Page:Sinner's sobs, or, The way to Sion, a sermon.pdf/3

 hear no longer; but came to Peter and the rest, and said, What shall we do to be saved?

The doctrine which I would briefly speak of from these words is this:

Doctrine an unfeigned sorrow and contrition of heart, convinced of God's hatred of sin, is absolutely necessary to salvation.

This is that we call the beginning of the work of grace, even in the bruising of a sinner's heart, under the sense of any sin committed.

To prove this to be absolutely necessary to salvation, not only scripture, but reason will tell us. For scripture see the 1 Cor. vii. 10. Godly sorrow causeth repentance unto salvation. And as the Prophet David in the bitterness of his spirit, said, Thou keepest mine eyes waking, and my sin is ever before me. If the Lord loves a sinner and means to do him good, he will not let the sinner alone in his own sinful courses, but will free him from his den, bruise and beat him as in a mortar. What caused David's sorrow but his sin? He needed no restoring, had he not been degraded.