I. Pretiminary ReEFiections on the Nature and’

Depth of penitential. Sorrow.—Thou knowest that except thou truly repentest, thou shalt surely perish, and that there is no true repentance, where there is not true sorrow for sin. “I rejoice (says St. Paul to the Corinthians) that ye were made sorry after a godly manner: for godly sorrow worketh repentance to sal- vation not to be repented of; but the sorrow of the
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world worketh death.” Hence it appears, that there are two softs of sorrow springing from opposite sources, God and the world; the one a godly sorrow, and the other the sorrow of the world. Learn to dis- tinguish them by their various causes and effects; so shalt thou avoid the danger of mistaking one for the other.
The sorrow of the world, which many ‘cover with the cloak of religion, arises from fear of contempt, dread of poverty, secret jealousy, revenge dissatisfied, love disappoimted, bafiled schemes, losses in. business, unkindness of friends, provocation of enemies, or the death of some idolized relative. Nay, this sorrow may sometimes spring from a mixture of self-righteous pride and slavish fear. Some cannot bear to be robbed of their fond hopes of meriting. heaven by their imaginary good works: they lose all patience, when: they see their best righteousness, brought: to. light, and exposed as filthy rags: they are cut to the heart when they hear, that their apparent good deeds deserve punishment as well,as' their black enormities.: or like condemned. malefactors, they dread the con- sequences) of their crimes, while they feel little or no horror for the crimes' themselves.
Exceeding fatal are the effects of this. sorrow, in the person whom it overcomes: their indignant hearts, “unable to bear either disappointment, contradiction, - or condemnation, rise against second causes, or against. the decrees of Providence; fret at the strictness of the law, or holiness of the Lawgiver; and pine away with uninterrupted discontent. Henee, spurning at. advice, direction, and consolation, they wring their hands, or gnaw their tongues with anguish; impatience works them up into stupid sullenness, or noisy mur- muring: they complain, that their punishment is greater than they can bear; and, imagining they are more severely dealt with than others, they hastily con- clude, “‘ Behold, this evil is from the Lord; why should I wait for him any longer?” Thus black despair seizes upon their spirits: and, if grace does not inter- pose, they either live on to fill up the measure of their
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iniquities, as Cain, Pharaoh, and Haman; or madly lay violent hands upon themselves, as Ahithophel and Judas.
This sorrow cannot be too much guarded against, as it not only destroys many persons, but does immense hurt to religion. For those who are glad of any pre- tence to pour contempt upon godliness, taking occa- sion from the instances of this sorrow, harden their own hearts, and prejudice all around them against the blessed godly sorrow, which every minister of the gospel endeavours to excite; maliciously representing it as one and the same with the mischievous sorrow of the world.
Their mistake will be evident, if we trace godly sorrow back to itssource. It does not spring merely from fear of punishment; but chiefly from humbling views of God’s holiness, the impurity of the human nature, the exceeding sinfulness of sin, and the tran- scendant excellency of the law, which condemns the sinner.
And this happy sorrow differs not less from the other in its effects, than it does in its cause. The per- sons who are blessed with it, far from murmuring, or fretting at the divine commandment, see it to be holy, just, and good, both in its preceptive and penal part. They so absolutely acquiesce in it, that they would not alter it if they could. They clear God, accuse themselves, subscribe their own sentence, and acknow- ledge, ‘‘ It is of the Lord’s mercies, that we are not consumed.” Each of them can say, ‘‘ Wherefore should a living man complain, a man for the punish- ment of his sins? It is good that he should both hope, and quietly wait for God's salvation: I will therefore watch to see what he will say unto me; for he will speak peace unto his people.” Thus, in a constant use of all the ordinances of God, they meekly wait, wrestling with their unbelieving fears, till victorious faith comes by hearing of the matchless love of Jesus _ Christ; and then, fearing the Lord and his goodness,
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they sing the song of the Lamb, and run his delightful errands. .
And as thou seest, serious Reader, the nature, necessity, and excellence, of godly sorrow, thou art propably desirous of being informed, how deep thine must be, to constitute thee a true penitent. Know, then, that it must be deep enough to imbitter thy most
pleasing, profitable, and habitual sins, and to prevent
thy resting without a clear sense of thy peculiar interest in Christ.—It must be profound enough to make him and his gospel infinitely precious to thee, and to produce, under God, the blessed effects here- after to be mentioned.
To be more particular; a true penitent may cer- tainly, without despair or madness, go as far in godly
sorrow, as David does in his penitential plalms, or our.
church in the first of the homily on fasting: “‘ When good men, says she, feel in themselves the heavy bur- den of sin, see damnation to be the reward of it, and behold with the eye of their mind the horror of hell, they tremble, they quake, they are inwardly touched with sorrowfulness of heart for their offences, and
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cannot but accuse themselves, and open their grief —
unto almighty God, and call on him for mercy. This being done seriously, their mind is so occupied, partly with sorrow and heaviness, partly with an earnest desire to be delivered from the danger of hell and damnation, and all desire of meat and drink is laid aside, and loathing of all worldly things and pleasures come in place, so that they like nothing better than to weep, to Jament, to mourn, and, both with words and be- haviour of body, do show themselves weary of this life.”
Nevertheless it must be observed, that godly sorrow needs not be equal either in degree or duration, in all penitents. Those whose hearts through divine grace open as readily and gently as that of Lydia, happily avoid many of David’s pangs and Job’s terrors. The powerful and instantaneous, or the gentle and gradual manner, in which souls are awakened ; the difference
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of constitutions; the peculiar services that a few are — called to, and for which they are prepared by peculiar exercises; the horrid aggravations that have attended the sins of some; and the severe correction which the Lord is obliged to give others, for their stout resistance against his grace—all this may help us to account for the various depths of distress, through which different penitents pass in their way to Christ and salvation. é
The Lord does not needlessly afflict the children of men, any more than a tender father unnecessarily corrects his disobedient children; he only wants us to forsake our sins, renounce our own imaginary righ- teousness, and come to Christ to be made partakers of his merits, holiness, and felicity. The sorrow, which answers these ends, is quite sufficient; though it should be ever so light, and of ever so short a dura- tion. On the contrary, a distress as heavy as that of Judas is unavailable, if, instead of driving us from sin to Jesus Christ, it only drives us from profaneness to — hypocrisy, or from presumption to despair.
If, still perplexed, thou askest what thou must do, to get a sense of thy depravity, productive of a true re-
_ pentence; I answer, that an affecting discovery of the
guilt, nature, and danger of sin, is only attamed by the assistance of God’s Spirit, who alone effectually convinces the world of sin, John xvi. 8. But the Lord has graciously appointed means, in the right use of which he never denies a sinner the convincing and converting power of his blessed Spirit; and what they are, thou art informed in the following—