258 rBAITH BUILT ON KNOWLEDGE. [DISC. x our natural delight in sin and the creature, and our na- tural aversion to God, and all that is holy :. together with our utter incapacity of enjoying heaven whilst we are in this temper, and our impotence to change our own natures, and turn our souls from earth to heaven. It supposes and implies a painful sense of our having offended God, and weariness of this state of sin, and a hearty willingness to be delivered from it : For why should we seek after the knowledge of such an almighty Friend and Saviour, if we were not fearful of eternal ',misery without one ? Or why should we concern our- selves about a person that can subdue sin in us, if we, arenotso far made willing to part with it, as to have our natures reformed into holiness ? And let it be observed, that this painful sense; this inward weariness of the power and reign of sin in us, and this desire 'of deliver- ance from it, is the most essential part of true repent- ance, or the conversionofthe soul from sin to God. It includes, in the next place, a sight and belief of the all-sufficiency of Christ to supply our wants ; that there is atonement in him for our sins, and pardon pro- cured by him ; that there is.righteousness with him for our justification and acceptance unto eternal life ; and all this by the means of his perfect obedience and death, That there is power and grace in him to conquer all our sins, to suppress temptations, to reform our vicious ap- petites, to incline our wills to God, to strengthen our endeavours for the practice of all holiness ; to keep us . in the favour and in the image of God; and conduct us safe to heaven ; and that he is appointed by the Father to do all this for.sinners. It consists formally in a committing of the guilty and sinful soul to the care of Christ, according to his Father's commission to take care of lost souls, and to keep that which is committed to him. It is a secret address ofthe heart untò Christ, whereby we resign our guilty persons to him, to be pardoned. for the sake of his sufferings ; pur unrighteous souls,to be accepted through his righte- ousness ; our sinful and polluted natures to be sanctified by the power of his grace, and to be preserved safe to death and glory. After all this, there .follows an acquiescence, or rest rf the soul in Christ, i. hich lie promised, when he called
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