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and defective obedience. When conviction first lays hold of a finner, however vain the attempt, he has ftill a ftrong inclination that righteousness" should come by the law." This is not wonderful; for in no other way can he himfelf have any title to glory, and a thorough renunciation of all felf-intereft, is too great a facrifice to be made at once. Hence he is ready to look with some measure of fatisfaction on those who have been greater finners than himself, and fecretly to found his expectation of pardon for those fins he hath committed, on the fuperior heinoufnefs of thofe from which he hath abstained. Hence alfo he is ready to hope he may make fufficient atonement for his paft fins by future amendment: but a discovery of the holiness of God, and the obligation to love him with all the heart, and foul, and strength, and mind, foon deftroys this fond imagination. It fhews him that he can at no time do more than his duty; that he never can have any abounding or foliciting merit: nay, that a whole eternity, so to speak, of perfect obedience, would do just nothing at all ́ towards expiating the guilt of the leaft fin. But befides all this, the fame thing fhews him, that his beft duties are ftained with fuch fins and imperfections, that he is ftill but adding to the charge, inftead of taking from the old fcore; for

" we

we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousneffes are but as filthy rags; and we "all do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like "the wind, have carried us away *." Thus, one after another, he is ftript of every plea, however eagerly he may cleave to them, and fupport or bolfter up one, by the addition of another. He fees not only his danger, but his guilt; not only the fearfulness of his ftate, but the holiness and righteousness of his judge. He lies down proftrate at the foot-ftool of the Almighty, and makes unmerited mercy and fovereign grace the only foundation of his hope.

SECT. IV.

Of the degree of forrow for fin in true penitents.

HAVING
AVING thus confidered the proper fource

of genuine conviction and forrow for fin, it was proposed next to enquire, to what degree, it must be, in order to a faving change. The truth is, were not this a question often proposed, and the refolution of it defired by ferious perfons, the weakest of whom deserve all attention and regard from every minifter of Chrift, I fhould have left it altogether untouched. The reason of this obfervation is, that I am perfuaded, and take the

Ifaiah lxiv. 6.

prefent

prefent opportunity of affirming it, that the chief diftinction between convictions genuine or falutary, and fuch as are only tranfitory and fruitless, does not lie in their ftrength and violence, fo much as their principle and fource, which has been formerly explained.

There is often as great, or, perhaps, it may be fafely faid there is often a greater degree of terror in perfons brought under occafional convictions, which are afterwards fruitlefs, than in others in whom they are the introduction to a faving change. It is probable that the horror of mind which poffeffed Cain after his brother's murder, was of the moft terrible kind. It is probable that the humiliation of Ahab, after he had caufed Naboth to be destroyed by false evidence, and was threatned with a dreadful vifita-` tion, was exceeding great. It is probable that the mere paffion of fear in either of these criminals was equal, if not fuperior, to the fear of any true penitent recorded in fcripture. It is the' principle that distinguishes their nature. It is the differing principle that produces oppofite effects. The one is alarmed and trembles through fear of wrath from an irrefiftible and incenfed God; the other is truly fenfible of fin in all its malignity, and fears the fanction of a righteous but violated law. The one feels himself a miferable creature ; the other confeffes himfelf a guilty finner. The one is terrified, and the other is humbled.

It

It is fome doubt with me, whether in fruitless convictions there is any sense at all of fin, as fuch; I mean, as truly meriting punishment from a juft and holy God. Such perfons ordinarily are displeased at the holiness of God's nature, and murmur at the ftrictness of his law; and therefore, however much they may dread fuffering here or hereafter, they cannot be faid to be convinced of fin. We have feen fome who, when afflictions brought their fins to remembrance, were but driven on, by defpair, to higher degrees of guilt, and, the more they feemed to fear the approaching judgment of God, only increased inthe impatience of blafpheming rage.

However, as there is a great meafure of deceit in the human heart, fome may be ready to flatter themselves, on the one hand, that they have seen the evil of fin in itself; and fome, on the other, to fear that they have not feen it as they ought, because their forrow has not rifen to the requifite degree. Many have expreffed uneafinefs that they never mourned for fin in a manner correfponding to the strong feripture declarations of its odious and hateful nature, or to the following defcription of gofpel penitents: "And I will

66

pour upon the house of David, and upon the "inhabitants of Jerufalem, the spirit of grace "and fupplication, and they shall look upon me

whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn

❝ for

"for him as one mourneth for his only son, and "shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in "bitterness for his first-born *.” For this reafon I fhall make an observation or two on the degree of forrow for fin in true penitents, which may enable us to judge in every question of the fame nature.

1. One thing, in general, must be carefully remembered, that we ought not to lay down one rule for all perfons. We are not to measure the forrow of any true penitent, and make a standard from it for the effects or expreffions of forrow in any other. The ftrength of all the paffions, and their readiness to exprefs themselves, is greater naturally in fome than in others. There is nothing of which men may be more fenfible from daily experience. Love and hatred, joy and grief, defire and averfion, fhew themfelves by much more violent emotions in fome than in others. It would be wrong, therefore, to reduce all to one rule, and none ought to look upon it as a just caufe of difquiet, that they have not had the fame degree or depth of diftrefs and anguish which others have had, of whom they have read or heard. Another circumftance may alfo be the occafion of diverlity. In fome, convictions may have been more early and gradual, and, therefore, lefs violent and fenfible. It is not to be fuppofed

* Zech. xii. 10.

that

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