us from Adams sin and â— from God and the Holiness of his firâ— estate Crucifying the flesh we read of and Crâ—cified to the World an Allusion to Christs death upon the Cross a painfull and tormenting death and so is Death commonly attended with pain the pains of Death at the last hour and the preceding hours and sometimes days which makes Nature look upon Death with a great deal of horrour and reluctancy And thus corrupt Nature looks upon mortifying the fleshly lusts as a sore evil it puts the flesh to a great deal of pain and misery it afflicts the Body in denying it satisfaction crossing it in its sinful desires its evil lustings and therefore it is compared in Scripture to the plucking out a right Eye to the cutting off a right Hand or a right Foot and casting it from one so difficult is it for a man to deny himself herein in the Mortification of his darling Lust This to mortifie your members c. saith one of the Fathers is the hardest Text in the whole Bible and the hardest Duty in Christianity that we can go about Mortification of sin is the giving a deadly wound to sin to the reigning and commanding power of sin which is the Life of sin subduing the Corruption and wickedness of our Natures the evil Inclinations and dispositions of man in his saln sinful state so that the heart is cleansed and purged from the love of sin sin disabled from lording it and having the dominion over us every unruly Lust overmastered and brought under This is Mortification or the giving a deadly wound to sin even as a man is said to be a dead man when he is mortally wounded or when he is inwardly decayed as to his vital parts or the breaking some principal Vein in the Body albeit in some such cases they have some remainder of life and that may continue sometimes years after or as when the main Body of an Army is routed and beaten out of field or dead upon the place though there may be some striving and strugling or faint resistance from the remainder yet it doth not hinder them from the Victory Even so it is here when the main Body of sin is subdued and beaten out of the Heart of a Christian though there be some Reliquiae or remainders of corruption yet sin is mortified for this mortifying work iâ— not perfect here it doth not root out sin and dispossess it wholly that we should have no sin at all left in us or sin no more and be pure from sin after Mortification For the most righteous man upon the â—acâ— of the Earth hath the seed of sin the rooâ— of evil in him Flesh as well as Spirit aâ— Heart deceitfull and desperately wicked considered naturally in and of it self as well as a new heart and a new spirit formed in Christ Jesus And therefore the unregenerate part hath need to be still mortified lest otherwise it break out into those evils and abominations which we read of in Lot's Drunkenness and Incest Jacob's deceitful dealing with Laban Davia's Murther and Adultery Solomon's Idolatry and Carnality Jonah's great Impatience and Murmuring against God and self-justifying in his so doing Peter's denyal of his Master with Cursing and Swearing too St. Mark 14. 71. Which are sad evidences of the frailty of our Nature and the abiding of sin alter sanctification as Rom. 7. largely proves our indwelling sin to be soliciting and tempting and stirring to evil and we have need of continued Influences of the Spirit to carry on this work of Mortification continually it is not to be only for a time by fits and starts but when we have masterâ—d sin and conquered its temptation at present it will renew its strength and return upon you again like that Monster Hydra's â—ead it will repullulate and find you work or repeating your assaults and reiterating â—our mortifying blows like a conquered Nation which will be labouring still to recover its former power and soveraignty and must be continually kept under with standing Garrisons so sin will be restless and striving still for the mastery taking all occasions to soil us if we do not hold up a constant work killing sin when it is reviving nipping it when in the bud least it sprouâ— and grow up again and bring forth its corrupt fruit But more of this in the Use for Trial of our Mortification Having shown what Mortification is we come next to shew what is meant by Members Piscator says of the Apostle Cupidi tates vocat membra and Mr. Leigh in hiâ— Annotations much the same Lusts some oâ— which he nameth afterwards Dr. Hammond understands it of our inordinate Affections Dr. Preston says by Members iâ— meant Sin or any foul Affection or desirâ— of the Heart when our Affections fix oâ— settle upon an unlawful Object as anotheâ— Man's Possessions another Man's Wife oâ— any acts of Uncleanness as those out of married estate are all unclean any Heathenish or Popish Antichristian Honour and Preferments Or when the Heart is set upon lawfâ— things in an undue measure an immoderatâ— distrustful care of his worldly concernâ— which otherwise were lawful and must bâ— cared for with Faith and Sobriety A Man may take some kind of Pleasure and use some sports Hunting Fishing Hawking Bowling for his Recreation while he hath the command over his Affections but if he be captivated and his heart brought under the power of any as 1 Cor. 6. 12. to love the World to love his lawful Comforts or his Child excessively if his love to any Creature eclipse his Love to God and draw away his Heart from Religion and deaden his joys and delights in God and Duty or be so predominant that a man cannot resign up that Creature that Comfort to God to bear the loss of it it becomes sin and defiles the Man Our Lusts and corrupt Affections are called Members because 1. The whole Corruption of Man's Nature is compared to a Mans Body and called the body of Sin Rom. 6. 6. and the body of Death the latter not only because it was so grievous to the Apostle as that lamentable Exclamation noteth O wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death Rom. 7. 24. that it was as death is to a natural Man or worse than death to him but a body of death in that sense as we are dead in trespasses and sins being the cursed fruit and effect of spiritual death the remainder of that death and called a body because of its quantity there being a mass an heap of Corruption even in the Saints though it be overpowred by God's Grace and hindered from breaking forth in their Lives in that measure as it doth in the Unregenerate Now every soul Affection is as a Member of this Body every unmortified Lust a limb in this old man of sin 2. Lusts are called Members because they do work in our Members Iam. 4. 1. Whence come wars
should hide it from Man at the time of acting this Sin yet shall not God see it I have read of a Woman who being very importunate with one of the Fathers Paphnutius to corrupt him he at last yielded to her provided she could contrive it so as to be sure none should see them and when she had led him up into the most secret Chamber she thought she had done the condition But saith he are you sure that there is no one present or to that effect doth noâ— God see us If we sin will it not be in his presence And upon the sense of being under Gods sight and presence urged home by him she was so effectually convinced that she fetched a deep Groan her eyes run down with tears she fell down upon her Knees detesting her wicked Life and â—â—ntinued for her life-time praying Thou that madest me have mercy upon me Consider thou that art afraid to commit Adultery in the Market-place or in the presence of thy Husband how art thou not afraid to sin in the presence of that God who is of purer eyes than to behold Iniquity If men see thee thou wouldest be ashamed but God sees thee and his Eye is upon thee who beholdeth ungodliness and wrong to requite it and recompense the sinner according to his ways He seeth in secret into the secrets of thy heart and intentions of Adultery and into thy secret Chambers Psal 139. sets forth Gods all-seeing eye and Omnipresence And you know God hath appointed a day in which he will Judge the World and as Eccles 12. 14. God shall bring every work into Judgment with every secret thing Matth. 4. 22. There is nothing hid which shall not be manifested neither any thing kept secret but that it shall come abroad Again lastly Some are emboldned to sin with the hopes of Repentance they say it is but repenting and all is well and though now their youthful blood runs hot in their Veins yet when the heat of youth is over or when they are out of their Time saith this or that Apprentice and when they light of a good Match they will Marry and live honestly I Answer I could heartily wish that you would repent at any time but I must tell you you are not sure of repenting at all unless you do it now There are thousands in Hell who meant to repent before they dyed but they presumed that they were yet young enough and might have time to repent hereafter and so sinned on untill they were either hardened in their sin and had no will to repent or put it off so long until Death came upon them in their unpardoned and unrepented sins and dying in their sins they perished everlastingly And tell me would it not be sad to put off Repentance so long Secondly Thy resolving to Repent so many years hence is but a purposing to sin in the mean while and that must be a sin of knowledge against checks of Conscience telling thee that thou oughtest to repent at present and sinning deliberately too considering thy danger and the hazard thou runnest in not repenting at present and a sinning wilfully too thou wilt have thy sin at present whatever comes of it and all these amount to a great measure of guilt Thirdly This sin leaves little place for Repentance First Acts of Whoredom and Adultery do not use to go singly but to multiply in their kind When hath it been known that such Persons have stopt at the first act and sinned no more especially if they have opportunity for more And you know that this sin it self is great and deadly as St. James 3. 8. useth that word and our Church From Fornication and all other deadly sin good Lord deliver us If one single act of Fornication be such an hainous sin much more will repeated acts of the same sin harden men in sin past all recovery Besides the pleasure of this Sin is of such a bâ—witching nature that the first sin leads on to a second the second to a third falling further and further still as through the pleasure for stolen waters are sweet so partly through the love the parties bear to each other so that if they come into one anothers compaâ—y their Affections discover themselves and they would fain have opportunity to sin again Nay this Sin begets such a love in the Adulterous Persons that an Husband or a Wife must be left if not as sometimes it falls out murthered that they may be the more free and undisturbed in the enjoyment of each other Upon which accounts and because this Sin exceedingly grievâ—â— the Pure and Holy Spirit of God that proves true by common experience which we find in Prov. 2. 18 19. of the strange Woman which forsaketh the Guide of her youth and forgetteth the Covenant of her God for her house inclineth unto death and her paths unto the dead yea and to the damned None that go unto her return again neither take they hold of the paths of life Scarce any that go to her return or repent unto Life and Salvation as those words import Think of this place of Scripture when you are tempted by a lewd Woman think of it seriously and repeat it inwardly in your minds and if there be opportunity speak it openly in â—he hearing of others and you will find the thoughts of Repentance afterwards and the temptation to sin upon that account vanish Lastly Few can follow this Sin but â—hat they will be tainted with such a Diâ—temper as will engage and oblige them to â—in on and give it to others that so as â—he common speech goes they may find â—ome case and cure to thâ—mselves such as sin upon that account should remember that they may come off with the worst and encrease their distemper by sinning with some this hath been found true though such a 〈◊〉 deeply infected if they neglect a timely cure will be put under a necessity of ruining Soul or Body of ruining the Body if they forbear sinning and that ruine to the Body by such a loathsome distemper as makes them dread the thoughts of it and rather to persist in the Sin and compleat the ruine and damnation of the Soul which they looked upon in a manner as ruined or half ruined before And indeed by sinning to Fornication or Adultery the Soul is fair for ruine yet with Clemens Alexandrinus whose error mentioned in Mr. Sympsons History of the Church Possibly God may grant to them that have sinned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but if we sin oftner than once or twice there is no more renewing by Repentance or pardon for sin but a fearful expectation of Judgment Though Gods Mercy which is Infinite and can abundantly pardon must not be limited as if he could not nor would not pardon those that have repeated and multiplyed their acts of sin if they repent and because Gods Grace is freely given as an Infinite Being must needs be free in his Operations
need not mention that Heathen Prince as punished Adultery with the putting out both the eyes of the Offenders and his Son being caught in the Crime he put out one of his own eyes and one of his Sons eyes to satisfie the Law To mention but one instance more of this kind because of Civil and not Ecclesiastical Relation The Emperour Aurelian having found one of his Souldiers to have committed Adultery with his Hostess in his Exercise of Military Discipline he commanded that having bowed down the Heads of two Trees growing nigh together the Souldiers legs should be tyed thereto which being suddenly let go he was torn in two parts the one hanging by the one Tree the other by the other Some of the Brutish Creatures may teach us Discipline and Storks a sort of chast Birds which are accustomed to beat those Storks out of their Number that having a Mate joyn themselves unto another And shall not we Christians separate them from our Communion who defile other Mens Wives And some keeping company with them openly and leaving their own Wives and Husbands for the Adulterous Lover Others keeping their Whores under their Wives Nose Is there no remedy from the Civil nor Ecclesiastick Censures against this lewdness Or is there a lukewarmness and indifferency among the Neighbourhood as unconcerned and not offended at their vile practices Is there no Scandal in these things Are they not a â—oul Spot and Reproach to that Church which suffers them within its Communion Is there any Quaker Anabaptist and Independent who doth not make the Lewdness and Debauchery of some Conformists the chief reason and ground of his Separation Why are our Censurers saith Bishop Tailor Epistle before Lib. of Proph. in Collect. of Disc Polem and Moral so zealous against those we call Schismaticks and Heretick and yet great Friends with Drunkards Fornicators c. Let it be remembered that the Apostle speaks as freely against Communion with Fornicatours and all disorders practical as against Communion with Hereticks in 1 Cor. 5. 11. I am as certain that a Drunkard or Fornicator is as contrary to God and lives as contrary to the Laws of Christianity as an Heretick and I am sure I know what these are but I am not sure such a Perswasion is Heresie or Schism c. and therefore the former are fit Objects for a pious Zeal to contest against It were to be wished also that Parents and Family Governours would do their parts and suffer it not in their Children or Servants to do so wickedly Though they cannot purifie and sanctifie or work Grace in the hearts of those committed to their care yet they may check the first Motions to such evil courses and by their Authority rebuke them sharply and restrain them from such lewd Places and Persons Books Ballads Plays Songs and the like as have any natural tendency to corrupt them and those that are hardned in such Practices and incorrigible they may send them going if Servants and get better in their rooms and if Children not to satisfie themselves in such a faint Reproof as Eli gave his Sons 1 Sam. 2. 22 23 24. Eli being very old heard what his Sons did unto all Israel and how they lay with the women that Assembled at the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation and he said unto them Why do ye such things for I hear of your evil doings by all this People Nay my Sons for it is no good report that I hear ye make the Lords People to transgress In the Third Chap. and the 13 vers I have told him saith the Lord that I will judge his that is Eli's house for the Iniquity which he knoweth because his Sons made themselves vile and he restrained them not Therefore the Lord expects that Parents should use their Authority and restrain their Children from filthy Speeches c. when young by Correction afterwards by Rebuke and a Sense of their Displeasure at their evil ways and all other good Means which can be used And that every good Christian should shew his Zeal against this wickedness frequently and powerfully reproving it to discountenance the sin that it may be ashamed and confounded and carry it no longer in Vogue and Al-a-mode And to this end O that all manner of Christians would bewail the present guilt of the Nation in a self-abasing self-condemning Humiliation as the Lord calls for in Jer. 3. 13. Onely acknowledge thine iniquity that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God and hast scatiered thy ways to the Strangers c. In Building men use to lay the Foundation low that so the Work may stand firm and sure and so must we lay our selves low before that Majesty which is of purer Eyes than to behold Iniquity that our Reformation-work may hold it when a sound Humiliation lays the foundation for it that we remembring our way and our doings which have not been good and loathing our sinfull and polluted selves for all our abominations our sins of this king may not be had in remembrance against us as the sins of Manasseh and the Jews were in the days of Josiah 2 King 23. 26 27. even to a decreee to remove Judah into Captivity Though we enjoy as it were another Josiah in our days yet how deep in guilt the preceding Princes were you cannot be ignorant And the Judgments of God declaring against this sin you may discern Amos 4. 11. I have overthrown some of you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrha While our sin was as Sodom and we burned in our Lusts towards one another no wonder if our Punishment was as Sodom upon the great City of the Nation Was not that place Isa 1. 10. Hear the Word of the Lord ye Rulers of Sodom and ye people of Gomorrha applicable unto us when our Lusts had so prodigiously encreased beyond what was ever known before And last of all O that the few living Names as in the Church of Sardis Rev. 3. 4. which have not defiled their Garments or as Rev. 14. 4. which are not defiled with Women and those from whom the Lord hath taken away their filthy Garments as is said of Joshua the High-Priest Zech. 3 4. would inter cede for a sinful and polluted Nation as in Ezek. 36. 25. the Promise runs I will sprinkle you with clean wnter and ye shall be clean from all your filthiness will I cleanse you v. 29. I will also save you from all your uncleanness v. 31. Then shall ye remember your own evil ways c. and shall loath your selves c. For his Names sake that he would do it as in the 22. v. I do not this for your sakes O house of Israel but for mine Holy Names sake and for his dear Sons sake Tit. 2. 14. who gave himself for us to redeem us from this and all other iniquity and purifie us unto himself as a peculiar People zealous of good works A Prayer O Most Holy Lord God the Heavens are not clean in thy fight and the purest Seraphims veil their Faces before the transcendent Purity and Splendor of thy Glory how much more may I sinful Creature polluted and unclean be ashamed and blush to lift up my eyes unto thee who canst not behold evil nor look upon Iniquity nor suffer any but the Pure in Heart in thy Sight and Presence Not only my Nature is exceeding vile and corrupt and prone to evil but I have offended the pure Eyes of thy Majesty by the naughtiness of my Heart in a multitude of filthy Imaginations and evil lustings and as Guilty or not Guilty put in or leave out the following words corrupâ— communication actual pollutions and uncleanness multiplied Whoredoms and Adulteries and it is in my Nature yet to sin against thee and to work all Uncleanness with greediness adding sin unto sin until I have filled up the measure of mine Iniquity in an utter hardness and impenitency of Heart But as there is in me a Fountain of Iniquity sending forth evil Thoughts Fornication and Adulteries if thy Grace be not ever present to restrain and prevent it So thou hast opened a Fountain for Sin and Uncleanness the Blood of Jesus Christ which cleanseth from all unrighteousness Look upon me in him with distinguishing mercies wash me thoroughly from my wickedness and cleanse me from my Sin Make me clean O God purging out every corruption It is thy work to sanctifie and purifie the Heart and to rescue it from the World the Flesh and the Devil to thy Self and thy Service By the mighty Power of thy Grace enable me to do Violence to my corrupt Nature to crucifie the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts thereof to reject it's motions resist its temptations and remembring my ways and my doings which have not been good to loath my self for all mine Iniquities and Abominations And Lord grant that I may never betray my Soul to sin by Gluttonny or Drunkenness Ease and Idleness spiritual Pride or any lewd Company but that I may ever escape the Pollutions which are in the World through Lust and Soul and Body be preserved chast and pure to be undefiled Members of Christs Body and Temples fit for the Holy Spirit to dwell in And finally by thy Mercy that may attain that Inheritance which is incorruptible undefiled reserved in Heaven for me through the Merits and Mediation of thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ Amen FINIS
your selves from the sins of Sodom according to those words Ye Rulers of Sodom Ye people of Gomorrha and verse 21 How is the faithful City become an Harlot may be compared with that before be literally understood and argue their guilt even in this kind Further the 2 Tim. â— 22. Flee also youthful Lusts but follow Righteousness Faith Charity Peace with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart the words import as if none did follow after Righteousness but such as call on the Lord out of a pure heart others are not mentioned in the number nor their Services of any account not accepted as the works of Righteousness If I regard Iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear my prayers saith David David was an Holy man God himself gave him that Testimony yet while his Lusts remained unmortified after his Adultery with Bathsheba and like enough some time before it his Prayers were not heard it is plain enough by that instance of his Murther of Vriah adding Sin unto Sin If his Prayers had been heard as no doubt but he did pray in the Interim between the Adultery committed and the Prophet Nathans reproof of him by the Parable God would never have left him to fall further not into so crying a Sin as the Murther of the Husband This seems too to have been the case of Solomon while his lusts remained unmortified as during his many Wives all his religious performances availed little or nothing as 1 Kings 11. where you find him drawn away by his Women to Idolatry in the 4th verse it is said his Wives turned away his heart after other Gods building high places for their Idols Even thus it is with Good men while their lusts remain unmortified their Services remain unaccepted In Malachi 2. 13. ye read of those that covered the Altar of the Lord with tears with weeping and with crying out but the Lord regarded not their offering nor received it with good will at their hands yet they said Wherefore Answered because they dealt treacherously with the Wife of your youth vers 1â— explaineth it the Lord saith that he hateth putting away This I urge in no wise as anâ— argument against prayer and other duties as if people should cease to pray and leave serving God because of the naughtiness of their hearts for that were running farther and farther from God and that grace which should reform and better them But only for this end that people should pray more and even turn the chief force of their prayers against their Lusts and labour more to bring their Lusts in subjection that so nothing remain to hinder their prayers from being heard or to defile and pollute their Services Third Argument for Mortification Unmortified lusts argue a man to be dead in Grace such as remain unsubdued when constant and permanent and not only temporary as in good men Titus 3. 3. For we our selves also were sometime foolish disobedient serving divers Lusts and pleasures sometime that is in their unregenerate Estate 1 Tim. 5. 6. She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth even as those 2 Tim. 3. 4. Who were lovers of pleasures more than lovers of â—od And those Eph. 2. 1 2 3. before they were quickned or received the spirit of Life from God were â—ead in trespasses and sins dead as to the â—piritual Life the life of Gaace which â—â— the most sad and deplorable kind of death they are said to have had theâ— Conversation in the lusts of their Flesh fulfilling the desires of the Flesh and of the mind and were by nature or their corruption of nature since sin and the fall children of wrath even as others all others are while they walk in the lusts of the flesh Rom. 8. 13. If ye live after the flesh ye shall dye stand Condemned by the word of God and adjudged to eternal death But if ye through the spirit do mortisie the deeds of the body ye shall live When any of Pythagoras his Scholars had degenerated in their Morals from the sober modest and vertuous precepts of their Master and let themselves loose to all kind of Vice and brutish sensuality there was set a Bier as for dead mens Corps in his Room to signifie that the man was dead though the Beast was alive Among those that were invited to the Gospel Feast Luke 14. 20. you find one made his excuse he had Married a Wife and could not come not come and serve God in his Ordinances or at least not heartily his heart was after his Lusts Not to be so taken as if a Married State were inconsistent with Religion or that they did ill in Marrying which is an Ordinance of God but the laying Religion aside then as if it were not a time for Religion and indulging their Lusts and giving themselves up to their Marriage pleasure without any regard to God for to serve him which must be our main business in every estate of Life Fourth Argument for Mortification of our Lusts Because we vowed to God and Covenanted in our Baptism to renounce the sinful lusts of the Flesh The Devil the World and the Flesh are the enemies of our Salvation mentioned in our Church Catechism and in holy Scripture as Eph. 2. 2 3. St. James ch 1. 4. Lusts are said to War in our Members and in 1 Epist of Peter c. 2. 11. Abstain from fleshly Lusts which War against the Soul and the Soul must War against them for ever renouncing all the sinful lusts of the Flesh that is disowning rejecting them their motions and temptations with an hatred and abhorrence of them in our hearts or at least such a dislike of them as may prevail against them Now if Covenants made in worldly matters as Bonds and Leases bind their Heirs and Successours even the Children yet unborn so in Spirituals when Parents Covenant for their Children in Baptism desiring it for their Children and procuring others as Sureties to be bound with them for the greater assurance of the Childrens Religious Education and performance of the Covenant Duties and Conditions no doubt but it binds them as much in Spirituals to stand to and perform the Religious as well as the Civil Contracts and Covenants And he is Perjur'd who breaks this solemn Vow and Covenant that lives at peace and at friendship with the World or the Flesh loving his Lusts without that hatred and enmity which he is bound to by Baptism to strive and struggle with them for the Mastery to Watch and Pray and use all good and holy means for their Mortification and so long as ye hold out this good fight of Faith resisting this Spiritual Enemy and praying against your Lusts so long you keep your ground and quit your selves like men and are Conquerours if you are not Conquered though you may not have that full Victory that triumphant satisfaction in your Spirit and that inward peace which some others have But if once they
therefore such Sinners are not utterly to be excluded all hope of Repentance yet being under such miserable circumstances of ruining Soul or Body whatever hope there might be of their Repentance otherwise this is like to hold them fast in their sins until they have sinned away their day of Grace and are forsaken utterly Thirdly If ever you should repent which I must acknowledge a possibility yet you had better never sin than repent after sinning For besides the defilement of the Soul and Guilt thereby you will pay dear for sinning if ever you repent you will smart for it even in this World if you sin be sure your sin will find you out And surely if you have but any true love to your selves that principle of self-love should avail somewhat for prevention of â—hese sins and you would resolve the same as Demosthenes did with respect to the Harâ—ot of Corinth that famous or infamous Lais who required so great a price for â—he use of her Body that several Gentlemen refused to company with her and â—he Orator Demosthenes said He would not â—uy repentance at so dear a rate Let David â—e an example to you in that kind 2 Sam. 12. 11. Thus saith the Lord Behold I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house and I will take thy Wives before thine eyes and give them to thy Neighbour and he shall lie with thy Wives in the sight of the Sun and this punishment for his Adultery with Bathsheba the wife of Vriah And â—oth Vers Now therefore the Sword shall never depart from thine house because thou hast slain Vriah the Hitâ—ite with the Sword But you know that was but to cover his Adultery with the Wife or that he might take her to Wife so that Adultery was the Mother Sin and Murther the Daughter of that and consequently all the punishment of them both must be charged on his Adultery Read but the 38th Psalm 2. 3 4 5. and so on Thine Arrows have stuck fast in me thine hand presseth me sore There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin I go mourning all the day long I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart my heart panteth my strength faileth me Psal 102. 3. My days are consumed like smoak and my bones are burnt as an hearth My heart is smitten and withered like Grass by reason of the voice of my groaning my bones cleave to my skin I am like a Pelican of the Wilderness like an Owl of the desert I have eaten ashes like bread and mingled my drink with weeping because of thine indignation and thy wrath c. Now you see how dear this sin cost David so that you have little encouragement to sin from David's Repentance after sin if you consider all his sorrow in his Repentance But because I would not hinder but help forward so good a Work as Repentance is besides what hath been said already consider further That there are some Examples of Penitents in this kind of Repentance in 2 Pet. 2. 7 8. For Lot's Incest Gen. 19. 31. Father Abraham who had promised to him that his seed should be as the Stars of Heaven for number and multitude Gen. 15. 5. and in Gen. 12. 3. That in him when he was married at that time to Sarah as v. 5. should all the Families of â—he Earth be blessed yet he goeth in unto Hagar his Handmaid because that God deferred the fulfilling of his Promise and â—e had then no issue by Sarah yet it is certain that he repented and so we â—hink of Jacob with his two Wives and â—heir Handmaids that he offended herein David and Solomon especially by his many Wives and Concubines that drew away his â—eart after their Idols yet these repented in general to be sure of these sins anâ— we have reason to think that God sheweâ— them somewhat of sin in these things anâ— brought them to a particular Repentance To be sure the Lord did not hold theâ— sinless guiltless in so doing for in Maâ—lachi a Prophet of the Old Testament ch 2. 14. especially 15. vers The Lord hatâ— been witness between thee and the Wife of thâ— Youth against whom thou hast dealt treacherously And did he not make one whereforâ— one that he might seek a godly seed Therefore take heed to your Spirit and let none deal treacherously against the Wife oâ— his Youth Again In the New Testament we find some encouragement to repent when it is said of Publicans and Harlots that they enter into the Kingdom of Heaven which I am sure they can never do without Repentance before you that is the self righteous self justifying Pharisees they would sooner repent I have read in Mr. Mead's Almost a Christian about Gifts Anno 1523. That Speiserus a famous Minister in Germany preached fo powerfully that many Harlots were Converted by his Ministry but he himself fell off in time of tryal to the Papists Mary Magdalen is supposed to have been such an one out of whom it is said Christ cast out seven Deâ—ls Luke 8. 2. And after the Exhortation to Mortificaâ—on of Uncleanness in the 7th ver of this Coloss In the which ye walked sometime when lived in them though they were become â—enitents yet time was that they lived â— the Flesh And we have an Example â—f the Incestuous Corinthian 1 Cor. 5. 1. â—ecome a Penitent in the 2 Cor. 2. 6 7 8. â— Forgive him and Comfort him and conâ—m their Love towards him 1 Cor. 6. 9. â—either Fornicatours nor Idolaters nor Aâ—ulterers nor effeminate nor Abusers of â—emselves with Mankind shall Inherit â—e Kingdom of God Continuing such means But in the 11th ver And such â—ere some of you but ye are Washed â—ut ye are Sanctifyed but ye are Justifyed â— the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the â—pirit of our God So that you see they â—epented though I must acknowledge too â—hat they had greater Advantage and â—ere fairer for Repentance at the first â—ublication of the Gospel than those that â—ave long enjoyed it and turned the Grace â—f God into wantonness yet it is certain â—ere is great Encouragement to repent â—rom hence It is thought most of the â—orinthians were infected with this wickedness because the City was infamouâ— even to a Proverb upon this account ◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying Scortari to be Lasciâ—vious Lecherous or commit Fornicationâ— That you may improve this place oâ— Sripture repeat it often in your mind anâ— pray it over earnestly begging of Goâ— that you may be found in the number thaâ— you may be washed you may be sanctifyâ—ed you may be justifyed and mentioâ— before him that the Lord is gracious for giving Iniquity Transgression and Sin â— who pardoned the Sinners above-mentioned and who is the same Lord anâ— changeth not and can give Repentance to such a vile Creature as you have madâ— your self by Sin