The sound believer, or, A treatise of evangelical conversion discovering the work of Christs…The sound beleever, or, A treatise of evangelicall conversion discovering the work of Christs…

Fourthly, it is such a sorrow as makes way for gladness, for so it is here said, the Lord gives beauty for these ashes, and hence ⟨p. 81⟩it is no desperate hellish sorrow, but usually mixed with sense of some mercy, at least common, and some hope; not that which apprehends the object of hope particularly (which is done in vocation) but that the Lord may find out some way of saving it, Jonah 3.9. Acts 2.37. which hope with sense of mercy waiting so long, preserving from hell and death so oft, &c. doth not harden the heart, (as in reprobates) but serve to break the more, and to load it with greater sorrow; thus the Lord works this sorrow in all his elect, I know it is in a greater measure, and from some other grounds after the soul is in Christ; but this sorrow there is for substance, mentioned for the reasons given; if Christ hate you you shall mourn, but never till it be too late; if he love you, you must mourn now; how great and many are many of your sins, how near is your doom, the Lord only knows how fearful your condemnation will be, you have oft heard, but yet how few of your hearts are sad and very heavy for these things? sin is your pleasure, not your sorrow; you fly from sorrow as from a temptation of Satan who comes to trouble you, and to lead you to despair: Davids eyes ran down with rivers of waters, because others brake Gods law, and Jeremiah wished he had a cottage in the wilderness to mourn in, and yet you do not, you cannot ⟨p. 82⟩pour out one drop, nor yet wish you had hearts to lament your own sins: but oh know it, that when the Lord Christ comes, he will sad thy soul when he comes to search thy old sores by the spirit of conviction, he will make them smart and bleed abundantly, by the spirit of compunction.

Fourthly, it is such a sorrow as makes way for gladnesse, for so it is here said, the Lord gives beauty for these ashes, and hence ⟨p. 81⟩it is no desperate hellish sorrow, but usually mixt with sense of some mercy, at least common, and some hope; not that which apprehends the object of hope particulary (which is done in vocation) but that the Lord may find out some way of saving it,