III. The means of application, or the duty on man's part, is repent- ance ; for to that he calleth them here.
Here let me show you these four things — (1.) What repentance is ; (2.) The kinds of it ; (3.) That this is the way of our recovery ; (4.) The suitableness of this qualification to the grace of the new covenant.
1. What repentance is. It is 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. We turn from something, and we turn to some- thing.
[1.] The terminus a quo ; we turn from something. From sin : Acts viii. 22, ' Repent of thy wickedness,' diro ri)^ KaKia^ ; from thy wickedness, and * from dead works,' Heb. vi. 1 ; from Satan. Satan is sometimes made the term, 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 is to God, Acts xx. 21 ; to the truth : 2 Tim. ii. 25, eh eirlyvwcnv dXr]d€La<i, ' Bepentance to the acknow- ledgment of the truth ; ' to holiness and newness of life, Eom. vi. 4 ; to life : Acts xi. 18, ' Then hath God also to the gentiles granted repentance unto life.'
2. The kinds of it. There is a general repentance, which consists in the putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, Col. ii. 11, when a man renounceth all sin, and devoteth himself to God ; and there is a particular repentance for any provoking sin : Acts viii. 22, ' Repent and pray, that, if it be possible, the thought of thy heart may be for- given thee.' Again, there is a repentance at our first conversion, which is our passing from death to life, or our entrance by the strait gate, Mat. vii. 14 ; and there is a repentance afterwards, which be- longetli to our walking in the narrow way; for after conversion we need it still, and not in our natural estate only. It is not only necessary for a sinner yet unregenerate, yet unreconciled to God, without which he cannot expect any peace with God or benefit by the new covenant, but also for a believer till his full and final recovery. This repentance after conversion is either occasional or constant.
[1.] Occasional, after any offence given, or breach between us and
8 SERMON UPON MARK II. 17.
God, repentance is necessary to obtain pardon of sins after justifica- tion, as well as before it. God saith to the churcji of Ephesus, Kev. ii. 5, ' Repent, and do thy first works.' So ver. 19, * Whom I love I rebuke and chasten ; be zealous therefore, and repent ; ' where repent- ance is put for a necessary means of removing God's rebuke and quarrel from them whom he loveth. The promise is made to believers : 1 John i. 9, ' If we confess and forsake our sins, he is just and faithful to forgive us our sins.' When he wrote to believers, he put himself in the roll : ' If we confess.' Experience of the saints confirmeth the same : Ps. xxxii. 5, ' I acknowledged my sin unto thee.' God was angry with Job's friends till they humbled themselves : Job xlii. 8. Solomon beggeth pardon for the people of God on these terms : 1 Kings viii. 47, 48, ' Yet if they shall bethink themselves in the land whither they were carried captives, and repent, and make supplication unto thee in the land of them that carried them captives, saying, We have sinned and done perversely, we have committed wickedness ; and so return unto thee with all their heart and with all their soul, in the land of their enemies which led them away captive, and pray unto thee towards their land which thou gavest their fathers, the city which thou hast chosen, and the house which I have built for thy name.' The Lord assenteth to the articles: 2 Chron. vii. 13, 14, 'If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, if my people shall humble themselves, and pray, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven,' &c. God's children may fall into miscarriages whereby they may displease God, though their persons be justified.
[2.] Constant. When we first begin with God, we bind ourselves to forsake all known sin, and to live to God. In grown persons this is confirmed by baptism. Our obligation continueth with our lives. And therefore we must spend our whole time in repentance. And our necessity inferreth it, as well as our obligation. Original corrup- tion remaineth with the regenerate, and we frequently feel the rebel- lions of the flesh : Rom. vii. 24, ' 0 wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me from this body of death ? ' So long as a man is a sinner, he is called to repentance, and must use this means till his full recovery. Besides, too, it is necessary with respect to our growth. We must grow daily in humiliation and self-abhorrence, and reform the errors of our ways more and more ; and therefore we must look upon Christ still calling us to repentance, that, walking in a constant mortifying of sin, he may still lead us to salvation. And by these calls he more and more killeth and weakeneth corruption in us. There- fore as they said, because of the difficulties of the outward reformation, Ezra X. 13, ' This is not a work of one day or two,' so inward repent- ance is not the work of one, but all our" days.