SINCERE SENSE OF SIN. 57 or yet strangers to him ; yet I shall not insist upon any general improvement of it, because it is intended only for one special end or purpose. What is aimed at is, to show that in the first thoughts that arise in the heart of a poor entangled soul when he begins to endeavor a re- turn to God, the law immediatelyputs in its claim against him. God is represented to him as angry, and his terror besets him round about. This fills himwith fear and confusion, so that he knows not what to do. These trou- bles are greater or less, according as God sees it best for the poor creature's present humiliation and future safety. What then does the sinner l What are his thoughts on this subject 1 Does he think to fly from God, and to give over all endeavors of recovery 1 Does he say, This God is a holy and terrible God, I cannot serve him; it is to no purpose for me to look for any thing but fury and destruction from him, and therefore I may as well give over as persist in my design of draw- ing nigh to him. It cannot be denied that thoughts, of this nature will be suggested by unbelief, and sometimes great perplexities arise to the soul. But this is not the issue and final product of this exercise of the soul : it produces another effect ; it calls for that which is the first particular working of a gracious soul, arising out of its sinentanglements : viz. 1, a sincere sense of sin; and, 2, the acknowledgment of it; with, 3, self-con- demnation in the justification of God. L A SINCERE SENSE OF SIN. There is a twofold sense of sin : the one general and intellectual, whereby a man knows what sin is, that he is a sinner, that he is guilty of this or that, these or those sins; but his heart is not affected proportionally to his knowledge. The other is active and efficacious, in which the soul being acquaint- ed with the nature of sin and its own guilt, is influenced by that apprehension to suitable affections and acts. 3*
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=