neither For there is no foundation that I know of for what some pretend that God has given us greater power over our own lives than over other Mens We find no such power given us in Scripture which is the only revelation of God's will and I am sure Nature teaches us no such thing nay Nature teaches the quite contrary the natural aversions to Death and the natural principle of Self-preservation were not only intended to make us cautious of any hurt or mischief which other Men may do us but to make us careful to do no hurt to much less to destroy ourselves and therefore the voice of Nature is That we must preserve our own lives and being When God made us he did not make us the absolute Lords and Masters of our selves we cannot dispose of ourselves as we please but are his Creatures and Subjects and must receive Laws from him and that in such instances wherein the injury is done only to ourselves We must not abuse our own Bodies by Intemperance and Luxury or Lust though neither the Publick nor any private persons are injured by it and if we have not power over our own Bodies in lesser instances much less to kill them And if it be a sin to destroy our own lives it is the most mortal and damning sin for it destroys Soul and Body together because it makes our repentance impossible unless Men can repent of their sin and obtain God's pardon for it before they have committed it or can repent and obtain their pardon in the next World. Did Men seriously consider this it is impossible that the greatest shame and infamy want or suffering or whatever it is that makes them weary of life should be thought so intolerable as to make them force their passage into the other World to escape it when such a violent and unnatural escape will cost them their Souls Men may be in such evil circumstances as make death desirable but no considering Man will exchange the sufferings of this life for the endless miseries of the next If we cannot destroy our Lives and put an end to our present sufferings without destroying our Souls too we must be contented to live on and bear our lot patiently in this World which whatever it is is much more easie and tolerable than to be eternally miserable And yet God forbid that I should pronounce a final and peremptory Sentence upon all those unfortunate persons who have died by their own hands We know not what allowances God may make for some Mens opinion of the lawfulness of it and for the distraction of other Mens thoughts and passions thro' a setled melancholy or some violent temptation My business is not to limit the Soveraign and Prerogative Grace of God but to declare the nature of the thing according to the Terms of the Gospel To Murder ourselves is the most unnatural Murder it is a damning Sin and such a sin as no Man can repent of in this World and therefore unless God forgive it without repentance it can never be forgiven and the Gospel of Christ gives us no commission to preach Forgiveness of Sin without Repentance the Gospel-grace which only forgives Penitents cannot save such Men and he is a very bold Man and ventures very far upon unpromised and uncovenanted Mercy who will commit a sin which the Grace of the Gospel cannot pardon All that I have to add under this Head is the case of those who die in despair of God's Mercy This is commonly thought a very hopeless state for to despair of the mercy of God is a great sin and therefore such Men die in the actual commission of sin unrepented of and By-standers are apt to suspect their despair to be little better than their final doom and sentence and yet many times we see Men labouring under despair in their last Agonies who have to all outward appearance lived very innocent and vertuous lives and it is hard to judge so severely of them as to think they were secret Hypocrites and that God has finally rejected them because they pass such a severe judgment upon themselves Now I confess despair is as uncomfortable a state as any Man can die in but I cannot think it so fatal and dangerous as some imagine for let us consider what the nature of Despair is and wherein the sinfulness of it consists To disbelieve the Promises of Grace and Mercy made to true penitent Sinners by Jesus Christ is Infidelity not Despair and this indeed is a great and unpardonable sin for it is to renounce the Faith of Christ and the Grace of the Gospel but this is not what we commonly call Despair Such men believe the Gospel of Christ and all the Promises of it as firmly as others do they do not doubt but God will forgive all true Penitents through the Merits and Mediation of Jesus Christ and therefore are as true and sincere Believers as those who do not despair but their despair is in the application of these Promises to themselves that is they fear that they are not within the Terms and Conditions of Gospel-grace that they are not true Penitents that their Day of Grace is expired and now they shall not receive the Blessing though as Esau did they seek it earnestly with tears or it may be that they are Reprobates who have no right to the Promises of the Gospel Now if these Men may upon all other accounts be very good Christians but are either oppressed with melancholy or disturbed with false and mistaken notions of Religion can we think that their melancholy or mistakes which make them pass so false a judgment upon themselves shall make God condemn them too who knows them better than they know themselves Should a Man who has a delirous fancy accuse himself of Theft or Murder or Treason which he was never guilty of would a just and righteous Judge who certainly knows that he is not gulty of these crimes condemn him only because he condemns himself Suppose a Man who is in the right way to Heaven should be perswaded by some Travellers he meets that he has mistaken his way and upon this he should fall into great horrors and agonies and give himself for lost is this Man ever the further off of Heaven because he is perswaded that he has mistaken the way The false judgments dying Men make of themselves either through Enthusiasm Presumption or Despair shall not determine their final State Men may go to Hell with all the triumphs of a deluded fancy which promises nothing less than eternal Glories and those who go trembling out of this World may find themselves happily mistaken in the next It is a wrong notion of justifying Faith which makes Men conclude Despair to be so damning and unpardonable a Sin if justifying Faith were nothing else but a strong belief and perswasion that we are justified there were good reason to conclude Despair to be a mortal Sin because it is
Lives much beyond the short Period of them in this World. 5. If Death puts an end to our Account methinks a Dying-bed is a little of the latest to begin it for this is to begin just where we must end The Account of our Lives is the Account of the Good or Evil we have done while we lived And what account can a dying Man give of this who has spent his whole life in sin and wickedness If he must be judged according to what he hath done in the Body how sad is his account and how impossible is it for him to mend it now For when he is just a dying it is too late for him to begin to live If without holiness no man shall see God how hopeless is his condition who has lived a wicked and profligate life all his days and is now past living and therefore past living a holy life A Man who is confined to a sick and dying Bed is uncapable of exercising the vertues of life his time of work is over almost as perfectly over as if he were dead and therefore his account is finished and he must expect his reward according to what he has already done No you 'll say he may still repent of his sins and a true Penitent shall find mercy even at his last gasp Now I readily grant that all true Penitents shall be saved whensoever they truly repent but it is hard to think that any dying sorrows or the dying vows and resolutions of Sinners shall be accepted by GOD for true repentance The mistakes of this matter are very fatal and therefore I shall briefly explain it In expounding the Promises of the Gospel we must take care to reconcile the Gospel to itself and not make one part of it contradict or overthrow another now as the Gospel promises pardon of sin to true Repentance so it makes Holiness of life as necessary a condition of Salvation as true Repentance Without holiness no man shall see GOD. GOD will render to every man according to his deeds To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality eternal life but unto them that are contentious and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doth evil but glory honour and peace to every man that worketh good Be not deceived GOD is not mocked for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap for he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption but he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting The Promises of forgiveness to Repentance are not more express than these Texts are which declare that we shall be rewarded according to our works and we have as much reason to believe the one as the other and if we believe the Gospel we must believe them both and then Repentance and a holy Life are both necessary to Salvation and then the dying sorrows of Sinners who have lived very wicked lives and are past mending them now cannot be true saving Repentance If sorrow for sin without a holy life can carry Men to Heaven then I 'm sure Holiness is not necessary then Men may see God without Holiness and then the promises of pardon to Repentance if this dying Sorrow be true Repentance overthrows the necessity of a holy Life the necessity of a holy Life contradicts the promises of pardon to such Penitents and then either one or both of them must be false To state this Matter plainly and in a few words we must distinguish between two kinds of Repentance 1. The Baptismal Repentance 2. Repentance upon a Relapse or falling into any known and wilful Sin. I. By Baptismal Repentance I mean that Repentance which is necessary in adult persons in order to their receiving Christian Baptism this is the Repentance which is most frequently mentioned in the New Testament and to which the promise of Remission and Forgiveness is annexed this our Saviour preached Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand 4 Matth. 17. This he gave authority to his Apostles to preach That repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his Name among all nations 24 Luke 47. Now this Repentance both as to Iews and Heathens who embraced the Faith of Christ was a renouncing all their former Sins and false superstitious or idolatrous Worship and this qualified them for Baptism in which they obtain'd the remission of all their Sins in the Name of Christ and for this reason remission of Sins is promised to Repentance because all such Penitents are received to Baptism which is the washing of Regeneration which washes away all their Sins and puts them into a state of Grace and Favour with God as St. Peter tells the Iews Repent and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Iesus Christ for the remission of sins 2 Acts 38. And much to the same purpose Ananias told St. Paul Arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins calling on the Name of the Lord 22 Acts 16. And I know not any one Text in the New Testament wherein the remission of Sins is absolutely promised to Repentance but what must be understood of this Baptismal Repentance and then Repentance and Remission of Sin are inseparably annexed because such Penitents wash away all their Sins in Baptism and come pure and undefiled out of that mystical Fountain which is set open for Sin and for Uncleanness to wash in and to be clean Now I grant should any person who comes to Baptism rightly qualified and disposed with a sincere Repentance and stedfast Faith in Christ die soon after he is baptized before he has time and opportunity to exercise any of the Graces of the Christian Life such a Man shall go to Heaven without actual Holiness the remission of his Sins in Baptism upon his Repentance will save him though he have not time to bring forth the fruits of Repentance in a holy Life and this is the only case I know of wherein a Penitent can be saved without actual Holiness viz. by Baptismal Grace and Regeneration Only the Primitive Church and I think with very good reason allowed the same to Martyrdom when it prevented the Baptism of young Converts as we know under the Pagan Persecutions young Converts who made bold confessions of their Faith in Christ were hurried away to Martyrdom before they had opportunity of being baptized but such Men were baptized in their own Bloud and that supplied the want of Water-baptism which they could not have Now in this case also if Martyrdom be instead of Baptism as the Primitive Church thought it then had any Heathen been converted from a lewd and profligate life to the Faith of Christ and been immediately apprehended and halled to Martyrdom before he could either be baptized or give any other testimony of the reformation of his Life and Manners but by dying
life spent in Wickedness and Folly It is very seldom that such dying Sorrows or dying Vows are sincere and hearty but were they never so sincere as sometimes though very rarely we see that Men who recover from a dangerous Sickness keep the vows and promises they then made and that is a good proof that they were very sincere in making them yet I do not know any one promise in Scripture to a dying Repentance the Gospel requires actual holiness of life and when God cuts off such Men in their sins without allowing them any time to reform their lives it is very suspicious that he rejects their sorrows and their vows as Wisdom threatens 1 Prov. 24 c. Because I have called and ye refused I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded I also will laugh at your calamity and mock when your fear cometh Then shall they call upon me but I will not answer they shall seek me early but they shall not find me I will not pre-judge the final state of these Men but if God accept of such a Death-bed Repentance which cannot produce the actual Fruits of Righteousness it is more than he has promised and more than he has given us authority to preach and we should consider what infinite hazard we run by such delays of Repentance that we cannot be saved by the express terms of the Gospel but if we be saved we must be saved by an unpromised and uncovenanted Grace and Mercy which how good soever God be we have no reason to rely on This I know will be thought very severe but I cannot help it it may terrify dying Sinners but there is less danger in that than in nursing Men up in the deluding hopes of a Death-bed Repentance which renders all the arguments and motives to a holy Life ineffectual and I fear eternally destroys as many as trust in it If you ask why Faith and Repentance without the actual obedience of our Lives should not as well be accepted by God on our Death-bed as it is at our Baptism I shall ask another very plain question Why a Husbandman who hires Labourers into his Vineyard in the morning receives them into his service protection and pay only upon their promise to be faithful and diligent in his work before they have done any thing I say when these Men have loitered away the day without working why should not he reward them at night because they then also profess themselves very sorry that they did not work and make a great many promises and vows that if they were to begin the day again they would A promise of faithfulness and diligence was reason enough why he should take them into his service but their sorrow for not working and their resolutions of working when the time of working is past is no reason why they should be rewarded or escape the punishment of Loiterers This is the very case here we are saved by the Mercies of God and the Merits of Christ which we partake of by our union to him this union is made in Baptism which incorporates us into the Body of Christ and from the very first moment of our union we are in a state of Grace and Justification our sins are washed away in his Blood as Water purges all bodily defilements and the Spirit of Christ dwells in us to renew and sanctify us now all that is required by God or that seems in the nature of the thing necessary to this Union is a general Repentance of all our Sins renouncing our former wicked course of Life professing our Faith in Christ as the Son of God and Saviour of the World and vowing Obedience to his Laws for this qualifies us to be his Disciples and to be received into his Service and into the Communion of his Body and Church and therefore this Faith and Repentance justifies in Baptism because those who thus repent of their Sins and believe in Christ are received to Baptism and in Baptism have all their Sins forgiven and are put into a state of Grace and Favour with God. But now though Faith and Repentance and the Vows of Obedience are sufficient to make us the Disciples of Christ and to put us into a state of Justification yet they are not sufficient to save those who are the Disciples of Christ without actual Holiness and Obedience of Life for to be a Disciple of Christ does not signifie meerly to believe in him and to vow obedience to him but to obey him it is reasonable â—nough that upon our Vows of Obedience we should be received into his service but it is not reasonable that we should be rewarded without performing our Vows for it is as ridiculous a thing to think that our repeated sorows for not obeying and our repeated and fruitless resolutions of obeying our Saviour should pass for Obedience as that that Son should be thought to do his Father's will who said I go Sir but went not especially when after our Vow of Baptism we live a very ungodly life and never think it time to repent and to renew our Vows again till we come to die If we consider the difference between what is necessary to make us the Disciples of Christ and what is required of us when we are Disciples we shall see a plain reason why Faith and Repentance as that signifies sorrow for sin and Vows of Obedience will justifie us in Baptism but will not be accepted upon a Death-bed after a life spent in wickedness for when a baptized Christian comes to die he is not then to be made a Disciple of Christ and to be baptized again but to give an account of his life since he has been Christ's Disciple and meer Faith in Christ sorrow for Sin and vows of Obedience without actual Holiness of Life though with the Sacrament of Baptism it will make a Disciple yet it will not pass in a Disciple's account especially when the sum total of his Life is nothing but sin and sorrow and fruitless vows for this is not that holiness of life which Christ requires of his Disciples The ancient Discipline of the Church was a plain proof of this that they thought a great deal more necessary for a baptized Christian than was required to qualifie Men for Baptism In the Apostles days they baptized both Iews and Heathens immediately upon their profession of Faith in Christ and renouncing their former wicked lives but in case they fell into any gross and scandalous sin after Baptism they were cast out of the Communion of the Church and the profession of sorrow and repentance for their sins and the most solemn vows of a new life was not thought sufficient to restore them to the Peace of the Church but they were kept under the severities of Repentance till they had made satisfaction for the Scandal they had given to the Church and given sufficient testimonies of the actual reformation of their Lives and in the Ages succeeding the