don. "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him, return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him," &c. But they no sooner obtain a discovery of sin, as against God, than they return to him, to obey him, and to enjoy him. They see, and are affected with, the evil they had chosen, and now turn from it; they also see the good which they had fo: saken, and now chuse it. David no sooner saw his iniquity than he returned to God, prayed for mercy, pardon, and purification; for the Spirit and holy joy; and offers unto him the sacrifice of a broken and a contrite heart. In Psalm cxvi. he tells us the sorrows of death compassed him, the pains of hell gat hold of him, and he found trouble and sorrow;" from which we may conclude that sin was at least one cause of his distress, and that he had departed from God, for we find him returning ver. 7. "Return unto thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee." This is agreeable to the way which God has prescribed in his word. “O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God, for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. Take with you words, and turn to the Lord: say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so will we render the calves of our lips, &c. &c. I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him." Hos. xiv. 4. He points out their sin, calls upon them to return unto himself, and puts the words into their mouth, which they are to use; and upon their doing so, promises to heal them, to turn away his anger from them, and to favour them with a sense of his love. David steered this course, as himself informs us. "I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies; I made haste and delayed

not to keep thy commandments." Psalm cxix. 59. When the strayed soul is brought to see its various wanderings, in which it has wearied itself to no purpose, it regrets and condemns its own folly, returns in distress to God, and seeks rest in him as the Shepherd and Bishop of souls. This return of the wandering soul is the work of grace, not of the believer himself.. Of this the Psalmist was very sensible when he said to God, "I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek thy servant." Psalm cxix. 176.

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3. WHEN it occasions holy contrition and spiritual distress of soul. The feelings and affections of the heart remain unmoved, and unaffected so long as the malignity of sin continues undiscovered. Alarms and fears are sometimes produced in the consciences of sin-. ners, and sometimes of believers, where there is no suitable discovery of sin as against God. The penal consequences of sin, when seen, prove very alarming, because God then appears arrayed in zeal, and armed with indignation, to punish the transgressor. In such a case, it is not sin, but wrath, that affects the conscience, and fills it with perturbation; but there is no view of sin as against God. Such were the confounding terrors of Cain and Judas, &c. &c. Even in believers, such fears will, in some measure, prevail, when they have highly provoked God to suspend the sense of his love, and to make them feel a sense of his displeasure.

In a just view of sin as against God, the soul is filled with anxiety, uneasiness and distress, on account of the dishonour done to him. It accuses itself, chastises and afflicts itself, and endeavours to take home the charge, and lay it upon the conscience and heart; that it may be filled with holy sorrow and grief. "I will declare mine iniquity, said the holy Psalmist, I will be sorry

for

my

sin." Psalm xxxviii. 18. The heart is naturally stout against God; stubborn and unyielding either to his promises, commands or threatenings; and is not tender or concerned for his honour and glory. The broken and contrite heart is the very reverse, feeling very sensibly for the honour of God, and filled with distress and regret at having acted contrary to it. This spiritual sensibility of heart was the fruit of a proper view of sin in David. "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise." Psalm li. 17. He had sinned, and God was dishonoured and displeased. He knew that though he should multiply sacrifices and burnt-offerings, God would not relish them, if a proper disposition of heart was awanting, he was therefore careful to have the broken and contrite heart. It was in this way alone that he was to expect a renewed sense of the divine favour, as it is to such that it is promised, and such only have enjoyed it. "I dwell, saith the high and lofty One—with him that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones." Isaiah lvii. 17. "The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit." Psalm xxxiv. 18. Such a disposition of soul is very different from that where sin maintains its influence. In that case sin is treated as a very indifferent thing, with which God cannot be much offended. The only attention paid to it is to invent or fabricate any thing that may seem to extenuate it; such as infirmity, inad vertency, natural propensity, compliance with a common custom, peculiar circumstances of temptation, and, not, unfrequently, one sin made a palliative for another. In such a case the heart is under no proper exercise

about sin; rather it is wholly under its fascinating and hardening influence. Where this is not the case, not only sorrow, but shame and confusion impress it, in the sight of God. We know what it is to be ashamed, when we have treated a generous friend, to whom we have been much indebted, in an ungrateful and illiberal manner; and we find it very difficult, on meeting him, to look him in the face, and still more difficult to solicit the continuance of his favour. Such have been the feelings of eminent believers under a proper sense of sin as against God. "O my God! I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, O my God: for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trepass is grown up unto the heavens." Ezra ix. 6. If the sins of others produced such an effect on Ezra, how much more should every one be affected with his own sin, and confess it unto God with holy blushing.

4. WHEN they hate and abhor it, and loathe themselves on account of it. There is a spiritual beauty and deformity, as well as a natural. What is deformed and ugly produces an unpleasant sensation, and we wish to have the object removed; but what is beautiful produces an agreeable impression, and engages our esteem. God is the infinite perfection of moral and spiritual beauty, and his rational offspring are beautiful in proportion as they resemble him. On this account chiefly were they at their creation pronounced "very good." Sin has deformed the soul, by assuming the place of its spiritual beauty, and producing in it a powerful propensity in opposition to God. When sin is destroyed in the soul, and the image of God restored, it is represented as again beautified. Thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty: for it was perfect through my

comeliness, which I had put upon thee saith the Lord God." Ezek. xvi. 14. Sin is, therefore, a deformed, loathsome, and hateful thing in the sight of God, “the abominable thing which he hateth." When the soul has dwelt much in contemplation upon the divine beauty, especially holiness, a transformation into that likeness takes place. "When we behold, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, we are changed into the same image from glory to glory," &c. In proportion as this advances the opposition of sin to God is seen in a more affecting light: and while, on one hand, the soul is transported and captivated with the divine beauty; on the other, it is filled with a holy abhorrence of sin. It is conformed to God in its views as well as in its likeness. Sin, as it is hateful to God, becomes so to it. "Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way." Psalm cxix. 104. While his thoughts were employed in holy contemplation on the law of God, he attained higher discoveries of the divine beauty; these rendered his heart more intense in hating every false way When the believer locks into his own soul he sees the abominable thing sin adhering to it: he not only sees sin vile but himself deformed by it; this leads him to abhor and loathe himself. He contrasts the divine beauty and purity with his own vileness, and then expresses the language of his soul, like Job." I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear; but now mine eye seeth thee: wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." chap. xlii. 5, 6. Another eminent saint félt, and expressed himself to the same purpose.. "Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips-for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts." Isaiah vi. 5. When God brings back to himself a sinning and