SINCERE SENSE 07 SIN. 59 tinually before me." Psalm 38 : 17. It pressed him al- ways, and greatly. Hence he compares this sense nr sin, wrought by the Holy Ghost, to " arrows that stick in the flesh." verse 2. They pain sorely, and are al- ways perplexing. Sin, in this sense of it, lays hold on the soul so that the sinner cannot "look up ;" and it abides with him, making " his sore run in the night with- out ceasing," and deprives the soul of rest : "My soul," saithhe, "refused to be comforted." This apprehension of sin lies down and rises with him. 3. lt is practical. It is not seated merely in the spe- culative part of the mind, hovering in general notions ; but it dwells in the practical understanding, which ef- fectually influences the will and affections ; such an ap- prehension, that sorrow and humiliation are inseparable from it. 4. It has respect to the law of God. There can he no due consideration of sin in which the law has not its place. The more a man sees of the excellency of the law, the more he sees of the vileness of sin. This is true of a soul in its first endeavor for a recovery from the entanglements of sin. He labors thoroughly to know his disease, that he may be cured. lt will do him no good, he knows, to be ignorant of his disease or his danger. He knows that if his wounds be not searched to the bottom they will fester and destroy him. To the law, then, he brings himself and his sin ; and by it learns his vileness and danger. Most men lie in their depths because they wish to avoid the first step of their rising : from the bottom of their misery they would fain at once be at the top of their felicity. The soul, led in this work by the Holy Ghost, does not so. He converses with the law, brings his sins to it, and fully hears its sentence. As ever you desire to come to rest, avoid not this en, trance of your passage unto it. Weigh well what the law speaks of your sin and its desert, or you will never
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