244 SERMONS UPON ACTS II. 37, 38. [SeR. I.
2. As a preparation and step towards grace.
Doct. That the work of regeneration beginneth in a lively and smart sense of our sin and misery.
Because this is the main point, I shall show you — (1.) What is this pricking of heart ; (2.) That this is the way God taketh to bring men to themselves ; (3.) Why, or for what reasons.
I. What is this pricking at heart ? There is a preparatory trouble that goeth before a saving change. It is gradus ad rem, a step to this change, though not gradus in re, a part of this change ; as drying of the wood is not kindling of the wood. After this pricking at the heart, Peter biddeth them repent. This trouble lietli most in the passions and affections ; yet it presupposeth some work upon the understanding. Among the passions it lieth most in the fear of being damned for ever ; but it doth not exclude the work of other affections, as shame and sorrow ; for nature hath a quick and more tender sense of danger than any other thing ; as a man overgrown with sores is sensible of the filthiness and nastiness of his condition, but first and most of the pain. Well, then, let us consider it more distinctly.
1. There is in our understanding an apprehension of our miserable and undone condition, by reason of our many and great sins. A sight of sin is necessary, or a sound conviction of our sinful estate : Jer. xxxi. 19, 'Surely after that I was turned, I repented ; and after I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh : I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth ; ' 1 Cor. xiv. 25, 'He is convinced of all, and judged of all, and falleth on his face, and worshippeth God.' Not a slight confused knowledge that we are all sinners in the general, nor empty notions by which sin may be made loathsome to us in a speculative way, but a setting it home upon the heart : 1 Kings viil. 47, ' Yet if they shall bethink them- selves in the land whither they are carried captives, and repent, and make supplications unto thee in the land of them that carried them captives, saying, We have sinned, and done perversely, we have com- mitted wickedness ;' Luke xv. 17, 18, 'And when he came to himself; he said, How many hired servants of my father have bread enough, and to spare, and I perish for hunger ? I will arise, and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I liave sinned against heaven, and before thee ; ' Jer. viii. 6, ' No man repented him of his wicked- ness, saying. What have I done ? ' There must be also a sight and sense of the wrath of God that hangeth over our heads, and the danger we are in of being condemned and lost for ever ; as a man asleep on a bridge, and ready to fall into the water : Eom. vii. 9, ' I was alive without the law once ; but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.' Men snort securely over the pit's brink till awakened.
2. After this conviction follows compunction, which is made up of fear, shame, and sorrow. Guilt breeds fears and terrors, and the folly and filthiness of sin, shame, and our misery, by reason of both, sorrows and groans, and sad lamentations. Fear is one great part of it, or sense of the wrath of God due for sins : Ps. xc. 11, ' Who knoweth the power of thine anger ? According to thy fear, so is thy wrath.' While others slight the wrath of God, pass their time merrily, not caring what estate they are in, these are deeply affected with the sense of God's dis-
VeR. 37.] SERMONS UPON ACTS 11. 37, 38. 245
pleasure. There is also shame, or a sense of being found faulty, or their folly in doing what they have done. When the soul is filled with confusion hecause of its own ways : Kom. vi. 21, ' What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.' Then sorrow and deep lamentations because of their sad condition. That affection is expressed by the prophet, Lam. V. 16, ' Woe unto us, that we have sinned ; ' Ps. xxxviii. 8, ' I am feeble, and sore broken ; I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart.' Now in all these things there lieth compunction or brokenness of heart, which serveth, not as a bridle to keep us from God, but as a spur to drive us to him.
II. That God taketli this course to bring home sinners to himself. God terrified Adam (Gen. iii. 10, 'I was afraid') to make him sensible of his defection, before he comforted him. So the Israelites, when he would enter into covenant with them, be first terrified them by giving the law with thunderings. When he would convert Paul, Acts ix. 6, ' He, trembling and astonished, said. Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ? ' Acts xvi. 39, 40, the jailor came in trembling before Paul and Silas, and said, 'What must I do to be saved ? ' In the Old Testament, Ps. li. 17, ' The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and con- trite heart, 0 God, thou wilt not despise;' and in the New, Rom. viii. 15, * For we have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear.' The holiness of God's nature seemetli with a kind of comely necessity to call for such a dispensation, that the sinner should be sensible of his displeasure by reason of sin, before he tasteth of grace ; that he should not per solium leap into comfort and the assurance of God's love all of a sudden. And herein God is contrary to the devil, the Avorld, and sin, which make promise of much pleasure, gain, and honour at the first, and men find something that giveth contentment to their sensual desires and corrupt lusts, but it ends in bitterness and sorrow at last. But here a little bitterness at first, that maketh way for endless comforts. Not that all that are pricked in heart and troubled for sin shall be converted and saved ; the work may die with some in the very pangs, or their trouble may be slight, and soon worn off ; but all that are converted are thus troubled, and filled with perplexity about their eternal estate, though the degrees be different. As there is no birth without the pain of travail going before, though some have easier labour than others, as the Hebrew women ; so here.