jl 114 THIRD SERMON Rom. xiii. 14. what he should eat, what he should drink, wherewith he should be clothed. Now his care is how he may be saved, how he may honour and enjoy God, Acts ii. 37. xvi. 30. The first question in repentance is, " What have I done ?" Jer. viii. 6. and the next question is, " What shall I do T' Acts ix. 6. And this care repentance worketh, 1. By a godly sorrow for sin past. It brings into a man's remembrance the history of his former life, makes him with heaviness of spirit recount the guilt of the innumerable sins wherewith he path bound himself as with chains of darkness: the loss of so much precious time mispent in the service of such a master as had no other wages to give but shame and death. The horrible indignities thereby offered to the majesty and justice of God, the odious contempt of his holy will and sovereign authority, the daring neglect of his threatenings, and undervaluing of his rewards ; the high provocation of his jealousy and dis- pleasure ; the base rivalry and contesting of filthy lusts with the grace of the gospel, and the precious blood of the Son of God ; the gainsaying, and wrest- ling, and stubborn antipathy of a carnal heart to the pure motions of the Spirit and word of Christ ; the presumptuous repulses of him that standeth at the door and knocks, waiting that he may be gracious ; the long turning of his back, and thrusting away fromhim the word of reconciliation, wherein Christ by his am- bassadors had so often besought him to be reconciled unto God. The remembrance of these things makes a man look with self - abhorrency upon himself, and full detestation upon his former courses. And he now no longer considers the silver or the gold, the profit or the pleasure of his wonted lusts, though they be ever so delectable or desirable in the eye of flesh,
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=