THE TRUE PENITENT. 475 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. 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 for presumption to despair. 1f, still perplexed, thou askest what thou must do, to get a sense of thy depravity, productive of a true re- pentance ? I answer, that an affecting discovery of the guilt, nature,. and danger of sin, is only attained 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 IL DIRECTIONS, proper for a half-awakened sinner, desirous of being duly convinced of his corrupt and lost estate. Beware of fools, that make a mock at sorrow for sin, and sin itself. Beware of those blind leaders of the blind, who having a form of godliness, deny the power thereof: instead of pointing thee to the throne of grace, and bidding thee to " behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the worlds' hl
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