Part 208

But secondly. By beholding the LAMB of GOD, we are to understand not only looking to him so as to trust him for the pardon of our sins, but beholding him so as to have our hearts broke with a true and godly sorrow for having crucified and slain him by them. For thus speaks the LORD by the mouth of the Prophet _Zechariah_, “They shall look upon him whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one that mourneth for an only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born.” This prediction was in some degree fulfilled immediately after the descent of the Holy Ghost, in the days of Pentecost, when so many being pricked to the heart, were made to look to, believe on, and lament over a pierced JESUS. But it will be continually fulfilling in the experience of every true beholder of the LAMB of GOD, till time shall be no more. True faith, at the same time as it opens the heart to receive CHRIST, melts and dissolves it into tears of godly sorrow, for having betrayed and crucified him. Such were the tears of _Mary_, when she washed the feet of her sin-forgiving LORD. They flowed from a sense of pardoning love. She loved much, having much forgiven her. And though she knew the LORD had forgiven her, yet she could not forgive herself. _Hinc illæ lachrymæ._ Hence those repenting tears: they proceeded from love: sorrow, flowing from any other principle, is not a godly, but a legal sorrow, which the most abandoned wretch may have without the least degree of saving grace. Thus we hear of a _Judas_ his repenting, and of an _Esau_ crying out with an exceeding bitter cry; but the one all the while was a prophane person, and the other immediately went and hanged himself. And why? Their sorrow was only extorted by a fear of hell, and a despairing sense of impending ruin. It is true, a godly sorrow may, and I believe generally does, begin with something of this nature; but then it does not end there. Through want of a due consideration of this, it is to be feared, many seeming converts have taken up with a few legal convictions, which never ended in savingly and truly beholding the LAMB of GOD. May none here present, by a half-way repentance, and hypocritical sorrow for sin, add to the unhappy number!