In this case, we must go to God, with whom all things are possible, to put forth his almighty power, not only in the pardoning, but in subduing our iniquities. He that can make a camel go through a needle's eye, can make a high conceited man lowly, a rich man humble. Therefore, never question his power, much less his willingness, when he is not only ready to receive us when we return, but persuades and entreats us to come in unto him, yea, after backsliding and false dealing with him, wherein he allows no mercy to be shewed by man, yet he will take liberty to shew mercy him- self, Jer. iii. 2.
Obj. But I have often relapsed and fallen into the same sin again and again.
Ans. If Christ will have us pardon our brother seventy-seven times,* can we think that he will enjoin us more than he will be ready to do himself, when in case of shewing mercy he would hare us think his thoughts to be far above om-s ? Adam lost all by once sinning, but we are under a better covenant, a covenant of mercy, and are encouraged by the Son to go to the Father every day for the sins of that day.
Where the work of grace is begun, sin loses strength by every new fall ; for hence issues deeper humility, stronger hatred, fresh indignation against ourselves, more experience of the deceitfulness of om* heai'ts, renewed resolutions until sin be brought under. That should not drive us from God, which God would have us make use of to fly the rather to him. Since there is a throne of grace set up in Jesus Christ, we may boldly make use of it, and let us be ashamed to sin, and not be ashamed to glorify God's mercy in * Qu. ' seventy times seven times ?' — Ed.
232 THE soul's conflict.
begging pardon for sin. Nothing will make us more ashamed to sin thfui thoughts of so free and large mercy. It will grieve an ingenuous spirit to offend so good a God. Ah, that there should be such a heart in me as to tire the patience of God, and dam up his goodness as much as in me lies ! But this is our comfort, that the plea of mercy from a broken spirit to a gracious Father will ever hold good. When we are at the lowest in this world, yet there are these three grounds of comfort still remaining: — 1. That we are not yet in the place of the damned, whose estate is unalterable.
2. That whilst we live, there is time and space for recovering of ourselves.
3. That there is grace offered, if we will not shut our hearts against it. Obj. Oh, but every one hath his time ; my good hour may be past. Ans. That is counsel to thee ; it is not past if thou canst raise up thy
heart to God, and embrace his goodness. Shew by thy pelding unto mercy, that thy time of mercy is not yet out, rather than by concluding uncomfortably, ^Yillingly betray thyself to thy greatest enemy, enforcing that upon thyself, which God labours .to draw thee from. As in the sin against the Holy Ghost, fear shews that we have not committed it ; so in this, a tender heart fearing lest our time be past, shews plainly that it is not past.
Look upon examples ; when the prodigal in his forlorn condition was going to his father, his father stayed not for him, but ' meets him ' in the way, Luke xv. 20 ; he did not only go, but ran to meet him. God is more willing to entertain us than we are to cast ourselves upon him ; as there is ' a fountain opened for sin, and for uncleanness,' Zech. xiii. 1, so it is a living fountain of li\dng water, that runs for ever, and can never be di'awn
Cmition. Here remember, that I build not a shelter for the presumptuous, but only open a harbour for the truly humbled soul to put himself into.
Chapteb XXII. — Of sorrow for sin, and hatred for sin, ivhen right and sufficient. Helps thereto.
Obj. Ah ! there's my misery ; If I could be humbled for sin, I might hope for mercy, but I never yet knew what a broken heart meant ; this soul of mine was never as yet sensible of the grief and smart of sin. How then can I expect any comfort ?
Ans. 1. It is one of Satayi^s policies to hold us in a dead and barren con- dition, by following us with conceits, that we have not sorrowed in proportion to our offences. Tme it is, we should labour that our sorrow might in some measm-e answer to the heinousness of our sins ; but we must know sorrow is not required for itself in that degree as faith is. If we could trust in God without much sorrow for our sins, then it would not be required, for God de- lights not in our sorrow as sorrow. God in mercy both requires it and works it, as thereby making us capable vessels of mercy, fit to acknowledge, value, and walk worthy of Christ. He requires it as it is a means to embitter sin, and the delightful pleasures thereof unto us, and by that means bring us to a right judgment of ourselves, and the creature, with which sin commits spiritual adultery, that so we may recover our taste before lost. And then when with the prodigal we return unto om'selves, having lost ourselves before, we are fit to judge of the baseness of sin, and of the worth of mercy ; and so upon gi-ounds of right reason, be wilhng to alter our condition, and embrace mercy upon any terms it shall please Christ to cnioiiL