1. Men do not apprehend that they need repentance
Chapter Ten
10. REMOVING THE IMPEDIMENTS TO
REPENTANCE
Before I lay down the expedients and means that are conducive to repentance, I will first remove the impediments to it. In this great city, when you lack water, you search for the cause, whether the pipes are broken or stopped, or that the current of water is hindered.
Likewise, when no water of repentance comes (even though we have the conduit pipes of the ordinances), we search to see what the cause is. What is the obstruction so that these penitential waters do not run?
There are ten impediments to repentance:
1. Men do not apprehend that they need repentance They thank God that all is well with them, and they know nothing that they should repent of: "you say, 'I am rich, and need nothing'"
(Rev 3.I7). Someone who does not apprehend any sickness in his body will not take the medicine prescribed for it. This is the mischief that sin has done; it has not only made us sick, but senseless. When the Lord asked the people to return to him, they answered stubbornly, "In what shall we return?" (Mal. 3.7). So when God asks men to repent, they say, "Why should we repent?" They know nothing that they have done amiss. There is surely no disease worse than apoplexy.
2. People conceive it an easy thing to repent It is only saying a few prayers: a sigh, or a "Lord have mercy," and the work is done. This conceit of the easiness of repentance is a great hindrance to it. If it makes a person bold and adventurous in sin then it must obstruct repentance. This opinion that repentance is easy, makes a person bold in sin. The angler can let out his line as far as he will and then pull it in again. Likewise, when a man thinks he can lash out in sin as far as he wants, and then pull in by repentance whenever he pleases, this must embolden him in his wickedness. But to take away this false conceit of the easiness of repentance, consider these: