S72 AN EXPOSITION UPON PSALM cxxx. [Yer. 3.
even drowns it in tears of sorrow. And then the bitterness also of the sufferings of Christ are brought to mind : " They look on him whom they have pierced, and mourn," Zecli. xil 1 0. They remember his gall and wormwood, his cry and tears, his agony and sweat, his desertion and anguish, his blood and death, the sharpness of the sword that was in his soul, and the bitterness of the cup that was put into his hand. Such a soul now looks on Christ, bleeding, dying, Avrestling with wrath and curse for hun, and seeth his sin in the streams of blood that issued from his side. And all this increaseth that sense of sin whereof we speak. Also, —
(4.) It relates to the communioyi cCnd consolations of the Holy GJiost, with all the privileges and fmits of love we are by him made partakers of. The Spirit is given to believers, upon the promise of Christ, to dwell in them. He takes up their hearts to be his dwell- ing-place. To what ends and purposes ? That he may purify and sanctify them, make them holy, and dedicate them to God ; to furnish them with grace and gifts; to interest them in privileges; to guide, lead, direct, comfort them ; to seal them unto the day of redemption. Now, this Sjoirit is grieved by sin, Eph, iv. 30, and his dwelling-place defiled thereby, 1 Cor. vi. 19, iii. 17. Thoughts hereof gi'eatly sharpen the spiritual sense of sin in a recovering soul. He considers what light, wliat love, what joy, what consolation, what privileges, it hath by him been made partaker of; what motions, warnings, workings to keep it from sin, it hath found from him; and says within itself, " What have I done? whom have I grieved, whom have I provoked? What if the Lord should now, for my folly and ingi-atitude, utterly take his Holy Spirit from me? What if I should have so grieved him that he will dwell in me no more, delight in me no more? AVhat dismal darkness and disconsolation, yea, what utter ruin should I be left unto ! However, what shame and confusion of face belongs to me for my wretched disingenuity and ingratitude towards him!"
This is the First thing that appears in the returning soul's actings and frame, — a sincei'e sense of sin on the account mentioned, wrought in it by the Holy Ghost, And this a soul in the de2:)ths described must come unto, if ever it expects or looks for deliverance and a re- covery. Let not such persons expect to have a renewed sense of mercy without a revived sense of sin.
Secondly. From hence proceedeth an ingenuoiis, free, gracious achiowledgment of sin. Men may have a sense of sin, and yet suffer it to lie burning as a fire shut up in their bones, to their continual disquietment, and not be able to come off unto a free, soul-opening acknowledgment ; yea, confession may be made in general, and mention therein of that very sin wherewith the soul is most entangled, and yet the soul come short of a due performance of this duty.
Yer.3.] the acknowledgment of sin. 373
Consider liow the case stood with David: Ps. xxxii. 3, " When I kept silence, my bones waxed old throngli my roaring all the day long." How could David keep silence, and yet roar all the day long? What is that silence which is consistent with roaring? It is a mere nega- tion of that duty which is expressed, verse 5, that is mtended : " I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid." It was not a silence of submission and waiting on God that he in- tends; that would not have produced a wasting of his spiritual strength, as he complains this silence did: " My bones waxed old." Nor yet was it a sullen, stubborn, and contumacious frame that was upon him; but he notes, saith Calvin (and he says well), " Affectum qui medius est inter tolerantiam et contuinaciam, vitio et virtuti affinis;" — " An affection between patience and stubbornness, bordering on the one and other." That is, he had a deep sense of sin; this disquieted and perplexed him all the day long; which he calls his roarmg. It weakened and wearied him, making his bones wax old, or his strength decay; yet was he not able to bring his heart to that ingenuous, gra- cious acknowledgment which, like the lancing of a festered wound, would have given at least some ease to his soul. God's children are ofttimes in this matter like ours. Though they are convinced of a fault, and are really troubled at it, yet they will hardly acknowledge it. So do they. They will go up and down, sigh and mourn, roar all the day long; but an evil and untoward frame of spirit, under the power of unbelief and fear, keeps them from this duty.
Now, tha,t this acknowledgment may be acceptable unto God, it is reqviired, first, that it he free; then, that it he full.
1. It must be free, and spiritually ingenuous. Cain, Pharaoh, Ahab, Judas, came all to an acknowledgment of sin ; but it was whether they would or no. It was pressed out of them ; it did not flow from them. The confession of a person under the convincing teiTors of the law or dread of imminent judgments is like that of malefactors on the rack, who speak out that for which themselves and friends must die. What they say, though it be the truth, is a fruit of force and torture, not of any ingenuity of mind. So is it with merely convinced persons. They come not to the acknowledgment of sin with any more freedom. And the reason is, because all sin hatli shame ; and for men to be free unto shame is naturally impossible, shame being nature's shrinking from itself, and the posture it would appear in. But now the returning soul hath never more freedom, liberty, and aptitude of spirit, than when he is in the acknowledg- ment of those things whereof he is most ashamed. And this is no small evidence that it proceeds from that Spirit which is attended with that liberty ; for "where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty," 2 Cor. iii. 17. When David was delivered from his silence, he