go not Oil, tlicreforo, as thou lovest thyself, hut tiu-n aside to this gospel-path, and thou escapest the danger. O you tempted soids, when Satan saith you are not hunihled enough, see where you may he relieved: ' I am a Roman,' saith Paul, ' I appeal to Ctesar.' I am a Christian, say, I appeal to Christ's law. And what is the law of the gospel concerning this ? Heart-sorrow is gospel-sorrow ; ' They were pricked in their heart,' Acts i. 37. And Peter, like an honest siu-geon, will not keep these hleeding patients longer in pain with their wounds open, but presently claps on the healing plaster of the gospel ; ' Believe in tlie Lord Jesus.' Now a prick to the heart is more than a wound to the conscience. The heart is the seat of life. Sin woimded, there lies a dying. To do anything from the heart, makes it acceptable, Eph. vi. 6 ; 2 Cor. v. 11. Now, poor soul, hadst thou sat thus long in the devil's stocks, if thou hadst understood this aright .' Doth thy heart clear or condemn thee, when in secret thou art bemoaning thy sin before God ? If thy lieart be false, I cannot help von ; no, not the gospel itself; but if sincere, thou hast boldness with God, 'l John iii. 21.
A second argument Satan useth, is this : He whose sorrow falls short of theirs that never truly repented, he is not humble enough. But, soul, thy sorrow falls short of some, that never truly repented ; Ergo. Well, the first proposition is true, but how will Satan prove his minor? Thus, Ahab, he took on for his sin, and went in sackcloth. Judas, he made bitter complaint. O (saith Satan) didst thou not know such a one that lay under terror of con- science, walking in a sad moui-nful condition so many months, and eveiy one took him for the greatest convert in the country ; and yet he at last fell foully and proved an apostate ; but thou never didst feel such smart, pass so many weary nights and days in mouining and bitter lamentation as he hath done, therefore thou fallcst short of one that fell short of repentance. And truly this is a sad stumbling-block to a soul in an hour of temptation. Like a ship sunk in the mouth of the harbour, which is more dangerous to others than if it had perished in the open sea. There is less scandal by the sins of the wicked, who sink, as it were, in the broad sea of profaneness, than in those who are convinced of sin, troubled in conscience, and miscarry so near the hai'bour, within sip-ht, as it were, of saving grace. Tempted souls can hardly get over these without dashing. Am I better than such a one that proved naught at last ? Now to help tliee a little to find out the fallacy of this argument, we must distinguish between the terrors that accompany sorrow, and the intrinsical nature of this grace. The first, which are accessory, may be separated from the other, as the raging of the sea, which is caused by the wind, from the swell of the sea, when the wind is down. From this distinction take two conclusions.
First, One may fall short of a hypocrite in the terrors that sometimes ac- company sorrow, and yet have the truth of this grace, which the other with all his terrors wants. Christians run into many mistakes, by judging rather according to that which is accessory, than that which is essential to the nature of duties and graces. Sometimes thou hearest one pray with a moving expres- sion, whilst thou canst hardly get out a few broken words in duty, and thou art ready to accuse thyself and to admire him ; as if the gilt of the key made it open the door the better ; thou seest another abound with joy which thou wantest, and art ready to conclude his grace more, and thine less, whereas thou mayest have more real grace, only thou wantest a light to show thee whci-e it lies. Take heed of judging by accessories ; pei'haps thou hast not heard so much of the rattling of the chains of hell, nor in thy conscience the outcries of the damned, to make thy flesh tremble ; but hast thou not seen that in a bleed- ing Christ, which hath made thy heart melt and mourn, yea, loathe and hate thy lusts more than the devil himself.' Truly, Christian, it is strange to hear a patient complain of the physician, (when he finds his physic work eff'ectually, to the evacuating of his distempered humours, and the restoring his health,) merely because he was not so sick as some others with the working of it : soul, thou hast more reason to be blessing God that the convictions of the Spirit wrought so kindly on thee, to effect that in thee, without those terrors, which have cost others so dear.
Secondly, This is so weak an argument, that contrariwise the more the
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