For I know it does not really and substantially differ from other grand Evangelical Notions of a through change of Heart and Life as Regeneration the new Creation a new Heart a new Spirit the Laws of God put into our Hearts Jerem. 31. Ezek. 36 and writ in our minds that we may never depart from him the Heart of Stone taken out of our Flesh and having Hearts of Flesh a being caus'd to walk in his statutes and judgments and to do them His fear put into our hearts and his spirit within us Psal 19.12.19 It is Mortification and Sanctification It is Conversion and turning to the Lord a being cleans'd from secret sins and kept back from presumptuous sins a cleansing our way by taking heed thereto according to the word of God the ordering our steps in his word Psal 119.133 that no Iniquity may have dominion over us Nay It differs not from Faith in the Blood of Christ by any Essential Difference from seeking Pardon and Reconciliation by Faith in that great Attonement and Sacrifice nor from the Love of Christ constraining all those who Live that is have their Lives given to them through his Death to Live to him who dyed for them All these are as I have said Essentially and substantially the same But yet there is a very Distinct and even Critical consideration of Repentance that I shall apply to in the present Treaty under these three heads Particular 1st Repentance carries always a Notion of severe and rigorous Acts in relation to our selves upon account of our Sins and high Offences against God Particular 2. Repentance imports very close and particular Negotiations and Transactions with God in Relation to Forgiveness and such as express our particular shame and sorrow that we have offended him and earnest desires that he would shew to us that he is at Peace with us and hath Pardon'd all that is past in Christ Particular 3. Repentance is a hearty an universal Change of our inward Thoughts Counsel Purpose and Design and of our outward Conversation out of a true and real Hatred and dislike of what we have been done and chosen and a Love Choice and Delight in what we have not been and have not done nor delighted in Particular 1. Repentance consists of many great and severe Acts in Relation to our selves upon Account of our sins and High Offences against God under which I will in every one of them shew the great excellency and usefulness of this duty and the acceptableness of it to God 1. The seriousest closest and most deep examination of our Hearts and Thoughts and Lives so as to know them and to sit in Judgment upon them is found in true Repentance This is a wonderful Power and grace that God gives when he gives Repentance that a Man shall be made to sit upon himself and to call himself to an Account to search himself as it were with Candles and to say what have I done To search and to try his ways and to turn to the Lord to think of his ways and to turn his Feet to God's Testimonies to declare his ways in God's hearing and because his own search cannot be close and exact to cry out to God to search Psalm 139.23 24. and to try him and to lead him into the way everlasting And this is performed by laying a mans Actions to the Line and Rule of the Law of God and entring into the pâ—rticulars of every Command of every Age and as much as may be every great and râ—markable Action Now this is evidently a very supernatural â—fficacy for we see how afraid we are all of it a Man in this way of Inquisition and Visitation of himself is in a manner as afraid of himself as he is of God and hides himself from himself even as from the Eyes of God it is true when men are in the cariere of sin they are bold enough with themselves they devise mischief upon their Bed the secret Thought and Heart of every one of us is very deep in sin and we know it and are willing enough to know we know it when all is of a Peice to go on in sin But when a Man finds himself coming as a Judg upon himself he is presently aware of himself and desirous to hide himself from himself and to start away from himself when any therefore come to say to themselves I will find out all the secret ways of my own sinful Heart of my Pride of my Lust of my Hipocrisy of my Deceit of my Formality and vain shews in Religion and the worship of God that I may Reform all and cast out all that is evil I will be known to my self even the worst of my self I will make known to my self to hate and to loath it we may certainly say It is very hopeful God is giving Repentance to Life For I would not walk in Disguise under a Vizor and a Mask to my self we hear therefore so often this Voice of Scripture Examin your selves prove your own selves 2 Cor. know ye not your own selves except we are in a state that as to its present is reprobated by God So let a man Examin himself let him prove his own work Gal 6. There are certainly many Truths of God and parts of Religion and of the Action and Duty of it that aâ—e more smooth and agreeable to Men of Reason and Ingenious Temper that do not though seemingly complyed with search the carnal unregenerate Heart to the bottom These therefore will not give such Evidence of the Truth of Grace and of the mighty Operation of the Divine Spirit But this Duty of Self-examination it can serve no Carnal Interest so far as a man is led in it he is led by the mighty Hand and Power of God For in this Point he is else ready to be Merciful to himself to spare himself Wâ—â—n God causes a man to search himself that what is lowest and at the bottom in him may rise up when he makes a Man pursue himself and all his sins till he can find none that he hath not had his Eâ—e and his Search upon surely there is nothing that more assures a sincere work of God upon a mans Heart nor nothing more than the want of this Discovers Insincerity 2. In true Repentance there is an Authoritative and down right Self-Judgding a Condemnation of what is Evil and contrary to the Word of God and the Laws of Holiness and Rules of the Gospel of Christ In Repentance a man must plainly say with and in the Authority of God upon himself 2 Sam. 12.1 c. Thou art the Man Thou art such a sinner such an unclean sensual voluptuous Person Thou art such a Covetous Worldly Griping Extorting Person Thou art such a deceitful unjust Cheat or Lyar Thou art such a Hipocrite that art more afraid of the Eye of the judgment of the censure of Man than of God Thou art he that choosest
the full purpose of the Heart before was to cleave to sin and the world now the heart cleaves to God with its full purpose This humble broken Spirit is the Sacrifice of God the Sacrifice he will not despise because it is ready to yeild up it self in all obedience to him Psal 51.17 But the sorrow of the World not eying God nor having regard to him never changes the Heart nor Life into obedience to him and so leaves a man in the same lost undone state and so becomes desperate Sorrow and Anguish as the Scripture calls it Esay 8.22 and may be most fitly described by Jer. c. 4.28 They are all greivous Revolters they are Brass and Iron they are all Corrupters the Bellows are burnt the Lead is consumed of the Fire the Founder melteth in vain for the Evil of the Heart is not pulled away reprobate silver shall men call them because the Lord hath rejected them When God therefore as the great Founder Casting men as into the Furnace of sorrow they are not purged fâ—om Evil the Melting is in vain and they are therefore Rejected by God as Reprobate Silver When Sorrow and Affliction which are as the Chirurgery or Blood-Letting of the gracious Hand of God Effects nothing of Good it is as the Corruption of the whole Mass of Blood and is certainly to Death 6. When sorrow is placed upon offence against a Person and upon unthankful and disingenuous Treaty of him there arises a Love and Compassion to that Person a shame to offend further a resolution to make him all the reparations we are able and the greater the Bitterness the greater the Effect And though these cannot be properly placed as issuing from the Creature towards the Creator yet Scripture representing God as hath been said Grieved Peirced press'd with Sin it represents the grieved sorrowing relenting sinner so Affected as if there were an Ingenuous even Compassion and Love towards God the Creator and unwillingness so to grieve and provoke any further It represents therefore the highest degrees of Bitterness and a sorrow as for a First Born Zech. 12.10 and for an only begotten Child or Son or like that most compassionate Lamentation for the excellent Prince Josiah 2 Chron. 25.25 slain at Megiddo that was so continued a sorrow as to be spoken of in Lamentation to that day as Scripture uses to speak now seeing Repentance it self as hath been shewn in the general Nature of it hath so much of this The sorrow that is Affected like it is most fitted and prepard to work it and it is so blessed by God to work it whereas the sorrow of the World is like Clouds without this Rain of Heaven and Wells without this Water of Salvation and therefore settles as into the Lake of the second Death and smells of its Brimstone And thus far I have proceeded to make out the serviceableness of godly sorrow or sorrow after God that works Repentance to Salvation never to be Repented of General 3d. I come now to the third General concerning sorrow for Sin viz. To shew the Wisdom of God and the Reasonableness of his making use of sorrow and fitting it as after himself or according to himself to so great an end and purpose and that according to the very Reason and Nature of Things it could not be otherwise but that godly sorrow must be so made use of above and before any other Affection and that it becomes him by whom are all things and for whom are all things so to make use of it 1. There can be according to what the Apostle says no other object of Rational Intellectual Sorrow but only the loss of the Favour of God or his displeasure for sin or subordinated to it which makes it sorrow after God For if on one side the sorrow so plac'd and fix'd hath so blessed Effects that he that so sorrows receives no iniury by it but so great good as Repentance to Salvation never to be Repented of that it is not so much Lost as chang'd into Fulness of Joy and so perfected and on the other side that sorrow laid out on any other object which is sorrow after the World works Death Then it must needs become the wise and gracious God of whom by whom are all things in bringing many Sons to Glory to bring them to Perfection by such a sorrow as this For if God was pleas'd to make such a Rational Intellectual Nature as man that might though made Holy fall into sin It must needs be that it must have a fitness to turn it self with sorrow upon such an evil and reason of sorrow as God offended and displeas'd for sin supposing a man by that sin had not lost either the use of his Understanding or not lost the sense of God Holiness and Goodness seeing if it did not lye Dead and Benummed or strongly diverted and turned off from its Object or that God does not appear an Irreconcileable Judg and Revenger and give up man to the wickedness and rage of Death It must so turn Whenever therefore God by his grace in Christ and by his Spirit turns any sinner to himself and stirs up those Powers of understanding and Conscience after himself The very order of the Creation of God Requires that the understanding and Natural Conscience and Affection of Man should be turn'd upon him displeas'd by Sin by this humble sorrow of Love even as upon his wrath and Vengeance with a sorrow of Pain Fear and Terror so that both the Bondage of Fear of Death Heb. 2.15 and the Reverence of godly Fear and Love move to this sorrow and the wise order of Things settled by God cannot allow it otherwise On the other side if the turn of the Rational Nature and Affection be drawn out upon the sense of any evil with trouble and dislike and reflection on its disagreeableness and inconveniency and yet its pressure upon it which is sorrow grief and sadness it must either be turn'd upon God offended and displeas'd by sin or it is to no purpose of good that there is such a Passion or Affection in man For if it be plac'd on any other object it is but sorrow of this World how just so ever in regard of any evil of suffering it may seem to be It is but sorrow to Death and so of no good at all to us but evil till it be deriv'd into a higher and more excellent Channel So that it may be said of this sorrow as Solomon says of Laughter It is madness and what doth it And in place of Thorns crackling under a Pot It is as the slow Fire Eccles 7.2 c. of too near agreement with that of Brimstone of the Lake It is not of any merciful or gracious use but for the manifestation of the wrath and displeasure of God against sin 2. Let us consider seriously what Jesus Christ our Lord suffered under the sense of sin and then think whether
and Zeal not only ought but must be reduc'd and redress'd in Towns and Cities and in all our Villages and most particularly in our Camps and Navies where they more than any where else if possible abound and where there ought to be greater Guard and Watch against them than any where else according to that Great Precept Deut. 23.14 2. If this be not done It cannot be except God hath left the Earth more than ever yet he hath done and forsaken it and walks in the Galleries of Heaven without Regarding but that there must be a Visiting for these things and that his Soul must be avenged of such a Nation as this Jer. 5.9 whether by Plague or Famine or War or evil and noisome Beasts or by a Complication of these Four yea though it be by a Fire yet unblown that is ready to flame out or by an Army of Wounded Men that our Destruction must come and much the more because the Light of his Truth is so open and clear among us because his Mercies and Deliverances have been so-Great and the Methods of his Providence so unusual in his unhinging for us the General Laws of Nature in Dethroning and setting on the Throne for our preservation Now if These his Great Acts and Wonderful Doings do not work to Reformation They certainly shall justifie God in our Destruction And yet we daily see our sins and Transgressions Growing up to the very Heavens so that that our Destruction cannot but be speedy 3. Except the Kingdom of Christ be as I have declared very near us And that we are not yet under some most dreadful Judgments it is an argument to me it is certainly so that the Kingdom of Christ is very near us when he will take to himself his own great Power and Reign and Reform by a through Purging his Floor either by pouring out his Spirit and perswading by his everlasting Gospel Malach. 4.1 and sitting as by a Refiners Fire and Fullers Soap throughly to purifie that Baptism with Fire or by the Day that shall burn as an Oven and consume the Wicked Root and Branch and because of this notwithstanding our great Transgressions and mighty provocations even though he hath lifted up his hand that he would destroy us yet he hath wrought for his Great Names sake that is his Kingdom 's sake and hath done nothing yet so remarkable against us Let us then that fear the Lord speak often one to another that a Book of Remembrance may be writ for us as for them that have feared the Lord and thought on his Name and that we may be spared in the day when he makes up his Jewels and gather'd as Wheat into his Garner when he shall burn up the Chaff with fire unquenchable Mal. 3.16 Matth. 3.12 Infer 9. Seeing Nations and Persons are under so strict Commands to Repent with that Repentance to Salvation the contrary whereof is expressed by Death There is therefore in the Kingdom of Christ a City of Life and under it a City of Death a City of Salvation whose Walls and Bullwarks are Salvation and a City of Destruction distinct from it and opposite to it Esay 19.18 c. 26.1 The one is the Residence of those who have Repented with that Repentance to Salvation not to be Repented of The other is the dark and dismal Receptacle of those who have either been wholly dissolved into the worldly Laughter and Mirth or been Sorrowers only after the worldly Sorrow that worketh Death The New Jerusalem is the City of Life and Salvation the City that hath the Tree of Life and the River of the Water of Life and the Nations of the Saved walk in the Light of it and are healed from any possibility of Dying by the Leaves of the Tree of Life and the Living are written in it Whatever liveth in it shall live even for perpetuity The Second Death hath no power over them Esay 4.3 Revel c. 20.6 c. 21.24 c. 22.1 2. On the other side there is the City of Destruction Esay 19.18 when Five Cities shall speak the Language of Canaan being of the Nations of the Saved There is one City that shall be called the City of Destruction the contrary to Salvation being of those appointed to Death This is the Congregation of the Dead Prov. 21.16 This is the City of Gog that is of the dead slain with the sword of Christ's mouth who hath a place of Graves the Valley of Hamon Gog of the Multitude of Gog. Ezek. 39.11 c. These though they are the dead that is slain with the sword of Christ's mouth yet they are as in a Community in a Polity for though they are condemn'd by the Word and Sentence of Christ they are yet the Wicked rais'd to Condemnation and so are in the State of Living but of a Living Death Therefore these dead have a City and the Name of it is Hammonah as the Name of the New Jerusalem is Jehovah-Shammah the Lord is there so the Name of this City is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 its multitude or a multitude is there For broad is the way and wide is the Gate that leadeth to this City of Heres to destruction and many there be which go in thereat Matth. 7.13 These are the multitudes that are gathered together to the Battel of Armageddon the Day of God Almighty shaded by a Battel the multitudes in the Valley of Jehoshaphat the Valley of the Judgment of Jehovah the Valley of Decision of the Doom and Sentence of Christ as the Sword of his Mouth and the Valley of Excision of Destruction Joel 3.74 Revel c. 16.14 16. Now these dead in their City of the dead lye dead during the Thousand Years bound Hand and Foot for that space The Rest of the Dead slain with the Sword of Christ's mouth But when the Thousand Years are expired they are let loose into the Appearance of Life Motion and Action They whose multitude are as the Sand of the Sea under their Name Gog Magog come up against the Beloved City and the Camp or Tower and Castle of the Saints and cover the breadth of it shewing themselves the same Impenitents they were and had been before the Thousand Years began the Never-Repenting Enemies of God and of Christ and of his Kingdom So they are finally judg'd Ezek. 39.11 c. Rev. 19.21 c. 20.5 to the end cast with Sathan who had alway deceived them with Death and Hell into the Lake This is the second Death Thus in the opening this dark Scripture Behold in these two Cities the Repentance to Life and Salvation never to be repented of the Impenitency to Death and Destruction never also to be repented of that we may chuse the first perswaded by Eternal Grace and Love and abhor the other as the Black Mark of being the Esau hated by God who found no place for Repentance as the Vessels of his Wrath the Border of Wickedness against whom he hath Indignation for ever
our Saviour speaks in these Cases The things impossible with Men with God are possible Objection 3. But according to this state of the Case What should a Dying Man do that hath not yet repented Should he expect a Miracle or do nothing through despair Answer Have ye not read what David did when he was an hungry and had need He adventured over Laws and was blameless If any Man feel the necessities of a Soul perishing let him lay hold upon Mercy and Grace to help There is a Faith in this Case like the Faith of Miracles that removes Mountains and divides Seas He that can receive it let him receive it Mat. 19.12 But let every Man take heed how he falls into these Necessities For multitudes not having the right Faith like the Egyptians Essay this and are drowned Heb. 11.29 It is a very hard thing to distinguish between mirum and miraculum a Wonder and a Miracle so is it between a saving Faith and Repentance that may have wonderful effects through the Conviction of a Death-Bed and this true saving Faith this Faith of Miracles and for any thing I know Eternity only can make a Man safe concerning it and sure that he had it Doubtless many like Joab perish catching hold of the Horns of the Altar Objection 4. But what If Men having made a Profession of Religion have done many things religiously and soberly and yet through the prevalency of some Lusts it appears they have not truly repented May not the Conversation they have had with Religion so prepare things that their Repentance may be dispatched in the Instants of Death Answer 1. It is dreadful to consider how the unhappy pleas of some upon such kind of accounts recited by Christ are also rejected by him Many shall say in that day Lord Lord have we not eaten and drunk in thy presence and thou hast taught in our streets Luk. 13.26 c. In thy Name have we cast out Devils and in thy Name done many wonderful Works Mat. 7.22 Yet he shall profess unto them I never knew you Depart from me ye workers of iniquity Besides all the Doubts already insisted upon such Men have made a Custom of deluding Religion and have great cause to fear they should do so at last God also is so provoked by such as have long tempted him proved him and seen his works and yet err from him in their hearts and do not know his ways that he comes to his oath against them Heb. 3.9 10. Answ 2. But lest this should discourage and suffocate all motions after God either in Life or at Death and they seem in as good condition that never mind Religion as those that do I add Any good thing found in Men either in their Life or Death though it have not the worthiness of Repentance to Salvation yet shall certainly have its reward in mitigations of Punishment which Consideration fully explained at the Day of Judgment will assoyl many of this sort of Doubts concerning the ways of God I believe those very early seekings of God notwithstanding which he is said to laugh at the Destruction of those from whom they come when they have first served the gloryings of Justice obtain lessenings of Pain as conquered Enemies after they have been led in Triumph to wait on the Conqueror's Glory may have even that Service recompensed with a more compassionate Captivity Answer 3. If there have been solidity and sincerity in any religious Exercises in the time of Life whereby the Heart by the Grace of God is prepared for further Grace as very often Conversion is by degrees It is hopeful God may use Death as a Season of compleating his Work yet this is to be registred among the seldomer disposes of God and both those Preparations and the Complement of them is under the caution of our Saviour Strive to enter in at the strait gate for many I say unto you shall seek to enter and shall not be able Luke 13.24 Objection 5. Is it not at all times a great Folly to promise a to morrow to Repentance how long soever we may live after that to morrow because we daily harden through the deceitfulness of sin Is it not also always a curious Point and that requires a great jealousie over it whether our Hearts are at any time sincere in returns to God Is it not lastly always to be feared lest our to day the time of Grace slip from us Why then are the dangers placed so industriously upon this Repentance at Death Answer 1. First as concerning the time of Repentance It is to be acknowledged Every Man that is come to the strength and fixedness of his Understanding to the poize and inclination of his Will and Affections to the habit and custom of his Life and Actions and hath not determined for God hath great reason to fear lest as there is a deep print of the high hand of Nature upon his unconverted state so there should be a Seal of Justice also and this Doubt increases every day Notwithstanding this All Doubts and Scruples that have an appearance of insnaring and intangling the minds of Men with fears they begin too late are to be avoided if it be not so late that it is just now dark and their feet stumbling upon the dark mountains Jer. 13.16 And these things being written especially for the living Isa 38.19 who have in ordinary probability time to lose the danger is best placed here where it takes them every way By the way of Encouragement that the time is not yet past while they have the spaces of Life and of the Patience of God which is not a slackness of Justice but a designed Salvation By the way of Caution because they know not how soon they may be cast upon a Death-Bed and this Patience be at an end With Dying Men the case is otherwise who are already in the thickest of the Danger and must work themselves out in that moment or perish for ever without any Injury therefore to them the living are thus to be warned Isa 38.19 Further It is evident all delays of Repentance roll down hither however Men propose a stop yet hither the generality come at last So that in effect it is all one whether Men are disswaded from trusting to a Dying Repentance or from delaying their Repentance For if they are given to delay It comes to this They repent and die together But if a Man be afraid to venture Eternity upon his last Breath he will repent presently 2. For the difficulty of being sincere in Repentance I place it here because though every Man should by drawing the parallel lines of Delusion and mistake upon himself try his Repentance when ever it is yet these Errors fall in greatest numbers upon that point of Extremity and with least possibility of rectifying them But seeing there are at all times such deceits in this Case there is nothing so necessary as to repent
in a clear light and full leisure 3. For the severity of God in denying his Grace though I acknowledge his Indignation condemns many who have dallied with him and their own Souls to be suck'd in again by the whir-pool of their Lusts when they would have risen out of them yet this Indignation is never so certainly at the height as when Men have provoked it as long as they could It is most miserable therefore to make our last motions within the command of such a horrible Pit lest they prove only the struggles of sinking Men yet this we must do if we are not before got out of it There is much greater hope how bad soever their Condition may be to them who are yet in the hand of patience lifting and leading them to Repentance Rom. 2.4 2 Pet. 3.9 and do not despise it but account it Salvation Objection 6. This Doctrin does not savor enough of the Grace of the Gospel that would have all Men come to Repentance Answ To discourse the Severities of the Gospel to the ends of the Gospel is most Evangelical Discourse For as the Gospel doth with all clearness declare its own Rigors that Men might not mistake it for a loose and careless Doctrin and so miss the Salvation of it so have I discovered the great hazard of a Dying Repentance that Living Men might be perswaded not to cast themselves upon it and Dying Men excited to an Action suitable to the extremity of their Case And this is indeed preaching the Gospel and to be moved upon it with fear to prepare an Ark to the saving our Souls before the flood come Heb. 11.7 is as true an effect of Faith as to be constrained by love to live to him 2 Cor. 5.14 that hath died for us I say as true and gives us a Title to the Inheritance of the Righteousness which is by Faith together with the other For the Prudence of Faith makes us apprehensive of the Reasons of Danger and so to Fear even as the Gratitude of it ties us with the Obligations of Love This is not that Fear that Love casts out but that it self quickens and is also both quickned and guarded by it nor is it the bondage but the wisdom of Fear Rom. 8.15 Job 28.28 Objection 7. But is the general Judgment of Divines thus Answer All judicious Divines are very tender of binding the Prerogative of Grace or clipping off the Action of Men towards God even at this time See besides the concurring Judgment of the Ancients Bishop Andrews Sermons on Repentance Dr. Hammond and Dr. Taylor in their Treatises of this Point Bolton Dyke c. in Observation whereof I have desired to be cautious herein also But in their cautions against Presumption their Expressions amount to the utmost I have spoken Infer 1. But setting aside the whole danger of a Death-Bed Repentance Let me now lastly thus reason and thus expostulate Why should we desire to Repent so late It is good to be betimes doing that which is most comporting with our truest Happiness Reconciliation with God return to Him his Favour to obey Him these are the truest Freedom and Peace of a Man at all times Great Peace have they which love thy Law and nothing shall offend them Psal 119.165 He lives in the least pain that lives holiest I made haste therefore and delayed not to keep thy Commandments Psal 119.60 I seized upon so great an Enjoyment as soon as I could afraid to be kept off from it too long To fear God and keep his Commandments is the whole duty of Man Eccles 12.13 When a Man considers Life and that he hath but a Moment of it and that therefore he would live that Moment as much as may be he shall find the highest of Life the top of Life to be Godliness which hath all the promises of this life and of that which is to come 1 Tim. 4.8 To pursue this World and the Vanities of it is not only with greatest folly and impertinency to lanch our selves in a great Vessel the Greatness of our Affection and with solemn Preparations our strongest Action into the low water the shallow of Life which because it cannot carry so great a bulk increases the Toyl and Vexation as well as enhanses the Vanity and Folly of doing nothing at so great an expense But worse than this it is the loading our selves with guilt under a delusion of Pleasure that gives us secret disquiet and torment while we are laying it on and cannot be laid down as we please but with more sensible and industrious Anguish than we heap'd it upon us I mean the sense of our misdoings and Contrition for them so necessary to work Repentance To conclude Seeing to die is the end of all Men Eccles 7.2 Repentance is to be chosen while we live that we may die with the greatest quiet without those Agonies of Conscience those cold Sweats those sinking Eyes and fainting Spirits for he dies with most ease that most surveys Death and looks into all the Retirements of it before-hand that knows it perfectly and all its strength such an one governs himself in it as in a most important Action with Decency and Freedom He is not hal'd by Death but received by it Into thy hands I commend my spirit Luke 23.46 he lays himself orderly into the shade of Death Whereas so long adherence to the Pleasures of Sin gives Death a Violence It makes Men both unwilling and afraid to die This night thy Soul shall be required Luke 12.20 Life is exacted of a Sensualist and torn from him that is resigned by a Spiritual and Mortified Man Good Men die in an active Sense they know how to die others die passively they are forced to die This great difference prefers to us Dying daily before that forcible Dying at once The wisdom of Dying was accounted by Heathens one of the worthy Businesses and Imployments of Life and that required much study Christianity gives us the true Rules of it and they lie in waiting till our change come Time is short 1 Cor. 7.29 they therefore that use this World should not use it down to the Bran sensually but only take the advantages of it to a higher Life Else being met on the sudden by Death they are like those that fall off from Life with Violence that is Headlong but they that live in the Sense of God and an Eternal Condition alight with care and ease It is therefore not only greatest Safety but truest Frugality and Improvement of Life to Repent betimes and when we come to die the easiest and sweetest way of dying Not indeed a Dying but a Translation into Immortality and Blessedness Inference 2. Seeing the Wise and their works are all in the hand of God and that he giveth Wisdom to the Wise Man's Heart to discern both Time and Judgment and not to be taken as Fishes in an evil Net
so many Discourses that the Kingdom of Heaven is nigh at Hand that upon that very Consideration you may be most Zealous in it So I earnestly Pray you may be Blessed in your Lord finding you so doing Verily I say unto you he shall make you greater Rulers in a truly Evangelical Sense than now you are And as to the black and dark side I make no mention of it because I am perswaded better things of you and such as Accompany the Salvation and Glory of that Kingdom Herein I am Your most Humble and Affectionate Orator T. BEVERLEY A Discourse upon Evangelical Repentance to Salvation not to be Repented of and the Godly Sorrow working it 2 Cor. 7.10 For Godly Sorrow worketh Repentance to Salvation not to be Repented of but the Sorrow of the World worketh Death THERE is no more Universal Notion in the Soul of Man in those Things wherein he hath to do with God or even with Man or with Himself then to Repent that is to be sorry for what he hath done Amiss and wherein he hath Offended and to Resolve and Promise to Amend and to do the Evil he hath done no more It is fitted as a great Instrument of Reconciliation and a second state of Innocency a Reserve after the Ruin and Shipwrack of our First Innocency a Remedy a Reparation after the first Advantages of doing well are lost And it is the infinite Grace of God in a Mediator that there is such a Notion in the World It preserves it from being a Hell in regard either of the extremity and utmost Rages of Wickedness or of the Horrors and Fury of Despair It is the infinite Grace of God in a Redeemer That there is a Place of Repentance as the Apostle calls it Heb. 12. that is place and room for it in mans Heart and that there is place for it in the Acceptance of God that God does not scorn and utterly reject it against him that hath once sinned That he is not inexorable and not to be intreated concerning it For how woful and even Hellishly Miserable would man be without it That the Nature of Man is inclin'd to offer and accept such Repentance one towards another and so that there are mutual Forgivenesses among men and not unappeasable hatreds and that there is in a mans own Conscience a preparedness to acquiesce to be satisfied to Rest and to be Appeased upon finding in the Soul and Action a sorrow for sin and Reformation from it All this keeps the World from being absolutely Hell For Sorrow Dislike Trouble Remorse for what a Man hath done evil move a man to review to acknowledgment to bewailing to confession to change and reformation to a new course of Life and Action Seeing then Man is such a fallen such a Peccant and offending Nature it is infinite grace in God that there is such a Notion such Action in mans Soul as Repentance and that there is not an utter irreconcilableness an unpardonableness after Offense committed neither in Heaven nor on Earth not in the Court of Heaven nor in the Court of Human Nature one towards another nor in the Court of a mans Conscience within himself If it were not so every sin would be like the Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit Matt. 12. Unpardonable and because Unpardonable Impenitable or not to be Repented of and that not only in this World but in that which is to come the World would become a Theater of sin and damnation even a Hell without any Chancery any Appeal to Grace to Mercy or Relenting of Repentance from the hopes of Mercy the reverence and awes of Goodness and Forgiveness Now that which lies loose and scattered or disseminated sown through the whole human Creation That the word of God especially in the Gospel in the New Testament that the Spirit of God hath collected into a more full and solemn Doctrine and open'd the Foundation and laid bare and in view the root or the great place of it How it hath room and reception what are the Sources springs of Efficacy from which it Rises even in the Sacrifice Blood and Redemption of Christ and the mighly Efficacy and Grace of the Divine Spirit what is that godly sorrow which is given by God as the Elaboratory or the Instrument of God for the Operation of it what are the Laws and Rules of it the true form and constitution of it what are the motives and inward considerations mooving to it what are the signs and evidences of its Truth what is the proper time and space for it It resolves the Scruples or Cases of Conscience that may arise in the Soul of Man concerning it it shews the great Fruit certain Benefit and Advantage of it And all these are either most innately residing or some way reducible to this great and excellent Context of the Apostle in which regard I have chosen it and shall endeavour to bring Light accordingly to it and according to these heads I will by the grace of God endeavour to Discourse it 1. In regard it is Repentance to Salvation and that Salvation is no other but in Christ alone Acts 4.12 it plainly shews That the whole Redemption and Salvation of Christ is the proper Basis and Foundation of it the whole Area Court Space and most proper place of it and that the whole Notion and Spirit of it as any way Commensurate to or extended upon the whole human Nature hath its Rise and Original flows from some Communication to the human Nature from Jesus Christ the Redeemer and that yet the word of God and his Gospel only Reveals it fully and genuinely and his spirit is the supreme Operator of it 2. Here is plainly laid down to us the Elaboratory or Instrument God hath prepared in infinite Wisdom and Grace and inlay'd the Soul with in order to Repentance First as it is a Natural Affection subservient to it and then as it is Sanctified by God to so great an end Godly sorrow or sorrow after and according to God worketh down Repentance or brings it forth a sorrow opposed to the sorrow of the World that worketh Death 3. In that it is 1. Repentance to Salvation effectual to it 2. Repentance not to be Repented of 1. Not as a false counterfeit Repentance to be Repented of 2. Always to be carried on and promoted and not recall'â— repeal'd or revers'd but confirm'd by progressive repeated Acts and renewed after Falls 3. In that it is to or lays hold of Salvaetion 4. In that it rises not from an earthly spring or any sorrow not after God In all these Regards it yeilds just reason to Discourse the true Laws and Rules the Frame and true constitution the motives means and considerations for the signs and evidences of sincere Repentance 4. The admirable Fruit and Benefit of it is most visibly and illustriously set forth before us in those words It is Repentance to Salvation not to be repented of 1. It is
of in that forenam'd Rom. 2. 3. The great Goodness of God in Christ giving the Notion of Repentance into the Heart of Man seeing the Original of whatever is worthy or Excellent in Man is but a Transcript or Copy taken from the supâ—eme Excellency and Goodness hath thereby dlspos'd the Hearâ— of Man to a Readiness to forgive one man to forgive another and thereby to be engaged to an Acknowledgment of Offences one againâ—t anoâ—her to desire Pardon and to offend no more Wherein much of the Peace and Happiness of Humane Nature in this present state is supported and preserv'd And herein and by these very mutual Repentances toward and Forgivenesses one of another is there a greater Illustration of the Grace and Goodness of God in Pardon and Forgiveness upon Repentance and thereby an Invitation Encouragement and leading to Repentance towards God For in that the Gospel-Command to forgive them who having trespassed against us tho seven times a day turn again and say I repent and that if we forgive not men their trespasses neither will our Heavenly Father forgive us Our Lord both appeals to the Sense of Mankind and excites and encourages unto Repentance towards God in hope of Forgiveness as well as to mutual Repentances and Forgiveness for the Peace and Good of Mankind to which our Lord had great Regard in all he said and did 4. The Natural Light God hath given concerning Repentance and the Sense in Man's Soul concerning the Goodness and Reasonableness of that Grace and Duty upon which the Redeemer hath pointed the Law written in the Heart is as a Ground and Rude Draught that the Knowledge of Repentance by the Word of God and Divine Revelation accomplishes and fills up and that the Spirit of God plants his Supreme Operations upon even as Sanctification is engrafted into that Sense of Good and Evil that is found in the Soul of Man and those Irritations and Provokings of Natural Conscience to do the Good and fly from the Evil. For thus Jesus Christ hath as our Creator and Redeemer our Preserver and Mediator in one taken Care to secure a Remnant and Remainder of whatever was excellent in his first Creation that it may be taken hold of and be applied to in Redemption And thus I have â—â—deavoured to discourse the Ground-work and Foundation of this Grace Duty and Doctrine of Repentance That it is all setled in the Grace and Mercy of God in the Redeemer without which it had been an utter Impossibility and there had been no more nor any other Repentance than what is in Hell I come therefore to the Second Head Head 2. Here is plainly laid down to us the great Elaboratory or Instrument God hath prepared in infinite Wisdom and Grace and in-laid the Soul with in order to Repentance Godly Sorrow or Sorrow after and according to God worketh down or brings into Effect this Repentance This God hath prepar'd as a Natural Affection of it self and in its own General and Original Form fit to such a purpose and then God sanctifies it to rhis Great Purpose Acts 4.12 to work this Repentance to Salvation not to be repented of It is an immediate Instrument in the Hand of God to operate under his Spirit to so great an Effect Of this I shall discourse in Three Generals General 1. I begin therefore with a Description of Sorrow first as it is a Natural Affection or Passion of the Humane Nature and then as it is sanctified by God or as it becomes a Sorrow after God and is fitted to so great an End and Purpose and as it is so it is counterdistinguish'd to worldly Sorrow that worketh Death General 2. I will consider the excellent Use and Service of godly Sorrow to so great an End and Putpose as the working Repentance to Salvation General 3. I will open the Wisdom of God and the Reasonableness of his making use of Sorrow and fitting it as after himself or according to himself to so great an End and Purpose and that according to the very Reason and Nature of Things it could not be otherwise but that godly sorrow must be so made use of above and before any other Affection and that it becomes him by whom and for whom are all things so to make use of it General 1. For the Description of this Affection of godly Sorrow First as it is a Natural Affection or Passion of the Humane Nature and then as it is sanctified by God or becomes Sorrow ofter God and is counter-distinguish'd to the sorrow of the World that worketh Death Sorrow then as it is an Affection or Passion of the Humane Nature must be considered Two ways and each of them must be applied to the Sorrow that works Repentance or to Sorrow according to God and so a different and opposite Sorrow to the sorrow of this World 1. Sorrow that is a Humane Passion or Affection must either begin in the Body and so passeth from the Soul and ascends up to the Spirit of a Man or it begins in the higher Region the Spirit and descends by the Soul into the Body and makes Impressions suitable to its own Nature there and the Body is govern'd according to this Affection and to its Place Estimation Power with and Interest in the Spirit Now indeed all Affection and even Passion to speak most strictly and properly is in the Spirit For it is all one to matter how it be used or into what Form it is made to pass or out of what or in disjunction from what Form it is forc'd to move So that All we feel by way of suffering or Enjoyment is by the Spirit 's having a Pleasing or an Afflicting Sense of Things But this I wave as not so necessary to the Practical Discourse of Repentance I intend It is plain and certain the sense of some things begins in the Spirit viz. those things which are proper to the Narure of a Spirit and which are so proper to a Spirit whether it dwelt in a Body or not But yet when the Spirit is affected with them because it inhabits a Body the Affection of the Spirit even whether the Spirit will or not works upon the Matter and Frâ—me of that Body and thereby the Truth and Reality of the Spirit 's being affected is discovered to it self and it may also be thereby discovered to others On the other side there are Passions or Affections that the Spirit is affected with as finding it self mov'd and concern'd as that Frame of Body wherein it dwells is either more or less fited for its Enjoyment of it self in that Body or put quite out of Order or is in pain and afflicted so as to afflict the Spirit And both and each of these is in some Degree serviceable to godly sorrow though the first is the Chief and Principal in godly sorrow 1. The Spirit of Man affected with the consideration of sin as it hath all the Reasons of sorrow in it as
And what shall we think of the words of our Lord Luke 6.21 Blessed are you that Weep and you that Mourn and woe to you that Laugh Now it is not to be supposed that so Good and so Merciful and so Gracious a Saviour as our Lord Jesus Christ is should envy to man any thing that could be to the Good and Welfare of his Nature But he knew how much the Carnal Joy and Mirth that is so common and so much valued among Men lavishes out those Thoughts and Spirits and that Time that should be laid out upon so serious and great things as Reconciliation to God Pardon of Sin Newness of Heart and Life and that Sorrow and Mourning and Weeping are prepared by God as fitted in their Nature to make us more Grave and Pondering of Things and that being Sanctified and in the Hand of his Grace are made use of to bring us home to himself For when men are under sadness finding the prints of the Wrath Justice and Displeasure of God upon them they enquire after the Reason Their sins as to Joseph's Brethren come to their Remembrance They are provoked to move to God by Humiliation Confession of Sin Prayer for Pardon Desire of his Grace and Spirit to enable them to Reform they enquire into his word how they may cleanse their way order their Conversation aright to please him they are moved to consider by these drops and Touches of Sorrow what that state of sorrow without Banks or Bounds or Bottom is where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of Teeth They are taken off from that Pride and Self-Conceit they find so little in all things here below and in this present State that they enquire for those better and greater Things that are Above and in Eternity When sorrow that disposes to strong and serious enquiries becomes sorrow after and according to God Oh! how excellently does it work How do men search Lam. 3.40 and try their ways that they may turn to God Now because of the Order that God hath plac'd sorrow in to all these great Effects therefore our Lord pronounc'd a Blessing upon Weeping and Mourning For else he loves our Joy when it is Spiritual he commands to Rejoyce in the Lord all way and again he says Rejoyce He spoke many great things John 15.11 that our Joy might be full that he might fill our Mouths with Laughter and our Tongues with Singing But our carnal our sensual Joys he knows are our Death and Destruction he knows we are in no better case in our prophane foolish sinful Laughter than they who are stung with the Tarantula and Dye Laughing Thus we have greatest reason in the midst of such Laughter to be Sorrowful and the end of that Mirth will be heaviness Thus it will be bitterness in the latter end therefore he warns us of it before and in greatest Love to us declares a Woe on such Laughter But now to conclude this particular The sorrow of the World How different a thing is it For tho it causes Thoughts and Enquiries yet it is only how to be rid of the Worldly Causes of Sorrow and it turns only to Worldly Remedies And it is very often in a rage at the causes it finds and when either the Remedies are not to be found or fail in their Success it is in a Rage and flies out too often against God and Providence and so it works Death It begins that Hatred of God that Blasphemy and Rage that is in Hell or if it does not thus it is a sullen despondent unactive state of Mind that shuts and seals up all Activity like the Night wherein no Man can Work John 9.4 and so goes down into utter Darkness It either sayâ— This evil is of the Lord 1 Kings 6.33 why should I wait any longer Or like Cain My Iniquities are greater than can be Forgiven and so hastens out from the Presence of God or it recoyls upon it self as Saul Achilophel Judas or the Heart under the Power of it Dies as a stone within it self as Nabals Heart died within him 1 Sam. 25.27 Thus it every way works Death because it hath nothing to do with him who is the Fountain of Life For the Being of God is infinitely happy and blessed and all light and lustre and in him is no Darkness at all of sorrow as not of Sin he therefore when sorrow is after him springs a Light into it that whereas the Dark and Black part arises from sin and the sinful Creature yet because it is after him it shall never set in the darkness of Death and Hâ—ll It receives from him as a Tincture of Holiness so a Tincture of Life a Ray and Beam of it It works Repentance unto Life and to Salvation and so it springs up aftâ—r into Joâ— in his Favour in the Light of his Countenance in the assurance of his Love But the Sorrow of the World is like a Night that no kind of Light at all Enlightens Like the Night Job Cursed it does not turn to the Light because it is not turn'd to God and so is a shade of Hell â—efore Hell it self a valley of the shaddow of Death and the horrors of it are the beginnings of the horrors of Hell As therefore Carnal Joys are sparks of our own kindling Esay 50. notwithstanding which we shall lye down in sorrow even so is sorrow not after God as a black shade of our own 4. The service of sorrow after God to Repentance unto Salvation is that it breaks and forces asunder that sinful Frame in our Hearts of sin and contrariety to God and to Holyness The very Natural Affection of sorrow loosens and Divides the Heart from that which is the Cause and occasion of such sorrow Because that great Self-love the force of that Law of Self-preservation is so strong upon us that seeing sorrow is an Affection that stands in an enmity to our Peace Comfort and Enjoyment and to our Life it self if it be extreme or too long continuing we therefore come off from what is the occasion or that gives reason to our sorrow though we had exceedingly lov'd it before This we find in all Cases and through the whole Nature of Things when therefore sin and loss of the favour of God because of it is made by the grace of God the just Reason and most sensible and prevailing reason of our sorrow It dissolves the Frame of sin in our Heart that had been before compact as the Adamant and as the neither Mill-stone Now this sorrow dividing and separating between sin and the Soul it brings forth that broken and contrite Heart that God will not despise Again This sorrow is a spiritual melting softning and dissolving Thing It separates the Soul every particle as it were from other so that it is supple soft and ready to tâ—ke any figure thaâ— God would have it take It brings the Soul to quick and lively sense which
is as it were taking the stone out of the Flesh and giving a Heart of Flesh It is that Spirit of Grace of Ingenuous sense of our Ingratitude and unworthy carriage towards God mentioned before out of Zech. 12. and Ezek. 36. Hereupon the Apostle James presses to a great Mourning after God or exercise of Godly sorrow James 4.8 Draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you cleanse your hands you sinners purify your hearts you double minded How should this great Self-Purification be Effected By being Afflicted by mourning and weeping by having the Laughter turned to Mourning and the Joy to Heaviness This Godly Sorrow like washing and rubbing the Hands with Water and the close Application of it softens and loosens the Filth that cleaves so close adheres and sticks so fast to the Hands And it arises from that Love and Compassion that is seated towards our selves in our own Natures which when it is by the Hand of Grace pointed aright It is made a mighty Instrument a mighty Efficacy for Conversion and Repentance because when our great Disgust our Sorrow and Self-Affliction is pitch'd upon sin we cast it off as that which is the reason of our sorrow and that stands in our Eye as hateful loathsome filth and impurity that we can by no means endure and therefore we say to it get ye hence Oh! you Foul and abominable Lusts what have I any more to do with you But more particularly two ways this Godly sorrow works to Conversion Repentance Self-Purification 1. By being so prevailing upon the Soul as to drink up all the impure and unholy Affections in our Hearts God giving it therefore by that his Spirit of Grace and ingenuous sense an ascendency a superiority over all other Affections in the Heart at this time he is working Repentance it drinks up all the pleasurable sensual Affections in a Man when a man is in bitterness as one is in bitterness for his first Born and for an only Begotten Child He hath no more Appetite nor Emotion of his Spirits to Lust and Sensuality and sinful Pleasures than such a one hath to do the usual Entertainments and Pleasures of Life when God therefore calls for this sorrow he looks upon it as a great Offence when there is slaying of Oxen and drinking of Wine Esay 22.13 Amos 6.3 c. lying upon beds of Ivory Chaunting to the sound of Viols Inventing Instruments of Musick like David when there is putting on Apparel and the Furniture of Pride For then he commands us as he did the Children of Israel after the sin of the Golden Calf to put off their Ornaments Exod. 33.5 that he might know what to do to them whether theâ— should as true Penitents be spar'd or destroyed in their Impenitency And indeed when any are under the power of this Godly Sorrow in such a posture to Repentance all such Ornaments are nothing All such pleasures are quite out of Tast The Soul hath no relish of them 2 Godly sorrow thus made an Instrument in the Hâ—nd of Grace for working Repentance hath by that its ascendency and superiority an engagement upon all the other Affections with it self to the working Repentance also this the Apostle shews in the very next words to these we are Discoursing upon 2 Cor. 7.11 For this very self same thing that ye sorrowed after a Godly sort what carefulness it wrought in you how great is the care and sollicitude it works in all that so sorrow to get out of their Sins and to return home to God What Apology for Holyness for God and against Sin what Judgment against sin What Fear and Awe of God striking to the very Heart of sin what vehement desire after God after true Grace and perfect Reformation and this boyling up to Zeal or the heigth of Desire that Powerful Religious Affection under the Operation of which a Man cannot bear Evil no not for a moment And lastly there is an holy Revenge upon sin Sathan lust even a man's sinful self by which the Irreconcilable Hatred to every sin is Discovered and a Monument of that Hatred set up in the Soul Thus works godly sorrow to Repentance but the forrow of the World having nothing to do with God with sense of his Displeasure for sin with sin as so great a reason of sorrow and trouble the Spirit remains in all its former Frame of union to the world and to sin and so with the whole state of sin and of the World and of sorrow it sinks down to the center to the place of sorrow for ever For when sorrow that is the Instrument of God in working Repentance does not prevail to that God's end it more certainly sinks down to its Center and that with great Violence as we see in those fore-nam'd Examples of Cain Esau Saul Akitophel Judas who not sorrowing to Repentance went down with greater violence to the Chambers of Death and Sorrow even everlasting sorrow 5. The efficacy of godly sorrow to Repnntance is that it makes the Soul very humble before God the natural effect of sorrow is to meeken and bow the Spirit heaviness in the Heart of Man makes it stoop Prov. 12.25 the guise and mein or Posture of sorrow is to bow down the head like a Bull-rush The Hipocritical mourner does so to imitate true sorrow Esay 58.5 Now this indeed except it turn to God and have Relation to him is the meanness and pusilanimity of a Man but it is the true greatness of Mind to lye down before God and Tremble in his Presence as the melted Metal trembles and quivers before the Founder This dissolving melting Efficacy of godly sorrow is that which turning to God makes the Heart submit it self as the Apostle James speaks in the same Context c. 4.10 Vnder the mighty hand of God Acts c. 9.6 c. 16.30 that he may lift it up it says to God Lord what wilt thou have me to do It says what shall I do to be sav'd What shall I do what shall I do in obedience to God It treads softly before God as if it said to him Lord which way wilt thou have me to go Which Ahab doing tho not with a perfect Heart receiv'd some degree of Favour by 1 Kings 21.27 29. Now this Humility how acceptable is it to God! How yeilding to his Command God gives grace to it Esay 66.2 c. 57.15 God looks off from Heaven and Earth to look to that man that is of a contrite Spirit and trembles at his word He that is the high and lofty one that dwells in the high and holy Place and Inhabits Eternity will Dwell also with the humble spirit to revive the Spirit of the Humble Job 33.17 This sorrow hides Pride from man as the expression is in Job and so fits it to all holy returns to God by Repentance It withdraws man from his purpose It changes the purpose of Man Acts 11.13 that which was
doeth the Will of God abideth for ever No Saint shall be Transposed out of his Saintship He that is Righteous let him be Righteous still He that is Holy let him be Holy still These Things are Asaluta not to be shaken And then on the other part it must be sadly said that Wickedness shall not be Transpos'd in regard of its Guilt in regard of its Filth If not removed in this World by Faith and Repentance not in the World to come Wickedness shall be Wickedness still it shall have a House builded it shall be established Zech. 5.11 and it shall be setled on its own Base and wicked Men shall be wicked Men still When once it is come to that Time there shall be no Transposal He that is Vnrighteous let him be Vnrighteous still He that is Filthy let him be Filthy still Rev. 21.11 Now seeing all this great Doctrine of the Apostle is conveyed to us under this Symbol or Representation of an Earthquake or the Shaking of the Earth and not only of the Earth but of the Heaven also let us enquire into the Scripture-Accounts of an Earthquake and apply it to the present Occasion that it may bring us to a serious holy sense and that what we have seen in a hand breadth may move us to consider what we shall see and feel as in the whole Heaven and Earth in large and in full For if what we have been sensible of as in a Glance or in Passage hath affected any with Fear especially what was done in a part of our Nation beyond the Sea which is but a very little Thing yea a Nothing in comparison of what shall be in its own Times in its proper Times How much more ought we to be affected with the Assurances God hath given us of a Change so much greater For as it may be said to us If we have run with the Foot-men and they have wearied us How shall we contend with Horses If in the present State which is as a Land of Peace and wherein we trust we have been so affrighted What shall we do in the swelling of Jordan I come therefore to the second Head viz. To make Remarks upon the nature of such Motions and Trembles of the Earth and their Fitness to be a Shade of the Kingdom of Christ and wherein they are so And herein I propose three things 1. To consider the strict nature of Earthquakes according to the Scripture-Foundations of Discourse concerning them 2. To enquire into the Causes why God is pleas'd to make such Concussions and Convulsions in Nature 3. To observe upon the great Metaphorical or Figurative Earthquakes that is Changes in the present State of the World that have been since the Death and Resurrection of our Lord and how the Observation of them may be made subservient to the due Improvement of our Thoughts in regard to the late Earthquakes we have heard of or been at all sensible of more of late I begin then with the first Head in Four Points Point I. The Scripture teacheth us This great Globe of Earth and Water is hung by the mighty Wisdom Skill and Power of the great Geometer of Heaven and Earth The Earth being Round is on every side encompassed with Air and Skie as they who sail it round find as well as by Reason it is demonstrated as a Ball in the Air So we read Job 26.7 He stretcheth out the North over the empty Place for so to our eye and motion the meer Air seems to be and he hangeth the Earth upon nothing I know this is a Point proper to Philosophical Discussion that it may go as far as it can upon But those Questions God asked Job 38.4 c. would pose the wisest of the World Declare if thou hast understanding Who hath laid the Measures of the Earth If thou knowest who hath stretched the Line upon it so that it is in just number weight and measure Whereupon are the Foundations thereof fastned or who laid the Corner-stone thereof There may be handsome and plausible solving the Phenomenae as they speak before Men who know as little the best of them one as another but before God all is but darkning Counsel by Words without Knowledge Now when it is so that the Earth hangs thus How must it needs be that God as he pleases may shake the Earth out of its place with a touch of his hand and all the Inhabitants thereof and his Enemies particularly be shaken out of it or off from it or whither or how he pleases For if that bold Man of Mathematicks durst say Give me where to set my foot and I will remove the Earth what can infinite Understanding and Power do or if he does but slacken his hand from holding the Ballance even keeping the Scales of Earth and Air just or if there be such a one as with great Reason hath been thought the Poize of the Central Fire Even all would be in immediate Confusion On this Consideration then any kind of Earthquakes is no wonder the wonder is they are not every day and not to the utmost The only security is the unchangeableness of Divine Ordination for such a time as he hath decreed since the Flood wherein in all appearance of Reason as well as Scripture there was even in this regard a Jog as one may say of it 2. The Ballance is in this regard yet so Even and just that nothing we account most surely founded stands so fast so firm and secure as the Earth that it cannot be moved So that allowing it to have a Diurnal or every days Revolution from East to West yet it is with such equality that it disturbs all upon it no more than a Fly sitting it self fast on a Globe is unsettled by its being turn'd round Notwithstanding this motion the Earth is founded on the Seas and Established on the Floods that is the Waters are so every way compacted under and about and over it that it is as it were founded upon it as on Pillars of Marble which may have been understood first according to the excellent forementioned Theory of the Earth 2. As the Cement and Fixation of the upper Parts of the Earth is the moisture it receives from the Waters 3. As the ambient or round-about Air hath a more immediate force upon the Waters to crowd and keep them close to the Earth than the Air it self could have upon the Earth the Water being a middle Body between Air and Earth even as the Air is between that subtile Matter we call Ether and Air. So that the Earth hath Foundations Pillars Corner-stone in Scripture-Language And this is indeed absolutely necessary for such kind of Bodies and Works as are to move and rest upon this Earth which is as a Sea in regard of the variety of Creatures in it wherein are Things creeping innumerable and both great and small Beasts and Man the highest Order of Animals Now these require such a
there might have been more reason to hope well of Last-Breath-Penitencies if there had not been a Pattern of such a one in all Points as much above the imitiation of those of our days as the Heaven is above the Earth It is such a one as if God had said of it if I accept a Dying Repentance behold this consider it every way and take notice by it Ante mihi fidem latronis ostende tunc tibi latronis beatitudinem policere August what a one I will have it God putting the Case and resolving it thus hath given a much more positive Determination concerning it than if the Case had never been put The End therefore I aim at is to make it evident upon general Reasons and particularly from this Instance That a Death-bed Repentance is a hazard so unspeakably great that no Man can without Folly extreamly prodigious commit to so much adventure an affair of so great importance to an eternal condition Hereunto I will raise this Treaty by these degrees 1. By observing the Judgment of Divines concerning this Case and balancing the most favourable with the more severe 2. By detecting the Follies that have given a Reputation to a Death-Bed Repentance 3. By examining the most hopeful Appearances of this kind of Repentance and shewing there are plain Causes of them very much below the Nature of true Repentance wherewith I will compare them 4. By observing the Extraordinaries of which the Repentance of this Dying Malefactor was composed because of which it can hardly be drawn into a Precedent To all these I will subjoin pressing Considerations on every side that Men should not delay their return to God to the latter Times of Life For the First the Judgment of Divines in the Point I begin with that severer one Dr. Taylor 's Invalidity of a late Repentance yet built upon great Piety and Reason that asserts it a plainly impossible thing a Man on his Death-Bed should Repent with that Repentance the Scripture so oft Discourses of and promises Pardon to and threatens the neglect of with Perishing and therefore concludes a Dying Man that hath not already repented must needs fall not into the Sin of Despair For who is bound to hope that hath not the reasons of his hope given him by God but into the Misery of Despair For how miserable is he whom God hath left to the boiling Sea of his own Horrors and thrown him out no Anchor of Hope However this Sentence seem rigorous yet when we consider the ponderous Arguments it uses it may rather amaze us than provoke our Censure For First it is very irreconcileable with the Glory of God that Men who have had the knowledge of God and been called upon all their Lives to give up themselves to him should be accepted when they pour out to him the Lees and Dregs of Life instead of the generous Spirits of it That he that hath had in his Flock a Male should vow and Sacrifice to the Lord a corrupt Thing and yet escape the Curse of the Deceiver The Expressions of Scripture are innumerable in which God Disavows such Prostitutions of his Grace as is hereafter to be urged but seals such e're they are aware under Hardness of Heart and a Reprobate Sense to Destruction 2. It appears impossible there should be a discharge of the Duties of Repentance when Men are a Dying that they should draw within the hollow of that little Span that is also otherwise incumbred the vastness of that Action that is necessary to take off the Brawn of a long Impenitency That a Man should live the life of Holiness that is just a Dying that the Tree that hath been always barren should bring forth good Fruit now it is a hewing down These things are very contradictious how can Repentance plant it self in the Soul and settle gracious habits there in so short a space Or in an instant by Mortification root out those Lusts and sinful Affections that have been many years eating into the Heart Repentance must have a time for Fruits and those Fruits for Ripening and Concoction which a Death-Bed will not afford So that it cannot be that Repentance of the Gospel but at the best only some first strokes of it 3. There must be a living to God before a Man dyes to God It is the Supream Law every one must glorifie him here on Earth and finish the work he hath given them to do in the World They must work the works of him that sent them while it is day before the night cometh in which no Man can work After this Men are received into the glory of God 4. In Repentance we must be in the same Circumstances of Temptation we were in in the time of Sinning But it will be hard to find in what the state of a Dying Man differs from that of him that is already dead as to this business of Repentance but that he may as well be allowed to Repent that is entred into Eternity as he that stands on the very brink of it This Censure cannot be injurious to Men living and in their full Opportunity suppose in Speculation it stretches Principles of great weight and truth too far yet it recompenses for it self by the wholesomness of it to practice for who can suffer by being necessitated to an early Repentance so much his Duty so much his Safety Further it is most Prophetick most undoubtedly true of most Mens late Repentance That it is too sudden too Mushrom a Birth to have any worthiness in it This Repentance almost universally withers afore it grows up and proves an Abortion whether it comes to the tryal of a longer Life wherein it vanishes as a Cloud and former Impiety returns or whether it pass immediately into Eternity where it sinks down into Misery for attempting the Regions of Life and wanting the Purity that rises thither it is beaten back with all its Pretensions as a Foggy Exhalation that would climb to Heaven but is forced down and made to rest below so that for the Universality of Death-Bed Repentances this Judgment is truly calculated If it should seem too Cruel to the dying Condition to smother Men alive with the second Death as Hazael spread upon the dying King a thick Cloath dipped in Water to stifle and benum at once all motions towards God let us consider what advice it offers against the Stupidities of Despair When we are fallen into so unhappy a Condition that the whole weight of Eternity depends upon a very little Moment it perswades Men would do all they can in return to God though that all must be trusted with the Prerogative of Mercy for that Mercy which is stated in the Promises of the Gospel and is in ordinary cannot help them in the great point of Salvation however it may alleviate their Condemnation and lessen their Torment I mad add if that which appears a Messenger of Death should have secret reprieve in
Scriptures that treat most professedly of Repentance always insist upon it as a reformed course of Life to be undertaken even now while the Proposals of Grace and Reconciliation are made to us and only by very silent Intimations the track of which is hardly discerned leave it possible that God should by miracle save some very few out of the Fire and pull them as Brands out of the Burning by giving them Repentance at the last Whereas this is now become the only Repentance in use and hath devoured the other as if to press Men upon it were to torment them before their time and to lessen the Validity of this were to take away the Mercy of God and deny the Grace that is so free and universal Let us search therefore how this sort of Repentance hath come into such Repute And if we observe we shall find it first rising from the intimate Sense the Conscience hath of the necessity of Repentance For were it not so clear and evident a Duty a Death-Bed Repentance had never been heard of most would choose to go out of the World as they have lived in it not suffering any degree of the trouble of Conscience or vexing themselves with Reflections upon an unholy and ill-spent Life As Men have chose to live freely and uninterruptedly in forgetfulness of God and an Eternal Condition days without number Jer. 2.32 so would they choose to die were there not a Law within that however it hath lain covered with the Dust of Sensuality yet is now restored to its Authority and urges the Soul with the Terror of Punishment for so long Disobedience And secondly this necessity of Repentance though secretly understood yet was not sufficiently considered in the time of Health for had it been equally regarded it had not been now to begin He that had rightly measured it would not for a thousand Worlds so have adjourned it These two things then meeting so oft together viz. The necessity of Repentance and the neglect of it all along our Life the necessity it should be performed some time ere Men go out of the World and the neglect of it in the freer Opportunities of Life These I say bring forth hasty motions of it at last For it losing nothing of its necessity by its delay it must be done as well as it may be at that time even as the last Moments wherein Businesses of great Consequence are to be dispatched press for Expedition the more earnestly because they must be done then or never though it often falls out the time is so far past they suffer not only much disadvantage but even defeat by the delay The Notion of a Death-Bed Repentance then we may perceive rising from the great Indisposition to Repent while the Pleasures of Sin are in their Season and flourish and Men in Health and Strength to enjoy them and from the necessities of Repentance falling upon them at the last and wringing from them sometimes very high Acknowledgments of God and an Eternal Condition passionate Expressions of the folly evil and vanity of former Life desires of Mercy Professions of strong Resolvedness to serve God and if they had many Lives to give God they would give them all All which being so unusual to hear formerly out of such Mouths and coming from Dying Men for whose Sayings we have a natural regard Charity towards them and willingness to hope well of them gives these Semblances the Reputation of Repentance To which may be added That those who are Guides and Seers in Religion too often errante Clave by too Liberal an Absolution open the Kingdom of Heaven to such and taking the Instruments of a foolish Shepherd to themselves heal the hurt of their Souls slightly so that their Repentance is saincted here and though it miscarry in the other World yet the miscarriage is hid also in that other World From all this hath arisen a down-right Opinion of this kind of Repentance as the only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Prudent Expedient that compounds two so different Interests first that of a worldly Conversation to which it gives no hinderance then that of Eternal Life in appearance because it assumes the Promises of Mercy to it self especially those gracious Assurances in Ezek. 18. Chap. 33. it reckons as made on purpose for it All which argues a very vile Sense both of the Justice and Mercy of God of his Justice as if it had no authority of his Mercy as if it had no sense of Honour And lastly it is grown into a general Expectation rhat however ill and carelesly of God Men have lived here yet they should go out of the World with good words of him and Religious Professions as an Inbalm to their Memory and a Dirge to their Souls into the Happiness of an Everlasting Condition Thus they call Repentance and Heaven after their own name This their way is their folly Psal 49.11.13 14 c. yet their Posterity men of like Inclinations approve their sayings because such Men as they speak go away like Lambs but as the Scripture says like sensless Sheep are laid in the Grave and Death feeding upon them the Error is not discovered till the morning when the upright have dominion over them that is infinitely excel them and their counterfeit Repentance which cannot stand in judgment nor they in the congregation of sincere Penitents Psal 1. vers 5. Now this account I have given of a Death-Bed Repentance obtaining among us is too comprehensive yet I must acknowledge that there are many whose Judgments are more enlightned and the Sentiments of their Consciences quicker than to be satisfied at so easie a rate who yet fall into the common unhappiness of not having repented till they come to die I will therefore enquire further why many who are able to feel before-hand the necessities of a speedy Repentance and also to draw their Death so near them as to die daily in the sense of Death and thereby further perceive those Necessities do not yet Repent daily but betray themselves to an Evening or Twilight Repentance The Resolution of this lies not only in the immoderate love of Sin and its Pleasures and the too low apprehension of God and Eternal Things though these are always present in the case but chiefly it lies in the great Confidence such Men have in the present time not sensible of the continual waste of it Under the favour of which they put away the evil day far from them and stretch themselves upon this moment Amos 6.3 c. that they may take their full Ease and Satisfaction In the mean while stifling the Thoughts of Dying and Judgment Were it not for this no other Reason would encourage them to delay their Repentance for when this Fails all others generally fail also and therefore none are so passionately moved as such when they come to die This Cloud that is but as big as a Man's hand our days are as an hands breadth
these Clouds and Vapours than a Dying Hour When every thing is ready to contribute them and nothing to scatter them If then Natural Conscience and implanted Sense of God together with the Notions given us from Scripture pass through these they become very impressive and affecting for the time and yet he much mistakes Repentance who thinks it no more than a fit of Religious Melancholly But let us enquire after some more setled and constant Causes of these Penitential Motions near Death and we shall find many very likely to be so that are not yet worthy of true Repentance and therefore what springs from them is not accepted before God 1. When Men find all their Being in the World at an end and feel themselves falling they know not whither It is no strange thing they should catch at God and that they may take hold of him at Holiness also Seeing ingraffed Principles together with general Discourse teach every one how dear Holiness is to God If God and Goodness were no more than Imaginary things It would be no wonder if they who are tossed off the World and thrown over-board from it should snatch at them if there were no more in the Case than this that every one hath heard so much speech and talk of them among Men. For to him that hath nothing in reality even a Shadow a Phancy are valuable Men that are dropping through the Air or sinking under Water without Consultation offer at every thing they meet with In great Extremities short of Death they that are bereft of all worldly Assistance fly to the Divine Succours though as Jonah's Marriners they pray to an Idol instead of the true God and their Devotion is no better than Superstition which is but a Phancy in Religion What strange thing then is it for nature to cry out for God and Christ for Pardon of Sin to be delivered from Hell and to have Heaven for an everlasting Rest when all things else evidently fail as they do in Death and when not only Phancy and general Opinion but most substantial Reason inlightned by the Scripture provoke up a Man to it even for Self-preservation Yet this differs but little from howling upon our Beds for Corn and Wine and Oyl Hos 7.14 for though the things differ much in their Nature yet the Esteem Men have of them and the desire they have after them is much upon the same ground for these Spiritual things appear to that natural Sense of Self-preservation as necessary in Death as the other do in Life and Health But if the approaches of Death happen to be again drawn off the value of Spiritual things removes with them and the things of this World with all the sensual and sinful Delights of it return to their former price which argues the ineffectualness of this cause of Repentance and the Unacceptableness of the Repentance it self to God that flows from it God disclaims Men that have never come to him before their Extremity and come then only because of it In the time of their trouble they will say Arise and save us But where are thy Gods that thou madest Let them arise if they can save thee Jer. 2.27 28. Thus to such Dying Men crying out to him God says Let your former Lusts and Pleasures now be your Happiness Fools and scorners that would not be warned call upon God in their calamity and seek him early when the whirlwind of their destructions hurries them but cannot make him hear cannot find him Prov. 1.14 2. Suppose the desires after God and Eternal Happiness with all the Retinue of those Desires rise not so much from the Necessities of remove from this Life and sensible Supports but immediately from the sight of Eternal things themselves yet will not this conclude the Repentance sincere For we may easily pitch upon several so plain reasons of these quick Apprehensions of another World that it is much more strange if any Man be not struck with them and they that are are not in greater Extasies of these Considerations than that most die in some fair inclinable Temper towards them and others are extraordinarily surprized with them yet without true Repentance For First If it were no more but the leisure and uninterestedness of the Mind in all worldly things that Death brings It is no wonder that the Action of it should immediately and necessarily flow upon God for it being always in action and motion from its very Nature and God having made it for himself and the manner of its living here in the World being a slavery willingly undertaken for the Service of the Body and the Enjoyment of this present Life in its being fallen from God It is nothing strange that that Drudgery being now at an end and the chains wherein it was held just a breaking it should fall upon God and Spiritual Objects whither the stream of it was prepared to run and which are most truly its own business For the distance being so wide and irreconcilable between Man and this Earth in Death the very having nothing else to do must carry him upon the Future State seeing his Soul is such a Being as cannot naturally lie still and that State is all that it hath to work upon and further than that it is so nearly allied to it Secondly The very loosening and uncementing the Soul from the Body wherein it dwelt and wherein the Motions of it were restrained Multi enim quum remissi liberi sunt futura prospiciunt ex quo intelligitur quales futuri sint quum se plane corporis vinculis relaxaverint Cic. de Senectut hath been thought very probably to give Men lesser degrees of those Advantages near their Death which naked and free Spirits not inclosed and pent up in Bodies have whereby they have been able to make Conjectures of future things and to speak prophetically The less the Soul is bound to work by the Body the higher are its Operations All extraordinary Motions of the Soul are a kind of Ravishment from Sense Those great Prophetick Blessings of Jacob and Moses were near their Dying Gen. 49. Deut. 32. c. 33. It is therefore very easie to be thought that when the Soul and Body are ready to cleave asunder and the Spirit to be separated from Flesh that it should make an higher flight towards Eternal Things The nearer every thing is to its own Residence the more vehement is its motion said to be thither So there may very well be quick sallies of the Soul towards Eternity before it enters into it when it is so near that everlasting Receptacle of it self Thirdly We may observe in the Experience of all times every appearance of the other World hath strange effects of Fear and affrightment upon Mens Minds When any one is entring then into that whole World it may well put him upon purifying himself more than they that fall upon Leviathan Job 41.25 When Men are just upon that Region
of Spirits what appalements of Mind and strong working of Thoughts must there needs be Much more if the Soul have any sense of its approach to the infinite Holiness of God at whose rebuke the Pillars of Heaven tremble whose presence astonishes the purer Spirits of Angels and beats down the Souls of good Men to the Dust as of Moses Heb. 12.21 Isai 6.5 Job 42.6 Dan. 10.8 Job Isaiah c. in his interviews with them How much more of those that have never thought of God and now must come near his Seat Nothing so composes the Soul to this amazing change of Condition and Converse as long continued Treaties with God through Christ when though Men change their place they do not change their company Job 24.17 Job 38.15 Others when this great light strikes them are in the very terrors of the shadow of death and shaken out of their place out of all the Security and quiet Sensuality they lived in Let us now take the estimate or avail of these things to true Repentance and we shall find when the Soul lies thus uncovered to the things of Eternity it hath natural Reasons for all it may seem to do like return to God and so that all argue nothing of the true Grace of God but if a Man were again in his former State he would be the very same he was For first as one thing strikes upon another with a natural Effect Light upon the Eye Sound upon the Ear so Eternal Things upon the Immortal Spirit when there is nothing between to intercept the stroke Further 1 John 2.16 when the lust of the flesh the lust of the eye and the pride of life are as a Scene removed and a Play at an end and instead of them another World drawing near just as Men defeated in all their attempts for Riches and Honours and beaten off from them to a private Life call all these things Cheats not out of true Reason but because they cannot reach them on the other side they praise Retirement and a Cloyster not that they like it but because they must live so which begets some kind of Contentedness so to live Thus and no otherwise do many Dying Men call all this World Vanity and profess an high Esteem for all things pertaining to that to come Cause 3. There is yet a more pressing Account of the most notable motions that were ever found in any of their Repentances viz. The awakenings of Conscience usual at this time because of the Sense of a Judgment while common Experience tells Men It is appointed to all Men once to die Heb. 9.27 and sinking Nature gives notice This is the time Conscience lifts up to the next thing After that the Judgment Now no Man sees Judgment a Judgment Omniscient Omnipresent Eternal without great shakes of Soul especially that hath done nothing seriously to agree with the adversary in the way Luk. 12.18 Conscience then rising up with the Awe of a Tribunal upon it stirs up all the Powers to fly from the Wrath that is to come by desires of Pardon and Resolutions of Amendment The very hearing of Judgment made such a one as Foelix tremble Acts 24.25 When Judgment seems to us at the other end of Heaven all is quiet but when Death brings us to the very seat of it how loud may be the cries for Mercy The bewailing the former evils of Life Now Men pour out their Complaints for the want of God the misimprovement of former time Now they make large offers of a strict and severe Mortification and Devotion to Religion Now they would give the thousand Rams the ten thousand Rivers of Oyl their first born for their Trasgression the fruit of their Body for the sin of their Soul Mic. 6.6 7. And yet all but the Eye opened to see the flaming Sword of Justice that makes even a Balaam wish to die the death of the Righteous Num. 22.32 cap. 23.10 and to have a latter End Sober Just Religious The very Suspition of a Judgment inclines Men thus far universally almost that hardly any choose to die in a Rant in a Madness but had rather by virtue and Religion be consigned over to another World and have their Eyes closed by Mercy and Grace in Christ They would see the Salvation of God and so depart in Peace Object 1. But it may be objected Seeing these granted to rise from true Conviction and not to be Dissimulation or counterfeit Pretence Why may not they have the worth of true Repentance Answ 1. To answer this Let me consider pure Conviction and enlightned Apprehension and the Affections begotten of them are no Argument of true Goodness where the Light hath not a benign and free Operation upon the Judgment an Allurement upon the Will an Indearment upon the Affections to turn them to a full Delight and Satisfaction in God and Holiness and to a dislike and abhorrence of Sin For else the Devils who believe and tremble Jam. 2.19 must be thought Converts For who have clearer sight of things than they Balaam whose Eyes were opened and spoke so great things of God and his People must be concluded a good Man Esau and Judas who had so sad apprehensions of Sin Matth. 27.4 Heb. 12.7 Dan. 4.17 and 6.26 Luk. 6.20 Acts 24.25 and their loss by it must be affirmed to be Penitents Nebucadnezar's and Darius his acknowledgments of God must be taken for true Grace Herod his hearing John Baptist gladly Felix his trembling at Paul's Discourse may be thought Evidences of true Repentance Object 2. But Secondly it may be supposed because these very Convictions and Affections are not universal but we see multitudes go out of the World without them carrying little better than a decent and civil Respect to Religion that therefore there is something of God something Heroick in them that have them Answ 2. This indeed may be no other than the wise and good Government of God over the World whereby he takes care there should be Testimonies of himself and the Goodness of his ways that Atheism and Wickedness may not carry it as if all were their own as if there were an unexceptionable Concurrence on their side against God and Holiness For as he receives witness from the constant gracious and religious Lives of good Men so he constrains some of them that have lived contrary to him all their lives to give him glory at last for the good of others though without saving benefit to themselves Which he may justly do and without any injury to them Seeing all the Service every Creature can do to him is infinitely due he may make use of that which is his own so far as he pleases And because what the word God puts in their mouths Num. 23.5 Matth. 12.35 is not their own not arising out of the good treasure of their hearts as appears in Balaam therefore their everlasting Condition is not determined by it but
the misery of our own and taste but little of the sweetness of Reconciliation and Grace But when we drink largely out of these Fountains we derive the Streams upon others that have flowed upon our selves All these things were evidently much to the purpose if we look upon themselves Yet were there nothing more extraordinary in them we might doubt whether they were any more than the good Mood into which Principles of Conscience excited by the unhappiness his Condition might put him Let us then consider the Evidence that all this was truly Supernatural for I account it no Injury to so memorable a Repentance to suppose that as great and fair an out-side may have fail'd of Paradise into which he entred But 2. The acknowledgment he made of Christ gives testimony to him in two things 1. That it was made when Christ was under all the Infamy and Misery of a shameful and painful Death and nothing to make such a Greatness as he ascribed to him probable Among us that in general Language speak honourably of Christ Professions of him are cheap and prove nothing But if one bred in Turcism or Judaism should confess him it would argue much more yet not so much as in this Malefactor who saw him in so despicable a State Whereas now so great a part of the World acknowledging him Acts 1.9 hath carried him up to Heaven as it were in that Cloud wherein he ascended long ago and hid the reproach of his Cross in so high a Glory especially among us To confess him in his worst estate and before any thing of the Consequence was known was very great * Extrema fides sed non minima Aug. Serm. 122. de Temp. Christ was revealed to him Mat. 16.17 not by Flesh and Blood but by God himself Such an Heroickness is indeed necessary to assure a Death-Bed Repentance which had need be as great as it is late when Men do not live to see the ordinary fruits of it He that could see Christ and his Glory through so dark a Vail had his Eyes anointed with that Eye-Salve Christ speaks of †Ad rem credendam a sensibus remotissimam excitatus est Grot. We find the Apostles who had seen his Miracles heard his Divine Discourses made long Acknowledgments of him were fearfully shaken by this Assault of the power of Darkness upon him Rev. 3.18 even to a Despair that he was the Christ But while they were in a swoon of Faith Quando passus est omnes discipuli desperaverunt quod ipse esset Christus A latrone victi sunt Apostoli qui tunc credidit quando illi defecerunt Aug. in Psal 68. this Faith with Christ triumphed over Principalities and Powers even on the Cross We looking upon the things of Christianity in the common Profession of the Nation It is a hard thing for us to see them otherwise than that casts them as it would be for those that have known nothing but the Religion of Mahomet Paganism or the Jewish Synagogue to take up upon the sudden the Doctrin of Christianity against their own We believing not with our own Faith but Vulgar Opinion easily make a Confession of Christ yet oftentimes the Power and saving Effect of it is far from us as from those that are Strangers to him sometimes they that come from the East and from the West sit down in the Kingdom of God when the Children of the Kingdom are thrust out The Acknowledgment of Christ in those Times was a much fairer Evidence than it can be now yet without inward Grace was nothing then much less must it needs be to us who have it made ready to our hands by Education and common Consent in it we must therefore the more narrowly observe what Characters the Truth of Christ imprints upon our Hearts 2. This Acknowledgment was made without any manner of Inducement or Temptation to it Tanto namque pondere appensum est tantumque valuit apud eum qui novit haec appendere quod confessus est Dominum Crucifixum quantum si fuisset pro Domino Crucifixus Aug. De Anima ejus Origine from outward advantages it could possibly afford but rather an increase of Shame and Scorn was to be expected from it and that if it were possible he should suffer the second time for such a Confession and become of a Malefactor a Martyr Nay further there was no Dictate of Natural Conscience that could incline him to it for that runs not into the Confession of Christ nor is any way quieted concerning former Sins through such a Confession but eyes God only and Moral Righteousness Lastly no general Tradition prompted him to it the Jews at that time condemning him But in us all Applications to Christ are securing our selves in the common Barque and keep us from being censured as prophane and irreligious Persons For to die without any address to Christ is accounted very ungodly and sensless of a Future State but to deny him monstrous and desperate Further Christianity is incorporated with our natural Principles so that they never move or heave themselves in us but that also rises with them Now it is of great Importance in the tryal of Sincerity upon what Grounds and Motives we do what do and the more we can clear it from inferiour Springs the more certainly it is Grace descending from above and resting upon us Jam. 1.17 Every one therefore that would justifie a Death-Bed Repentance must exceed all common sorts of Repentance else he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Nâ—y he must do something that in the little space of time he hath to do it in must equal a Course of amendment of Life must be as great in him as this Repentance of the Thief And do but think if our Faith were to cut those waves his was to pass to row against such a Stream to remove such mountains among how many thousands there would be found a Faith to do it we should immediately be stopp'd or sunk and cast away and lost Yet such are they we are to pass through into Eternal Life though of different Circumstances from his But after all I will allow it possible there might be a secret flaw in this whole Penitent's Deportment we now insist upon and that it far'd with him as with some among us who after a wicked and debauched Life fly to the Sanctuary of the Romish Religion as Joab to the horns of the Altar 1 King 2.28 To Reconciliation wherewith Hopelesness of any good from that they have so long sinned against and natural Superstition hurry them So this Person hearing a great Fame of Christ and observing his pretence high might lay hold upon him in a desperate Case if peradventure any thing of good might follow on it It being very incidental to the Nature of Man to cast himself upon Religion when all else fails and upon one new to him when he hath offended
by and by it is offended and it was therefore truly no better at first than at last Mat. 7.26 The House that is not founded upon the Rock is as ill founded in the Calm as in the Storm only the Storm discovers what it was Morality it self requires a better rooting of virtuous Habits than that they should be set only in loose Ground thrown up by Extremity of Condition and not in the Soil it self That Repentance which will not bear the trial of time will much less sustain the Test of Eternity wherein every thing that stands must be solid and substantial Things that suffer the loss of themselves when they are tried by mans day will suddenly be consumed by the hotter Beams of God 1 Cor. 4.3 That hath need of good Founding that must undergo an Eternity and have all advantage of Concoction that must be laid up for ever which the short Moments of a Death-Bed without a miraculous Assistance will not allow The Fruit of it generally like that Hasty-ripe perishes while it is in the Hand Isai 28.4 This Repentance gives up the Ghost as soon as it is born Now as for that place in Ezekiel so much vexed with Controversie I do not think it convenient for me to intangle a Discourse intended wholly for practice with the Perplexities of it Only I am concerned to shew that it doth not afford the favour supposed to this kind of Repentance For first We must not mistake the day it speaks of as if it signified so strait a compass of Time as a Day but that Season wherein either the righteous Man wasts and destroys his Righteousness or a Sinner over comes his Vitious Customs and Inclinations neither of which are usually done on the sudden Secondly The turning from Wickedness intended is certainly a sincere and impartial one and not such as we have rendred this Dying Repentance suspicious to be Thirdly It must be justified by a walking in the Statutes and Judgments of God and doing that is right that is by a continued Reformation which will least agree to this Repentance and therefore this place of Scripture will not protect this Supposition but rather damns it Having now in the foregoing Discourse in a practical and perswasive way endeavoured to engage Men to a timely Repentance by setting out the hazard of a late one I have thought it necessary to make the state of the whole Doctrin as exact as I can by considering whatever might with fair appearance of Scripture-Reason call into question and scruple what I have grounded my Perswasions upon I will therefore as a Supplement to all I have said First recollect what I have intended all along And then cast all I can possibly suppose against it into Objections and Answers that by closer atention to the Case it self every one that will be at the cost to consider it may be convinced to the main End viz. A present Religious Life 1. First then I make it not the question Whether a true Repentance how late soever be a Repentance to Salvation 2. Nor Secondly Whether God hath reserved it to the Prerogative of his Grace to give a true Repentance at last 3. Nor Thirdly Whether a Repentance that is true and sincere though but in the Seeds being surprized with a Death-Bed may not then break out and shew it self more fully 4. Nor Lastly Whether a Man that hath the light of the Gospel brought to him but just before his Dying Condition may not expect the Grace of God working with it then even as in the freer times of Life All these I do with great Confidence acknowledge The Substance of what I have said against a Death-Bed Repentance will be comprised in these following Assertions which I restrain wholly to Men that have lived under the Light and Exhortations and Applications of the Word of God with all usual Freedom and yet have not begun sincerely to Repent till they come to die The First is That a Death-Bed Repentance how fair soever it may appear hath yet the greatest Doubt imaginable upon it whether it be true The Second There is greatest Reason of Fear God will not give his Grace to such a Dying Man to Repent The Third That a Repentance at Death is not that general Repentance the Scripture Discourses of makes promises of Pardon upon offers the Assistances of the Spirit to enjoins the Duty of with so many pressing commands For that Repentance immediately to be begun is supposed to govern a following Life It must therefore be an extraordinary and miraculous Repentance if true Lastly That it is therefore against all rules of Piety and Prudence by mispending Life to cast our selves upon the necessity of Repentance at Death This I say is the Substance of what I have designed all along and which I would now further clear and vindicate from these following Objections Objection 1. Doth not the Parable of calling some Labourers into the Vineyard at the Eleventh Hour imply That God doth in ordinary Convert some at the last Hour as well as sooner Mat. 20. v. 1. c. Answer The main scope of Parables is only argumentative and so far as the scope of that Parable relates to this Case It is no more than what I acknowledge That God gives Eternal Life to true Repentance if true at last even as to the first and earliest Repentance The reward being to all of Grace and not of Debt It is also to be considered there remained an Hour of working representing rather old Age than a Death-Bed if the colours of a Parable prove any thing and so are rather against this Repentance than for it In the Second Objection I suppose Men taking Sanctuary at infinite Mercy and Power in this manner Although no thought of Man can reach the Mercy that accepts or gives Repentance at the last yet Mercy being as much above our Thoughts as the Heaven above the Earth what can we define concerning it And though there are so many Circumstances of Impossibility according to our measure of things Yet the things that are impossible with Men with God are possible for with God all things are possible How can we then determine in this Case Can we by searching find out the Almighty in his Mercy and Power Can we find him out to perfection It is high as Heaven what can we do It is deeper than Hell what can we know The measure thereof is longer than the Earth and broader than the Sea Answer Now because in this Objection the sinews of all Hope and Expectation from this late Repentance meet I will endeavour to give the most punctual Answer to it And though I know after all that is or can be said Men will not quit it Yet I shall rest upon this Answer as my last Resolution of this Case and by it raise the disswasions from a trust in such a Repentance to the height the greatness of the hazard appearing most fully from it In general
and as Birds in a Snare when it falls suddenly upon them having not known their time Let us most humbly commit our selves to Him by earnest seeking his Grace in the Redeemer in whom all his Grace is Treasur'd up Thus by the Efficacy of his Spirit we shall know in our day the things of our Peace that they may not be for ever hid from our Eyes we shall seek the Lord while he is to be found and call upon him while he is near And so shall be secured from having the Door shut upon us Infer 4. This may be to us a close and determinative Test in this point of Death-Bed Repentance If our Repentance be such and so real that it is not a Lamp of Profession only but Oyl in the Vessel that will bear up the going forth to meet the Bride-Groom and that we are ready and have not our Oyl to Buy but can enter with Him into the Wedding before the Door be shut This how late soever it may seem is Repentance to Salvation and not to be Repented of and shall be with Christ in Paradise Such a Repentance when the Spirit goes out of the Body will be before-hand entred into that within the Veil whether the Fore-runner being for us entred Ministers in the Holy of Holies not made with Hands in that Sanctuary which the Lord hath pitched and not Man in that more perfect Tabernacle that is to say not of this Building a High-Priest for ever after the Order of Melchisedec a Saviour to the utmost or to All Perfection He fills up with the valew of his own Sacrifice and Intercession and by the Power of his Endless Life whatever is wanting in the Repentance He hath given either in regard of its Valew as being so Late and in the Refuse of Life or of the deep Rooting and Habituation or of the abundant Fruits and having Apprehended the Spirit He enables it in a Moment in the twinkling of an Eye every way enables it to Apprehend that state of Holiness which agrees to the Resurrection of the Dead first in the Life of Spirits with Himself then in the Raising the Body Incorruptible For this appertains to his Melchisedecian Priest-hood wherein He is now and wherein He is King of Righteousness King of Peace a Priest set down on the Right Hand of the Majesty on High If therefore the Repentance be such as He as this Great Prince hath given There is in it a Coming to God by Him and then his Salvation is to all Perfection to it For as going into the Heavens in his Spirit He took in his Passage this Prey the Dying Malefactor out of the Mouth of the Lyon So as He pleases out of the same Power the power of the Dog He rescues those Souls that he hath made dear to Himself for He living ever quickens whom He will and He can by his Spirit seal this his Grace in a Moment For this Great High Priest-Hood being the Eternal Priest-Hood of Christ whatever is said of Him as a High-Priest must be said of Him as this High-Priest which He is alway or without least Intermission And as such an High-Priest therefore it is that He succours the Tempted being in All things Tempted as we are yet without Sin now even as his Great Temptation was at Death yet without the Sin of having deferred his strong Cries and Supplications to Death though then He was most Earnest He can therefore Succour and be infinitely Compassionate even to those who are Tempted though with and in this Sin of having delay'd Repentance to the last They therefore whom He graciously moves to it may come even then boldly to the Throne of Grace and obtain Mercy and find Grace even in this just Season and as it were indivisible Point of Time These Things I write that we may not Sin this Great Sin of Delaying our Repentance to the last But if any Man do so Sin we have this Great High-Priest over the House of God an Advocate and a Propitiation and if such a one be under his Charge and given to Him by God He is a Faithful and a Merciful High-Priest He is therefore Faithful because Merciful to make Reconciliation and to Succour in so great a Temptation as even This is This He can do because He is a Fore runner within the Veil and by his Blood appears as he that hath obtained Eternal Redemption a Redemption always ready This is the great Security and Cordial against the Fear of Death in general to the Saints and Servants of Christ and if by its Hyper-Pleonasm its exceeding Abundance and Affluence it may and does over-flow to some upon whom the Grace of Christ Abounds much more where Sin hath so much Abounded How great is this Miracle of Grace But who How few are they who shall thus Live whom God and Christ will please to make thus to Live When it is come to this for if they are Few that are Saved how much Fewer are the Saved at this last Point Strive then to enter betimes at the strait Gate for many shall then seek at last of any Time to enter in and shall not be Able There is too much of especially the Death-Bed Repentance at is Repentance of the Lamp only that makes a shew only that is but only of this World and from beneath which is able for once to give or yield a fair and lightsome Flash at parting with the World But because without a Treasure to Enter into an Eternal Duration That which is but a Lamp fails in the very time of Tryal and becomes a Lamp put out in obscure Darkness Let your Lamps be always Shining and your Lights Burning such as are Able to be always so and so to Shine even into Eternity Infer 5. From what hath been spoken concerning the Great Mourning and Repentance that shall be before the End of this state of the World even before the pouring out of the Vials in that Miraculous state of Things that shall be after the Apostacy ended and the Kingdom of Christ in Succession I conclude there shall be a Death-Bed Repentance of the World if I may so call it but after that viz. in the time of the Vials we read of no Repenting but a Repenting not no more than in the state of Everlasting Punishment in our general Apprehension of that State even as He that is Righteous shall be Righteous still that is for ever Righteous and in no possibility of for ever Falling from it any more than from the Glory and Happiness of Eternity in our General Notion of that State And this strongly Argues to us the Possibilities of a Death-Bed Repentance seeing all the Prejudices that lie upon and against a Death-Bed-Repentance now lie against that late Repentance of the World but yet it limits and guards against the Ordinariness and Easiness of a Death-Bed Repentance in General in as much as this late Repentance is in a miraculous state of things viz.