58 FORGIVENESS OP SIN. Of both thesewe have an instance in the same person. David, before Nathan's coming to him, had the former; afterwards he had the latter also. It cannot be imagined but that, before the coming of the prophet, he had a ge- neral knowledge of the nature of sin, and that he was a sinner, and guilty of those very sins for which after- wards he was reproved. But yet this wrought not in him any one affection suitable to his condition; and the same may be said of most sinners in theworld. But now, when Nathancomes to him and gives him the latter effi- cacious sense of which we speak, we know what effects it produced. It is the latter only that is under consid- eration; a deep and practical apprehension, wrought in the mind and heart by the Holy Ghost, of sin and its evils, in reference to the law and love of God, the cross and blood of Christ, the communion and consolation of the Spirit, and all the fruits of love, mercy or grace that it has been made partaker of, or on gospel-grounds has hoped for. 1. The principal efficient cause of it is the Holy Ghost: he it is who " convinceth of sin." John, 16 : 8. He works indeed by means. He wrought it in David by the ministry of Nathan, and he wrought it in Peter by the look of Christ. But his work it is. No man can work it upon his own soul. It will not spring out of men's rational considerations. Though men mayexercise their thoughts about such things as one would think were enough to break the hearts of stones; yet if the Holy Ghost put not forth a peculiar efficacy of his own, this sense of sin will not be produced. As the waters at the pool of 'Bethesda were not troubled but when an angel descended and moved them, no more will the heart be for sin without a saving entrance of the Holy Ghost. 2. It is a deep apprehension of sin, and the evils of it. Slight transient thoughts amount not to the sense of which we speak. "My sorrow," saith David, "is con-
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