(3.) But, thirdly, it is not a bare confession of sin, that may proceed fi-om common knoidedge and illumination; but there goes more in it, and that is, there is a loathing and a detesting of it. By that the Lord describes the repentance of the people of Israel : Isa. xxx. 22, ' They shall defile the rich idols, and their apparel,' &c.; 'and shall cast them out, and shall say. Get you hence ; they shall cast them out as a filthy thing, as a thing that they cannot endure to look on, and to have in their sight.' There is such a loathing of sin in the soul where God intends to forgive that sin.
(4.) Fourthly, There is yet a fourth thing in this conviction of sin, and that is this, that all the care of a man is how he may free himself from the actual committing of sin, how he may set himself in a right state again, how he may be right set; as Gal. vi. 1, 'If any be fallen by infir- mity, you that are spiritual, set him in joint.' He is now like a man whose bones are out of joint, and he is in pain with it ; therefore all his care is how he may be set in joint again, how he may be set into the estate that he was in before; for every time a man commits a sin, the soul is disordered by it, and a man is now much distempered. With that he is forward to commit other sins, he is backward to any good. And now the greatest care of a man is, when God hath thus fitted him by his con- viction, by this work of the Spirit convincing him of sin, how to get his sin off, and how to get his soul rid of it ; as Isa. i. IG, 18, ' Wash you, make you clean,' saith God; 'take away the evil of your works from before mine eyes ; cease to do evil, and learn to do well ; and then come and let us reason together : Though your sins were as crimson, they shall be as snow; though they be as scarlet, they shall be as wool.' He doth not mean that he would not at all forgive a man's sins till he have gotten such a victory over all his sins that he shall not at all commit any sin ; but the meaning is thus, There should be in the soul such a contention, such a strife against sin, that it may appear that he endeavours nothing so much as to be rid of it. All his care is to be washed, to be made clean, and to have the evil of his works took from the eyes of God. Now, when a man sees the evil of sin, as it is contrary to God's holiness, and contrary to his word, and to his law, &c., seeing the evil of sin in himself, and the effects of it, he hates nothing so much, he strives against nothing so much, he desires not so much to be rid of anything as of sin ; that is the first thing.
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276 sin's antidote.
2. But then, secondly, there is a conviction of righteousness: 'He shall couvinco the world of righteousness;' that is, that a man now, when God hath forgiven him his sins, he is to look up to seek after righteousness. And this is certain, that God forgives no man his sins but by Christ, and through Christ, and for Christ ; and he draws the eye of the soul, and the bent and the inclination of the heart, towards Christ ; that now a man sets a price upon him, he prizeth him above all things : he prizeth him in his desire, till ho may get assurance that he is his; and after he prizeth him in his estimation, walking m Christ, after he hath got assurance. There, I say, is the first thing then, he prizeth Christ before all things, he seeks nothing so much. You see the Lord works this disposition in the church in the Canticles, when the church had sinned by neglecting Christ ; and now ho withdrew himself from her, what doth she do ? She comes and seeks him by the watchmen, and they smite her; she comes to those that kept the tower, and they mock her; she comes to the daughters of Jeru- salem, and they slight her husband, him whom her soul loves; she goes on seeking still. This is the case of a Christian after relapse into sin, that he is not set again in his peace and comfort till he be made to prize Christ at an higher rate than before. So likewise he describes the church, Jer. 1. 4, thus seeking after Christ: 'They shallgo weeping as they go; and shall seek the Lord God, and shall ask the way to Zion, with their faces thitherwards.' They shall go; their end is to fmd out God, that God that was in covenant with them ; to find out God, and they shall go weeping, and their faces towards Zion. This is the disposition of the soul of that man whose sins shall be forgiven him ; he seeks nothing so much as Christ.