And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Ver. 2. And saying, Repent ye] Change your minds now at the preaching of the gospel, as they changed their garments at the promulgation of the law. a "Rend your hearts, and not your garments," plough up the fallows of your hearts; grieve for your sins, even to repentance, as those Corinthians did, and as Simon Peter counselled Simon Magus, that snake that had cast his coat but kept his poison, for although he carried the matter so cleanly and cunningly, that Philip took him for a true convert and baptized him, yet Peter soon saw that he was "in the gall" or venom "of bitterness" (for the word used,Deuteronomy 29:18, whereunto the apostle alludes, signifieth both), and therefore prescribes him an antidote, the very same that John doth here to this generation of vipers, "Repent, if perhaps the thoughts of thy heart may be forgiven thee,"Acts 8:22,23. His wicked thought is called επινοια : the godly change of mind that the apostle persuadeth him unto is called μετανοια, he that by some mischance hath drunk poison (ראש χολη), must cast it up again as soon as he can, ere it got to the vitals. Repentance is the soul's vomit, which is the hardest kind of physic, but the wholesomest. Happy is he that by the dung gate of Neh 3:14 his mouth (in a sorrowful confession) can disburden himself of the sin that both clogs and hazards his soul to death eternal. We ran from God by sin to death, and have no other way to return but by death to sin, Hebrews 12:1 .
For the kingdom of heaven is at hand] q.d. Ye have a price put into your hands, a fair opportunity of making yourselves for ever. Will ye (like the vine and olive in Jotham's parable, Jdg 9:9) not leave your sweetness and fatness, your dilecta delicta, beloved sins, although it be to reign, yea, and that in God's kingdom? Knowest thou not, that the goodness of God should lead thee to repentance?Romans 2:4; Psalms 130:4. Is there not mercy with God therefore that he may be feared? Should not men rend their hearts, because God is gracious, and turn to the Lord, because he will "multiply pardon?" Joel 2:12; Isaiah 55:7. To argue from mercy to liberty is the devil's logic, and makes God repent him of his favours to such, as David did of his kindness to Nabal. Rather we should argue from mercy to duty, as Joseph did to his master in a temptation; from deliverance to obedience, with David, Psalms 116:8,9. And therefore return to our father's house, with the prodigal, because there is bread enough; therefore repent, because his kingdom is at hand, and would be laid hold on. As John the Baptist was Christ's forerunner into the world, so must repentance be his forerunner into our hearts.
a Ad mentem redite. Erasmus. As the prodigal came to himself, who, till converted, had been beside himself. See a like phrase, 2 Chronicles 6:37 .