he observe the most weak and imperfect essays of the new birth or as the Apostle expresses it when Christ is beginning to be formed in men I saw thee saith our Saviour to Nathanael S. Joh. 1. 48. when thou wast under the fig-tree when thou wast reasoning about me whether I was the Messias or not I was privy to that conflict of thy thoughts between the report of the miracles wrought by me and the prejudicate opinion concerning the supposed place of my nativity I was not so much offended with thy objections as pleased with thy sincerity in that thou didst diligently inquire honestly debate and proceed to resolution upon rational satisfaction Most apposite to this purpose is that passage of the Prophet Jeremiah Chap. 31. vers 18 19 20. I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus Thou hast chastised me and I was chastised as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke Turn thou me and I shall be turned for thou art the Lord my God Surely after that I was turned I repented and after that I was instructed I smote upon my thigh I was ashamed yea even confounded because I did bear the reproach of my youth And after he had thus passionately described the first kindlings of repentance in the hearts of the people of Israel he then introduces God taking notice and expressing his compassions in the next words Is Ephraim my dear Son is he a pleasant child for since I spake against him I do earnestly remember him still therefore my bowels are troubled for him I will surely have mercy upon him saith the Lord. By all which we see that God despiseth not the day of small things NOW the consideration of this affords mighty incouragement to sinners to begin their motion to God-ward who would not put himself upon the way when the first attempt of returning shall be taken notice of If a man do but consider if he doe but pray if but breathe and pant after God there is a gracious eye upon him it is not altogether lost labour Nay saith our Saviour A cup of cold water given to a disciple in the name of a disciple shall not lose its reward And if such mean performances pass not unrewarded much less doth any thing of good escape God's notice and observation And upon the same consideration there is great reason of caution and that men take heed of discouraging any though never so small hopes of good and buddings of reformation in others for seeing God takes notice of beginnings he must needs be offended with those that obstruct them and will be sure severely to resent it Let therefore those that scoff at prayer and devotion as preciseness at seriousness and self-reflection as melancholy degeneracy of spirit that either press men forward into the same excess of riot with themselves and labour to divert or stifle all workings of Conscience by the means of sensual entertainments or treat those with contumely who boggle at their extravagancies and begin to take up and reform let all such I say consider well what they doe when God's eye is upon such beginings of good lest they be found fighters against God And let all that have any sense of goodness themselves or but so much as a reverence of God's all-seeing eye think it becomes them to incourage such beginnings to indeavour to kindle such sparks and blow them up into a flame of love to God and goodness to which purpose I take liberty to apply a passage of the Prophet Isaiah Chap. 65. vers 8. Thus saith the Lord as the new wine is found in the cluster and one saith Destroy it not for there is a blessing in it q. d. The wise Master of the Vineyard especially in an unfruitfull time takes special notice of those few Grapes in a cluster that have good juice in them and will neither permit them to be carelesly crushed with the hand nor cast away amongst refuse So will the God of Israel do by his Vineyard the House of Israel he will take notice of the few that are good in the midst of a bad generation and not destroy all together And in like manner he will not despise the first essays of emergency from former vice and wickedness But thus I am led to the second parallel § III. 2. The Father as soon as he saw his Son had compassion so hath God to mankind especially when he sees them on their way homeward He had always good will towards them as they were his Creatures made in his own image designed for his service and for the enjoyment of himself and upon all these accounts hath a propension to do them good But so long as any man continues in a course of rebellion against him all the issues and expressions of this good will are obstructed which nevertheless as soon as ever he begins to relent and come to himself break out again and discover themselves For as the Psalmist tells us Like as a Father pitieth his Children so the Lord pitieth them that fear him Psal 103. 13. NOT that we are to imagine the Divine Majesty to be subject to the weakness of humane passion in a strict and proper sense so as to feel any pain or trouble upon the account of his concern for mankind for that the spirituality of his nature the perfection of his understanding and his self-sufficiency will by no means admit of But he is pleased in Holy Scripture to represent himself after that manner to the intent that we may be incouraged to hope and to indeavour since we are assured that he is not a meer spectator of the conflicts and agonies of a Penitent but hath a real inclination to do him good and would by no means have him perish To this purpose Ezek. 33. 11. he swears As I live saith the Lord God I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from his way and live Turn ye turn ye from your evil ways for why will ye die O house of Israel What greater passion can any Father express towards his beloved Son then God here condescends to and what greater assurance can God give of his earnestness and reality then that of an Oath by himself WHILEST men are at the worst the divine goodness finds out some arguments of pity for he considers he made them fallible Creatures that he gave them not the bright and piercing intellects of Angels he joyned matter and spirit together in their composition by means whereof there is a continual contest between sense and reason a constant dispute betwixt bonum utile and jucundum that their transgression is not like that of Devils who sinned proprio motu without a tempter he knows the power of example the prejudices of education the long follies of Child-hood and therefore as I have shewed before is not implacable towards mankind whilest the state of life and this world lasts But when he takes notice that any man begins to
And that government would justly be accounted arbitrary and tyrannical and the Sovereign rather thought to lie at catch for the penalty then to desire just obedience who shall impute that for a fault which he had not given sufficient caution against by a plain declaration of his will and pleasure For non esse non apparere aequiparantur in Jure that which cannot appear is in Laws all one as if it were not at all because an unknown Law can have no influence upon those it should concern neither directing them what to do nor forewarning what to avoid neither giving notice of their duty nor their danger and consequently works neither upon their reason nor their passion and therefore not at all IT is true that all Laws have not the same way and manner of publication for even amongst men several Nations have their several and peculiar forms of doing it The old Romans by Tables hung up in the Market and places of publick congresse some have done the same thing by the voice of a publick Herald or by the sound of Trumpet c. but however they differed in the circumstance they all agreed in the thing that Laws were not perfect and obliging till they were promulged And so it is with the Laws of God Almighty he never expects that men should govern themselves by the secret decrees of Heaven nor leaves them to guesse at the transactions in his Cabinet-Counsel but first publishes his Law and then requires conformity to it though that in divers manners as it seemed best to his divine wisedom Sometimes he exprest himself by an audible voice from Heaven wherein the Angels were employed as his Ministers namely when he gave his Laws upon Mount Sinai other times by inspiration of Prophets and Holy Men and making them the Interpreters of his mind to the world When to give the more full assurance that it was he that sent and instructed them he was wont also to send along with them some miraculous power or other as his Credential Letters under his privy Signet But most gloriously of all did he proclaim his mind when he sent his Son into the world whose every circumstance from the miracles of his Birth to the glories of his Resurrection and Ascension sufficiently proclaimed him the Messias the Messenger of the Covenant AND for the Laws of Nature these though by some perverse men they have been denied to have the nature of Laws obligatory because they have not had the like solemnity of publication as others have had yet forasmuch as these have either been written upon the fleshly tables of men's hearts where all that will look inward may read them or rather as I have intimated already are ingraven and inserted into the very nature of things and texture of the universe where whosoever hath not unmanned himself and debauched his reason may be able to discover them And besides they have manifestly the sanction of rewards and punishments in the constant experience of good and evil attending the observation and contempt of them respectively upon which accounts they must needs seem to all honest and unprejudiced minds sufficiently promulged SO that constantly some way or other according as it seemed best to him God hath always been pleased to make his mind sufficiently and certainly known to all those upon whom he intended it should have the force and obligation of a Law and he never required obedience otherwise then in proportion to such manifestation Accordingly we observe that when he had given Laws to the people of the Jews and proclaimed them very gloriously and solemnly as aforesaid yet in regard such proclamation could not certainly reach to all other Nations for that as well as for other reasons he did not exact of any other people conformity to those institutions nor judged them thereby So the Apostle assures us Rom. 2. 12. Such as have sinned without the Law shall perish without the Law and as many as have sinned under the Law shall be judged by the Law AND it is further very remarkable that even the Gospell it self which was what the Religion of the Jews was not namely an Institution fitted for all Countries Nations and Ages and which therefore our Lord Christ took care by his Apostles as his Heralds to proclaim all the world over This Gospell I say till it was fully published and untill men had time given them to consider well of it and to overcome their prejudices against it made a favourable interpretation of men's unbelief This I take to be the import of those words of our Saviour Joh. 9. 39. 41. For judgment am I come into the world that they that see not might see and that they that see might be made blind If ye were blind ye should have no sin but now ye say we see therefore your sin remaineth And to the same purpose Joh. 15. 22. If I had not come and spoken amongst them they had not had sin but now they have no cloak for their sin And of the truth of this S. Paul himself was a great instance for so he tells us 1 Tim. 1. 13. I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief q. d. I lay under mighty prejudices by reason of my education in the stiff way of a Pharisee and it required a great sincerity to be willing to listen to new proposals a huge sagacity to be able to see through those mists that were cast before my eyes and a most generous resolution to break through these and all other difficulties in consideration whereof God was pleased to make abatements of the guilt of my unbelief in proportion to the temptations I had thereto It is indeed both a well known and as well received a Maxime Ignorantia Juris non excusat that it is no excuse of a fault to say non putâram I did not know the Law because when a Law is once promulged every man is bound to take notice of it and it can be imputed to nothing else but supine and affected ignorance if he shall then continue ignorant Notwithstanding upon the self same supposition it seems to be granted that where the case is otherwise that is where the Law not being sufficiently published cannot be known by an honest diligence there ignorance is no fault because indeed as I said there the Law is no Law THOSE who consider not this point must needs be tempted to passe very dismal and damnatory sentences against the greatest part of mankind and consequently cannot avoid very hard thoughts of God for the prevention of both which great evils as also to confirm what hath been now said there is nothing more usefull then to study well the Parable of our Saviour concerning the Talents Matt. 25. 14. by the due consideration whereof we shall amongst other instructions be led into the apprehension that God proceeds not with men Arithmetically but Geometrically and that the vertue or vice which God rewards or punishes
Pandora's Box of calamities if there be none it is in vain to repent fruitless to weep endless to bewail madness to adde to my own infelicities If there be a rigid fate upon me I will curse God and die But sure whilest there is a God there must be goodness his Name speaks his Nature will he break a bruised reed will he contend with dust and ashes Can infinite perfection be implacable and inexorable It is true he hath no need of me but for the same reason he cannot delight in my misery He cannot repent and change his mind because his wisedom foresaw from the beginning all possible contingencies but if I repent and change my mind the same inchangeableness of his will oblige him as well then to save me as before to destroy me How far he will extend mercy and what instances he will make of it I cannot define but who knows but he may yet admit of my submission however I cannot be worse then I am and it is possible my condition may be better here I perish certainly if I cast my self upon his goodness I can but perish therefore I will try I will arise and go to my Father c. And thus his deliberation brings him to resolution which is the second Stage of Repentance CHAP. II. Of Resolution THE CONTENTS § I. That Consideration and all those other previous acts of the mind mentioned in the former Chapter frequently miscarry and are nothing till they are fixed by Resolution § II. The nature of Resolution of the will and the force and efficacy thereof which is shewed to be such as that the Devil nor any other being under God can force it The importance of that truth briefly shewed and the proof of it from experience § III. The properties of a true Penitent Resolution 1. That it be not rash but deliberate 2. That it be peremptory 3. Present And 4. uniform and universal § IV. The Inducements of a Penitent Resolution 1. It s availableness with God by the exorableness of his Nature 2. The possibility of performing it And 3. The easiness of it by the power of his grace 4. The flat necessity of coming to it § I. WE have seen in the foregoing Chapter the motions of an awakened Conscience the working of a troubled minde and therein the first glimpses of hope and signs of recovery But let not any man think that when he is arrived at this condition his work is done his peace made with God and he become a true Convert For if he stay here he perishes as certainly as if he had never made any reflection or considered at all It is one thing to be apprehensive of ones danger and a far greater to have escaped it The discovery of a disease is necessary in order to the cure but it is far from the cure it self It is an unhappy but not an unusual sight to see men upon whom either the pain of some present affliction or the fearfull prospect of divine vengeance hereafter may have so far prevailed as to make them with great shame and abhorrence reflect upon their former disorders and cast up their pleasant morsels who yet shall quickly return again to their own vomit and resume their usual extravagancies A Rock it self may be observed to drop upon change of weather which nevertheless relents not but is as hard and as much a Rock as ever And some extraordinary accident may rouze the most careless sinner and put him upon an effort of purging off his impurities who yet when the storm is over shall settle again upon his Lees. It is no very rare thing to observe men dissolve into tears and weep as heartily over their old sins as ancient friends doe when there is a necessity of parting and yet like them wish and hope to meet and enjoy each other again THEREFORE as we see the formerly dissolute but now relenting Son in the Text contents not himself with passionate expressions or ineffective wishes but resolves upon action I will arise saith he and goe to my Father So the true penitent sinner that is in earnest to save his Soul sits not down under a dozing melancholy pleases not himself with wishing and complaining spends not his time in doubting and disputing but puts himself forward upon the business For saith he whilest I sit still time passes away life flies away apace and death and judgment are coming on wherefore some speedy course must be taken and there is but one way what affords any hope which is that of real reformation in which case no deliberations shall hold me longer in suspence no floth shall benumb me nothing shall tempt me to delay any longer I am resolved I will make the experiment of becoming a new man from an old sinner and upon these terms I will cast my self upon God's mercy and if I perish I perish § II. THIS is the second Stage of Repentance viz. Resolution which I am now further to treat of But it is evident by what we have said already that the Resolution we are to speak of is not a meer logical conclusion by way of inference from premises that such or such a thing is best and fit to be done for every man that uses his reason cannot choose but speculatively assent to this as his duty and his interest the proceedings of reason being as natural and necessary as those of sense Insomuch that it is not in a man's power to deny a plain consequence or disbelieve what there is evident reason for There is therefore no moral vertue in such a conclusion and so a man may perish notwitstanding as it is too notorious that many dōe who act contrary to such conclusions of their reason But the Resolution we here intend and which we make the second step of Repentance is practical and the act of the will namely its decretory and definitive sentence for the actual prosecution of such a course as by Consideration and the former process of reason is discovered to be fit and necessary Or rather it is the wills actual application of it self to the business in conformity to which all the inferiour powers are put into action also as being subject to its authority influenced upon by its power and carried about with the swinge of this primum mobile this first and great Orb of the Soul FOR the more clear understanding of this power of the will and of the nature of Resolution let us suppose Reason and Sense as two parties pleading their respective causes and interests in which case if we should suppose a kind of drawn battel between them and the matter left in aequilibrio notwithstanding it is within the power of the will to give the cause which way it pleases or suppose also that Reason acquitts it self never so well and baffles its adversary yet all will be but a speculation and no effects follow till the will interposes its sovereignty and decrees peremptorily what shall be done And
forsake thee But it was only an heat and a bravery of the Apostle he had not seriously considered the business nor forecasted what might ensue there was no mature deliberation no preparations for a real encounter and therefore it sped accordingly and he came off shamefully and in him we have a standing example of the frailty of the greatest passion and of the necessity that counsel and deliberation ground our Resolutions By which means also they will become 2. DECRETORY and Peremptory which is the second property of vertuous Resolution There are some men whom an affectionate discourse a serious Sermon or any notable accident will put into a fit of devotion which shall last only untill something else come in the way and then theformer impressions give way to the latter These we commonly call good natured men whose facility of temper puts them at the mercy of every contingency and they are good and bad as occasion serves Clouds they are without water carried about of every wind as St. Jude expresses it vers 12. or as St. James Double minded men and unstable in all their ways Jam. 1. 8. that have no settled principle nothing fixed and constant to govern themselves by To these the Prophecie of Jacob concerning his Son Reuben may fitly be applied Gen. 49. 4. Vnstable as water therefore thou shalt not excell such irresolute tempers can never arrive at any excellency of vertue THE people of the Jews had no doubt a good mind to be in possession of the land of Canaan notwithstanding when-ever they met with any difficulty then would to God we were again by the flesh-pots of Aegypt and none of these light and mutable persons ever came to the good Land There were Anakims and Giants and a thousand difficulties ran in their heads which enfeebled them for the enterprize only Joshua and Caleb and such as were animated by their brave example and said Come let us go up for we are able to conquer only such I say came to the possession of it 1 Kings 18. 21. How long halt ye between two opinions said the Prophet to the men of Israel If Baal be God serve him but if Jehovah be God then serve him q. d. Whether you serve the true God or the false irresolution spoils all devotion either way for whilst you doubt and dispute your way you do but halt towards your end and design Accordingly Moses indeavours to raise a generosity of mind in the men of Israel by those words Deut. 26. 17. Thou hast vouched the Lord this day to be thy God q. d. It now becomes you to be religious in earnest to serve God with a perfect heart and a willing mind for you have now put it past all dispute you have chosen and resolved the Lord to be your God and therefore be consistent with your selves THERE is no vertue in a faint velleity when men shall speak as Agrippa in the Acts Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian It is no wisedome to put in Cautions now 't is only the language of the sluggard to say there is a Lion in the way Postquam consulueris maturè facto opus est All gallantry of mind is now after deliberation to take up an immoveable resolution for Vertue is neither a wary diffidence nor a hot fit of zeal but a constant vital heat and a settled temper of mind The young man in the Gospel St. Mark 10. 22. comes to our Saviour Good Master what good thing shall I doe that I may inherit eternal life He thought it a fine thing to be a candidate of the other World eternal life which our Saviour preached and promised was a glorious and very desirable thing and he could be well content to become a Disciple of Christ and to do some very good thing that he might attain it For indeed eternal life is that which no man can chuse but desire to have a mind to be saved is no sign of grace for a man must expresly hate himself should he do otherwise Thus far therefore he was right but after all this he went away sorrowfull without his errand he had not throughly resolved with himself to go through with it he could not find in his heart like the wise Merchant to sell and part with all he had to purchase this pearl of inestimable price But the true Penitent sets down an immoveable resolution to go through what-ever it cost him I have faultered too long already faith he now stat sententia it is as the Law of the Medes and Persians with me nothing shall dispense with my purpose or assoil my resolutions I will now return And that brings me to the 3. THIRD property of a vertuous resolution It is de praesenti a present Resolution like that of the Psalmist Psal 119. vers 59 60. I thought upon my ways and turned my feet to thy precepts I made haste and delayed not to keep thy righteous judgments q. d. My consideration lead me to resolution of amendment and I found the nature and consequence of that was such as to admit of no delay I therefore set presently about it A resolution of amendment which commences not presently but intends to do it hereafter is no repentance nor any good sign of grace forasmuch as it is probable that there is no man in the whole world at least under the light of the Gospel and who hath ever reflected upon himself or thought of God and another life but hath some time or other resolved to become a new man And indeed this is the most fatal cheat men put upon themselves and I fear now there are multitudes entered into the chambers of darkness and an irreversible estate that for a great part of their lives carried along with them both convictions of the necessity of reformation and resolutions one time or other to set about it For as I said before it is but self-love to desire eternal life and no man that considers at all can think but something must be done for the attainment of it or so thinking can so desperately abandon himself as not to intend to do it But he understands not sufficiently either the evil or the danger of sin much less hath any true sense of vertue that can find in his heart to procrastinate and adjourn the resolution of casting off the former and applying himself to the latter For where the mischief is intolerable on the one hand and the good and happiness the most unspeakable and highest that can be on the other there can be neither wisedom nor safety in any other course then that which Solomon directs Eccles 9. 10. Whatever thy hand finds to doe doe it with all thy might for there is no work nor device nor knowledge nor wisedom in the grave whither thou goest When once death hath closed our eyes the time of probation is over the day of grace certainly shuts in and the night cometh when no man can
forty nights and Nineveh shall be destroyed Notwithstanding the absoluteness of the sentence and the nearness of the execution the Ninevites were not out of hope but that if repentance were interposed their ruine might yet be prevented and it succeeded accordingly with them for as they believing God's word by the Prophet expected nothing but sudden destruction if they had not repented so they trusting in the goodness and exorableness of the Divine Majesty upon repentance applied themselves seriously thereto and were preserved WHEREFORE saith the relenting sinner Forasmuch as although I know not the limits of the Divine Mercy yet this I know that nothing can set limits thereto but his own wisedom and he is never so straitned but that if the case be pitiable and he see reason of mercy he can shew it consistently with his Justice here I will cast anchor I will indeavour to render my self an object of mercy and trust upon his goodness I never yet heard that any man miscarried in this bottome or that a Penitent was cast away I have often heard that God would have saved men but they would not but I never heard of any that resorted penitently to his mercy and were rejected nor do I think that Hell it self can furnish one instance of the man that can upbraid God's goodness and say I would but God would not Thus the consideration of the Divine Nature is everlastingly pregnant of incouragements to repentance and is the spring of all motion to Godward were it not for which never any had been reclaimed from a course of sin or begun a reformation But so much of that 2. IN the Second place another incouragement to this penitent resolution we are speaking of is an apprehension that it is not impossible to become perfectly new men notwithstanding our pre-ingagements in the ways of sin Opinion of absolute impossibility as we have noted before is equal to real impotency checks all motion nips all indeavour in the very bud stifles and lays asleep all the powers of the mind But hope and apprehension of feasibleness spirits all industry actuates all faculties raises the spirits and is the spring of all the great actions in the world Some daring men have effected things beyond their own expectations but no brave exploit was ever performed by such as despaired of accomplishing it nor was ever any force defeated that did praelibare victoriam and resolve to conquer When once a conceit had possessed the Midianites that they should be conquered by Gideon's Army though grounded only upon an odde dream of a brown Loaf tumbling down upon their Tents their hearts presently melted in them their spirits were emasculated and a mighty Host became an easy prey to the inconsiderable numbers which Gideon led against them And the Lord of hosts would never suffer Israel to be led on to the conquest of the Land of Canaan so long as the rumor of Giants and Anakims and walled Cities ran in the minds of the people nor untill they were brought to a confidence that they were able to conquer that good Land In like manner if the sinner think either his sins too great to be forgiven or that it is too late to mend i. e. either despair of God's grace or of his mercy he is utterly lost indeed that therefore which puts him forward upon resolution is an apprehension that God's grace is sufficient for him THE returning Prodigal saith It is true I find I have gone a great way from my Father's house and wearied my self with my own wandrings yet sure it is not impossible but I may reach home again And I saith the sinner have gone a great way towards my own undoing having indulged my passions and dethroned my reason inslaved my will weakned all my powers and hardened my own Conscience by a long course and custome of sin yet in the words of Holy Job There is hope of a tree if it be cut down that it will sprout again and that the tender branch thereof will not cease though the root thereof wax old in the earth and the stock thereof die in the ground yet through the scent of water it will bud and bring forth boughs like a plant Job 14. 7 8 9. Though I have weakened my powers yet I am a man still though I have destroyed my self yet there is hope in the God of Israel and his hand is not shortened that he cannot save TVLLY is reported to have affirmed repentance to be impossible namely for a man to retrieve himself and take up a new course contrary to that to which he hath been long habituated and no doubt it is very difficult so to do as may sufficiently appear both by what we have said already and also by that of the Prophet Jer. 13. 23. Can the Aethiopian change his skin or the Leopard his spots then may ye also do good that are accustomed to doe evil Where the Holy Ghost intimates inveterate custome to be equal to nature it self and accordingly we find by too sad experience that there are very few that doe exuere hominem shake off the yoke of custome Facilis descensus Averni Sed revocare gradus c. And upon this account it is that the conversion of old sinners is called a New Birth and a New Creation in the language of Holy Scripture Notwithstanding as our Saviour said of rich men That it was harder for a Camel to goe through the eye of a needle then for such a man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven yet to prevent mistakes adds With men it is impossible but with God all things are possible So it is in this case He can cause dry bones to live and of Stones raise up Children to Abraham The Holy Spirit can awaken those powers that were in a dead sleep Conscience is not so callous but it may be rendered soft and sensible again the will and other faculties of men though they are perverted yet are not extinct and being stirred up by the grace of God may exert themselves in a new strain oppose their old customs and introduce new habits AS custome bore down and overgrew Nature formerly so new customes may supplant the old ones and make a new Nature It is a well-known Story that when Zopyrus a great pretender to the skill of reading men's temper and inclination in their countenances had pronounced of Socrates that he was a lewd and intemperate man the Company who knew well the remarkable vertue of Socrates laughed the cunning man out of countenance till Socrates relieved him saying that indeed his inclination was naturally such as Zopyrus had pronounced but that Philosophy and the culture and care of himself had altered him to what he was BUT the Holy Scriptures as they contain both more excellent institutions of vertue and holiness then all Philosophy and more effectual methods of reclaiming and recovering men from vice and debauchery so in the History thereof they afford us the
observable 1. His confession of Guilt I have sinned 2. Aggravation of the fact I have sinned against Heaven and before thee 3. The severe judgment he passes upon himself I am no more worthy to be called thy Son 4. Lastly His deprecation Yet make me as one of thy hired Servants All which deserve a little consideration the rather because we shall find them all exactly and literally exemplified in the true Penitent 1. Then the Son assumes to himself his own guilt and takes shame to himself I have sinned c. Non in aetatem non in malos consiliarios culpam rejicit sed nudam parat sine excusatione Confessionem saith the excellent H. Grotius He excuses not himself by the injudiciousness of his youth nor casts the blame upon his evil Counsellors neither accuses God nor man but himself by a plain and ingenuous acknowledgement IN like manner the true Penitent knows it is to no purpose to play the Hypocrite with God Because all things are naked and open to the eyes of him with whom we have to doe He seeth not as men see beholding the outward appearance but he searches the hearts and tries the reins of the Children of men He remembers that he that hideth his sins shall not prosper but that he that confesseth and forsaketh them shall find mercy Therefore with blushing and confusion of face saith I have sinned and done very foolishly Thus the poor Publican is represented by our Saviour S. Luk. 18. 13. whenas the Pharisee stood upon his own justification and with a brazen impudence out-faces Heaven God I thank thee that I am not as other men are c. He standing afar off as not thinking himself worthy to approach so great a Majesty not daring to lift up his eyes to Heaven as dejected with the apprehension of his own demerits smites upon his breast with indignation against himself and brings out onely this contrite sigh God be mercifull to me a sinner And so the Psalmist David in that penitential Psalm of his Psal 51. vers 3. I acknowledge my transgression and my sin is ever before me Against thee thee onely have I sinned and done evil in thy sight Behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my Mother conceive me c. And this is the course of every Penitent for though it be too true that Confession may be without true and compleat Repentance yet it is impossible that Repentance should be true without Confession I enter not into a discourse of Confession to men because my Text leads me not to it further then as it concerns the person injured in which case it is often necessary for the satisfaction of our Consciences and where-ever there is any ingenuity in the offended person it must needs be very prevalent towards his forgiveness But as for the Divine Majesty who is always injured in every transgression and can never have any reparation otherwise then by it it must needs be always reasonable and necessary as we shall shew more fully by and by 2. BUT the Son contents not himself with a bare acknowledgment of his fault in general but goes on to aggravate it I have sinned against Heaven and before thee If we consider the letter of those words they import I have sinned both against God and thee my earthly Parent for so the Jews were wont to express themselves calling the Divine Majesty by the name of Heaven as we may observe S. Luke 20. 4. The Baptism of John was it from Heaven or of men i. e. Was it it of God's institution or man's invention So also 1 Macc. 3. 18. It is all one with Heaven to save with few or with many i. e. with the God of Heaven And we may easily take notice that in most of the Parables of our Saviour that which is sometimes called the Kingdom of God is otherwhile expressed by the name of the Kingdom of Heaven and by both nothing else is meant but the Gospel that divine institution of Religion but if we attend to the intent of this acknowledgement of the Prodigal Son the words import an aggravation of his disobedience q. d. There was no necessity lay upon me to transgress thy yoke was easy and reasonable and therefore in disobeying thee I disobeyed God too Or I must first have cast off all reverence of God before I could be undutifull towards thee It was not the harshness and severity of my Father that drove me away but my own levity and folly that betrayed me and my stubbornness that I forsook him And the same consideration affects the heart of the Penitent For saith he I have not only offended the Divine Majesty but rebelled both against a rightfull and a gracious Sovereign have broken wise and just and equitable Laws been ingratefull towards him that had obliged me by infinite favours have slighted the most glorious propositions and neglected the most gracious and condescending conditions of being happy There was no invincible temptation upon me it was not in the power of example to debauch me I was not opprest by fate but have chosen my own destruction It is not the Apostasy of Adam that can excuse me for it was my own act I cannot say the Fathers have eaten sour grapes and the Children's teeth are set on edge for I sinned against light and Conscience with full consent and against the motions of God's Spirit to the contrary AFTER this manner the Penitent is apt to lay load upon himself no body can think or speak worse of him then he thinks and confesses of himself so far is he from extenuating his crimes that no malice can paint them worse then grief and indignation at himself doth In short with St. Paul he esteems himself the chiefest and worst of sinners THIS is a quite contrary course to that which men use to take when they plead at humane Tribunals either they deny the fact or extenuate or justify it either they plead ignorance or pretend necessity or prescribe for it from the custome and prevailing example of the world but none of these ways are of use before God and therefore are not the pleas of the Penitent The Argument of the Psalmist though it may seem a very strange one is frequent with such men Psal 25. 10. O Lord pardon my sin for it is great q. d. I am only fit to magnify thy mercy for I have sinned beyond any mercy but thine my guilt is too great a burden for me to bear if thy unspeakable mercies relieve me not What shall I do unto thee O thou redeemer of men Such a Soul is not only ashamed but loaths and abhors himself his Spirit is broken his countenance dejected his confidence dismounted he feels pain and remorse he goes heavily he is pricked to the heart and cries out in the anguish of his Soul What shall I doe But 3. HE goes on not only to accuse but to condemn himself also I am not worthy to be
that the saying of the Apostle is especially and most remarkably verified in the charity of Parents that it beareth all things hopeth all things believeth all things for they readily believe well of their Children because they so passionately desire it should be so notwithstanding the Son could not think his Father so soft and easy as to be imposed upon with words and ceremonies and himself was not now so ill natured as to go about to abuse so much goodness if it it had been in his power Wherefore the Text saith vers 20. So he arose and came to his Father i. e. he did not only change his note his address his countenance but he changed his course he returned to his Father and to the duty of a Son AND we have under this type in the former part of it seen described the preface and introduction to repentance towards God namely the sinner bewailing his sin taking shame to himself under agonies of mind pricked to the heart humbly imploring the divine favour and crying earnestly for mercy But this is not all that repentance means the principal part of it is yet behind viz. Actual Reformation This is that which every awakened Conscience in its agonies promises and resolves upon this God expects and every sincere Convert really performs For without this all the rest is but empty pomp and pageantry and meer hypocrisy as we shall shew anon But when this is added to the former such a person from thenceforth is a new man and in a new estate he hath compleatly made his return to God as the Son in the Text is said to have actually returned to his Father I have noted heretofore that all irreligion and profaneness is wont in the language of the Scripture to be expressed by the phrase of departing from God or going out from him or forsaking him and so the whole practice of Religion is contrariwise set forth by drawing nigh to or coming to God particularly Hebr. 11. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he that cometh to God q. d. he that becomes a Proselyte to Religion for from thence doth that word Proselyte take its original Wherefore now we will first observe what is implyed by this phrase of the Son 's returning or coming to his Father and in proportion thereto describe this most important business of the Penitent's returning to God which is his Actual Conversion or Reformation and in the former these three things seem plainly to be comprehended 1. That the Son now returns home to his Father's family and presence 2. That he returns to the duty of a Son by obedience and compliance with his Father's commands 3. That he submits to his Father's government and provision Therefore in the latter namely conversion to God these three things must semblably be implied 1. That the Penitent puts himself under the eye of God and lives in a constant practice of piety and devotion 2. That he frames himself to universal obedience to all God's commands 3. That he gives himself up to the divine disposal and intirely submits to his providence and government 1. CONCERNING the first of these there is nothing more evident or remarkable to all experience and observation then the great fervor of devotion in all true Converts from an evil life insomuch that there is not that man to be found under such a character but presently with great solemnity and seriousness he sets up the worship of God to which purpose we find in the history of the Acts of the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Worshippers or Devout persons to be the common name by which Converts to Religion are expressed and these Acts 13. 48. are said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Candidates of eternal life or put into order and disposed for salvation Compare vers 43. with 48. More particularly it is observable of St. Paul that when from a superstitious Pharisee and bitter enemy of Christianity he was reclaimed and made a Christian the assurance that God gives to Ananias of the truth of his conversion is Acts 9. 11. Behold he prays And so of Manasses 2 Chron. 33. 18. amongst the instances of his real reformation the Scripture takes especial notice of the prayer that he prayed AND this is so universal a truth that I think from hence it cometh to pass that those who have a mind hypocritically to put on the guise and appearance of Religion are wont to be notably carefull in this point for so the Pharisees cloaked all their villanies with this garb of piety Now hypocrisy would miss altogether of its design if it did not resemble the truth of things and usually their over solicitude and overdoing herein betrays them to act a part only in Religion BUT it is not only the duty of prayer which the true Penitent expresses his conversion by though this be by some too phantastically called Duty as if all piety consisted in that only for as the literal Prodigal returns to his Father's house and family so the mystical returns to God's house which is his Church and associates himself with God's servants in all the offices of Religion viz. in hearing the word reading meditation Sacraments c. Now he thinks a day spent in God's Courts better then a thousand and had rather be a door-keeper in the house of the Lord then to dwell in the tents of the wicked This one thing he desires of the Lord and is most passionate in that he may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of his life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his Temple And he so highly values the priviledge of God's Church that no private opinion no trifling scrupulosity nor petty disgust shall ever alienate him from it Here he finds himself fortified and incouraged by the great examples of holy men his prayers strengthened by the concurrence of all good people here he is under the publick dispensations of the means of grace and knowledge the very plainness and simplicity of which he now with the great Convert St. Austin values and admires more then all the Greek or Roman eloquence of Speech or subtilty of Philosophy to which every thing else seemed flat and insipid before Above all the holy Sacrament puts him into an ecstasy in this he thinks himself in God's presence in an extraordinary manner and admitted a guest at his Table the Crums of which he thinks himself unworthy of here he refreshes his hungry Soul with the Bread of Life and his wounded Conscience by the Bloud of his crucified Saviour and in both he thinks he sees his provoked but compassionate Father stand with open arms to receive him This he approaches with great reverence with shame and sorrow for his sins past together with faith and hope in God's mercy and will therefore never be negligent of it IN these and all other duties of Religion both publick and private the Convert expresses such an excellent spirit and extraordinary
as that no old score remains upon record against the Penitent it may raise in us great admiration of his infinite goodness beget the most amiable notions of him in our minds and provoke us to love him with all our hearts So our Saviour concludes in the Gospel that where most is forgiven there must undoubtedly lie the greatest obligations of love and gratitude The Apostle tells us Rom. 5. 7. That scarcely for a righteous man will one die but for a good man some would even dare to die All God's Attributes of power and wisedom and holiness are very amiable and lovely but this of his goodness in forgiving sins comes most home to us in that he doth not rigidly insist on his own right but comply with our necessity and relieve our misery To give and bestow benefits upon us is goodness but to forgive is greater because here he divests himself of his own right recedes from his own claim and that for our unspeakable benefit In short he seems not to consider himself but us only in the dispensations of his mercy he is as good as good can be and therefore there is all the reason in the world that we should love him as much as is possible And one of the best and most acceptable ways of expressing that is that which 3. THIRDLY I make a third inference viz. that we imitate this goodness and mercifullness of his this is prest upon us by our Saviour Be ye mercifull as your Father in Heaven is mercifull It is said of Cato that the strict sanctity of his own life made him a severe and rigid Magistrate he knew not how to pardon in other men what he would not permit in himself If God who is a holy and immaculate Being should severely animadvert our failings we could not blame him though we were undone by it nay it ought to be the greatest wonder to us in the whole world that he doth not do so considering the greatness of his Majesty the justice and wisedom of his Laws and such other things of this nature as we have formerly represented But it is the most absurd thing in nature that we who are great offenders our selves that have infinite need of mercy at God's hands that we should be cruel and vindictive towards each other that God should cover our follies and we blazon those of other men shall he pardon us worms and we be remorsless towards our Brethren doth he consider humane infirmity bind up the wounds of the contrite so as to leave no scar or blemish behind of all their former miscarriages and do we rake in the wounds proclaim the follies uncover the nakedness and shame of our neighbour is it tolerable for us to equal our selves with God or are offences greater against us then against him shall we dare to do what we dare not wish should be done to us Do not we pray Enter not into judgment with thy Servants c. and confess That if God be extream to mark what we have done amiss that none can abide it and do we scrupulously weigh severely aggravate and rigorously animadvert the sins of others against our selves doth God forgive us by talents and we unmercifully exact the utmost farthing INDEED we may observe it to be the genius and custom of evil men to remember invidiously the faults which penitent men have forsaken to the end that they may revenge themselves upon them for that change which condemns their own obstinate perseverance in such courses or as hoping to excuse or justify their constant naughtiness by remarking the temporary compliance of those other with them whose contrary course now shames and reproaches them But it is quite otherwise with all good men they partly out of a sense of humanity partly to incourage men to repentance and partly also to confirm and secure such as have repented from all temptations to apostasy draw a curtain over their former misdemeanours and forget what they have forsaken and God hath forgiven therefore if we will either take pattern by God or them we ought to doe so too LASTLY but above all the rest the consideration of God's pardon and the egregious circumstances thereof should be a mighty incouragement to all sinners to repentance when we remember how gracious a Father we grieve by a willfull destroying of our selves how much he pities us and longs for our return what a serene countenance hearty welcome full pardon gracious reception and how innumerable and inestimable blessings we shall have poured out upon us at our so doing And this brings me again to the second part of the penitent Son's entertainment to which therefore I now proceed CHAP. II. Of Sanctification THE CONTENTS § I. What is meant by the best Robe and that it is the usual phrase of Scripture to set out the ornaments of the mind by those of the body § II. Sanctification in different respects both goes before and follows after Justification § III. Three remarkable differences betwixt the measure of Sanctification which God requires and that which he accepts for the present or the different stature of Grace before Justification and after it § IV. The ways by which God works men up to those higher measures of Sanctification which he requires As 1. By mighty obligation working upon their gratitude and ingenuity 2. By the efficacy of Faith 3. By the gift of the Holy Ghost § 1. THERE is a never failing spring of kindness and good will in Parents towards their Children which flows with that life and vigour that nothing is able to dam it up or interrupt it so but that if it be obstructed one way it breaks out and discovers it self another If the Children prove singularly good and vertuous then paternal affection bears a mighty stream overflows all its banks the Parents feel an unspeakable delight and satisfaction and their Children are then the Crown of their age their joy and triumph If they happen to be but tolerable they are ready to interpret all to the best and prone to heap blessings and kindnesses upon them And if they degenerate and prove very bad and undutifull this though it checks the tide yet cannot divert the current for at worst they cannot cease to pity them There is in like manner an everlasting propension in Almighty God to do good to men insomuch that when they are very bad he pities them as soon as they begin to be good he loves and blesses them but when they become generously vertuous and holy he takes complacency in them and all these different degrees of divine favour we have lively represented to us in the Parable before us But we are now upon the second of them namely the great and singular blessings which the Father frankly bestows upon his Son now that he hath repented of his extravagancy and is reconciled to him And under this rank we may reckon these three special instances FIRST whereas the Father observed his Son to return in a
love so long as they are enemies to the common enemy so it happens here that a Convert zealously combating against some one vice in studious declension of that insensibly slips into some degrees of the other extream and then finds it a fresh difficulty vincere eos per quos vicisti to conquer that other infirmity by which he conquered the former TO which purpose it is remarkable concerning that holy man St. Jerom whilst he lived in the affluence of the City and used a free conversation he felt frequent temptations of the flesh and setting himself with all his might to mortify these and to do it effectually retired into a desart that he might both take away the cause and the occasions of those dangers but whilst in that retirement he exercises himself to great severity and austerity he insensibly grew into a blameable asperity of temper which needed a second labour to subdue I will not say as some do that as God would have some remainders of the seven Nations preserved amongst the Children of Israel in the Land of Canaan to be continually as thorns in their eyes and goads in their sides so he orders it that there should be some remainders of the old Adam in us to keep us always humble and employed for certainly God would have all sin expelled our natures But this I say that as Israel was truely in possession of the Land of Canaan from such time as Joshua had conquered those powers that made head against them and had put the chief Cities and places of strength into their hands notwithstanding that a long time after some of those old inhabitants remained amongst them and were no very good Neighbours so I affirm that so long as there is not only a resolution against all sin but a constant hostile pursuit of it and that a man goes on conquering and to conquer such a man is a true Israelite though he have not perfected his conquest nor can yet say with St. Paul I have fought the good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith and therefore henceforth is laid up for me the crown of righteousness BUT now forasmuch as God both for his own glory and service the comfort of the Convert's own Soul and his greater capacity of the Kingdom of Heaven designs to bring men to higher degrees of sanctification then what he was pleased to accept of when he first received the Penitent to mercy therefore he afterwards puts upon him the Best Robe 2. IT is to be considered that the beginnings of all things that are any way notable especially are wrought with pain and difficulty insomuch that nemo repente fit turpissimus no man finds it very easy at first to doe any egregious wickedness Men become evil by degrees and there is proficiency even in the Devil's school and therefore much more reasonably may it be expected that those that first enter into a strict course of vertue should be sensible of difficulty in their first undertaking IT was an ingenious answer which Plutarch reports to have been given by a Lacedemonian Turor when he was asked what he pretended to and of what avail his indeavours were I make saith he that to become easy and delightfull which is of it self good and necessary It is true Christ Jesus tells us his yoke is easy and his burden is light and without doubt it is so but it is a yoke and a burden still and no man finds it easy untill he have exercised himself to it rewards and punishments set before us and reason and resolution working thereupon will prevail with men to doe their duty but only practice and assuetude makes it become easy and familiar so to doe especially supposing as we do in the present case a man but lately accustomed to indulge himself in a course of sin let such a man's conversion be never so real and hearty however it cannot be expected that he should presently do Christ's commands and say they are not grievous It is certain such a man if he be what we suppose him that is sincere will resist his inclination and change his course but because it was lately a course there will yet be an inclination towards it and consequently a conflict and difficulty in avoyding it for as we said before it is only one custome can perfectly supplant another and only habit can imitate nature and make easy the cutting off our corrupt members is a hard task till by time and degrees they become mortified and then it is done without any considerable pain or difficulty Whosoever hath any principle of divine life or true sense of God in him will not allow himself in the neglect of God's worship yet he will find it no easy business to hold his heart intent and constant in it till it have become customary and natural to him and then it is so far easy and delightfull to him that he knows not how to live without it Now although that state which tuggs at the Oare and draws on heavily may be sincere because it discharges its duty honestly though with great difficulty and therefore find acceptance with a good God yet forasmuch as his intention is that we should become partakers of the divine nature and that it be our meat and drink to doe his will that the way of his commands be to us as our necessary food that we should do his will with that alacrity on earth with which it is done by the Angels in Heaven that our wills should be perfectly conformed to his and Religion become natural to us partly to the end that we may do him the more honour for there is nothing doth so much reputation to the divine Law and government as the chearfull obedience of his Subjects partly also that we may be the more fit for the Kingdom of Heaven for those most easily fall in with the heavenly Quire who have practised their part beforehand therefore since he desires that we should not only be not evil but generously good nor meerly draw on heavily and uncomfortably but fly as upon the wings of a Cherub in his service it seems good to him when he hath pardoned a penitent to confer upon him greater measures of Sanctification 3. A young Convert though he have all the parts and members of a perfect man in Christ and should also be supposed in great measure to have overcome the difficulties which always attend vertuous beginnings yet he is but a beginner and must needs be conceived weak and feeble in his whole contexture he is not only apt to be abused with Sophistry and carried about with every wind of doctrine but less able to bear the burdens and to resist the temptations he must expect to meet with the traces of his former course are not yet worn out and so he is the apter to return he is not at the top but going up hill and may easily faint or slip he hath not such experience of