24 25 26 27 28 29. * Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water * Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering for he is faithful that promised * And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works * Not forsaking the assembling of our selves together as the manner of some is but exhorting one another and so much the more as ye see the day approaching For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins * but a certain fearful looking for of judgement and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries * He that despised Moses law died without mercy under two or three witnesses * Of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who hath troden under foot the Son of God and hath counted the blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and hath done despite unto the Spirit of Grace For the time is come 1 Pet. 4.17 that judgement must begin at the house of God and if it first begin at us what shall the end be of them that obey not the Gospel of God And every man that hath this hope in him 1 Joh. 3.3 22. purifieth himself even as he is pure * And whatsoever we ask we receive of him because we keep his Commandements and do those things which are pleasing in his sight And he that overcometh Apoc. 2.26 and keepeth my works unto the end to him will I give power over the Nations A Penitentiall Psalm collected out of the Psalms and Prophets HAve mercy upon me O God according to thy loving kindeness according to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions For our transgressions are multiplied before thee and our sins testifie against us our trangressions are with us and as for our iniquities we know them In transgressing and lying against the Lord and departing away from our God speaking oppression and revolt conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falshood Our feet have run to evil our thoughts are thoughts of iniquity The way of peace we have not known we have made us crooked paths whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace Therefore do we wait for light but behold obscurity for brightness but we walk in darkness Look down from heaven and behold from the habitation of thy Holiness and of thy Glory where is thy zeal and thy strength the sounding of thy bowels and of thy mercies towards me are they restrained We are indeed as an unclean thing and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags and we all do fade as a leaf and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away But now O Lord thou art our Father we are the clay and thou our potter and we all are the work of thy hand Be not wroth very sore O Lord neither remember iniquity for ever behold see we beseech thee we are thy people Thou O Lord art our Redemer thy Name is from everlasting O Lord Father and Governour of my whole life leave me not to the sinful counsels of my own heart and let me not any more fall by them Set scourges over my thoughts and the discipline of wisdome over my heart lest my ignorances encrease and my sins abound to my destruction O Lord Father and God of my life give me not a proud look but turn away from thy servant alwayes a haughty minde Turn away from me vain hopes and concupiscence and thou shalt hold him up that is alwayes desirous to serve thee Let not the greediness of the belly nor the lust of the flesh take hold of me and give not thy servant over to an impudent minde There is a word that is clothed about with death God grant it be not found in the portion of thy servant For all such things shall be farre from the godly and they shall not wallow in their sins Though my fins be as scarlet yet make them white as snow though they be red like crimson let them be as wooll For I am ashamed of the sins I have desired and am confounded for the pleasures that I have chosen Lord make me to know mine end and the measure of my dayes what it is that I may know how frail I am and that I may apply my heart unto wisdome Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me O Lord let thy loving kindness and thy truth continually preserve me For innumerable evils have compassed me about mine iniquities have taken hold upon me so that I am not able to look up for they are more then the hairs of my head therefore my heart faileth me But thou O Lord though mine iniquities testifie against me save me for thy Name sake for our backslidings are many we have sinned grievously against thee But the Lord God will help me therefore shall I not be confounded therefore have I set my face like a flint and I know that I shall not be ashamed He is near that justifieth me who will contend with me The Lord God will help me who is he that shall condemn me I will trust in the Lord and stay upon my God O let me have this of thine hand that I may not lie down in sorrow S. Paul 's Prayers for a holy life I. I Bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Eph. 3.14 c. of whom the whole family in Heaven and Earth is named that he would grant unto me according to the riches of his glory to be strengthned with might by his Spirit in the inner man that Christ may dwell in my heart by faith that being rooted and grounded in love I may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge and may be filled with all the fulness of God through the same our most blessed Saviour Jesus Amen The Doxology Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us Vnto him be glory in the Church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages world without end Amen II. O Most gracious God Col. 1.9 c. grant to thy servant to be filled with the knowledge of thy Will in all wisdome and spirituall understanding to walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing to be fruitfull in every good work increasing in the knowledge of God Strengthen me O God with all might according to thy glorious power unto all patience and long-suffering and joyfulness So shall I give thanks unto the Father who hath made me meet to be partaker of the inheritance of the Saints in light through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen III. NOw God himself and our Father 1
and heart But if thou canst know thy self you need not enquire any further If thy duty be performed you may be secure of all that is on Gods part 5. When ever repentance begins know that from thence-forward the sinner begins to live but then never let that repentance die Doe not at any time say I have repented of such a sin and am at peace for that for a man ought never to be at peace with sin nor think that any thing we can doe is too much Our repentance for sin is never to be at an end till faith it self shall be no more for Faith and Repentance are but the same Covenant and so long as the just does live by faith in the Son of God so long he lives by repentance for by that faith in him our sins are pardoned that is by becoming his Disciples we enter into the Covenant of Repentance And he undervalues his sin and overvalues his sorrow who at any time fears he shall doe too much or make his pardon too secure and therefore sets him down and sayes Now I have repented 6. Let no man ever say he hath committed the sin against the Holy Ghost or the unpardonable sin for there are but few that doe that and he can best confute himself if he can but tell that he is sorrowful for it and begs for pardon and hopes for it and desires to make amends this man hath already obtained some degrees of pardon and S. Pauls argument in this case also is a demonstration If when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son Rom. 5.10 much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life That is if God to enemies gives the first grace much more will he give the second if they make use of the first For from none to a little is an infinite distance but from a little to a great deal is not so much And therefore since God hath given us means of pardon and the grace of Repentance we may certainly expect the fruit of pardon for it is a greater thing to give repentance to a sinner then to give pardon to the penitent Whoever repents hath not committed the great sin the Unpardonable For it is long of the man not of the sin that any sin is unpardonable 7. Let every man be careful of entring into any great states of sin lest he be unawares guilty of the great offence Every resisting of a holy motion calling us from sin every act against a clear reason or revelation every confident progression in sin every resolution to commit a sin in despite of conscience is an access towards the great sin or state of evil Therefore concerning such a man let others fear since he will not and save him with fear plucking him out of the fire but when he begins to return that great fear is over in many degrees for even in Moses law there were expiations appointed not onely for errour but for presumptuous sins The PRAYER I. OEternal God gracious and merciful I adore the immensity and deepest abysse of thy Mercy and Wisdome that thou doest pity our infirmities instruct our ignorances pass by thousands of our follies invitest us to repentance and doest offer pardon because we are miserable and because we need it and because thou art good and delightest in shewing mercy Blessed be thy holy Name and blessed be that infinite Mercy which issues forth from the fountains of our Saviour to refresh our weariness and to water our stony hearts and to cleanse our polluted souls O cause that these thy mercies may not run in vain but may redeem my lost soul and recover thy own inheritance and sanctifie thy portion the heart of thy servant and all my faculties II. BLessed Jesus thou becamest a little lower then the Angels but thou didst make us greater doing that for us which thou didst not doe for them Thou didst not pay for them one drop of bloud nor endure one stripe to recover the fallen stars nor give one groan to snatch the accursed spirits from their fearful prisons but thou didst empty all thy veins for me and gavest thy heart to redeem me from innumerable sins and an intolerable calamity O my God let all this heap of excellencies and glorious mercies be effective upon thy servant and work in me a sorrow for my sins and a perfect hatred of them a watchfulness against temptations severe and holy resolutions active and effective of my duty O let me never fall from sin to sin nor persevere in any nor love any thing which thou hatest but give me thy holy Spirit to conduct and rule me for ever and make me obedient to thy good Spirit never to grieve him never to resist him never to quench him Keep me O Lord with thy mighty power from falling into presumptuous sins lest they get the dominion over me so shall I be innocent from the great offence Let me never despair of thy mercies by reason of my sins nor neglect my repentance by reason of thy insinite loving kindness but let thy goodness bring me and all sinners to repentance and thy mercies give us pardon and thy holy Spirit give us perseverance and thy infinite favour bring us to glory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen CHAP. IX Of Ecclesiasticall Penance or The fruits of Repentance §. 1. THe fruits of Repentance are the actions of spiritual life and signifie properly all that piety and obedience which we pay to God in the dayes of our return after we have begun to follow sober counsels For since all the duty of a Christian is a state of Repentance that is of contention against sin and the parts and proper periods of victory and Repentance which includes the faith of a Christian is but another word to express the same grace or mercies of the Evangelical Covenant it follows that whatsoever is the duty of a Christian and a means to possess that grace is in some sense or other a Repentance or the fruits of Gods mercy and our endevours And in this sense S. John the Baptist means it saying Bring forth therefore fruits meet for Repentance that is since now the great expectation of the world is to be satisfied and the Lords Christ will open the gates of mercy and give Repentance to the world see that ye live accordingly in the faith and obedience of God through Jesus Christ That did in the event of things prove to be the effect of that Sermon But although all the parts of holy life are fruits of Repentance when it is taken for the state of favor published by the Gospel yet when Repentance is a particular duty or vertue the integral parts of holy life are also constituent parts of Repentance and then by the fruits of Repentance must be meant the less necessary but very useful effects and ministeries of Repentance which are significations and exercises of the main duty And these are sorrow for sins
Thou O God didst see our follies and observe our weaknesses thou knowest the aversness of our nature to good and our proneness to commit vanity and because our imperfect obedience could not bring us to perfect felicity whither thou didst design us the great God of all the world was pleased to make a new Covenant with Man and to become a debtor to his servants Blessed be God and blessed be that Mercy which hath done so great things for us O be pleased to work that in us which thou expectest from us Let us not lose our title in the Covenant of Faith and Repentance by deferring the one or dishonouring the other but let us walk worthy of our vocation according to the law of Faith and the Mercies of God and the Covenant of our Lord Jesus II. O Blessed Jesus never suffer us to abuse thy Mercies or to turn thy Grace into wantonness Let the remembrance and sense of thy glorious favours endear our services and let thy goodness lead us to Repentance and our Repentance bring forth the fruits of godliness in our whole life Imprint deeply upon our hearts the fear and terror of thy Majesty and perpetually entertain our spirits with the highest apprehensions of thy loving kindeness that we may fear more and love more every day more and more hating sin crucifying all its affections and desires passionately loving holy things zealously following after them prudently conducting them and indefatigably persevering in them to the end of our lives III. O Blessed and Eternal God with thy Spirit inlighten our understandings in the rare mysterious Secrets of thy Law Make me to understand all the most advantageous wayes of duty and kindle a flame in my Soul that no difficulty or contradiction no temptation within or persecution without may ever extinguish Give me a mighty grace that I may design to please thee with my best and all my services to follow the best examples to do the noblest Charities to pursue all Perfection ever pressing forward to the mark of the high calling in Christ Jesus Let us rather choose to die then to sin against our Consciences Let us also watch that we may omit nothing of our duty nor pretermit any opportunity by which thou canst be glorified or any Christian instructed comforted or assisted not resting in the strictest measures of Command but passing forward to great and prudent significations of love doing heroick actions some things by which thou mayest be greatly pleased that thou mayest take delight to pardon to sanctifie and to preserve thy servants for ever Amen CHAP. II. Of the nature and definition of Repentance And what parts of duty are signified by it in holy Scriptures §. I. THe Greeks use two words to express this duty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Post factum angi cruciari to be afflicted in minde to be troubled for our former folly it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Phavorinus a being displeased for what we have done and it is generally used for all sorts of Repentance but more properly to signifie either the beginnings of a good or the whole state of an ineffective Repentance In the first sense we finde it in S. Matthew * 21.32 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and ye seeing did not repent that ye might believe him Of the second sense we have example in Judas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he repented too but the end of it was Mat. 27.3 he died with anguish and despair and of Esau it is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He found no place for an effective repentance but yet he repented too for he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 12 17. he fain would have had it otherwise and he sought it with tears which two do fully express all the meaning of this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when it is distinguished from the better and effective Repentance There is in this Repentance a sorrow for what is done a disliking of the thing with its consequents and effect and so farre also it is a change of minde But it goes no further then so farre to change the minde that it brings trouble and sorrow and such things which are the natural events of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Suidas It is an affection incident to man not to God who cannot repent where although by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he means an Accident or property of Man that is a quality in the general sense yet that it is properly a passion in the special sense was the sense of all men Lib. de poenit as Tertullian observes saying that the Heathens know Repentance to be passionem animi quandam the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Suidas a passion quae veniat de offensâ sententiae prioris coming from our being offended or troubled at our former course But Tertullian uses the Latine word of which I shall give account in the following periods But when there was a difference made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was the better word which does not properly signifie the sorrow for having done amiss but something that is nobler then it but brought in at the gate of sorrow For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a godly sorrow that is fo or the first beginning of Rapentance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 worketh this better Repentance 2 Cor. 7.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a repentance not to be repented of not to be sorrowed for a repentance that is unto salvation Sorrow may go before this but dwells not with it according to that of S. Chrysostome Homil. 9. de Poenit. Medicinae hic locus non judicii non poenas sed peccatorum remissionem poenitentia tribuit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the word Repentance brings not pains but pardon with it for this is the place of medicine and remedy not of judgement or condemnation meaning that this Repentance is wholly salutary as tending to reformation and amendment Lib. â—adv Marcion cap. 20. But Tertullian made the observation more express In Graeco sono Poenitentiae nomen non ex delicti confessione sed ex animi demutatione compositum est To repent among the Greeks signifies not a confession of our fault but the change of minde He speaks of the Grammatical sense of the word for in the whole use of it it is otherwise For however the Grammarians may distinguish them yet the words are used promiscuously for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is sometimes used in the bad sense and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies the better repentance not often but sometimes it does The son that told his Father he would not work in his Vineyard afterwards was sorry for refusing and he went to work 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in the same Chapter Matth. 21.29 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ye seeing were not troubled and sorrowful that ye might believe
refrained their feet therefore the Lord doth not accept them he will now remember their iniquity and visit their sins Then saith the Lord Ver. 11 12. Pray not for this people for their good When they fast I will not hear their cry and when they offer an oblation I will not accept them but I will consume them by the sword and by famine and by the pestilence Therefore thus saith the Lord Jer. 15.19 if thou return then will I bring thee again and thou shalt stand before me and if thou take forth the precious from the vile thou shalt be as my mouth I am with thee to save thee and to deliver thee saith the Lord. And I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked Ver. 21. and I will redeem thee out of the hand of the terrible Learn before thou speak Ecclus. 18.19 and use Physick or ever thou be sick Before judgement examine thy self Ver. 20. and in the day of visitation thou shalt finde mercy Humble thy self before thou be sick Ver. 21. and in the time of sins shew repentance Let nothing hinder thee to pay thy vows in due time Ver. 22. and deferre not until death to be justified I made haste Psal 119. and prolonged not the time to keep thy Commandements Thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel Amend your ways and your doings and I will cause you to dwell in this place Trust not in lying words saying The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord. For if you throughly amend your ways and your doings if you throughly execute judgement If ye oppress not the stranger and the widow Jer. 7. then shall ye dwell in the land Thus saith the Lord God Ezek. 11.18 I will give you the land and they shall take away all the detestable things thereof and all the abominations thereof from thence And I will give them one heart Ver. 19. and I will put a new spirit within you and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh and will give them an heart of flesh That they may walk in my statutes Ver. 20. and keep mine ordinances and do them and they shall be my people and I will be their God But as for them whose heart walketh after their detestable things and their abominations Ver. 21. I will recompense their way upon their own heads saith the Lord God They have seduced my people saying Peace Ezek. 13.10 and there was no peace and one built up a wall and others dawb'd it with untemper'd morter Will ye pollute me among my people for handfuls of barley and pieces of bread Ver. 19. to slay the souls that should not die and to save the souls alive that should not live by your lying unto my people that hear your lies Therefore I will judge you ô house of Israel Ezek. 18.30 every one according to your ways saith the Lord God repent and turn your selves from all your transgressions so iniquity shall not be your ruine Cast away from you all your transgressions whereby you have transgressed Ver. 31. and make you a new heart and a new spirit for why will ye die ô house of Israel For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth saith the Lord God Ver. 32. wherefore turn your selves and live ye Ye shall remember your ways Ezek. 20.43 and all your doings wherein ye have been defiled and ye shall loath your selves in your own sight for all your evils that ye have committed Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity and sin as it were with a cart-rope Isa 5.18 Woe unto them that justify the wicked for a reward Ver. â—3 and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him And when ye spread forth your hands Isa 1.15 I will hide mine eyes from you yea when you make many prayers I will not hear your hands are full of bloud Wash ye Isa 1.16 make ye clean put away the evil of your doing from before mine eyes cease to doe evil Learn to do well Ver. 17. seek judgement relieve the oppressed judge the fatherless plead for the widow Come now and let us reason together Ver. 18. saith the Lord Though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow though they be red as crimson they shall be as wooll If ye be willing and obedient Ver. 19. ye shall eat the fruit of the land But if ye refuse and rebel Ver. 20. ye shall be devoured with the sword for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it She hath wearied her self with lies Ezek. 24. therefore have I caused my fury to light upon her Sow to your selves in righteousness Hos 10.12 and reap in mercy break up your fallow ground for it is time to seek the Lord till he come and rain righteousness upon you Turn thou unto thy God Mos 12.6 keep mercy and judgement and wait on thy God continually O Israel Hos 13.9 thou hast destroyed thy self but in me is thy help Return to the Lord thy God Hos 24. for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity Take with you words and turn to the Lord say unto him Take away all iniquity and receive us graciously so will we render the calves of our lips For in thee the fatherless findeth mercy I will heal their backsliding I will love them freely for mine anger is turned away Seek ye the Lord while he may be found Isa 55.6 call ye upon him while he is near Let the wicked forsake his way Ver. 7. and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon For thus saith the high and lofty One Isa 57.15 that inhabits eternity whose name is Holy I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones For I will not contend for ever Ver. 16. neither will I be alwayes wroth for the spirit should fail before mee and the soules which I have made For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth and smote him I hid me and was wroth Ver. 17. and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart I have seen his ways and will heal him Ver. 18. I will lead him also and restore comfort to him and to his mourners I create the fruit of the lips peace Ver. 19. peace to him that is afar off and to him that is near saith the Lord and I will heal him But the wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest Ver. 20. whose waters cast up mire and dirt There is no peace saith my God Ver. 21. to the wicked It is
rescue me who am a Christian This is my glory and my shame my sins had not been so great if I had not disgrac'd so excellent a title and abused so mighty a grace but yet if the grace which I have abused had not been so great my hopes had been less One deep O God calls upon another O let the abyss of thy mercy swallow up the puddles of my impurity let my soul no longer sink in the dead sea of Sodom but in the laver of thy bloud and my tears and sorrow wash me who come to thee to be cleansed and purified It is not impossible to have it done for thy power hath no limit It is not unusual for thee to manifest such glories of an infinite mercy thou doest it daily O give me a fast a tenacious hope on thee and a bitter sorrow for my sins and an excellent zeal of thy glory and let my repentance be more exemplary then my sins that the infiniteness of that mercy which shall save me may be conspicuous to all Saints and Angels and may endear the return of all sinners to thee the fountain of Holiness and Mercy Mercy dear God pity thy servant and do thy work of grace speedily and mightily upon me through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Ejaculations and short Prayers to be used by dying or sick Penitents after a wicked life I. O Almighty Father of men and Angels I have often been taught that thy mercies are infinite and I know they are so and if I be a person capable of comfort this is the fountain of it for my sins are not infinite onely because they could not be so my desires were onely limited by my Nature for I would not obey the Spirit II. THou O God gavest mercy to the Thief upon the Cross and from pain thou didst bring him to Paradise from sin to repentance from shame to glory Thou wert the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world and art still slain in all the periods of it O be thou pleased to adorn thy passion still with such miracles of mercy and now in this sad conjunction of affairs let me be made the instance III. THou art angry if I despair and therefore thou commandest me to hope My hope cannot rest upon my self for I am a broken reed and an undermined wall But because it rests upon thee it ought not to be weak because thou art infinite in mercy and power IV. HE that hath lived best needs mercy and he that hath lived worst even I O Lord am not wounded beyond the efficacy of thy bloud O dearest sweetest Saviour Jesus V. I Hope it is not too late to say this But if I might be suffered to live longer I would by thy grace live better spending all my time in duty laying out all my passion in love and sorrow imploying all my faculties in Religion and Holiness VI. O My God I am ready to promise any thing now and I am ready to doe or to suffer any thing that may be the condition of mercy and pardon to me But I hope I am not deceived by my fears but that I should if I might be tried do all that I could and love thee with a charity great like that mercy by which I humbly pray that I may be pardon'd VII MY comfort O God is that thou canst if thou wilt and I am sure thy mercy is as great as thy power and why then may not I hope that thou wilt have mercy according to thy power Man only Man is the proper subject of thy mercy and therefore onely he is capable of thy mercy because he hath sinned against thee Angels and the inferiour creatures rejoyce in thy goodnesse but only we that are miserable and sinful can rejoyce in thy mercy and forgivenesse VIII I confess I have destroyed my self but in thee is my help for thou gettest glory to thy name by saving a sinner by redeeming a captive slave by inlightning a dark eye by sanctifying a wicked heart by pardoning innumerable and intolerable transgressions IX O My Father chastise me if thou pleasest but do not destroy me I am a son though an Absalom and a Cain an unthankful a malicious a revengeful uncharitable person Thou judgest not by time but by the measures of the Spirit The affections of the heart are not to be weighed in the ballance of the Sanctuary nor repentance to be measured by time but by the Spirit and by the measures of thy mercy X. O My God Hope is a word of an uncertain sound when it is placed in something that can fail but thou art my hope and my confidence and thy mercies are sure mercies which thou hast revealed to man in Christ Jesus and they cannot fail them who are capable of them XI O Gracious Father I am as capable of mercy as I was of being created and the first grace is alwayes so free a grace so undeserved on our part that he that needs and calls is never forsaken by thee XII BLessEd Jesus give me leave to trust in thy promises in the letter of thy promises this letter killeth not for it is the letter of thy Spirit and saveth and maketh alive Ask and you shall have so thou hast said O my God they are thy own words and whosoever shall call on the Name of the Lord shall be saved XIII THere are O blessed Jesus many more and one tittle of thy word shall not pass away unaccomplished and nothing could be in vain by which thou didst intend to support our hopes If we confess our sins thou art just and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all iniquities XIV WHen David said he would confess then thou forgavest him When the Prodigal was yet afar off thou didst run out to meet him and didst receive him When he was naked thou didst reinvest him with a precious robe and what O God can demonstrate the greatness of thy mercy but such a misery as mine so great a shame so great a sinfulness XV. BVt what am I O God sinful dust and ashes a miserable and undone man that I should plead with the great Judge of all the World Look not upon mè as I am in my self but through Jesus Christ behold thy servant clothe me with the robes of his righteousness wash me in his bloud conform me to his image fill me with his Spirit and give me time or give me pardon and an excellent heroick spirit that I may do all that can be done something that is excellent and that may be acceptable in Jesus Christ If I perish I perish I have deserved it but I will hope for mercy till thy mercy hath a limit till thy goodness can be numbred O my God let me not perish thou hast no pleasure in my death and it is impossible for man to suffer thy extremest wrath Who can dwell with the everlasting burning O my God let me dwell safely in the embraces of
with weeping and on my eie-lids is the shadow of death Not for any injustice in my hand also my prayer is pure Wretched man that I am Rom. 7.24 who shall deliver me from the body of this death I thank God I am delivered through Jesus Christ our Lord. But now being made free from sin 6.22 and become servants of God ye have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life For the wages of sin is death But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin reign in your mortal bodies V. 12,14 that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof For sin shall not have dominion over you for ye are not under the law but under grace The PRAYER O Almighty God great Father of Men and Angels thou art the preserver of men and the great lover of souls thou didst make every thing perfect in its kinde and all that thou didst make was very good onely we miserable creatures sons of Adam have suffered the falling Angels to infect us with their leprosie of pride and so we entred into their evil portion having corrupted our way before thee and are covered with thy rod and dwell in a cloud of thy displeasure behold me the meanest of thy servants humbled before thee sensible of my sad condition weak and miserable sinful and ignorant full of need wanting thee in all things and neither able to escape death without a Saviour nor to live a life of holiness without thy Spirit O be pleas'd to give me a portion in the new birth break off the bands and fetters of my sin cure my evil inclinations correct my indispositions and natural averseness from the severities of Religion let me live by the measures of thy law not by the evil example and disguises of the world Renew a right spirit within me and cast me not away from thy presence lest I should retire to the works of darkness and enter into those horrible regions where the light of thy countenance never shineth II. I Am ashamed O Lord I am ashamed that I have dishonoured so excellent a Creation Thou didst make us upright and create us in innocence And when thou didst see us unable to stand in thy sight and that we could never endure to be judged by the Covenant of works thou didst renew thy mercies to us in the new Covenant of Jesus Christ and now we have no excuse nothing to plead for our selves much less against thee but thou art holy and pure and just and merciful Make me to be like thee holy as thou art holy merciful as our heavenly Father is merciful obedient as our holy Saviour Jesus meek and charitable temperate and chaste humble and patient according to that holy example that my sins may be pardoned by his death and my spirit renewed by his Spirit that passing from sin to grace from ignorance to the knowledge and love of God and of his Son Jesus Christ I may pass from death to life from sorrow to joy from earth to heaven from the present state of misery and imperfection to the glorious inheritance prepar'd for the Saints and Sons of light the children of the new birth the brethren of our Lord and Brother our Judge and our Advocate our Blessed Saviour and Redeemer JESVS Amen A Prayer to be said by a Matron in behalf of her husband and family that a blessing may descend upon their posterity I. O Eternal God our most merciful Lord and gracious Father thou art my guide the light of mine eyes the joy of my heart the author of my hope and the object of my love and worshippings thou relievest all my needs and determin'st all my doubts and art an eternal fountain of blessing open and running over to all thirsty and weary souls that come and cry to thee for mercy and refreshment Have mercy upon thy servant and relieve my fears and sorrows and the great necessities of my family for thou alone O Lord canst doe it II. FIt and adorn every one of us with a holy and a religious spirit and give a double portion to thy servant my dear husband Give him a wise heart a prudent severe and indulgent care over the children which thou hast given us His heart is in thy hand and the events of all things are in thy disposition Make it a great part of his care to promote the spiritual and eternal interest of his children not to neglect their temporal relations and necessities but to provide states of life for them in which with fair advantages they may live chearfully serve thee diligently promote the interest of the Christian family in all their capacities that they may be alwayes blessed and alwayes innocent devout and pious and may be graciously accepted by thee to pardon and grace and glory through Jesus Christ Amen III. BLess O God my sons with excellent understandings love of holy and noble things sweet dispositions innocent deportment diligent souls chaste healthful and temperate bodies holy and religious spirits that they may live to thy glory and be useful in their capacities to the servants of God and all their neighbours and the Relatives of their conversation Bless my daughters with a humble and a modest carriage and excellent meekness a great love of holy things a severe chastity a constant holy and passionate Religion O my God never suffer them to fall into folly and the sad effects of a wanton loose and indiscreet spirit possess their fancies with holy affections be thou the covering of their eyes and the great object of their hopes and all their desires Blessed Lord thou disposest all things sweetly by thy providence thou guidest them excellently by thy wisdome thou unitest all circumstances and changes wonderfully by thy power and by thy power makest all things work for the good of thy servants Be pleased so to dispose my daughters that if thou shouldst call them to the state of a married life they may not dishonour their family nor grieve their parents nor displease thee but that thou wilt so dispose of their persons and the accidents and circumstances of that state that it may be a state of holiness to the Lord and blessing to thy servants And until thy wisdome shall know it fit to bring things so to pass let them live with all purity spending their time religiously and usefully O most blessed Lord enable their dear father with proportionable abilities and opportunities of doing his duty and charities toward them and them with great obedience and duty toward him and all of us with a love toward thee above all things in the world that our portion may be in love and in thy blessings through Jesus Christ our dearest Lord and most gracious Redeemer IV. O My God pardon thy servant pity my infirmities hear the passionate desires of thy humble servant in thee alone is my trust my heart and all my wishes are towards thee Thou hast
ends for which it was held over us now are served And at last how can it be agreeable to Gods wisdome and justice to exact of us a law which we cannot perform or to impose a law which cannot justly be exacted The answering and explicating this difficulty will serve many propositions in the doctrine of Repentance §. 2. Of the possibility or impossibility of keeping the Precepts of the Gospel IT were strange that it should be possible for all men to keep the Commandements and requir'd and exacted of all men with the intermination or threatning of horrid pains and yet that no man should ever do it Lib. 1. Dial. adve Pelag. S. Hierome brings in Atticus thus arguing Da exemplum aut confitere imbecillitatem tuam and the same also was the argument of Orosius and the reasonableness of it is a great prejudice against the contrary affirmation of S. Austin Alipius Evodius Aurelius Possidius who because it is no good consequence to argue à non esse ad non posse and though it is not done yet possibly it might conclude that it is possible to keep the Commandements though as yet no man ever did but he that did it for us all But as Marcellinus said well It is hard to say that by a Man a thing can be done of which although there was a great necessity and a severe Commandement yet there never was any example Because in men there is such infinite variety of tempers dispositions apprehensions designes fears and hopes purposes and interests that it were next to a miracle that not one of all mankinde should do what he can and what so highly concerns him But because this although it be a high probability yet is no certain demonstration that which S. Paul taught is certainly to be relied upon That the Law could not do it for us that is Rom. 8. could not bring us justification in that it was weak through the flesh meaning that because we were so weak we could not fulfill the righteousness of the Law therefore we could not be justified by that Covenant Mosi manus graves facies cornuta impedita lingua lapideae tabulae Moses's hand were heavy his face bright his tongue stammering and the tables were of stone by which is meant that the imposition and the burthen was great but the shoulder is weak and crushed and therefore was not able to bear it and therefore much less can it stand under a bigger load if the holy Precepts of the Gospel should prove so and we be assisted by no firmer supporters For the nature and constitution of man is such that he cannot perpetually attend to any state of things Voluntas per momenta variatur S. Hier. lib. 2. in Gal. c. c. 3. quia solus Deus immutabilis variety and change inconstancy and repentance are in his very nature * If he be negligent he is soon tempted * If he be watchful he is soon wearied * If he be not instructed he is exposed to every abuse * If he be yet he is ignorant of more then he knows and may be cousened by very many things and in what he knows or seems to know he is sometimes confident sometimes capricious curious and impertinent proud and contemptuous * The Commandments are instanc'd in things against our naturall inclinations and are restraints upon our appetite and although a man may do it in single instances yet to act a part of perpetual violence and preternatural contentions is too hard and severe an expectation and the often unavoidable failings of men will shew how impossible it is It is as S. Hieromes expression is as if a man should hale a boat against the stream if ever he slacken his hand the vessel falls back and if ever we give way to our appetite in any of the forbidden instances we descend naturally and easily * Some vices are proportionable to a mans temper and there he falls pleasantly and with desire Rhet. lib. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Aristotle That which is natural is sweet but that which is violent is troublesome to others he is indifferent but to them he is turn'd by every byas * If a man be morose he is apt to offend with sullenness and angry pretensions but if he be compliant and gentle he is easily cousened with fair entreaties * If he be alone he is sad and phantastick and woe to him that is alone If he be in company it will be very hard for him to go with them to the utmost limits of permission and not to step beyond it * No mans leisure is great enough to attend the inquiry after all the actions and particulars for which he is to be judged and he does many things which he considers not whether they be sins or no and when he does consider he often judges wrong * For some things there are no certain measures and there are very many constituent or intervening things and circumstances of things by which it is made impossible to give a certain judgement of the whole * Oftentimes a man is surpris'd and cannot deliberate for want of time sometimes he is amaz'd and wants order and distinction to his thoughts and cannot deliberate for want of powers * Sometimes the case is such that if a man determines it against his temporal interest he determines falsly and yet he thinks he does it safest and if he judges in compliance with his temporal regards he cannot be confident but that he was mov'd not by the prevailing reason but by prevailing passion * If the dispute be concerning degrees there is no certain measures to weigh them by and yet sometimes a degree does diversifie the kinde and vertue and vice are but differing degrees of the same instance and the wayes of sinning upon the stock of ignorance are as many as there are ignorances and degrees and parts and vicious causes and instances of it Concerning our infirmities they are so many that we can no more account concerning the wayes of errour coming upon that stock then it can be reckoned in how many places a lame man may stumble that goes a long journey in difficult and uneven wayes We have beginning infant strengths which are therefore imperfect because they can grow Crescere posse imperfectae rei signum est Seneca ep 67. and when they are most confirm'd and full grown they are imperfect still When we can reckon all the things of chance then we have summ'd up the dangers and aptnesses of man to sin upon that one principle but so as they can they are summ'd up in the words of Epiphanius Haeres 59. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The condition of our nature the inconstancy of our spirits the infirmity of our flesh the distraction of our senses are an argument to make us with confidence expect pardon and mercy from the loving kindness of the Lord according to the preaching of Truth the Gospel of Christ But besides all
it is hard and that 's the thing which in this question is complain'd of on all hands For an Oak is easie to be pull'd up by the roots if a man had strength enough to do it but if this be impos'd upon a weak man or a childe they have reason to complain and a Bushel or two of Wheat is no great thing to carry but it is too great for me I cannot do it So by this account of S. Hierome the Commandements are not impossible for there is not any one of them but any man can do at some time while he considers and is in perfect disposition But then we are to remember that the Commandements are alwayes imposed and we are not alwayes in that condition of good things to be wise and watchful well dispos'd and well resolv'd standing upon our guard and doing what we can at other times and therefore it is that the Commandements are impossible So that still the difficulty remains and the inquiry must go on How we are to understand the Divine Justice in exacting an impossible law or if he does not exact it how we understand the way of the Divine Wisdome in imposing that law which he cannot justly exact To the first I answer that God doth not exact of us what is not possible to be done The highest severity of the Gospel is to love God with all our soul that is to love him as much as we can love him and that is certain we can do Every man can do as much as he can and God requires no more and even those things which we can do though he calls upon us to do the most yet he punishes us not if we do it heartily and sincerely though with less passion and exactness Now as Gods justice was secur'd in the imposition of the law of Moses because whatever severity was held over them to restrain their loosenesses yet God exacted it onely by the measures of a man and healed all their breaches by the medicine of Repentance So now in the Gospel he hath done it much more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God hath taken the vail off and profess'd it openly he hath included this mercy in the very constitution of the Covenant For the Gospel is the Covenant of Repentance we shall not have leave to sin but we shall have leave to repent if we have sinned so that God hath imposed a law of perfection but he exacts it according to the possibilities of imperfect persons S. August lib. 1. Retract c. 19. Omnia mandata Dei facta deputantur quando quicquid non fit ignoscitur and then we have kept the Commandements when we have received our pardon for what we have not kept 2. As the law of Moses was not of it self impossible absolutely and naturally so neither are the Commandements of the Gospel For if we consider the particular of Moses law they were such a burthen which the Jews themselves were loth to part withall because it was in the Morall part of it but a law of abstinence from evil to which fear and temporal promises was as they understood it a sufficient endearment But that burthen which neither they nor their fathers were able to bear was the sting of the law that it allowed no repentance for great crimes Heb. 10.28 but the transgressor should die without mercy under two or three witnesses Now then since in the Gospel there is no such thing but there is an allowance of repentance this must needs be an easie yoke This onely is to be added That the righteousness of the law was in abstinence from evil the righteousness of the Gospel is in that and in the doing all the affirmative Commandements of Christ Now this being a new obligation brought also with it new abilities I mean the glorious promises of the Gospel which whosoever believes heartily will finde himself able to do or suffer any thing for the enjoying of them and this is that which is taught us by S. Paul For what the law could not do Rom. 8.3 in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own Son made it possible by the Spirit of Grace and by our spirituall conversation 3. There is a Natural possibility and a Moral there are abilities in every man to do any thing that is there commanded and he that can do well to day may do so to morrow in the nature of things this is true and since every sin is a breach of a law which a man might and ought to have kept it is naturally certain that when ever any man did break the Commandement he might have done otherwise In man therefore speaking naturally and of the Physical possibilities of things there is by those assistances which are given in the Gospel ability to keep the Commandements Evangelical But in the Moral sense that is when we consider what Man is and what are his strengths and how many his enemies and how soon he falls and that he forgets when he should remember and his faculties are asleep when they should be awake and he is hindred by intervening accidents and weakned and determin'd by superinduc'd qualities habits and necessities the keeping of the Commandements is morally impossible Now that this may also be taken off there is an abatement and an allowance made for this also Our infirmities are pitied our ignorances excused our unavoidable errours not imputed These in the law were imputable and it was lawful for the avenger of blood to kill a Manslayer who sinn'd against his will if he could overtake him before he got to Sanctuary These I say in the Law were imputable but they were not imputed Gods mercy took them off privately upon the accounts of his Mercy and a general Repentance But in the Gospel they are neither imputed nor imputable They were paid for beforehand and put upon the accounts of the Cross God winked at the times of your ignorance and The Lord had pity on me because I did it in ignorance said S. Paul and so Christ prayed Father forgive them for they know not what they do But ye did it ignorantly as did also your Rulers so S Peter and upon that account he called them to accept of mercy And it is certain in reason that if God forgives those sins of malice of which we repent infinitely rather will he not impute what we cannot probably or possibly avoid Apud Diodor. Sicul. For to do otherwise were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is a severity above the measures of humane sufferance and capacity to be punished for infirmities when they do not sin wilfully and therefore God who remembers and pities our infirmities will never put these into his account especially the holy Jesus having already paid our symbol Upon the account of these particulars it is certain God does not exact of us an impossible Commandement that is not in the impossible measure for that is the meaning of those words of S.
we thus can perform all Gods will acceptably For if we endevour all that we can and desire more and pursue more it is accepted as if we had done all 2 Cor. 8.12 for we are accepted according to what a man hath and not according to what he hath not Unless we can neither endevour nor desire we ought not to complain of the burthen of the Divine Commandements For to endevour truly and passionately to desire and contend for more is obedience and charity and that is the fulfilling of the Commandments Matter for Meditation out of Scripture according to the former Doctrine The Old Covenant or the Covenant of Works IN that day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die Gen. 2.17 Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the law to do them Gal. 3 10. Deut. 27.26 Deut. 27.8 And thou shalt write upon stones all the words of this law very plainly Thou shalt not go aside from any of the words which I command thee this day to the right hand or to the left But it shall come to pass Deut. 28. if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God to observe to do all his commandements and his statutes then shall all these curses come upon thee and overtake thee And if you will not be reformed by these things Lev. 26.23 24 c. but will walk contrary unto me then will I also walk contrary unto you and will punish you yet seven times for your sins He that despised Moses law Heb. 10.28 died without mercy under two or three witnesses The New Covenant or the Covenant of Grace WEE are justified freely by his grace Rom. 3. ver 24 25 26 27 28. through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ * Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God * To declare I say at this time his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus * Where is boasting then it is excluded by what law of works Nay but by the law of faith * Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus Rom. 8.1 14 26 27 28. who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit * For as many as are led by the Spirit they are the sons of God * Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities because he maketh intercession for the Saints according to the will of God * And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God He that spared not his own Son Ver. 33 c. but delivered him up for us all how shall not he with him also freely give us all things * Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect It is God that justifieth This is the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those dayes Heb. 8.10 11 12. saith the Lord I will put my laws in their minde and write them in their hearts and I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a people all shall know me from the least to the greatest * For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more If any man be in Christ 2 Cor. 5.17 18 19 20 21. he is a new creature old things are past away all things are become new * And all things are of God who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and hath given to us the ministery of reconciliation * Now then we are ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christs stead be ye reconciled to God * For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins Acts 2.37 38. and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost for the promise is unto you and to your children and to all that are afar off and to as many as the Lord our God shall call And it shall come to pass Rom. 10.13 Acts 2.21 Rom. 10.5 6 8 9. that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law that the man which doth those things shall live by them But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise The word is nigh thee even in thy mouth and in thy heart that is the word of faith which we preach that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved Death is swallowed up in victory 1 Cor. 15.55 56. O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law But thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ My yoke is easie and my burthen is light For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh Rom. 8.3 4. God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh hath for sin condemned sin in the flesh that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit His Commandements are not grievous 1 Joh. 5.3 Rom. 5.10 If while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life * And not onely so but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have now received the atonement I can do all things through Christ which strengthneth me Phil. 4.13 My grace is sufficient for thee 2 Cor. 12.9 for my strength is made perfect in weakness Ask and you shall have Mat. 7.7 seek and ye shall finde knock and it shall be opened unto you To him that hath shall be given and he shall have more abundantly Having therefore these promises 2 Cor. 7.1 let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit Vid. etiam Isa 49.6 53.12 Psal 22.23 24 25 26 27 28. Jer. 32.34 perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord. The PRAYER I. OEternal God Lord of Heaven and Earth Father of Men and Angels we do adore thy infinite Goodness we revere thy Justice and delight in thy Mercies by which thou hast dealt with us not with the utmost right and dominion of a Lord but with the gentleness of a Father treating us like friends who were indeed thy enemies
in my Ministery saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what then he is not hereby justified 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because some sins might adhere to him he not knowing that they were sins Ab occult is meis munda me Domine was an excellent Prayer of David Cleanse me O Lord from my secret faults Hoc dicit nequid fortè per ignorantiam deliquisset saith S Hierome he prayed so lest peradventure he should have sinned ignorantly But of this I shall give a further account in describing the measures of sins of infirmity For the present although this resolution against all is ineffective as to a perfect immunity from small offences yet it is accepted as really done because it is done as it can possibly 5. Let no man relie upon the Catalogues which are sometimes given and think that such things which the Doctors have call'd Venial sins may with more facility be admitted and with smaller portions of care be regarded or with a slighter repentance washed off For besides that some have called perjuries anger envy injurious words by lighter names and titles of a little reproof and having lived in wicked times were betray'd into easier sentences of those sins which they saw all mankind almost to practise which was the case of some of the Doctors who lived in the time of those Wars which broke the Roman Empire besides this I say venial sins can rather be * See chap. 7. of sins of infirmity described then enumerated For none are so in their nature but all that are so are so by accident and according as sins tend to excuse so they put on their degrees of veniality No sin is absolutely venial but in comparison with others Neither is any sin at all times and to all persons alike venial And therefore let no man venture upon it upon any mistaken confidence They that think sins are venial in their own nature cannot agree which are venial and which are not and therefore nothing is in this case so certain as that all that doctrine which does in any sense represent sins as harmless or tame Serpents is infinitely dangerous and there is no safety but by striving against all beforehand and repenting of all as there is need I summe up this question and these advices with the saying of Josephus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is as damnable to indulge leave to our selves to sin little sins as great ones A man may be choaked with a raisin as well as with great morsels of flesh and a small leak in a ship if it be neglected will as certainly sink her as if she sprung a plank Death is the wages of all and damnation is the portion of the impenitent whatever was the instance of their sin Though there are degrees of punishment yet there is no difference of state as to this particular and therefore we are tied to repent of all and to dash the little Babylonians against the stones against the Rock that was smitten for us For by the blood of Jesus and the tears of Repentance and the watchfulness of a diligent careful person many of them shall be prevented and all shall be pardoned A Psalm to be frequently used in our Repentance for our daily sins BOw down thine ear O Lord hear me for I am poor and needy Rejoyce the soul of thy servant for unto thee O Lord do I lift up my soul For thou Lord art good and ready to forgive and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee Teach me thy way O Lord I will walk in thy truth unite my heart to fear thy Name Shall mortal man be more just then God shall a man be more pure then his Maker Behold he put no trust in his Servants and his Angels he charged with folly How much less on them that dwell in houses of clay whose foundation is in the dust which are crushed before the moth Doth not their excellency which is in them go away They die even without wisdome The law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul the testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the simple Moreover by them is thy servant warned and in keeping of them there is great reward Who can understand his errours Cleanse thou me from my secret faults keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins let them not have dominion over me then shall I be upright and I shall be innocent from the great transgression O ye sons of men how long will ye turn my glory into shame how long will ye love vanity and seek after leasing But know that the Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself The Lord will hear when I call unto him Out of the deep have I called unto thee O Lord Lord hear my voice O let thine ears consider well the voice of my complaint If thou Lord wilt be extreme to mark what is done amiss O Lord who may abide it But there is mercy with thee therefore shalt thou be feared Set a watch O Lord before my mouth and keep the door of my lips Take from me the way of lying and cause thou me to make much of thy law The Lord is full of compassion and mercy long-suffering and of great goodness He will not alway be chiding neither keepeth he his anger for ever Yea like as a Father pitieth his own children even so is the Lord mercifull unto them that fear him For he knoweth whereof we are made he remembreth that we are but dust Praise the Lord O my soul and forget not all his benefits which forgiveth all thy sin and healeth all thine infirmities Glory be to the Father c. The PRAYER O Eternal God whose perfections are infinite whose mercies are glorious whose justice is severe whose eyes are pure whose judgements are wise be pleased to look upon the infirmities of thy servant and consider my weakness My spirit is willing but my flesh is weak I desire to please thee but in my endevours I fail so often so foolishly so unreasonably that I extremely displease my self and I have too great reason to fear that thou also art displeased with thy servant O my God I know my duty I resolve to doe it I know my dangers I stand upon my guard against them but when they come near I begin to be pleased and delighted in the little images of death and am seised upon by folly even when with greatest severity I decree against it Blessed Jesus pity me and have mercy upon my infirmities II. O Dear God I humbly beg to be relieved by a mighty grace for I bear a body of sin and death about me sin creeps upon me in every thing that I doe or suffer When I doe well I am apt to be proud when I doe amiss I am sometimes too confident sometimes affrighted If I see others doe amiss I either neglect them or grow too angry and in the very mortification of my anger I
grow angry and peevish My duties are imperfect my repentances little my passions great my fancy trifting The sins of my tongue are infinite and my omissions are infinite and my evil thoughts cannot be numbred and I cannot give an account concerning innumerable portions of my time which were once in my power but were let slip and were partly spent in sin partly thrown away upon trifles and vanity and even of the basest sins of which in accounts of men I am most innocent I am guilty before thee entertaining those sins in little instances thoughts desires and imaginations which I durst not produce into action and open significations Blessed Jesus pity me and have mercy upon my infirmities III. TEach me O Lord to walk before thee in righteousness perfecting holiness in the fear of God Give me an obedient will a loving spirit a humble understanding watchfulness over my thoughts deliberation in all my words and actions well tempered passions and a great prudence and a great zeal and a great charity that I may doe my duty wisely diligently holily O let me be humbled in my infirmities but let me be also safe from my enemies let me never fall by their violence nor by my own weakness let me never be overcome by them nor yet give my self up to folly and weak principles to idleness and secure careless walking but give me the strengths of thy Spirit that I may grow strong upon the ruines of the flesh growing from grace to grace till I become a perfect man in Christ Jesus O let thy strength be seen in my weakness and let thy mercy triumph over my infirmities pitying the condition of my nature the infancy of grace the imperfection of my knowledge the transportations of my passion Let me never consent to sin but for ever strive against it and every day prevail till it be quite dead in me that thy servant living the life of grace may at last be admitted to that state of glory where all my infirmities shall be done away and all teares be dried up and sin and death shall be no more Grant this O most gracious God and Father for Jesus Christ his sake Amen OUr Father which art in heaven Hallowed be thy Name Thy Kingdome come Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven Give us this day our daily bread And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil Amen CHAP. IV. Of Actual single sins and what Repentance is proper to them §. 1. THE first part of Conversion or Repentance is a quitting of all sinful habits and abstaining from all criminal actions whatsoever Virtus est vitium fugere sapientia prima Stultitia caruisse For unless the Spirit of God rule in our hearts we are none of Christs but he rules not where the works of the flesh are frequently or maliciously or voluntarily entertained All the works of the flesh and whatsoever leads to them all that is contrary to the Spirit and does either grieve or extinguish him must be rescinded and utterly taken away Concerning which it is necessary that I set down the * Mat. 15.19 Mar. 7.21 Galat. 5.16 19 20 21. Eph 4.31 c. 5.3 4 5. 2 Tim. 3.2 3 4 5. Rom. 1.29 30 31 32. 1 Cor. 6.9 Revel 21.8 1 Pet. 4.3 15. Catalogues which by Christ and his Apostles are left us as lights and watch-towers to point out the rocks and quick-sands where our danger is and this I shall the rather doe not onely because they comprehend many evils which are not observed or feared some which are commended and many that are excused but also because although they are all mark'd with the same black character of death yet there is some difference in the execution of the sentence and in the degrees of their condemnation and of the consequent Repentance 2. Evil thoughts or discoursings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Evil reasonings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Hesychius that is prating importune pratling and loosness of tongue such as is usual with bold boyes and young men prating much and to no purpose But our Bibles reade it Evil thoughts or surmisings for in Scripture it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so Suidas observes concerning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to think long and carefully to dwell in meditation upon a thing to which when our blessed Saviour addes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 evil he notes and reproves such kinde of morose thinkings and fancying of evil things and it is not unlikely that he means thoughts of uncleanness or lustful fancies For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Suidas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Hesychius it signifies such words as are prologues to wantonness so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Aristophanes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lysistratâ So that here are forbidden all wanton words and all morose delighting in venereous thoughts all rollings and tossing such things in our minds For even these defile the soul Verborum obscoenitas si turpitudini rerum adhibeatur ludus ne libero quidem homine dignus est said Cicero Obscene words are a mockery not worthy of an ingenuous person This is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. 5.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that foolish talking and jesting which S. Paul joyns to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that filthiness of communication which men make a jest of but is indeed the basest in the world the sign of a vile dishonest minde and it particularly noted the talk of Mimicks and Parasites Buffoons and Players whose trade was to make sport 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and they did use to doe it with nastiness and filthy talkings as is to be seen in Aristophanes and is rarely described and severely reproved in S. Chrysostome in his 6. Homily upon S. Matthew For per verba dediscitur rerum pudor which S. Paul also affirms in the words of Menander 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Evil words corrupt good manners and evil thoughts being the fountain of evil words lie under the same prohibition Under this head is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a talkative rash person ready to speak slow to hear against S. James his rule 3. Inventers of evil things Contrivers of all such artifices as minister to vice Curious inventions for cruelty for gluttony for lust witty methods of drinking wanton pictures and the like which for the likeness of the matter I have subjoyn'd next to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the evil thinkings or surmisings reproved by our blessed Saviour as these are expresly by S. Paul 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Covetousness or Inordinate unreasonable desires For the word does not onely signify the designing and contrivances of unjust ways of purchasing which is not often separated from covetous desires but the very studium habendi the
is consistent but how long and how farre God onely knows 2. With the second period a frequency of falling into single sins is consistent But if he comes not out of this state and proceed to the third period he will relapse to the first he must not stay here long 3. But they that are in the third period do sometimes fall into single sins but it is but seldome and it is without any remanent portion of affection but not without much displeasure and a speedy repentance and to this person the proper remedy is to grow in grace for if he does not he cannot either be secure of the present or confident of the future 4. But then if by being in the state of grace is meant a being actually pardon'd and beloved of God unto salvation so that if the man dies so he shall be saved it is certain that every deliberate sin every act of sin that is considered and chosen puts a man out of the state of grace that is the act of sin is still upon his account he is not actually pardon'd in that for any other worthiness of state or relation of person he must come to new accounts for that and if he dies without a moral retractation of it he is in a sad condition if God should deal with him summo jure that is be extreme to mark that which was done amiss The single act is highly damnable the wages of it are death it defiles a man it excludes from heaven it grieves the holy Spirit of grace it is against his undertaking and in its own proportion against all his hopes if it be not pardon'd it will bear the man to Hell but then how it comes to be pardon'd in good men and by what measures of favour and proper dispensation is next to be considered Therefore 5. Though by the nature of the thing and the laws of the Covenant every single deliberate act of sin provokes God to anger who therefore may punish it by the severest laws which he decreed against it yet by the Oeconomy of God and the Divine Dispensation it is sometimes otherwise For besides the eternal wrath of God there are some that suffer his temporal some suffer both some but one God uses to smite them whom he would make to be or them who are his sons if they do amiss If a wicked man be smitten with a temporal judgement and thence begins to fear God and to return the anger will go no further and therefore much rather shall such temporal judgements upon the good man that was overtaken in a fault be the whole exaction God smites them that sin these single sins and though he could take all yet will demand but a fine 6. But even this also God does not do but in the case of scandal or danger to others as it was in the particular of David Because thou hast made the enemies of God to blaspheme the childe that is born unto thee shall die or else 2. When the good man is negligent of his danger or dilatory in his repentance and careless in his watch then God awakens him with a judgement sent with much mercy 7. But sometimes a temporal death happens to good men so overtaken It happened so to Moses and Aaron for their fault at the waters of Massah and Meribah to the Prophet of Judah that came to cry out against the Altar in Bethel to Vzzah for touching the Ark with unhallowed fingers though he did it in zeal to the Corinthians who had not observed decent measures in receiving the holy Sacrament and thus it happened say some of the ancient Doctors to Ananias and Sapphira God took a fine of them also salvo contenemento their main stake being secured Culpam hanc miserorum morte piabant There is in these instances this difference Moses and Aaron were not smitten in their sin but for it and as is not doubted after they had repented but Vzzah and the Prophet and Ananias and Sapphira and the Corinthians died not onely for their sin but in it too and yet it is hoped Gods anger went no further then that death because in every such person who lives well and yet is overtaken in a fault there is much of infirmity and imperfection of choice even when there are some degrees of wilfulness and a wicked heart And though it be easie to suppose that such persons in the beginning of that judgement and the approach of that death did morally retract the sinful action by an act of repentance and that upon that account they found the effect of the Divine mercies by the blood of the Lamb who was slain from the beginning of the world yet if it should happen that any of them die so suddenly as not to have power to exercise one act of repentance though the case be harder yet it is to be hoped that even the habitual repentance and hatred of sin by which they pleased God in the greater portions of their life will have some influence upon this also But this case is but seldome and Gods mercies are very great and glorious but because there is in this case no warrant and this case may happen oftner then it does even to any one that sins one wilful sin it is enough to all considering persons to make them fear but the fool sinneth and is confident 8. But if such overtaken persons do live then Gods Dispensation is all mercy even though he strikes the sinner for he does it for good For God is merciful and knows our weaknesses our natural and circumstant follies he therefore recals the sinning man he strikes him sharply or he corrects him gently or he calls upon him hastily as God please or as the man needs The man is fallen from the favour or grace of God but I say fallen onely from one step of grace and God is more ready to receive him then the man is to return and provided that he repent speedily and neither adde a new crime nor neglect this his state of grace was but allayed and disordered not broken in pieces or destroyed 9. I finde this thing rarely well discoursed of by some of the ancient Doctors of the Church Tertullians words are excellent words to this purpose Licet perisse dicatur Lib. de Pudicit c. 7. erit de perditionis genere retractare quia ovis non moriendo sed errando drachma non intereundo sed latitando perierunt Ita licet dici perisse quod salvum est That may be said to be lost which is missing and the sheep that went astray was also lost and so was the groat which yet was but laid aside it was so lost that it was found again And thus that may be said to have perish'd which yet is safe Perit igitur fidelis elapsus in spectaculum quadrigarii furoris gladiatorii cruoris scenicae foeditatis Xisticae vanitatis in lusus in convivia saecularis solennitatis in
it then this For every one that breaks a Commandement let the instance be what it will is a transgressor of the same bond by which he was bound to all Non quòd omnia legis praecepta violârit sed quòd legis Authorem contempserit eóque proemio meritò careat quod legis cultoribus propositum est saith venerable Bede He did not violate all the Commandements but he offended him who is the giver of all the Commandements It is like letting one Bead fall from a Rosary or Coronet of Bugles This or that or a third makes no difference the string is as much broken if he lets one to slide as if he dropp'd twenty It was not an ill conceit of Menedemus the Eretrian that there was but one vertue which had divers names Aristo Chius express'd the same conceit with a little difference affirming all vertues to be the same in reality and nature but to have a certain diversification or rational difference by relation to their objects As if one should call the sight when it looks upon a Crow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if upon a Swan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so is vertue When it moderates the affections it is Temperance when it ballances contracts it is Justice when it considers what is and what is not to be done it is Prudence That which they call Vertue if we call it the Grace of God or Obedience it is very true which they say For the same spirit the same grace of obedience is Chastity or Temperance or Justice according as is the subject matter The love of God if it be in us is productive of all worthiness and this is it which S. John said This is love that we keep his Commandements The love of God constraineth us It worketh all the works of God in us It is the fulfilling of the Commandements For this is a Catholicon an Universal Grace Charity gives being to all vertues it is the life and spirit of all holy actions Abstinence from feasts and inordination mingled with Charity is Temperance And Justice is Charity and Chastity is Charity and Humility is still but an instance of Charity This is that Transcendent that gives life and vertue to Alms to Preaching to Faith to Miracles it does all obedience to God all good offices to our Neighbours which in effect is nothing but the sentence of Menedemus and Aristo that there is an Universal Vertue that is there is one soul and essence of all vertue They call it Vertue S. Paul calls it Charity and this is that one thing which is necessary that one thing which every man that sins does violate He that is guilty of all is but guilty of that one and therefore he that is guilty of that one of the breach of Charity is guilty of all And upon this account it is that no one sin can stand with the state of grace because he that sins in one instance sins against all goodness not against all instances of duty but against that which is the life of all against Charity and Obedience A Prayer to be said in the dayes of Repentance for the commission of any great Crime O Most glorious God I tremble to come into thy presence so polluted and dishonoured as I am by my foul stain of sin which I have contracted but I must come or I perish O my God I cannot help it now Miserable man that I am to reduce my self to so sad a state of things that I neither am worthy to come unto thee nor dare I stay from thee Miserable man that I am who lost that portion of innocence which if I should pay my life in price I cannot now recover O dear God I have offended thee my gracious Father my Lord my Patron my Judge my Advocate and my Redeemer Shame and sorrow is upon me for so offending thee my gracious Saviour But glory be to thee O Lord who art such to me who have offended thee It aggravates my sin that I have sinned against thee who art so excellent in thy self who art so good to me But if thou wert not so good to me though my sin would be less yet my misery would be greater The greatness of my Crime brings me to my Remedy and now I humbly pray thee to be merciful to my sin for it is very great II. O My God pity me and relieve my sad condition which is so extremely evil that I have no comfort but from that which is indeed my misery My baseness is increased by my hopes for it is thy grace and thy goodness which I have so provoked Thou O God didst give me thy grace and assist me by thy holy Spirit and call by thy Word and instruct me by thy Wisdome and didst work in me to will and to do according to thy good pleasure I knew my sin and I saw my danger and I was not ignorant and I was not surpris'd but wilfully knowingly basely and sensually I gave thee away for the pleasure of a minute for the purchase of vanity nay I exchanged thee for shame and sorrow and having justly forfeited thy love am plac'd I know not where nor in what degree of thy anger nor in what neighbourhood of damnation III. O God my God what have I done whither am I fallen I was well and blessed circled with thy Graces conducted by thy Spirit sealed up to the day of Redemption in a hopefull way towards thee and now I have listned to the whispers of a tempting Spirit and for that which hath in it no good no reason no satisfaction for that which is not I have forfeited those excellencies for the recovery of which my life is too cheap a price I am ashamed O God I am ashamed I put my mouth in the dust and my face in darkness and hate my self for my sin which I am sure thou hatest But give thy servant leave to hope that I shall feel the gracious effluxes of thy love I know thou art angry with me I have deserved it But if thou hadst not lov'd me and pitied me thou mightest have stricken me in the act of my shame I know the design of thy mercy and loving kindness is to bring me to repentance and pardon to life and grace I obey thee O God I humbly obey thy gracious purposes Receive O Lord a returning sinner a poor wounded person smitten by my enemies broken by my sin weary and heavy laden ease me of my burthen and strengthen me by a mighty grace that hereafter I may watch more carefully resist more pertinaciously walk more circumspectly and serve thee without the interruptions of duty by the intervening of a sin O let me rather die then choose to sin against thee any more Onely try me this once and bear me in thy arms and fortifie my holy purposes and conduct me with thy grace that thou mayest delight to pardon me and to save me through Jesus Christ my Lord and dearest Saviour Amen I
express precepts of perseverance doe imply that the office and duty of a Christian is of a long time and business and a race * That repentance being the renewing of a holy life it should seem that on our death-bed the day for repentance is past since no man can renew his life when his life is done no man can live well when he cannot live at all * and therefore to place our hopes upon a death-bed repentance onely is such a religion as satisfies all our appetites and contradicts none and yet promises heaven at last * These things I say are all either notorious and evident or expresly affirmed in Scripture and therefore that in the ordinary way of things in the common expectation of events such persons are in a very sad condition So that it remains that in this sad condition there must be some extraordinary way found out or else this whole enquiry is at an end Concerning which all that I can say is this 1. God hath an Almighty power and his mercy is as great as his power He can doe miracles of mercy as well as miracles of mightiness And this S. Austin brings in open pretence against desperation O homo quicunque illam multitudinem peccatorum attendis cur omnipotentiam coelestis medici non attendis Thy sins are great but Gods mercies are greater But this does represent the mans condition at the best to be such that God may if he will have mercy upon him but whether he will or no there is as yet no other certainty or probability but that he can if he please which proposition to an amazed timorous person that fears a hell the next hour is so dry a story so hopeless a proposition that all that can be said of this is that it is very fit that no man should ever put it to the venture For upon this argument we may as well comfort our selves upon him that died without repenting at all But the inquiry must be further 2. All mankinde all the Doctors of the Church for very many ages at least some few of the most Ancient and of the Modern excepted have been apt to give hopes to such persons and no man bids them absolutely despair Let such persons make use of this easiness of men thereby to retain so much hope as to make them call upon God and not to neglect what can then be done Spem retine spes una hominem nec morte relinquit As long as there is life there is hope and when a man dies let him not despair for there is a life after this and a hope proper to that and amidst all the evils that the Ancients did fabulously report to be in Pandora's box they wittily plac'd Hope on the utmost lip of it and extremity Vivere spe vidi qui moriturus erat And S. Cyprian exhorts old Demetrianus to turn Christian in his old age and promises him salvation in the name of Christ and though his case and that of a Christian who entred into promises and Covenants of obedience be very different yet ad immortalitatem sub ipsâ morte transitur a passing from such a repentance to immortality although it cannot be hop'd for upon the just accounts of express promise yet it is not too great to hope from Gods mercy and until that which is infinite hath a limit a repenting mans hopes in this world cannot be wholly at an end 3. We finde that in the battels which were fought by the Maccabees some persons who fought on the Lords side and were slain in the sight were found having on their breasts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or pendants consecrate to the idols of the Samnenses and yet the good people of their party made oblation for them hoping that they might be partakers of a blessed resurrection They that repent heartily but one hour are in a better condition then the other that died in their sin though with the advantage of fighting in a good cause and if good people will not leave hoping for such persons it is not fit that themselves should 4. He that considers Gods great love to Mankinde * the infinite love that God hath to his holy Son Jesus and yet that he sent him to die for every man * and that the holy Jesus does now and hath for very many ages prayed for the pardon of our sins that he knows how horrible those pains are which are provided for perishing souls and therefore that he is exceedingly pitiful and desirous that we should escape them * and that God did give one extraordinary example of saving a dying penitent the Thief upon the Cross and though that had something in it extraordinary and miraculous yet that is it which is now expected a favour extraordinary a miraculous mercy * And that Christ was pleased to speak a Parable of comfort and the Master of the Vineyard did pay salary to him that began to work at the eleventh hour and though that was some portion of his life the twelfth part of it and the man was not call'd sooner yet there may be something in it of comfort to the dying penitent since it looks something like it it certainly relates to old men and can doe them comfort and possibly the merciful intention of it is yet larger * and that since God is so well pleased with repentance it may be he will abate the circumstance of time Nec ad rem pertinet ubi inciperet quod placuerat ut fieret and he will not consider when that begins which he loves should be done * And that he is our Father and paulum supplicii satis est Patri a Father will chastise but will not kill his son * And that it is therefore seasonable to hope because it is a duty and the very hope it self God delights to reward for so said the Apostle Cast not away your confidence Heb. 10.35 which hath great recompence of reward * And the Church of God imitating the mercies of our gracious God and Father Concil Nicen. can 13. hath denied to give the Sacrament of peace and mercy to none that seek it Viaticum omnibus in morte positis non est negandum Concil Agath c. 11. And in the saddest consideration of things that can be suppose it be with him as with Simon Magus suppose that he is in the gall of bitterness in the state of damnation in the guilt of a sin which we know not whether God will pardon or not yet still it is wise and pious counsel that he should pray if peradventure he may be forgiven He I say that considers these things will have cause to be very earnest and very busy to lose no time to remit no labour to quit no hope but humbly passionately diligently set upon that duty of repentance which should have long agoe come to some perfection Now because I have as I suppose said enough to make men afraid to put off their repentance to
warrant from the words of S. Austin Si hoc eis non erit malum non ergo amabunt regnum Dei tot innocentes imagines Dei Si autem amabunt tantum amabunt quantum innocentes amare debent regnum ejus à quo ad ipsius imaginem creantur nihÃlne mali de hâc ipsâ separatione patientur Here the good man and eloquent supposes the little babies to be innocent to be images of God to love the Kingdome of God and yet to be sentenc'd to hell which it may be he did but I do not understand save onely that in the Parable we finde Dives in hell to be very charitable to his living brethren But that which I make use of for the present is that infants besides the loss of Gods presence and the beholding his face are apprehensive and afflicted with that evil state of things whither their infelicity not their fault hath carried him 2. But suppose this to be but a meer privative state yet it cannot be inflicted upon infants as a punishment of Adams sin and upon the same account it cannot be inflicted upon any one else Not upon infants because they are not capable of a law for themselves therefore much less of a law which was given to another here being a double incapacity of obedience They cannot receive any law and if they could yet of this they never were offer'd any notice till it was too late Now if infants be not capable of this nor chargeable with it then no man is for all are infants first and if it comes not by birth and at first it cannot come at all So that although this privative hell be less then to say they are tormented in flames besides yet it is as unequal and unjust There is not indeed the same cruelty but there is the same injustice I deny not but all persons naturally are so that they cannot arrive at heaven but unless some other principle be put into them or some great grace done for them must for ever stand separate from seeing the face of God But this is but accidentally occasion'd by the sin of Adam That left us in our natural state and that state can never come to heaven in its own strength But this condition of all men by nature is not the punishment of our sin for this would suppose that were it not for this sin superinduc'd otherwise we should goe to heaven Now this is not true for if Adam had not sinned yet without something supernatural some grace and gift we could never go to heaven Now although the sin of Adam left him in his nakedness and a meer natural man yet presently this was supplied and we were never in it but were improv'd and better'd by the promise and Christ hath died for mankinde and in so doing is become our Redeemer and Representative and therefore this sin of Adam cannot call us back from that state of good things into which we are put by the mercies of God in our Lord Jesus and therefore now no infant or idiot or man or woman shall for this alone be condemn'd to an eternal banishment from the sweetest presence of God But this will be evinced more certainly in the following periods For if they stand for ever banished from the presence of God then they shall be for ever shut up in hell with the devil and his angels for the Scripture hath mentioned no portions but of the right and left hand Greg. Naz. and his Scholiast Nicetas did suppose that there should be a middle state between heaven and hell for infants heathens and concerning infants P. Innocen 3. and some schoolmen a Ambros Catharinê° Albert. Pighius have taken it up but S. b De verb. Apost Serm. 14. Aust hath sufficiently confuted it it is sufficient that there is no ground for it but their own dreams 3. But then against those that say the flames of hell is the portion of Adams heirs and that infants dying in Original sin are eternally tormented as Judas or Dives or Julian I call to witness all the Oeconomy of the divine goodness and justice and truth The soul that sins it shall die As I live saith the Lord Ezek. 18. the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father that is he shall not be guilty of his crime nor liable to his punishment 4. Is hell so easie a pain or are the souls of children of so cheap so contemptible a price that God should so easily throw them into hell Gods goodness which pardons many sins which we could avoid will not so easily throw them into hell for what they could not avoid Gods goodness is against this 5. It is suppos'd that Adam did not finally perish for that sin which himself committed all Antiquity thought so Tatianus only excepted who was a heretick accounted and the father of the Encratites But then what equity is it that any innocents or little children should for either God pardon'd Adam or condemn'd him If he pardon'd him that sinn'd it is not so agreeable to his goodness to exact it of others that did not * Ex tarditate si Dii sontes praetereant insontes plectant justitiam suam non sic rectè resarciunt For if he pardon'd him then either God took off all that to which he was liable or onely remov'd it from him to place it some where else If he remov'd it from him to his posterity that is it which we complain of as contrary to his justice and his goodness But if God took off all that was due how could God exact it of others it being wholly pardon'd But if God did not pardon him the eternal guilt but took the forfeiture and made him pay the full price of his sin that is all which he did threaten and intend then it is not to be supposed that God should in justice demand more then eternal pains as the price to be paid by one man for one sin So that in all senses this seems unjust 6. To be born was a thing wholly involuntary and unchosen and therefore it could in no sense be chosen that we were born so that is born guilty of Adams sin which we knew not of which was done so many thousand years before we were born which we had never heard of if God had not been pleas'd by a supernatural way to reveal to us which the greatest part of mankinde to this day have never heard of at which we were displeas'd as soon as we knew of it which hath caused much trouble to us but never tempted us with any pleasure 7. No man can perish for that of which he was not guilty but we could not be involv'd in the guilt unless some way or other our consent had been involv'd For it is no matter who sins or who is innocent if he that is innocent may perish for what another does without his knowledge or leave either ask'd or given or presum'd
the throne of Grace For it is remarkable that Gods justice is in some cases 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exact full and severe in other cases it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 full of equity gentleness and wisdome making abatement for infirmities performing promises interpreting things to the most equal and favourable purposes So Justice is taken in S. John If we confess our sins he is righteous or just to forgive our sins that is Gods justice is such as to be content with what we can doe and not to exact all that is possible to be imposed He is as just in forgiving the penitent as in punishing the refractary as just in abating reasonably as in weighing scrupulously such a justice it is which in the same case David cals Mercy For thou Lord art merciful for thou rewardest every man according to his works And if this were not so no man could be saved Lib. 6.13 Mortalis enim conditio non patitur esse hominem ab omni maculâ purum said Lactantius For in many things we offend all and our present state of imperfection will not suffer it to be otherwise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De agriculturâ said Philo. For as a runner of races at his first setting forth rids his way briskly and in a breath measures out many spaces but by and by his spirit is faint and his body is breathless and he stumbles at every thing that lies in his way so is the course of a Christian fierce in the beginnings of repentance and active in his purposes but in his progress remiss and hindred and starts at every accident and stumbles at every scandal and stone of offence and is sometimes listless and without observation at other times and a bird out of a bush that was not look'd for makes him to start aside and decline from the path and method of his journey But then if he that stumbles mends his pace and runs more warily and goes on vigorously his error or misfortune shall not be imputed for here Gods justice is equity it is the justice of the Chancery we are not judged by the Covenant of works that is of exact measures but by the Covenant of faith and remission or repentance But if he that fals lies down despairingly or wilfully or if he rises goes back or goes aside not onely his declination from his way but every error or fall every stumbling and startling in that way shall be accounted for For here Gods justice is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exact and severe it is the justice of the Law because he refused the method and conditions of the Gospel 5. Every sinful action that canpretend to pardon by being a sin of infirmity must be in a small matter The imperfect way of operating alone is not sufficient for excuse and pardon unless the matter also be little and contemptible because if the matter be great it cannot ordinarily be but it must be considered and chosen He that in a sudden anger strikes his friend to the heart whom he had lov'd as passionately as now he smote him is guilty of murder and cannot pretend infirmity for his excuse because in an action of so great consequence and effect it is supposed he had time to deliberate all the foregoing parts of his life whether such an action ought to be done or not or the very horror of the action was enough to arrest his spirit as a great danger or falling into a river will make a drunken man sober and by all the laws of God and Man he was immur'd from the probability of all transports into such violences and the man must needs be a slave of passion who could by it be brought to goe so far from reason and to doe so great evil * If a man in the careless time of the day when his spirit is loose with a less severe imployment or his heart made more open with an innocent refreshment spies a sudden beauty that unluckily strikes his fancy it is possible that he may be too ready to entertain a wanton thought and to suffer it to stand at the doors of his first consent but if the sin passes no further the man enters not into the regions of death because the Devil entred on a sudden and is as suddenly cast forth But if from the first arrest of concupiscence he pass on to an imperfect consent from an imperfect consent to a perfect and deliberate and from thence to an act and so to a habit he ends in death because long before it is come thus far The salt water is taken in The first concupiscence is but like rain water it discolours the pure springs but makes them not deadly But when in the progression the will mingles with it it is like the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or waters of brimstone and the current for ever after is unwholesome and carries you forth into the dead Sea the lake of Sodom which is to suffer the vengance of Eternal fire But then the matter may be supposed little till the will comes For though a man may be surprised with a wanton eye yet he cannot fight a duel against his knowledge or commit adultery against his will A man cannot against his will contrive the death of a man but he may speak a rash word or be suddenly angry or triflingly peevish and yet all this notwithstanding be a good man still These may be sins of Infirmity because they are imperfect actions in the whole and such in which as the man is for the present surpris'd so they are such against which no watchfulness was a sufficient guard as it ought to have been in any great matter and might have been in sudden murders A wise and a good man may easily be mistaken in a nice question but can never suspect an article of his Creed to be false a good man may have many fears and doubtings in matters of smaller moment but he never doubts of Gods goodness of his truth of his mercy or of any of his communicated perfections he may fall into melancholy and may suffer indefinite fears of he knows not what himself yet he can never explicitely doubt of any thing which God hath clearly revealed and in which he is sufficiently instructed A weak eye may at a distance mistake a man for a tree but he who sailing in a storm takes the Sea for dry land or a mushrome for an oak is stark blinde And so is he who can think adultery to be excusable or that Treason can be duty or that by persecuting Gods Prophets he does God good service or that he propagates religion by making the Ministers of the Altar poor and robbing the Churches A good man so remaining cannot suffer infirmity in the plain and legible lines of duty where he can see and reason and consider I have now told which are sins of infirmity and I have told all their measures For as for those other false opinions by which
be accepted and when I fail of that I may be pitied and pardoned and in all my fights and necessities may be defended and secured prospered and conducted to the regions of victory and triumph of strength and glory through the mercies of God and the grace of our Lord Jesus and the blessed communication of the Spirit of God and our Lord Jesus Amen CHAP. VIII Of the effect of Repentance viz. Remission of sins §. 1. THE law written in the Heart of man is a law of obedience which because we prevaricated we are taught another which S. Austin says is written in the Heart of Angels Lib. 6. cont Julian c. 9. Vt nulla sit iniquitas impunita nisi quam sanguis Mediatoris expiaverit For God the Father spares no sinner but while he looks upon the face of his Son but that in him our sins should be pardon'd and our persons spared is as necessary a consideration as any S. Ambr. de poenit l. 1. c. 2. Nemo enim potest benè agere poenitentiam nisi qui speraverit indulgentiam To what purpose does God call us to Repentance if at the same time he does not invite us to pardon It is the state and misery of the damned to repent without hope and if this also could be the state of the penitent in this life the Sermons of Repentance were useless and comfortless Gods mercies were none at all to sinners the institution and office of preaching and reconciling penitents were impertinent and man should die by the laws of Angels who never was enabled to live by their strength and measures and consequently all mankinde were infinitely and eternally miserable lost irrecoverably perishing without a Saviour tied to a law too hard for him and condemned by unequal and intolerable sentences Tertullian considering that God threatens all impenitent sinners Lib. 2. de poenit argues demonstratively Neque enim comminaretur non poenitenti si non ignosceret delinquenti If men repent not God will be severely angry it will be infinitely the worse for us if we doe not and shall it be so too if we doe repent God forbid Frustra mortuus est Christus si aliquos vivificare non potest S. Hierom. Epist ad Ocean Mentitur Johannes Baptista digito Christum voce demonstrans Ecce agnus Dei ecce qui tollit peccata mundi si sunt adhuc in saeculo quorum Christus peccata non tulerit In vain did Christ die if he cannot give life to all And the Baptist deceiv'd us when he pointed out Christ unto us saying Behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world if there were any in the world whose sins Christ hath not born But God by the old Prophets called upon them who were under the Covenant of Works in open appearance Exod. 34.6 Psa 103. per totum 128. Isa 55.7 8. Jer. 18.7 8. Ezek. 18.21 22. 33.11 Dan. 4.27 Mal. 3.7 Joel 2.13 Jonah 4.2 3.9 that they also should repent and by antedating the mercies of the Gospel promised pardon to the penitent He promised mercy by Moses and the Prophets He proclaimed his Name to be Mercy and Forgiveness He did solemnly swear he did not desire the death of a sinner but that he should repent and live and the holy Spirit of God haâ—â— respersed every book of holy Scripture with great and legible lines of mercy and sermons of Repentance In short it was the summe of all the Sermons which were made by those whom God sent with his word in their mouthes that they should live innocently or when they had sinned they should repent and be sav'd from their calamity But when Christ came into the world he open'd the fountains of mercy and broke down all the banks of restraint he preach'd Repentance offer'd health gave life call'd all wearied and burthen'd persons to come to him for ease and remedy he glorified his Fathers mercies and himself became the great instrument and channel of its emanation He preach'd and commanded mercy by the example of God he made his Religion that he taught to be wholly made up of doing and receiving good this by Faith that by Charity He commanded an indefinite and unlimited forgiveness of our brother repenting after injuries done to us seventy times seven times and though there could be little quostion of that yet he was pleased to signifie to us that as we needed more so we should have and finde more mercy at the hands of God And therefore he hath appointed a whole order of men whom he maintains at his own charges and furnishes with especial commissions Mat. 1â— 15 16. Joh. 20.23 2 Cor. 7.10 Gal. 6.1 Jam. 1.15 16 19 20. 1 Joh. 2.11 1.9 Rev. 2.5 3.1 2 3 19 20. and endues with a lasting power and imployes on his own errand and instructs with his own Spirit whose business is to remit and retain to exhort and to restore sinners by the means of Repentance and the word of their proper Ministery Whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted that 's their Authority and their Office is to pray all men in Christs stead to be reconciled to God And after all this Christ himself labours to bring it to effect not onely assisting his Ministers with the gifts of an excellent Spirit and exacting of them the account of Souls but that it may be prosperous and effectual himself intercedes in Heaven before the Throne of Grace doing for sinners the office of an Advocate and a Reconciler If any man sins 1 Joh. 2.2 3. we have an Advocate with the Father and he is the propitiation for all our sins and for the sins of the whole world and therefore it is not onely the matter of our hopes but an Article of our Creed that we may have forgiveness of our sins by the blood of Jesus Qui nullum excepit in Christo donavit omnia God hath excepted none and therefore in Christ pardons all For there is not in Scripture any Catalogue of sins set down for which Christ died and others excluded from that state of mercy All that believe and repent shall be pardon'd if they go and sin no more Deus distinctionem non facit qui misericordiam suam promisit omnibus relaxandi licentiam sacerdotibus suis sine ullâ exceptione concessit Lib. 1. de poenit c. 2. said S. Ambrose God excepts none but hath given power to his Ministers to release all absolutely all And S. Bernard argues this Article upon the account of those excellent examples which the Spirit of God hath consign'd to us in holy Scripture If Peter after so great a fall did arrive to such an eminence of sanctity In solenni Petri Pauli Ser. 3. hereafter who shall despair provided that he will depart from his sins For that God is ready to forgive the greatest Criminals if they repent appears in the instances of Ahab and
time nothing hinders but that every sin is pardonable to him that repents But thus we finde that the style of Scripture and the expressions of holy persons is otherwise in the threatning and the edict otherwise in the accidents of persons and practise It is necessary that it be severe when duty is demanded but of lapsed persons it uses not to be exacted in the same dialect It is as all laws are In the general they are decretory in the use and application they are easier In the Sanction they are absolute and infinite but yet capable of interpretations of dispensations and relaxation in particular cases And so it is in the present Article Impossible and Vnpardonable and Damnation and shall be cut off and nothing remains but fearful expectation of judgement are exterminating words and phrases in the law but they doe not effect all that they there signifie to any but the impenitent according to the saying of Mark the Hermite 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 No man is ever justified but he that carefully repents and no man is condemned but he that despises repentance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said S. Basil The eye of God who is so great a lover of souls cannot deny the intercessions and letanies of Repentance §. 6. The former Doctrines reduc'd to Practise 1. Although the doors of Repentance open to them that sin after Baptism and to them that sin after Repentance yet every relapse does increase the danger and make the sin to be less pardonable then before For 1. A good man falling into sin does it without all necessity he hath assistances great enough to make him conqueror he hath reason enough to disswade him he hath sharp senses of the filthiness of sin his spirit is tender and is crush'd with the uneasie load he sighs and wakes and is troubled and distracted and if he sins he sins with pain and shame and smart and the less of mistake there is in his case the more of malice is ingredient and a greater anger is like to be his portion 2. It is a particular unthankfulness when a man that was once pardon'd shall relapse And when obliged persons prove enemies they are ever the most malicious as having nothing to protect or cover their shame but impudence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So did the Greeks treat Agamemnon ill because he used them but too well Such persons are like Travellers who in a storm running to a fig-tree when the storm is over they beat the branches and pluck the fruit and having run to an altar for sanctuary they steal the Chalice from the holy place and rob the Temple that secur'd them And God does more resent it that the Lambs which he feeds at his own table which are as so many sons and daughters to him that daily suck plenty from his two breasts of Mercy and Providence that they should in his own house make a mutiny and put on the fierceness of wolves and rise up against their Lord and Shepherd 3. Every relapse after repentance is directly and in its proper principle a greater sin Our first faults are pitiable and we doe pati humanum we do after the manner of men but when we are recovered and then die again we doe facere Diabolicum we do after the manner of Devils For from ignorance to sin from passion and youthful appetites to sin from violent temptations and little strengths to fall into sin is no very great change it is from a corrupted nature to corrupted manners But from grace to return to sin from knowledge and experience and delight in goodnesse and wise notices from God and his Christ to return to sin to foolish actions and non-sense principles is a change great as was the fall of the morning stars when they descended cheaply and foolishly into darkness Well therefore may it be pitied in a childe to choose a bright dagger before a warm coat but when he hath been refreshed by this and smarted by that if he chooses again he will choose better But men that have tried both states that have rejoyced for their deliverance from temptation men that have given thanks to God for their safety and innocence men that have been wearied and ashamed of the follies of sin that have weighed both sides and have given wise sentence for God and for religion if they shall choose again and choose amiss it must be by something by which Lucifer did in the face of God choose to defie him and desire to turn Devil and be miserable and wicked for ever and ever 4. If a man repents of his repentances and returns to his sins all his intermedial repentance shall stand for nothing the sins which were marked for pardon shall break out in guilt and be exacted of him in fearful punishments as if he never had repented For if good works crucified by sins are made alive by repentance by the same reason those sins also will live again if the repentance dies it being equally just that if the man repents of his repentance God also should repent of his pardon For we must observe carefully that there is a pardon of sins proper to this life and another proper to the world to come Whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted and what ye binde on earth shall be bound in heaven Vid. suprà Num. 53. That is there are two remissions One here the other hereafter That here is wrought by the Ministery of the Word and Sacraments by faith and obedience by moral instruments and the divine grace all which are divisible and gradual and grow or diminish ebbe or flow change or persist and consequently grow on to effect or else fail of the grace of God that final grace which alone is effective of that benefit which we here contend for Here in proper speaking our pardon is but a disposition towards the great and final pardon a possibility and ability to pursue that interest to contend for that absolution and accordingly it is wrought by parts and is signified and promoted by every act of grace that puts us in order to heaven or the state of final pardon God gives us one degree of pardon when he forbears to kill us in the act of sin when he admits when he calls when he smites us into repentance when he invites us by mercies and promises when he abates or defers his anger when he sweetly engages us in the wayes of holiness these are several parts and steps of pardon For if God were extremely angry with us as we deserve nothing of all this would be done unto us and still Gods favours increase and the degrees of pardon multiply as our endevours are prosperous as we apply our selves to religion and holiness and make use of the benefits of the Church the ministery of the Word and Sacraments and as our resolutions passe into acts and habits of vertue But then in this world we are to expect no other pardon but a fluctuating alterable
invited by arts and ministred to by external instruments and arguments of invitation and just so are the penances they are then to be chosen so as may make the person a sorrowful mourner to make him take no delight in sin but to conceive and to feel a just displeasure For if men feel no smart no real sorrow or pain for their sins they will be too much in love with it impunity is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the occasion and opportunity of sin as the Apostle intimates and they use to proceed in finishing the methods of sin and death who Non unquam reputant quantum sibi gandia constant reckon their pleasures but never put any smart or danger or fears or sorrows into the ballance But the injunction or susception of penances is a good instrument of repentance because a little evil takes off the pleasure of the biggest sin in many instances and we are too apprehensive of the present that this also becomes a great advantage to this ministery we refuse great and infinite pleasures hereafter so we may enjoy little and few and inconsiderable ones at present and we fear not the horrible pains of hell so we may avoid a little trouble in our persons or our interest Therefore it is to be supposed that this way of undertaking a present punishment and smart for our sins unless every thing when it becomes religious is despoyl'd of all its powers which it had in nature and what is reason here is not reason there will be of great effect and power against sin and be an excellent instrument of repentance But it must be so much and it must be no more for penances are like fire and water good so long as they are made to serve our needs but when they go beyond that they are not to be endured For since God in the severest of his anger does not punish one sin with another let not us do worse to our selves then the greatest wrath of God in this world will inflict upon us A sin cannot be a punishment from God For then it would be that God should be the Author of sin for he is of punishment If then any punishment be a sin that sin was unavoidable deriv'd from God and indeed it would be a contradiction to the nature of things to say that the same thing can in the same formality be a punishment and a sin that is an action and a passion voluntary as every sin is and involuntary as every punishment is that it should be done by us and yet against us by us and by another and by both intirely and since punishment is the compensation or the expiation of sin not the aggravation of the Divine anger it were very strange if God by punishing us should more provoke himself Vide Chapt. 6. ◠42 and in stead of satisfying his justice or curing the man make his own anger infinite and the patient much the worse Indeed it may happen that one sin may cause or procure another not by the efficiency of God or any direct action of his but 1. withdrawing those assistances which would have restrain'd a sinful progression 2. By suffering him to fall into evil temptation which is too hard for him consisting in his present voluntary indisposition 3. By the nature of sin it self which may either 1 effect a sin by accident as a great anger may by the withdrawing Gods restraining grace be permitted to pass to an act of murder or 2 it may dispose to others of like nature as one degree of lust brings in another or 3 it may minister matter of fuel to another sin as intemperance to uncleanness or 4 on sin may be the end of another as covetousness may be the servant of luxury In all these ways one sin may be effected by another but in all these God is onely conniving or at most takes off some of those helps which the man hath forfeited and God was not obliged to continue Thus God hardned Pharaohs heart even by way of object and occasion God hardned him by shewing him a mercy by taking off his fears when he remov'd the judgement and God ministred to him some hope that it be so still But God does not inflict the sin The mans own impious hands do that not because he cannot help it but because he chooses and delights in it * Now if God in justice to us will not punish one sin directly by another let not us in our penitential inflictions commit a sin in indignation against our sin for that is just as if a man out of impatience of pain in his side should dash his head against a wall 3. But if God pleases to inflict a punishment let us be careful to exchange it into a penance by kissing the rod and entertaining the issues of the Divine justice by approbation of Gods proceeding and confession of our demerit and justification of God It was a pretty accident and mixture of providence and penance that hapned to the three accusers of Narcissus Bishop of Jerusalem They accused him falsly of some horrid crimes but in verification of their indictment bound themselves by a curse The first that if his accusation were false he might be burn'd to death The second Euseb li. 6. c. 7. that he might die of the Kings evil The third that he might be blinde God in his anger found out the two first and their curse hapned to them that delighted in cursing and lies The first was burnt alive in his own house and the second perished by the loathsome disease Which when the third espied and found Gods anger so hasty and so heavy so pressing and so certain he ran out to meet the rod of God and repented of his sin so deeply and wept so bitterly so continually that he became blinde with weeping and the anger of God became an instance of repentance the judgement was sanctified and so passed into mercy and a pardon he did indeed meet with his curse but by the arts of repentance the curse became a blessing And so it may be to us Praeveniamus faciem ejus in confessione let us prevent his anger by sentencing our selves or if we do not let us follow the sad accents of the angry voice of God and imitate his justice by condemning that which God condemnes and suffering willingly what he imposes and turning his judgements into voluntary executions by applying the suffering to our sins and praying it may be sanctified For since God smites us that we may repent if we repent then we serve the end of the Divine judgement and when we perceive God smites our sin if we submit to it and are pleased that our sin is smitten we are enemies to it after the example of God and that is a good act of repentance 4. For the quality or kinde of penances this is the best measure Those are the best which serve most ends not those which most vex us but such which will
the black registers of death that my sins being covered and cured dead and buried in the grave of Jesus I may live to thee my God a life of righteousness and grow in it till I shall arrive at a state of glory II. I Have often begun to return to thee but I turn'd short again and look'd back upon Sodom and lov'd to dwell in the neighbourhood of the horrible regions Now O my God hear now let me finish the work of a holy repentance Let thy grace be present with me that this day I may repent acceptably and to morrow and all my days not weeping over my returning sins nor deploring new instances but weeping bitterly for the old loathing them infinitely denouncing warre against them hastily prosecuting that warre vigorously resisting them every hour crucifying them every day praying perpetually watching assiduously consulting spiritual guides and helps frequently obeying humbly and crying mightily I may doe every thing by which I can please thee that I may be rescued from the powers of darkness and the sad portions of eternity which I have deserved III. O Give unto thy servant intentions so real a resolution so strong a repentance so holy a sorrow so deep a hope so pure a charity so sublime that no temptation or time no health or sickness no accident or interest may be able in any circumstance of things or persons to tempt me from thee and prevail Work in me a holy and an unreprovable faith whereby I may overcome the world and crucify the flesh and quench the fiery darts of the Deâ—â—l and let this faith produce charity and my sorrow cause amendment and my fear produce caution and that caution beget a holy hope let my repentance be perfect and acceptable and my affliction bring forth joy and the pleasant fruit of righteousness Let my hatred of sin pass into the love of God and this love be obedience and this obedience be universal and that universality be lasting and perpetual that I may rejoyce in my recovery and may live in health and proceed in holiness and abide in thy favour and die with a blessing the death of the righteous and may rest in the arms of the Lord Jesus and at the day of judgement may have my portion in the resurrection of the just and may enter into the joy of my Lord to reap from the mercies of God in the harvest of a blessed eternity what is here sown in tears and penitential sorrow being pardoned and accepted and sav'd by the mercies of God in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Amen Amen Amen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The End ERRATA PAge 32. line 16. dele to p. 72. l. 15. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 131. l. 5. for highest r. lightest p. 133. l. 28. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 328. l. 28. for Samnenses r. Jamnenses p. 338. l. 16. for repealing r. repeating p. 370. l. 36. for unusual r. usual p. 388. l. 12. for In r. It. p. 391. l. 32. for miseram r. miserum p. 393. l. 16. r. numqua p. 400. l. 16. for I have already r. I have in the next Chapter ibid. l. 18. for I then reproved r. I there reprove p. 431. l. 2. r. illud p. 454. l. 12. for endure r. endear p. 504 l. 17. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 508. l. 11. for precept r. precepts p. 522. l. 12. for have it r. hate it p. 523. l. 34. r. for good evil r. good or evil p. 564 l. 7. after supreme sense put a period p. 565. l. 15. for eâdem r. eodem p. 572. l. 6. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 626. l. 28. for thing r. King p. 671. l. 31. r. our conservation is In the Margent p. 120. l. ult r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 133. l. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 475. l. 1. r. Acts 13.48 THE TABLE The numbers relate to the Page and the marginall Numbers or Paragraphs of each CHAPTER A ABsolution of the forms of Absolution which have been used p. 627. num 53 In the primitive Church there was no judicial form of absolution in their Liturgies 628 54 Absolution of sins by the Priest can be no more then declarative 634 58 The usefulness of that kinde of absolution 63â— 59 Iudicial absolution by the Priest is not that which Christ intended in giving the power of remitting and retaining sins 636 Acts what repentance single acts of sin require 198 43. a single act of sin is cut off by the exercise of contrary vertue 199 45 A single act of vertue is not sufficient to be opposed against a single act of vice 200 46. How a single act of sin sometimes is habitual 202 49. some acts of sin require more then a moral revocation or opposing a contrary act of vertue in repentance 202 50. Single acts of sin without a habit give a denomination 185 25 Act. Chap. 13.48 explicated 475 26 Adam his sin made us not heirs of damnation 375 22. nor makes us necessarily vicious 383 37. Adams sin did not corrupt our nature by a physical efficiency 383 39 nor because we were in the loins of Adam 384 40 nor because of the decree of God 386 41 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what latitude of signification it hath 552 39 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what it signifies 119 21 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 170 2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 178 15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 177 14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what it signifies 115 21. 125 26 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what it signifies 551 38 Art how much it can change Nature 212 3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 174 8 245 18 Alms as a part of repentance 654. How they operate in order to pardon ibid. It is one of the best penances 684 29 Attrition what is is 601. The difference between it and Contrition ibid. Attrition joyned with absolution by the Priest that it is not sufficient demonstrated by many arguments 638 S. Augustine his zeal against the Pelagians to make sure work with their doctrine was the occasion of his mistake interpreting Rom. 7.15 464 17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of Tit. 3.11 expl 474.28 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what it signifies 311 5 B BAptism of the pardon of sins after baptism 532 7 C CHarity gives being to all vertues 207.56 Children how God punishes the fathers upon the children 403 God never imputes the fathers sin to the childe so as to inflict eternal punishment but temporal onely 404 54 This he does onely in very great crimes 406 57 and not often 406 58 but before the Gospel was published not since 407.8 Rules of deportment for those children who fear a curse descending on them from their sinful parents 439 17 Christ we are by him redeemed from the state of spiritual infirmity 473 25 Commandments Of the difference between S Augustine and S. Hierome in the proposition concerning the