2. That it is a sour and an unpleasant thing, made up of sorrow and sadness and unquietness of Spirit. They know no delights but sensual ones, and think if they part with the pleasure of sin, they part with the comfort of their lives. Do not therefore look merely on the dark side of repentance, or what may make it seem uneasy to you: look through it and you will find that which will make it more pleasant. In the very sorrow you fear, if it be right, i. e. godly sorrow, there will be such a mixture of Love, as will make it in a good measure delightful to you. If it seem painful to you to strive against sin, and there be trouble in the combat, yet when you prevail over it you will find comfort in the Victory. You will be more pleased with having denied your selves, than you could with having gratified your selves. Our Saviours promise, Matth. 5.4. Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted, one would think should reconcile you not only to any seeming trouble in the work of repentance, but to all the greatest difficulties and severities of the most strict and mortified life. If indeed your repentance be merely legal, proceeding from fear of wrath, ⟨p. 241⟩or Popish, for the expiation of your sins, I grant it may be a sad and unpleasant thing; but if it be a true Protestant repentance, i. e. an Evangelical one, mixed with Love to God, and proceeding from the Faith of Free Grace and remission of sin through the Blood of Christ, it need not be such a scare-crow to you as to make you hazard your Salvation by shifting your duty.
2. That it is a sour and an unpleasant thing, made up of sorrow and sadness and unquietness of Spirit. They know no delights but sensual ones, and think if they part with the pleasure of sin, they part with the comfort of their lives. Do not therefore look meerly on the dark side of repentance, or what may make it seem uneasie to you: look through it and you will find that which will make it more pleasant. In the very sorrow you fear, if it be right, i. e. godly sorrow, there will be such a mixture of Love, as will make it in a good measure delightful to you. If it seem painful to you to strive against sin, and there be trouble in the combat, yet when you prevail over it you will find comfort in the Victory. You will be more pleased with having denied your selves, than you could with having gratified your selves. Our Saviours promise, Matth. 5.4. Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted, one would think should reconcile you not only to any seeming trouble in the work of repentance, but to all the greatest difficulties and severities of the most strict and mortified life. If indeed your repentance be meerly legal, proceeding from fear of wrath, ⟨p. 241⟩or Popish, for the expiation of your sins, I grant it may be a sad and unpleasant thing; but if it be a true Protestant repentance, i. e. an Evangelical one, mixed with Love to God, and proceeding from the Faith of Free Grace and remission of sin through the Blood of Christ, it need not be such a scare-crow to you as to make you hazard your Salvation by shifting your duty.
