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SERM.
v1.]
SINS AND SORROWS
SPREAD BEFORE COD.
99
great
readiness, when
God
says in
h.
i. 18.
"
Come,
let
us
reason
together
;
though
your
sins have been as
scarlet, they shall be
as
wool."
"
I
am
ready,"
says
the
soul,
"
to
enter
into such reasonings
;
I
am
ready to
confess
before thee,
that
my
sins
are
all
crimson
and
starlet, but there
is
cleansing blood
with
thy son
:
Blood
that
has washed the
garments
of
a
thousand
sin-
ners,
and made them
white
as snow
;
and it
has
the
same
virtue
still to wash
mine too
:
I trust
in
it,
and
re-
joice
when
I
behold
that
blood
sprinkled upon
the
mercy-seat,
and therefore
I
gròw
confident
in
hope,
and draw yet nearer
to
God,
a
reconciled God,
since
his
throne
has
the memorials
of
a
bleeding sacrifice
upon
it."
2.
If
I
could get
near
the
seat,
of
God,
I
would
tell
him how many
my.
enemies are, and
how
strong;
how
malicious,
and
how
full
of
rage.
And
I
would beg
strength
against
them,
and victory over
them.
I
would say
as
David Many
there
be
that
hate
me,
many
there
be
that
rise up against
me;
and
many
there
be
that
say
of
my soul,
there
is
no
help for
him in
God
:
but
thou,
O
God,
art
my glory, my
shield,
and the lifter
up
of
my
head;
Fs.
iii.
1,
2,
3.
Then,
says
the
soul,
I
would
complain
to
God of
all
my
in-
dwelling
corrup-
tion,
of
the
body
of
death
that
dwells
in me,
or'in
which
I
dwell
;
and
say,
"
O
wretched man
that
I
am;
who
shall
deliver
me
?"
I
would tell him
then
of
the
secret
working
of
pride
in my
heart, though
I
long
to be
hùm-
ble;
of
the
rising
of,
ambition
in my soul,
though
I
would willingly
maintain a
middle
state amongst
men,
and not
aim
and aspire
to be
great. I
would
acquaint
him
of
the vanity
of
my own
mind,
though
I
am
perpetually
endeavouring
to
subdue
it.
I
would tell
him,
with
tears,
of
my
sinful passions,
of
my
anger
and
impatience, and
the workings
of
envy
and
revenge
in
me;
of
the
perpe-
tual
stirrings
of
disorderly appetites, whereby I
am led
away from
my
God
:
I
would tell
him
of
the
hardness
of
my
heart, and the obstinacy
of
Any
temper.
I
would
open before
his eye,
all the
vices
of
my
constitution;
all
those secret
seeds
of
iniquity
that
are ever budding and
blossoming to bring forth
fruit
to death. These things
are
fit
to
mourn
before the
Lord,
when
the
soul
is
come
near
to
his seat.
it
M