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A CALL TO REPENTANCE [Note: Preached February, 1801.]
REPENTANCE is at all times a proper subject to be enforced; but more especially on a day professedly set apart for national humiliation. The words before us were addressed to the Jews when God was about to send them into captivity in Babylon: and they may well be considered as addressed to us, now that his hand is lifted up for the punishment, and, for aught we know, for the destruction of our land.
They manifestly contain the prophet’s exhortation; his arguments to enforce it; and his determination in case he should not be able to prevail on the people to repent.
But the occasion, and the text itself, call rather for exhortation than discussion. We shall therefore, though not without a due attention to the order of the words, proceed to urge upon you the great, the seasonable, the indispensable duty of repentance—
[Know then, that it is “God who speaketh.” The words delivered to you in his name, as far as they accord with his mind and will, are his words, and are to be received as though you heard them uttered by a voice from heaven [Note: 2Co_5:20. 1Th_2:13.].
“Hear ye, and give ear,” and let not the pride of your hearts obstruct your attention. Often has God spoken to you by the dispensations of his providence, and the declarations of his grace; yea, moreover, by the still small voice of conscience: but ye, the generality of you at least, have turned a deaf ear, and refused to hear the voice of the charmer, charm he never so wisely [Note: Job_33:14.]. But “be not proud,” Ye must hear at last, whether ye will or not. Let then your stout hearts be humbled; and receive with meekness the engrafted word [Note: Jam_1:21.].
In the name of God we say to you, Repent. “Give glory to the Lord your God.” It is by repentance only that you can do this [Note: Jos_7:19. Rev_16:9.]. Repentance glorifies all his perfections; his omniscience that sees your transgressions, his justice that punishes them, his mercy that pardons them, and his wisdom and goodness that have provided such a marvellous salvation for ruined man.
O glorify his omniscience: say, ‘Lord, thou art privy to all the secrets of my heart; thou knowest that I am inexpressibly vile [Note: Jer_17:9. Job_40:4; Job_42:2; Job_42:6.].’
Glorify his justice; and acknowledge, that if he cut you off, and consign you to the lowest hell, you have no more than your just desert [Note: Mat_22:12-13. Rom_3:4. Psa_143:2.].
Glorify his mercy; and plead it with him as the only, the all-sufficient ground of your hope and confidence [Note: Psa_51:1.].
Glorify his wisdom and goodness, that have opened a way for your return to him through the incarnation and death of his only dear Son. Declare that you have no trust whatever but in the blood and righteousness of that almighty Saviour [Note: Php_3:8-9.].
To persist in impenitence is the certain way to bring down the heaviest judgments upon your souls. The darkness that hangs over the nation [Note: Joe_2:2-3. perhaps a true picture of our present state.], cannot be dispelled in any other way; much less can that with which God menaces your souls. O consider “the darkness, the gross darkness,” in which they are involved, who are shut up under judicial blindness and final obduracy [Note: Isa_6:9-10.]; or who, under the terrors of a guilty conscience, “stumble on the dark mountains” of unbelief, and, like the Jews (who thought they had clean escaped from their pursuers) are overtaken by the sword of vengeance [Note: This is the literal meaning of the text.], so that “while they look for light, it is turned into the shadow of death,” and they are plunged into “the blackness of darkness for evermore [Note: 2Th_2:11-12. Jude, ver. 13.].”
But repentance may yet avert the storm, both from the nation, and from our own souls. Numberless are the declarations of God to this effect [Note: To nations, 2Ch_7:14; and to individuals, Isa_55:7.] and numberless the instances wherein it has been verified [Note: Nineveh, the dying thief, &c.]. But let us remember what kind of repentance it is which will thus prevail: it is not a mere formal confession of sin with a partial reformation of the life, but such a repentance as glorifies all the perfections of the Deity; such a repentance as has an especial respect to Christ, who alone can procure our pardon, and in whom alone we can ever find acceptance with God.
Would to God that we might prevail with you, and that you were all, in good earnest, turning unto God! Could we once behold this, O how should we rejoice: and how would “the very angels in heaven rejoice” on your account! But, “if ye will not repent,” (as it is to be feared too many of you will not,) “my soul,” and the souls of all who are aware of your condition, “shall weep in secret places for your pride; yea, our eyes shall weep sore and run down with tears,” on account of your present and approaching bondage. The godly in all ages have wept over those who felt no concern for their own souls [Note: Psa_119:136. Ezr_9:3; Ezr_10:6. 2Pe_2:8. Rom_9:1-2; above all, Luk_19:41.]: and we trust that there are many, who will lay to heart the evils which ye are too proud to acknowledge, too obdurate to deplore. But we entreat you to consider, Is there one amongst us all, that is not a sinner before God [Note: 1Ki_8:46. Jam_3:2.]? and does not the broken law denounce a curse against us [Note: Gal_3:10.]? and if God be true, will not that curse be inflicted on the impenitent? Why then will ye not humble yourselves before an offended God, a merciful Redeemer? Alas! for your “pride,” and stoutness of heart! How lamentable is it, that you, who have been baptized into the name of Christ, and are therefore properly “the Lord’s flock,” should be so “carried captive” by your lusts, and by your great adversary, the devil [Note: 2Ti_2:26.]! O think, it is but a little time and your captivity will be complete; and, lost beyond a possibility of redemption, you will be bound in chains of everlasting darkness [Note: Jude, ver. 6.]. And is not here a cause for sorrow on your account? “O that mine head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night” for your unhappy state [Note: Jer_9:1.]!
We will not, however, conclude, without once more entreating you to “give glory to the Lord your God;” that so “your light may rise in obscurity, and your darkness may be as the noon-day [Note: Isa_67:8; Isa_67:10.].”]