call of sinners to repentance is to turn from sin, and to return to God : Isa. Iv. 7, 'Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord,' &c. Jer. i. 4, ' If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the Lord, return unto me ; and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight, then shalt thou not re- move.' And so chap, xviii. 11, 'Return ye now every one from his evil way, and make your way and your doings good.' 1 Peter ii. 25, ' For ye were as sheep going astray, but are now returned unto the shepherd and bishop of your souls.'* It is not enough for a sinner to forsake his sins, but he must also return to the Lord. The true penitent subjects his heart to the power of divine grace, and his life to the blessed will and word of God. Look, as negative goodness can never satisfy a peni- tent soul, so negative goodness can never save an impenitent souL It is not enough, 0 man, that thou art not thus and thus bad, but thou must be thus and thus good, or thou wilt be miserable for ever : Ezek. xviii. 21, 'But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die.' Negative righteousness and holiness is no righteousness, no holiness in the account of God. It was not the pharisee's negative righteousness, nor his comparative goodness, that could prevent his being rejected of God, or his being shut out of heaven, or his being turned into hell, Luke xviii. 5, Mat. XX. 13, 14. It is not enough that the tree bears no ill fruit, but it must bring forth good fruit, else it must be cut down and cast into the hre ; that tree that is not for fruit, is for the fire : 'Every tree that brings not forth good fruit,' says Christ, * is hewn down, and cast into the fire,' Mat. vii. 19. Heaven at last will be found too holy, and too hot, to hold such as please themselves, as satisfy themselves with a negative righteousness. All that negative righteousness and holiness can do, is only to help a man to one of the coolest chambers and easiest beds in hell. True repentance brings the heart and life, not only off from sin, but on to God too ; it takes a man not only off from the ways of death, but it engages him to walk in the paths of life : Ps. cxix. 3, 'They do no iniquity, they walk in his ways,' Prov. xiii. 14, ' The law of the wise is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death.' Prov. xv. 24, ' The way of life is above to the wise, that he may depart from hell beneath.' Ps. xxxiv. 14, 'Depart from evil, and do good.' We read in Scripture of God's returning to us, as well as of our returning to God ; in both there is repentance. When God returns to us, he repents of the evil of punishment that he hath brought upon us ; and when we return to God, we repent of the evil of sin which we have committed against him.^ The true penitent does not only sadly smite upon his thigh, and say. What have I done? but he also speedily faces about and cries out, I will do so no more, Jer. xxxi. 19. When God calls for true repentance, it is wdth an ' If thou wilt return,' 0 Isi-ael, ' return unto me,' Jer. iv. 1. And when the people of God do provoke and encourage one another to repentance, it is with a ' Come let us return unto the
' Consult these scriptures : Isa. xliv. 22, xix. 22, lix. 20 ; Hosea iii. 5, vi. 1, xiv. 1.
* [Gregory] Nazianzen, speaking of true repentance, very aptly compares the soul to a pair of writing tables, out of which must be washed whatsoever was written with sin, and instead thereof the writing of grace must be writ upon the soul; both being necessary to true repentance.
436 A CABINET OF JEWELS. [ChAP. IV.
Lord,' Hosea. vi. 1. Repentance unto life is not a turning from sin to sin, nor it is not a turning from profaneness to civility, nor it is not a turning from civility to formality; but it is a turning from darkness to light, it is a turning from the ways of iniquity into the ways of piety, it is a turning from sin to God, Acts xxvi. 18. In this respect Israel's repentance was very defective. Witness that sad complaint of the prophet: Hosea vii. 16, 'They return,' that is, they make a show of repentance, ' but not to the most High.' So they in that Joel ii. 12 have the half-turn, but returned not to the Lord with all their hearts. So Jehu went far, and gave many a half-turn, but. never turned to the Most High ; and that was his ruin at last. Such a repentance as brings the soul never the neai-er to God, is a repentance never the nearer ; but that repentance that brings the soul nearer to God, is a repentance never to be repented of. And let thus much suffice to have spoken concerning that evangelical repentance that hath the precious promises of remission of sin and salvation running out unto it, &c.
Several have ohset'ved to my hand how far an hypocrite may go, but m,y design in this chapter is to s'heiv how far an hypocrite cannot go.^ Many have discovered at large what an hypocHte caoi do, hut my scope in this chapter is to sheiv what an hyp)Ocrite cannot do. Some have shewed what an hypocrite is, and I shall now sheiv what he is not. Some have shewed the several ixumids in Jacob's ladder, that an hypocrite may climb up to ; hut my business and work in this chapter, is to shew you the several rounds in Jacob's ladder thcd no hypocrite under heaven can climb up to}
[1.] First, An hypocrite's inside is never answerable to his outside. An hypocrite's inside is one thing, and his outside another thing ; an hypocrite is outwardly clean, but inwardly unclean ; he is outwardly glorious, but inwardly inglorious, Mat. xxiii. 25-27, Luke xi. 89. Hypo- crites are like apothecaries' gally-pots, having without the title of some excellent preservative, but within they are fuU of some deadly poison. They are like the Egyptian temples, that were beautiful without, but within there was nothing to be found but serpents and crocodiles, and otlier venomous creatures. Hypocrites trade more for a good name, than for a good heart ; for a good report, than for a good conscience ; they are like fiddlers, more careful in tuning their instruments than in watching their spirits.^ Hypocrites are like white silver, but they draw black lines ; they have a seeming sanctified outside, but stuffed within with malice, worldliness, pride, envy, &c. Like wmdow cushions, made up of velvet and richly embroidered, but stuffed within with hay. An hypocrite may offer sacrifice with Cain, and fast with Jezebel, and humble himself with Ahab, and lament with the tears of Esau, and kiss Christ with Judas, and follow Christ with Demas, and offer fair for the
' It is better that a hunrlred hypocrites should perish, than that one poor Christian alinuld want his portion. — \_John] Cotton on the Covenant, p. 78. ^ Torshell (1644), and Sydenham (1654), are probably referred to by Brooka above. — 0. * Erasmi SimUia-