we to rest in mere general acknowledgments : we should search out our sins : we should say, " Thus and thus have I done." We should go farther, and enter into the particular aggrava- tions of our sins, in order the more deeply to affect our own hearts, and to fill our minds with self-lothing and self- abhorrence. Not that God needs to be informed : he knows sill our iniquities, and all the circumstances with which they have been attended. But by spreading them all before God, we give the more glory to him as a God of infinite mercy and compassion ; at the same time that we prepare our own minds for a due reception of mercy at his hands.
But, besides this, we must forsake our sins. If we hold them fast, it is a clear proof that our repentance is not genuine. Nor must we forsake them merely as a man parts with a limb, which, if not amputated, would destroy his life : we may indeed take into our consideration the danger arising froi - them, as our Lord tells us in the case of " a right hand or right eye," which, if retained, would plunge us into everlasting perdition : but we must regard them as odious, and hateful, and abo- minable; and long for deliverance from them as we would for deliverance from the most lothsome disorder.
These two, a confessing, and forsaking of sin, must go toge- ther. Supposing we could put away our sins for the future, it would still become us to bewail those which are past : and, if we bewail them ever so bitterly, still must we not rest without gaining the victory over them , it is the union of them both that marks true penitence ; and]
Where such repentance is, there God will bestow his richest blessings —
[It is said in a subsequent part of this chapter, that " a faithful man shall abound with blessinsfs." And this is true of all who deal faithfully with their own souls and with their God, in bewailing and mortifying their most secret corruptions. This is strongly asserted by all the inspired writers. " Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon"." To such both the faithfulness and the justice of God assure a per- fect remission of all sin". Nor will God delay to manifest his love, when once he sees our souls truly humbled for sin. The self-condemning publican was justified even before he left the spot where his confessions were madei'. And David speaks of the same truth as realized also in his experience. Whilst he forbore to humble himself, he was kept in a state of darkness
i> Isai. Iv. 7. 0 1 John. i. 9, 10. p Luke xviii. 14.