Remains of that reverend and learned divine, John Preston, Dr. in Divinity, chaplain in…Remaines of that reverend and learned divine, Iohn Preston, Dr. in Divinity, chaplaine in…

To this I answer, that there is a two-fold sorrow: ¹the first is a preparative sorrow; the second is a godly sorrow. The preparative sorrow, is nothing else but a sorrowing for sin, as it causeth punishment, or a sorrowing for some Judgement likely to ensue, and pronounced against him, but this is not the true sorrow: a reprobate may have this sorrow, which shall never be saved, this was the sorrow of Judas, and Cain, and Ahab: they sorrowed, but it was a false sorrow, only a work of the flesh: it hath his original from nature, its object punishment, and its end despair: but the second is a godly sorrow, such as the Apostle speaks of, in 1 Corinth. 7. 7. that works repentance ²not to be repented of, that is, it turns the ⟨p. 194⟩heart to God, it takes away that flinty disposition of nature, by the conveyance of grace; it makes the heart better, it brings it into a frame of obedience, it works a willingness in it to good, so that the difference of them lieth, in this; the one is outward, but the other is inward; the one is from grace, the other is from temporal things; the one is a work of the flesh, the other is a work of the sanctifying Spirit: the one will make a man fly unto Christ, because of our wants, (as in the example of the Publican: especially in the prodigal son, he never seeks unto his father, till he be thoroughly humbled: then he concludes, I will go unto my father:) the other will set and push a man further from God, this we see in Cain and Judas, their sorrow made them run away from God: but this godly sorrow or humiliation never rests till it bring a sinner into the presence of Christ; and when the soul is in Gods presence, then it will never rest, till Christ have made its peace with God: but as I said, the nature of the worldly sorrow, is to drive a man further from Christ. Adam had this sorrow: he runs and hides himself. A carnal man will sorrow, either for some present Judgement upon his person, or else upon his substance, but yet it will not turn the heart, that will not work a pliable disposition in the heart, to yield obedience out of love, in hatred to sin; but on the contrary, that hardeneth the heart the more, even as water hardeneth Iron when it is hot, but this godly sorrow works other effects: