360 SERMONS UPON LUKE XVI. 30, 31.
and that maketli them turn atheists ; or an infallible interpreter, that should solve all questions, or excuse them from the ]) lins of study and prayer, and that maketh them turn papists. Thus foolishly would we give laws to heaven, and prescribe to God how he shall reveal his mind to men. God will not always give sensible confirmation.
2. There lie more prejudices by far against any way of our devising than against the course which God hath instituted for the furthering of our repentance. Man is an ill caterer for himself. The people slighted Moses, and would hear God himself speak ; but when he thundered upon the Mount, then they say, let us no more hear the voice of God, for then we shall die : Exod. xx. 19, ' And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear ; but let not God speak with us, lest we die.' All God's institutions are full of reason, and if we had eyes to see it, we could not be better provided for.
3. God in giving the scriptures hath done more for us than we could imagine, yea, better than we could wish to ourselves. He hath cer- tainly done enough to leave us without excuse. You think if one came from the dead this would be better, but you have more , and therefore, if you be damned, it will not be for want of power, but want of will ; you have more than if one came from the dead. Try what you can do with Moses and the prophets. It is a great mercy to have a rule by which all doctrines are to be tried, to have a standard and measure of faith, and that put into writing to preserve it against the weakness of memory and the treachery of evil designs, and that translated into all languages. That we have such a rule, and so thoroughly finished, is a great mercy.
4. That we are apt to betray present advantages by wishes of another dispensation, as that we may have oracles and miracles. It is but a shift to think of other means than God hath provided. They that believe not the word will not believe one that should come from the dead. Extraordinary means will not work upon them upon whom ordi- nary do not prevail. Whatever dispensation God uses, man is man still : Ps. Ixxviii. 22-24; ' They believed not in God, and trusted not in his sal- vation, though he had commanded the clouds from above, and had opened the doors of heaven, and had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them the corn of heaven,' There were unbelievers and carnal wretches when there were miracles, and so there would be still. Though there were never so sufficient proof yet such is our perverse- ness, that we shall slight God's counsel. Man is ever at odds with the present dispensation. It is a sign the heart is out of order, or else any doctrine that is of God would set it a-work.
5. Those that like not the message will ever quarrel at the mes- senger ; and when the heart is wanting, something is wanting. We have means enough to believe ; it is our own carelessness and obstinacy that we do not : Mat. xi. 18, 19, ' John came neither eating nor drink- ing, and they say, He hath a devil. The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners.' There is always one exception or another.
6. How credulous we are to fables, and how incredulous as to undoubted truths ; spirits and apparitions, these things are regarded by
SERMONS UPON LUKE XVI. 30, 31. 361
US, but the testimony of the Spirit of God speaking in the scriptures is little regarded.
Use 2. To exhort ns to improve the scriptures to repentance. This is the great work.
Here I shall show you — (1.) What repentance is ; (2.) What the holy scriptures ofifer to work us to repentance ; (3.) How we may improve these.
I. What repentance is. It is a turning of the whole heart from sin and Satan to serve God in newness of life ; or a turning from sin because God hath forbidden it, to that which is good because God hath commanded it. There are in it, as in every action, two terms — a quo and ad quern.
1. The terminus a quo, that from which we are to turn. We turn from something ; from sin : Acts viii. 22, ' Kepent of this thy wicked- ness ; ' a-iro ri]^ KaKiaq, from thy wickedness. From dead works : Heb. vi. 1, ' Eepentance from dead works.' And Satan is sometimes made the term from which, because the sinner falleth to his share : Acts xxvi. 18, 'To turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God.'
2. The terminus ad quern, the term to which we are to turn, that is, to God : Acts xx. 21, ' Eepentance towards God ;' to the truth : 2 Tim. ii. 25, ' If God peradventure will give them repentance e/? eir'vyvoiaLv ak7]6ela<;, to the acknowledgment of the truth.' To holiness and new- ness of life : Kom. vi. 4, ' Even so we also should walk in newness of life.' To life : Acts xi. 18, ' Then hath God also to the gentiles granted repentance unto life.' According to which terms there is a double action required of us — humiliation and reformation ; humiliation or compunction, and a due remorse for sin ; reformation, or a change of course. Which answereth to the double work of God upon the soul — mortification, or the subduing of sin ; vivificatiou, or the infusion of life. So suitably there are aversion from sin and a conversion to God and the things of God ; which is expressed by two duties — confession of sin, and entering into covenant with God. Serious confession of sin is morti- fication acted ; entering into covenant with God is vivificatiou acted, or the desire of grace expressed. Confession of sin is required, that a man, laying aside all extenuations, evasions, and excuses, may take shame to himself, givins; crlory to God. Enterins; into covenant with God is required that a man may be under a firm obligation ot obedience, and be cautious over his own heart and ways ; the one respects sin past, the other sin to come.