5. Vehement desire
again. "Happy is the man that always fears" (Pro 28.14). A sinner is like the leviathan that is made without fear (Job 41.33). A repenting person fears and does not sin; a graceless person sins and does not fear.
5. Vehement desire Just as sour sauce sharpens the appetite, so the bitter herbs of repentance sharpen desire. But what does the penitent desire? He desires more power against sin, and to be released from it. It is true that he has gotten loose from Satan, but he is like an escaped prisoner with a fetter on his leg. He cannot walk with freedom and swiftness in the ways of God. He therefore desires to have the fetters of sin removed. He wants to be freed from corruption. He cries out with Paul: "who will deliver me from this body of death?" (Rom
7.24). In short, he desires to be with Christ, just as everything, at its center, desires to be.
6. Zeal Desire and zeal are fitly put together to show that true desire pushes itself with zealous endeavor. How the penitent stirs himself in the business of salvation! How he takes the kingdom of heaven by force!
(Mat 11.12) Zeal quickens the pursuit of glory. Zeal, encountering difficulty, is emboldened by opposition and it tramples upon danger.
Zeal makes a repenting soul persist in godly sorrow against all discouragements and oppositions whatever. Zeal carries a man above himself for God's glory. Before conversion Paul was madly against the saints (Act 26.11); and after conversion he was judged mad for Christ's sake: "Paul, you are beside yourself" (Act 26.24). But it was zeal, not insanity. Zeal animates spirit and duty. It causes fervency in religion, which is like fire to the sacrifice (Rom 12.11). As fear is a bridle to sin, so zeal is a spur to duty.
7. Revenge A true penitent pursues his sins with a holy malice. He seeks their death just as Samson was avenged on the Philistines for his two eyes.
He uses his sins as the Jews used Christ. He gives them gall and vinegar to drink. He crucifies his lusts (Gal 5.24). A true child of God seeks to be revenged most of all for those sins which have dishonored
God the most. Cranmer, who had signed the popish articles with his right hand, was revenged on himself; he put his right hand first into