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A29686 A cabinet of choice jevvels, or, A box of precious ointment being a plain discovery of, or, what men are worth for eternity, and how 'tis like to go with them in another world ... / by Thomas Brooks ... Brooks, Thomas, 1608-1680. 1669 (1669) Wing B4937; ESTC R1926 368,116 442

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ever before him Godly sorrow will every day follow sin hard at hells Look as a wicked man in respect of his desire and will to sin would sin for ever if he should live for ever so I may say if a godly man should live for ever he would sorrow for ever After Paul had been converted many years some think fourteen you shall find him a mourning and lamenting over his sins Rom. 7. An ingenious child will never cease mourning till he ceases from offending an indulgent father Though sin and godly sorrow were never born together yet whilst a believer lives in this world they must live together And indeed holy joy and godly sorrow are no wayes inconsistent Psal 2.11 yea a godly man's eyes are alwayes fullest of tears when his heart is fullest of holy joy c. A man may go joying and mourning to his grave yea to heaven at the same time But now the sorrow the grief of wicked men for sin 't is like a morning cloud or the early dew or the crackling of thorns under a pot or a Post that quickly passeth by or a dream that soon vanisheth or like a tale that is told c. their sorrowful hearts and mournful eyes soon dry up together As you may see in Esau Ahab Pharaoh and Judas but the streams of godly sorrow will last and run as long as sin hangs upon us and dwells in us 1 Cor. 15.9 I am the least of the Apostles that am not meet to be called an Apostle because I persecuted the Church of God Psal 25.7 Remember not the sins of my youth nor my transgressions David prayeth to the Lord not only to forgive but also to forget both the sins of his youth and the sins of his age David remembred all his faults both of former and of later times David was well in years when he defiled himself with Bathsheba and this he remembers and mourns over Psal 51. And 't is very observable that God charged his people for to remember old sins Deut. 9.7 Remember and forget not how thou provokedst the Lord thy God to wrath in the wilderness Repentance is a grace and must have its daily operation as well as other graces witness the very covenant of grace it self Ezek. 16.62 63. I will establish my covenant with thee and thou shalt know that I am the Lord that thou mayest remember and be confounded and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame when I am pacified towards thee for all that thou hast done Certainly a true penitent can no more satisfie himself with one act of repentance than he can satisfie himself with one act of faith or or with one act of hope or with one act of love or with one act of humility or with one act of patience or with one act of self-denial Godly sorrow is a Gospel-grace that will live and last as well and as long as other graces 't is a spring that in this life can never be drawn dry Sixthly Godly sorrow is a divorcing sorrow it divorces the heart from sin it breaks that ancient league that has been between the heart and sin It is an excellent saying of Austin He doth truly bewail the sins he hath committed who never commits the sins he hath bewailed 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 neer very neer unions yet that between a sinner and his sin seems to be a neerer union Observable is the story of Phaltiel 2 Sam. 3.14 15 16. You 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 farewel to sin now the soul in good earnest bids adieu to sin for ever O Sirs ☜ 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 will sooner or later break off all leagues and friendships with sin Isa 59.1 2. As sin makes a separation between God and a man's soul so godly sorrow makes a separation between a man's soul and his sin All holy mournings over sin will by degrees issue in the wasting and weakning of the strength and power of sin nothing below the death and destruction of sin will satisfie that soul that truly mourns over sin But now though you may find an unsound heart sometimes a lamenting over his sins yet you shall never find him a leaving off his sins Pharaoh lamented over his sin crying out I have sinned Exod. 9.27 10.16 the Lord is righteous and I and my people are wicked And again Then Pharaoh called for Moses and for Aaron in haste and he said I have sinned against the Lord your God and against you But though you find him here lamenting and complaining over his sin yet you never find him leaving or forsaking of his sin So Saul could cry out he had sinned but yet he still continued in his sin he acknowledged that he did evil in persecuting of David and yet he still held on persecuting of him An unsound heart mourns over sin and yet he holds on in a course of sin he sins and mourns and mourns and sins and commonly all his mourning for sin does but the more imbolden him
Exod. 23.7 Prov. 22.3 27.12 Prov. 5.8 and commonly lyes warm upon a penitent man's heart so that take him in his ordinary course and you shall find him very ready to shun and be shie of the very appearances of sin of the very shews and shadows of sin Job made a covenant with his eyes Job 31.1 and Joseph would not hearken to his bold tempting Mistris to lye by her or to be with her Gen. 39.10 and David when himself would not sit with vain persons Psal 26.3 4 5. 2 Sam. 24.20 ult and at another time he refused to take the threshing floor Oxen and threshing instruments of Araunah as a gift but would buy them because he would avoid the very shew of covetousness as some conceive Austin being often ensnared in uncleanness in his younger dayes before his conversion he was exceeding careful to avoid all occasions of it afterwards Now a true penitential turning from all sin lyes in these six things and therefore you had need look about you for if there be any one way of wickedness wherein you walk and which you are resolved you will not forsake you are no true penitents and you will certainly lose your souls and all the great and glorious things of another world The third Answer Ans 3 Thirdly A true penitential turning is a constant and continued turning from sin 2 Chron 7.15 As it is total in respect of the act so it is final in respect of the time True repentance takes an everlasting farewel an everlasting adieu of sin it saith with the Spouse Cant. 5.3 I have put off my coat how shall I put it on I have found the smart of sin I have put off the garments of the old man the rags of old Adam and how shall I put them on again The burnt child will dread the fire The man that hath smarted for Suretyship will by no means be perswaded to come again into bonds though you urge him to it never so frequently never so strongly never so rhetorically yet he will tell you he has smarted for it he has paid dear for it and therefore you must excuse him he is peremptorily resolved nay he hath seriously vowed against it and though he be never so much intreated and by variety of arguments importuned yet still he remains inexorable A Christian that hath truly repented is so sensible of the freeness and sweetness of the grace of God on the one hand and of the weight of sin and wrath of God on the other hand that he is highly resolved never to have any more to do with Idols Psal 40.12 Hos 14.8 never to meddle more with those burning coals True repentance is a continued act a repentance never to be repented of The true penitent is every day a turning further and further from sin and neerer and neerer to God There is nothing that fetches so many tears from a penitent man's eyes nor so many sighs and groans from a penitent man's heart as this that he can get no further off from sin and that he can get no neerer nor no closser to God Repentance for sin and a willing continuance in sin cannot consist in the same subject A sincere penitent makes as much conscience of repenting daily as he doth of believing daily and he can as easily content himself with one act of faith or love or fear or hope or joy or obedience as he can content himself with one act of repentance My sins are ever before me Psal 51.3 This is the voice of every true penitent Oh that I might sin no more Oh that I might never dishonour God more Oh that I might never walk contrary to Jesus Christ more Oh that I might never grieve the spirit of grace more To sin is common to man 1 John 1.8 10. 5.19 Isa 28.15 18. Psal 139.24 Rom. 7.22 23. yea to the best man in all the world but to continue in a course of sin is only proper to a wicked man To err and fail that 's humane but to maintain a league or friendship with sin that is diabolical Though a true penitent dares not continue in a trade a path of sin whilst he lives in this world yet sin will continue in him whilst he continues in this world though sin and grace were not born together and though sin and grace shall never die together yet whilst a penitent man lives in this world they must live together 'T is one thing for sin to continue in us and 't is another thing for us to continue in sin The Apostle having closed the fifth Chapter of his Epistle to the Romans in the triumph of Gospel grace That as sin hath reigned unto death so grace might reign through righteousness ●nto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 6.1 2. begins the next with a prevention of the abuse of this grace What shall we say then shall we continue in sin that grace may abound God forbid How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein To live in sin in the face of Gospel-grace is most unreasonable and to a gracious and ingenious nature impossible the very question implyes a kind of impossibility Such as were once dead in sin and now by Gospel-grace are dead to sin such can no longer continue in sin Look as 't is not the meer falling into the water that drowns a man but his lying and continuing in it so it is not a meer falling into sin that damns a man that drowns a man that everlastingly undoes a man but his living in it his continuing in it It is bad to sin but 't is infinitely worse to continue in sin The first best is not to sin the next best is not to continue in sin no not for an hour as Paul speaks in another case Gal. 2.5 To whom we gave place by subjection no not for an hour Certainly to argue from Gospel-mercy to sinful liberty is the Devil's Logick The more a man lives in the sight of Gospel-grace the more sin will be discountenanced resisted hated and totally displaced A man may as truly assert that the Sea burns or that the fire cools or that the Sun darkens the Air as he may assert that the sight sense or sweet of Gospel-grace will breed security or carnality loosness or wickedness in a gracious heart The true penitent never ceases repenting till he ceases living he goes to heaven with the joyful tears of repentance in his eyes he knows that his whole life is but a day of sowing tears that he may at last reap everlasting joyes True repentance makes a final and everlasting separation between sin and the soul it makes such an absolute and compleat divorce between sin and the soul and casts them so far asunder that no power nor policy can ever bring them to meet as lovers together The true penitent looks upon sin as an enemy and deals with it as Amnon dealt with Tamar 2