the soul, are all near, very near unions ; yet, that between a sinner and his sin seems to be a nearer union, Observable is the story of Phaltiel. You know when David had married Michal, Saul injuriously gave her to another ; but when David came to the crown, and sent forth his royal commands that his wife should be brought to him, her husband dares not but obey, brings her on her journey, and then not without great reluetancy of spirit takes his leave of her, 2 Sam. iii. 14-16. But what, was Phaltiel weary of his wife, that he now forsakes her ? Oh no, he was enforced, and though she was gone, yet he had many a sad thought about parting with her, and he never leaves looking till he sees her as far as Bahurim, weeping and bemoaning her absence. Just thus stands the heart of every unregenerate man towards his sins, as Phaltiel's heart stood towards his wife. But when the springs of godly sorrow rise in the soul, the league, the friendship, the union that was between the sinner and his sins, comes to be dissolved and broken in pieces, Hosea xiv. 8. All godly sorrow sets the heart against sin. He that divinely mourns over sin, cannot live in a course of sin. When of all bitters God makes sin to be the greatest bitter to the soul, then the soul bids an everlasting farewell to sin ; now the soul in good earnest bids adieu to sin for ever. O sirs ! this is a most certain maxim, to live and die with, tliat either a man's sins will make an end of his mourning, or else his mourning will make an end of his sin ; for he that holds on sinning, will certainly leave off mourning. No man can make a trade of sin, and yet keep his heart in a mourning frame. But he that holds on mourning for sin, will certainly leave off the trade of sin. Holy grief for sin will sooner or later break off all leagues and friendships with sin. As sin makes a separation between God and a man's soul, so godly sorrow makes a separation between a man's soul and his sin, Isa. lix. 1, 2. All holy mournings over sin will by degrees issue in the wasting and weakening of the strength and power of sin ; nothing below the death and destruction of sin will satisfy that soul that truly mourns over sin. But now, though you may find an unsound heart sometimes a-lamenting over his sins, yet you shall never find him a-leaving of his sins. Pharaoh lamented over his sin, crying out, ' I have sinned, the Lord is righteous, and I and my people are wicked.' And again, ' Then Pharaoh called for Moses and for Aaron in haste, and he said, I have sinned against the Lord your God, and against you,' Exod. ix. 27, x. 16. But though you find him here lamenting and complaining over his sin, yet you never find him leaving or forsaking of his sin. So Saul could cry out, he had sinned, but yet he still continued in his sin ; he acknowledged that he did evil in persecuting of David, and yet he still held on persecuting of him. An unsound heart mourns over sin, and yet he holds on in a course of sin ; he sins and mourns, and mourns and sins, and commonly all his mourning for sin does but the more embolden him in a way of sin ; but • the gracious soul says with Job, ' If I have done iniquity, I will do it no more,' Job xxxiv. 32. He laments over sin and leaves it ; he confesses it, and forsakes it, and he is as willing to forego it as he is willing that God should forgive it.
[7.] Seventhly, A II, — and if you please I shall give yon many things in one, — godly sorrow is the fruit and effect of evangelical faith. It flows from faith as the stream from the fountain, the branch from the
Chap. III.] a cabinet of jewels. 397
root, and the effect from the cause : Zech. xii. 10, ' They shall look upon him whom they have pierced, and shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born.' Look, as all legal sorrow flows from a leo-al faith, as you may see in Ahab's and the Ninevites, so all evano-elical sorrow flows from an evangelical faith : ' They shall look upon him whom they have pierced, and mourn.' All gracious mourning flows from looking, from believing. Nothing breaks the heart of a sinner like a look of faith. All tears of godly sorrow drop from the eye of faith. Godly sorrow rises and falls, as faith rises and falls. Faith and godly sorrow are like the fountain and the flood, which rise and fall too-ether. The more a man is able by faith to look upon a pierced Christ, the more his heart will mourn over all the dishonours that he has done to Christ. The more deep and wide the wounds are that faith shews me in the heart and sides of Christ, the more my heart will be wounded for sinning against Christ.
Again, godly sorrow is not an enemy, but a friend to holy joy. I have read of a holy man, who lying upon his sick-bed, and being asked which were his joyfullest days that ever he had, cried out, ' Oh give me my mourning days, give me my mourning days again, for they were the joyfullest days that ever I had.' The higher the springs of godly sorrow rise, the higher the tides of holy joy rise. His graces will flourish most, who evangelically mourns most. Grace always thrives best in that garden, that heart, that is watered most with the tears of godly sorrow. He that grieves most for sin, will rejoice most in God ; and he that re- joices most in God, will grieve most for sin.