brethren.'
[2.] Their solemn question, ' What shall we do ? ' From the whole I shall make these observations —
252 SERMONS UPON ACTS II, 37, 38. [SeR. II,
1. The change that is wrought upon a sinner when Grod hath liim under this preparative trouble; it doth not amount to a full con- version, yet it inferreth a change ; a strange change in these men, both as to their thoughts of Christ and his apostles.
[1.] As to Christ, where are those words now, ' Thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil ? ' They are now convinced that Jesus is Lord and Christ. Where is now their fury, crying, 'Crucify, crucify him'? They are now pricked in their hearts, and hang the head : ' If thou lettest him go, thou art no friend to Cfesar.' No such tiling heard now. No ; but, ' What shall we do ? '
[2.] Their thoughts are changed towards the apostles. Now it is viri,fratres, 'Men and brethren,' whom before they looked upon as deceivers, and men full of new wine ; those whom they hated as enemies they now consult with as friends and physicians. They do not in con- tempt call them Galileans and impostors, but 'Men and brethren,' They have other thoughts of men and things than formerly they had. I observe this —
(1.) To show the necessity of a change in conversion. If conviction and compunction work such a mighty change, what will conversion do ? Ego non sum ego — I am not myself, A man should not be the same man he was before. There is as palpable a difference as between light and darkness, life and death, the old man and the new, Broken- ness of heart varies the price and value of things and persons strangely. He that was judged to have a devil is now found to be Lord and Christ ; and those that were mocked as men full of new wine, and had taken a cup too much, are now owned to be the precious servants of the Lord. We are not the same men, have not the same thoughts and notions of things, when the Lord beginneth to work upon us. Men look upon men and things in the glass of their own humours, and passions, and brutish lusts, when they are wild careless creatures ; but when they come to themselves, and begin to be serious, they look upon things as they are in themselves. Men look upon men and things at a distance and by a slight view before ; now they look upon them nearer at hand, and by a different and more accurate view. Peter Martyr's similitude wrought upon Galiacius Caraccialus. Those that afar off see men skipping and dancing would think they were light and vain persons, but when they draw near unto them, they find their motion orderly, and keeping time and pace with the music, and as the laws of the exercise and dance require. There is a great alteration in men's notions of wisdom and folly, misery and happiness, liberty and bondage. The work of a sound conviction bewrayeth itself in nothing so much as in these things. They are wise who mind earthly things, fools and crazy brains who consult not with their profit, but their conscience ; no happiness but to flow in ease and plenty ; no misery like that to be kept short and bare in temporal conveniences and worldly accommo- dations; no such bondage as to be held to duty and in the fetters of con- science ; no such liberty as to live at large. But afterward they find it to be quite otherwise ; no folly like pleasing the flesh ; no miseiy like the loss of God's favour; no bondage like the slavery of sin.
(2.) I observe it to show what difference there is in our thoughts of sin before and after the commission. With what a hurry and madness
VeR. 37.] SERMONS UPON ACTS IT. 37, 38. 253
of a furious spirit were this people carried to desire the death of Christ ! ' Crucify him, crucify him 1 ' And now it is done, their consciences work, they are pricked in their hearts, and are at an utter loss : ' Men and hrethren, what shall we do ? ' Christ foretold this : John viii. 28, ' Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lift up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself, but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things.' Evil men are j^ermitted to run their own course, but when their consciences and God's judgments are let loose upon them, to see what a course they are engaged in, then they are ' pricked in heart.' Our first parents, when they had sinned, then their eyes were opened, and they knew they were naked. Gen. iii. 7, that is, ashamed in their nakedness ; they began to take notice of the miserable and sad condition into wliicli Satan had brought them, that they might be humble, and seek to God for pardon. Many discover not aforehand the evils which their sins lead them into; but afterwards they see it, and are left shiftless and helpless. When Judas had betrayed his master, the foulness of the act terrified him, and he goeth and hangeth himself. Peter hath no sense of his condi- tion while he is denying Christ ; but afterwards conscience beginneth to work : ' He goeth out, and wept bitterly,' Mat. xxvi. 75. It is well when this is discovered to bring us to repentance for failings past, to make us more watchful for time to come, and to give us a fuller and quicker taste of God's mercy in our reconciliation by Jesus Christ. But when it is only discovered in order to our despair, as it was to Cain, Gen. iv. 14, that is sad. Well, then, they have other thoughts. This is the general observation,