, Tit. iii. 3. Acts xvi. the apostles met with a sturdy jailor that put them in the inner prison, and their feet fast in the stocks; but when an earthquake opened the doors and set them free, and a heartquake brought him in, and laid him at their feet, and grace took the opportunity to do its work, then he crieth out with trembling, ver. 30. "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" David tells you his own experience, Psal. xxxii. 5, 6. "I acknowledged my sins unto thee, and mine iniquity have I 'not hid: I said, I will confess my transgression unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin: for this shall every one that is godly, pray unto thee in a time when thou mayst be found." And after his grievous fall, the fifty-first Psalm will shew you his confession. So Acts xix. 18. 66 Many confessed and shewed their deeds, and brought their books and burned them before all men." These were such as were reputed wise and learned before; but when grace had changed them, they openly confess that all was folly. Many more such examples we have, and precepts where God requireth it; Ezra x. 1. Neh. ix. 2, 3. Lev. v 5. xvi. 21. xxvi. 40. Numb. v. 7. And indeed, pardonitself is offered on these terms, 1 John i. 9. "If we confess, he is faithful and just to forgive." Prov. xxviii. 13. “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper; but whoso confesseth them and forsaketh them, shall have mercy." James v. 16. "Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another.". And indeed in the first times, no man was baptized that did not confess his sins openly before, and renounce them; even John himself caused the Jews to confess their sins before he would baptize them; Matt. iii. 6. Mark i. 5. So in Jer. iii. 12, 13. "Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the Lord, and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you; for I am merciful, saith the Lord; and I will not keep mine anger for ever; only confess thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the Lord, &c. Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord, for I am married to you, &c." You see here that conversion hath ever confession accompanying it. He that turneth, must and will confess, as the repenting church, Jer. xiv. 20. 'We acknowledge, O Lord, our wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers; for we have sinned against thee: do not abhor us for thy name's sake." And Hos. v. 15. it was the Lord's threatening against them, "I will go and return unto my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face; in their afflictions they will seek me early." So that it is most evident that conversion openeth the heart and mouth to confess, even to God or man, or both, according as the case requireth: not but that a Judas will do it at last in horror, and cry out, "I have sinned in betraying the innocent blood:" but this is forced by horror, and not by a gracious change. Many a thief will confess their sin at the gallows, that are not converted; but when conversion comes, the very mind being changed, is set against the sin, and therefore they long to cast it up. Hiding tendeth to keeping, confession tendeth to parting with sin: therefore he that is penitent doth not hide it, so far as he hath any call to confess it. O sirs, that the Lord would bring this to the hearts of some of you that most need it: one may hear by your speeches that conversion is far from your hearts. How many among us are there that have little cause to justify themselves, and yet we cannot bring them to any confession, but what is general and common with all, That we are sinners! But for any hateful and disgraceful sin, they excuse it, and hide it; and have nothing but good almost to say of themselves. You shall not hear one sad complaint almost that they will make against themselves. If you have a froward wife, you will complain of that; if disobedient children, if careless or stubborn servants, you will complain of them. If you have unkind friends or neighbours, you will complain of them; but of yourselves, where you have greatest reason to complain, we can scarce hear a word. If any do you wrong, you are still harping upon it, and making the worst of it; but for all the wrong that you have done to God and your own souls, you can lightly pass it over, and make little of it: and who heareth you half so oft complain of yourselves as others? What say you, is it not thus with many among us? You know not how sad a mark this is. I tell you, if ever converting grace come to your hearts, it will make you pour out complaints against yourselves; it will make you cry with David, "I have done foolishly" and with Paul, "I was foolish, disobeb 2 Sam. xxiv. 10. dient, I was mad, yea, exceedingly mad: "and, "O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me d?" Mark the unconverted man in his talk, and you shall hear him, if not as the Pharisee, saying, "I am not like other men;" yet at least saying nothing against himself, but nibbling at the good names of others, and making the devil more servants than indeed he hath, and God fewer, by their venturous censures; they have the hypocrite's eye that was not made to see itself, that is good for little, but to spy motes in others' eyes; but the beam in their own they cannot see. The infirmities of those that fear God they can talk of; but a graceless heart and a worldly, fleshly life of their own doth little trouble them. But when converting grace comes, you may hear by their very talk, that the case is changed; they have nobody then to talk against, so much as themselves; their censures against themselves do seem the most uncharitable; their talk is most of the sins of their own hearts and lives: and blame them not, for these are nearest them, and most concern them: the mote in their own eye doth most grieve them, and till they have wiped out that, they have less mind to look into the eyes of others. In a word, whosoever is justified of God, and freed from condemnation, is a judger and condemner of himself; 1 Cor. xi. 31. But they that lie under the condemnation of God, are commonly self-justifiers; Luke xvi. 15. (2.) Another means that converting grace doth turn the heart to, is, earnest prayer to God. A man unconverted is a stranger to true prayer; either he doth nothing in his duty, or that which is next to nothing: commonly they will not be brought so much as to the outside and form of the duty; but if they be, that is all; till some affliction or conviction come and awaken them to a little more for a time: but they never fall to this work to the purpose, till saving grace do truly change them: a carnal heart feeleth no such need of God or mercy, as to drive him to beg for it from day to day. He feels himself well enough, and therefore saith with them in Job xxi. 15. "What is the Almighty that we should serve him? and what profit should we have if we pray unto him?" as Mal. iii. 14. they scarce think it worth their labour. It may be for fear of perishing with the ungodly, and • Acts xxvi. 11. Tit. iii. 3. d Rom. vii. 24. : from some general conviction of conscience, they may use some formal, cold expressions, or perhaps take up the outside of this duty: but it is not prayer, without the desires of the soul which carry out a man to seek for mercy and relief to God: unconverted men are either dumb to this holy duty, or their hearts are dumb while their tongues are speaking either they have nothing to say to God; or nothing but some words that they get by rote, and utter without the feeling of their souls; or else they have little else but words. Their consciences witness, and God himself is a witness, that they do not in secret beg earnestly for his mercy: they do not heartily call to him for pardoning grace and sanctifying grace: with their families they do not earnestly beg of God the same mercy, as a people that desire that he should dwell among them. For where there is no true feeling of sin and misery, and desire after grace, there can be no hearty prayers to God: what need you any further mark of a graceless soul, than that they are prayerless. But converting grace doth open the heart, and let in the Holy Ghost, which is a Spirit of supplication; and this Spirit doth help their infirmities, and whereas, of themselves, they know not what to pray for as they ought, he maketh request for them with groans that are unutterable f." As the new-born infant, or any living creature, will quickly shew whether it be alive, by making towards the parent or dam for its nourishment; so will the new-born Christian. It is not unlikely that the apostle referreth to this: "We have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry Abba, Father." As the child doth first learn to cry dad or mam; so doth the Christian first learn to make out to God as a Father, and by prayer to seek to him for relief; and for certain, as the Spirit of Christ is a Spirit of prayer, so if any man "have not this Spirit, he is none of his "." The evidence that God giveth Ananias of Saul's conversion, was this, "Behold he prayeth h." It was the proof of Cornelius's grace, that "he prayed to God always i." And the angel takes the time of his prayer, to appear to him; and Peter that must be sent unto him, is found at prayer. The new e Zech. xii. 10. f Rom. viii. 26, 27. g Rom. viii. 15. 9. |