Serin Of' Con,feffìon, and Sorrow for Sin. i 9 2. From the Nature of the thing, becaufe without this there can be no Re- pentance towards God. He that will not fo much as own the faults which he hath been guilty of, can never repent of them. Ifwe will not confefsour Sins to God, we are never like to be forry for them. Thus much for thefrrß thing in the Text, the Confeffion ofour Sins. I proceednow to the. Second Ingredient of Repentance mentioned in the Text, which is Sorrow for Sin ; I will declare mine Iniquity, and hefurry for my Sin. In the handlingof this Argument, Ihall I. Confider theNature ofthis Paillon of Sorrow, II. The Reafon and Grounds ofour Sorrow for Sin. III. The Meafureand Degreesof it. , Iv. How far the outward expreflion of our inward grief byTears is neceffary to a true Repentance. . I. For the Nature of this Palfion. Sorrow is a trouble or difturbance ofMind, occafioned by fomething that is evil, done or fuffer'd by us, or which we are in danger of fuffering, that tends greatlyto our damageor mifchief : So that to be forry for a thing, is nothing elfe but tobe fenfibly affe&ed with the Confideration of the evil of it, and of the mifchiefand inconvenience which is like to redound tous from it : Which if itbe a Moral evil, fucli as Sin is, to be forry for it, is to be troubled that wehave done it, and to with with all our hearts that we had been wifer, and had done otherwife ; and if this Sorrow be true and real, if it abide and nay upon us, it will producea firm Purpofe and Befolution in us, not to do the like for the future. 'Tis true indeed, that we are Paid to be forty for the death and lots of Friends.; but this is rather the effe& of Natural Affe&ion than of our Reafon, which al- ways endeavours to check and moderate our grieffor that which wecannot help, and labours by all means to turn our Sorrow into Patience : And we are faid likewife to grieve for themiferies and fufferings of others but this is not fo pro- perly Sorrow as Pity and Compaffìon. Sorrow rather refpe&s our felves, and our own doings and fufferings. I proceed in the II. Place to enquire into the Reafons and Grounds of our Sorrowfor Sin ; and they, as I have already hinted, are there two , the Intrinfecal, or the Confequent evil ofSin ; either the evil of Sin in it felf, or the mifchiefs or inconveniences which it will bring upon us. For every one that is forry for any Fault he is guil- ty of, he is fo uponone of thefe two accounts; either upon the fcore of ingenui- ty, or of iutereff; either becaufe he bath done a thing which is unworthy in it felf, or becaufe he bath done fomething which may prove prejudicial to himfelf; either out of aprinciple of love and gratitude to God, or from a principle of felf-love. And tho' the former of there be the better, the more generous princi- pleof Sorrow ; yet the latter is ufually the firft; becaufe it is themore fenfible, and touchethus more nearly : For Sin is a bare and illnatur'd thing, and ren- ders a Man not foapt to be.affeaed with the injuries he hath offer'd to God, as with the Mifchiefwhich is likely to fall upon himfelf. And therefore I will be- gin with the latter, becaufe it is ufually the more fenfible caufe ofour Troubleand Sorrow for Sin. r. The great Mifchief and Inconvenience that Sin is like to bring upon us. When a Man is thoroughly conviric'd of the danger into which his Sins have brought him, that they have made him a child of wrath, and a Son ofperdition, that he is thereby fallen under the heavy difpleafure ofAlmighty God, and liable to all thofe dreadful curves which are written inhis Book, that ruin and deftru- &ion hang over him, and that nothing keeps himfrom eternal and intolerable tor- ments, but the Patience and Long-fuffering of God, which hedoes not know how foon it may ceafe to interpole between him and the wrath of God, and let him fall into that endlefsand infupportable mifery, which is the juft portion and defert of his Sins ; he that lays to heartthe fad Eftate and Condition into which he bath brought himfelfby Sin, and the Mifchiefs whichattend him everymoment ofhis continuance in that (late, and how near they are to him, and that there is but a ftep between hint and Death, and hardly anotherbetweeep that andHell, be can-, D 2 not
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