YeR. 23.] SERMONS UPON 1 PETER I. 23. 323
then he is first afraid, and then ashamed of liis beasthness ; when he Cometh to himself, and the wine is gotten out of his head, then he is sorrowful that he should so much forget himself. So while we are in an estate of nature, we are without remorse, and go on with delight in sin, and think no harm or shame of it. But when a man is awakened from sleep, Eph. v. 14, ' Awake thou that sleepest,' then he is ashamed of the folly of his former course : Ps. Ixxiii. 22, ' So foolish was I, and ignorant, I was as a beast before thee/ Or if he be given up more to an inordinacy of the filthiness of it, then he is troubled what to do ; he groweth unsatisfied with his estate : I must run a new course ; and crieth out. What shall I do ? Now were you ever acquainted with such a work so as to groan under the burden of your sins? Mat. xi. 28, ' Come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest ; ' and with brokenness of heart seek God's favour. That is one part of the change, to take away the heart of stone. Before sin is made a light matter ; but when the soul beginneth to feel it to be of such a weight as will sink us to hell, then it groweth weary of it, and desireth to come out of this condition. There is many a man that hath weak and waterish notions about the evil of sin, and will coldly confess that he is a sinner, but when he comes to feel it indeed, and it sets close to his heart, and he saith, If I die in this condition I shall be damned eternally : 0 foolish creature ! that I have lived thus long in this danger, and never thought of it ! oh, what shall become of me ? wretched man that I am ! how shall I escape ? Now hath thy heart been broken, that it may be ploughed and sown? Jer. iv. 3, ' Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.' Hast thou been broken in heart with the apprehension of sin ? Ps. li. 17, ' The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit ; a broken and contrite heart, 0 God, thou wilt not despise.' Have there ever been such workings of spii-it (as somewhat to this purpose there will be in all that are converted), since this was the first occasion of your more intimate acquaintance with God ? There is a step towards the knowledge of your estate : What manner of entrance hath it had ? though I do not pitch it wholly upon that.
[2.] Is there any change wrought in us? A man that is renewed is not the same man that he was before, they differ as light and dark- ness : Eph. V. 8, ' Ye were sometimes darkness, but now ye are light in the Lord,' As much as an old man and a new, Eph. iv. 22-24, as if lie were not the same man ; a dead man and a living ; Eph. ii. 1, ' And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins.' As it is true of Christ, ' He was dead and is alive,' Rev. i. 8, so it holdeth good of every man in Christ ; he was dead and is alive : Luke xv. 24, ' This my son was dead and is alive.' There is not only a difference between them and others, but between them and themselves. They live by another rule, and liave another aim and tendency , not according to the fashions of the world, but according to the will of God. They do not say with the pharisee, Ego non sum sicut cceteri homines, but Ego own sum ego: I am not as other men, but I am not as myself; I Jim not Avhat I was ; as if another soul dwelt in the same body. It is not enough to be differenced from others by a change of life, but from ouiselves by a change of heart. When Onesimus was converted,
324 SERMONS UPON 1 PETER I. 23. [SeR. II.
Philem. 11, 'Before unprofitable, but now profitable to thee and me.' He was quite another man ; before loose, vain, carnal, doting upon the vanities of the world ; now strict, serious, spiritual, taken up with the things of God ; before pleasing the flesh, now pleasing the Lord ; before the mind was blind, now the eyes are opened by the Spirit of wisdom and revelation ; he hath another sight of divine things than ever he had before. Before the conscience was stupified or terrified, now it is tender, and has some sense of the love of God. Before the will was obstinate in evil, changeable and fickle in that which is good, now it hath some freedom towards God, is more settled in a holy course. Before the afiections were unmortified, unbridled in carnal things, dead and cold to things spiritual and heavenly ; now the strength of them runneth out in another channel : now they have other desires, delights, fears and joys ; before idle, now hard at work for God. Before you merely minded your own things, now unfeignedly study and mind how to glorify God, and serve him with the best advantage.