Prophet in the former verse, "Show the house to the house of
Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities;" and, Jer. xxxi. 19,
Ephraim is first instructed, then ashamed. And here it is quite turned
over in my text; if they be ashamed show them the house.

I shall not here make any digression unto the debates and distinctions of
schoolmen, what influence and power the affections have upon the
understanding and the will; I will content myself with this plain answer:
Those two might very well stand together,--light is a help to humiliation,
and humiliation a help to light. As there must be some work of faith, and
some apprehension of the love of God, in order before true evangelical
repentance, yet this repentance helpeth us to believe more firmly that our
sins are forgiven. The soul, in the pains of the new birth, is like Tamar
travailing of her twins, Pharez and Zarah (Gen. xxxviii. 28-30): faith,
like Zarah, first putting out his hand, but hath no strength to come
forth, therefore draweth back the hand again, till repentance, like
Pharez, have broken forth,--then can faith come forth more easily. Which
appeareth in that woman, Luke vii. 47, 48: she wept much, because she
loved much; she loved much, because she believed; and by faith had her
heart enlarged with apprehending the rich grace and free love of Christ to
poor sinners: this faith moves her bowels, melts her heart, stirs her
sorrow, kindles her affection. Then, and not till then, she gets a prop to
her faith, and a sure ground to build upon. It is not till she have wept
much that Christ intimates mercy, and saith, "Thy sins are forgiven thee."
Just so is the case in this text: Show them the house, saith the Lord,
that they may be ashamed; give them a view of it, that they may think the
worse of themselves, that they want it, that they may be ashamed for all
their iniquities, whereby they have separate betwixt their God and
themselves, so that they cannot "behold the beauty of the Lord," nor
"inquire in his temple," Psal. xxvii. 4; and if, when they begin to see
it, they have such thoughts as these, and humble themselves, and
acknowledge their iniquities, then go to and show them the whole fabric,
and structure, and all the gates thereof, and all the parts thereof, and
all things pertaining thereto.

I suppose I have said enough for confirmation and clearing of the doctrine
concerning the necessity of our being ashamed and confounded before the
Lord. I