dependences together with earnestest Application to the Grace of God These unclean Spirits therefore that dissemble a retreat return immediately and make a Prey of the deluded Soul Acts 19.14 c. 3. Although Heaven and Hell Happiness and Misery take up the thoughts of a true Penitent yet not separated from God and Christ but as it were compounded into the Sense of God angry and the desire of Attonement with him in Jesus Christ. Happiness and Misery considered apart are not the object of the gracious Soul But God and Christ considered apart are an infinitely sufficient Reason of Repentance The clear love of God upwards the Soul as a Father in Christ without Reflections upon Happiness is though not the single yet the paramount Consideration in Repentance unfeigned But Men a Dying are generally so over-possessed with the Terrors of an Eternal Suffering and meer desires of Freedom from pain and of well-being and so in haste that they generally miss these higher Considerations which being further off not only from corrupt Nature but even from natural Conscience are not commonly espied but therefore argue greater Sincerity and truth of Heart 4. The truest Repentance lies in the bosom of Faith the apprehensions of the Love and Goodness of God in Christ melt the Soul and give it most perfect Separation from Sin the most effectual Purification of the Heart all which express the height of Repentance Upon the soft Fire of the pardoning Goodness of God the Soul most kindly distils into repentant Tears Here flows that Spirit of Grace and ingenuous Goodness which bringeth forth the clearest and holiest Affection towards God But at the time we are now speaking of It is very seldom that either Horror or Presumption do not swallow all Presumption where there is little Sense or Judgment of the Case Horror where the Judgment is clearer and the Sense quicker for evey thing disposes now rather to Fear and to the Spirit of Bondage Rom. 8.15 and a Man naturally does all he does under a servile dread of God and his Eternal Justice And though there may be much mention of Christ and desire of Mercy through him yet it is but as a Malefactor convicted beseeches the Mercy of the Judge no otherwise than as of a Judge So such call out for the Mercy of God to pardon them but still as a Judge not with the Spirit of the Son sent into the Heart the Spirit of Adoption crying Abba Father Nor with that love that casteth out unworthy Fear Gal. 4.6 And indeed how can it be otherwise there having been no acquaintance with God in the way Job 22.21 but a long Enmity and the time now too strait for a free and full Consideration of the riches of Grace such as may still an awakened Conscience Fear presses in every way and shuts out Faith What can now redeem the Soul from this hellish Terror but a light from Heaven immediately darting into it a Grace above that Grace that ordinarily saves Men For a well setled Trust and Confidence in Mercy according to the general Rule is not but after some sad debates and experimental Consultations that have passed between the sense of Sin and the affiancing Acts of the Soul upon Christ This Repentance then is in great danger of missing the Spirit of the Gospel and falling into the Rank of those Repentances of Cain Esau Judas This I have endeavoured to shew that though we suppose a Dying Man to spread his Soul and Thoughts every way and to all the parts of Repentance yet it is extremely to be suspected there will want the true and right quality of them in regard of the very disadvantageous Circumstances wherein such an one is found and the great unfitness of the Soul at that time to begin to do anything worthy to which it hath not been before inured or if it did begin it would be much more unlikely to bring forth fruit as our Saviour speaks to perfection Luke 8.14 I add nothing of the Exercises of a full and well grown Repentance whereby it is daily espying the risings of Sin and suppressing them and filling up the Defects of Holiness and Obedience because they are not to be thought possible in the point I am now speaking of and I have already given a Resolution in that Case I shall now set my self to find out the low Causes that are alway to be suspected to have the great Influence upon such a Latter-end Penitency In general therefore we must take notice that there are several vapors of misapprehension rising upon the Soul when we are a Dying that do so disguise it to it self and disfigure the true face of it that from thence arise dangerous Mistakes concerning a Mans Condition towards God We see into how many shapes upon ordinary Occurrences we change and how easily we exchange them for quite different without any good Cause what continual Ebbs and Flows there are of the Humours and how do these cast the Ballance of the Superiour Soul One Man is every hour some several sorts of Men. How much more do great Accidents and removes out of one Condition into another alter us Which yet are but the sudden and just now state of our Minds upon such Alterations which not continuing we return to our former Figure Vnstable and weak as water Gen. 49.3 we take the form of every Vessel we are put into Who knows then whether his Dying Repentance be any more than the Mould not of his Mind but of his Dying Condition approaching him big with so great a Change We know many things befal us in our Lives which put a greater sense of Religion upon us than we find at other times and yet how variable are we our goodness at such times is as the Morning Dew and as the early Dew it goeth away Hose 6.4 How often are we from the occasions of Mercies Afflictions Fears Hopes good Discourses carried into high Apprehensions of God And we lose them again we know not how Now out of doubt a Dying Condition of any thing we meet with in the World is most apt to move us upon God and a Sense of him But can we think Those fleeting Shoots of the Soul that have no certainty are accepted for Repentance How strangely doth Melancholly and Oppressions of that transform Men which when it falls upon the Motions of Conscience gives us strong Imaginations of Eternal Things which yet being nothing but the cast of that Melancholly upon the Thoughts when that is removed they are quite of another hue It is evident the Mind sees much through the Body and the Representations are coloured by its Temper As the Eye sees through yellow or green Glass differently from the things themselves So the Serenity or Cloudiness of the Humours makes a different Reflection of things upon the Mind and the liveliness or heaviness of the Spirits incline us to very varying Apprehensions Now what time is more like to be so incumber'd with
this thing in the Gospel let us therefore by Repentance press home and return to God in Christ 2. Again Repentance is the gift of God a Grace given by him If God peradventure will give Repentance and then hath God granted unto the Gentiles Repentance unto Life Christ is a Prince and Saviour raised up by God to give Repentance 2 Tim. 2.25 Acts 5.31 and Remission of Sins So Repentance is a Gift or a Grace It cannot be Educed it cannot be drawn out by anâ— Powers of Nature It is not of Man or of the Will of Man It is not of Bloods It is not by Derivation or Descent from Adam It does not run in the Channel of Human Blood God therefore does not give such Grace in Vain but when he hath settled a Fund of Pardon Reconcilement and Salvation He first settled that else Repentance had been in Vain as the Eye would have been if God had not first made Light Light is alone in Christ He does not give Grace that shall be to no purpose he gives no man the Repentance he will not Accept and Pardon upon He does not expose his own Grace to Damnation or to the Flames of Hell nor does he give any Grace but in the Mediator in the Redeemer So the Redemption of Christ must needs be the Foundation of Repentance there had never been else the Notion the possibility of Repentance there had never been the sound or report of it heard in the World This then being the Foundation let us take the true degrees of the state of Repentance in two Positions Posit 1. God hath wriâ—ten in the very Heart of Man the excellency of this Grace â—nd Duty of Repentance thaâ— it is not far from him that he should go up into Heaven Rom. 10. or down into the Deep or beyond the Sea for it It is in his Heart So the Knowledg of it is very near him God hath also put a Tenderness towards it a Flexibleness he hath made the Soul of Man the Conscience and Affections plyable to it And this we shall see is from the Mediator I confess this may seem hard to be understood seeing Repentance is fitted and prepared for a sinful fallen Creature Now in that man was at first Created upright and perfect and good and what was written in mans Heart was written there in his Creation what place could there be for Repentance Adam was so righteous a person he could need no Repentance why then should repentance be written in his Heart And yet notwithstanding we find by experience and universal Observation It is a notion very intimate to every mans Soul and even indear'd to his Thoughts Every man seems to be glad there is such a notion such an Idea in his Soul and they that hear of it and know it from Scripture acknowledg immediately the goodness and reasonableness of it and rejoyce in it And tho a man do not fall down right upon the Practise of it yet he is pleased with the promise to himself he will at some time repent and reform and grow better and there is proportionably a general Faith Repentance will be accepted and the repenting Offender Pardoned If men are told they must of necessity change repent and reform from their sinful courses If they are perswaded to become other men they are not so apt to be Angry but rather say Acts 24.25 They will take a convenient time for it tho Temptation carry them away yet they heartily Embrace the thing it self as to the assent and submission and acknowledgment that it ought to be so Men are convinc'd that while they defer to enter into the Practise that yet they ought to repent This I assert is through the Grace of the Redeemer I would therefore endeavour to find out how this notion of repentance comes to be so very intimate and connatural to mans Soul and with such a Engraven Engrafted Hope and belief of Pardon upon it How it comes to pass that the demands of Natural Conscience do so wonderfully lead to Repentance and are like those of Natural Justice and common Honesty of Soberness and Temperance of Truth Mercy and Compassion or whatever is accepted in the World as morally good and excellent and even as the deep impressions of natural Religion sense of God and obedience to him All these give an honour â—o Repentance exert and urge the Soul to it By the same sentiments of Soul we allow the one we allow the other also If the remains of natural Conscience call a man out to the one they summon him to the other also And yet all this I affirm is from the Grace of the Redeemer And this I would make out by two things 1. The Lord Jesus Christ the one Mediator between the one God and man who is the Light that Lighteth every Man that commeth into the World 1 Tim. 2.5 John 1 9. Heb. 1.3 hath natural Conscience under his hand and upholdeth all things â—ven as Redeemer by the word of his Power He thâ—n bears up that Law of Holiness engraven on mans Heart in Creation he holds up that rational Moral Frame he keeps that Light that Candle or Taper of God in mans Spirit that it may not be a Lamp put out in obscure Darkness Through him therefore there are remains of that excellent Image wherein Man was first Created even in that Knowledg Righteousness and true Holiness so that Man does not sink either into that blackness of darkness an utter Ignorance of God and insensibleness of him or into an extreme hatred and enmity to God and all Goodness as damned Spirits do Here is the great Efficacy of the Mediator that he shores up and staies this Law of Original Goodness and Holiness in Mans Heart that it does not slide utterly away nor sink 2. Through the Redeemer there is yet so gracious an Administration of the Government of the World the Vengeance of God his just Indignation and Fury against a sinful World and against particular Sinners is restrained God Refrains himself in and through Christ and does not speedily execute Judgment He Exercises an admirable Patience and long Suffering Jere. 9.24 and loving Kindness in the Earth The Earth is full of his Goodness in the midst of much Provocation Lamen 3.22 Malac. 3.6 It is of his tender Mercy we are not Consumed and because his Compassions fail not I am the Lord I change not therefore you the Children of Men are not Consumed The Lord is gracious merciful long-suffering slow to wrath Exod. 34.6 and of great mercy And all this is very Visible every Man may see it Job 36.25 Man may behold it afar off The Heaven and the Earth the Sun and the Moon and the Stars Proclaim it every motion of Nature within and without us Psal 136. tell us that his mercy endureth for ever Now these two laid together explain to us how Repentance is through the Grace of the
Instruction c. 33 16. c. 36.10 This is that earnest motion of Natural Conscience to take fast hold of Repentance to return all it can after it hath lost its Inocency Purity and â—erfection of Righteousness and Obedience even as it should have mov'd first powerfully and effectually against sin and to good and the same motion of Natural Conscience that is to the one is to the other also when it is stirr'd up by further Gâ—ace from the Spirit of God and there are generally such motions as argue this work in the Heart when the Conscience is not depriv'd of sense Feeling Vigor not twice Dead pull'd up by the roots deliver'd up to a reprobate sense and when God hath given so great and gracious Aussrance that Repentance shall find Plâ—ce for it self That this state is not Hell either in regard of the height of Wickedness or unpardonableness it is an easy and very Intelligible Declination of Conscience from the Azimuth the highest point of Innocency to the next point Repentance which by the righteousness and obedience of the Redeemer shall transcend the very first heighth But that indeed is known by Revelation and not by Natural Light But take Repentance as it is the necessary reserve after sin and that God hath provided it a Place so it is near and even next to Natural Conscience Posit 2. The second position I lay down concerning Repentance and that gives the truest degree of its Elevation through the Redeemer is That the word of God in the Old and New Testament gives the clearest and fullest knowledg of Repentance and of the Divine Spring of it the grace of God in Christ and the blessed operation of the Holy Spirit through his Redemption Repentance therefore is found to be one of the principal Doctrines of Scripture whein it is conveyed unto us under all the variety and complex of Notions that can express so great a point to us viz. remembring bethinking turning converting renewing amending searching and Trying our ways turning to the Lord bringing forth fruits meet for Repentance The Revâ—lation of the word of God beyond all expression excells Natural Knowledg concerning it It opens to us the great Prince the Redeemer and Mediator who gives it a place a possibility he is the Prince whom God hath raised up to make this supreme Donation Acts c. 5.35 c. 3.26 repentance and forgiveness of Sins and blesses in turning us away from every one of our Iniquities Scripture opens to us that great and blessed Spring â—â—d â—fficient of it viz. the true grace of God and the blessed Spirit is the efficient of it It lays before us the great motives of it the sense of the favor and goodness of God who will have mercy Esa 55.7 Heb. c. 12.24 v. 29. and abundantly Pardon seal'd to us by so great an Attonement as the Blood of Jesus speaking better things than the Blood of Abel and on the other side a dread of him who is a consuming fire the living Gâ—d into whose hands in his wrath and displeasure It is a dreadful thing to fall the wrath that is to come 1 Thes 1.10 and ever to come it gives us all the qualifications of it Repentance with the whole Heart turning from all our evil ways and all the evil in our evil ways it moves us with all manner of Applications that may stir us up to it commands exhortations counsels Threats it never leaves speaking Ezek. 18.30 and crying out to us Repent it says to us Repent and turn your selves Matt. 4.17 so Iniquity shall not be your Ruin It preaches Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand Ezek. 18.30 it even weeps over us that we would do it Luke 19.42 Turn you turn you for why will ye Die It weeps when we have not known even we in our day the things of our peace It offers it as the only remedy against Eternal Misery Repentance is advised expresly to five of the seven Churches Revel c. 2. c. 3. to shew the universality and necessity of its use It is one of the great principles of the Doctrine of Christ Heb. 6.1 and thus Repentance is the most Native Domestick Doctrin of the Word of God and of the Gospel of Jesus Christ so that what is found in the Light of Nature serves to these lower purposes only 1. It serves to the purpose of Human Order Government and preservation of the World from falling into a perfect Hell for were there not some sentiments of God of his Mercy and readiness to forgive tending to make men better were there not a sense of the goodness of Righteousness Temperance Mercy and of all Virtue not only as what we should first be but also what we should endeavour to return to when we have Fallen were there not such a thing as Vicious Men being restrain'd from running into utmost excess and extremity and as being reclaimld corrected reform'd moderated and cultivated by precepts of Natural Religion Wisdom add Morality all which flow from and are specimens of the Scripture Doctrin and grace of Repentance the World would be a stye of sensualists and impure Creatures wallowing in bruitish and worse than Swinish Lusts And did not this Notion sweeten men one to another the World would be a Desert or Wilderness of Savage and Wild Beasts tearing in peices one another and both ways a Hell of a World 2. Hereby God will justify himself in the condemnation of the Pagan World that they have not only the Law Written in their Hearts but so much of the Gospel also as this great notion of Repentance Teaches For when the Respit of forty Days imported it to the King and City of Nineveh why should not that Patience wherewith God governs even the Pagan World Preach Repentance to it Why should they not be led to Repentance by the Witness they have of God and of his goodness in giving them fruitful times and seasons and silling their Hearts with food and gladness which he would not leave himself without in his great Wisdom and Righteousness as well as Mercy and Grace How does this riches of Goodness Long-suffering and Forbearance Rom. 2.3.4 if not lead them to Repentance justify their Condemnation who after their hardness and Impenitent Hearts Treasure up to themselves wrath against the day of wrath So that as Niniveh shall rise up in Judgment with those who repented not at the Preaching of Christ the greater than Jonah so it shall rise up in Judgment with other Heathen Nations Cities and People who might by the same proportion have been argued to Repentance so that tho God hath in his supreme Dominion and Justice thought fit to deny them what Christ says They would have repented in Sack-cloth and Ashes upon yet even by the standard of Nineveh's Repentance they 'r not Repenting by that Light they have will be Condemned at the manifestation of that righteous Judgment of Gâ—d the Apostle speaks
and Applying as they find just occasion all the Promises to the True and sincere Repenters and the Denunciations and threatnings to the Obdurate Obstinate and Impenitent Sinners and on Insincere Repentance and if they do this Errante Clave not according to the Truth of the Gospel it neither Binds on Earth nor in Heaven else the Power of the Church or the Ministers were Despotic and Lordly they would Exercise Authority to purpose which Christ says They shall not nor be accounted Evergetae Indulgers of a Repentance however but Counterfeit or Insincere or on the other side Dominate over true Repentanc Luke 22.25 They have no Dominion over their Faith no more have they over their Repentance but are helpers of their Joy or Godly sorrow and the Publishers of the Wrath to come on all obstinate Sinners or Hypocritical Repenters 2 Cor. 1.24 c. 10.6 Answ 3. Although it is indeed the Duty of a sincere Penitent to Ask Forgiveness of those whom they have offended either by Injury or Scandal and to make all the Spiritual Reparations they can in case of Scandal and in and by this Worlds goods as they are able in case of that Kind of Injuries Yet it is also the Duty of those who are or have been so Trespass'd upon either way to Forgive and under that highest Obligation that except they so forgive as They are Commanded their Heavenly Father will not forgive them their Trespasses But whether they do according to their Duty or do not God retains those supreme Keys of Pardon of sin and Absolution of the Penitent in his own Hand and he hath the right and just Title so to do For he is the not only Law-Giver Paramount and if there be no Law of his broken there is no Transgression but if he Pardons and Justifies none can condemn Transgression is Cover'd and taken away whether men forgive or not else they could not be Blessed to whom he imputes not sin if men had power still to Impute it And lastly he is the Sovereign Proprietor the Offender and the Offended are alike his They are both not only his Vassals but have Forfeited themselves and their All to his Justice upon all these Accounts David said against thee Psal 51.4 thee only have I sinned and not against Vriah but in such an Inferiority as that my offence against him is Bound or Loosed as thou Pardonest so then if God Pardons though Vriah's Family or Posterity or himself if he could have surviv'd had not Pardon'd yet God would be Justified in Speaking or declaring David a Pardon'd Sinner and clear in Judging him so in so taking away his Iniquity that he should not Dye for it And this is the true sense of that great Penetential acknowledgment of David and not any intention of setting himself up in his Royal Dignity as above the general and ordinary Rank of Sinners or Offenders He had something else to do when he was thus humbling himself before God and beseeching mercy than to Magnify himself above his fellow Creatures He was laying fast hold of Infinite Power and Grace and Pardon and from which there was no Appeal For unto thee Lord belongs Mercy uncontrollable who hast the Ultimate Judicature of Rendring to the Trespassor and Trespassed according to their Works Now Seeing the generality of Christians trust to death-bed-Death-Bed-Repentance I should give a Resolution to that great and concernful Question whether there be a possibility of a Sinner and saving Death-Bed-Repentance But in answer to that there is added unto this Treatise of Repentance a Discourse Printed several years ago of the same sense and Spirit with this Doctrine of Repentance and is therefore under review and as in second Edition presented with it I will therefore conclude this with some few and short Practical Inferences the whole being compos'd to Use and Practise Infer 1. How admirably Wise and Holy is God in his Grace Mercy and Pardoning Goodness He is not Loose or Prodigal in his Forgiveness but hath provided this Admirable Grace and Duty of Repentance to shew that as he does not cut off Awes of him and Reverential Returns to him by offering no Mercy but giving up to Despair so he does not turn Wild the Hearts and Consciences of them whom he Pardons by Licentious Forgiveness but so stated and bounded that his Grace may not be turn'd to Wantonness And this is the Name of God in the Redeemer he is a Holy and wise Redeemer he does not Redeem without Repentance he hath upon him the Spirit of Wisdom and Vnderstanding and of the Fear of the Lord he is quick of Vnderstanding in the Fear of the Lord he does not judg after the sight of the Eyes nor Reprove after the hearing of the Ears But righteousness is the girdle of his Loyns and Faithfulness the girdle of his Reines Esay 11.2 Let us then aright understanding this Wise Grace of the Gospel as not take Sacriregiously out of it these Richest Jewels of its Wisdom and Holyness denying Repentance in either our Doctrine and Principles or in our Lives and Practise Infer 2. Seeing God hath not only in his Gospel but by the very Law and as I may call it Gospel of Natural Conscience Commanded all Men every where to Repent and Because that is not full enough clear enough to lead to true saving Repentance he hath therefore written it to us with the Sun-beam of his Gospel let us therefore think If it be Intollerable for Tyre and Sidon for Pagans and Indians in the Day of Judgment How much more will it be for us in that day For if they are Condemned who have not Comported with so clear so absolutely necessary so Wise so Holy so every way Rational Gracious Inviting Doctrine made known to be so by a much dimmer Light what will be done to us who have not been drawn and led to it by so Glorious Rayes of the Sun of Righteousness whom such Riches of Goodness have not led to Repentance Infer 3. How Adorable is the Grace of God in Jesus Christ who hath not only given us the Doctrine of Repentance but by his Spirit gives the very Grace it self He hath put no Trust in our own Powers of Vnderstanding Will Affections Natural Conscience Reason or Morality but only in his own Spirit and Grace in his Son nor doth he Accept our Repentance upon its worth valew perfection but wraps it up in the rich Robes of the Righteousness of Jesus Christ and so it is pleasing in his sight so he does not lessen nor derogate from the graciousness of his Gospel by Imposing such a Duty But he magnifies it by giving so high and admirable a Grace and Divine Power within us Infer 4. Seeing Repentance is a Grace of such truly Evangelical Excellencies so agreeable to the Infinite Wisdom and Holiness as well as Mercy and Compassion of the Redeemer let us trie this Gold in the Fire of severest search and examination by the Gospel Light
its Instructions and what seems a Death-bed prove only a Discipline It may be a happy beginning of a true Repentance to him who lives after his being near the Grave to perfect it according to that of Job 33. ver 22 23. Thus this Opinion doth not cut off the Action of its desperate Person and if by that Action he pass the needles Eye and get through the strait Gate of Repentance and Regeneration it will be able to give him no Resistance For those to whom the two-leav'd Gates of Faith and Repentance open this Air of Discourse cannot bar that they should not enter into life But on the other side they that are confident and make themselves sure of Repentance and Mercy cannot when they meet the solid Obstacles of things force their way by the Breath of their Mouth but they and their intended Repentance are together locked up in the closeness and compactedness of those Decrees First They cannot Repent Then they cannot be Saved To conclude let such a Decision of this Case be never so austere it is a thousand times more Just than the delay of our return to God in the Contemplation of doing it at the last can be and the Reasons upon which it is planted are such that though they may not reach the height designed yet do they exclude thousands from Eternal Happiness and although they may not make good the Complement of the Censure yet are they of so awful a regard and so worthy of all Observation that they are most vehemently to be pressed to the main scope that Men would by no means trust to this Extreme Repentance to which purpose I shall hereafter take further advantage of them But let us come to that tenderer apprehension of the generality of Divines with which I will concur that all things of Opinion and Dispute may be taken away in so great a Point Let it then be allowed that a Death-Bed Repentance is no impossibility First in regard of infinite Mercy that cannot be limited but by it self Now long Impenitency though it be often doomed irrevocably by God in particular Generations of Men or Persons yet is not that Sin that shall never be forgiven Nor is it upon that account that the Scripture saith of some It is impossible to renew them to Repentance So that though there be many Examples of such Impenitency that have proved in the Event unpardonâ—ble yet not from the precise Nature of the thing it self We may rather believe that as the unmeasurable Being of God hath delighted it self in so many varieties and gradations of the Creatures down from Angels to the darkest foot-steps of himself in the World so the unsearchable Riches of his Grace are made known in all kinds of Pardons As therefore it hath chosen some of the worst of Sinners for the sorts of their Sins chiefest of Sinners and brought them home so some that have made the utmost adventure of continuance in Sin that in these manifold Glasses it might be seen Where Sin hath abounded Grace hath abounded much more 2. Though the time of this Repentance be short and narrow and the Duties of Repentance exceeding long and broad yet where there are found the true signatures of Repentance unfeigned God beholds the Fruit in the Seed and Root he knows the Perfection of his own Creation though Infant or we may conceive such 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Repentance Repentance born out of due time as Paul was in the Apostleship suddenly accomplished though they had not the regular time of forming like a Nation brought forth in a day * Cyprian de coena Domini Thus thou Lord anointest in a Moment Herdsmen into Prophets Shepherds into Kings Publicans thou ordainest Apostles nor doth their Disease take leisure to remove whom thou recoverest but in that very Moment thou makest them every whit whole wherein they have thee for their Physician 3. Although there be according to the general Rule a necessity of living to God here in the World yet God may dispense with the Continuation or drawing out of the Action of it in these late Penitents as we easily allow in the case of Infants or Men dying within short space after a Repentance begun upon sad Consideration and not in the Exigency of a Sickness In the mean time it is not at all supposed that God dispenses with the sincere Preparations and Resolvedness of the Mind to that Action but that they must be most true sound and unfeigned and the very Action it self according to the time high full and most significant and as extraordinary as the Repentance it self 4. Although the Condition of a Dying Man do in many regards nearly resemble the state of him that is already in Eternity as he is under a necessity of leaving Sin and the World and set at a distance from Temptation yet it differs in that great Circumstance that he is not in Termino he is not fixt upon his unchangeable Point he hath not undergone that Sentence that immediately passes upon the Soul removed and so may not either have suffered that more secret one conceived by God upon long Provocation The whole time of Life may be a time of Grace and he that hath not yet been concluded by the incommutability of Eternity may hear the Voice of Christ and enter into his Rest * Quando isthinc excessum fuerit nullus jam poenitentiae locus Libr. ad Demetrianum Cyprian who is positive That whenever a Man is launched into another World he finds no room for Repentance he is out of the climate of Repentance who is beyond the line of Time All kinds of Penitencies which are a secondary Satisfaction under the Sufferings of Christ are then desperate and fruitless Yet he allows the greatest liberty to Repentance in this Life For he says * In isto adhuc mundo manenti nulla poenitentia sera est c. No Repentance is late that is earlier than the Grave He says Here a Man takes hold of Life or loses it for ever Yea he grants †Ad immortalitatem sub ipsa morte transitur De coena Domini It is possible by Repentance though we are just a Dying to be safely landed in a blessed Immortality And ‡ In eodem articulo temporis cum jam anima festinet ad exitum c. when the Soul hath left its inward Residences and is now sitting upon the dying Lips before its last farewel to the Body and when in haste to be gone yet even then infinite Clemency disdains not Repentance nor accounts that late that is true nor deprives that of pardon which hath the free and full act of the Soul in return to him Et quaecunque necessitas c. Yea though as he goes on this Repentance had its first rise from Necessity yet neither that nor the Immenseness of Guilt nor Straitness of Time nor the Lateness of the Season nor the Foulness of former Actions fore-prize
Scriptures that treat most professedly of Repentance always insist upon it as a reformed course of Life to be undertaken even now while the Proposals of Grace and Reconciliation are made to us and only by very silent Intimations the track of which is hardly discerned leave it possible that God should by miracle save some very few out of the Fire and pull them as Brands out of the Burning by giving them Repentance at the last Whereas this is now become the only Repentance in use and hath devoured the other as if to press Men upon it were to torment them before their time and to lessen the Validity of this were to take away the Mercy of God and deny the Grace that is so free and universal Let us search therefore how this sort of Repentance hath come into such Repute And if we observe we shall find it first rising from the intimate Sense the Conscience hath of the necessity of Repentance For were it not so clear and evident a Duty a Death-Bed Repentance had never been heard of most would choose to go out of the World as they have lived in it not suffering any degree of the trouble of Conscience or vexing themselves with Reflections upon an unholy and ill-spent Life As Men have chose to live freely and uninterruptedly in forgetfulness of God and an Eternal Condition days without number Jer. 2.32 so would they choose to die were there not a Law within that however it hath lain covered with the Dust of Sensuality yet is now restored to its Authority and urges the Soul with the Terror of Punishment for so long Disobedience And secondly this necessity of Repentance though secretly understood yet was not sufficiently considered in the time of Health for had it been equally regarded it had not been now to begin He that had rightly measured it would not for a thousand Worlds so have adjourned it These two things then meeting so oft together viz. The necessity of Repentance and the neglect of it all along our Life the necessity it should be performed some time ere Men go out of the World and the neglect of it in the freer Opportunities of Life These I say bring forth hasty motions of it at last For it losing nothing of its necessity by its delay it must be done as well as it may be at that time even as the last Moments wherein Businesses of great Consequence are to be dispatched press for Expedition the more earnestly because they must be done then or never though it often falls out the time is so far past they suffer not only much disadvantage but even defeat by the delay The Notion of a Death-Bed Repentance then we may perceive rising from the great Indisposition to Repent while the Pleasures of Sin are in their Season and flourish and Men in Health and Strength to enjoy them and from the necessities of Repentance falling upon them at the last and wringing from them sometimes very high Acknowledgments of God and an Eternal Condition passionate Expressions of the folly evil and vanity of former Life desires of Mercy Professions of strong Resolvedness to serve God and if they had many Lives to give God they would give them all All which being so unusual to hear formerly out of such Mouths and coming from Dying Men for whose Sayings we have a natural regard Charity towards them and willingness to hope well of them gives these Semblances the Reputation of Repentance To which may be added That those who are Guides and Seers in Religion too often errante Clave by too Liberal an Absolution open the Kingdom of Heaven to such and taking the Instruments of a foolish Shepherd to themselves heal the hurt of their Souls slightly so that their Repentance is saincted here and though it miscarry in the other World yet the miscarriage is hid also in that other World From all this hath arisen a down-right Opinion of this kind of Repentance as the only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Prudent Expedient that compounds two so different Interests first that of a worldly Conversation to which it gives no hinderance then that of Eternal Life in appearance because it assumes the Promises of Mercy to it self especially those gracious Assurances in Ezek. 18. Chap. 33. it reckons as made on purpose for it All which argues a very vile Sense both of the Justice and Mercy of God of his Justice as if it had no authority of his Mercy as if it had no sense of Honour And lastly it is grown into a general Expectation rhat however ill and carelesly of God Men have lived here yet they should go out of the World with good words of him and Religious Professions as an Inbalm to their Memory and a Dirge to their Souls into the Happiness of an Everlasting Condition Thus they call Repentance and Heaven after their own name This their way is their folly Psal 49.11.13 14 c. yet their Posterity men of like Inclinations approve their sayings because such Men as they speak go away like Lambs but as the Scripture says like sensless Sheep are laid in the Grave and Death feeding upon them the Error is not discovered till the morning when the upright have dominion over them that is infinitely excel them and their counterfeit Repentance which cannot stand in judgment nor they in the congregation of sincere Penitents Psal 1. vers 5. Now this account I have given of a Death-Bed Repentance obtaining among us is too comprehensive yet I must acknowledge that there are many whose Judgments are more enlightned and the Sentiments of their Consciences quicker than to be satisfied at so easie a rate who yet fall into the common unhappiness of not having repented till they come to die I will therefore enquire further why many who are able to feel before-hand the necessities of a speedy Repentance and also to draw their Death so near them as to die daily in the sense of Death and thereby further perceive those Necessities do not yet Repent daily but betray themselves to an Evening or Twilight Repentance The Resolution of this lies not only in the immoderate love of Sin and its Pleasures and the too low apprehension of God and Eternal Things though these are always present in the case but chiefly it lies in the great Confidence such Men have in the present time not sensible of the continual waste of it Under the favour of which they put away the evil day far from them and stretch themselves upon this moment Amos 6.3 c. that they may take their full Ease and Satisfaction In the mean while stifling the Thoughts of Dying and Judgment Were it not for this no other Reason would encourage them to delay their Repentance for when this Fails all others generally fail also and therefore none are so passionately moved as such when they come to die This Cloud that is but as big as a Man's hand our days are as an hands breadth
of Spirits what appalements of Mind and strong working of Thoughts must there needs be Much more if the Soul have any sense of its approach to the infinite Holiness of God at whose rebuke the Pillars of Heaven tremble whose presence astonishes the purer Spirits of Angels and beats down the Souls of good Men to the Dust as of Moses Heb. 12.21 Isai 6.5 Job 42.6 Dan. 10.8 Job Isaiah c. in his interviews with them How much more of those that have never thought of God and now must come near his Seat Nothing so composes the Soul to this amazing change of Condition and Converse as long continued Treaties with God through Christ when though Men change their place they do not change their company Job 24.17 Job 38.15 Others when this great light strikes them are in the very terrors of the shadow of death and shaken out of their place out of all the Security and quiet Sensuality they lived in Let us now take the estimate or avail of these things to true Repentance and we shall find when the Soul lies thus uncovered to the things of Eternity it hath natural Reasons for all it may seem to do like return to God and so that all argue nothing of the true Grace of God but if a Man were again in his former State he would be the very same he was For first as one thing strikes upon another with a natural Effect Light upon the Eye Sound upon the Ear so Eternal Things upon the Immortal Spirit when there is nothing between to intercept the stroke Further 1 John 2.16 when the lust of the flesh the lust of the eye and the pride of life are as a Scene removed and a Play at an end and instead of them another World drawing near just as Men defeated in all their attempts for Riches and Honours and beaten off from them to a private Life call all these things Cheats not out of true Reason but because they cannot reach them on the other side they praise Retirement and a Cloyster not that they like it but because they must live so which begets some kind of Contentedness so to live Thus and no otherwise do many Dying Men call all this World Vanity and profess an high Esteem for all things pertaining to that to come Cause 3. There is yet a more pressing Account of the most notable motions that were ever found in any of their Repentances viz. The awakenings of Conscience usual at this time because of the Sense of a Judgment while common Experience tells Men It is appointed to all Men once to die Heb. 9.27 and sinking Nature gives notice This is the time Conscience lifts up to the next thing After that the Judgment Now no Man sees Judgment a Judgment Omniscient Omnipresent Eternal without great shakes of Soul especially that hath done nothing seriously to agree with the adversary in the way Luk. 12.18 Conscience then rising up with the Awe of a Tribunal upon it stirs up all the Powers to fly from the Wrath that is to come by desires of Pardon and Resolutions of Amendment The very hearing of Judgment made such a one as Foelix tremble Acts 24.25 When Judgment seems to us at the other end of Heaven all is quiet but when Death brings us to the very seat of it how loud may be the cries for Mercy The bewailing the former evils of Life Now Men pour out their Complaints for the want of God the misimprovement of former time Now they make large offers of a strict and severe Mortification and Devotion to Religion Now they would give the thousand Rams the ten thousand Rivers of Oyl their first born for their Trasgression the fruit of their Body for the sin of their Soul Mic. 6.6 7. And yet all but the Eye opened to see the flaming Sword of Justice that makes even a Balaam wish to die the death of the Righteous Num. 22.32 cap. 23.10 and to have a latter End Sober Just Religious The very Suspition of a Judgment inclines Men thus far universally almost that hardly any choose to die in a Rant in a Madness but had rather by virtue and Religion be consigned over to another World and have their Eyes closed by Mercy and Grace in Christ They would see the Salvation of God and so depart in Peace Object 1. But it may be objected Seeing these granted to rise from true Conviction and not to be Dissimulation or counterfeit Pretence Why may not they have the worth of true Repentance Answ 1. To answer this Let me consider pure Conviction and enlightned Apprehension and the Affections begotten of them are no Argument of true Goodness where the Light hath not a benign and free Operation upon the Judgment an Allurement upon the Will an Indearment upon the Affections to turn them to a full Delight and Satisfaction in God and Holiness and to a dislike and abhorrence of Sin For else the Devils who believe and tremble Jam. 2.19 must be thought Converts For who have clearer sight of things than they Balaam whose Eyes were opened and spoke so great things of God and his People must be concluded a good Man Esau and Judas who had so sad apprehensions of Sin Matth. 27.4 Heb. 12.7 Dan. 4.17 and 6.26 Luk. 6.20 Acts 24.25 and their loss by it must be affirmed to be Penitents Nebucadnezar's and Darius his acknowledgments of God must be taken for true Grace Herod his hearing John Baptist gladly Felix his trembling at Paul's Discourse may be thought Evidences of true Repentance Object 2. But Secondly it may be supposed because these very Convictions and Affections are not universal but we see multitudes go out of the World without them carrying little better than a decent and civil Respect to Religion that therefore there is something of God something Heroick in them that have them Answ 2. This indeed may be no other than the wise and good Government of God over the World whereby he takes care there should be Testimonies of himself and the Goodness of his ways that Atheism and Wickedness may not carry it as if all were their own as if there were an unexceptionable Concurrence on their side against God and Holiness For as he receives witness from the constant gracious and religious Lives of good Men so he constrains some of them that have lived contrary to him all their lives to give him glory at last for the good of others though without saving benefit to themselves Which he may justly do and without any injury to them Seeing all the Service every Creature can do to him is infinitely due he may make use of that which is his own so far as he pleases And because what the word God puts in their mouths Num. 23.5 Matth. 12.35 is not their own not arising out of the good treasure of their hearts as appears in Balaam therefore their everlasting Condition is not determined by it but
any one Judge between these two Repentances and accordingly even counsel himself concerning them Yet I must acknowledge this Discourse subject to these following Limitations 1. That the Arguments I have insisted upon prevail not only against a Death-Bed Repentance but against all Repentances that have no higher Spirit to move them than what I have now represented from hence therefore we may take the trial of our Repentance in general for though a Death-Bed is most subject to these mistakes yet whatever Repentance falls under them is by reason of them invalid and the later any Repentance is or the more it is occasioned by any Extremity which it doth not out-live the more subject it is to them 2. What I have said is not at all to be understood of the perfecting and consummating Repentance by higher and fuller Acts towards God at Death though enforced by the present Circumstances of the Case For true Repentance running through the whole life takes advantage of every thing much more of so considerable an Opportunity to unite all our strength for God as a Death-bed brings with it All that hath been spoken is designed against trusting to the Extreme Vnction of a dying Repentance just then begun 3. I have before resolved upon that tenderest Doctrin that it is possible among all the unhappy Circumstances of a Dying-Bed there yet may be this true Act of the Understanding Will and Affections turning to God and if there be this it would be the same and alike however these Circumstances alter and then it excels those temporary Amendments undertaken in the freest times of Life But because it is but possible and so almost impossible so unhappy a Case as not to have repented till just we die should fall out so happily the Intention of this Discourse stands good notwithstanding 4. I acknowledge the choice of the Soul can never be so free but it must be subject to infinitely the most worthy and preponderating considerations of the love and goodness of God the Redemption of Christ the greatness of eternal Happiness most indearing on one side of the fear and terror of the Lord the loss of a Soul everlasting perdition most perswasive on the other side so that if a Man cannot be free in his choice of Religion except he choose it without the force of any such consideration he can never be at all free for these are on all sides of him And further there is always the supream motion of the Grace of God which does not lessen but steer and exalt the freedom of the Will towards God The difference then between true and false Repentance in this particular is the same that is between just and rational consideration of all the motives of Hope and Fear and the hurry of them moving us not intellectually but as a Tempest or with the force of a meer Engine 2. Between the highest reasons carrying the chiefest force and leading along with them the lower ones and the lower doing all without the higher for want of which they are Sensual or Hellish 3. Between the government of meer Providence and of the Spirit of God 4. Between the Repentance of Cain Esau Saul Judas and the Repentance of David Manasseh Peter and Paul 5. I acknowledge the first Preparations of the Soul by God for himself may be with a great deal of noise and confusion Clouds and Darkness are the Dust of his Feet Storms go before him to prepare his way while these last there cannot be a serene calm Act of the Soul and he that doth not live till he hear that still Voice in which God is is in great danger of being lost in the Storm But if out of this Darkness and Confusion a holy and gracious Settlement proceed it is not the worse for being so introduced but is agreeable with the usual method of God The fourth Head I proposed is to weigh the Repentance of the Crucified Malefactor against our common Death-Bed Repentances which duly performed will be of great force against Presumption rather than minister it any Confidence For we shall find so much gathered together and pressed down into it that as Jewels have their Riches in a little room so his short Life of Penitency had an Age of Repentance in it It is so composed of Extraordinaries that it can give very little encouragement in ordinary Cases except just thus much that Repentance at Death is no absolute impossibility 1. Let us observe how his Repentance look'd to the several parts of Repentance for though it had but little time in this World to breath in yet with extraordinary diligence it was busie in all the great and most concerning Points Yet I account this of the least Remark in the History of his Repentance because it is easily imitable That in which it Excelled was the Evidences of Sincerity it carried 1. Yet take notice of his Sense and Acknowledgment of Sin which was not only a Confession of Words but of his very Soul for deliberating things in a Moment he pronounced himself self worthy of the Condemnation and Punishment he endured Magnum est poenitentiae signum in poena sua acquiescere Grot. in locum I confess this is not so infrequent in those who forfeited their Lives to Justice but how oft is it rather a Formality than the inward sense of the Mind condecently affected and possibly if we look upon the out-side of things we can find no great difference between him and others Yet it is a necessary part of Repentance The sacrifice of God is a broken and contrite heart Psal 51.17 2. In his Repentance lay a lively Faith in Christ first resting upon the principle And truth of the thing That Christ was a just Person that he had a Kingdom and then a particular Application to him for Mercy Lord remember me when thou comest in thy Kingdom 3. A quick sense of Eternity supplied Vigor to his Repentance an evident sight of something beyond this world For what more excites the Soul and shews it the necessity of a gracious Change than an everlasting Condition appearing to it To this end hath Jesus Christ brought life and immortality to light 2 Tim. 1.10 of which this Penitent made a very full Confession Lord remember me when thou comest in thy Kingdom He saw a Kingdom beyond the Cross and Death 4. An earnest desire to promote and propagate a sense of God into the Hearts of others was the immediate fruit of this Malefactors Repentance He admonishes the Impenitent Thief on the other side Dost thou not fear God He had such a Reverence of God that he expostulates the want of it in the other as monstrous and horrid His design was also exceeding Compassionate as well as Pious For it was an Endeavour full of Charity desirous his guilty Fellow-sufferer should be brought into the same Condition with himself We want much of the Compassion due to the Souls of others because we are so insensible of
and as Birds in a Snare when it falls suddenly upon them having not known their time Let us most humbly commit our selves to Him by earnest seeking his Grace in the Redeemer in whom all his Grace is Treasur'd up Thus by the Efficacy of his Spirit we shall know in our day the things of our Peace that they may not be for ever hid from our Eyes we shall seek the Lord while he is to be found and call upon him while he is near And so shall be secured from having the Door shut upon us Infer 4. This may be to us a close and determinative Test in this point of Death-Bed Repentance If our Repentance be such and so real that it is not a Lamp of Profession only but Oyl in the Vessel that will bear up the going forth to meet the Bride-Groom and that we are ready and have not our Oyl to Buy but can enter with Him into the Wedding before the Door be shut This how late soever it may seem is Repentance to Salvation and not to be Repented of and shall be with Christ in Paradise Such a Repentance when the Spirit goes out of the Body will be before-hand entred into that within the Veil whether the Fore-runner being for us entred Ministers in the Holy of Holies not made with Hands in that Sanctuary which the Lord hath pitched and not Man in that more perfect Tabernacle that is to say not of this Building a High-Priest for ever after the Order of Melchisedec a Saviour to the utmost or to All Perfection He fills up with the valew of his own Sacrifice and Intercession and by the Power of his Endless Life whatever is wanting in the Repentance He hath given either in regard of its Valew as being so Late and in the Refuse of Life or of the deep Rooting and Habituation or of the abundant Fruits and having Apprehended the Spirit He enables it in a Moment in the twinkling of an Eye every way enables it to Apprehend that state of Holiness which agrees to the Resurrection of the Dead first in the Life of Spirits with Himself then in the Raising the Body Incorruptible For this appertains to his Melchisedecian Priest-hood wherein He is now and wherein He is King of Righteousness King of Peace a Priest set down on the Right Hand of the Majesty on High If therefore the Repentance be such as He as this Great Prince hath given There is in it a Coming to God by Him and then his Salvation is to all Perfection to it For as going into the Heavens in his Spirit He took in his Passage this Prey the Dying Malefactor out of the Mouth of the Lyon So as He pleases out of the same Power the power of the Dog He rescues those Souls that he hath made dear to Himself for He living ever quickens whom He will and He can by his Spirit seal this his Grace in a Moment For this Great High Priest-Hood being the Eternal Priest-Hood of Christ whatever is said of Him as a High-Priest must be said of Him as this High-Priest which He is alway or without least Intermission And as such an High-Priest therefore it is that He succours the Tempted being in All things Tempted as we are yet without Sin now even as his Great Temptation was at Death yet without the Sin of having deferred his strong Cries and Supplications to Death though then He was most Earnest He can therefore Succour and be infinitely Compassionate even to those who are Tempted though with and in this Sin of having delay'd Repentance to the last They therefore whom He graciously moves to it may come even then boldly to the Throne of Grace and obtain Mercy and find Grace even in this just Season and as it were indivisible Point of Time These Things I write that we may not Sin this Great Sin of Delaying our Repentance to the last But if any Man do so Sin we have this Great High-Priest over the House of God an Advocate and a Propitiation and if such a one be under his Charge and given to Him by God He is a Faithful and a Merciful High-Priest He is therefore Faithful because Merciful to make Reconciliation and to Succour in so great a Temptation as even This is This He can do because He is a Fore runner within the Veil and by his Blood appears as he that hath obtained Eternal Redemption a Redemption always ready This is the great Security and Cordial against the Fear of Death in general to the Saints and Servants of Christ and if by its Hyper-Pleonasm its exceeding Abundance and Affluence it may and does over-flow to some upon whom the Grace of Christ Abounds much more where Sin hath so much Abounded How great is this Miracle of Grace But who How few are they who shall thus Live whom God and Christ will please to make thus to Live When it is come to this for if they are Few that are Saved how much Fewer are the Saved at this last Point Strive then to enter betimes at the strait Gate for many shall then seek at last of any Time to enter in and shall not be Able There is too much of especially the Death-Bed Repentance at is Repentance of the Lamp only that makes a shew only that is but only of this World and from beneath which is able for once to give or yield a fair and lightsome Flash at parting with the World But because without a Treasure to Enter into an Eternal Duration That which is but a Lamp fails in the very time of Tryal and becomes a Lamp put out in obscure Darkness Let your Lamps be always Shining and your Lights Burning such as are Able to be always so and so to Shine even into Eternity Infer 5. From what hath been spoken concerning the Great Mourning and Repentance that shall be before the End of this state of the World even before the pouring out of the Vials in that Miraculous state of Things that shall be after the Apostacy ended and the Kingdom of Christ in Succession I conclude there shall be a Death-Bed Repentance of the World if I may so call it but after that viz. in the time of the Vials we read of no Repenting but a Repenting not no more than in the state of Everlasting Punishment in our general Apprehension of that State even as He that is Righteous shall be Righteous still that is for ever Righteous and in no possibility of for ever Falling from it any more than from the Glory and Happiness of Eternity in our General Notion of that State And this strongly Argues to us the Possibilities of a Death-Bed Repentance seeing all the Prejudices that lie upon and against a Death-Bed-Repentance now lie against that late Repentance of the World but yet it limits and guards against the Ordinariness and Easiness of a Death-Bed Repentance in General in as much as this late Repentance is in a miraculous state of things viz.
so many Discourses that the Kingdom of Heaven is nigh at Hand that upon that very Consideration you may be most Zealous in it So I earnestly Pray you may be Blessed in your Lord finding you so doing Verily I say unto you he shall make you greater Rulers in a truly Evangelical Sense than now you are And as to the black and dark side I make no mention of it because I am perswaded better things of you and such as Accompany the Salvation and Glory of that Kingdom Herein I am Your most Humble and Affectionate Orator T. BEVERLEY A Discourse upon Evangelical Repentance to Salvation not to be Repented of and the Godly Sorrow working it 2 Cor. 7.10 For Godly Sorrow worketh Repentance to Salvation not to be Repented of but the Sorrow of the World worketh Death THERE is no more Universal Notion in the Soul of Man in those Things wherein he hath to do with God or even with Man or with Himself then to Repent that is to be sorry for what he hath done Amiss and wherein he hath Offended and to Resolve and Promise to Amend and to do the Evil he hath done no more It is fitted as a great Instrument of Reconciliation and a second state of Innocency a Reserve after the Ruin and Shipwrack of our First Innocency a Remedy a Reparation after the first Advantages of doing well are lost And it is the infinite Grace of God in a Mediator that there is such a Notion in the World It preserves it from being a Hell in regard either of the extremity and utmost Rages of Wickedness or of the Horrors and Fury of Despair It is the infinite Grace of God in a Redeemer That there is a Place of Repentance as the Apostle calls it Heb. 12. that is place and room for it in mans Heart and that there is place for it in the Acceptance of God that God does not scorn and utterly reject it against him that hath once sinned That he is not inexorable and not to be intreated concerning it For how woful and even Hellishly Miserable would man be without it That the Nature of Man is inclin'd to offer and accept such Repentance one towards another and so that there are mutual Forgivenesses among men and not unappeasable hatreds and that there is in a mans own Conscience a preparedness to acquiesce to be satisfied to Rest and to be Appeased upon finding in the Soul and Action a sorrow for sin and Reformation from it All this keeps the World from being absolutely Hell For Sorrow Dislike Trouble Remorse for what a Man hath done evil move a man to review to acknowledgment to bewailing to confession to change and reformation to a new course of Life and Action Seeing then Man is such a fallen such a Peccant and offending Nature it is infinite grace in God that there is such a Notion such Action in mans Soul as Repentance and that there is not an utter irreconcilableness an unpardonableness after Offense committed neither in Heaven nor on Earth not in the Court of Heaven nor in the Court of Human Nature one towards another nor in the Court of a mans Conscience within himself If it were not so every sin would be like the Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit Matt. 12. Unpardonable and because Unpardonable Impenitable or not to be Repented of and that not only in this World but in that which is to come the World would become a Theater of sin and damnation even a Hell without any Chancery any Appeal to Grace to Mercy or Relenting of Repentance from the hopes of Mercy the reverence and awes of Goodness and Forgiveness Now that which lies loose and scattered or disseminated sown through the whole human Creation That the word of God especially in the Gospel in the New Testament that the Spirit of God hath collected into a more full and solemn Doctrine and open'd the Foundation and laid bare and in view the root or the great place of it How it hath room and reception what are the Sources springs of Efficacy from which it Rises even in the Sacrifice Blood and Redemption of Christ and the mighly Efficacy and Grace of the Divine Spirit what is that godly sorrow which is given by God as the Elaboratory or the Instrument of God for the Operation of it what are the Laws and Rules of it the true form and constitution of it what are the motives and inward considerations mooving to it what are the signs and evidences of its Truth what is the proper time and space for it It resolves the Scruples or Cases of Conscience that may arise in the Soul of Man concerning it it shews the great Fruit certain Benefit and Advantage of it And all these are either most innately residing or some way reducible to this great and excellent Context of the Apostle in which regard I have chosen it and shall endeavour to bring Light accordingly to it and according to these heads I will by the grace of God endeavour to Discourse it 1. In regard it is Repentance to Salvation and that Salvation is no other but in Christ alone Acts 4.12 it plainly shews That the whole Redemption and Salvation of Christ is the proper Basis and Foundation of it the whole Area Court Space and most proper place of it and that the whole Notion and Spirit of it as any way Commensurate to or extended upon the whole human Nature hath its Rise and Original flows from some Communication to the human Nature from Jesus Christ the Redeemer and that yet the word of God and his Gospel only Reveals it fully and genuinely and his spirit is the supreme Operator of it 2. Here is plainly laid down to us the Elaboratory or Instrument God hath prepared in infinite Wisdom and Grace and inlay'd the Soul with in order to Repentance First as it is a Natural Affection subservient to it and then as it is Sanctified by God to so great an end Godly sorrow or sorrow after and according to God worketh down Repentance or brings it forth a sorrow opposed to the sorrow of the World that worketh Death 3. In that it is 1. Repentance to Salvation effectual to it 2. Repentance not to be Repented of 1. Not as a false counterfeit Repentance to be Repented of 2. Always to be carried on and promoted and not recall'â— repeal'd or revers'd but confirm'd by progressive repeated Acts and renewed after Falls 3. In that it is to or lays hold of Salvaetion 4. In that it rises not from an earthly spring or any sorrow not after God In all these Regards it yeilds just reason to Discourse the true Laws and Rules the Frame and true constitution the motives means and considerations for the signs and evidences of sincere Repentance 4. The admirable Fruit and Benefit of it is most visibly and illustriously set forth before us in those words It is Repentance to Salvation not to be repented of 1. It is
Lord our God This is a faithful saying and worthy of all Acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the World to save sinners of whom I am chief The deep and duly Affecting consideration of God and of Christ the infinite excellency of their Nature their so great Benefactions and loving kindness towards us and that God professes He is Grieved Vexed Provoked pressed with our sins as a Cart with sheaves wearied made to serve that he cries out as one that would move compassion Oh! do not that abominable thing that I hate These so enkindle all the Affections of shame sorrow gratitude holy desire zeal revenge upon our selves that there is such a change wrought as is always found in true Repentance 3. In Repentance in general there is found as motives and perswasives of it self-preservation a desire of happiness and an avoidance of and flying from misery Men dearly as we say Repent it when the folly of their own ways is seen in the bitter Fruits the loss of their Health loss of Estate Prov. 5.11 loss of Friends of Reputation and of all Enjoyment and when they see all manner of distress c. 1.24 Marc. 9.43 c. anguish and misery come upon them then they mourn at the last when they see all consumed and say How have we hated Instruction and despised Reproof Thus in Scripture and Evangelical Repentance there is a fear of Hell and an Eternity of Misery A cutting off the right hand and Foot a pulling out the right Eye when any of them are understood in Repentance to have offended and to continue to offend under the sense It is better to enter into Life blind halt than having two Hands Eyes Feet maimed rather than to be cast into Hell whole where their Worm dyeth not and their Fire is not quenched There is a seeking Honour Glory and immortality By ingaging in Repentance into a patient continuance in well doing on the other side tribulation and anguish indignation and wrath vehemently Agitate the Spirit and Thoughts against a continued course of doing evil What shall it profit a Man if he gain the whole World and loose his own Soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his Soul I say unto you my Freinds fear not them that Kill the Body and have no more that they can do but I will forewarn you whom you shall fear fear him who after hath killed hath power to cast into Hell yea I say unto you fear him Oh! that they were wise that they understood this that they would consider their latter end I say unto you repent else you shall likewise perish who hath forewarned you to fly from the wrath to come God hath commanded all men every where to Repent because he hath appointed a day in which he will Judg the World Repentance unto Life Repent and turn your selves that Iniquity may not be your ruin Repent and be Converted that your sins may be blotted out when the times of Refreshing shall come forth from the presence of the Lord Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand Thus Scripture having these two handles of the Soul Fear of Evil and desire of happiness mightily moves it to Repentance by them it holds these two great Globes the World of Happiness and the World of Misery both present and to come and so with a Scepter so Potent it sways the Spirits of Men as the Divine Spirit that dwells in it pleases I have thus far given the Nature of Repentance in general that it may be the better understood what we are now to Discourse I begin therefore with the first Head that Repentance which is so Communicated to the very inward sense of mankind springs from and hath its whole place in the Redemption of Christ The Apostle speaks of Esau that he found no place for Repentance there is a proper place for Repentance And this I say is the Redemption of Christ that hath laid the Basis the Foundation of Repentance that hath spread over Human Nature the notion and sense of Repentance And where it is truly wrought the Spirit of Christ takes it from Christ and gives it to the Soul and it is accepted only in and through Christ It is therefore to be understood that there had no Place been Found for Repentance had it not been for the undertaking of Christ For Repentance being a rational Act it must have a Rational Foundation and Encouragement If there were then no Mercy no Forgiveness no Salvation there could be no Repentance but that of fruitless sorrow horror and despair the Repentance of wailing and Gnashing the Teeth that is the Repentance that is in Hell a Repentance without being chang'd or made better Seeing then Salvation Forgiveness Mercy are all bound up in the Name of Christ For they are no where else the Redemption of Christ is the only foundation of Repentance such a Repentance as hath in it a change from sin to Holiness David gives us this great Instruction Psal 130. There is forgiveness with thee that thou maist be feared that thou maiest be feared with the Awes with the Reverences of Repentance there is Forgiveness with thee there had been no place for such Fear of thee if thou hadst been so extreme to mark what is done amiss as that there had been no Forgveness with thee And this is most evident also in that Doctrin of the Apostle before mentioned concerning the Repentance in the case of Esau When he had despised and sold his Birth-right and would after Inherit the Blessing he was Rejected or Reprobated from it and he found no place of Repentance tho he sought it that is the blessing carefully with Tears Heb. 12.17 He found no Place of Repentance because he was rejected Whether we understand it of Isaack's or of Esau's Repentance it is much at one If we understand it of Esau's Repentance finding no place in himself so it hath this sense That Repentance flies into Despair if it be not accepted when we tender it Or if we understand it of Isaac not Repenting when Esau wept to procure it but still fixed the blessing on Jacob it is still the same thing for if God did not please to accept our Repentance or himself to Repent in a sense worthy of him our Repentance would be to no more purpose than Esau's Tears or than the weeping in Hell we should be Rejected and Reprobated in our Repentance The Law that says cursed is every one that hath not continued in all things to do them Gal. 3. and Do this in the first Act and Live leaves no room for Repentance but the bringing in a better hope even pardon of Sin Attonement and Reconciliarion in the Blood of Christ does by this we draw nigh to God in Repentance Heb. 7.17 and are not Rejected but Accepted Here then there is Rational Foundation and Encouragement for Repentance because it shall not be thrown upon and into Despair there is Hope concerning
of in that forenam'd Rom. 2. 3. The great Goodness of God in Christ giving the Notion of Repentance into the Heart of Man seeing the Original of whatever is worthy or Excellent in Man is but a Transcript or Copy taken from the supâ—eme Excellency and Goodness hath thereby dlspos'd the Hearâ— of Man to a Readiness to forgive one man to forgive another and thereby to be engaged to an Acknowledgment of Offences one againâ—t anoâ—her to desire Pardon and to offend no more Wherein much of the Peace and Happiness of Humane Nature in this present state is supported and preserv'd And herein and by these very mutual Repentances toward and Forgivenesses one of another is there a greater Illustration of the Grace and Goodness of God in Pardon and Forgiveness upon Repentance and thereby an Invitation Encouragement and leading to Repentance towards God For in that the Gospel-Command to forgive them who having trespassed against us tho seven times a day turn again and say I repent and that if we forgive not men their trespasses neither will our Heavenly Father forgive us Our Lord both appeals to the Sense of Mankind and excites and encourages unto Repentance towards God in hope of Forgiveness as well as to mutual Repentances and Forgiveness for the Peace and Good of Mankind to which our Lord had great Regard in all he said and did 4. The Natural Light God hath given concerning Repentance and the Sense in Man's Soul concerning the Goodness and Reasonableness of that Grace and Duty upon which the Redeemer hath pointed the Law written in the Heart is as a Ground and Rude Draught that the Knowledge of Repentance by the Word of God and Divine Revelation accomplishes and fills up and that the Spirit of God plants his Supreme Operations upon even as Sanctification is engrafted into that Sense of Good and Evil that is found in the Soul of Man and those Irritations and Provokings of Natural Conscience to do the Good and fly from the Evil. For thus Jesus Christ hath as our Creator and Redeemer our Preserver and Mediator in one taken Care to secure a Remnant and Remainder of whatever was excellent in his first Creation that it may be taken hold of and be applied to in Redemption And thus I have â—â—deavoured to discourse the Ground-work and Foundation of this Grace Duty and Doctrine of Repentance That it is all setled in the Grace and Mercy of God in the Redeemer without which it had been an utter Impossibility and there had been no more nor any other Repentance than what is in Hell I come therefore to the Second Head Head 2. Here is plainly laid down to us the great Elaboratory or Instrument God hath prepared in infinite Wisdom and Grace and in-laid the Soul with in order to Repentance Godly Sorrow or Sorrow after and according to God worketh down or brings into Effect this Repentance This God hath prepar'd as a Natural Affection of it self and in its own General and Original Form fit to such a purpose and then God sanctifies it to rhis Great Purpose Acts 4.12 to work this Repentance to Salvation not to be repented of It is an immediate Instrument in the Hand of God to operate under his Spirit to so great an Effect Of this I shall discourse in Three Generals General 1. I begin therefore with a Description of Sorrow first as it is a Natural Affection or Passion of the Humane Nature and then as it is sanctified by God or as it becomes a Sorrow after God and is fitted to so great an End and Purpose and as it is so it is counterdistinguish'd to worldly Sorrow that worketh Death General 2. I will consider the excellent Use and Service of godly Sorrow to so great an End and Putpose as the working Repentance to Salvation General 3. I will open the Wisdom of God and the Reasonableness of his making use of Sorrow and fitting it as after himself or according to himself to so great an End and Purpose and that according to the very Reason and Nature of Things it could not be otherwise but that godly sorrow must be so made use of above and before any other Affection and that it becomes him by whom and for whom are all things so to make use of it General 1. For the Description of this Affection of godly Sorrow First as it is a Natural Affection or Passion of the Humane Nature and then as it is sanctified by God or becomes Sorrow ofter God and is counter-distinguish'd to the sorrow of the World that worketh Death Sorrow then as it is an Affection or Passion of the Humane Nature must be considered Two ways and each of them must be applied to the Sorrow that works Repentance or to Sorrow according to God and so a different and opposite Sorrow to the sorrow of this World 1. Sorrow that is a Humane Passion or Affection must either begin in the Body and so passeth from the Soul and ascends up to the Spirit of a Man or it begins in the higher Region the Spirit and descends by the Soul into the Body and makes Impressions suitable to its own Nature there and the Body is govern'd according to this Affection and to its Place Estimation Power with and Interest in the Spirit Now indeed all Affection and even Passion to speak most strictly and properly is in the Spirit For it is all one to matter how it be used or into what Form it is made to pass or out of what or in disjunction from what Form it is forc'd to move So that All we feel by way of suffering or Enjoyment is by the Spirit 's having a Pleasing or an Afflicting Sense of Things But this I wave as not so necessary to the Practical Discourse of Repentance I intend It is plain and certain the sense of some things begins in the Spirit viz. those things which are proper to the Narure of a Spirit and which are so proper to a Spirit whether it dwelt in a Body or not But yet when the Spirit is affected with them because it inhabits a Body the Affection of the Spirit even whether the Spirit will or not works upon the Matter and Frâ—me of that Body and thereby the Truth and Reality of the Spirit 's being affected is discovered to it self and it may also be thereby discovered to others On the other side there are Passions or Affections that the Spirit is affected with as finding it self mov'd and concern'd as that Frame of Body wherein it dwells is either more or less fited for its Enjoyment of it self in that Body or put quite out of Order or is in pain and afflicted so as to afflict the Spirit And both and each of these is in some Degree serviceable to godly sorrow though the first is the Chief and Principal in godly sorrow 1. The Spirit of Man affected with the consideration of sin as it hath all the Reasons of sorrow in it as
This seems so Reasonable and even Necessary that when it is first said He that hideth and covereth his sins shall not prosper Then he that confesseth and forsaketh shall find mercy It is supposed if any Man does not confess he will not forsake but if he confesses he does it in order to forsaking But yet because Men are so apt to deceive themselves with Formality and to think God may be so put off and pleas'd he adds He that not only confesleth but does that which is so necessary with Confession forsakes shall find mercy Thus Solomon 1 Kings 8. all along his Prayer joyns many Expressions that are the undoubted Acts of sincere Repentance together with the Confession of sin And if Confession be thus joyn'd with Sorrow Shame Trouble Hatred of sins and utter separation from them it could not deservedly fall under that Ridicule and Contempt that prophane men put upon it as if it were the telling God only the Story of our wicked Hearts or Lives But without other sincere effective Powers of Repentance it too justly falls under that Reproach but any such Reproach our Lord will return upon us and our Confession 2. In Repentance there is an earnest and most vehement but also most humble Application to the Throne of Grace in Jesus Christ for Pardon and Reconciliation and with such a Continuance and Perseverance as till there be some Answer that God is our Gracious Father in Christ that we hear the Joyful sound that our sins are forgiven us It is not only that common and formal way of asking Pardon whether we mind it or not but to make it our Business the Aim and Design of our Souls till we receive some gracious assurance that our Desires are answered and our Prayers heard The truly Repenting sinner sitteth alone and keepeth silence that is he is in a waiting and earnestly expecting posture He putteth his mouth in the dust if there may be hope He saith of God He is my portion he hath promised pardon theâ—efâ—re will I hope in him For indeed the Lord is good to all that thus wait for him to the soul that thus seeketh him It is good therefore for a man that he both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord It is good for a man to bear the Y ke â—n his youth Till G d is pleas'd to say to him Be of good cheer I am â—y salvation Fear not I have blotted out thy Transâ—ressions as a cloâ—d and thy sins as a thick clâ—ud When they are sought fâ—r there shâ—ll be none and though they are sâ—aâ—ch'd for they shall not be found For thus the trulâ— repenting sinner fâ—llâ—ws hard after God Repentance is a Grace on purpâ—se for the suing out â—ardon and Reconciliation And because it is moved and acted by Faith it seeks this Pardon in Christ and through the Mediator â—y whom alone Repentance bath place and from whom alone the Notion of it springs as hath been shewn Thus David in his Repentance renewed through the whole Psalm 51. repeats and redoubles his praâ—er fâ—r pardon as if he would not cease n r be quiet till he had the a â—urance of it He turns himself therefore every way to God and all the Efficacies of his Grace for Pardon and with a Respect to the Blood of Christ under the Hysop Particular 3. In true Repentance the Soul makes Full and Fâ—â—m Resolâ—tions of New Obedience and Amendment of Life and such as are ready to issue out into Aâ—tiâ—n and this through the Grace and Power and assistance of the Divine Spirit And herein indeed is the very great Point of Repentancâ— anâ— that gives Evidence to the Truth of all that goes before When there is such a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such an after sollicitude and serious afflictive Concernedness for the sinfulness and unholiness of our former Actions and Life that we can no longer endure that State or Course in regard of the very anguish and trouble of Thoughts upon us as it also issues into a strict Care and Government over all our Future Actions to keep them within the Holy Rule and Government of the Word of God the Laws of Holiness and of Obedience to him And herewith is joyned a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such an After-mind such an After-counsel such Second Thoughts as change the whole Purpose and Manner of Life Matt. 3.8 such an engaging the Heart to approach to God Jere. 30.21 So that the True Penitent is prepared and actually brings forth Fruits meet for Repentance and amendment of life Acts 26.20 There is a turning from Darkness that is from the whole Night of Ignorance Injudicious Mind Unholiness of Action Sinfulness of Life under a continued Night and Darkness to Light that is to a true sound Judgment and Mind â—ven the Spirit of a sound Mind and rightly Inform'd Vndâ—rstanding to an high and perfect sense of things and to an universal Holiness Purity and â—leansâ—dness from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit and so a perfecting of Holiness in the fear of God 2 Cor. 7.1 a just Account of â—he Time past as that which may have much more than sufficed to have wrought the Will of the Gentiles and to have spent in the Lusts of our Ignorance and now we are wholly Dedicated to God This is the Noble Grace of Repentance that is indeed to salvation and never to be repented of So wonderful and admirable a Contrivance of the Grace of God and such an Illuststration thereof that Angels even the whole Heaven Rejoyceth over one sinner that repents more than over Ninety Nine just persons that need no Repentance That is there is a greater Resplendency and shining out of the Glory of the Divine Compassion and Efficacious Power of his Spirit in Repentance than even in an Innocent State It is the Joyful Astonishment of Angels and Saints They adore and throw their Crowns before God even the Crowns of Angelical Perfection Luke 15.10 and adore the Infinite and Incomprehensible Mystery of the Divine Will that when the sinning Angels had no allowance of after or second thoughts of after-care or judging better of an after-mind but are under Final Impenitency and in Chains of Darkness to the Judgment of the Great Day when Repentance to Life is granted to men The Lord hath been pleas'd to bring out of that Reprobate Silver in it self such Vessels of Mercy Jerem. 6.30 which he had before Prepared to Glory 2 Tim. 2.21 making them by Repentance Vessels meet for the masters use prepared to every good Work and who herein yeild this great Glory to Righteousness and Hâ—lyness that upon full Jâ—dgment and Experiment made They imcomparably prefer Holyness to all the Pleasures of Sin that are but for a season and choose even the bitter Draught if I may so speak the bitter Waters of Repentance before the Intoxicating Cup of the Pleasures of Sin that are but for a season and
the Spirit of Bondage Rom. 8.15 For that Law of Self-preservation being seated so deep in Man the fear of an evil so Destructive to â—our Beings as wrath to come and the eternal Displeasure of the Supreme Being Nothing moves so strongly and powerfully nothing makes so violent concussions in the Heart of Man as these deep apprehensions or tears up the very Roots of that old sinful Frame and make it fly every way to change its Scituation and Posture for the avoiding of that Displeasure Thus Nineveh affrightned with that present dreadful Dâ—nunciation of Judgment turn'd it self every way to Attonement with God although the Judgment then Denounc'd did not râ—ach to Everlasting Punnishment how much more do the Apprehensions of Wrath to come and ever to come as was before observed of it move And though this is not the highest and noblest Kind of Motive yet it is such as our Lord earnestly and doubly recommends to his Friends I say unto you my Freinds fear not them that kill the Body and have no more that they can do Luke 12.14 but I will forewarn you whom you shall fear fear him that after he hath kill'd hath power to cast into Hell yea I say unto you fear him 3. The so greâ—t Assurance God hath given in Jesus Christ the Mediator and Redeemer that our sâ—â—s shall be Pardoned upon our Repentance is a most excellent motivâ— to Repentance and follows the former as that still Voice wherein God is did the â—arthquake 1 Kingâ— c 19.12 This Assurance is that which gives Life and Spirit to Repentance and also the true Evaâ—gelical Sweetness and Divine Temper to iâ— which else would turn into the Horrors of Cain and Esau which afterwards relaps'd into a Worâ—ly sâ—curity senselesness and sensiâ—ility for Cain went out from the Pâ—ese ce of the Lord Gen. 4.15 c. 36.15 and dwelt in the Land of Nod and fell to Building Esau bâ—came a greaâ— Earthly Prince and Faâ—her to many Dâ—kes without any further thought of the Birthrigâ—t or Blessing or else the ho â—ors arising from the sense of sin and Divine Dâ—spleasure turn into the Dâ—spair of Saul and Judas â—â—at are but the forâ—casts of Hell and everlasting sâ—pâ— aâ—ion from the presence of God and the light of his Countenance This sense of the Love and Favor of God in Christ is that which draws the Soul by the melting and dissolving that Stony Heart and making that stiff Neck and Iron Sinnew to be ready and pliant to all Holy Rules and Heavenly Motions and sweetens fear sorrow and horror into Love and Reverence and filial dispâ—sitions to Obedience while there are any beginnings of shedding abroad the Love of God in the Heart and when the Love of Christ begins to Constrain us This glance of the Eye of Christ on Peter wiâ—h Love and Grace made him go out and weep bitterly this sense of Mercy humbled David and Distill'd into all those Heavenly Penitential Expressions we have Psal 51. 4. When by the grace of God the Heart is deeply Affâ—cted with the sight of the great Evil abominable Foulness and Hatefulness of sin and with the Beauty of Holiness this is a most effective motive to Repentance when we are struck with the sense of the Intrins ck shamefulness of every evil way the falseness of those appearances of good that aâ—e found upon sin but werâ— an Inheritance of Lies it makes us hate every false way and cast away the Things that can yeild no true good or profâ— and of which we have reason for ever â—o be ashamâ—d the end of which is Death Rom. 6. Through the word of thy Lips I keep my sâ—lf fâ—â—m the Paths of the Destroyer Psal 17.4 Through thy Precepts I get understanding therefore I hate every false way Thy word is very pure therefâ—re thy sâ—rvant loveth it I hâ—ve found thy Precepts concerning all things to be right and I hate every false way The righteousness of thy Testimonies is everlasting give me understanding and I shall live Psalm 119. The Law of the Lord is right converting the soul the testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the simple the Statutes of the Lord are right rejoycing the heart How sweet are thy words to my taste sweeter than honey to my mouth Moreover by them is thy servant warned and in the keeping of them there is great reward Psalm 19 All these are Expressions of the mighty Power of Holiness moving to Repentance from the Beauty and Amiableness of it self and the Odiousness of Contrary Sin and Evil. 5. The Word of God throughout all these is the Instrument of the Holy Spirit and with the Variety of its Divine Representations Collects and Diffuses into the Soul and Universâ—l Spirit of a Man being suited to every Faculty and Affection the Reasons and mighty Efficacies â—oth of Fear and Hope viz. the Wrath and Indignation against sin of Grace and Mercy in Christ to the truly Repenting sinner and together with them the Beauty of Holiness and the Hatefulness of Sin For the Word of God is the Sword of the Spirit executing Vengeance on sin and yet sparing the Humble Returning sinner and effectually moving him by it to Repentance 6. The sixth and last Motive I shall use is the true Consider tion of the Gospel state both as it is now and as it shall be in its Glorious Manifestation For that being a state so New and so different from the present state of Sin and Flesh and Corruption we can never be suited to it but by this great Change by Repentance for it the putting off the Old Man which is corrupt according to its deceitful Lusts Ephes 4.22 23. and putting on the New Man which is renewed after God in Knowledge Righteousness and true Holiness is most absolutely necessary to enjoy this Kingdom And this is the Truth of Repentance It is the having such an Eye upon him 2 Cor. 5.15 who is Risen from the Dead and to the Resurrection of the Dead it self as to know neither Persons nor Things as we knew them before after the Flesh On this account our Lord sent John as an Herald before him preaching and saying Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand And as soon as John had finish'd his Ministry of Repentance to shew it was not only the Message of the Fore runner but of the Lord himself whose way he was to prepare Jesus himself from that time began to preach and to say Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand Matth. 3.1 c. 4.17 he shewed to us this New state requires New Persons New Hearts and Spirits New Lives and Actions to lay the Foundations and Beginnings of it here and now and that it may break out into Salvation and Glory at the Glory of that Kingdom That it may be so tryed now as to be found unto Honour Praise and Glory at the appearance of Jesus Christ I come now to the second part of this
the midst of the Paradise of God and even in any of the sadnesses of the Servants of God by reason of Afflictions Temptations any Agonies of Conscience Desertions there is Light in the midst of that Darkness whereas in the false Joys of counterfeit Repentance there are such either presumptuous sensual Intermixtures or such a want of true Spiritual Light that the midst of that Joy is Heaviness But the Fruit of this Repentance is that Peace of God that passeth all understanding Phil. 4.7 guarding the Heart and Mind through Jesus Christ 5. To all these both Motives Means and Signs of Repentance must be always added Prayer even all Prayer and Supplication with Perseverance and continuance therein even to extraordinary Watchings and Fastings as occasion requires Ephes 6.18 Colos 4.2 Luke 11.9 For as the Soul in Prayer and Supplication feels the strong motions and excitations of Repentance by setting before our selves and making close Applications of our selves to the great considerations of God of Christ of Sin of Holiness of Eternal Happiness and Misery so herein is the earnestness of Supplication asking seeking and knocking for the Holy Spirit engaged and employ'd as knowing him the supreme Mover Principle and efficient of Repentance and the Divine Spirit coming down to Dwell in the Spirit of the true Penitent and shedding its efficacies and operations in it as a Spirit of Grace and Supplication seals to the Soul the truth of Repentance and becomes a spiritual visible sign and evidence of the Truth of it as Christ says of Paul upon Repentance behold he Prayeth Acts 9.11 6. Some Great and Heroick Acts and Effects of Repentance according to the Ability and Opportunity of Persons and according to the Sins persons have been guilty of before Repentance are sometimes absolutely necessary Evidences of the Truth of Repentance and sometimes Illustrious and extraordinary Signals of the mighty Power and Force and largeness of Efficacy in this grace of Repentance where it meets with Subjects whom God by outward enablements of Providence as well as inward Grace and Power hath fitted hereunto Such are in cases of great Scandal and publick Offence publick and open Confessions of sin endeavours and close Applications upon Persons that have been of the knot and fellowship of our sins or private Parties and confederates in them moving them by all the Sentiments of our Minds and the Affections of our Hearts to Repentance sollemn Fastings and Humiliations with usual Watchings not only for the Taming bringing Down and Abasing of our selves and by the acknowledgment of our own unworthiness of the least of Mercies and that we are worthy of Wrath and Judgment only and to be strip'd of all Enjoyments but because the Heart is so taken up and engag'd that it can mind nor attend nor be at leisure for the most necessary Refreshing of Bodily Nature which is made and taught and disciplin'd as heretofore to serve sin so now to cry out for Mercy and Pardon and to undergo the severities of Repentance and to be brought under to them in extraordinary Weepings according to the most Affectionate Emotions of the Soul and suitable Temper of Body And such as these are also the Acts of just Restitution to persons injured according to our utmost Abilities or great Alms-givings and acts of Mercy of which Zaccheus Luke 19. is a great Example Great Acts of Service to Jesus Christ in the Salvation of Souls either by our own personal Ministry as Paul so zealously Preaching the Faith Gal. 1.23 Psal 66.16 he once destroyed or private endeavours by Holy Discourses and Declarings what God hath done for our Souls by Exhortations and good Counsels by Holy Examples by great Liberalities for the promotion of Christianity and the Powers of it in Repentance and general Reformation and bringing in Souls to the most publick open and notorious renunciations of former sins and the very instruments of them of which we have a great example in the burning their Magical Books of so great valew Acts 19.19 Job 34.31 These are not to be bound as heavy Burdens to the entanglement and enthralment of Conscience upon All but according to the opportunities and advantages Persons have their state of Body temper of Mind freedom of Time abilities of Estate and leaving to supreme Grace the giving of various degrees of Grace and making among the Pleiades the watry Weeping Stars of Repentance one Star to differ from another in Glory But when there is a meeting and concurrence of all these or an eminency in any they who can shew forth the truth of Repentance in these Fruits Job 38.41 1 Tim. 3.13 purchase to themselves good Degrees in the Academy or School of Repentance and bring great Honour to Christ and to it and according to our Talents receiv'd sincerity in each of them is essential to the truth of our Repentance and if they are in us and abound they make us to be neither Barren nor Vnfruitful in this great Gospel Grace given from the Lord Jesus but without any trurh of them we are as a Well without Water Clouds without Rain frothy Waves driven of some Imaginary or Earthly Winds and Vapors Epist Jude v. 12. and tossed and in great danger of prooving falling Stars for whom is reserv'd the blankness of darkness for ever 4th I come now to the Fourth Head in this Head of the Doctrine of Repentance viz. The great saving benefit the blessing of this Grace and Gift of Repentance which hath the upper and the neither Spings Josh 15.19 from the neither Springs all gracious Affections and Fruits of a sollemn and serious Resipiscency or growing Wise upon sad Afflicting Remembrances and reviews of sinful ways and the upper Springs of Joy Peace Happiness and Blessedness for ever and eternal Rejoycings we have so Sorrowed so Repented Of this I will give but a very short Representation because the enlargement upon it more properly belongs to another grand principle in the Doctrine of Christ and yet what I do say I will endeavor distinguishingly to Discourse it to the Doctrine of Repentance and with a peculiarity to it 1. In that it is Repentance to Salvation wrought by a sorrow after God it is ordain'd by God as a security and preservative by his especial Grace in Christ from everlasting Weeping Wailing and gnashing of Teeth a Repentance without any Fruit or Effect but a continual Circulation of it self in Horrors and fruitless renewals without ease or remedy without possibility of Amendment of recovery to God and Holiness For in Hell there is no such Woe therefore to you that Laugh now without this true Repentance For you shall weep and weep for ever it is the state of utter Darkness extremity of Darkness and to extremity of Duration even Eternal Duration But true Repentance hath had its Proportion here 〈◊〉 this World of sorrow that God Accepts in Christ and through his Agonies for sin 2. It is not only a
that we may not be pleased and contented with a Counterfeit with any other Repentance than that unto Salvation not to be Repented of Least we for ever Repent of our Repentance in Hell where there is no place of Evangelical saving Repentance but of that only which is a barren Fiery Horror and Despaire scorching the Conscience for ever and not allaying it with a Drop of Water to Cooll outragious Tongue Luke 16.24 Blaspheming at the same time God and Christ and our impenitent selves who would not Repent while we had space and place for our Repentance Infer 5. Let us by all the most moving Considerations of the Evil of sin the hatefulness and unreasonableness of it the sense of the Goodness and Grace of God in Christ all his Judgments all his Mercies the sense of an Eternal Misery and Punnishment from his Presence be strongly mov'd excited stirr'd and led to Repentance Infer 6. Let us rejoyce in the sweet Reposes of Conscience when we have truly Repented in the infinite Power Authority and Supreme right of God to Pardon upon Repentance not dependent upon Man nor upon the Will of Man Who is a God like unto him who Pardons Iniquity Transgression and Sin and casts it into the depth of the Sea who makes by his Pardon sins as Scarlet and Crimson to be White as Snow and Wooll that blots out Iniquity as a Cloud and a thick Cloud with the same Potency and Ease that the Sun does off a Cloud and with infinitely greater Let us Rejoyce in the great Efficacies of the Redeemer Pardoning sin upon Earth as the great High Priest of our Profession and the Bishop of our Souls Absolving truly Repenting Sinners by the Witness of his Blood sprinkling the Heart from an evil Conscience and speaking better things than the Blood of Abel The Blood as of a Lamb without spot Offer'd by the Eternal Spirit Purging the Conscience from dead works together with and even as the Author and Finisher of faith and repentance from dead works to serve the Living God Heb. 9. c. 10. c. 12. Let us rejoyce in the Witness of the Divine Spirit Sealing and Witnessing to us by Repentance washing the Body the whole Conversation as with pure water Let us rejoyce in all the Blessed Promises and Assurances of the Word of God made by it to sincere Penitents which are yea and Amen in Christ For all these are of far greater Authority Truth Certainty than All Bindings or Loosings on Earth whether by the Ecclesiastical as we call it Administration of the Keyes or by Men forgiving one Another however necessary these may be in their place Infer 7th Seeing the Kingdom of God and of Heaven is the great Motive to Repentance as hath been before on great Reason made out The high Reason we have to believe that by the Apostles calling it the Last time the last hour the ends of the World so many Hundreds of Years ago we must needs be now upon the very last issue and determination of that Time when the Kingdom shall appear in Glory and all other kind of Time shall be no more How great a Cloud does therefore Encompass us that we should by no means be willing or able to Rend to Engage us to run with Patience the Race of Repentance set before us Heb. 12.1 and to that End to lay aside every weight and the sin that doth so easily beset us looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our Repentance that it may be to Salvation and never to be Repented of Hearing him who in the days of his Flesh because the offers and first appearances and First Fruits of his Kingdom were then begun Preach'd saying Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand so the full Harvest of that Kingdom being now ready to appear he does by the Voices of all his Prophets in the Old and New Testament instantly Preach to us Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand And of how strong and close Connexion the Kingdom of God and of Christ and Repentance are I shall more fully and largely at this time Represent as a most solemn Conclusion of this Discourse There is a fixed space given and a peculiar Interval Appointed Lying between the time of the Apostacy call'd the Time Times and Half Time or the 1260 Days and the Time of the Vials And it is 30 years making the 1260 1290 Years Dan. 12.11 even as the 45 Years of the Vials to the Absolutely blessed state of the Kingdom of Christ in Glory when the Saints shall all stand in their Lots fill up to that very Fulness of Times Now at this space of the Thirty Years the Spirit shall be powred out from on High The Song of the Lamb which hath been so long out of use that it becomes as it were a new Song and can be at first learnt only by the 144000 shall be Taught by them immediately and the Everlasting Gospel shall be without delay upon it Preach'd to every Nation Tongue and People under Heaven and then there shall be as in preparation to the Glory of the Kingdom of Christ but under the Influence of that Kingdom in Succession a mighty Spirit of Godly Sorrow working Repentance to Salvation never then indeed to be Repented of pour'd out upon all Flesh Now because this is a point of great moment to the Doctrine of Repentance and sets forth much of the Excellency of Repentance I shall give very great Scriptures and argue upon them for the truth of ir Scripture 1. The first Scripture I would insist upon shall be from a consideration of that great Ordinance of God concerning the Day of Attonement among the Children of Israel This Ordinance We find Levit. 23.27 In the tenth day of the seventh the Sabbattical Month there shall be a day of attonement It shall be an Holy Convocation to you and you shall afflict your Souls And you shall do no work in that same day For it is a day of Attonement to make Attonement for you before the Lord your God for whatsoever Soul it be that shall not be afflicted in that same Day he shall be cut off from among his People And whatsoever Soul it be that doth any work in that same day the same Soul will I destroy from among his People It shall be a statute for ever throughout your Generations in all your Dwellings It shall be to you a Sabbath of Rest and you shall Afflict your Souls And on that day there were the great rites of Sacrifice the Bullock the sin Offering the Blood of which was carried into the Holy of Holies to make an attonement for the Vncleannesses of the Priests and People and to reconcile the Holy of Holies and the Mercy Seat and the Tahernacle of the Congregation and the Goat that was to be Kill'ed in the same Manner and the scape-Goat throughout c 16. Now that which I lay in the Foundation is That God never appointed
solid Floor and Pavement to move upon such a Bed to rest upon Upon this Earth is the whole Vegetative Nature both nourished and supported as in a Nursery even from the Cedar in Lebanon to the Hysop that grows in the Wall Hereon have all the Great Buildings the Palaces Castles Towers multiplied into Cities and Towns their Foundations Now seeing all these have their Order their Quiet their Safety by the steddiness of the Earth whenever it is moved there is an immediate Shatter Confusion Disorder Desolation an Amaze a Horror upon all Creatures of Sense and especially of Reason an Affrightment and Terror upon Nature it self because hereby the great Laws and Sanctions of Creation and Providence are violated For concerning the Earth God spake and it was done he commanded and it stood fast Psal 33.9 3. The Earth is stuff'd with variety of Matter Humours and Vapors in its Bowels Fire Water Vapor Air Minerals Sulphur Piceous Matter Now it self is so made as to lye close and to lye still every clod of Earth compacts it self and would lye in as little room as it can It is heavy and sluggish and unapt to move whereas all the rest of its Inmates are for Motion and Action some of them of very earnest and vigorous Motion and for Propagation and Enlargement of themselves The Earth will not move but on some great violence and force so when those working and active Parts find they are fettered and imprisoned and cramp'd they grow furious and outragious and rend and tear every thing to make and force their way and all on the sudden and at once very often for being either gather'd together in great Caverns and Hollows of the Earth their Room grows too strait and little and so they are forc'd to transplant themselves or having as one may say very often a Spirit of Contradiction one to another they fall into Feuds and Wars one with another and they that are overcome and fall under the Mastery of others are forc'd and driven and made to fly out with great violence and the very same thing may fall out in divers lesser Veins and Tubular Passages or Pipes in the Earth where though the Stores of these Vapors or Mineral Spirits are lesser yet if it be in many of them together the Contest may be very great and the Fury very discomposing to the Earth Thus there are within the Earth those Bombs and Mortars those Cannon and Ordnance those Battering Rams and Engines those Mines oft sprung and natural Gun-powder and fiery Bullets those lesser Screwed Guns all which are the Ammunition of Nature or rather of the God of Nature Thus when they are discharg'd and let off it is with great Noise Dread and Astonishment and oftentimes Destruction to the Inhabitants of the Earth Who almost hath not heard of Aetna and Vesuvius and other the Mountains spouting Fire in several Parts of the World And as there are such constant known and open Eruptions in Nature so are there secret sudden and extemporary ones And thus in the Heavens over us there are like Contests and Collisions falling and clapping of Clouds Thunders Lightnings fiery Meteors and flaming Balls and these often corresponding and as it were holding Intelligence with the same in Earth And these are certainly often Causes one of another by the Tone or Link of Air being broken and the Elastic Force or Spring of it flying this way and that way as lately in Jamaica according to the most prudent Accounts from thence Every thing then must needs be torn and havock'd as those Motions hurry this way or that way Persons Animal Creatures and Things at such times And as these are in the World of Nature so are they in the Political World when Nations or People are too full for their Place and transplant themselves by forcing into other Nations when Wars those great Disputes of Nations arise when People or Armies fall into Mutiny these are Political Earthquakes and when Men are oppressed in Religion by domineering Superstition and Laws of Vniformity and imposing on the Consciences and Faith of Men There are Religious Earthquakes The Psalmist puts them altogether Psal 65.7 8. Which setteth fast the Mountains being girded with Power which stillest the noise of the Seas the noise of their Waves and the multitude of the People This God does in Mercy when he keeps all quiet but there are Times when all these being in Hubbub and Mutiny the Mountains shake and roar together with the Seas and Waves and the Multitude of People in their Strivings who are therein emphatically called the Mobile that They that dwell in the uttermost Parts are afraid of these Tokens thus from one end of Nations or even of the World to another there arise dreadful Fears at the Tokens of God unhinging the World called therefore Prodigies and Portents For what Interest God hath in these shall be spoken in the next Particular I only observe further There are in the Little World by the wrestling of contrary Humours in the Bodies of Men such Spoutings of Fire as in Fevers such Deluges of Water as in Dropsies such Earthquakes in violent Diseases such sulphureous Vapors in horrid Melancholies or Fits or in the Arteries and Sinews as in Gouts and Rheumatisms in those Arthritical Pains in the strait and close Tubes of the Body such Swimmings of the Head as resemble what hath been spoken of in the outer World but above all in Consciences 4. Let all these things be trac'd as much as they can to their natural Causes yet Scripture ascribes all to God Psal 148.8 Fire Hail Snow Vapor all fulfil his Word He worketh his Signs and Wonders among the Armies of Heaven and the Inhabitants of the Earth and none can stay his hand for all the Inhabitants of the Earth are reputed as nothing in such a Case Dan. 4.35 except he pleases to stay it himself or can say to him What dost thou As if they should say What dost thou mean who hast made Heaven and Earth and preservest it to put it into these Disorders But he gives no Account of his matters in these Things And seeing he holds all natural Causes in his hand and ballances them every moment what is it to say All these Things have their proper Causes but to say in true sense that God does all These for all Nature is indeed Miracle constant and as we say in ordinary But God indeed does in more lofty Style and Elegancies and Eloquences of Language assume to himself the Government of these affrightful Motions in Heaven or Earth Thunders Lightnings Earthquakes throughout Scripture as if they were immediately done by his own hand as if he took this Globe of Earth and Sea which he hath Hung upon nothing and shook it out of its place or as if he immediately shot off his great Pieces either in the Bowels of the Earth or in the Skies or sprung a Mine in the Earth And it must needs be so if
is Supernaturally and in the same manner to set Bars to or hinder their Motions Ezek. 1.19.20 Now that there are such Supernatural Agents the very Evidences of rational and even sensible Experiments compel the stoutest Gainsayers to confess but as they bid defiance to all Things for the sake of their Atheistic Sentiments Answ 2. He that Knows all his Works from the very Foundation of the World and foresees All Causes and Effects could with the same Ease ballance them for their just Time both as to particular Persons and Nations with their Sins filling up their measure and so that All should roll down to their highest Effects at that time when he will once more shake not only Earth but Heaven also even at that Time of Trouble and Day of Battel and War as it is most Prophetically call'd Job 38.22.23 compar'd with Dan. 12.1 Mat. 24.21 and Revel 16.14 the same Spirit that dictated All Fitting the very Words one to another in these Scriptures Object 2. But still If this be allowed that such natural Causes and Effects are adjusted for the Purposes of Divine Judgment and even for that Dissolution of this present Frame Why at this Time Answ 1. Such a Time according to all Scripture and Reason must be at some Time and why may it not be now so near Answ 2. The very Time since the Coming of Christ first in the Flesh being almost 1700 Years ago was call'd the Fulness of Time what then can be after it but the Ends of the World the Last Day the Last Hour running apace to the Fulness of all Times Gal. 4.4 and Ephes 1.10 Answ 3. Mens Heats in all the Business of this World Buying Selling Planting Building the Little Faith on Earth it is near are no Arguments it is not near for these are foretold to be even at the nearest Approaches of that Day Answ 4. But in sum The Sure Word of Prophecy and Line of Time according to Scripture in full Agreement with History as I have so often affirm'd is my Grand Assurance Object 3. But those Words of our Lord's Marc. 13.32 Of that Day and Hour knoweth none c. contradict any such Calculation making known that Time Answ I affirm upon greatest Evidences of Scripture Reason The Son having all Judgment committed to him and the Spirit resting upon him without measure did know of that Day and of that Hour but in that Parâ—bolical Speech Christ acknowledges the Supreme Dominion of the Divine Being which is so often said to have the Panto-Cratorate the Almighty Ordination of that Day and the so unfathomable stupendious Process of it As the Revelation or Bringing All Things to pass in order to it is said to be given by God to Jesus Christ to shew to his Servants and the Conduct of them originally in God is given to him even so the Knowledge of the Time and the Administration of that Day Object 5. But the contrary Prevalencies of that French Prince the so great Enemy of the Witnesses who keeps them now from Rising shews That Time is not so near Answ As God gives in all Ages such Dominion and Greatness to some Princes that no Confederacies can withstand it as to Nebuchadnezzar Alexander Caesar Mahomet so hath he given much Greatness to that Monarch but when such Time of those Princes came and so of this Prince that they must have End At that very Time as they so he must end and none shall help it nor any precedent Greatness stay him up Answ 2. An Universal Monarchy is Embarrassed to him He shall never be more than one of the Ten Kings till he or his Successors with the Rest shall hate the Whore As Prophecy so Providence hath Embarrassed him as with a Band of Iron and so far the Confederacy or some other certain Interposal shall prevail till then Answ 3. We are not earnest enough in Prayer we curtail the Time of Humiliation and seeking God especially in that strongest Argument of his Kingdom Oh that this Counsel might be acceptable to the King and to the Counsels of the Nation and the Ministry of all Names that we might by earnestest and loudest Prayers of a Winters Humiliation and seeking him by Fasting and Supplication prepare for a Summers Action and not grutch God the Time Answ 4. He hath had the usual Space allowed to such notorious Enemies of the People of God And give me leave to use it as an Emblem tho not as a Forebode As Divine Providence commanded so great a Leviathan or Whale which he calls King over the Children of Pride from Playing in the Ocean where he had room enough in the pursuit of his Prey to come and strand himself and dye on the Shore of Scotâ—and the Twin Island of our Great Britain even so he will shortly work his Signs and Wonders in Heaven and Earth that he may abase such Tyrannick Leviathans walking in Pride For the Time is near and All however it seems otherwise shall be ready A King shall Reign in Righteousness and Persons compar'd to the Basest Vilest shall no more be called Most Christian most Serene Magnificent Beneficent But there shall be a Breaking out of the Glory of the Gospel The Tongue of the Stammerers shall speak plain The Lame shall leap as an Hart. The Ears of the Deaf shall hear The Esay 29. c. 32 c. 35. Eyes of the Blind shall see out of obscurity The very Ears of the Deaf shall hear the Words of that Book of Prophocy which the Learned will not now meddle with because say they It is Sealed nor the Vnlearned because they are not Learned Abundance of Converts shall be brought in Foolish Virgins shall be made Wise and not Err in the way called the way of Holiness and no ravenous Beast shall be there any more for ever Let us then to sum up all Seek him who made the Seven Stars and Orion Amos 5.8 who makes the Day dark with Night and yet turns the shadow of Death into Morning who calls for the Waters of the Sea commands them out and pours them on the face of the Earth who rends the Rocks with his mighty Winds and shakes the Earth out of its place 1 Sam. chap. 2. and Thunders down with his Fire upon the wicked 1 Kings 19.11 and comes himself in the Still Voice of his Kingdom And hereof he hath given notice as he saw good with dread of Wrath on Jamaica as an Emblem of the Day of Judgment on the World of Vngodly which as it should stir up the Remnant that are there escaped even as our Selves to deep Repentance so it should excite us to all Acts of Mercy to them and Prayers for them To us he hath sent as it were the Still Voice to let us know he is coming himself to which the Earth mov'd it self in token of Obeisance FINIS THE GENERAL INEFFICACY AND INSINCERITY Of a Late Or Death-Bed Repentance WITH Earnestest Dissuasives from committing our
by and by it is offended and it was therefore truly no better at first than at last Mat. 7.26 The House that is not founded upon the Rock is as ill founded in the Calm as in the Storm only the Storm discovers what it was Morality it self requires a better rooting of virtuous Habits than that they should be set only in loose Ground thrown up by Extremity of Condition and not in the Soil it self That Repentance which will not bear the trial of time will much less sustain the Test of Eternity wherein every thing that stands must be solid and substantial Things that suffer the loss of themselves when they are tried by mans day will suddenly be consumed by the hotter Beams of God 1 Cor. 4.3 That hath need of good Founding that must undergo an Eternity and have all advantage of Concoction that must be laid up for ever which the short Moments of a Death-Bed without a miraculous Assistance will not allow The Fruit of it generally like that Hasty-ripe perishes while it is in the Hand Isai 28.4 This Repentance gives up the Ghost as soon as it is born Now as for that place in Ezekiel so much vexed with Controversie I do not think it convenient for me to intangle a Discourse intended wholly for practice with the Perplexities of it Only I am concerned to shew that it doth not afford the favour supposed to this kind of Repentance For first We must not mistake the day it speaks of as if it signified so strait a compass of Time as a Day but that Season wherein either the righteous Man wasts and destroys his Righteousness or a Sinner over comes his Vitious Customs and Inclinations neither of which are usually done on the sudden Secondly The turning from Wickedness intended is certainly a sincere and impartial one and not such as we have rendred this Dying Repentance suspicious to be Thirdly It must be justified by a walking in the Statutes and Judgments of God and doing that is right that is by a continued Reformation which will least agree to this Repentance and therefore this place of Scripture will not protect this Supposition but rather damns it Having now in the foregoing Discourse in a practical and perswasive way endeavoured to engage Men to a timely Repentance by setting out the hazard of a late one I have thought it necessary to make the state of the whole Doctrin as exact as I can by considering whatever might with fair appearance of Scripture-Reason call into question and scruple what I have grounded my Perswasions upon I will therefore as a Supplement to all I have said First recollect what I have intended all along And then cast all I can possibly suppose against it into Objections and Answers that by closer atention to the Case it self every one that will be at the cost to consider it may be convinced to the main End viz. A present Religious Life 1. First then I make it not the question Whether a true Repentance how late soever be a Repentance to Salvation 2. Nor Secondly Whether God hath reserved it to the Prerogative of his Grace to give a true Repentance at last 3. Nor Thirdly Whether a Repentance that is true and sincere though but in the Seeds being surprized with a Death-Bed may not then break out and shew it self more fully 4. Nor Lastly Whether a Man that hath the light of the Gospel brought to him but just before his Dying Condition may not expect the Grace of God working with it then even as in the freer times of Life All these I do with great Confidence acknowledge The Substance of what I have said against a Death-Bed Repentance will be comprised in these following Assertions which I restrain wholly to Men that have lived under the Light and Exhortations and Applications of the Word of God with all usual Freedom and yet have not begun sincerely to Repent till they come to die The First is That a Death-Bed Repentance how fair soever it may appear hath yet the greatest Doubt imaginable upon it whether it be true The Second There is greatest Reason of Fear God will not give his Grace to such a Dying Man to Repent The Third That a Repentance at Death is not that general Repentance the Scripture Discourses of makes promises of Pardon upon offers the Assistances of the Spirit to enjoins the Duty of with so many pressing commands For that Repentance immediately to be begun is supposed to govern a following Life It must therefore be an extraordinary and miraculous Repentance if true Lastly That it is therefore against all rules of Piety and Prudence by mispending Life to cast our selves upon the necessity of Repentance at Death This I say is the Substance of what I have designed all along and which I would now further clear and vindicate from these following Objections Objection 1. Doth not the Parable of calling some Labourers into the Vineyard at the Eleventh Hour imply That God doth in ordinary Convert some at the last Hour as well as sooner Mat. 20. v. 1. c. Answer The main scope of Parables is only argumentative and so far as the scope of that Parable relates to this Case It is no more than what I acknowledge That God gives Eternal Life to true Repentance if true at last even as to the first and earliest Repentance The reward being to all of Grace and not of Debt It is also to be considered there remained an Hour of working representing rather old Age than a Death-Bed if the colours of a Parable prove any thing and so are rather against this Repentance than for it In the Second Objection I suppose Men taking Sanctuary at infinite Mercy and Power in this manner Although no thought of Man can reach the Mercy that accepts or gives Repentance at the last yet Mercy being as much above our Thoughts as the Heaven above the Earth what can we define concerning it And though there are so many Circumstances of Impossibility according to our measure of things Yet the things that are impossible with Men with God are possible for with God all things are possible How can we then determine in this Case Can we by searching find out the Almighty in his Mercy and Power Can we find him out to perfection It is high as Heaven what can we do It is deeper than Hell what can we know The measure thereof is longer than the Earth and broader than the Sea Answer Now because in this Objection the sinews of all Hope and Expectation from this late Repentance meet I will endeavour to give the most punctual Answer to it And though I know after all that is or can be said Men will not quit it Yet I shall rest upon this Answer as my last Resolution of this Case and by it raise the disswasions from a trust in such a Repentance to the height the greatness of the hazard appearing most fully from it In general
therefore it hath been noted The question is not whether God accepts a true Repentance how late soever but whether God will give a true Repentance so late and herein the question is not of the limits the absolute limits of infinite Mercy and Power But what limits it hath set to it self and what Seasons it hath limited to us and whether according to these a Death-Bed Repentance be not almost if not altogether an Impossibility I 'll therefore lay down several degrees of Impossibility notwithstanding infinite Mercy and Power that must necessarily abate the Irregular Confidence of such a Repentance and under one of them I shall be bold to place it 1. The highest degree of Impossibility is of those things that are utterly and absolutely impossible with God because they are irreconcileable with his Nature and such wherein if they were he must deny himself which he cannot do For though there is nothing above God not so much as any Goodness or Righteousness abstracted from himself that should give him Law Yet he being himself that supreme Goodness and Righteousness He is a Law to himself His Nature is his supreme and inviolable Law And his Will stands always even with his Nature For his Will is himself reciprocal with his Nature And all his Actions keep perfect Correspondence with his Will Upon this immutable Reason God cannot lye he cannot do any thing weak or that argues Imperfection He cannot but be righteous in all his ways and holy in all his works Upon this Reason also he cannot he will not acquit the guilty He cannot he will not save or make Men happy in their Sins God himself speaks this Sense Ezek. 18.31 32. and c. 33.11 As I live saith the Lord I have no pleasure in the Death of him that dieth why will ye die Turn your selves and live ye As if he should say except ye turn all my Mercy can do you no good For such a Mercy as God the Father of Mercies will not give would not be a Mercy but either a foolish Softness or loose Indulgence to Sin Such a Power were not a Power but an Impotency or turning all things to Confusion These therefore are as inconsistent with God as Folly Imperfection Sin The Gospel the highest display of Mercy rests upon this Principle being not a Salvation of Men in Sin but a most effectual Redemption of Men from Sin Of all that God can be supposed to do for Men there is nothing more impossible than this more repugnant to all the true Sense of Man more overthrowing of the undertaking of Christ more contrary to the Nature of true Happiness An Opinion of the damned in Hell being annihilated or recovered to Holiness and Happiness after some Ages of Torment were a high Probability compar'd with this He that can tempt himself to believe this may believe any thing and needs no Confutation but his own Unreasonableness Against this I have been thus large because it secretly lurks in Mens Hearts that God may save them without so much ado about Faith and Repentance though being afraid to speak a thing so monstrous they disguise it under the Pretence of a faint Repentance at last But from what I have said It is plainly to be inferred First That some things which God cannot will not do are not the reproach either of his Mercy or Power but the Glory and Greatness of both And this that He neither can or will save Men without sincere Faith and Repentance that is without a recovery to Holiness is one of these things The Death-Bed Repentance then that is unto Salvation must without all dispute be a sincere Change from Sin to Holiness 2. There is an Impossibility that arises from the peremptory and absolute and irrepealable determination of the Will and Council of God concerning any thing In this degree of things I account * I cannot acquiesce in the Exposition of the Learned Dr. Hammond in his Annotations concerning these two Cases the unpardonableness of the Sin against the Divine Spirit The unrenewableness of total Apostates from Christianity to Repentance The impossibility of Repentance after this Life Now though these carry not their own Evidence of being inconsistent with the Divine Nature as the former yet the Declaration of supreme pleasure against them is so effectual that we must needs look upon them as impossible And we may see a great consent a high Congruity between the things themselves and the Determination of God concerning them which Reasons are yet clearer with God For in the Sin against the Holy Ghost there is so mature so perfect so concocted a Wickedness so high a contumely against the Godhead it self that it is very irreconcileable with Repentance and so with Pardon The total Apostacy from Christianity and the Evidences of it mentioned Heb. 6. from the very Nature of the Case appears irreparable because there is no other or higher Grace than that of the Gospel for the Apostates to remove to no more sacrifice for sin nor are there any higher Evidences of that Gospel than those he is supposed to revolt from and no more perfect Acts of Contrariety to the Gospel than the crucifying the Son of God afresh and putting him to an open shame the doing despite to the Spirit of Grace the treading under foot the Son of God and counting the Blood of the Covenant an unclean thing in the Parallel place Heb. 10.29 Besides all other Reasons the unchangeable State of Eternity is so consolidate with so fixed into our very Being that the Perpetuity of it is very accountable to our Reason so that there can be no Change after this Life From hence then we derive thus much farther against a Death-Bed Repentance First that some things wherein we cannot find an express Impossibility in their Nature are yet made so by Gods absolute Resolution concerning them into the Reason of which he also is pleased to give us some light And that many Expressions of Scripture as They shall seek me early but shall not find me the Parable of the foolish Virgins with many others make this Repentance very dangerous with which also the very Reason of the Case concurs Yet not amounting to this kind of Impossibility 3. There are some things impossible according to the Rules and general Laws of the Creation and Government of the World which we call Nature and which Rules infinite Wisdom and Power hath so prescribed to it self that he hath yet reserved to himself freedom to shew himself above them as Founder and Lord of Nature Thus it is impossible for the Sun to stand still to raise the Dead that the Fire should not burn That is It is impossible at all times but when infinite Power is pleased to be seen riding in the Heavens far above all Nature that is when he is pleased to work Miracles suitable to these Laws of the first Creation there are also Laws of the new and second Creation viz. the Redemption of