Doct. That the great purpose and drift of the gospel where it is sent and preached is to invite men to repentance.
This appeareth abundantly by the scripture, tliat repentance is one of the first and chief lessons which the gospel teacheth. When the gospel kingdom was to be erected or set up, John the Baptist crieth, ' Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,' Mat. iii. 2. So when Jesus himself began to preach, his note is the same : Mat. iv. 17, ' He began to preach, and to say, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.' His doctrine and the doctrine of the Baptist is all one in substance, and necessarily it must be so. The gospel findeth men under the tyranny of Satan, and offereth to bring them into the king- dom of God. So when he sent abroad his disciples first to the Jews, Mat. X. and afterwards to the world, Luke xxiv. 47, ' That repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name.' The disciples were faithful to their commission : Acts ii. 38, ' Peter said unto them, ' Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins.' But to give you some reasons of it, I shall — (1.) Inquire what is repentance , (2.) What the gospel doth to pro- mote it ; (3.) How convenient and necessary this is for all those that are willing to come out of the apostasy of mankind, and to return to their obedience to God.
SERMON UPON ACTS XVII. 30, 31. 405
First, What is repentance ? Sometimes it is taken largely for our whole conversion to God through the faith of Christ, as in the text : ' He commandeth all men to repent ; ' that is, to turn from their sins, and believe the gospel : 2 Tim. ii. 25, ' In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves, if peradventure God will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth ; ' where the owning of the christian faith is called repentance. Sometimes strictly, as opposed to or rather distinguished from faith, as Acts xx. 21, ' Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance towards God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ ; ' where repentance is said to be towards God as the end, as faith is conversant about Christ as the means. And there it signifieth a return to the love and obedience of our Creator, which was our primitive duty before the fall, as faith implieth all the duties that belong to our recovery by Christ. In short, in the strict sense, there is not only a sorrow for what is past, which is a beginning and help to the other part ; for, 2 Cor. vii. 10, ' Godly sorrow working repentance unto salvation, not to be repented of ; ' but also a full pur- pose of heart to live unto God ; ' Gal. ii. 19, ' I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. Sometimes repentance is described by one term, called ■ Repentance from dead works,' Heb. vi. 1 ; where by dead works are meant sins, which render us liable to death ; and often by the other, called a turning or returning to God : Zech. i. 3, ' Turn ye unto me, saith the Lord,' Acts xxvi. 18, ' To open their e3'es, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God.' From him we fell, to him we return ; and so it includeth an acknowledgment of our sins, with grief of heart, and a resolution to forsake them, that we may live unto God ; both of which, if they be hearty and sincere, will be evidenced by 'newness of life,' Rom. vi. 4, or doing works meet for repentance : Acts xxvi. 20, ' That they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance.' The sum of what he preached was reduced to three heads, the two first by way of foundation, the third by way of super- structure. The two first imply an internal change, the third the out- ward discovery of it. By 'repentance' is meant there a bethinking ourselves, or considering our ways, after we have gone wrong, with a broken-hearted sense and acknowledgment of the misery into which we have plunged ourselves by sin ; by * turning to God,' our seeking happi- ness in God by Christ, and giving up ourselves to him to do his will ; and by ' works meet for repentance,' a suitable and thankful life. All practical divinity may be reduced to these three heads, a sense of our misery by nature, a flying to God by Christ for a remedy, and the life of love and praise, which becometh Christ's reconciled and redeemed ones. This is repentance.
Secondly, What the gospel doth to promote it.
1. It requireth it indispensably of all grown persons. In the text, ' He commandeth all men everywhere to repent.' And our Lord, telleth us that the great end of his commission was to call sinners to repentance : Mat. ix. 13, ' I am not come to call the righteous, but sin- ners to repentance.' The gospel findeth us not innocent, but in a lapsed estate, under the power of sin, entangled in the love of the world, and the snares of the devil, and obnoxious to the wrath of God. Now Christ