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…

2 The Lord Jesus by his Spirit doth not only¹ ⟨p. 16⟩convince the soul of its sin in particular, but also of the evil, even the exceeding great evil of those particular sins. The Lord Jesus doth not only convince of the evil sin, but of the great evil of sin. Oh thou wretch, saith the Spirit, (as the Lord to Cain, Gen. 4.10.) what hast thou done, whose sins cry to heaven, who hast thus long lived without God, and done this infinite wrong to an infinite God, for which thou canst never make him amends? That God who could have long since cut thee off in the midst of thy sins and wickedness, & crushed thee like a moth, and sent thee down to those eternal flames where thou now seest some better then thy self mourning day and night, but yet hath spared thee out of his mere pity to thee, That God hast thou resisted and forsaken all thy life time; and therefore now see and consider what an evil and bitter thing it is thus to live as thou hast done, Jer. 2.19. Look as it is in the ways of holiness, many a man void of the Spirit may see and know them in the literal expressions of them, but cannot see the glory of them but by the Spirit, and hence it is he doth not esteem and prize them and the knowledge of them above gold; So in the ways of unholiness, many a man void of the spirit of conviction of sin, may and doth see many particular sins and confess them, ⟨p. 17⟩but he doth not, cannot see the exceeding evil of them, and thence it is though he doth see them, yet he doth not much dislike them, because he sees no great hurt or evil in them, but makes a light matter of them; & therefore when the Spirit comes, it lets him see and stand convinced of the exceeding greatness of the evil that is in them, Joh. 36.8, 9. In the time of affliction (which is usually the time of conviction of a wild unruly sinner) he shows them their transgressions, but how? that they have exceeded, that they have been exceeding many and exceeding vile. Oh beloved, before the Lord Jesus comes to convince, we have cause to pray for a pity every poor sinner, as the Lord Jesus did, saying, Lord forgive them, they know not what they do. You godly parents, masters, how oft do you instruct your children, servants, and convince them of their sinfulness, until they confess their faults? yet you see no amendment, but they go on still; what should you now do?