A cabinet of choice jewels, or, A box of precious ointment being a plain…A cabinet of choice jevvels, or, A box of precious ointment being a plain…

Sixthly, Godly sorrow is a divorcing sorrow, it divorces §6the heart from sin, it breaks that ancient league that has been between the heart and sin;¹ there is a strong firm league between every sinner and his sin, Isa. 28.15, 18. but when godly sorrow enters, it dissolves that league, it separates between a sinner and his sin, it sets the soul at an everlasting distance from sin. The union between the root and the branches, the foundation and the building, the head and the members, the father and the child, the husband and the wife, the body and the soul are all near, very near unions; yet that between a sinner and his sin seems to be a nearer union. Observable is the story of Phaltiel. ²You know when David had married Michol, Saul injuriously gave her to another; but when David came to the crown, and sent forth his Royal commands that his wife should be brought to him, her husband dares not but obey, brings her on her journey, and then not without great reluctancy of spirit, takes his leave of her. But what was Phaltiel weary of his wife, that he now forsakes her? O no, he was enforced, and though she was gone, yet he had many a sad thought about parting with her, and he never leaves looking till he sees her as far as Baharim, weeping and bemoaning her absence. Just thus stands the heart of every unregenerate man towards his sins, as Phaltiel's heart stood towards his wife. But when the springs of godly sorrow rise in the soul, the league, the friendship, the union that was between the sinner and his sins, comes to be dissolved and broken in pieces, Hosea 14.8. All godly sorrow sets the heart against sin; he that divinely mourns over sin, can't live in a course of sin; when of all bitters God makes sin to be the greatest bitter to the soul, then the soul bids an everlasting farewell to sin; now the soul in good earnest bids adieu to sin for ever. O Sirs!³ this is a most certain Maxim (to live and die with) that either a mans sins will make an end of his mourning, or else his mourning will make an end of his sin; for he that holds on sinning, will certainly leave off mourning (no man can make a trade of sin, and yet keep his heart in a mourning frame) but he that holds on mourning for sin, will certainly leave off the trade of sin, holy grief for sin,