Works, Book 1 · Discourse 52
DISCOURSE LII.
REVEL. 3. 19.
As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: Be zealous therefore, and repent.
THESE words are part of one of the Seven Epistles sent by Christ unto the Seven Churches in Asia; namely an Exhortation unto the Church of Laodicea, whose disease was Lukewarmness and want of Fervency in the matter of Religion, and that accompanied with Security arising from presumption of Gods love through the abundance of his outward blessings bestowed upon them (vers. 17.) That therefore which they abused as an Argument why they might be secure, (as being God's darling and so much beloved,) in my Text is retorted unto them as an Argument of fear of some Chastisement near unto them and even hanging over their heads; For those whom God loveth, he chastiseth: Certain therefore it was that they should erelong feel the Scourge of God, unless they should timely rouze themselves out of their lazy devotions, out of the hateful and dangerous temper of Lukewarmness, unless they should blow up the fire of Zeal, to love and worship God with all earnestness and fervency; in sum, unless they would amend that grievous fault by Repentance; for, As many as I love, (saith Christ) I rebuke and chasten; be zealous therefore and repent.
It belongs not much to our purpose to enquire Whether those seven Epistles concern historically and literally only the Churches here named, or Whether they were intended for Types of Churches or Ages of the Church afterwards to come. It shall be sufficient to say, That if we consider their Number, being Seven (which is a number of revolution of Times, and therefore in this Book the Seals, Trumpets and Vials also are seven:) or if we consider the choice of the Holy Ghost,Revel. 3. 19. in that he taketh neither all, no nor the most famous Churches then in the world, as Antioch, Alexandria, Rome, and many other, and such (no doubt) as had need of instruction as well as those here named; if these things be well considered, it will seem that these Seven Churches, besides their Literal respect, were intended (and it may be chiefly) to be as Patterns and Types of the several Ages of the Catholick Church from the beginning thereof unto the end of the World: that so these Seven Churches should Prophetically sample unto us a sevenfold Temper and Constitution of the whole Church according to the several Ages thereof, answering the Pattern of the Churches named here.
For as in the course of Man's life diversity of ages hath diverse manners and conditions, so was it to be with the Church of Christ: Yea and as some Diseases are in regard of predominancy proper unto some men and not to others; so is it with the Church: All of these with their praises, if good; and remedies, if evil, are pourtrayed in these Seven Epistles unto the Seven Churches.
Nay not only the whole Church, but even particular Churches have their Ages, Manners and Conditions answerable unto the whole Body: They have likewise their Infancy, Youth, Virility and old age, with their several Constitutions, Conditions and Diseases: The first age and spring-time of both like unto Ephesus, full of*Rev. 2. 2, 3. patience, labour, tolerancy and zeal; The last and old age like unto Laodicea, in abundance of all external things Lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold. That which the Poet saies of the disposition of old men [Nullus Senex veneratur Iovem,] being more true of Churches; as they grow old, their zeal grows cold also.
So that in this regard my Text will not be unseasonable, if the Times wherein we live be either the Last times (as most men think) or near upon the Last (as no man will deny.) Howsoever since no Condition, Temper or Disease is so proper to any one Age, but that it is found sometime more or less in all: So may this of Lukewarmness be with us, what time soever of our age it be; and therefore no question but we may in Laodicea, as in a lively Example, clearly read our own state and learn wisdom.
Without any longer Preface therefore I come unto the Words themselves, which contain, First, God's rule, Those whom he loves, he rebukes and chastens. Secondly, Our and his Churches duty, We must be zealous and repent. Lastly, The Connexion of these two; Because those whom God loves, he will rebuke and chasten for their sin, especially Lukewarmness; We must therefore be zealous and repent.
To begin with the first, God's rule. [As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten.] The words need no great explanation: the two last [I rebuke and chasten] are rendred for foreign: the first whereof [foreign I rebuke] notes a reproving and convincing by Argument; the second [foreign I chasten] notes such a correction as Fathers give their children; not to hurt them, but to amend them, which we use to call a discipling, a punishment of discipline intended ad correctionem, non ad destructionem. So that the meaning is; Those whom I love, if after I have long reproved them and convinced them of sin, by my Word and Ministers, all be but in vain, then I use to chastise them with my rod, to afflict them with some scourge of my discipline, even as a Father doth the child whom he loveth.
Come we therefore to the Observations these words afford us;Observat. 1. The first whereof is, That God chastises his children out of love and for their good. For all the actions of God towards those he loves, must needs be out of love; and whatsoever he doth out of love, must be for the good of those he loveth. Indeed men for want of wisdom often do out of love that which hurts, as the Proverb is, they kill with kindness: But with God it is otherwise; He wants not skill to know what is best for his beloved, as men do; and therefore as certain it is that his chastisements shall end with our *Heb. 12. 10. God chastent foreign for our profit; and particularly, that we might be partakers of his holiness.profit, as we are sure they spring from our sins.
The ignorance of this point makes many to err, and with the friends of Iob to judge amiss of God's love and hate towards men. But we must know that God hath two sorts of arrows, Arrows of judgment and Arrows of mercy: the first he shoots against those he hates (Psal. 7. 13. Ps. 144. 6.) the other he shoots at his own, even those whom he loves, and therewith he wounds them that he may cure them; and such as these may apply to themselves the words of the Spouse in the Canticles, I am wounded with love: God's love hath wounded me, and the wound of God makes me love him: it begins in his love to me, and aims at and ends in my love to him. For we must remember in this case that which S. Austin well observes, That when the godly and the wicked suffer the very same things to outward appearance, yet there is a great unlikeness of the sufferers, even in the likeness of suffering: the one are punished out of God's just displeasure and wrathful vengeance; the other are disciplin'd out of mercy, that God might fit them and keep them for himself, because he loves them.
And that we may the better understand this, let us consider what Effects Afflictions work, and what fruits they bring forth in those whom God loveth.
1. Afflictions to them whom God loves are Medicinal, and thereby they recover their health by repentance from some spiritual disease they are sick of. For howsoever the Lord gives the rein loose to the children of wrath, and lets them enjoy their hearts desire; yet will he*Hos. 2. 6. hedge with Thorns the ways of those he loveth, and will awaken them by some sharp rod or other out of the sleep of security. So he taught Miriam by a*Num. 12. 10. leprosie to leave her murmuring; he wakened Ionah out of his sleep by casting him into the Sea: Zacharias his unbelief was cured with*Luk. 1. 22. dumbness; and Blessed is the man whom the Lord this way chastens and corrects. Psal. 94.
2. Afflictions are Preservatives to keep them whom God loveth, from sin. Thus an Angel of Satan must buffet Paul, lest he should be exalted above measure, 2 Cor. 12. 7. The Earth which is not tilled and broken up, bears nothing but thorns and briers. Vines wax wild in time,1 Cor. 9. …. … foreign God … … or …llage. unless we prune and cut them. Our hearts would be overgrown with evil affections and dispositions, as with so many noisome weeds, if God by his loving chastisements should not Till and Manure them: My Father (saith Christ) foreign is the Husbandman, Iohn 15. 1.
3. Afflictions make the fruitless bring forth fruit, beget many Vertues, and make God's Graces in us to bloom and bring forth works pleasing unto our Heavenly Father. The Prodigal Son (in Luke. 15.) never thought of returning to his Father, till he was brought low by affliction. Hagar was proud in the house of Abraham, but humble in the Wilderness, Gen. 21. Ionah sleepeth in the ship, but watches and prayes in the Whales belly. Sicut Aromata odorem non nisi cum accenduntur, expandunt, saith Gregory; as sweet spices send not forth nor spread abroad their sweet smell untill they be burnt or beaten; so neither do the Graces of God's children send forth so sweet, so rich a fragrancy as when they are exercised by Afflictions.
4. Lastly, Afflictions draw men nearer unto God. Manasses, who lived in Ierusalem as a Libertine; when he was bound with chains in Babylon, when he was in affliction, he besought the Lord and humbled himself greatly before the God of his Fathers. 2 Chron. 33. 11, 12. In the Gospel we read that Corporal diseases brought many to Christ, whereas many who had their health, neither regarded nor acknowledged him.
And thus I have let you see (according to Sampson's Riddle, Iudg. 14.) how that out of the eater comes meat, and out of the *Iunius renders foreign ab acri. Some Greek Copees render it foreign out of the bitter, and to this sense are the Syriack and Arabick Versions here. Sen. lib. de Provid. c. 2. Paternum Deus habet adversùs bonos viros animum; & illos fortiù amat, & doloribus ac damnis exagitat, ut verum colligant robur. Observat. 2.sowr (or sharp) comes sweet: Out of sowr and sharp or bitter afflictions, out of troubles and calamities that sometimes threaten to devour us, comes sweetness, comfort and refreshment.
The main use of all is for comfort in all our sufferings and crosses whensoever God sends them: For they are Signs of our Son-ship and Tokens of his love. So the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews tells us expressly, chap. 12. 6. &c. Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every Son whom he receiveth; If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with Sons. But if ye be without chastisement—then are ye bastards and not Sons. Let us then learn to bless God in our afflictions; and say with David (Psal. 94. 12.) Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O Lord, and teachest him out of thy Law; It is good for me that I have been afflicted; for before I was afflicted, I went astray; but now have I kept thy Word, Psal. 119. 67, 71.
My Second Observation is this, That if God spares not those whom he loveth, much less shall his Enemies escape punishment. Surely if God chastises those whom he loves, he will break in pieces those whom he hates.*Wisd. 12. 22. W…reas thou, O Lord, dost chasten us, foreign; thou s…ourgest our enemies a thousand times more, foreign. If thou art God's Enemy, as thou canst not expect any of that Favour he shews unto his Friends and children, so much less hast thou reason to hope that he will not revenge himself on thee, when thou feest him so severe unto his own. Let them think on this who live in enmity against God, and never yet made their peace with him, by casting off the old man and putting on the new; but continue still to walk after the flesh, in all the ways of sin, and cast God's Law behind them. Let them not rejoyce at the afflictions of God's children, nor laugh at their sufferings; but fear and tremble; For every lash that the Children of God feel is a Warning-piece to ungodly men, and should make them dread those sorer punishments, those many (and worse) stripes (Luke 12. 47.) the indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish which shall be to every one that doth evil, Rom. 2. To conclude, consider, that in 1 Pet. 4. 17. If judgment must first begin at the house of God, what shall be the end of them that obey not the Gospel of God?
AND now I come to the last thing to be observed out of these words,Observat. 3. viz. That God rebukes before he chastens. foreign, As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: first foreign I rebuke, and then foreign I chasten; first admonish and reprove them, and convince them of their Sin; and then chastise them: his foreign hath an foreign, his disciplining goes with admonition.
It is a part of God's style whereby he proclaims himself,*Exod. 34. 6. The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious and long-suffering. And this appears in that he strikes not a sinner without frequent forewarnings, reproofs and convincing him of sin: His Word is always the harbinger of his Sword: he rebukes and then chastens; Ezek. 33.for he desireth not our misery but our amendment. As I live (saith the Lord) I desire not the death of a sinner, but rather that he would turn from his way and live. And so in Prov. 1. Wisdom first cries out in the streets,*Pro. 1. 20. 22 How long will ye Scorners delight in scorning, and ye fools hate knowledge? First she calls, before she*Vers. 26. 27. laughs at their calamity, before destruction comes upon them as a whirlwind, or distress and anguish fall upon them.
Before the Floud came and overwhelmed the Earth for sin, man had given him 120 years warning, so long a space for repentance; as the Chaldee Paraphrast expounds that in Gen. 6. 3.[—his dayes shall be an 120 years] to this sense, A term of 120 years shall be given them (i.e. the men of that foreign evil generation) foreign, if they will return or repent. Before Nineveh should be destroyed, the Prophet Ionah was sent to cry against it. Israel was not carried captive into Assyria before the Lord had testified against them by all the Prophets and by all the Seers, saying, Turn ye from your evil wayes, and keep my Commandments, &c. 2 Kings 17. 13. The like is said of Iudah, in 2 Chron. 36. 15, 16. The Lord God of their Fathers sent to them by his Messengers; rising early and sending, because he had compassion on his people— But they mocked the Messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his Prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there was no remedy. The *That by Wing of abominations, (for so it should be rendred rather than the overspreading of abominations) … meant here an Army of Idolatron… Gentiles, or the Roman Army that destroy'd Ierusalem, see a clearly proved in Book III. in the Treatise of Daniel's Weeks.wing of abominations [foreign whereof Daniel speaks in ch. 9. 27.] overwhelmed not the City Ierusalem, until Christ had long laboured in vain to gather them under his wings, as a Hen gathereth her Chickens; and they would not, Matth. 23. 37. Nay when other warnings have been fruitless, and God's chastisements and Iudgments near, the very Heavens themselves shall by Comets and other Signs give warning of their approach, if at length by our humiliation we would stop them even at the door, or at least by our preparation to endure them mitigate them unto us.
1.Use 1. If this then be God's manner of dealing, To warn us by reproof, of our danger, that so we might avoid it before it comes; it should behove us not lightly to pass by his warnings, his foreign, so often sounding in our eares in the reading or preaching of his Word. There is no Evil that hath, doth, or shall befall us for any sin we commit, but there it is foretold and threatned us: no one Example there, but it is for our learning or instruction foreign Rom. 15. 4. and for our admonition foreign, 1 Cor. 10. 11. Nay the Holy Ghost doth so lively pattern by Examples the several cases which may befal men; as none scarce ever hath been or in any age shall be, which in one Example or other may not clearly read his own case and learn Wisdom. The Precepts also in the Holy Scripture are so plentiful, and the Threatnings so plain; that neither can we excuse our sins by ignorance, nor justly say that God's Iudgments took us unawares.
2.Use 2. If God so powerfully warns his Creature before he strikes him, how dare we strike our Brother before we warn him: For those who deal with men, as Experience sheweth, are often scorched with the fire before they see the smoak. But the reason of this difference is plain; God strikes because he loves and would amend us, and therefore he first rebukes and warns before he chastiseth: But we punish if we have power, or procure our Brother to be punished if we have not, because we hate him, and therefore lie in wait to entrap him: He must not be admonished, lest he should take heed and grow too wary, and so escape our snare: and yet we cry nothing but Discipline and Execution of Iustice, when our hearts and Consciences tell us it is but the wreaking of our Malice.
But God gives us a Rule to follow, fashioned according to the Pattern of his own Long-suffering: If thy Brother trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone— if again, take with thee one or two more: and if yet he amend not, Tell the Church, &c. Matth. 18. He that observeth not this Rule, little hope is there that ever God will give him grace to make use of his warning, who gives no warning to his brother.
AND thus I come to the Second part of my Text, which is our duty; We must be zealous and repent. Where first as the words lie, we will speak of Zeal, and then of Repentance.
Concerning Zeal, I will draw all I have to speak unto these two Heads. 1. What is this Zeal which is here commanded. 2. What Motives there are to urge and command it.
For the first, Zeal is the Intension and Vehemency of all our affections in matters of God and his Service. The Nature of Zeal.It hath its name of foreign which is to burn and boil as water over the fire, and thence may be styled the Fervency and boiling of our affections. Such a one was Apollos, as S. Luke (in Acts 18. 25.) describes him to be foreign fervent in Spirit, and such S. Paul exhorts the Romans to be, foreign fervent or burning in Spirit, ch. 12. 11. For as burning is the excess or highest pitch of heat, so is zeal of our affections. The Schoolmen make it an Intension of love; which is true if Love be taken as the Scripture useth; for it comprehendeth all our Affections under that name: all of them spring from presupposing Love. No man is ignorant of this that knoweth how in Scripture all our Duty both to God and man is styled Love and Charity. But Love is a special affection, Zeal is not the Intension of it alone, but of the rest also, Hatred, Ioy, Grief, Hope, Fear, &c.
So he that with David loves the Law of God more thanaPsal. 19. 10. hony or the hony-comb, more thanbPs. 119. 72. thousands of gold and silver; he loves zealously. He that rejoyceth in God's Testimonies more than they that findcVers. 162. great spoil, more than hisdIob 23. 12. appointed food; he joyes zealously. He whose eyes gush outePs. 119. 136. rivers of waters, and wisheth his eyes werefIer. 9. 1. a fountain of tears, because men keep not God's Law; he grieves zealously. He whose eyes fail and whose soul almost fainteth with waiting and longing for thegPs. 119. 81, 82. Salvation of the Lord; he hopes zealously. He who saies,hVers. 120. my flesh trembleth for fear of thee, and I am afraid of thy judgments; he fears zealously: and so of the rest.
But as in our Bodies we find Aguish burnings as well as the healthful vigour of Natural heat; and as Nadab and Abihu offered fire unto God, but not the right and holy fire, butforeign Ignem alienum qui non erat … coelo mis…s, & sumptus ex Altari aeneo, ubi crat Ig…is sac…r, demissu…e …. strange fire which he commanded them not (Lev. 10. 1.) So are there some counterfeits of zeal, as it were false fires, abominable unto God and odious unto men. All is not gold that glisters, no more is all Zeal which seemeth so, this zeal which God approves. Lest therefore blazing Comets be mistaken for the purer Stars of heaven, and Nadab and Abihu's strange fires for the fire of God's Altar; let us take a survey of the kinds and characters of false zeal, for the better discerning of the true.
The kinds then of false zeal may be reduced unto Three heads. 1. Hypocritical zeal, which wants sincerity. 2. Blind zeal, which wants knowledge. 3.3 Kinds and Characters of False zeal. Turbulent zeal, which wants love and moderation.
1. The First of these [Hypocritical zeal] is a meer blaze and shew of fervency, without any true and solid heat: It is nothing but the Vizor of zeal; looking a squint one way, but tending another; pretending God and his Glory, but aiming at some private and sinister end. Such was the zeal of Iehu who marched*2 Kings 9. 20. furiously, and his word was, The Lord of hosts; *Ch. 10. 16.Come (said he to Ionadab) and see my zeal for the Lord: but his project was the Kingdom. Iezabel proclaimed a Fast, as out of an Extasie of zeal that God should be blasphemed; 1 Kings 21.but her aim was Naboth's vineyard. So in Acts 19. Demetrius the Silver-Smith and his fellows cry, Great is Diana of the Ephesians; but meant the gain they got by making of her Silver Shrines, *The Silver foreign of Diana (not for Diana as in our Translation) were little Shrines or Cabinets, made like little Temples or Chappels (and in the form of her Temple at Ephesus) wherein was the Image of Diana: These Demetrins made and sold to the people that came to Ephesus, w… took them ho…e with them to worship by.(vers. 24.)
This Zeal is soon descried by the proper Character it hath, namely, an affectation of having their works seen of men (which is said of the vain-glorious Pharisees in Matt. 6.) be it by ostentation of their zealous deeds, like Iehu; or by the excess of affected gestures, sighs, and other like actions falling within the view of men: Not but that a true zeal doth shew it self vehement, even in external actions; but it is the straining of them beyond measure which argues the Heart to be guilty of emptiness within.
2. The Second kind of False zeal is Blind zeal, Ignis fatuus or Fools fire, leading a man out of the right way: when men zealously affect evil things, supposing them to be good; or are eagerly bent against good things, supposing them to be evil. Such was the Zeal of the Iews, of whom S. Paul *Rom. 10. 2.witnesseth that they had a zeal of God (that is, in the matters of God) but not according to knowledg. And with this Zeal was he himself once carried, when he persecuted the Christians with an opinion of doing God good service, as the phrase is Iohn 16. 2. I verily thought (saith he*Acts 26. 9.) with my self, that I ought to do many things contrary to the Name of Iesus of Nazareth. And such is the zeal of simple and devout Sectaries, who blindly run after some person they esteem, without knowing themselves either why or whither. This kind of zeal is like to metal in a Blind horse, that will speed to fall into a pit or to break his neck: The counsel I would give for avoiding this kind, is to look before we leap, and see our way clearly before we run.
3. The Third kind of False zeal is Turbulent zeal, which S. Iames *Ch. 3. 13.calls foreign bitter zeal; a kind of Wildfire transporting a man beyond all compass of Moderation; namely when in the excess of our heat we either outgo the bounds of our place and calling, or use undue Means or wayes, or overshoot the limits of Love and Charity whether to God or our Neighbour. For howsoever Zeal be an excess of our affections in the things of God; yet must this excess never break over the banks either of our vocation, or in choice of Means out-bound the Rule of God's Law, as theirs most certainly doth who endeavour to colour their Religion by the Massacres of Princes, overturning of Kingdoms, breach of Oaths and almost all bands of humane Society. Such was the Zeal of Saul when he slew the*2 Sam. 21. 1, 2. Gibeonites, forgetting the Oath which the Princes of the Congregation had made unto them, Iosh. 9. 15, 18, 19. And such was the zeal of Iames and Iohn in the*Luke 9. 54. Gospel, when to vindicate the honour of Christ they would have Fire to come down from heaven to consume a whole Village of Samaria. Such also was Peter's zeal, when he cut off*Iohn 18. 10. Malchus his ear: The former outwent the limits of Love and Charity; the last the limits of his Vocation. As Clocks whose Springs are broken, overstrike the hour of the day; So this mad and untempered Zeal the measure of Moderation.
Thus I have briefly described these False fires, that by the Law of contraries we may know who is the true Zealot whom God approveth, namely, He whose Spirit is in Fervency and not in Shew, for God and not for himself, guided by the Word and not with humours and opinions, tempered with Charity and free from head-strong violence. This is that Zeal which our Saviour calls for in my Text [foreign Be zealous therefore.] This is that Zeal which whoso wants, in him God hath no pleasure, but will spue him out of his Mouth, as it is said in vers. 15. a little before my Text.
But why (will you say) should this zeal be so needful, or why may we not worship God without it? Let us therefore now see the Reasons and Motives which do evince and prove it needful, and should urge us to it.
1. First, therefore I will seek no further than my Text, where the want of Zeal is reckoned for a Sin, a Sin to be repented of, Be zealous and Repent: Is not that needful, without which all our works are sinful?
But Vertue (you will say) consists in a Mean, Object.and not in Excess; and why should not Piety also?
I answer,Answ. The Mean wherein Vertue is placed, is the Middle of different kinds, and not the Middle or Mean of degrees in one and the same kind. Vertue (so it be Vertue) is at the best in the highest degree, and so is Religion in the highest pitch of Zeal.
2. It is the Ground-rule of the whole Law of God, and of all the Precepts concerning his Worship;Deut. 6. 5. That we must love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our Soul, with all our Mind, and with all our Strength. What is this else but to love him zealously, Mark. 12. 30.to worship him with the highest pitch of our affections and the uttermost strain both of Body and Soul? For he is the Soveraign and chiefest Good; what Love then can suite to him but the very top and Soveraignty of Love? All things in God are Supreme; his Power, his Knowledg, his Mercy; and therefore he cannot truly be worshipped, unless we yield him whatsoever is Supreme in ourselves; a supremacy of Fear, a supremacy of Hope, a supremacy of Thankfulness. For whom then should we reserve the top and chief of our affections? for our gold? for our Herodias, &c, How can we offer God a baser indignity? will he endure that any thing in the world should be respected before him, or equalled to him? The Lord our God is a jealous God, Exod. 20.and will not suffer it. Let therefore all the Springs and Brooks of our affections run into this Main, and let no Rivulet be drawn another way. If Zeal be good in any thing, it is most required in the best things: and if in any thing it be*foreign. comely to work with all our might (Eccles. 9. 10.) certainly in the service of God it is most comely: Be not slothful in business, but fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, Rom. 12. 11.
3. Zeal is that which carries our Devotions up to Heaven, As Wings to a Fowl, Wheels to a Chariot, Sails to a Ship; so is Zeal to the Soul of Man. Without Zeal our Devotions can no more ascend than Vapours from a Still, without fire put under it. Prayer, if it be fervent, availeth much: but a cold Sute will never get to Heaven. In brief,Iam. 5. 16. Zeal is the Chariot wherein our Alms, our Offerings and all the good works we do, are brought before the Throne of God in Heaven. No Sacrifice in the Law could be offered without fire; no more in the Gospel is any Service rightly performed without Zeal.
Be zealous therefore, lest all thy works, all thy endeavours be else unprofitable: Rouze up thy dull and heavy Spirit, serve God with earnestness and fervency; and pray unto him that he would send us this fire from his Altar which is in Heaven, whereby all our Sacrifices may become acceptable and pleasing unto him.
AND thus I come to the next thing in my Text, Repentance. [Be zealous and repent.] Repentance is the changing of our course from the old way of Sin unto the new way of Righteousness: or more briefly, A changing of the course of sin for the course of Righteousness. It is called also Conversion, Turning and Returning unto God. This matter would ask a long discourse, but I will describe it briefly in five degrees which are as five steps in a Ladder, by which we ascend up to Heaven.
1. The first step is the Sight of Sin and the punishment due unto it, for how can the Soul be possessed with fear and sorrow, except he Understanding do first apprehend the danger: for, that which the Eye sees not, the Heart rues not. If Satan can keep sin from the Eye, he will easily keep sorrow from the Heart. It is impossible for a man to repent of his wickedness, except the reflect and say*Ier. 8. 6. What have I done? The serious Penitent must be like the wary Factor, he must retire himself, look into his Books, and turn over the leaves of his life; he must consider the expence of his Time, the employment of his Talent, the debt of his Sin, and the strictness of his Account.
2. And so he shall ascend unto the next step, which is Sorrow for sin. For he that seriously considers how he hath grieved the Spirit of God and endangered his own Soul by his sins, cannot but have his Spirit grieved with remorse. The Sacrifices of God are a contrite Spirit. …Neither must we sorrow only, but look unto the quality of our Sorrow, that it be Godly, *2…foreign: and to the quantity of it, that it be Great. We must fit the plaister to the wound, and proportion our sorrow to our Sins. He that with Peter hath sinned heinously, or with Mary Magdalen frequently; must with them weep bitterly and abundantly.
3. The Third step of this Ladder is the Loathing of sin. A Surfiet of Meats how dainty and delicate soever, will afterwards make them loathsome: He that hath taken his fill of sin, and committed iniquity with greediness, and is sensible of his*foreign Iam. 1. 21. supersinity or abundance of naughtiness, and hath a great Sorrow for it; he will the more loath his sins, though they have been never so full of delight: Yea it will make him loath himself, and cry out in a mournful manner with S. Paul (Rom. 7. 24.) O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death?
4. The fourth step is the leaving off Sin. For as Amnon hating Tamar shut her out of doors:*2 Sam. 13. 17. So he that loaths and hates his Sins; the sight, the thought, the remembrance of them will be grievous unto him, and he will labour by all good means to expel them. For true Repentance must be the consuming of sin. To what purpose doth the Physician evacuate ill humors, if the Patient still distempers himself with ill diet? What shall it avail a man to endure the launcing, searching and tenting of a wound; if he stay not for the cure? So in vain also is the Sight of sin, and the Sorrow for and Loathing of Sin, if the works of darkness still remain, and the Soul is impatient of a through-cure. And therefore as Amnon not only put out his loathed Sister, but bolted the door after her (as it is said in the forequoted place): So must we keep out our sins with the Bolts of Resolution and Circumspection. Noah pitched the Ark within and without (Gen. 6. 14.) So to keep out the waters: and a Christian must be watchful to secure all his Senses, External and Internal, to keep out sin.*Origen. hom. 2. in Gen. 6. Vult te architectus Ecclesiae, Christus, & corpore Sanctum esse extrinsecùs, & corde intrinsecùs purum; cautum undique & castitatis atque innocentiae virtute munitum, hoc est intus & foris bitumine esse oblitum.
5. The Fifth and last step is the Cleaving unto God with full purpose of heart, to walk before him in newness of life. All the former Degrees of Repentance were for the putting off of the Old man; this is for the putting on of the New: For ubi Emendatio nulla, Poenitentia necessariò vana (saith Tertullian de Poenit. c. 2.) Where there is no Reformation, *The true Repentance is (Acts 20. 21.) foreign Poenitentia quâ ad Deum boní que studium acceditur: and this is the Repentance to Salvation (2 Cor. 7. 10.) and unto Life, Acts 11. 1….there the Repentance must needs be vain and fruitless; for (as he goes on) caret fructu suo, eui eam Deus sevit (i. e. hominis saluti) it hath not its fruit unto holiness, nor the end everlasting life, Rom. 6. 22.
And thus have I let you see briefly What Repentance is. Will you have me say any more to make you to affect it as earnestly, as I hope by this time you understand it clearly: Know then that this is that which opens Heaven and leads into Paradise: This is that Ladder, without which no man can climb thither: and therefore (as S. Austin saith) Mutet vitam qui vult accipere vitam: Let us change our life here, if we look for the Life of Glory hereafter: Let us leave the old way of sin for the new way of righteousness: and (to apply all to my Text) Let us change our course of Lukewarmness for a course of fervency in God's service, our dull and drowsie Devotions for a course of Zeal. Be zealous and Repent.
AND thus I come to the Third thing I propounded, namely, the Connexion and dependance of these latter words [Be zealous therefore and Repent] upon the former [As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten.] Many things might be here observed, but I will name but one, which is this, That Repentance is the means to avoid and prevent God's Iudgments. For (as Tertullian in his de Poenitentia observes,)* Qui poenam per judicium destinavit, idem & veniam per poenitentiam spospondit: He that hath decreed to punish by Iustice, hath promised to grant pardon by Repentance. And so we read in Ieremy 18. 7. When I shall speak (saith the Lord there) concerning a Nation or Kingdom, to pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy it: If that Nation against whom I have pronounced, turn from evil, I will repent of the evil which I thought to do unto them. And in Ezekiel 18. Repent and turn from all your transgressions, for why will ye die, O ye house of Israel; namely, that death wherewith God threatned them, if they should continue in their sins, they might prevent by returning to him by repentance. And so saith God to Ieremy, in chap. 26. 2, 3. Speak all the words that I command thee to speak unto them: If so be they will hearken, and turn every man from his evil way, that I may repent me of the evil which I purpose to do unto them, because of the evil of their doings. Lo here, If we repent us of our Sins, God will also repent him of his Iudgments, that is, he will not send them. Thus when the Ninevites repented in Sackcloth and ashes, it is said (Ionah 3. 10.) And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil may, and God repented of (that is, he brought not upon them) the evil that he had said he would do unto them. And so if Laodicea (in my Text) should leave her Lukewarmness; God, who would have chastised her because he loved her, would yet withhold her chastisements because she repented. Would we then avoid the Iudgments of God hanging over our heads? Let us not then defer our Repentance. Would we not have the flaming fire of God's wrath and vengeance to consume us? Let us repent of our Lukewarmness, and get this sacred Fire of Zeal, the only means to preserve us: Be zealous therefore and repent.