THE TRUE PENITENT. 483 the wicked, Eph. vi. 15. joy unspeakable, i Pet. i. 8. and the salvation of the soul, 1 Pet. i. 9. neb. x. 39. Be not afraid of this conviction of unbelief, for it generally goes before divine faith, as the fermentation of a grain of corn in the earth is previous to its shoot- ing its stalk towards heaven. God concludes, shuts up in unbelief, says St. Paul, that he may have mercy upon us, Rom. xi. 32. When the Comforter is come, says our Lord, he will convince the world of sin, be- cause they believe not in me. This is the transgression, which peculiarly deserves the name of sin, as being the damning sin, according to the gospel, Mark xvi. 16. the sin that binds upon us the guilt of all our other iniquities, and keeps ùp the power of all our corrup- tions. Its immediate effect is to harden the heart, Mark xvi. 14. and make it depart from the living God, Heb. iii. 12. and this hardness and departure are the genuine parents of all our actual sins, the number and blackness of which increases and decreases, as the strength of unbelief grows or decays. A conviction of this sin is of the utmost importance, as nothing but an affecting sense of its heinousness and power, can make us entirely weary of ourselves nothing but a sight of its destructive nature can pre- vent our resting without a complete cure. But when thou art once convinced of unbelief, do not' increase the difficulty of believing, by imagining true faith at an immense distance. Consider it as very near thy heart. That which convinces thee of sin and unbelief can in a moment, and with the great - est ease, convince thee of righteousness, and reveal in thee Christ the hope of glory. How quickly can the Spirit take of the things that belong to him, and show them unto thee ! Say not then in thy heart, Who shall ascend into heaven, or descend into the deep, to get the seed of faith ? But let St. Paul show thee the new and living way. "The word is nigh thee, says he, even in thy mouth and in thy heart, that is, the word -of faith which we preach ; that if thou shalt confess
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