a new Life or a Change of Manners for the better it is a sorrow consisting not so much in grief or transient Affection though there is many times that too in it as of setled Dissent and Dislike and so of real Action it is setting the Heart against Sin and because it is impossible for us to undo the Ill we have done a taking care we sin no more whether by doing what we ought not or the neglecting what we ought to do and as it is an Habit or State it is a changed Heart and Life For by frequent and constant endeavour of a new Life the very frame and temper of our Hearts will be changed and that changed Frame and Temper will have a constant influence upon our Actions and so our Life will be changed Thus as to the nature of Repentance Now as to Faith The most general Act of Christian Duty so called is the Soul 's agreeing or yielding that the Gospel or the way to Heaven which Christ Jesus and his Apostles taught is true It presupposes therefore the understanding of that Doctrine or Way Now the particular Acts of it are as various as the Parts of the Gospel And though with many People Use hath obtained that a Belief of the Promises and indeed of one part of them of the promised Blessing without the respect due to the other part the Condition of that Blessing and so a trust in God through Christ is esteemed the great Act of Faith yet is the assenting or agreeing to whatsoever is affirmed in the Gospel as that Christ died rose again now sits in Heaven shall come to judge the World c. as much or more properly an Act of true Christian Faith as such Trust or Affiance which in strictness is a distinct Christian Vertue grounded in Faith In like manner also is the receiving this dreadful Threat He that believeth and so repenteth not shall be damned a true Act of Faith yet not of Trust And to conclude the Belief of all the Commands in the Gospel not only that they came from God are reasonable and fit for us to observe but that they are an effectual and certain way to everlasting happiness so that whosoever yields the obedience of Faith shall be saved is as much an Act a necessary Act of Christian Faith as any of the rest And the Habit of Faith is nothing else but a rooted perswasion of all these the several parts of the Gospel by which the Soul is ready as occasion offers to exert any of these Acts Thus as to the Nature of Repentance and Faith when they signifie or are taken for Christian Vertues or Graces And yet even when thus taken in Scripture though they are not always even in Scripture it self taken for Christian Vertues yet I say when thus taken they are each of them used in a very different extent § 4. Sometimes in a very ample and large sence Synecdochically as we speak are they put not only for themselves but what accompanies them And thus the Scripture seems to make one while Repentance one while Faith the whole Condition of the Covenant of Grace or to put one of them for all that we on our part are by that Covenant bound to do in order to our acceptance with God or to the pardon of our Sin and Salvation Thus not only when St. John the Baptist and the Apostles but when Christ himself first went out to preach the Kingdom of Heaven or teach people the way thither the Sum of their Doctrine is recorded to have been Repent ye for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand Mat. 3. 2. and 4. 17. Mark 6. 12. No doubt both our Lord and his Apostles preached Faith as well as Repentance all along and St. Mark in the beginning of his Gospel expresly brings in our Lord so preaching ch 1. 14 15. Jesus came preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and saying The time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God is at hand repent ye and believe the Gospel Yet in the other places Repentance is put alone but with an intent no question that people should understand therewith its necessary Concomitant and Companion Faith And thus when our Lord instructs the Apostles in what they were to preach he tells them It behooved that he should suffer and rise again and that Repentance and Remission of Sin should be preached in his name among all Nations Luke ult 47. And as pursuant hereto St. Peter when he preaches to those who were pricked in their heart by the sense of their guilt in crucifying the Lord of Life who therefore had as much need of Faith in the blood of Jesus for Remission as any could have When he preaches I say to them what they should do to obtain Pardon he requires in express terms only Repent and be Baptized Acts 2. 38. and chap. 3. 10. to others of the same Nation and under the same guilt Repent ye and be converted In this last place indeed Repentance is more explained than before but yet no mention made of Faith in any of these places where yet the Design was to set down the Condition on which Sin might be pardoned which as will be soon evident is Faith as well as Repentance Again in other places me meet with mention of Faith or believing alone without any mention of Repentance Thus in the promise annex'd to the Apostle's Commission for preaching the Gospel Mark 16. 16. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned And when St. Paul teacheth the poor humble Jailor what he should do to be saved all he gives in Instruction is only Believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved and thine House Acts 16. 31. Here we see believing or Faith alone without any mention of Repentance has Salvation promised to it as if a Man were to do nothing to be saved but believe the Gospel Nay St. Paul in his Epistles seems to go beyond what is asserted in any of these places concluding from due Premises Rom. 3. 28. Therefore a Man is justified by Faith without the Deeds of the Law That is without a Jewish Mosaical Righteousness And the same he says in other places The Reason hereof undoubtedly is for that sincere believing the Gospel or Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ doth most certainly involve or carry with it Repentance He that receives from his heart that Doctrine or believes that way to Heaven which our Lord Christ taught will seek Heaven by Repentance or breaking off his Sin Else it is plain he believes not what Christ preached at the very first Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand And if he truly and Christianly repent it is plain he believes in Christ for he takes that very way to Salvation to which Faith in Christ directs him § 5. Yet at another time when the Holy Ghost speaks more at large distinctly and expresly both Repentance and Faith are
person search into and when he has got any degree of satisfaction carefully treasure up in his Mind or Memory what gave him that satisfaction that he may be able to have recourse thereto at any time to re-inforce Assent and by virtue of what he believes to satisfie and assure himself of other Truths the perswasion of which he yet wants And thus understanding and being perswaded of the several Particulars of Religion it remains such Person go on conscientiously to practise what he knows and believes Having learn'd and being convinc'd that there is a God who made upholds and governs the World he will soon believe that this God as other Governors has given to his Subjects a Law and that what we call the Decalogue o◠Ten Commandments especially as expounded and improved by our Saviour is that Law and that thereby as our same Lord has taught us all Men shall be judged Upon this supposing such cordial Belief of all has been directed unto it will follow through the Grace of God that the man will live in the fear of God withstand Temptations break himself of evil Customs c. as one who shall be judged by this most Spiritual Law And that he may so do as taught he will daily and earnestly with all his heart pray to God he will seriously with real devotion and care use all other Means attend Sacraments wait on the Ministry of the Word conscientiously apply all he learns for his advance in Grace and daily watching over himself endeavour to grow better and wiser Summarily and in plain terms this is I say being in good earnest and serious in Religion for People to give their hearts to the understanding believing and practising the Christian Doctrine and Precepts and to perseverance and growth in such Practice Or more briesly as said to study constantly to be every day wiser and better God-wards And those who really will not set themselves thus to do must never think of being provided for another World Nothing will sit a man for that without such general Religious Care § 9. Now to bring men thus to give their minds in good earnest to Religion I can think of no other at least no shorter or properer way than to desire and conjure all sorts of People to accustom themselves to retire within themselves and think that they have Souls or an unseen part It is most certain the greatest number of Mankind perish for want of consideration and not exercising of those Faculties they have above Brutes By our Bodies we are Flesh and Blood equal in a sort to the Beasts that perish by our Souls we are a part of the unseen and indeed of the invisible World we are Minds or Understanding reasoning Beings nearly equalled to Angels either good or bad ones Now the Bane of most People is that the Brute or Beast-part alone lives acts and governs but the Angel-part as it were sleeps is oppress'd drown'd or buried And in the degree that this befalls men they are more or less defective in Religion Some men who altogether follow their fleshly Desires have no Religion at all others who govern them according to Rules of Civility have perhaps the outward Mode or Fashion of their Country-Religion So that to bring men I say to be in good earnest and serious in Religion I know nothing more likely to be effectual than perswading them to think to converse more with themselves and by using their Minds to bring themselves to feel that they have them that there are in them Souls or a spiritual unseen active Part. This if they were well sensible of they would conclude that as they have an unseen part so there may be an unseen world according as they are told there is and that as this their unseen part is truly the Man and the most excellent part of them so the unseen world is the most real and of greatest worth and moment That therefore these Souls of theirs should be look'd after and some provision made for them against they come to be stripp'd of their Bodies and to pass naked into the World of Spirits Further by this means they would find that it is their Bodies that eat and drink and sleep and are pleased and satisfied therewith and that when they have no Bodies they shall do none of these That therefore there must be otherguise satisfaction look'd after for their Souls In a word I can hardly believe that a thinking person can fail in the End to arrive at being serious in Religion especially if he set out with any sober and certain Principles one Thought will lead on another till by the Grace of God some divine Truth or other pierce or fix in his Heart and make way for the final Victory of Faith § 10. We will take a further and more distinct instance of the Case in a particular Train of Thoughts Suppose we then a man by himself and either upon the importunity of Ministers frequently rating People into seriousness or upon the instigations of his own Conscience some way awakened by God's secret Grace which one time or other is wanting to none under the Gospel suppose we I say such a person beginning to consider whether there be any real necessity for him to trouble himself any further with Religion than to be in the general fashion of the Country and having cast away many things that have been urged upon him either as false or as uncertain or of little moment at length to bethink himself 1. Though all the other Particulars usually inculcated to persuade me to seriousness in Religion should be false and meerly little Arts and Inventions to awe me yet this is certain die I must sooner or later Not one escapes this perpetual Law Those who have thought themselves most exempted from the common Fate of all have notwithstanding at length whether they would believe it or no felt it and yielded thereto Perhaps there may have been some whom we have known or heard of in the World so fond as to say such an one died meerly for want such a one by fraud such a one by the neglect or mistake of his Physician such a one by his own ignorance or wilfulness But I have Wealth enough that I cannot want what is necessary to preserve me Knowledge enough timely to discover any decay in me and to prevent its prevalence or growing too much upon me Temper enough to secure or deliver my self from many incurable Evils which others run into and Caution enough to keep my self out of Violence or Harm's way and therefore I shall not die And yet this very person perhaps we know now to lie in his Grave We may have observed others to fansie to themselves a kind of Immortality by piece-meal This day they think they shall not die tomorrow and when tomorrow comes they cannot believe they shall die the next day and when that is come they are still persuaded they shall see another Sun yet have we
each in terminis set down and mentioned as distinct parts of our Christianity and so of that Condition of Pardon and Eternal Life which the Gospel proposeth to us thus in the Text of St. Mark already cited Repent ye and believe the Gospel And in Acts 20. 21. St. Paul protesting to the Ephesian Elders that in his preaching he had kept back nothing that was profitable for them reduces the summ of all he had shewed them and taught them either publickly or from house to house that is the whole way of Salvation to these two Points He had testified both to the Jews and also to the Greeks Repentance towards God and Faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ. And agreeably hereto the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews makes Repentance from dead Works and Faith towards God two Foundations or Principles of the Doctrine of Christ Heb. 6. 12. Upon the whole then being that all these Texts contain the undoubted Words of our Lord himself or of his Apostles or Persons inspired by him for the instructing Mankind in the way to Pardon and Salvation we must conclude either that sometimes Repentance is so put as to comprise or understand in it Faith and sometimes again Faith so put as to comprise Repentance or else one of these Absurdities will follow Either that 1. our Lord Christ and the Apostles sometimes taught an insufficient way to Pardon and Salvation or 2. that there are two or three ways to them and 't is no matter which we take Neither of which Consectaries can be ever admitted at least not by Protestants Wherefore it is not reasonable to imagine the practice either of Repentance or of Faith in order to our Peace with God may be spared because in some places only one of them is mentioned for that those places which make both necessary evidently inforce us where one only is expressed there to understand the other And besides that we have seen the Nature of each of them is such that they mutually inferr one the other that is neither can be without the other This will yet further appear in the Account now to be given of the due Method of the practice of both in order to make our Peace with God The Son of Sirach spoke more like an experienced Christian than a Jewish Apochryphal Author when he said Faith is the beginning of our cleaving unto God Eccles 25. 12. for one greater than he tells us He that cometh unto God must believe that he is and that he is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him Heb. 11. 6. But Repentance is a coming and turning unto God 't is a departing from or putting away what he most hates a wicked heart and life therefore there can be no practice of it without Faith foregoing And not only without such a Faith foregoing as that now mentioned out of the Author to the Hebrews That God is and that he is a Rewarder of them that seek him which is only the Faith due by the Law of Nature for the Light of Nature will convince us of the Being of a God and his just Government of the World but even not without most of the Acts of Faith truly Christian will Repentance ever be effected We have therefore in the first place and before any thing advised and conjured to be serious intent and in good Earnest in Religion and that as explained imports the giving a Man's self honestly to understand and by due Evidences to perswade himself of the truth of Christianity so that we suppose him who is to practise Repentance not only to know in general what his Duty is what Sin is what the Rewards belonging to Obedience and what the Wrath and Curse of God belonging to Sin but to be heartily perswaded of all these as also of the whole Covenant of Grace and its Conditions that God will as surely pardon and save every repenting and believing Sinner as he will damn all impenitent unbelieving wretches The Belief of this certain Woe if he go on in Sin and certain Pardon and Blessedness if he take up is the foundation and inducement of all true Repentance Thus a Faith or a Belief of the Doctrines Threats Promises and Commands of the Gospel when hearty and real moves acts and sets on the Soul at the very first to Repentance nor is Repentance possible without such Christian Knowledge or without the hearty perswasion of the truth of what we know and understand as before set forth Yet over and above all this we shall anon see Faith farther concerned than what has yet been said comes to in making our Peace or reconciling us to God § 6. In the mean while let us take a distinct view of the practice of Repentance and do what we can particularly to see by what steps or acts we may arrive at a true penitent state that is a Heart and Life changed from a course of Sin to the honest and stedfast endeavour of Holiness For no less than such a changed Heart and Life does true Repentance or a penitent state import And the Steps are four First A particular sight and sense of Sin Secondly Contrition under it Thirdly Confession of it Fourthly Actual breaking off the course of Sin both by the study of Mortification and of a Holy and Vertuous Life The due practice of Repentance includes I say all these four He who writes this is not ignorant a certain Church has made the Practice of Repentance a Sacrament and calls it by the name of Penance and tells us thereof there are but three parts Contrition Confession and Satisfaction in to which they hedge in Priestly Absolution And these indeed after their way or common road of Practice are quickly dispatch'd But they have herein disguised the Truth and abominably corrupted the most necessary part of Christian Religion The whole Truth which really lies under this Disguise we will endeavour faithfully and plainly to represent by viewing particularly every one of the four forementioned Steps of Practice which bring to this happy and peaceful state § 7. And the first of them is a plain and particular sight and sense of our own Guilt A sense I say as well as sight and I mean thereby such a Consciousness of our being transgressors of God's Holy Commands together with such a Perswasion both of the foulness of the Fact or Facts whereby we have transgress'd and the danger thereof that we are as far from excusing or thinking slightly of the Matter as from denying it We see our selves guilty vile and loathsome and without God's special Mercy everlastingly miserable Some Protestant People at present delight rather to call what we are now speaking of Conviction or in the Plural Number Convictions of Sin than to give it the Name we do And both they and we mean I conceive thereby much the same with what has been more anciently by others termed from that Passage as I suppose touching those Converts mentioned Acts 2. 37.