The Doctrine of Repentance

19. Sin is a spiritual death, Ephes. 2. 1.¹ Dead in trespasses. Austin saith, that before his conversion, reading the death of Dido, he could not refrain weeping; but wretch that I was (saith he) I bewailed the death of Dido forsaken of Aeneas, and did not bewail the death of my soul forsaken of God^*. The life of sin is the death of the soul. 1. A dead man hath no sense: So a person unregenerate hath no sense of God in him, Ephes. 4. 19. Persuade him to mind his salvation, to what purpose do you make orations to a dead man? go to reprove him for vice, to what purpose do you strike a dead man? 2. He who is dead hath no taste. Set a banquet before him, he doth not relish it: So a sinner tastes no sweetness in Christ or a Promise: They are but as cordials in a dead mans mouth^*. 3. The ⟨p. 162⟩dead putrefy; and if Martha said of Lazarus, Joh. 11. 39. Lord, by this time he stinketh, for he hath been dead four days. How much more may we say of a wicked man, who hath been dead thirty or forty years in sin, by this time he stinketh.

19. Sin is a spiritual death, Ephes. 2. 1.¹ Dead in trespasses. Austin saith, that before his conversion, reading the death of Dido, he could not refrain weeping; but wretch that I was (saith he) I bewailed the death of Dido forsaken of Aeneas, and did not bewail the death of my soul forsaken of God^*. The life of sin is the death of the soul. 1. A dead man hath no sense: So a person unregenerate hath no sense of God in him,