of Christs mediation God would have to depend wholly on Repentance as is implyed in these words Acts 5. 31. Him Christ hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour for to give repentance to Israel and forgivenesse of sin So that as there is no forgivenesse without repentance and there is no saving repentance without Christ so is there no saving Christ without repentance For this was one end of Christs coming into the world Repentance as we read Acts 17. 20. The times of former ignorance God winked at but now commandeth all men to repent every where And hence it is that the Apostles having heard what successe St. Peter's preaching had amongst the Gentiles make it matter of astonishment and glorification of Allmighty God as it is written Acts 11. 18. When they heard these things they held their peace and glorified God saying Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life 7. But farther let us see more particularly the dignitie of Repentance in the managing of which all the principall Attributes of Allmighty God are engaged as first of all that which is most formidable to a guilty and conscious Soule his Justice For when by foregoing Illumination the minde of man is brought to the knowledge of the nature of sin dwelling in it and the strong opposition which is made against it and enmity and the fearfull reward due to it who can but tremble to finde himselfe brought under the plagues due to it But withall considering the wonderfull condescension of Allmighty God entring into a Covenant of Grace and favour with Sinners upon the termes of true repentance and that he will infallibly be as good as his promises declare him the bitternesse of his Justice is changed into the sweet waters of Life to the desponding Sinner For if God had only said as he doth Exodus 34. 6 7. The Lord the Lord God mercifull and gracious long suffering and abundant in goodnesse and trueth Keeping mercie for thousands forgiving iniquities transgression and sin and that will by no means cleer the guilty c. the matter had not been so wonderfull For it is imprinted in the mindes of all Believers that God is mercifull and Good to all even to Sinners that repent Allmost every Chapter in Mahomets Alchoran proclaims that aloud and this is most pleasant to the ear of a Sinner dejected for his errours but much more is that refreshing the languishing Soule to hear that Justice it selfe is turned to be a Friend to a Sinner by vertue of repentance as St. John assures us 1 Epist 1. 9. If we confesse our sins he is faithfull and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousnesse However therefore Scholasticall doubts and disputations may be raised about the manner how God out of his justice may be said to save a man yet it cannot be doubted after such expresse words of Scripture that so it is And that this comes thus to passe that God hath so great regard and esteem for his own gift Repentance that where ever he finds that he hath obliged his honour his trueth or faithfulnesse to his word and Justice it selfe to acquitt that Sinner and cleanse him from his pollutions Not unlike to the gift of some great Prince or Person to some inferiour one who in token of his fidelitie to him and firmenesse in all great calamities and distresses endangering his life delivereth to him a Ring or other privie token well known to him advising that if ever he be call'd in question for his life or like to be oppressed by his Enemies he would send him that or show it him and it shall suffice to oblige him to come speedily to his deliverance and safety so pleaseth it Allmighty God to grant to his friends in Christ this excellent gift of Repentance which he beholding is so much affected with the dangerous condition of the miserable Sinner that in honour and justice he holdeth himselfe bound to secure him from the malice and mischiefs which his Enemies long and strain hard to bring upon him 8. And so may we say of the Omnipotencie of God concerned very much in the deliverie of the penitent Sinner For as there is guilt danger and damnation in sin so is there likewise shame and confusion of minde and face at the apprehension of so foul errours and odious spots as accompanie the commission of sins so that the same pierces into the verie soule by its stain and infests the Conscience with intolerable pain at the apprehension of such a shamefull condition What would an ingenuous Penitent give yea rather What would he not give that he had never offended so Great a God and so Good a Father With what shame the eyes of his minde being illuminate doth he reflect upon himselfe so that it is questionable in some truely repenting and generous soules whether the abhorrence of that foul state it findes it selfe in by sin be not altogether as intolerable as the foreseen punishments of Hell it selfe In such cases as this when all other hopes of being restored to its pristine integrity and purity so infinitely desireable to a true Convert faileth relief and remedie is discovered in the Allmighty power of God which and none but which could cause the Leprous and filthy parts of Naaman to returne to the soundnesse and sweetnesse of the flesh of an Infant and can as easily renew the defaced and defiled Soule so that when one day it shall appear naked at the Tribunall of Christ before the sharp-sighted Angells and men they shall not be able to discerne the least blott or blemish in the same And why because as by a second regeneration after Baptisme Repentance renews the soule by Gods powerfull Grace to a new habit and is therefore called a Second Baptisme 9. Furthermore what can be more worthy of every good Christians practice than Repentance which God honoureth above many splendid Graces in the sight of the world yea which men more thorowly seen into the divine study and art of conversing with God judge to be inferiour to none in dignitie and above all in necessitie How doe we read of Davids Repentance and Peters restoring them entirely to Gods favour so that former sins which were great obstructed not their ascent to the highest pitch of Gods favour and of Rule and Authority in the Church of God. For doth not the incomparable Parable of our Saviour Christ in the Gospell Luke the 15th of the lost Sheep of the lost Groat of the lost Son prove the certainty to us all which declare unto us this miserable state of Sinners fled from God and unreduced and the happinesse and glory upon their returne by Repentance and the joy in heaven and earth upon their conversion unto God and goodnesse as upon a Victory wun over the Devill and a soule wun to God. 10. And if we compare Repentance with other Christian vertues adorning the Soule we shall
of himselfe that infallibly he shall be saved while he remains very deficient in the common and known duties of a true Christian mistaking the true notion and office of Faith which is not so much to teach us what we are our selves but what God is and what is his Will and what our dutie is to him and the effects of obedience and holy life prescribed by him So that justifying and saving faith is Godliness in the power of it and Godlinesse in the power of which St. Paul speakes is a Confluence of all Christian Graces and Vertues the principall of which are reckoned up by St. Peter where he counselleth 2 Epist 1 5 6. to Adde to faith vertue and to vertue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godlinesse and to godlinesse brotherly kindenesse and to brotherly kindnesse Charitie And having profited so far as to be possessed of such Graces to strive as the same Apostle hath it to abound in the same which having competently attained unto gives the best assurance of the good purpose of our heavenly Father to give us the Kingdome promised to them that believe 4. But the presumptuous and preposterous faith whereby men are prone to phansie themselves into the highest favour of God before they have passed through the discipline of Faith which is laboursome and uneasie to Flesh is that which leadeth men into blindnesse of minde and perhaps perdition in the midst of strong perswasions of the contrary our Saviour Christ teaching us so much where he saith Luke 17. 7. Which of you having a servant plowing or feeding cattle will say unto him by and by when he is come from the field Goe and sit down to meat And will not rather say unto him Make ready wherewith I may suppe and gird thy selfe and serve me and afterward thou shalt eat and drink Which teaches us that it sufficeth not presently to take up our rest of assurance of our salvation by faith speciall so soon as we are called home to God from the wide and wild conversation in the field of this world but must yet farther attend the service God hath for us to doe and then to expect his farther favour of an eternall rest 5. And because amongst various acceptations in holy Scripture of the word Faith it is sometimes used for the Grace of faith and sometimes for the works and fruits of faith every prudent and pious Christian must be very carefull that he puts not such a fallacie upon himselfe as to inferre to himselfe the whole vertue of faith taken in its full latitude upon some particular branch thereof found in him crouding all duties of pietie into one and that rather a preparation unto true religious life than the principall part of it such as knowing and believing and the meanes thereunto tending reading and hearing of Gods holy word For being well initiated in those necessarie principles and helps of devotion there so to stop or in them to improve that acts of faith hope and charitie should be neglected overthrowes the whole design of faith it selfe whereof no small part is to confesse our sins to repent heartily and thorowly to attend to good works and acts of mercie to bring forth fruits worthy of repentance and not to think to commute with God that when he requires private or publique worship we should think it as well and perhaps better to read certain Chapters in the Bible or to be present and heare a Sermon and when God calls to performe good deeds of Charitie in visiting the sick and being at charges for the relief of the poor to exceed in reading and praying supposing such cheaper parts of splendid profession will answer all obligations to God and our necessitous neighbour Whereas it is one principall point of true Christian Illumination by faith to understand what it teacheth us by the Apostle saying Coloss 4. 12. Stand perfect and compleat in all the will of God to the effecting whereof Faith is ordained and given us by God as a tool and Engine not as the work it selfe 6. And therefore the ancient and more experienced Father we read of handsomely and truely reproved the mistakes of three well inclined novices in the sounder part of Piety when the First declaring the course of his Life said with expectation of applause I have got the Old and New Testament by heart Then said the Old man thou hast poured out many words into the air intending he should understand that all that was to very small purpose without proportionable acts of holinesse And the Second said I have wrote over all the Old and New Testament with mine own hand Then said the ancient Father thou hast filled thy windowes with store of paper And the third glorying that the grasse grew on his hearth implying how much cold and hunger he had suffered was answered by the same person Then hast thou driven away hospitality intimating that no man abounding in some good duties must perswade himselfe that he shall thereby make compensation for such defects in other graces willfully neglected being better informed from St. Paul that knowledge and the Scriptures themselves were entrusted with us by God that the man of God may be perfect and thorowly furnished unto all Good workes 2 Tim. 3. 17. And as Davids practice was to have an eye to all Gods commands without exception or limitation Psal 119. 6. 7. Against this if it chances to be objected what vulgarly is said that there is no perfection in this world we may answer without great difficulty That perfection there is in the Scriptures themselves and Christian Religion above what is to be found in any other Authours Sciences or Religions There is a perfection of integritie or of parts which St. Paul to Philemon ver 6. calleth Communication of faith becoming effectuall by the acknowledging of every good thing so that not one vertue or dutie prescribed to a true Christian must be wanting to the true believer however the degrees of those vertues may be and generally are imperfect And yet again having in some degree been initiated into all Christian vertues we are not there to rest as if we had alreadie attained the end of Religion but must prosecute those mean yet good beginnings till we arrive to that pitch which God hath not revealed unto us that he will accept to our justification and salvation but only have a sound firme and comfortable Hope of the Favour of God which some are pleased in these last ages to call Faith justifying But faith properly so called hath for its object truth and that as relating to all men but Hope hath for its object Good and that as pertaining to particular persons of which nature is the perswasion we have of the foresaid Good as truely belonging unto us and thereby as St. John speaks 1 Epist 3. 19. We assure our hearts before him SECT IV. That Faith and not naturall Reason improved is the only
he will acquitt and absolve us But God undoubtedly doth remitt offences to some mens repentance which he will not doe to anothers by reason of the varietie of the circumstances of the persons As for instance If a man heinously offending God and having knowledge opportunity means and speciall motives to exercise and demonstrate the same shall speak lightly of that way and with presumption rather than Faith securely lay all the dutie on some inward trouble of minde I may justly fear such a mans repentance will fail him and frustrate his expectation though in some cases and of some persons it may be accepted No greater evill surely to Gods grace and mans well-grounded faith is there than to have recourse to what God can doe and what Christ hath done and so therein to rest as wilfully to forbear what they themselves ought to doe And men ought to doe what in them ordinarily lies to the recovery of their fall and standing right in the Court and favour of God neither attributing too much to such outward workes wrought nor too confidently laying claim to the freenesse and amplitude of Gods favour unqualified wholly for the same 5. Two eminent Examples Ancient stories afford us for the better regulating our belief and actions in this Case The one is of Father Paemen in the Apothegmes of the Fathers To whom one coming and confessing a great sin whereinto he had lately fallen humbled himselfe before him assuring him that for so doing he would doe Penance for three yeers No said the old Father it is too much A yeer then said the other It is too much said he Fourtie dayes said the offender It is too much I tell you said Paemen three dayes Penance not committing the same sin again the sin was Fornication may suffice No doubt but this resolution was sound and good because of a fervent and strong determination of taking upon himselfe a more difficult task and heavie burden through deep sense of his wickednesse which God principally regards But should any man set such like sin at so low a rate as to contemne much outward trouble and say within himselfe that true Repentance is to be sorrie at large and not to committ the same sin again I doubt whether such selfe-absolution upon such easie termes would be accepted by God. For those who probably have not fallen into such scandalous sins but devoted themselves more entirely and intimately to the service of God have judged their whole lives not too much to win Gods favour by Repentance and that of the severer sort For Gregory Nyssen in the Life of St. Ephrem the Syrian writeth of him That as it was naturall for all other men to use respiration and motion so became it customarie to him to weep so that there was scarce any day or any night or any considerable part of day or night or very short time in which he did not shed teares teaching us that we ought never to resolve against weeping for our sins or having confidence in Gods mercy where the grace of true Repentance is found and true fruits though not so high and heroicall as I may so speake are not wanting Nothing is more contrarie to the free Grace of God or our Dutie than limiting him or it where he hath not circumscribed himselfe To say within a mans selfe God will not have mercie upon me unlesse I truely repent is the Doctrine God himselfe put into a mans mouth and must be held immutably and inviolably because he hath so often said it and hath limited his pardon to that condition But to say To doe thus much in Repentance or to goe thus far only is sufficient without farther troubling flesh and blood or on the contrary to say positively God will not pardon my offences unlesse my true repentance be attended with and demonstrated by such or such outward exercises is to determine what God hath not determined and to lay the stresse of obtaining mercie upon uncommanded services as we are taught by some of late dayes to speake It is left therefore by God obscure as to the visible part of Repentance what God will accept and what he will not for reconciliation But to condemn outward severities as too many doe upon a possibilitie that God may save us without them may for ought we know turne Gods face from approving our presumed-on Repentance inward For there are so many instances of Great Sinners greatly humbled outwardly as well as inwardly upon the sight of their sins in Holy Scripture as well as monuments of the Church that it is a wonder to me to observe the confidence the moderne divinity of some hath put into the hearts of men by a prodigall faith to make up a short and easie reckoning between God and them adding taunts and reproaches to them who surpasse them in sensible exercises and concomitants of inward sorrow He therefore is in the safest way to have his soule cleansed from his sins and the scores wiped out between God and himselfe who shall bear such a venerable opinion towards Repentance such a hatred and detestation of sin such an equall opinion between the Justice and goodnesse of God as that by abundance of penances imposed on himselfe or by others whose judgement he may follow better than his own in such cases he cannot merit properly Gods favour nor keeping up a faithfull and humble spirit towards God in sincere Repentance not so fairly qualified must despair of remission For undoubtedly the contrition of the heart shall much preponderate the bodily exercises weighed together in Gods ballance but 't is no reason at all because that is principally to be done that we should leave the latter undone and that upon severall accounts not so well consisting with our present designe 6. But yet in generall to reconcile men to the complexe dutie of Repentance thus asserted I shall offer to the devouter mindes these few Considerations of the excellencie of Repentance As first that Repentance is the greatest Good God could bestow upon the lapsed Sinner so that it may be doubted whether his singular love to mankinde had appeared more conspicuously in preventing his fall by a powerfull hand than by giving him Repentance to lift him up again It was much easier for man to have persever'd in the state of Grace at first received of God and seems more easie to God if any thing may be said to be difficult to him to have preserved man so than to have restored him So that of that great evill of man Apostacie from God this great good ensued the manifestation of the greatnesse of his power and mercie in giving repentance unto man and by such an abject thing in the eyes of the world to produce so glorious effect as the conversion of a Sinner the very joy and applause of the blessed Saints and Angells in heaven Nay though Christ as a Mediatour and Redeemer was the pure gift of God to man yet the influence and effect
our former sins is to act contrarie unto them and in this case especially when we have in youth ill squander'd the temporarie goods God hath lent to us for a season not to be tenacious of them in age but to employ them as freely in the service of God and promoting Pietie exiled by costly Lusts And not be like that unjust old Usurer and Oppressour of whome Henry of Huntington speakes who being exhorted towards his Death to give Almes plentifully towards the expiation of his wicked Covetousnesse refused saying No I will leave my Son all I have got and let him if he pleases give Almes out of it for the good of my Soule 5. It is therefore the advice of our Lord and Master Christ Luke 12. ver 15. Take heed and beware as if one word sufficed not to obviate such a pestilent Disease of Covetousnesse For a mans life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth Take we heed of it for the intrinsick evill in it selfe and beware of it for the viperous brood of sins which it bringeth forth and nourisheth some of which may be these Obduration of heart against God and Man being unsensible of the Dutie of Worship Thankfullnesse and fruitfullnesse in all good works the end of his bountie to man in that kinde And a hard heart and barren womb towards the necessities of his Brother craving some little of his abundance Yea cruell is the covetous to his own flesh denying what may be convenient for the same and no better to his minde tormenting it with restlesse and endlesse cares to adde to the unprofitable heap and bring about that designe which never comes to passe For he tells others first he desires but an honest livelihood but having attained to that he proceeds and tells us He would willingly leave a competent subsistence to his Wife and Children and having gained that Point allso then he is no lesse sollicitous about that competencie never knowing when he hath it though he hath it but would make his Posterities rich too and Gentlemen and Esquires and Knights and Nobles if it were possible and what not Then should he sleep sweetly in his Grave and for his Soule it is the least part of his sollicitude But if doing no good or doing no evill but to himselfe were the evill in which the Covetous man was only guilty it were a laudable sin if any may be said so to be in comparison of the wicked Pranks it plaies upon other What Choler and wrath rages not at a triviall losse which a liberall Soule would not be moved at or stirred Break but an earthen Vessell of two pence you allmost break his heart and if he breakes your Head it is lesse than can be expected from him Violences Frauds Cheatings treacheries to God and his Country for lucre Perverting Justice by Bribery subverting the Faith and confounding Religion by Simonie and Sacriledge which he laughs out of countenance when he cannot stand the tryall of such iniquitie or boldly asking What is Sacriledge What is Simonie baffles all received Knowledge and perswasion thereof by his acute and singular Scepticism trampling on Reason and Justice and Religion all at once Adde hereunto Lying Perjuries Stealings Rapines and a benefit raised to himselfe by depopulations of Parishes reducing the well-inhabited Place to one or two great Farmes taking up a strange Paradox for his Defence that there are notwithstanding never the fewer People because Nature will work in an unknown Manner and Land. How manifestly hath experience taught us what the Prophet Habakkuk denounceth against such Engrossers Chap. 2. 9. Woe to him that coveteth an evill covetousnesse to himselfe that he may set his nest on high c. For in trueth I have by me many Instances of curses upon Persons and Families who by such ill wayes of advancing themselves have in a short time been utterly ruin'd But I will not trouble this Discourse with them So as that is happened to them which the Psalmist hath Psalm 75. 5. according to the auncienter Translation The proud are robbed they have slept their sleep and all the men whose hands are mighty have found nothing Great matters they grasped at in their projectings but in the conclusion they were forced to let goe what before they held and nothing remained But above all this men should seriously consider there is more guilt in this sin than is obvious to every eye especially having in it the Pearl of Covetousnesse and that is no lesse if St. Paul may be believed than Idolatrie Coloss 3. 5. Mammon being erected in the heart the Temple of God and preferred before God and all that are called Gods which is the Character of Antichrist 6. And the consideration of these Evills may more than sufficiently disswade the pursuit of these earthly Riches which make us poor towards God But does not Christ the Oracle of God tell us as we have it Acts 20. It is better to give than to receive And the reason hereof is not obscure because it maketh us like unto God who giveth unto all men liberally yea Psal 145. Openeth his hand and filleth all things living with plenteousnesse And believe we Solomon the wisest of Men rather than relye on our own witts naturall he telleth us that The Liberall soule shall be made fat Not unlike to those Breasts which abound by being drawn but are dried up and emptie by denying what they have to afford to others by Gods and Natures appointment 7. And there is but one or two main Objections which the Covetous is wont to alledge for his tenaciousnesse and against Bountie and Charitie especially towards Publick Good. Charitie of that nature is much perverted and abused to evill ends Which if the trueth were plainly known is not the reall reason of such Persons illiberality but the love of Money But be it so Charitable deeds are perverted to ill uses such benefactions made with pious intentions shall never be wrested by any abuses out of the hands of the giver but his reward shall be with the Lord and that an hundred fold Besides to whome can the subtillest Worldling give or leave his Estate so securely as it shall not or may not be abused He himselfe abused it and himselfe many times in getting it and keeping it which as dung ought to be spread abroad to make the Soil fruitfull And doth not Riches left to the dear Heirs of our Bodies suffer and doe more mischief to them than Good Doe they not abuse them in rioting Luxurie and Whoredome and Drunkennesse Who would have thought that the Covetous Person should be a man of so much mercie as to bring the abuse and mischief of Wealth home to his own Familie rather than the Church or State should be the worse for his freenesse But so experience often teaches us to fall out Whereas by sparing somewhat out of that we enjoy to Gods Service the remainder is sanctified and by Gods blessing becomes