Repentance and Sincere Obedience be not the Terms of Salvation and the necessary Conditions of Happiness Whether there shall be a future Judgment when all men shall be sentenced according to their works Whether there be a Heaven and Hell Whether good men shall be eternally and unspeakably happy and wicked men extreamly and everlastingly miserable These are the great Controversies of Religion upon which we are to dispute on God's behalf against sinners God asserts and sinners deny these things not in Words but which is more emphatical and significant in their Lives and Actions These are practical Controversies of Faith and it concerns every man to be resolved and determined about them that he may frame his life accordingly And so for Repentance God says Repentance is a forsaking of sin and a through change and amendment of life the sinner says that it is only a formal Confession and a slight asking of God forgiveness God calls upon us speedily and forthwith to repent the sinner saith 't is time enough and it may safely be defer'd to sickness or death these are important Controversies and matters of moment But men do not affect common Truths whereas these are most necessary And indeed whatever is generally useful and beneficial ought to be common and not to be the less valued but the more esteemed for being so And as these Doctrines of Faith and Repentance are never unseasonable so are they more peculiarly proper when we celebrate the Holy Sacrament which was instituted for a solemn and standing Memorial of the Christian Religion and is one of the most powerful Arguments and Perswasives to repentance and a good life The Faith of the Gospel doth more particularly respect the death of Christ and therefore it is call'd Faith in his Blood because that is more especially the Object of our Faith the Blood of Christ as it was a Seal of the truth of his Doctrine so it is also a Confirmation of all the Blessings and Benefits of the New Covenant And it is one of the greatest Arguments in the world to repentance In the Blood of Christ we may see our own guilt and in the dreadful Sufferings of the Son of God the just desert of our sins for he hath born our griefs and carried our sorrows he was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities therefore the Commemoration of his Sufferings should call our sins to remembrance the Representation of his Body broken should melt our hearts and so often as we remember that his blood was shed for us our eyes should run down with rivers of tears so often as we look upon him whom we have pierced we should mourn over him When the Son of God suffered the rocks were rent in sunder and shall not the consideration of those sufferings be effectual to break the most stony and obdurate heart What can be more proper when we come to this Sacrament than the renewing of our Repentance When we partake of this Passover we should eat it with bitter herbs The most solemn Expressions of our Repentance fall short of those Sufferings which our blessed Saviour underwent for our sins if our head were waters and our eyes fountains of tears we could never sufficiently lament the cursed Effects and Consequences of those provocations which were so fatal to the Son of God And that our Repentance may be real it must be accompanied with the Resolution of a better life for if we return to our sins again we trample under foot the Son of God and profane the Blood of the Covenant and out of the Cup of Salvation we drink our own damnation and turn that which should save us into an instrument and Seal of our own ruin SERMON II. Serm. 2. Preach'd on Ash-Wednesday Of confessing and forsaking Sin in Order to Pardon PROV XXVIII 13 He that covereth his sins shall not prosper but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy SInce we are all sinners and liable to the Justice of God it is a matter of great moment to our comfort and happiness to be rightly informed by what Means and upon what Terms we may be reconciled to God and find mercy with him And to this purpose the Text gives us this advice and direction whoso confesseth and forsaketh his sin shall have mercy Vol. 8. In which words there is a great Blessing and Benefit declared and promised to sinners upon certain Conditions The Blessing and Benefit promised is the mercy and favour of God which comprehends all the happy Effects of God's mercy and goodness to sinners And the Conditions upon which this Blessing is promised are two Confession of our sins and forsaking of them and these two contain in them the whole nature of that great and necessary Duty of Repentance without which a sinner can have no reasonable hopes of the mercy of God I. Here is a Blessing or Benefit promised which is the mercy and favour of God And this in the full extent of it comprehends all the Effects of the mercy and goodness of God to sinners and doth primarily import the pardon and forgiveness of our sins And this probably Solomon did chiefly intend in this expression for so the mercy of God doth most frequently signifie in the Old Testament viz. the forgiveness of our sins And thus the Prophet explains it Isa 55.7 Let the wicked forsake his ways and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy and to our God for he will abundantly pardon But now since the clear revelation of the Gospel the mercy of God doth not only extend to the pardon of sin but to power against it because this also is an Effect of God's free grace and mercy to sinners to enable them by the grace of his holy Spirit to master and mortifie their lusts and to persevere in Goodness to the end And it comprehends also our final pardon and absolution at the great day together with the glorious Reward of eternal life which the Apostle expresseth by finding mercy with the Lord in that day And this likewise is promised to Repentance Acts 3.19 Repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord and he shall send Jesus Christ who before was preached unto you that is that when Jesus Christ who is now preached unto you shall come you may receive the final sentence of absolution and forgiveness And thus much shall suffice to have spoken of the Blessing and Benefit here promised the mercy of God which comprehends all the blessed Effects of the divine grace and goodness to sinners the present pardon of sin and power to mortifie sin and to persevere in a good course and our final absolulution by the sentence of the great day together with the merciful and glorious Reward of eternal life II. We will consider in the next place the Conditions upon
Mens sins upon such easie and unfit Terms gives boldness and encouragement to sin and must necessarily in the opinion of men lessen the Honour and Esteem of God's Laws And thus I have Considered and Explained both the Blessing and Benefit which is here promised and declared viz. the Mercy and Favour of God which comprehends both the present Forgiveness of our Sins and Power against them and Grace to Persevere in Goodness to the end and our final Absolution at the great day and the Glorious and Merciful Reward of Eternal Life and likewise the Conditions upon which this Blessing is promised viz. the Penitent acknowledgment of our sins to God with such Shame and Sorrow for them as produceth a sincere Resolution of leaving them and returning to a better course and the actual forsaking of them which involves in it our actual return to our Duty and a Constant and Sincere obedience to the Laws of God in the future course of our lives I shall now make some Application of this Discourse to our selves I am sure we are all nearly concerned in it The best of us have many sins to confess and forsake some of us very probably have need to change the whole course of our Lives to put us into a capacity of the Mercy of God This work can never be unseasonable but there cannot be a more proper time for it than when we are solemnly preparing our selves to receive the Holy Sacrament in which as we do Commemorate the great Mercy of God to Mankind so we do likewise renew and confirm our Covenant with him that Holy Covenant wherein we engage our selves to forsake our sins as ever we expect the forgiveness of them at God's hand To perswade us hereto be pleased to consider the Reasonableness of the Thing the infinite Benefit and Advantage of it and which is beyond all other Arguments the absolute Necessity of it to make us capable of the Mercy and Forgiveness of God in this World and the other and to deliver us from the wrath which is to come and from those terrible storms of vengeance which will infallibly fall upon impenitent sinners So that we have all the Reason and all the Encouragement in the World to resolve upon a better course Upon this Condition the Mercy of God is ready to meet and embrace us God will Pardon our greatest provocations and be perfectly reconciled to us So he hath declared by the Prophet Isaiah 1.16 Wash ye make you clean put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes cease to do evil learn to do well Come now and let us reason together saith the Lord tho' your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow tho' they be red as crimson they shall be as wool And what greater Encouragement can we desire than that upon so easie and advantageous Terms God should be so ready to have an end put to all Controversies and Quarrels between him and us I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God to take up a serious Resolution to break off your sins by repentance and to reform whatever upon due search and tryal of your ways you shall find to be amiss in your lives I beseech you by the Mercies of God that Mercy which naturally leads to repentance and which is long-suffering to us-ward on purpose that we may not perish but come to repentance which hath spared us so often and is not yet exhausted and tired out by our intolerable obstinacy and innumerable provocations that mercy which moved the Son of God to become man to live among us and to die for us who now as it were speaks to us from the Cross extending his pierced Hands and painful Arms to embrace us and through the gasping wounds of his side lets us see the tender and bleeding Compassion of his Heart that mercy which if we now despise it we shall in vain one day implore and catch hold of and hang upon to save us from sinking into Eternal Perdition that mercy which how much soever we now presume upon will then be so far from interposing between us and the wrath of God that it will highly inflame and exasperate it For whatever impenitent sinners may now think they will then certainly find that the Divine Justice when it is throughly provoked and whetted by his abused Mercy and Goodness will be most terribly severe and like a Rasor set with Oyl will cut the keener for its smoothness Consider this all ye that forget God lest he tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver Consider and shew your selves men O ye transgressours We do consider all this may some perhaps say but we have been great sinners so great that we doubt whether our case be not already desperate This if it be sensibly said with deep Sorrow and Contrition with that Shame and Confusion of face which becomes great offenders is a good Confession and the best Reason in the World why ye should now break off your sins For if what you have already done do really make your case so doubtful and difficult do not by sinning yet more and more against the Lord make it quite Desperate and past Remedy do but you Repent and God will yet return and have Mercy upon you And do not say you cannot do it when it must be done or you are undone Power and necessity go together when men are hard prest they find a power which they thought they had not and when it comes to the push men can do that which they plainly see they either must do or be ruined for ever But after all this I am very sensible how great a need there is of God's powerful Assistance in this case and that it is not an ordinary resolution and common measure of God's Grace that will reclaim those who have been long habituated to an evil course Let us therefore earnestly beg of him that he would make these Counsels effectual that he would grant us repentance unto life that he would make us all sensible of our faults sorry for them and resolved to amend them and let us every one put up David's prayer to God for our selves Deal with thy Servant according to thy mercy and teach me thy statutes order my steps in thy word and let not any iniquity have dominion over me teach me O Lord the way of thy statutes that I may keep them unto the end I have now done I am only to mind you of another Duty which is to accompany our Repentance and Fasting and Prayer as a Testimony of the Sincerity of our Repentance and one of the best means to make our Fasting and Prayer acceptable to God and to turn away his Judgments from us and that is Charity and Alms to the Poor whose number is very great among us and their necessities very pressing and clamorous and therefore do call for a bountiful Supply And to convince men of the Necessity of this Duty and
the Efficacy of it in Conjunction with our Repentance and Fasting and Prayers I shall only offer to your consideration a few plain Texts of Scripture which need no comment upon them Dan. 4.27 it is the Prophets advice to Nebuchadnezzar Break off thy sins by righteousness and thine iniquity by shewing mercy to the poor if so be it may be a lengthning of thy tranquillity Acts 10.4 the Angel there tells Cornelius Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God Isa 58.5 Is not this the fast which I have chosen to loose the bands of wickedness to undo the heavy burthens and to let the oppressed go free and that ye break every yoke Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house when thou seest the naked that thou cover him and that thou hide not thy self from thine own flesh Then shall thy light break forth as the morning and thine health shall spring forth speedily and thy righteousness shall go before thee and the Glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward then shalt thou call and the Lord shall answer thee thou shalt cry and he shall say here I am To which I will only add that Gracious promise of our Saviour Blessed are the merciful for they shall find mercy and that terrible sentence in St. James He shall have Judgment without mercy that hath shewed no mercy SERMON III. Serm. 3. Of Confession and Sorrow for Sin PSAL. XXXVIII 18 I will declare mine iniquity and be sorry for my Sin IN this Psalm David does earnestly beg Mercy and Forgiveness of God and in order to the obtaining of it he declares both his Sins and his Repentance for them in these Words which contain in them two of the Necessary Ingredients or at least Concomitants of a true Repentance viz. Confession of Sin and Sorrow for it Vol. 8. I shall speak something of the first of these viz. Confession of Sin but the Second viz. Sorrow for Sin shall be the main Subject of my Discourse I. Confession of Sin I will declare mine iniquity or as it is in the Old Translation I will Confess my wickedness Of which I shall speak under these three Heads I. What Confession of Sin is II. How far 't is necessary III. What are the Reasons and grounds of this necessity I. What Confession of Sin is It is a Declaration or Acknowledgment of some moral evil or fault to another which we are conscious to our selves we have been Guilty of And this Acknowledgment may be made by us either to God or Man The Scripture mentions both Confession of our Sins to God is very frequently mentioned in Scripture as the first and necessary part of Repentance and sometimes and in some cases Confession to men is not only recommended but enjoyned II. How far Confession of our Sins is Necessary That it is necessary to confess our Sins to God the Scripture plainly declares and is I think a matter out of all dispute For it is a Necessary part of Repentance that we should confess our Sins to God with a due sense of the evil of them and therefore the Scripture maketh this a Necessary qualification and Condition of Pardon and Forgiveness Prov. 28.13 Whoso confesseth and forsaketh his sins shall have mercy 1 John 1.9 If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness implying that if we do not confess our sins to God the guilt of them will still remain to God I say for of Confession to him St. John plainly speaks when he says He is faithful and just Who God surely who tho' he be not named before yet is necessarily understood in the words before If we confess our sins i. e. to God he is faithful and just A general Confession of our sins is absolutely necessary and in some cases a particular acknowledgment of them and repentance for them especially if the sins have been great and deliberate and presumptuous in this Case a particular Confession of them and Repentance for them is necessary so far as we can particularly recollect them and call them to Remembrance Whereas for sins of ignorance and infirmity of surprize and daily incursion for lesser Omissions and the Defects and Imperfections of our best Actions and Services we have all the Reason that can be to believe that God will accept of a general Confession of them and Repentance for them And if any Man ask me where I find this distinction in Scripture between a general and particular Repentance I answer that it is not necessary it should be any where exprest in Scripture being so clearly founded in the Nature and Reason of the thing because in many cases it is not possible that we should have a particular Knowledge and Remembrance of all our particular Sins as is plain in Sins of ignorance since our very calling them by that Name does necessarily suppose that we do not know them It is impossible we should remember those Sins afterwards which we did not know when they were committed And therefore either a general Repentance for these and the other Sins I mentioned of the like Nature must be sufficient in order to the Pardon of them or we must say that they are unpardonable which would be very unreasonable because this would be to make lesser Sins more unpardonable than those which are far greater And yet tho' this difference between a general and particular Repentance be no where expresly mention'd in Scripture there does not want foundation for it there Psal 19.12 Who can understand his errours Cleanse thou me from secret Sins i. e. Such as we do not discern and take notice of when they are committed And yet David supposeth that upon a general Acknowledgment of them and Repentance for them we may be cleansed from them tho' we cannot make a particular Acknowledgment of them and exercise a particular Repentance for them because they are secret and we do not particularly understand what they are As for our confessing our Sins to Men both Scripture and Reason do in some cases recommend and enjoyn it As 1. In order to the obtaining of the Prayers of good men for us James 5.16 Confess your Sins one to another he said before The prayer of faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise him up This in all probability is meant of the Miraculous Power of Prayer which St. Chrysostom reckons among the Miraculous Gifts of the Spirit bestowed upon Christians in the first Ages of the Church and this is very much countenanc'd and confirm'd by what presently follows after this command of Confessing our Sins one to another and praying one for another and given as the Reason of it for the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous Man availeth much the Original is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the inspir'd prayer which in the verse
time I am heartily afraid that a very great part of Mankind do miscarry upon this confidence and are swallowed up in the gulf of Eternal Perdition with this Plank in their Arms. The common Custom is and I fear it is too common when the Physician hath given over his Patient then and not till then to send for the Minister not so much to enquire into the Man's condition and to give him suitable Advice as to Minister comfort and to speak Peace to him at a venture But let me tell you that herein you put an extream difficult task upon us in expecting that we should pour Wine and Oyl into the wound before it be searched and speak smooth and comfortable things to a Man that is but just brought to a sense of the long course of a lewd and wicked Life impenitently continued in Alas what comfort can we give to men in such a case We are loth to drive them to despair and yet we must not destroy them by presumption pity and good nature do strongly tempt us to make the best of their case and to give them all the little hopes which with any kind of Reason we can and God knows it is but very little that we can give to such Persons upon good ground for it all depends upon the degree and sincerity of their Repentance which God only knows and we can but guess at We can easily tell them what they ought to have done and what they should do if they were to live longer and what is the best that they can do in those straights into which they have brought themselves viz. to exercise as deep a Sorrow and Repentance for their sins as is possible and to cry mightily to God for Mercy in and through the Merit of our Blessed Saviour But how far this will be available in these Circumstances we cannot tell because we do not know whether if the Man had lived longer this Repentance and these Resolutions which he now declares of a better course would have been good And after all is done that can be done in so short a time and in such Circumstances of confusion and disorder as commonly attend dying Persons I doubt the result of all will be this that there is much more ground of fear than hope concerning them nay perhaps while we are pressing the dying sinner to Repentance and he is bungling about it he expires in great doubt and perplexity of mind what will become of him or if his Eyes be closed with more comfortable hopes of his condition the next time he opens them again he may find his fearful mistake like the rich Man in the Parable who when he was in hell lift up his eyes being in torment This is a very dismal and melancholy consideration and commands all men presently to repent and not to put off the main work of their lives to the end of them and the time of sickness and old Age. Let us not offer up a Carcass to God instead of a living and acceptable Sacrifice but let us turn to God in the days of our health and strength before the evil days come and the years draw nigh of which we shall say we have no pleasure in them before the Sun and the Moon and the Stars be darkned As Solomon elegantly expresseth it Eccl. 12.1 2. before all the Comforts of Life be gone before our Faculties be all ceased and spent before our Understandings be too weak and our Wills too strong our Understandings be too weak for consideration and the deliberate exercise of Repentance and our Wills too strong and stiff to be bent and bowed to it Let us not deceive our selves Heaven is not an Hospital made to receive all Sick and Aged Persons that can but put up a faint request to be admitted there no no they are never like to see the Kingdom of God who instead of seeking it in the first place make it their last refuge and retreat and when they find the Sentence of Death upon them only to avoid present Execution do bethink themselves of getting to Heaven and since there is no other Remedy are contented to Petition the great King and Judge of the World that they may be transported thither Upon all these Considerations let us use no delay in a matter of such mighty consequence to our eternal Happiness but let the counsel which was given to Nebuchadnezzar be acceptable to us let us Break off our sins by righteousness and our iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor if so be it may be a lengthning of our tranquillity Repentance and Alms do well together let us break off our sins by righteousness and our iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor especially upon this great occasion which his Majesty's great Goodness to those distressed Strangers that have taken Sanctuary among us hath lately presented us withal remembring that we also are in the body and liable to the like sufferings and considering on the one hand that Gracious promise of our Lord Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy and on the other hand that terrible threatning in St. James He shall have Judgment without mercy that hath shewed no mercy To conclude from all that hath been said let us take up a present Resolution of a better course and enter immediately upon it to day whilst it is called to day lest any of you be hardned through the deceitfulness of sin O that men were wise that they understood this that they would consider their latter end And grant we beseech the Almighty God that we may all know and do in this our day the things which belong to our peace for thy mercy's sake in Jesus Christ To whom with thee O Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory now and for ever Amen SERMON V. Serm. 5. The Shamefulness of Sin an Argument for Repentance The First Sermon on this Text. ROM VI. 21 22. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed For the end of those things is death But now being made free from sin and become Servants to God ye have your fruit unto Holiness and the end Everlasting Life THERE are two Passions which do always in some Degree or other accompany a true Repentance viz. Sorrow and Shame for our Sins because these are necessary to engage men to a Resolution of making that change wherein Repentance does consist Vol. 8. For till we are heartily sorry for what we have done and ashamed of the evil of it it is not likely that we should ever come to a firm and steady purpose of forsaking our evil ways and betaking our selves to a better course And these two Passions of Sorrow and Shame for our Sins were wont anciently to be signified by those outward expressions of Humiliation and Repentance which we find so frequently mentioned in Scripture of being cloathed in Sackcloath as a testimony of our sorrow and mourning for our
The most Reverend D r. IOHN TILLOTSON late Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Several DISCOURSES OF REPENTANCE viz. The Necessity of Repentance and Faith Of confessing and forsaking Sin in order to Pardon Of Confession and Sorrow for Sin The Unprofitableness of Sin in this Life an Argument for Repentance The Shamefulness of Sin an Argument for Repentance The final Issue of Sin an Argument for Repentance The present and future Advantage of an Holy and Virtuous Life The Nature and Necessity of holy Resolution The Nature and Necessity of Restitution The Usefulness of Consideration in order to Repentance The Danger of Impenitence where the Gospel is preach'd By the Most Reverend Dr. JOHN TILLOTSON Late Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Being The EIGHTH VOLUME Published from the Originals By Ralph Barker D. D. Chaplain to his Grace LONDON Printed for Ri. Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-yard 1700. THE CONTENTS SERMON I. The Necessity of Repentance and Faith ACTS XX. 21 Testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ Page 1 SERMON II. Preach'd on Ash-Wednesday Of confessing and forsaking Sin in order to Pardon PROV XXVIII 13 He that covereth his Sins shall not prosper but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy p. 29 SERMON III. Of Confession and Sorrow for Sin PSAL. XXXVIII 18 I will declare mine Iniquity and be sorry for my Sin p. 69 SERMON IV. Preach'd on Ash-Wednesday 1689. The Unprofitableness of Sin in this Life an Argument for Repentance JOB XXXIII 27 28. He looketh upon men and if any say I have sinned and perverted that which was right and it profited me not He will deliver his soul from going into the pit and his life shall see the light p. 101 SERMON V VI VII VIII The Shamefulness of Sin an Argument for Repentance ROM VI. 21 22. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed For the end of those things is Death But now being made free from sin and become Servants to God ye have your fruit unto Holiness and the end everlasting life p. 137 169 193 225 SERMON IX X XI The Nature and Necessity of holy Resolution JOB XXXIV 31 32. Surely it is meet to be said unto God I have born chastisement I will not offend any more That which I see not teach thou me if I have done iniquity I will do no more p. 271 299 327 SERMON XII XIII The Nature and Necessity of Restitution LUKE XIX 8 9. And if I have taken any thing from any Man by false accusation I restore him fourfold And Jesus said unto him This day is Salvation come to this house p. 353 385 SERMON XIV The Usefulness of Consideration in order to Repentance DEUT. XXXII 29 O that they were wise that they understood this that they would consider their latter end p. 417 SERMON XV. The Danger of Impenitence where the Gospel is preach'd MATTH XI 21 22. Woe unto thee Chorazin woe unto thee Bethsaida for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes But I say unto you It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment than for you p. 443 SERMON I. Serm. 1. The Necessity of Repentance and Faith Acts XX. 21 Testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ TO have seen St. Paul in the Pulpit was one of those three things which St. Augustine thought worth the wishing for And sure it were very desirable to have seen this glorious Instrument of God who did such wonders in the World to have heard that plain and powerful Eloquence of his which was so mighty through God for the casting down of strong holds Vol. 8. and the subduing of men to the obedience of the Gospel to have beheld the zeal of this holy man who was all on fire for God with what ardency of affection and earnestness of expression he persuaded men to come in to Christ and entertain the Gospel This were very desirable but seeing it is a thing we cannot hope for it should be some satisfaction to our curiosity to know what St. Paul preached what was the main Subject of his Sermons whither he refer'd all his Discourses and what they tended to This he tells us in the words that I have read to you that the main substance of all his Sermons was repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ The Occasion of the words was briefly this St. Paul being in his Journy to Jerusalem and intending to be there by the day of Pentecost that he might not be hindred in his Journy he resolves to pass by Ephesus and only to call to him the Elders of the Church to charge them with their duty and the care of the Church and to engage them hereto he tells them how he had carried and demeaned himself among them v. 18. with what diligence and vigilance he had watched over them with what affection and earnestness he had preached to them v. 19 20. And here in the Text he tells them what had been the sum of his Doctrine and the substance of those many Sermons he had preached among them and what was the End and Design of all his Discourses viz. To perswade men to repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ Testifying both to the Jews and Greeks c. I shall explain the words a little and then fix upon the Observations which I intend to speak to because I design this only as a Preface to some larger Discourses of Faith and Repentance For explication Testifying the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to testifie to prove a thing by testimony so 't is used Heb. 2.6 But one in a certain place testifyeth saying In heathen Writers the word is often used in a Law sense for contesting by Law and pleading in a Cause and from hence it signifies earnestly to contend or persuade by arguments and threatnings In the use of the LXX it signifies to protest to convince to press earnestly to perswade It is used most frequently by St. Luke in a very intense signification and is sometimes joyned with Exhorting which is an earnest perswading to a thing Acts 2.40 And with many other words did he testifie and exhort saying save your selves from this untoward generation and with Preaching Acts 8.25 And when they had testified and preached the word of the Lord and so Acts 18.5 Being pressed in spirit he testified to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ Being pressed in spirit signifies intention and vehemency in testifying to them that he did vehemently endeavour to convince them it seems to be equivalent to the expression v. 28. where it is said Apollos did mightily convince the Jews that Jesus was the Christ that is did
accompanied with great sorrow for our sins considering the great dishonour we have brought to God and the danger into which we have brought our selves I will declare mine iniquity says David and I will be sorry for my sin And this Sorrow must be proportionable to the degree of our Sin If we have been very wicked and have sinned greatly against the Lord and have multiplied our transgressions and continued long in an evil course have neglected God and forgotten him days without number the measure of our sorrow must bear some proportion to the degree of our Sins if they have been as Scarlet and Crimson as the Prophet expresseth it that is of a deeper dye than ordinary our Sorrow must be as deep as our Guilt for it is not a slight trouble and a few tears that will wash out such stains Not that tears are absolutely necessary tho' they do very well become and most commonly accompany a sincere Repentance All tempers are not in this alike some cannot express their sorrow by tears even then when they are most inwardly and sensibly grieved But if we can easily shed tears upon other occasions certainly rivers of tears ought to run down our eyes because we have broken Gods Laws the Reasonable and Righteous and good Laws of so good a God of so Gracious a Soveraign of so mighty a Benefactor of the Founder of our Being and the perpetual Patron and Protector of our lives but if we cannot command our tears there must however be great trouble and contrition of Spirit especially for great sins to be sure to that degree as to produce the 3. Property I mentioned of a Penitent Confession namely a sincere Resolution to leave our sins and betake our selves to a better course He does not confess his fault but stand in it who is not resolved to amend True Shame and Sorrow for our Sins is utterly inconsistent with any thought of returning to them It argues great obstinacy and impudence to confess a fault and continue in it Whenever we make Confession of our sins to God surely it is meet to say unto him I will not offend any more that which I know not teach thou me and if I have done iniquity I will do no more This is the first part of Repentance mentioned in the Text the first Condition of our finding mercy with God the Penitent acknowledgment of our sins to him I proceed to the Second Condition required to make us capable of the mercy of God which is the actual forsaking of our sins whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy I shall not go about to explain what is meant by forsaking sin it is that which every body can understand but few will do there lies all the difficulty I shall only put you in mind that forsaking of sin comprehends our return to our duty that necessarily follows from it In sins of Commission he that hath left any Vice does thereby become master of the contrary Virtue virtus est vitium fugere not to be drunk is to be sober not to oppress or defraud or deal falsly is to be Just and Honest and for sins of Omission the forsaking of them is nothing else but the doing of those Duties which we omitted and neglected before And therefore what Solomon here calls forsaking of sin is elsewhere in Scripture more fully exprest by ceasing to do evil and learning to do well Isa 1.16 By forsaking our sins and turning to God Isa 55.7 Let the wicked man forsake his ways and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord. By turning from all our sins and keeping all Gods Laws and Statutes Ezek. 18.21 If the wicked will turn from all his sins which he hath committed and keep all my statutes and do that which is lawful and right And this is a most Essential part of Repentance and a necessary condition of our finding mercy with God That part of Repentance which I have mentioned and insisted upon before the Penitent acknowledgment of our sins to God with Shame and Sorrow for them and a firm purpose and Resolution to leave them all this is but Preparatory to the actual forsaking of them that which perfects and compleats our Repentance is to turn from our evil ways and to break off our sins by righteousness And these terms of confessing and forsaking our sins are Reasonable in themselves and Honourable to God and Profitable to us and upon lower Terms we have no reason to expect the Mercy of God nor in truth are we capable of it either by the present forgiveness of our sins or the final absolution of the great day and the blessed Reward of Eternal Life God peremptorily requires this change as a condition of our Forgiveness and Happiness Repent and be converted that your sins may be blotted out Acts 3.19 If thou wilt enter into life keep the commandments Matth. 19.17 Without holiness no man shall see the Lord Heb. 12.14 And why should any man hope for the Mercy of God upon other Terms than those which he hath so plainly and peremptorily declared It is a mean and unworthy thought of God to imagine that he will accept men to his favour and eternal life upon other Terms than of better obedience Will any wise Father or Prince accept less from his Children and Subjects will they be satisfied with sighs and tears as well as with Obedience And well pleased if they be but melancholy for their faults tho' they ne-never mend them We must not impute that to God which would be a defect of Wisdom and good Government in any Father or Prince upon Earth God values no part of Repentance upon any other account but as it tends to reclaim us to our Duty and ends in our Reformation and amendment This is that which qualifies us for the Happiness of another Life and makes us meet to be made partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light And without this tho' God should be pleased to forgive us yet we could not forgive our selves and notwithstanding the legal discharge from Guilt the Sting of it would remain and we should like our first Parents after they had sinn'd run away and hide our selves from God tho' he spake never so kindly to us God hath placed in every Man's mind an inexorable Judge that will grant no Pardon and Forgiveness but to a reformed Penitent to him that hath such a sense of the Evil of his past Life as to become a better man for the future And whoever entertains any other notion of the Grace and Mercy of God to Sinners confounds the Nature of Things and does plainly overthrow the Reason of all Laws which is to restrain men from Sin But when it is committed to Pardon it without Amendment is to Encourage the Practice of it and to take away the Reverence and Veneration of those Laws which seem so severely to forbid it So that next to impunity the forgiveness of
which this Blessing is promised and they are two the Confessing and Forsaking of our sins whoso confesseth and forsaketh his sin shall have mercy and these two do contain and constitute the whole nature of Repentance without which a sinner can have no reasonable hopes to find mercy with God I begin with the First the Confession of our sins by which is meant a penitent acknowledgment of our faults to God to God I say because the Confession of our sins to men is not generally speaking a Condition of the forgiveness of them but only in some particular cases when our sins against God are accompanied and complicated with scandal and injury to men In other cases the Confession of our sins to men is not necessary to the pardon of them as I shall more fully shew in the progress of this Discourse All the difficulty in this matter is that the Confession of our sins is opposed to the covering and concealing of them he that covereth his sin shall not prosper but whoso confesseth them shall have mercy but no man can hope to hide his sin from God and therefore confession of them to God cannot be here meant But this Objection if it be of any force quite excludeth Confession to God as no part of Solomon's meaning when yet Confession of our sins to God is granted on all hands to be a necessary Condition of the forgiveness of them And to take away the whole ground of this Objection men are said in Scripture when they do not confess their sins and repent of them to hide and conceal them from God Not to acknowledge them is as if a man went about to cover them And thus David opposeth confession of sins to God to the hiding of them Psal 32.5 I acknowledged my sin unto thee and mine iniquity have I not hid I said I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord so that this is no reason why the Text should not be understood of the Confession of our sins to God But because the necessity of confessing our sins to men that is to the Priest in order to the forgiveness of them is a great point of difference between us and the Church of Rome it being by them esteemed a necessary Article of Faith but by us so far from being necessary to be believed that we do not believe it to be true therefore for the clear stating of this matter I shall briefly enquire into these Two things I. Whether Confession of our sins to the Priest as taught and practised in the Church of Rome be necessary to the forgiveness of them II. How far the disclosing and revealing of our sins to the Ministers of God is convenient upon other accounts and for other purposes of Religion I. Whether Confession of our sins to the Priest and the manner in which it is taught and practised in the Church of Rome be necessary to the forgiveness of them What manner of Confession this is the Council of Trent hath most precisely determined viz. Secret Confession to the Priest alone of all and every mortal sin which upon the most diligent search and examination of our Consciences we can remember our selves to be guilty of since our Baptism together with all the Circumstances of those sins which may change the nature of them because without the perfect knowledge of these the Priest cannot make a judgment of the nature and quality of mens sins nor impose fitting Penance for them This is the Confession of sins required in the Church of Rome which the same Council of Trent without any real ground from Scripture or Ecclesiastical Antiquity doth most confidently affirm to have been instituted by our Lord and by the Law of God to be necessary to salvation and to have been always practised in the Catholick Church I shall as briefly as I can examine both these Pretences of the Divine Institution and Constant Practice of this kind of Confession First For the Divine Institution of it they mainly rely upon three Texts in the first of which there is no mention at all of Confession much less of a particular Confession of all our sins with the Circumstances of them in the other two there is no mention of Confession to the Priest and yet all this ought clearly to appear in these Texts before they can ground a Divine Institution upon them for a Divine Institution is not to be founded upon obscure Consequences but upon plain words The First Text and the only one upon which the Council of Trent grounds the Necessity of Confession is John 20.23 Whosesoever sins ye remit they are remitted and whosesoever sins ye retain they are retained It is a sign they were at a great loss for a Text to prove it when they are glad to bring one that hath not one word in it concerning Confession nor the least intimation of the necessity of it But let us see how they manage it to their purpose The Apostles and their Successors saith Bellarmine by this power of remitting and retaining sins are constituted Judges of the case of Penitents but they cannot judge without hearing the Cause and this infers particular Confession of sins to the Priest from whence he concludes it necessary to the forgiveness of sins But do not the Ministers of the Gospel exercise this power of remitting sins in Baptism And yet particular Confession of all sins to the Priest is not required no not in the Church of Rome in the Baptism of adult Persons And therefore according to them particular Confession of sin to the Priest is not necessary to his exercising the power of remitting sins and consequently the necessity of Confession cannot be concluded from this Text. And to shew how they are puzled in this matter Vasquez by a strange device concludes the necessity of Confession from the power of retaining sins for says he if the Priest have a power of retaining sins that is of denying Pardon and Absolution to the Penitent then he may impose Confession as a Condition of forgiveness and not absolve the Penitent upon other terms But supposing the Priest to have this unreasonable power this makes Confession no otherwise necessary by Divine Institution than going to Jerusalem or China is in order to the forgiveness of our sins or submitting to any other foolish condition that the Priest thinks fit to require for according to this way of reasoning this power of retaining sins makes every foolish thing that the Priest shall impose upon the Penitent to be necessary by Divine Command and Institution But the truth is this power of remitting and retaining sins is exercised by the Ministers of the Gospel in the administration of the Sacraments and the preaching of the Gospel which is call'd the word of reconciliation the ministry whereof is committed to them And thus the ancient Fathers understood it and as a great Divine told them in the Council of Trent it was perhaps never expounded by any one Father concerning the
of it Such is the unspotted Purity and Perfection of the Divine Nature that it is not possible that God should give the least countenance to any thing that is Evil. Psal 5.4 5. Thou art not a God says David there to him that hast Pleasure in iniquity neither shall evil dwell with thee The wicked shall not stand in thy sight thou hatest all the workers of iniquity 5. We are ashamed likewise to do any thing that is Evil and unseemly before those who we are afraid will publish our faults to others and will make known and expose the folly of them Now whenever we Sin it is before him who will most certainly one day bring all our works of darkness into the open light and expose all our secret deeds of dishonesty upon the publick Stage of the World and make all the vilest of our actions known and lay them open with all the shameful Circumstances of them before men and Angels to our everlasting Shame and Confusion This is the meaning of that Proverbial Speech so often used by our Saviour There is nothing cover'd that shall not be revealed neither hid that shall not be made manifest All the Sins which we now commit with so much caution in secret and dark retirements shall in that great day of Revelation when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed be set in open view and in so full and strong a light that all the World shall see them and that which was plotted and contrived in so much secrecy and hardly whisper'd in this World shall then be proclaimed aloud and as it were upon the House-tops 6. and Lastly We are ashamed and afraid to commit a fault before those who we believe will call us to an account for it and Punish us severely A Man may suffer innocently and for a good Cause but all suffering in that case is by wise and good men esteemed honourable and glorious and tho' we are Condemned by men we are acquitted in our own Consciences But that which is properly called Punishment is always attended with Infamy and Reproach because it always supposeth some fault and crime as the ground and reason of it Hence it is that in this World men are not only afraid but ashamed to commit any fault before those who they think have Authority and Power to punish it He is an impudent Villain indeed that will venture to cut a Purse in the presence of the Judge Now when ever we commit any Wickedness we do it under the Eye of the great Judge of the World who stedfastly beholds us and whose Omnipotent Justice stands by us ready armed and charged for our Destruction and can in a moment cut us off Every sin that we are guilty of in thought word or deed is all in the presence of the Holy and Just and Powerful God whose Power enables him and whose Holiness and Justice will effectually engage him one time or other if a timely Repentance doth not prevent it to inflict a terrible Punishment upon all the Workers of iniquity You see then by all that hath been said upon this Argument how shameful a thing sin is and what Confusion of face the reflection upon our wicked Lives ought to cause in all of us What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed If ever we be brought to true Repentance for our sins it cannot but be matter of great Shame to us We find in Scripture that shame doth continually accompany Repentance and is inseparable from it This is one Mark and Character of a true Penitent that he is ashamed of what he hath done Thus Ezra when he makes Confession of the sins of the People he testifies and declares his Shame for what they had done I said O my God! I am ashamed and blush to lift up mine Eyes to thee my God for our iniquities are increased over our Heads and our trespasses are grown up to the Heavens Ezra 9.6 And may not we of this Nation at this day take these words unto our selves considering to what a strange height our sins are grown and how iniquity abounds among us So likewise the Prophet Jeremiah when he would express the Repentance of the People of Israel Jer. 3.25 We lye down says he in our shame and our Confusion covereth us because we have sinned against the Lord our God In like manner the Prophet Daniel after he had in the Name of the People made an humble acknowledgment of their manifold and great Sins he takes shame to himself and them for them Dan. 9.5 We have sinned says he and have committed iniquity and have done wickedly and have rebelled in departing from thy Precepts and from thy Judgments O Lord righteousness belongeth to thee but unto us confusion of face as at this day to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and unto all Israel that are near and that are far off through all the Countries whither thou hast driven them because of their trespass which they have trespassed against thee O Lord To us belongeth confusion of face to our Kings to our Princes and to our Fathers because we have sinned against thee By which we may judge how considerable and essential a part of Repentance this Holy Man esteemed shame for the sins they had been guilty of to be And indeed upon all occasions of solemn Repentance and Humiliation for sin this taking shame for their sins is hardly ever omitted as if there could be no sincere Confession of sin and Repentance for it without testifying their shame and Confusion of face upon the remembrance of their sins Now to stir up this affection of shame in us let me offer to you these three Considerations I. Consider what great reason we have to be heartily ashamed of all the sins and offences which we have been guilty of against God It was a good old Precept of Philosophy that we should reverence our selves i. e. that we should never do any thing that should be matter of Shame and Reproach to us afterwards nothing that misbecomes us and is unworthy of us I have shewn at large that all Sin and Vice is a dishonour to our Nature and beneath the Dignity of it that it is a great reproach to our Reason and directly contrary to our true and best Interest that it hath all the aggravating circumstances of Infamy and Shame that every sin that was at any time committed by us was done in the presence of one whom of all Persons in the World we have most Reason to reverence and against him to whom of all others we stand most obliged for the greatest Favours for innumerable Benefits for infinite Mercy and Patience and Forbearance towards us in the presence of the Holy and Just God who is at the farthest distance from sin and the greatest and most implacable Enemy to it in the whole World and who will one day punish all our faults and expose us to open shame
himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works and herein the great Mercy and Compassion of God towards Mankind appeared in that he sent his Son to rescue us from that Servitude which we had so long groaned under that being made free from sin we might become the servants of God and the servants of righteousness And this he hath done not only by the price of his Blood but by the Power and Purity of his Doctrine and the Holy Example of his Life and by all those Considerations which represent to us the Misery of our sinful state and the infinite danger of continuing in it and on the other Hand by setting before us the Advantages of a Religious and Holy Life and what a blessed change we make when we quit the Service of Sin and become the Servants of God It will not only be a mighty present Benefit to us but will make us happy to all Eternity and these are the Two Considerations which at first I propounded to speak to at this time First The present Benefit of an Holy and Virtuous Life which the Apostle here calls Fruit But now being made free from sin and become the servants of God ye have your fruit unto holiness Secondly The future Reward and Recompence of it and the end everlasting life First Let us consider the present Benefit and Advantage of an Holy and Virtuous Life which the Apostle here calls Fruit. If all things be truly consider'd there is no Advantage comes to any Man by a wicked and vicious Course of Life A wicked Life is no present Advantage the reflection upon it afterwards is shameful and troublesom and the end of it miserable But on the contrary the Advantages of an holy and good life are many and great even in this World and upon temporal accounts abstracting from the Consideration of a future Reward in the World to come I shall instance in Five or Six eminent Advantages which it usually brings to men in this World I. It brings great Peace and Contentment of Mind II. It is a very fit and proper Means to promote our outward temporal Interest III. It tends to the lengthning our days and hath frequently the Blessing of long Life attending upon it IV. It gives a Man great Peace and Comfort when he comes to die V. After Death it transmits a good Name and Reputation to Posterity VI. It derives a Blessing upon our Posterity after us And these are certainly the greatest Blessings that a wise Man can aim at and design to himself in this World Every one of these taken severally is very considerable but all of them together compleat a Man's temporal Felicity and raise it to as high a pitch as is to be expected in this World I. A Religious and Virtuous course of Life is the best way to Peace and Contentment of Mind and does commonly bring it And to a wise Man that knows how to value the ease and satisfaction of his own Mind there cannot be a greater temptation to Religion and Virtue than to consider that it is the best and only way to give rest to his Mind And this is present Fruit and ready Payment because it immediately follows or rather accompanies the discharge of our Duty The fruit of righteousness is peace saith the Prophet and the Apostle to the Hebrews speaks of the peaceable fruits of righteousness meaning that inward Peace which a Righteous Man hath in his own Mind A Man needs not to take pains or to use many Arguments to satisfie and content his own Mind after he hath done a good Action and to convince himself that he hath no cause to be troubled for it for Peace and Pleasure do naturally spring from it Nay not only so but there is an unexpressible kind of pleasure and delight that flows from the testimony of a good Conscience Let but a Man take care to satisfie himself in the doing of his Duty and whatever troubles and storms may be raised from without all will be clear and calm within For nothing but guilt can trouble a Man's Mind and fright his Conscience and make him uneasie to himself that indeed will wound his Spirit and sting his very Soul and make him full of fearful and tormenting thoughts This Cain found after he had committed that crying sin of Murdering his Brother Gen. 4.6 The Lord said unto Cain why art thou wrath and why is thy Countenance fall'n His guilt made him full of wrath and discontent fill'd his Mind with vexation and his Countenance with shame and confusion When a Man's conscience is awakened to a sense of his guilt it is angry and froward and harder to be still'd than a peevish Child But the practice of Holiness and Virtue does produce just the contrary effects it fills a Man's Mind with Pleasure and makes his Countenance chearful And this certainly if it be well consider'd is no small and contemptible advantage The peace and tranquillity of our Minds is the great thing which all the Philosophy and Wisdom of the World did always design to bring men to as the very utmost happiness that a Wise Man is capable of in this Life and 't is that which no considerate Man would part with for all that this World can give him The greatest fortune in this World ought to be no temptation to any Man in his Wits to submit to perpetual Sickness and Pain for the gaining of it and yet there is no disease in the World that for the sharpness of it is comparable to the sting of a guilty Mind and no pleasure equal to that of Innocence and a good Conscience And this naturally springs up in the Mind of a good Man where it is not hindred either by a melancholy temper or by false Principles in Religion which fill a Man with groundless fears and jealousies of the love and favour of God towards him and excepting these two cases this is the ordinary fruit of an holy and good course which is not interrupted by frequent falling into sin and great omissions and violations of our duty For in this case the interruptions of our Peace and Comfort will naturally be answerable to the inequality of our Obedience II. Besides the present and inestimable Fruit of Holiness the quiet and satisfaction of our own Minds it is likewise a proper means to promote our Interest and Happiness in this World For as every Vice is naturally attended with some Temporal Inconvenience of Pain or Loss so there is no Grace or Virtue but does apparently conduce to a Man's temporal Felicity There are some Virtues which tend to the health of his Body and the prolonging of his Life as Temperance and Chastity others tend to Riches and Plenty as Diligence and Industry in our callings others to the secure and peaceable Enjoyment of what we have as Truth and Fidelity Justice and Honesty in all our dealings and
Penitent here described in the Text takes up I will not offend any more That which I see not teach thou me and if I have done iniquity I will do no more He resolves against all known Sin I will not offend any more and if through Ignorance he had sinned and done contrary to his Duty he desires to be better instructed that he may not offend again in the like kind That which I see not teach thou me and if I have done iniquity I will do no more So that the true Penitent resolves upon these two things 1. To forsake his Sin And 2. To return to God and his Duty 1. To forsake his Sin and this implies the quitting of his sinful Course whatever it had been and that not only by abstaining from the outward act and practice of every Sin but by endeavouring to crucifie and subdue the inward Affection and Inclination to it And it implies farther the utter forsaking of Sin for Repentance is not only a Resolution to abstain from Sin for the present but never to return to it again Thus Ephraim when he repented of his Idolatry he utterly renounced it saying What have I to do any more with Idols Hos 14.8 He that truly repents is resolved to break off his sinful Course and to abandon those Lusts and Vices which he was formerly addicted to and lived in 2. The true Penitent resolves likewise to return to God and his Duty he does not stay in the negative part of Religion he does not only resolve not to commit any Sin but not to neglect or omit any thing that he knows to be his Duty and if he has been ignorant of any part of his Duty he is willing to know it that he may do it he is not only determined to forsake his Sin which will make him miserable but to return to God who alone can make him happy he is now resolved to love God and to serve him as much as he hated and dishonoured him before and will now be as diligent to perform and practise all the Duties and Parts of Religion as he was negligent of them before and as ready to do all the good he can to all men in any kind as he was careless of these things before these in general are the things which a true Penitent resolves upon I proceed to the III. Thing I proposed to consider namely what is implyed in a sincere Resolution of leaving our Sins and returning to God and our Duty And this holy Resolution if it be thorow and sincere does imply in it these three things 1. That it be Universal 2. That it be a Resolution of the Means as well as of the End 3. That it presently come to effect and be speedily and without delay put in Execution 1. A sincere Resolution of amendment must be universal a Resolution to forsake all Sin and to return to our whole Duty and every part of it such a Resolution as that of holy David to hate every false way and to have respect to all God's Commandments This Resolution must be universal in respect of the whole Man and with regard to all our Actions in respect of the whole Man for we must resolve not only to abstain from the outward Action of Sin but this Resolution must have its effect upon our inward Man and reach our very hearts and thoughts it must restrain our inclinations and mortifie our lusts and corrupt affections and renew us in the very spirit of our minds as the Apostle expresses it And it must be universal in respect of all our Actions For this is not the Resolution of a sincere Penitent to abstain only from gross and notorious from scandalous and open Sins but likewise to refrain from the Commission of those Sins which are small in the esteem of men and not branded with a Mark of publick Infamy and Reproach to forbear Sin in secret and when no Eye of Man sees us and takes notice of us This is not a sincere Resolution to resolve to practice the Duties and Virtues of Religion in publick and to neglect them in private to resolve to perform the Duties of the first Table and to pass by those of the second to resolve to serve God and to take a liberty to defraud and cozen men to honour our Father which is in Heaven and to injure and hate our Brethren upon Earth to love our Neighbour and to hate our Enemy as the Jews did of old time to resolve against Swearing and to allow our selves the liberty to speak falsely and to break our Word to flee from Superstition and to run into Faction to abhor Idols and to commit Sacriledge to resolve to be devout at Church and deceitful in our Shops to be very scrupulous about lesser matters and to be very zealous about indifferent things to tithe mint and anise and cummin and to omit the weightier matters of the Law Mercy and Fidelity and Justice to be very rigid in matters of Faith and Opinion but loose in Life and Practice No the Resolution of a sincere Penitent must be universal and uniform it must extend alike to the forbearing of all Sin and the exercise of every Grace and Virtue and to the due Practice and Performance of every part of our Duty The true Penitent must resolve for the future to abstain from all Sin to be holy in all manner of Conversation and to abound in all the fruits of righteousness which by Jesus Christ are to the praise and glory of God For if a Man do truly repent of his wicked Life there is the very same Reason why he should resolve against all Sin as why he should resolve against any why he should observe all the Commandments of God as why he should keep any one of them For as St. James reasons concerning him that wilfully breaks any one Commandment of God that he is guilty of all and breaks the whole Law because the Authority of God is equally stampt upon all his Laws and is violated and contemned by the wilful transgression of any one of them For he that hath said thou shalt not kill hath likewise said thou shalt not commit adultery and thou shalt not steal so he that resolves against any one Sin or upon Performance of any one part of his Duty ought for the very same reason to make his Resolution universal because one Sin is Evil and Provoking to God as well as another and the Performance of one part of our Duty good and pleasing to him as well as another and there is no difference So that he that resolves against any Sin upon wise and reasonable gounds because of the Evil of it and the danger of the wrath of God to which it exposeth us ought for the same reason to resolve against all Sin because it is damnable to commit adultery and to steal as well as to kill and that Resolution against Sin which is not universal it is a plain Case that it
is not true and sincere and that it was not taken up out of the sense of the intrinsical evil of Sin and the danger of it in respect of God and the Judgment of another World for this Reason holds against every Sin and remains always the same but that it was taken up upon some inferior Consideration either because of the Shame and Infamy of it among men or because of some other temporal inconvenience which if the Man could be secur'd against he would presently break his Resolution and return to the Commission of that Sin with as much freedom as any other 2. A sincere Resolution implies a Resolution of the Means as well as of the End He that is truly and honestly resolved against any Sin is likewise resolved to avoid as much as is possible the Occasions and Temptations which may lead or draw him to that Sin or if they happen to present themselves to him he is resolved to stand upon his Guard and to resist them In like manner he that sincerely resolves upon doing his Duty in any kind must resolve upon the Means that are requisite and necessary to the due Discharge and Performance of that Duty As he that resolves against that needless and useless Sin of Swearing in common Conversation must resolve also to set a guard before the door of his lips seeing it is certain that it requires great care and attention at least for some competent time to get rid of a habit When David resolved not to offend with his Tongue he resolved at the same time to be very watchful over himself Psal 39.1 I said I will take heed to my ways that I offend not with my Tongue I will keep my mouth as with a bridle while the wicked is before me For a Man to resolve against any Sin or Vice and yet to involve himself continually in the occasions and to run himself into the Company and Temptation which do naturally and will almost necessarily lead and betray him into those Sins is a plain evidence of insincerity This I take for a certain rule that whatever can reasonably move a Man to resolve upon any End will if his Resolution be sincere and honest determine him every whit as strongly to use all those Means which are necessary in order to that end But of this I have spoken elsewhere 3. A sincere Resolution of leaving our Sins and returning to God and our Duty does imply the present time and that we are to resolve speedily and without delay to put this Resolution in practice that we are peremptorily determined not to go one step farther in the ways of Sin not to neglect any Duty that God requires of us not for one moment but immediately and forthwith to set upon the practice of it so soon as occasion and oportunity is offer'd to us And the Reason of this is evident Because the very same Considerations that prevail upon any Man to take up this Resolution of amendment and changing the Course of his Life are every whit as prevalent to engage him to put this Resolution presently in practice and execution I deny not but a Man may resolve upon a thing for the future and when the time comes may execute his Resolution and this Resolution may for all that be very sincere and real tho' it was delayed to a certain time because he did not see Reason to resolve to do the thing sooner But it cannot be so in this Case of Repentance because there can no good Reason be imagined why a Man should resolve seven years hence to change his Course and break off his sinful Life but the very same Reason will hold as strongly why he should do it presently and without delay and over and besides this there are a great many and powerful Reasons and Considerations why he should rather put this good Resolution in present Execution than put it off and defer it to any farther time whatsoever What is it that puts thee upon this Resolution of leaving thy Sins and urgeth thee to do it at all Art thou resolved to leave Sin because it is so great an Evil Why it is so for the present the Evil of it is intrinsical to it and cleaves to the very Nature of it and is never to be separated from it so that this is a present Reason and as strong against it now as ever it will be hereafter nay it is stronger at present because if it be so great an Evil the sooner we leave it the better Or dost thou resolve to forsake Sin because thou art apprehensive of the danger and mischief of it that it will expose thee to the wrath of God and to the endless and intolerable Misery of another World Why this Reason likewise makes much more for the present leaving of it because the longer thou continuest in a sinful and impenitent state the greater is thy danger and the greater Penalty thou wilt most certainly incur by delaying to put this good Resolution in Practice thou dost increase and multiply the Causes of thy Fear For hereby thou provokest God more and every day dost incense his wrath more and more against thee thou preparest more and more fewel for everlasting burnings and treasurest up for thy self more wrath against the day of wrath and the Revelation of the righteous Judgment of God Nay thou dost not only increase and aggravate but thou dost hereby hasten thine own Misery and Ruine and takest the most effectual Course that is possible to bring thine own Fears and the Vengeance of Almighty God so much the sooner upon thee For nothing provokes God to take a speedier course with sinners and does more quicken the pace of his Judgments than wilful continuance in Sin And yet farther If thy Resolution be valuable and considerable to thee thou takest the most effectual course in the World to frustrate and defeat it Thou art fully resolved to leave thy Sins hereafter and thou thinkest thou hast Reason for it but by continuing in them for the present thou provokest the Justice of almighty God to cut thee off before thy Resolution hath taken effect Again Dost thou resolve to leave thy Sins one time or other because thereby thou hopest to put thy self into a Capacity of Pardon and Mercy and of Eternal Life and Happiness Why this Reason should move thee to do the thing as soon as is possible because the sooner thou forsakest thy Sins thou hast the greater hope of finding Mercy and Forgivness with God and the sooner thou beginnest a Holy Course and the longer thou continuest therein thou hast Reason to expect a greater and more ample Reward Thou canst not by holding off hope to bring down Pardon and Mercy to lower Rates and to obtain these hereafter upon easier Terms no the Terms and Conditions of God's Mercy are already fixt and establish'd so as never to be alter'd So that whatever Reason thou canst possibly allege for taking up this Resolution it is