is I cannot but think that such Persons as these who not only continue in the Commissions of sin but project and contrive for the continuing in it and therefore put off the Time of their Repentance as a work that may be well enough done hereafter do in effect despise the Holy Spirit of God and trample under foot that Grace which should have led them to Repentance And it must certainly be a most daring Presumption in any Sinner to think that notwithstanding such a provocation God will yet attend his leisure and continue to afford him the Assistance of his Grace for his Salvation at the last though he has so often wilfully and designedly rejected all the Offers of it I am sufficiently persuaded that there is none of us whom God does not call most truly and sincerely to Salvation and by consequence that there is none of us to whom he has not offer'd such a measure of his Grace as might enable him to fulfil his Duty in order thereunto and perfect his Repentance But I must confess I cannot without some concern think what an unworthy use we have the most of us made of it and how justly we have deserved that God should at last leave us to our selves and no longer in vain attend our Amendment And O! that we would therefore be persuaded seriously to reflect upon all these things and no longer go on to expose our immortal souls to such desperate hazards as 't is plain from all these Considerations we do every day that we neglect to provide for Eternity Be it enough that we are not already made the fatal Monuments of Abused Mercy That we are yet on this side Hell and may if we please by our speedy Repentance still prevent those Judgments which our former Impenitence has but too justly deserved Let us begin in this our day to see and to pursue the things that make for our peace bâ—fore they be hid from our eyes Let us exhort one another daily while it is called to day lest any of us be hardned through the deceitfulness of sin Let us fear lest a promise being left us of entring into his rest any of us should seem to come short of it Let us give glory to God before darkness come and our feet stumble upon the dark mountains I conclude all with the words of the Prophet Isaiah Chap. LV. Vers. 6 7. Seek the Lord while he may be found call upon him while he is near Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and unto our God for he will abundantly pardon OF THE DANGER OF Mens Delaying their Repentance A SERMON Preached before the QUEEN AT WHITE-HALL ACTS XXIV 25 Felix trembled and answer'd Go thy way for this time when I have a convenient season I will call for thee AMong all the Aggravations of sin there is none greater than to continue it not only against the checks of Conscience and the motions of God's Holy Spirit to the contrary but after many admonitions in vain sent us by his merciful Providence to bring us to Repentance There are I believe but few if any in the World so lost to all the Hopes of Heaven and Eternity who have not some time or other been put in mind of their Duty and invited by God's Grace to Pardon and Salvation And if notwithstanding all this men will nevertheless continue still incorrigible and harden themselves against all the means that can be made use of to reclaim them we ought not to wonder if they are at last given up to the Dominion of Sin and reserved as monuments of the just Judgment of God at the day of his glorious appearing I will not now enter on any Enquiry what the cause should be why we who are all of us sufficiently convinced of the necessity of Repenting and the deplorable State in which we must expect to be if we do not some time or other effectually set about it should yet still for the most part be so very unwilling to Repent But because this is one of the most fatal delusions men are apt to cheat themselves withall that with Felix here in my Text they put off this business to a more convenient Season and by their unseasonable Procrastinations in an Affair that of all others ought the least to be defer'd too often die without ever performing it at all I will make it my endeavour so to lay before you the Danger of such a Delay as if it shall please God to convince you not so much of the Necessity of Repenting some time or other which I take it for granted without my speaking you are all of you already resolved to do as of the great concern we have immediately to set about it and do that presently which we must some time or other do and can never do so Well as now And this I shall make appear from these two Considerations I st Of the great Danger we run by delaying our Repentance II dly Of the Comfort and Satisfaction that will arise to us from the Conscience of having duly Perform'd it as we ought to do I begin with the former of these Considerations I st Of the great Danger we run by delaying our Repentance Now that in one Word is this That whilst we go on continually to put off our Duty and the business of Repentance to a more convenient Season and like Felix in the Text think it still too soon to set presently about it we run the hazard of never doing it at all and like Felix too often die in our Sins and our Impenitence So that whatsoever danger there is of dying without ever Repenting the same is the danger which we run by delaying our Repentance And this I shall make appear 1 st From the great Shortness and Vncertainty of our present State 2 dly From the Nature and Difficulty of Repentance And 3 dly From the Method of God's proceeding in the Dispensation of his Grace as set forth to us in the Holy Scripture And 1 st That the Shortness and Vncertainty of our Present State ought to convince us how great a danger we run by Delaying our Repentance For Proof whereof I shall not think it necessary to entertain you with any Common-place-Argument of the Infirmities of our Nature and the many Casualties to which our Lives here are perpetually exposed and against which we can never say we are secure for the next moment How many Persons have been struck with Sudden Death What accidents have befallen others to render them wholly unfit for their Duty so that though they have had a longer warning of their Approaching End yet either by the Intollerable Sharpness of their Pain or its influence upon their understanding Faculties so as many times to deprive them of all the use of their Reason and render them utterly uncapable either to reflect upon their lives
you to go along with me in these following Reflections First That though as I have just now shewn there must be the publick marks of Sorrow and Humiliation in our publick Repentance yet we must by no means stop in these nor thinks that this is all that God requires of us in order to our Forgiveness This was indeed the Vanity of the Jews heretofore and is too much the folly of some misguided Christians now Their Indignation against their Sins and against themselves for having committed them was spent especially in the outward appearance of Sorrow They rent their cloaths and put on sackcloth they wept and fasted and went softly and then they supposed they had done their business though it may be their Souls were not yet humbled nor their Hearts at all broken with any true Contrition for their Sins And so among those of the Church of Rome at this day If we may believe some of their greatest Casuists an external Worship is sufficient to carry a Man to Heaven without the trouble of the true inward Devotion of the Soul He may repent without Contrition may fast with a full Meal Nay and if the Pope pleases may obtain a plenary remission of his Sins se ancho non fosse confesso ne contrito though he has neither confess'd them to any Priest nor finds in his own Heart any manner of Contrition for them I shall not need to say how many new ways of Salvation of this kind they have found out by wearing Leathern Girdles about their Loins or Scapularies over their Shoulders by listing themselves into such or such certain Fraternities by dressing of Altars and going on Pilgrimages by Holy Water and Agnus Dei's And all which and infinite more of the like kind if as our late Masters tell us they are not Authorized by their Church yet I am sure are publickly recommended by their Greatest Men and generally practised too without any censure or contradiction among them This is certain that all these and whatever Artifices of the like kind Men may please either to flatter themselves or to delude others withal without a true Contrition and a serious Reformation they are all but Vanity they make a shew of Piety in the Eyes of Men but they avail nothing to our forgiveness with God I will not now dispute of what use some of these External Performances may be to assist our Repentance and render our Sorrow for Sin the more solemn and so in some Cases as I have before observed the more pleasing to God I know well enough that St. Paul has told us That Bodily Exercise where 't is discreetly order'd does profit a little though it be not like Godliness profitable for all things But then as 't is plain that the greatest part of those Follies so much magnified and recommended in the Church of Rome are but vain and ridiculous Impositions to cheat the silly and superstitious Multitude so 't is certain that the best of these things are neither in themselves Meritorious much less Satisfactory for Sins as they pretend them to be nor otherwise of any value at all with God than as they are attended with that true Repentance which alone can either incline his Mercy or obtain our Forgiveness If we will therefore make our solemn Humiliation this day acceptable to God and available to our selves our Country and our Religion we must take the Method of the Prophet in our Text We must turn unto the Lord our God with all our Heart and then our fasting and our weeping and our mourning shall indeed be pleasing unto him We must rent our Hearts and not i. e. rather than our Garments must humble our Souls first and then the violence we do our Bodies will be considerâ—d by him When Jonah denounced God's Judgments against Niniveh we read in his 3 d. Chapter That the People of Niniveh believed and proclaimed a Fast and put on Sackcloth from the greatest of them even unto the least But was this therefore that Repentance for which he spared them No it is not so much as once mentioned among the Reasons of it It was the Reformation of their Lives that tied up his Hand and sheathed his Sword ver 10. And God saw their Works that they turn'd from their Evil way and God repented of the Evil that he said he would do unto them and he did it not 2. And this brings me to a second Remark for the farther clearing of this great Duty viz. That not only these outward marks of penitence are not sufficient to the discharge of it but though we should to these add a true and real sorrow of heart for the Sins we have committed even this would not be sufficient to purchase our Forgiveness Now by true sorrow I do not mean that little imperfect sorrow which looks rather to the danger of our Condition than to the heinousness of our Offences and bewails our Transgressions more out of an apprehension of those Judgments that may be the Consequence of them than out of any real regret that we have sinned against a most Gracious and Merciful God For however those of the other Communion out of their great tenderness to Sinners have declared such a sorrow as this if accompanied with Confession to be sufficient to dispose Men to obtain the Grace of God by the Sacrament of Penance and therefore have resolved that true Contrition or a sorrow for sin committed with a purpose of sinning no more is not necessary to the Sacrament of Penance after the Commission of mortal Sin but that Attrition is sufficient though a Man knows it to be no more Yet I suppose it needless in this place to obviate any such gross Error however otherwise of very great danger in the Practice of this Duty Be the sorrow for sin never so sincere and our Resolutions thereupon no more to return to the Commission of it never so firm and well grounded yet if instead of making good these Resolutions we shall stop here we are but half Penitents seeing we yet want that change of life which alone is able to compleat the Nature and render the Practice of our Repentance acceptable unto God and available to our Forgiveness 3. In short Thirdly if we will truly discharge that Repentance to which we are here called we must do it not by being sorry for our Sins or by resolving against them but by an effectual forsaking of them i. e. as our Text speaks By turning unto the Lord our God This is that which alone can implore his Favour and commend us to his Mercy And this was what I before observed in the Case of Niniveh When God saw their works that they turned from their Evil way then he repented him of the Evil that he had said he would do unto them and he did it not Nay but it is not any turning unto God that will suffice neither We must turn
their progress in Piety and that is a Principle of Compliment and Good Breeding When they neglect their duty it may be do that which they know to be contrary to it but yet rather than be thought rude and precise rather than they will disturb Company or be markt out as singular they will do as others do and so disobey God for fear of disobliging men That this is a Case which very often occurs in the method of our present Conversation in the World is not to be denied Now then consider I beseech you what the Contest here is and what the issue most certainly will be God and Man are the Parties concerned and the question is Whether your Duty towards him or your Civility towards the other ought to preponderate Whether you should go to Heaven with a few singular out-of-fashion Christians or for company sake take the broad road tho you know that it leads to Eternal Damnation And now when the choice is so plain methinks it should be no hard matter to persuade men to despise such a Principle as this To convince them that their Salvation is a concern of too great importance to be submitted to these formalities and that 't is to push the Compliment a great deal too far to be damned rather than be thought ill bred But 3 dly A Third Device whereby the Devil oftentimes endeavours to hinder mens progress in Religion is by filling their minds with groundless fears and scruples as to their Eternal Salvation It is a matter of sad Consideration to think what discouragements many Christians labour under in the discharge of their duty who either wanting a Capacity to receive a satisfaction or indulging a close and melancholly disposition so long till they are at last incapable of any live in doubts and fears and perplexities of mind and it may be by degrees wholly cast off all thoughts of Religion since they cannot find any peace or satisfaction in it Now tho such troubles as these may much more easily be prevented before they arrive than removed after yet there are ways to encounter even this Device too of our Enemy and to render it of no force to hinder our Piety To which end 1 st If any fears or scruples of this kind arise in your minds examine your selves and see whether there be any real grounds or foundation for them Whether your lives have been such as may give you just cause to apprehend your selves in danger of losing your souls If there be nothing of this kind which you can discover to support such fears then consider with your selves that the tenor of God's Threats and Promises is very plain and easie to be understood That he will never condemn any man in another world but for living in a disobedience to his Commands in This. That our duty is clear and express and that Conscience when sincerely examined will not fail to tell us whether we do truly fulfil it or no. And therefore that as St. John says Beloved if our heart condemn us not then have we confidence towards God But should the case be otherwise should you find your selves in never so dangerous a course of sin yet still 't is in your power by God's Assistance to deliver your selves out of it And then There is mercy with God that he may be feared So that be your state at the present never so dangerous yet if you will even now lay hold upon his Mercy if ye will yet repent and return unto the Lord your God and confess your sins he is faithful and just to forgive you your sins and the blood of Christ shall cleanse you from all unrighteousness But now 2 dly If your Case be dubious and neither these nor any other reflections are able to give you that satisfaction you desire yet should not this move you to give way to the Tempter but rather should engage you to set your selves the more diligently to this work to call in some Spiritual Guide to your assistance and if upon a sincere opening of your state to him neither can he find out any grounds for your fears and scruples your doubts and your apprehensions you ought then to labour by all means to possess your Souls in Peace and to conclude That these Terrors are only the Devices of the Devil to discourage you in your duty not any real causes for doubt or despair And yet 3 dly Thô neither by these nor any other means you should ever be able totally to overcome these difficulties yet ought not this to make you ever the less careful of going on still in a serious discharge of your duty Nay on the contrary it ought to make you the more zealous and diligent in the performance of it A man that lives here all his life in such perplexities if yet he fulfils that obedience and practices that repentance which God requires may nevertheless be saved at the last But he that upon any of these grounds neglects this tho he goes on never so securely and comfortably in his evil way shall certainly fall into ruin and destruction in the end And since such fears as these arise from an apprehension that we do not live so well nor serve God so sincerely as we ought to do the best means when all is done to remove them is if it be possible to out-live even our own apprehensions and to serve God so truly and heartily as not to be able to doubt but that we shall find a reward for it at his hands I shall add but one thing more in this Case 4 thly and it is this Be not discouraged nor think your Faith imperfect or your Religion vain because you find your selves still attended with some fears and anxieties about your future state St. Paul not only allows this but exhorts us with his Philipians To work out our own salvation with fear and trembling To be without all concern in a matter of such moment were to be stupid and insensible rather than religious And when we come to appear before Christ in Judgment we shall be sentenced not according to our own Opinions or Apprehensions of our selves whether good or evil but according to the Sincerity of our Lives to the Extent of our Charity and to the Truth of our Repentance And all these supported and made perfect by the Merits and Satisfaction of a most Gracious and Merciful Redeemer who will pity and pardon beyond what we are able to express or to conceive But 4 thly And to conclude this Point The last Device by which the Devil in these days especially has endeavoured to hinder our Piety is by turning that Zeal into Strifes and Disputes about Religion which ought to have been employed on the Practice of it For indeed were we now to enquire what the great demonstration of all our Zeal is both in the Priests and the People what other account should we be able to bring back than this That they are
them his Judgments if they continu'd still impenitent and to encourage them by repenting not only to prevent their Ruine but to assure themselves of his Favour That though they had so long neglected him yet if they would now even now at the last return with a true Zeal and a sincere Affection to their Duty they should not fail to meet with a favourable acceptance from him Therefore also now saith the LORD Turn ye even to me with all your heart and with fasting and with weeping and with mourning and rent your heart and not your garments and turn unto the LORD your God for he is gracious and merciful slow to anger and of great kindness and repenteth him of the evil It is not my intention to seek a a Parallel of all this either in the sins or in the danger of our own Country I would willingly hope that neither our Guilt nor our Incorrigibleness have been so heinous as theirs nor shall any such deplorable Judgment as this ever I trust be made the punishment of what our Iniquities have indeed but too justly deserved No blessed be God who by a wonderful Concurrence of great and singular Mercies seems rather to call upon us to celebrate his Goodness than to deprecate his Judgments to praise his Name in Hymns of Triumph and Eucharist than to weep between the Porch and the Altar in melancholy Litanies to avert his Anger and implore his Mercy But yet since the Goodness as well as Judgments of the Lord are designed to bring us to repentance and that whether we look back into our own particular Actions or consider those Publick and National Transgressions whereby we have so long and loudly call'd to Heaven for vengeance we must with shame and indignation confess our selves some of the greatest of Sinners I cannot but think both the Solemn Occasion of this Day and the Design of my Text to be a most proper and seasonable Admonition to us to turn unto the Lord our God and to implore his Blessing upon our present Enterprises that those vile Insects the Locusts and Caterpillars that have so barbarously consumed our Neighbours round about us our worse than Assyrian or Babylonian Enemies may not be able to prevail against us And indeed however it has pleased God as at this time to give us some Encouragement to trust in his Mercy yet we cannot so soon forget that we have also born the punishment of our sins For not to repass upon the things that are at a greater distance from us let the Instances still fresh in all our Memories speak to us What just Apprehensions did we but very lately lye under of our Lives and of what is yet dearer to us than our Lives our Liberty and our Religion How did our Enemies not only project our Ruin but as if it were already accomplished begin to say in their hearts nay they began freely to speak it out to us Aha! so would we have it Persecute them and take them for there is none to deliver them And if now we are no longer exposed to those dangers that so lately threatned us if God has begun upon our late more serious concern for Religion and more general return to him to give us some Testimony of his gracious Designations towards us This certainly ought to be so far from lessening our solemn Humiliation at this time that it should rather engage us to be the more forward in perfecting our Repentance the greater Encouragement we have to hope that it shall be accepted at our hands And I must now beg leave with so much the more Earnestness to enforce the Duty of my Text Therefore also now saith the LORD turn ye even to me with all your heart and with fasting and with weeping and with mourning And rent your hearts and not your garments and turn unto the LORD your God By how much I hope I may with the greater assurance propose to you the Promise of it for your Encouragement For he is gracious and merciful slow to anger and of great kindness and repenteth him of the evil I have already pointed out to you the two great parts of my Text and which must therefore be the Subject of my Discourse upon it viz. I. The Address of the Holy Prophet to his Countrey and in that the Exhortation which I am earnestly in the Name of God to recommend unto you this day To turn unto the LORD your God with all your heart and with fasting and with weeping and with mourning II. The great Encouragement which he offer'd to induce them and which ought to be of no less a force to stir up all of us to a serious and diligent performance of it For he is gracious and merciful slow to anger and of great kindness and repenteth him of the evil I begin with the former of these the Exhortation of my Text I. To turn unto the LORD your God with all your heart and with fasting and with weeping and with mourning And here I presume I shall not need to tell you That all this is but a larger Paraphrase of what I may in other Words call a General and National Repentance of those Publick and National Sins which had provoked God Almighty to send down so many Judgments upon them and to threaten them with yet greater if they continued still in their Impenitence And indeed what could be more reasonable than by such a Solemn and Universal Acknowledgment both of the Evils they had committed and of the Judgments which they deserved and of the sorrow they were now touch'd with for their Offences to appease God's Anger for that General Incorrigibleness by which they had so long exposed both his Goodness and his Justice to Contempt among the Heathen round about him For however it be very certain that all the outward pomp and solemnity of Repentance the fasting and the weeping and the mourning are at best but a form of Godliness empty and unprofitable unless there be also added to these that true inward change of Mind in which alone consists the Power of it yet there may be such Circumstances and Cases put wherein this Duty must pass beyond the Heart and the Closet and the Humiliation will be imperfect if it be not as publickly set forth to the Eyes of Men as it is sincerely perform'd in the sight of God And such especially must be the Repentance for National Sins Where Mens Transgressions have been open and notorious there their Return also must be no less Solemn and Evident that so the Honour as well as Justice of God may be vindicated in their Forgiveness and some sort of Reparation made not only for the Guilt which they have contracted but also for the Scandal which they have given to his Honour and Religion in the World Now 't is this which at once both declares the Piety and commands the publick Humiliation of THIS DAY And for the due discharge whereof I must intreat
even unto him and with all our Heart Words very Emphatical and which offer to us two great Conditions which are absolutely necessary to render our Conversion every way such as it ought to be First That it must be hearty and sincere There must be nothing of the Hypocrite mix'd with it our Souls must go along with our outward Performances and these penitential appearances be the true Declariations of that real inward sorrow which we feel in our Hearts for our Offences For God is not a Man that he should be mocked He sees into our very Souls and knows the secrets of all the Children of Men. And Secondly That it must be intire and without reserve As we must be sorry for every Sin we have already committed so we must resolve against ever committing any for the time to come For God is of purer Eyes than to behold the least Iniquity and if our Repentance be sincere so shall we be too The same Piety which moves us to hate any Evil will equally fill us with an Aversion against all And if we desire to continue but in one Offence it is because that we do truly repent of none So that now then if we will answer the design of this day if we will render our Fast such as the Lord has chosen and has promised to reward with the Blessings both of this life and of that which is to come we must not think it enough that we comply with the outward Ceremonies and shew of Repentance but we must indeed resolve to bring forth the Fruits of it Whilst we address our selves to God for Pardon we must take heed to dispose our Souls in such a manner that we may be fit to receive it And if we thus improve the great Solemnity of this day we shall not fail to meet with a favourable acceptance at the Throne of Grace God will be jealous for his land and pity his People He will perfect the great Deliverance he has begun for us and once more render us the fear and the terror of all our Enemies round about us Our Faith which has so often triumph'd over all the Arguments of its Adversaries shall now no less triumph over all their black Designs to root it out and to destroy it and shew to all the World that though for our Tryal God may sometimes permit the Winds to blow and the Floods to rise and the Storms to beat against our Church yet has he founded it on that Rock that shall never fail Nor shall the gates of Hell either the Power of France or the Cunning of the Jesuit or the Malice of Both ever be able to prevail against it And this brings me to the other thing I am to speak to Our Encouragement to this Duty II. For God is Gracious and Merciful slow to anger and of great Kindness and repenteth him of the Evil. It is not at all needful for me to enter on any particular Explication of all these Attributes and shew what Arguments every one of them affords to engage us to Repentance Two things in general there are which will at first sight arise from them to excite us to it viz. First The Goodness and Mercy of God to the greatest Sinners upon their Repentance God is Gracious and Merciful and of great Kindness Secondly His unwillingness to pronounce any Judgments at all against them and his readiness to recal them if they repent He is slow to Anger and repenteth him of the Evil. And First Of the Goodness and Mercy of God to the Greatest of Sinners upon their Repentance He is Gracious and Merciful and of great Kindness When God proclaimed his own Name in the midst of the People of Israel we read Exod. xxxiv that he chose to do it not so much in the terrible Attributes of his Majesty and Power as in the soft Ideas of his Mercy and Goodness The Lord the Lord God Merciful and Gracious long-suffering and abundant in Goodness and Truth keeping Mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin And if we look into all the following Representations which he makes of himself whether by his Holy Prophets under the Legal but especially by our Blessed Saviour and his Apostles under the Christian Dispensation we shall find there is no Character he so much delights in as this of being Good and Gracious not willing that any should perish but that all should come to Repentance 2 Pet. iii. 8 And now what more forcible Encouragement can any one desire to bring him to Repentance than to be thus assured of the Goodness and Mercy of God to the greatest of Sinners if they Repent That he will not only forgive him upon his return but will even assist him with Grace and Strength in the doing of it That he desires not the death of the most profligate Offender but rather that he should turn from his wickedness and live In a word That he has promised forgiveness without exception to the most wicked Men upon their Repentance so that if they will but yet break off their evil Course and keep his Statutes and do that which is lawful and right they shall surely live they shall not die Ezek. xviii 21 Many are the ways and excellent the Methods that God has taken to convince us of his Mercy and the time would fail me to enter on a particular Consideration of them Sometimes he declares not only that he is ready to pardon us if we repent but that he even desires we should repent that he may forgive us And lest his Word should not be sufficient he confirms that desire with an Oath Ezek xxxiii 11 As I live saith the Lord God I have no pleasure in the death of the Wicked but that the Wicked turn from his way and live Turn ye turn ye from your evil ways for why will ye die O House of Israel Sometimes he Expostulates with us in the way of Reasoning to see if by that means he may be able to bring us to consider his Love and Affection to us Isai. i. 16 Wash ye make ye clean put away the Evil of your doings from before mine Eyes cease to do evil learn to do well Come now and let us reason together saith the Lord Though your Sins be as Scarlet they shall be white as Snow though they be red like Crimson they shall be as Wool If he Exhorts us to Repentance he always does it upon this Promise That he will Pardon us if we repent If we turn from our Sins Iniquity shall not be our ruine If he threatens Judgments yet still he keeps a reserve for Mercy to triumph over Judgment and will rather be thought inconstant in his most peremptory Decrees than inexorable to Repenting Sinners Thus he commanded Jonah to go to Niniveh and to pronounce an utter Destruction against it He fix'd the very time too Yet forty days and Niniveh shall be overthrown
dangerous mistake we are apt to make in this affair is That Men are wont to think they do very well consider these things when in truth they do not consider them to any purpose at all For indeed what is that which men now a days to call Considering If they are sometimes a little serious if they reflect now and then upon the business of Religion If they go to Church on Sundays and are not scandalously wicked the week after If they receive the Holy Sacrament in its seasons and when they do so sit down a while and reflect a little a day or two it may be the week before upon their Sins and their Vanities and then Sigh and are Sorry and resolve to Sin no more this they call Considering and this I fear is what makes up the Religion of a very great number amongst us But alas this is as far distant from that true Consideration I would now recommend to you as the little imperfect Effects of it are for the most part inferior to that excellent Piety that would be the certain consequence of the other 'T is not every light reflection upon the business of Religion that is worthy the name of a true Consideration He that will do this as he ought to do must resolve to do it throughly He must search to the very bottome of his Soul Not a Sin so secret not a Lust or Interest so dear or profitable to us but what to the best of our power must be enquired into Now all the danger of Sin in General all the black circumstances and heightning Aggravations of our own Sins in Particular must seriously be consider'd The Hopes and Terrors of Eternity be throughly weigh'd What the Goodness of God is if we will yet repent What his Judgments will be if we shall continue to despise the Riches of his Mercy and Treasure up to our selves Wrath against the day of Wrath. In a word whatever may serve either to convince us of our Sins and of our Danger or to engage us to forsake the one that so we may escape the other must all be laid before us till finally by God's Grace we are brought in the bitterness of our Souls to such a sense of our Condition as shall engage us to a sincere Repentance of our Sins and Obedience to God's Commands And so work in us that change of Life which alone is able to save our Souls for ever He that gives off before he has done this He may have thought of his Duty if you will but he has not yet consider'd as he ought to do He may have prepared the way but he is yet to run In short He may have consider'd of Religion as many now a days do who read the Holy Scriptures run through all the various Sects and Parties of Christians who suffer not the least Controversie to escape them nor a Dispute to arise in which they do not interest themselves and yet when all is done have not one jot of real Piety in their Souls but after a great deal of pains get only that knowledg which puffeth up and are yet to learn that Charity which Edifieth This is the first and perhaps one of the most fatal Cheats men commonly put upon their Souls They flatter themselves that they do very well Consider these things when indeed they do not consider them to any purpose nor as they ought to do it 2. A Second Cause of mens Inconsideration and but little inferior to the foregoing either in the danger or the univerâ—ality of it is That our Consideration is for the most part totally turned another way It is a long time since the generality of Mankind seem to have fallen under a very dangerous mistake That Religion ought not to be looked upon as their Business but only as a thing by the by somewhat to entertain their thoughts with upon solemn times and in their Melancholly hours but which 't were unreasonable to expect amidst so great a plenty of other affairs as the world now abounds with should ordinarily be made the subject of their thought and their Consideration Thus have we utterly reversed the Maxim of our Saviour and made not our Salvation but the business of this World our Imployments and our Interests nay Good God! our very Vices and our Sins the Vnum Necessarium the great thing to be taken care of by us and we are so wholly taken up and engaged with these that we have no leisure to think at all to be sure not to any purpose and as we ought to do of that And now what wonder if when this is the Case we see such very sad 't is true but yet such very natural Effects of it Whilst men reckon the concerns of this present life to be the main of their business we ought not to be surprised if they consider no more of what may make for a better Till this mistake be rectified we may be troubled indeed to see men so Inconsiderate but sure we ought not to admire it We may with Moses wish O that they were wise that they would understand this But till that be done we cannot expect they should very much Consider their latter End But 3 dly Another Cause and which I believe has kept very many from considering as they ought to do is That 't is Vneasie to them and therefore they do not care to enter upon it It is a great disadvantage to Religion that tho there be really nothing in the World more pleasing or more agreeable to our Rational Natures than the practice of it yet has it something that is rough and uneasie in the first setting out and which the habitual Sinner cannot without pains and difficulty get over He that thrives by Sin that grows Rich or Great or Honourable in the world by Injury and Oppression by Fraud and Flattery will no doubt be very uneasie to embrace a Religion that requires a Justice and Integrity in all our actions that forbids all Violence and Rapine all Artifice and Dissimulation i. e. all those Methods by which he has been wont to encrease and flourish heretofore Again If a man has been used freely to indulge himself in all that his heart desired to gratifie his Passions in their wildest irregularities he will no doubt find it a matter of no small difficulty to deny himself and resist and do violence to those appetites which he has been so accustomed to comply with heretofore So that in effect whether out of a prevailing interest or a real fear whether out of an unwillingness to forsake sin or a mistaken apprehension of the impossibility of overcoming it Many I believe content themselves to go on without ever considering at all and hate to reflect on what they are resolved never to reform Or if perhaps this does not carry them so far as to make them totally lay aside the thoughts of Religion yet at least it renders them unwilling to set about it and so
the Former of these the Consideration I st Of those Devices whereby the Devil is wont to hinder us in the discharge of our Duty And here I shall not insist on those common and obvious Methods which every one knows tho' few are so careful as they ought to be to prevent them such as carelesness and indifference in the concern of our Salvation The Love of this World and of the Honours and Pleasures and Interests of it and which upon this account St. Paul calls the root of all evil 1 Tim. vi 10 And St. James plainly tells us is Enmity with God James iv 4 The Devices I shall now consider are such as have more of Subtilty and Contrivance in them and which by a shew of somewhat that seems to be Good seduce men many times into a neglect of that Duty which alone really and truly is so Now four things especially there are by which the Devil is wont to discourage and hinder weaker Minds in the discharge of their Duty viz 1 st By throwing Prejudices in their way against it 2 dly By instilling into their Minds False Principles whereby to corrupt the Practise of it 3 dly By filling them with Doubts and Scruples to discourage them in their Piety 4 thly By engaging their Zeal in vain and fruitless Strifes and Disputes about Religion which ought to be imployed on the Practice of it 1 st It is none of the least of the Devices of the Devil to hinder mens Piety by throwing of false Prejudices in their way against the Practice of it I need not say what a frightful thing many look upon a Christian course of Life to be and how difficult and sometimes even impossible they think it to fulfil that Duty which God requires of us They regard him as a hard and severe Task-Master that lays intollerable Burdens upon his Servants and has prepared Eternal Punishments for the least defailure under them All their thoughts are taken up with those Strict Commands of Mortification and Self-denyal of taking up the Cross of forgiving and loving Enemies of despising any losses shame or other difficulties they may at any time be exposed to for the Sake of Christ and the Preservation of a Good Conscience Thus they look upon Christianity to be a Religion made up of nothing but Melancholy Fears and amazing Dangers that allows of no Pleasure suffers not the least Appetite to be gratified but denies even the most Innocent and Reasonable Enjoyments nor promises any Happiness in another World but upon the severe Condition of being Despised and Miserable in this And now when such are Mens Apprehensions of Christianity what wonder if we see so few care to enter on the Practice of it But Blessed be God who has not thus dealt with us Straight indeed is the gate and narrow the way that leads to Heaven but by the Grace of God it is not Impassable From the very first entring it dilates its self and in a little while becomes no less pleasant but much more secure than that High Road which so many prefer before it To be plain I dare affirm That a State of Religion is so far from being that four disagreeable State men commonly apprehend it to be that on the contrary 't is the only State that is attended with a real Pleasure and Satisfaction Godliness is its own reward even in the present practice of it It has the promise of the life that now is as well as of that which is to come And whosoever will but seriously apply himself to the discharge of it will soon be convinced upon how good Grounds the wise man once pronounced concerning it That her ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths peace As for that frightful Idea which so many entertain of Religion it is wholly founded on their own mistakes of the true Nature and Design of it For 1 st It is utterly false that Christianity denies us any of those Enjoyments which a Wise man would even desire to Indulge It allows whatever is truly fitting for us and restrains only those brutish excesses which even Natural Reason and the Principles of Common Morality forbid us to pursue Nor 2 dly Do men any more truly represent God than they do his Religion They look upon him as one who requires great things of us but they forget that he who requires these things does also Promise that if we are not wanting in our own Endeavours he will give us Grace and Strength and Ability to fulfil them They consider him as a most severe and Just Judge But they do not consider that his Mercy is as Infinite as his Justice and that he is as ready to make allowances for our Infirmities and Pardon those Sins we unwillingly Commit as to Punish those Offences which our Malice and our Negligence expose us to That for this He has sent his own Son into the World to be Himself the propitiation for our Sins and to open the way to Heaven by a Gospel of Repentance seeing we could not attain to it by any way of a Perfect and unsinning Obedience So that now then let a Christian be but upright and sincere let him but love God and delight in his Service and strive and labour as far as he is able to fulfil it If he Sins let him Repent of it let him confess his Wickedness and be sorry for his Sins and humbly Implore God's Mercy to forgive him and then how Weak and Impotent soever he be He shall certainly find not only Pardon but acceptance too with his Blessed Saviour for ever And then 3 dly For what concerns those severe Duties of Christianity and upon which the strongest prejudices are commonly raised against it Besides that they are things infinitely excellent in themselves and by a divine assistance far from being burdensome to us nay when put in the balance with the reward of Eternal Glory not worthy to be compared with it 't is Evident that these Duties are not required either of all Christians or at all times How few are there for instance now a days that have any occasion to put in practice that severest precept of all which our Religion Requires of us viz To deny our selves and take up our Cross and follow Christ These are the Tryals only of some singular Persons and at some certain Seasons And whenever God sees fit to call any good men to them He never fails upon their earnest Prayers to Him to furnish them with Strength and Grace proportionable to bear them So that upon the whole it appears that all these Prejudices are only the Devices of the Devil to discourage Men from their Duty and by the false apprehension of I know not what imaginary difficulties in the Practice of Religion now to precipitate them into Real and Eternal Miseries hereafter But 2 dly A Second way whereby He hinders men's progress in Piety is by instilling such Principles into them as
Tempers or our Circumstances lay us the most open and this will presently both shew us our danger and how we ought to fortify our selves against it But thô to enter therefore upon all the particular Devices of Satan whereby he leads Men into sin be a work as needless as it would be infinite yet some general remarks there are which we may do well to make in order to our security And 1 st It is commonly the first step which the Devil takes towards the leading Men into sin to perswade them to a Carelesness and Indifference in their duty Whil'st Men are warm and vigorous in the practice of Piety zealous of God's Honour and sincere in the pursuance of what makes for it 't is plain the Enemy can get but very little advantage of us But if instead of this we live only in a form of Godliness and regard not the power of it If we are negligent and unconcern'd for Religion and take but little notice of what it requires of us We are then ready for the Tempter to make his Assault upon us And 't will be no hard matter to deceive that Man into the commission of sin who is already but very little affected with the sense of his duty nor takes any great care for the fulfilling of it 2 dly Another device whereby the Devil often gets an advantage of us not only to hinder our Piety but even to lead us into the greatest violations of it is by the Customs and Opinion of the World I have before observed what Slaves we are the very best of us to these things They corrupt our Practice and debauch our very Reason and Vnderstanding And we may at this day find many things in the practice of mankind become the praise and accomplishment of a Gentleman which were we to examine them by the Rules of the Gospel would be seen to have no part in the Character of a Christian And then I need not say how fatally dangerous that must be to lead us into sin which is able so far to deceive our very Consciences as not to be thought to carry any guilt or shame in the commission of it And these are such Devices whereby the Devil oftentimes draws men into Sin I will add only two more whereby when once men are engaged in a course of sin he is wont to strengthen and confirm them in it viz. 1 st An unreasonable Hope of God's Mercy And 2 dly A vain dependance on their own future Repentance That is to say They sin on now in prospect of amendment hereafter and then they make no doubt but that they shall find favour and mercy with God as well as other sinners in the like circumstances have done before them But O God! what a desperate reliance is this whereon to venture all the Hopes and Glories of Eternity For tell me O Sinner whoever thou art that thus projectest a future Amendment after thou hast taken thy fill of Pleasure and art no longer able to pursue thy Sins and thy Debaucheries What security hast thou that That God whom thou so despisest shall continue thy life to thee and give thee any such Time and Opportunity to repent Canst thou command the Sun that it should stand still and put a stop to thy days that thou may'st the more freely follow thy Revels and thy Delights Or canst thou hope when thou lyest down on thy last Bed with Hezekiah to add a new Series of Years to thy expiring breath by then lifting up thy profane Heart and thy deceitful Voice to That God whom thou hast so long continued to offend Nay but couldst thou do this and so arrive to the time thou hast assign'd for this Work Art thou sure thou shalt then be in a Capacity of fulfilling it There is a time when there shall be no more any opportunity for Repentance tho' we should have otherwise leisure enough for the accomplishing of it And sure if any such is the most likely to be that Season which Wicked Men have lay'd out for their return to their duty in order to their going on for the present in their evil doings Nor is there any reason why that man should expect Grace to repent at the last who all his life long has neglected and despised the Offers of it I will not now say how unfit a time that of Old Age and Sickness is for so great an undertaking When the Soul as well as Body is feeble and impotent when the Memory is decay'd the Reason fails and our Affections are dull our Zeal is cold and all our thoughts taken up with the horrors of Hell and the sense of those Infirmities under which the Body labours But sure I am all these things ought to convince men of the desperate folly and even madness of such a procrastination and to engage them whil'st they have yet the time to lay hold upon that Mercy which it may be they shall hereafter neither have Grace nor Opportunity to implore But I must not pursue these things any further nor shall I make any Application of what I have already offer'd but without more enlargement will conclude all with the words of the Church O God who knowest us to be set in the midst of so many and great dangers that by reason of the frailty of our Nature we cannot always stand upright Grant to us such strength and protection as may support us in all dangers and carry us through all temptations through Jesus Christ our Lord. To whom c. OF Stedfastness in Religion A SERMON Preached before the PRINCE and PRINCESS OF DENMARK August 5 th 1688. 2 PET. III. 17 18. Ye therefore Beloved seeing ye know these things before beware lest ye also being led away with the error of the wicked fall from your own stedfastness But grow in Grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ To him be Glory both now and for ever Amen THese words are not only the Close of this Epistle but also the Application of all that the Apostle before had written in it And for the understanding of them we must observe That the design of St. Peter in this Address to the Christians dispersed abroad among the Jews and now under great temptations either to corrupt or to abandon that Faith that had once been delivered to them was to exhort and stir them up to a constant continuance in their Profession and not to suffer themselves whether by the cunning Artifice of Some or by the open Violence of Others to be either totally frightned out of their Religion or to be misled into any false Doctrines contrary to the Truth and Purity which they had been taught In the beginning of the second Chapter he speaks of certain false Teachers that were crept in amongst them and made it their great endeavour by any means to bring in damnable Heresies And he foresaw that their wicked Industry would be likely to prove
or else so desperate and impossible on the other that there was no need of their own Care or Concern about it nor any reason for them to trouble themselves about that which if they shall ever attain no negligence of their own can do them any hurt if they must not no care or endeavour can do them good 4. I shall add but yet one thing more which I fear has led many into a neglect of Repentance and that is An unwarrantable presumption upon God's Mercy either that he will afford them time to repent at the last though they go on for the present in their Sins or if he does not will at least make a very favourable allowance for their Impenitence This is an Opinion which Wicked Men do as greedily catch at as their deplorable State renders them greatly in need of it And indeed far be it from me to lessen any reasonable Hopes of God's Favour to Sinners who my self stand so much in need of it No doubt there is Mercy with God that he may be feared Many are the ways and Gracious and Excellent the Methods whereby He calls and invites us to Repentance And if we accept the Invitation we need not question but that we shall most certainly receive the pardon of our Sins through the Blood of Christ. But then this is not the Question Whether God will not make very great allowances for our Infirmities and forgive us though we have never so long and grievously sinn'd against Him if we repent at the last But whether if we neglect the Opportunities which he affords us of repenting if with Felix in the Text we still put off our Consciences to a more convenient season and at last die in our sins without ever repenting of them God will not then turn his Mercy into Judgment and whether we ought not therefore to make all the haste we can to repent lest perhaps he should do so But 3 dly A third cause of mens delaying their Repentance is That though they do believe it necessary for them to repent some time or other yet they think this may be done hereafter as well as now And this is what most of us are but too apt to flatter our selves withall Repentance is God knows a melancholly duty It calls us to another kind of life than that we have been used to or indeed for the most part do at all desire to be acquainted with He that will put it in practise must expect to meet with no small difficulties in the setting out and few there are who have Constancy enough to go through them all and therefore no wonder if we find the generality of Men so little care to set about a work that is so hard and discouraging to the most resolute Undertakers of it Now 't is this makes them willing to meet these troubles as late as ever they can When their years run deep and their Lusts fail them and they can no longer pursue the Pleasures of this World then they suppose it will be time enough to think of the other And they see no reason why they may not hope as well to be accepted then as others who in like manner have come in at the Eleventh hour and yet received as great a reward as those that had born the heat and burthen of the day But this is indeed as unreasonable a ground for any one to delay his Repentance as either of the foregoing For 1 st They cannot endure to set about their duty immediately because of the trouble and difficulty which they apprehend in it I will not now enquire how they are sure it is so troublesome and difficult a thing to fulfil their duty as they suppose it to be seeing they have never yet tried it to be convinced by their own Experience that it is so This only I would know Will it become ever the more easie for their deferring of it Nay but on the contrary I shall hereafter shew that the longer it is deferr'd the harder it will prove to us And were it not so yet since 't is necessary some time or other to Repent and so Dangerous to die ere we have done it Certainly the more difficult a thing it is the sooner we ought to set about it whilst we may have yet the time by the Grace of God to accomplish it And then 2 dly For that poor presumption That others have done this and yet were saved at the last and why therefore may not we be so too Though I will not say that none who have put off the business of their Repentance to the last have ever gone to Heaven yet I must needs say I fear that but few have done so I do not remember in all the Holy Scripture more than One Instance of the Salvation of a dying Penitent and that so extraordinary in all its Circumstances that it cannot with any reason be made a Precedent by us for the likes Hopes I mean that of the Thief upon the Cross And even of Him too it does not appear that ever he deferr'd his Repentance or put it off purposely to that as the most convenient Season And for those who came in at the Eleventh hour and yet were received I shall only say thus much That they came in as soon as they were called and did not refuse to go into the Vineyard at the Third hour because they thought it was too soon and their Laziness prompted them to decline their work till the Heat and Burden of the day was past In short He that delays his Repentance upon this prospect that he may do it hereafter as well as now ought first to have very well consider'd these two things 1 st Is he sure that he shall live to that time which he so warily allots to this great work For if he be not then I am sure he lives in danger of Eternal damnation all the while he neglects to enter on a state of Piety and Religion and chuses rather to hazard his Everlasting Happiness than to put himself upon a Work that yet must be done or he shall remain for ever miserable 2 dly Is he certain that though he should live to that time yet that then God will give him Grace to repent That his Aversion to his duty shall not be greater then than it is now and his Unwillingness encrease the more the older he grows in his Sins and Impenitence What the satisfaction of Mens Lusts may be I cannot tell but certainly if they have any thoughts at all of their Future state and do indeed believe a Judgment to come such dangers as these cannot chuse but amaze them and their disquiets at the Apprehension that by thus deferring their Repentance they may possibly lose their Souls for ever infinitely outweigh whatever Pleasures they can in the mean time propose to themselves by going on a little longer in their Wickedness But I must not insist upon these things and therefore 4 thly
or to repent them of their Sins have been so far indisposed to all the Offices of Religion that their longer respite has proved of no more advantage to them than if they had not had the least notice of their approaching End These are things which every Discourse of Mortality for the most part abounds with and a daily Experience renders any long insisting upon them needless to us We live in the midst of the Monuments of Death Thousands fall every day besides us and ten thousands at our right hand And it is only of the Mercy of God that we are yet alive to consider these things and to prepare to die And sure then it cannot but be a very great danger as it is certainly a very great presumption in any Man to neglect this and defer his Repentance to such a Time as he can never be sure he shall live to see And this is an Argument which every man 's own reason will at the first view offer to him to convince him of the danger of procrastinating his Repentance And such as ought never the less to be consider'd because it lies so obvious to our understandings as to be the common Topick of every one in the managing of this Exhortation But yet since such is the Infirmities of our Nature that we are apt to overlook many times what is the nearest to us and common Arguments like other ordinary things are not usually so much regarded as otherwise the true weight and value of them would deserve they should be I will endeavour to improve this useful Reflection by desiring these two things may be farther considered in it and which perhaps are not so commonly attended to 1 st Whether he who delays his Repentance now out of a prospect that he shall hereafter have time enough to enter upon the practise of it does not besides the danger which arises from the common uncertainty of life and the miseries and casualties that ordinarily accompany it to prevent his Repenting at all expose himself moreover by this very thing to the particular hazard of the Judgment of God to cut him off in the midst of his Sins What such Persons as these may think of their putting off their Repentance to some future season I cannot tell But I must confess when I consider the full import of it I cannot but look upon this as one of the most provoking Crimes in the World Nor do I think it possible for any man to add a higher Aggravation to his Sins than being admonish'd of his danger and so far convinced of the necessity of Repenting as to resolve some time or other to enter upon it nevertheless still to go on in his Evil way and desperately resolve not to begin to be religious till things are come to the very last Extremity and it is absolutely necessary for the saving of his Soul For 1 st He who neglects to repent at the present out of a presumption that he shall hereafter have Time enough to do it when Age and Infirmities are crept upon him and he is no longer in a Condition to pursue the pleasures of his Sins What does he but in effect declare that the best of his Time is fit to be consecrated to the service of his Sins and the refuse only to be reserved for God which he knows not well otherwise how to dispose of I need not say how reproachful a thing this must be to Religion to esteem it a Work fit only for that part of our lives in which we are not good for any thing besides But sure I am that Man must have a very mean Notion of God Almighty who can think him of so Easie a Temper and so indulgent to Sinners as to be willing to receive them at any rate and after all the Indignity and Scorn with which they have treated Him all their life-long to be glad to take them upon their own Terms and rather than go without them to accept even of this slight and seeming submission from them It must be confess'd indeed that great is the mercy and long-suffering of God beyond any thing we are able to express or to conceive But then there is mercy with him that he may be served and feared not affronted and abused by us His Goodness leads to Repentance but gives no encouragement to our Impenitence And he who thinks that God will accept the Refuse of his Time after a long life spent in the service of sin and the business of Religion put off on purpose to this last period as supposing it would then be soon enough to provide for Eternity will I fear instead of an Acceptance meet with the same reproof those of old in the like case did who kept the best of their Flocks and of their Herds for themselves and offered to him the Blind and the Lame and the Sick for sacrifice Mal. i. 10.14 I have no pleasure in you saith the Lord of Hosts neither will I accept an Offering at your hands Cursed be the deceiver that hath in his flock a male and voweth and sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing For I am a great King saith the Lord of Hosts and my name is dreadful among the heathen But 2dly He who thus delays his Repentance does not only provoke God by continuing at the present in sin and that too out of an unwarrantable presumption that he shall be accepted at the last though in the mean time he continues Impenitent but 't is plain has no true Honour for God at all nor thinks of Repenting even then because he loves God and desires to please him but merely because he is afraid he shall otherwise be damn'd and lose his Soul to all Eternity For else had such a one any real sense of Religion or did he even then intend in good earnest to set about the practice of it it is not to be imagined wherefore it is that he at present neglects the performance of it Nor can any other account be given why he does not begin the next moment to be religious but only this that he does not truly love God nor desire to serve him nor by his good will would ever think of doing of it Now this will yet more aggravate the heinousness of such a delay and betray a desperate contempt of the Divine Goodness and Wisdom As if God either were not able to discover our Hypocrisie and distinguish between a real Penitent and a pretending Votary or would otherwise so far connive at it as to accept of a shadow of Repentance a form of Godliness reserved on purpose for the last business of our lives and then too put on only because it could no longer be deferr'd not out of any love to God or Religion but merely for fear of his Eternal Vengeance And when such is the desperate Provocation which every Sinner by delaying his Repentance adds to all the rest of his Impieties I cannot but think we ought
constant performance of Piety and Good-Works But now 2dly If the Question be of a dying Penitent then indeed it will be a matter of more difficulty to answer it For if on the one hand I may not be so uncharitable as to conclude at all adventures the utter invalidity of such a Repentance because for ought I know 't is possible for a man in the very last act of his life to be struck with such a true contrition for his sins as might if he had lived have produced a real Amendment and then God who is able to discern this will consider him accordingly Yet neither on the other can we ever be sure that such a Repentance is sincere nor by consequence may we at all Adventures supppose in favour of it The truth is a Death-bed Repentance is in the best prospect we can take of it exceeding dangerous and in the case before us I am afraid desperate Nor have we in all the Holy Scripture so much as one Example of any one that purposely put off his Repentance to this time and yet was saved upon it and the Instance of Felix in my Text is a terrible one to the contrary He was touch'd with St. Paul's Preaching and feared the Judgment of which he spake But he put off the Apostle to a more convenient season and we do not find that ever that more convenient season came or that he had ever any future call to Repentance It is not to be question'd but that if a man be come to this sad pass he ought by all means to be exhorted to repent because otherwise to be sure he must perish and 't is possible this may save him But what that Repentance is which a wicked man then exercises we cannot tell and the effect of it must be left to God's Judgment to declare and it will be our parts instead of being over-inquisitive into these secrets to be careful not to expose our selves to a condition so full of danger in which there is much to be feared but little Hope and no Security And now what more remains to engage us to a speedy or rather to a present Repentance but that having thus largely shewn the danger of deferring our duty I very briefly close all with a more excellent Prospect II dly Of the Comfort and Satisfaction that will arrive to us from the Consideration of having perfected this great and necessary Work This is a Point on which it were as easie to speak great things as I think 't is needless so to do If to Live in a State of Friendship with God and to be able to look forward into Eternity with Comfort If to be freed from the stings of Conscience and the Terrors of Everlasting Punishment and instead thereof to be full of a well-grounded Confidence that Heaven and all its Glories shall be one day Ours in short If there be any such thing as a Felicity to be attain'd either in this World or in the Next such a Christian as this possesses it all For he enjoys the Love the Favour of that God who is the Great dispenser of all Good both in Heaven and Earth O the Peace and the Tranquility The Pleasure and the Satisfaction of that Man who lives in such a State as this Whose Conscience acquits him whose Innocence supports him in the midst of Dangers whose Piety and Virtue chear his Soul and fill it with the most excellent Comforts whose Present Condition is full of Hope and whose Future Prospect is to be for Ever Happy How will such a Christian as this Triumph over all the Miseries and despise the Blandishments of a vain uncertain sinful World Even Death its self the last and greatest of Terrors will not be able to amaze him But rather He will welcome it with a chearful mind and with St. Paul desire to depart and to be with Christ whilst able with him to cry out I have fought a good fight I have finish'd my Course I have kept the faith Henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which God the Righteous Judge shall give me at that day But O Wretched Sinner Who by thy unreasonable Delays in a matter of such vast concernment both to thy Present and Eternal Happiness not only exposest thy self to the danger of Damnation in the other World but deprivest thy self of the only true and real Felicity of this Men indeed may flatter themselves in their Evil doings and find a great deal of seeming satisfaction in their ways of Wickedness But when all is done the Remembrance of this one thing That in a little time they must die and come to Judgment will ever and anon come in and embitter all their Enjoyments and convince them that 't is the way of Piety that alone is the way of pleasantness and her paths the paths of peace But I must not pursue these Reflections any farther I will therefore conclude this whole Argument with those excellent Words of the Son of Sirach Ecclus. v. xviii Make no long tarrying to turn unto the Lord and put not off from day to day Before Judgment examine thy self and in the day of Visitation thou shalt find mercy Humble thy self before thou be sick and in the time of sins show repentance Let nothing hinder thee to pay thy Vows in due time and defer not until death to be justified AN EXHORTATION To Mutual Charity and Union AMONG PROTESTANTS IN A SERMON Preach'd before the KING and QUEEN AT HAMPTON-COURT MAY 21. 1689. ROM XV. 5 6 7. Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like-minded one towards another according to Christ Jesus That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorifie God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Wherefore receive ye one another as Christ also received us to the glory of God THE Words are part of that affectionate Application which the Apostle here makes of his excellent Discourse concerning the Exercise of Christian Charity in that great Instance of Condescension to the Infirmities of our Weaker Brethren in the foregoing Chapter The Occasion of it was this There were in those first times many among the Jews who tho' they were converted to the Christian Faith yet still continued zealous for the Law and not only carefully observed themselves all the Rites and Ceremonies of it but would also by any means impose upon all others also the observance of them And how earnest they were upon this account and how much they hated the Gentile Converts upon whom the Apostles did not think fit to lay any such burden many Passages both in the Acts and in St. Paul's Epistles do sufficiently declare But as in all other differences it seldom happens that the whole heat of the Controversie rests only on one side so here tho' the Jewish Converts were both the first beginners of this Dispute and the more zealous pursuers of it yet
But what now was the issue of all this Were they utterly destroy'd according to this Prophecy Nay but on the contrary God was yet intreated for them and spar'd them So we read ver 10. the City believed and feared God and turn'd from their Evil way And God repented of the Evil that he said he would do unto them and he did it not Jonah 3. And what must the Consequence of all these Reflections be but to engage us not to despise the Goodness of God whereby he thus graciously invites us to Repentance but to conclude with Holy David Psal. cxxx 3 If thou LORD shouldst be extream to mark what is done amiss O God who may abide it But there is Mercy with thee therefore shalt thou be feared And what I have now said of Gods's mercy in General will yet more hold in the other Part of this Character wherein is set out to us in Particular Secondly His great unwillingness to pronounce any Judgments at all against Sinners and his readiness to recall them upon their Repentance He is slow to Anger and repenteth him of the Evil. And because I would now were I able speak not so much to your Reason as to your Sense and Experience to your Consciences and Affections I will for the Proof of this no more lead you back to the Israelites in this Prophecy to Past-times and unknown Countries but will rather desire you to consider your own Times your own Country and if you will allow me freely to add it your own Souls Which of all these will not afford me an evident Demonstration of the Patience and long-suffering of God And speak him in the words of the Text to be a God slow to Anger and that repenteth him of the Evil That after so many Sins as we have every one the very best of us committed we are yet alive this day whereas God might if he had pleased long since have cut us off in the midst of our Sins That after so many calls and invitations as he has sent to bring us to Repentance he is still pleased to call and to invite us to it That notwithstanding we have so far abused his Goodness and long-suffering as to improve that which above all things should have the most engaged us to our Duty into an encouragement to go on the rather in our Sins he nevertheless still continues to us the Offers of Pardon and Peace if we will even now in this our day consider the things that make for our Peace What is all this but a most Demonstrative as well as a most Affectionate Proof that God is indeed slow to anger not willing that any should perish but that all should come to Repentance That he has deliver'd us out of so many dangers in which but for his Providence over us we must long since have perish'd That he has smitten us in Mercy and not in Judgment to correct and admonish not to ruine and destroy us That upon our deprecating his Anger he has at any time heard our Prayers and answer'd our Desires What is this but a plain Evidence that he smites not willingly nor loves to afflict the Children of Men and so is a God repenting him of the Evil that he is at any time forced either to threaten us with or to bring upon us And if we look into his Dispensations towards us in the common concern of our Country and our Religion How slow must that God have been to Anger who after so many years Attendance nevertheless still calls upon us as at this day to turn from our Evil way and from the violence that is in our Hands that our Iniquity may not be our ruine And for his repenting him of the Evil which we have sometimes forced him by our continual Provocations to send upon us Let the Instances which we our selves have known suffice to tell us how unwilling he has shewn himself to bring us to an utter desolation When it pleased God for our iniquities to despise in his indignation both the King and the Priest and by the deplorable Judgment of Civil Confusions had proved and exercised us about Twenty Years with what a Miracle of Mercy did he turn again the Captivity of our Sion and restore to us both our Government and Religion as before When this would not do but our Sins and our Prosperity return'd together so that we were again in a very few years become ripe for Judgment He called forth a destroying Angel He put a new Sword into his Hand and commanded him to slay his Thousands and Ten Thousands in our Streets The PLAGUE consum'd our Strength and hardly was that pass'd when another Vengeance a devouring FIRE such as scarce any Age or Country has ever heard of burnt down our Dwellings And had not the Hand of God wonderfully interposed we must have been as Sodom and we should have been like unto Gomorrha And yet how did he then cover us with his Hand in that day of his displeasure He neither suffer'd our Enemies to invade us from abroad nor any Domestick Quarrels to embroil us at home He preserved us in Peace he sent again the Blessings of Plenty and Prosperity among us and our City is risen more Great and Glorious out of its Ashes What shall I say to the fears and jealousies we have labour'd under since from a restless Party Enemies to the Name of Protestant and by Principle conjured if they can to root it out of the World In how many dangers has God delivered us And how many Designs for ought we know may he have prevented which have not yet been brought to light And when at last either to awaken us the more effectually to a Repentance of our Sins or it may be to accomplish the number of their Iniquities he deliver'd us over for a little while into the Hands of our Enemies and to convince the most incredulous among us what the true Spirit of prevailing Popery is suffer'd them with such an inconsiderate Fury to pursue our Ruine That no Ties either of God or Man were sufficient to restrain them but all Obligations whether of Justice or Conscience were equally trampled under their feet How did it then please our Almighty Defender to assert his Character of being a God repenting him of the evil that he had brought upon us in a manner that is the Wonder and Astonishment of the present and that I am perswaded shall be the Praise and Triumph of his Church in all succeeding Generations He raised us up a Deliverer out of the House of his Servant David He touch'd his Princely Heart with a generous Sense both of the Evils which we had suffer'd and of the greater that we apprehended His Honour and his Zeal enflamed him to do somewhat worthy Himself and that might answer the mighty Hopes God had prepared us to conceive of Him He meditated the great Work of delivering our Country from Oppression and
our Religion from Destruction And by the Blessing of God he accomplish'd it in a manner so extraordinary in all its Circumstances as I think should not suffer us to doubt from whose Providence it was that this Redemption was sent to us This was the Lord's doing and whatever it is I am sure ought to be marvellous in our Eyes And may I think be a final I hope it shall be an effectual Confirmation to us of this Great Engagement of our Text to turn to him with all our hearts viz. That he is a God repenting him of the evil and therefore whose Mercy if we now truly do so we may securely depend upon both for the forgiveness of our sins and for our deliverance from those dangers which our sins have so justly exposed us to And now what remains but that having all these great Encouragements such Promises or rather such an Earnest of God's Favour to us we resolve every of one of us seriously to comply with the great Design both of this Day and of this Discourse and by our sincere Repentance for our past Offences obtain that Blessing we so much desire both for our Country and for our Religion Never was there a time wherein we had greater Reason to hope for God's Acceptance than at this Day and such an Occasion as this to implore his Favour there may not perhaps again occur in the Course of many Ages For indeed what is it that we are now assembled to recommend to His Mercy but in Effect the preservation of our Selves our Laws our Liberties and our Religion against the Violence of those who have long conspired both Their and Our Destruction That be would preside in our Councils and go forth with our Armies and so direct the one and prosper the other that we may again enjoy the Blessings of Peace and Security that there may be no decay no leading into Captivity and no just complaining in our Streets And this he will do if we be not our selves wanting to our own Preservation Only let us act as becomes Good Christians and True Englishmen let us do all things for the Glory of God and for the Safety Honour and Welfare of our Country In the words of Joab to his Brother Abishai upon an Occasion not much different from our own at this time Let us be strong and of good Courage and let us play the Men for our People and for the Cities of our God and then he will not fail us nor forsake us But if instead of pursuing the things that make for our Peace we shall still go on to precipitate our own Destruction If when we are call'd this Day to turn unto the LORD our God with all our hearts and with fasting and with weeping and with mourning we shall instead thereof fast only for strife and for debate If when we should be here prostrating our selves before the LORD to implore the Completion of that Great Deliverance he has begun to work for us we shall on the contrary continue ungratefully to murmur against his Providence and be ready almost to implead his Justice for what he has already done and with those repining Israelites of old be looking back again to our Egyptian Bondage when we are brought even within prospect of the Promised Land In a word If when we should be uniting our selves against the Common Enemy of our Country and Christendom we shall suffer a Spirit of Faâ—tion and Sedition of Mutiny and Discontent of private Interests and unseasonable Resentments to distract our Councils and divide us against one another What can we then expect but that God should at last give us over into the hands of our Enemies and make those that hate us to rule over us Wherefore now arise O ye Worthies ye Chosen and Counsellors of our Israel Consult consider and resolve And may the God of Heaven the God before whom we are here assembled this Day He who has and does and we trust will still deliver us our Rock and our Defence against the Face of our Enemies so direct and prosper all your Consultations that the Children which are yet unborn may rise up in their Generations and call you Blessed when they shall enjoy the Benefits of that Peace and Security which we trust shall descend to them through your Wise and Vigorous Resolutions Behold this day the Eyes not of your own Nation only but of all the Nations round about us fix'd upon you The Fortunes I do not say of every single Person among you tho' that were somewhat nor yet of your own Country and Religion only which ought to be much more valued but what is still more considerable than all this the Fortunes of all the Reformed Churches and distressed Countries of Europe depending on the Success of our present Enterprizes This is the fatal Crisis that must secure or ruine both them and us for ever May the Consideration of all these things inspire every one of you with a Spirit suitable both to our present Needs and to that great trust that is here committed to you A Spirit of Wisdom and Vnderstanding a Spirit of Prudence and Discretion a Spirit of Charity and Moderation but above all with a Spirit of Piety and Vnity that being endu'd with all these excellent Qualities ye may become the Repairers of our Breaches the Restorers of our almost lost and trampled Liberties the Defenders of our Faith the Support of your Country the Avengers of your barbarously abus'd Allies the Scourge and Terror of the Vniversal Enemy of Truth Peace Religion Nature In short of all the common Laws and Rights both of God and of all Mankind May your Councils be govern'd with such a Calmness and Temper as may settle and compose all the unquiet and dissatisfied Spirits if there be any yet remaining among us and suffer none to regret our wonderful Preservation but those only whose fury had once prompted them to attempt and whose Principles still carry them on to desire even when they are not able to accomplish our Destruction May your Resolutions be as speedy as the publick Necessities are pressing and their Execution be accompanied with a Fidelity and Success that may equal not only our Expectation but even our very Hopes and our Desires And for the obtaining of all these Blessings and whatever else may serve to make these Kingdoms Happy May we all this day fast the fast which the Lord has chosen to loose the bands of wickedness to undo the heavy burdens and to let the Oppressed go free Let us confess our wickedness and be sorry for our sins Let us turn to the LORD our God with all our heart and with fasting and with weeping and with mourning Let us deal our Bread to the Hungry and bring the Poor to our Houses So shall we call and the Lord shall answer we shall cry and he shall say Here I am Our light shall break forth as
the Pardon and Salvation of Mankind than by the Death of his Son For since it was the Pleasure of God to pitch upon this way of doing it to what purpose is it for us vainly to enquire whether he might not have made use of some other This we ought at least to believe That God had his Reasons for preferring this and that however we ought not so far to tye up the Power and Liberty of our Creator as to presume to say he could not otherwise have redeem'd us than by the Death of Christ yet thus much we may and 't is our duty to conclude That none could have better or so well have answer'd the great Ends both of his Justice and of his Mercy or more illustriously have set forth the Riches of his Love and Favour to Mankind or more powerfully have engaged us to a suitable return of Love to him or more clearly have convinced us of the hatred of God to Sin or more effectually have stir'd us up to our utmost endeavours to live as we ought to do and as becomes those who had been so wonderfully redeem'd by the precious Blood of the Son of God himself But though this then be a Question otherwise of more Curiosity than Vse and raised for the most part rather to cavil at Religion than to magnifie the Power of it yet may it here perhaps be of some benefit to us to fill our Souls with the highest resentments of Love and Gratitude to our Great Redeemer to consider not only from what Miseries he has delivered us but with what a freedom and readiness and good-will to us he did it No God was not constrain'd nor any necessity put upon our Saviour Christ as if either the one must have died or that the other could not by any other means have reconciled Mankind unto himself It was the free Choice of both by this means the better to magnifie their Love to us and to secure our Love and Duty to them again that so as St. John says 1 Ep. iv 19 We may love God because he first loved us Hence it is that the Holy Scriptures every where set out to us the whole business of our Salvation as the effect of the free Choice and Pleasure of God So says St. John cap. iii. 16 God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life So says St. Paul 2 Tim. i. 9 where he makes the business of our Redemption to have been the eternal purpose of God before Adam had yet sinned or by consequence before there could be any necessity of Christ's dying for us who hath saved us says he and called us with an Holy Calling not according to our works but according to his own purpose and Grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the World began And of our Blessed Saviour the same Apostle tells us not only that He gave Himself for us Tit. ii 14 but that he did it with all imaginable readiness and with the same good-will with which God designed it Lo I come says he to fulfil thy Will O God Heb. x. 7 9. And again in St. John speaking of laying down his life for us he declares ver 18. No man taketh it from me but I lay it down of my self I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again Such therefore was the love of our Blessed Saviour to us in freely giving up himself to the Death for us And for the reason that induced him to it and the benefits which thereby accrue to us I shall not need to say either what or how great they were Indeed the time would fail me should I go about particularly to lay them all before you Miserable was the State and deplorable the Condition of Mankind beyond any thing that we are able almost to conceive We were all dead in Trespasses and Sins and must for ever have lain both under the Guilt and Punishment of our Transgressions had not the Blessed Jesus opened to us the Gates of Heaven and sealed a Gospel of Repentance with his own Blood for the Remission of our Sins Our Nature was decayed and that he has restored so that whereas before we had no sufficiency of our selves we have now a sufficiency of God and can do all things through Christ that strengthens us Our Sins had got the dominion over us and these he has not only very much prevented by his Grace but will also utterly wipe away by his Death and Satisfaction for us We were under a miserable Sentence of Death and Judgment But Christ has now took away the sting of the one and the danger of the other so that our Temporal Death is no longer a Punishment but rather a Blessing to us and the Eternal Judgment of God shall instead of being our Condemnation prove to us perfect Absolution and a glorious Reward This is the blessed Change which has been made in our Condition and which certainly ought to render the remembrance of our Text most dear and precious to us But I must not insist any longer upon this Point I am persuaded there is no one that now hears me so ignorant in the great Mystery of Godliness as not to be fully acquainted with this first and chiefest Foundation of all our Faith Nor have I mentioned that little which I have now remark'd of it so much to instruct you in what you ought to make a great part of your Memorial when you come to this Holy Sacrament as rather if it shall please God to stir up some Affections both in my self and you that may be suitable to a serious Reflection on all these things There being nothing it may be in the World more apt to fill our Souls with that due resentment we then especially ought to have of the Death of Christ when we come to this Sacred Memorial of it than to consider the wretched condition from which we were delivered by it nor more apt to engage us to live as becomes those who have been freed from such unspeakable Miseries and are now put into a capacity of Everlasting Glory and without which our remembrance of him in this Sacrament will be a Reproach and a Scandal not an Honour and a Service to him we shall forfeit all the benefits of that Death we are call'd to commemorate and as our Apostle phrases it ver 29. of this Chapter Eat and drink our own Damnation not discerning the Lord's Body This is the first thing we are to do in pursuance of the Command of the Text This do in Remembrance of Me. Secondly This remembring of Christ in this Holy Sacrament will oblige us to consider what that Death and Passion was which he underwent for our sakes and commanded us in this place to continue the Memory of in this Institution And this to be sure must be the proper business of every one when