[5.] Fifthly, Godly sorrow is a lasting sorroiv, it is a durable sorrow. As long as a Christian continues sinning, he cannot but continue mourn- ing. David's sins were always before him, Ps. li. 3, though his Absalom
Chap. III.] a cabinet of jewels. 395
nor his Bathsheba were not ever before him. Godly sorrow will every day follow sin hard at heels. Look, as a wicked man, in respect of his desire and will to sin, would sin for ever, if he should live for ever ; so I may say, if a godly man should live for ever, he would sorrow for ever. After Paul had been converted many years, some think fourteen, you shall find him a-mourning and lamenting over his sins, Rom. vii. An ingenuous child will never cease mourning, till he ceases from offending an indulgent father. Though sin and godly sorrow were never born together, yet whilst a believer lives in this world, they must live together. And indeed holy joy and godly sorrow are no ways in- consistent, Ps. ii. 11; yea, a godly man's eyes are always fullest of tears, when his heart is fullest of holy joy, &c. A man may go joying and mourning to his grave, yea, to heaven, at the same time.
But now the sorrow, the grief of wicked men for sin, it is like a morning cloud, or the early dew, or the crackling of thorns under a pot, or a post that quickly passeth by, or a dream that soon vanisheth, or like a tale that is told, &c., their sorrowful hearts and mournful eyes soon dry up together, as you may see in Esau, Ahab, Pharaoh, and Judas ; but the streams of godly sorrow will last and run as long as sin hangs upon us, and dwells in us : 1 Cor. xv. 9, ' I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.' Ps. xxv. 7, ' Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions.' David prayeth to the Lord, not only to forgive, but also to forget, both the sins of his youth and the sins of his age. David remembered all his faults, both of former and of later times. David was well in years when he defiled himself with Bathsheba ; and this he remembers and mourns over, Ps. li. And it is very observable, that God charged his people for to remember old sins : Deut. ix. 7, ' Re- member, and forget not, how thou provokedst the Lord thy God to wrath in the wilderness.' Repentance is a grace, and must have its daily operation as well as other graces ; witness the very covenant of grace itself: Ezek. xvi. 62, 63, ' I will establish my covenant with thee ; and thou shalt know that I am the Lord : that thou mayest remember, and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame, when I am pacified towards thee for all that thou hast done.' Certainly a true penitent can no more satisfy himself with one act of repentance, than he can satisfy himself with one act of faith, or with one act of hope, or with one act of love, or with one act of humility, or with one act of patience, or with one act of self-denial. Godly sorrow is a gospel grace that will live and last as well and as long as other graces ; it is a spring that in this life can never be drawn dry.
[6.] Sixthly, Godly sorrow is a divorcing sorrotv ; it divorces the heart from sin, it breaks that ancient league that has been between the heart and sin. There is a strong firm league between every sinner and his sin, Isa. xxviii. 15, 18; but when godly sorrow enters, it dissolves that league, it separates between a sinner and his sin, it sets the soul at an everlasting distance from sin.' The union between the root and the branches, the foundation and the building, the head and the mem- bers, the father and the child, the husband and the wife, the body and
• It is an excellent saying of Austin, He doth truly bewail the sins he hath committed who never commits the sins he hath bewailed.
896 A CABINET OF JEWELS. [ChAP. III.