Returning unto God the great concernment of a covenant people. Or A sermon preached…

We come then to the second Enquiry, viz. What is implied in this Returning which the Text speaks of?

We come then to the second Enquiry, viz. What is implyed in this Returning which the Text speaks of?

Answ. It is the same with Repentance. Sin is a departing from God, but Repentance is a Returning to Him again. Wherefore Repentance is often expressed in the Scripture by that of Turning and Returning unto the Lord and by that of Conversion, the Phrase being a Metaphor taken from those that are gone out of the right way, but do Return back again into the way wherein they should go. Repentance is nothing else but a Turning from all Sin unto God. It implieth a change of the whole man. The mind is renewed. As in Returning, ⁽ⁱ⁾there is a ⟨p. 7⟩change of the posture of the Body, so where there is Repentance the mind is bent quite another way. It was looking Sin-ward, Earth ward, Hell-ward, but now is fixed upon God, and Christ, and Heaven. In Returning the further a man goeth from a place, the lesser do things seem that he hath left behind him, so in Returning to God, the more a man doth Return, the world & the vanities of it seem little, yea as nothing to him. Again, Repentance Implies a great Turn in the heart & affections, so that those sins and corruptions, which were most loved and delighted in, are become the most hateful, as we see in Returning Ephraim, Hos. 14. 8. What have I any more to do with Idols? Before his Return, nothing so dear as Idols, but after that, nothing more abominable. Repentance implieth also, a change in a mans Actions and Conversation. The true Penitent is Turned into another way, Isa. 55. 7. Let the wicked for sake his way, and let him Return unto the Lord. He was in the way to Hell, but he is in the way to Heaven. He was going in the broad way, but is come about, and got into the narrow way, which leads to everlasting life.