there are that doe ioy to make long and large accounts of their leaudnesse feeding their delights with their liues past as the dogge returneth to smell of his cast gorge and the horse to his doung yea when by Confession they haue disgorged their sinne they presently with the dogge licke vp their vomit againe Others there are that are fully set vpon sinne in confessing As those Israelites that said we haue sinned we will goe vp As much as to say wee haue Deut. 1 41. sinned we will sinne for God forbad them flatly to goe vp Others there are that as the Papists presume to sinne because of confession thinking by it to bee eased as the drunkard by vomiting And though some in their good moodes may seeme in confession verily to purpose amendment yet these are no sound no settled no sincere and honest purposes but sudden flashings conceiued by their deceitfull hearts rather to auoyd the iudgements felt or feared then truely to please God But wee in our confession must imitate that good Shecaniah who in confessing sinne entred into Couenant Ezra 10. 2. 3. with the Lord against the sinne confessed We haue sinned now therefore let vs enter into couenant with the Lord. Otherwise confession the remedy against sin is turned into sin The remedy encreaseth the disease Some of the Heathen in the daies of sacrifice to their Idols for health did riotously banquet to the preiudice of their health So to too many of vs in the very selfe same dayes we confesse our sins wee runne afresh to our sinnes And God in his iust iudgement punishes hypocriticall confession with a further greedinesse of sinning When the heart is not rent with the garments the rending of the garments sowes the sinne faster together when the heart and conscience is not knocked together with the brest that knocking will neuer batter sin but consolidate and compact it more firmely together Tundens pertus non corrigens vitia ea consolidat Aug. it will be as the knocking of a naile which driues it further in In the next place to Confession wee must ioyne 2. In Deprecation Deprecation with strong cries crauing pardon euen as the poore hunger-bitten begger does an almes or as the cast malefactour pleads for his life at the barre before the Iudge Thus did Dauid Haue mercy vpon me ô Lord according to the multitude of thy compassions Psal 51. c. And Daniel O Lord heare ô Lord Dan. 9. forgiue againe and againe repeating his cries In these penitentiall prayers we may note these two things First that they be deepely serious the guilty theefe pleading for his life goes not about to entertaine the Iudges eares with quaint phrases and fine words but he studies to shew the passion and affection of his heart There are some lusty beggars that in begging will keepe a flourishing in their Rhetoricke such as it is A wise man will neuer be moued to compassionate them Hee will thinke they are not throughly hungerbitten they would vse another kind of dialect then and leaue their fooleries and fall to humble and pittiful complaints and groanes As Salomon saies The poore man speaketh supplications so the repenting sinner Prou. 18. beeing poore in spirit speakes supplications The best flowers he can garnish his prayers with are his sighes his sobbes his groanes his cries This is the Rhetoricke of repentance in prayer The affectation of carnall eloquence in prayer shewes there is little repentance in such praiers 2 That oftentimes affection in them is so strong that wordes faile Rom. 8. 26. Dauid when Nathan had wounded him cryed out I haue sinned Why will some say did he not go on and craue pardon his inward griefe was such that hee could not in wordes in desire of heart hee did his heart was full and the seedes of the 51. Psalme were then in his breast So the Publicane said no more but Lord be mercifull to me a sinner yet there was affection Luke 18. meditation enough to haue spent a whole day in prayer and not onely to furnish that one short sentence Lord be mercifull Some haue more words then matter in their prayers but humbled repentants haue more matter then wordes and so are streighted as great throngs of people pressing out at some narrow passage sticke fast and cannot goe forward but very slowly Some are very short in praier for want of matter and affection but repenting sinners are short because of the aboundance of matter and affection being as full vessells that doe not runne presently at the first piercing or as the flesh that in deeper wounds bleeds not presently Thus was it with the repenting prodigall he purposed to speake thus and thus to his Father Luc. 15. Namely Father I haue sinned c. make mee but as one of thy hired seruants Now this last clause he leaues out when he comes to his Father by reason his heart was so surcharged with griefe his passions drunke vp his speech as wee see how Christs teares made his speech broken and imperfect Luk. 19 41. And fit it is indeede there should bee this sweete harmony betwixt the repenting sinners heart and tongue his broken heart and his broken prayers The vse Seeing the practise of true humiliation consisteth in these exercises of Confession and deprecation let vs in Gods feare buckle to the serious practise of them Hast thou sinned Suffer not sinne to lye vpon thy conscience Cast vp thy confession suffer not the impostumation any longer to paine thee with the swelling but giue a vent to the humor and so get ease Dauid professeth that neither in silence nor in roaring hee could finde any ease till he came to confession But I thought I would confesse and then thou forgauest Among men indeede Psal 32 Deo peccatum dicere sufficit et solicitur In hominibus vero contrarium peniâ—us cum peccatores confessi fuerint tunc magis puniuÌ„tur Chrysost ad pop Ant. hom 3. 1. Iohn 1. 2. Sam. 24. in their Courts confession brings no such priuilege there confesse and bee hanged after confession followes condemnation but here confession and iustification goe together If we confesse God is faithfull to forgiue it must needs be some special seruice which God promiseth so great a reward vnto Dauid after his sinne of numbring the people proueth himselfe to be Gods seruant because he confessed it Take away the trespasse of thy seruant yea but how darest thou call thy selfe Gods seruant who hast so lately and so grieuously sinned He answers for I haue done foolishly Though I am not his seruant in playing the foole yet in confessing my folly I am his seruant Iob among many fruits of obedience as Iustice Mercy Chastity whereby hee would proue himselfe Gods seruant reckons also this of Iob 31. confession If I haue hid my sinne as did Adam equalling the confession of his sinnes with the best of his vertues For as hee onely can
commeth yea and in humility attending vpon him and waiting for his comming in the exercises of the Word and prayer as they Acts 1. 4. 14. But how many may be charged as they Acts 7. 51. Yee stiffe-necked and of vncircumcised hearts and eares yee haue alwaies resisted the holy Ghost And therefore are ye so hard hearted and stiffe-necked because you haue resisted the holy Ghost when he would haue bowe your neckes and softened your heart 4. It is said to be a grace of the sanctifying spirit The sanctifying Spirit to distinguish it from the legall repentance that is sometime in the reprobate hauing receiued the spirit of bondage vnto feare for this repentance is a fruit of an effectuall calling Ier. 31. 19. After I was conuerted I repented and so is peculiar to the regenerate And heereby also is it differenced from that blush and neere resemblance of Repentance which is in such reprobates as haue receiued the enlightning spirit 5. It followeth in the description whereby the In order of nature it is after Faith beleeuing sinner I make the subiect of Repentance to be a sinner for so doth Christ Matth. 9. shewing that such as are perfect neede Repentance no more then whole men do physick But withall I cal this sinner a beleeuing sinner to shew that faith must goe before Repentance as the ground and root thereof In time Faith and Repentance are both together but in the order of nature faith is first Reasons 1. Repentance and griefe for displeasing God by sinne necessarily argue the loue of God for a man would neuer grieue but rather reioyce at the offence of him whom he hates When Christ wept for Lazarus the Iewes sayd Loe how he loued him Ioh. 11. and Christ imputes the repenting teares of that sinnefull woman Luc. 7. to loue Much is forgiuen her for she loued much And wheras Acts 20. 21. Paul makes Faith and Repentance the summe of the Gospell the same Apostle 2. Tim. 1. 13. makes faith and loue the summe of it which shewes plainely that Repentance comes from loue and so consequently from faith because faith works by loue Gal. 5. 6. and it is impossible wee should euer loue God till by faith wee know our selues loued of God 2. Repentance beeing vnto life must needes bee drawen out of Christ the fountaine of all spirituall life and quickning grace So that a man must first receiue Christ before he can receiue Repentance or any grace from Christ Now faith is that which receiues Christ Ioh. 1. 12. 3. Repentance being the softning of our hearts and the changing of our natures how shall our stony harts bee molten but in Christs bloud and what can bathe them in that blood but faith And how shall such wilde oliue branches as wee be changed but by being engrafted into Christ as into the naturall Oliue And what can ingraft vs into him but faith 4. It is impossible that a man apprehending nothing in God but rigour and seuerity should euer relent toward him or come in and submit himselfe No there is mercy with thee ô Lord that thou mightest be feared Psal 130. This is it that brings in the sinner creeping and crouching before God as the Syrians to Ahab because they had heard the Kings of Israel were mercifull Christs 1. Kin. 20. 31. gracious aspect cast on Peter drew foorth the tears Gods gracious reuealing of himselfe not to the ear onely but eye also of Iob made him abhorre himselfe and repent Iob 42. 6. hence the exhortations to Repentance are founded commonly vpon the mercy of God in the Gospell as Ier. 3. 14. O yee disobedient children returne for I am your Lord. So Matt. 3. Repent for the Kingdome of Heauen is at hand in which Christ is ready to dispense mercy and forgiuenesse to the repenting sinner so Os 6. 1. Ioel 2. 13. Rom. 12. 1. 2. Cor. 7. 1. There must be faith then to apprehend at least some hope possibility of mercy or else the sinner will harden his heart and enrage his affections grow furiously desperate against the Lord. 5. As the legall Repentance cannot be without Faith beleeuing the threats of the Law so neither by like proportion can the Euangelicall Repentance bee without faith in the promises of the Gospell going before Ob. Mar. 1. 15. Repent and beleeue Repentance is set first and so Acts 20. 21. Answ 1. The order of placing things in Scripture is not alwayes according to the order of nature But sometimes one thing is set first which in order of nature is last as the effect before the cause and then the cause comes after to shew how wee should obtaine the effect As faith is set after a good conscience and pure heart 1 Tim. 1. 5. when yet it is faith that purifieth the heart Acts 15. So heere first repent and then that yee may repent beleeue 2. Things in Scripture are often propounded according to the order of our sense and feeling Now though faith in order of nature be first and the act of Faith before the Act of Repentance yet it is not so liuely and strong and so not so sensible to vs till after Repentance for the promises are made onely to repenting sinners Ob. Matth. 21. 32. Yee repented not that yee might beleeue Answ Sometimes then name of Repentance is giuen to the first preparatory beginnings and introductions thereof Now the preparations to Repentance are those legall fits of feare and terrour which are both in nature and time to before Faith The Vse 1. Against the Popish Repentance which is made to goe before mercy and forgiuenesse as a meritorious procurer thereof But as we haue seene Repentance is caused by the taste of Gods mercy by faith Therefore the Baptist exhorteth to repentance not that the Kingdome of Heauen may come as earned out by the sweat of pennance but because the Kingdome of Heauen is come Againe there cannot possibly bee any true repentance in Popery because repentance springeth from the particular apprehension of Gods mercy by faith which Popery cannot endure 2. Against the Libertines abusing Gods mercy and easinesse to forgiue vnto wantonnesse As the grace that Kings vse to shew against Parliaments makes many theeues But indeed they are beasts and no men that sin because of Gods mercy and it is an argument that they neuer by Faith tasted of Gods mercy in the pardon of their owne sinnes For they that feele much forgiuenesse loue much Luc. 7. If a man should tell a condemned Traytour that his Soueraigne would forgiue all his treasons and restore him to all his former dignities would not such mercy make his heart euen to melt and knit him faster in loue and duety then euer 3. Heere is comfort to all true Repentants that mourne for their sinnes and purpose a new course This repentance of theirs is an euident argument of their faith that hath tasted of the sweetnesse of Gods mercy or else their hearts would
euen in those things are most necessary and most neerely concerne vs we are most supine and secure and neede the goades of the strongest argument to pricke vs forward The motiues Two motiues to repentance then that may perswade vs are of two sorts 1. From the benefits of Repentance 2. From the euils of impenitency Out of these two heads shall spring the motiues following 1. For the benefits which come vnto us by Repentance 1. The benefits of Repentance Which are Exod. 15. Repentance indeed is bitter and many therefore distaste it as the Israelites did the bitter waters of Marah But if we shall consider the benefits that shall accrue vnto vs thereby we shall find them as the tree which the Lord shewed vnto Moses to sweeten and alay the bitternes therof Oh say some this repentance is an heauy a troublesom matter what good shall we get by our mourning mortification but depriue our selues of our pleasures Repentance is a very hell or at lest a Purgatory well be it that it be an hell yet it is such an hell as must bring thee out of hell in the Kingdome of Christ Repent sayth Iohn for the Kingdome of Heauen is at hand Our way to heauen is to goe by this hell And because men aske like those in the Prophet What profit shall wee haue and what Mal. 3. good if we doe repent wee will lay downe more particularly the benefits thereof They therfore consist principally in two things 1. In remoouing of euill 2. In bringing of Good 1. In remoouing euill The euils which are remooued by repentance are either of sinne or of punishment Repentance remooues 1. Of sinne in regard the euill of sinne two wayes 1. In regard of the sting 1. Of the sting 2. In regard of the staine 1. In regard of the sting The sting of sinne is the guilt of sinne in the conscience binding a man ouer to the wrath of God and filling the conscience full of terrour from the expectation of Gods vengeance Now the repenting sinner is freed from this guilt and from the sense of it in his conscience and hath the free and full remission of all his sinnes in the blood of Christ At what time Zach. 13. 1. soeuer a sinner shall repent him of his sinne I will blot out all his wickednesse out of my remembrance The same thing teaches Zachary In that day namely when as it is in the former chapter they shall mourne for their sinnes as for the losse of their first borne shall a fountaine be opened for sinne and vncleannesse They whose heads are fountaines of teares to bathe Christs feet in with Mary Magdalen shall haue Christs heart pierced to be a fountaine of blood to bathe their souls in and to wash away all their guiltinesse These two fountaines must goe together and when wee wash our selues in the one wee shall bee bathed in the other Our mercy to our sinnes breedes Gods seuerity as Ahabs foolish pity to Benhadad was cruelty 1. King 20. to himselfe but on the contrary our seuerity procures Gods mercy Our mercy to our sinnes preuents Gods mercy to our selues but if wee take reuenge vpon our selues in our repentance then will not God take reuenge vpon vs. The promises of remission to repentance are very frequent in Scripture So the Prophet Isay promises pardon to the Penitent Is 1. 16. 17. 18. Wash you make you cleane put away the euill of your workes from you that is to say Repent And then followes Though your sinnes were as crimson they shall be made white as snow c. that is to say you shall be pardoned and forgiuen Haue mercy on mee saith Psal 51. 1. 3. Dauid ô Lord now what is his argument to mooue God to mercy For I know mine iniquities and my sin is euer before me If we acknowledge our sinnes that is if men repent he is faithfull and iust to forgiue vs our 1. Ioh. 1. 9. sinnes Not that Repentance merits remission nor that it apprehends it for so onely fath brings remission but as it is a necessary attendant of faith in apprehending remission For when wee hold out the hand of faith to receiue Gods mercy wee doe it as beggers crying and lamenting our miseries And Faith lookes vpon Christ with a weeping and a repenting eye And therefore though it bee faith that doth apprehend mercy and pardon yet because this faith is a repenting faith yea euen then most of all repenting when it most of all apprehends mercy therefore it is that that the promise of pardon is made to repentance Hence Repentance and Remission of sinne are ioyned together by our Sauiour Luk. 24. 47. No Repentance no Remission Except yee Luk. 13. 3. repent yee shall all likewise perish so if Repentance then Remission Be it true Repentance though it be neuer so small there is Remission and so life eternall Hence Repentance is called Repentance Acts 11. 18. vnto life The Repenting sinner then is in a most happy case for hee hath his sinnes pardoned and so title to Heauen So that if a man dies in Repentance he dies in the state of saluation and so goes to heauen For looke what way wee are turned when we dye thither goe wee as the tree fals that way wherto it inclined bowed when it stood on the ground Now Repentance as we haue seene is the turning of the heart to God so that if a man die with his face turned to God-ward to God hee goes But if he die in his irrepentance with his face turned from God to God he can neuer come Let this then perswade euery one as euer hee lookes to be saued to breake off his sinnes by Repentance The Papists lye when they teach vs that there are two wayes to Heauen The way of innocency and the way of penitency No there is but this one way of penitency by which euen the most holy must go for all haue sinned and onely the repenting sinners shall be saued And againe here is both exceeding great comfort to the repenting and terror to the impenitent sinner Are thy sinnes many and greeuous If they were as red as Scarlet yet if thou repent they shall bee made white as snow It is onely impenitency that damnes thee not murther not adultery not incest If thou canst repent of these these sinnes thou art safe when the streame of thy sinnes and the streame of Gods wrath fot thy sins come against thy soule let the streame of that water which issued out of Christs heart together with that streame which issueth out of thy repenting eyes meet it and they shall turne away the current of it away from thee The Physician is not so much offended with the loathsomnesse of the disease as with the contempt of his physick which he knows being taken would heale the disease Nor God so much with thy most odious sins as with this
TVVO TREATISES The one Of Repentance The other Of Christs Temptations Both penned By the late faithfull Minister of Gods worde DANIEL DYKE Batchelour in Diuinitie Published since his death by his Brother I D. Minister of Gods word MATTH 3. 2. Repent for the kingdome of God is at hand LONDON Printed by Edward Griffin for Ralph Mab and are to be sold in Paules Church-yard at the signe of the Greyhound 1616. TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE AND MOST VERTVOVS LADY the Lady Harrington RIGHT HONOVRABLE THe Lord hath not left himselfe without many witnesses to call vpon vs for the same worke for the which this worke doth call An argument that people are backward and the duty necessary If either the men were more forward or the duty lesse important Quorsum haec profusio To what end were this waste What needed this waste of paper and inke nay of the spirits and lungs of Gods messengers crying earely and late if people were not too late in that duty wherein they cannot bee too earely It was not for nothing that our Sauiour yoakes these two petitions together Giue vs this day c. And forgiue vs our trespasses Surely me thinkes hee teaches vs that so long as wee haue neede to say Giue so long we haue neede to say forgiue and that daily repentance is as necessary for the soule as daily sustenance for the body And yet such is the worlds folly that while they make one to be of an absolute necessity they shuffle off the other as a matter of indifferency at least conceit it not of that present necessity which we vrge Most deale with Repentance as countrey people with Physicians they loue not to haue to doe with them till they feare they are gasping their last breath and conceit as great an efficacie in these fiue words Lord haue mercy vpon me spoken with their last breath for the translation of their soules into heauen as the Papists do of their fiue words of consecration for the transubstantiation of their hoste Nay without question many thinke of their Repentance before their death as diuerse ridiculously doe of making their wils That if they make their wils in their health it is an ominous presage of their death That because many make not their wils but when they die therfore they must needes shortly die if they make their wils The like thinke many of Repenting in their life time that because most make it a death-bed duty therefore to doe this duty will hasten them to their death And so many fearing it in their life are denied it at their death But for the necessity the worth the speede of the practise of this duty I spare to speake ought It is the summe of the following Treatise A Treatise not of mine own but of his whose labours need not feare the light Many and worthy indeede are the labours of others that are extant vpon this argument and indeede so many that amongst such a multitude I should scarce haue aduentured this small Treatise if the generall gracious acceptance of his former works which I published had not made way for it The kinde welcome that it found at the hands of most seemed to promise that these present labors should not be fruitlesse Thereupon I tooke heart both to perfect and to publish this Treatise And being perfected I haue made bolde to commend it to your La. By your patronage the worke may receiue grace from you and by your diligent perusall of it you may receiue encrease of grace from it The Lord grace you with all spiritall blessings till hee bring you to Glory the perfection of Grace Epping in Essex April 18. Your Honours to be commanded IER DYKE A TREATISE OF REPENTANCE CHAP. I. What Repentance is THere is no one point in practicall Diuinity of greater consequence then this of Repentance A naile that all the Sermons both of Prophets and Apostles were continually hammering Christ himselfe as he continually beat vpon it so in his last farwell ascending into heauen in speciall manner he commended the preaching and pressing thereof to his Disciples telling them that it was necessary that Repentance and Remission of sinnes should bee preached in Luk. 24 37. his name among all nations In which words Repentance hath a double commendation 1. That it is ioyned with remission of sinnes and that so that none can feele the sweet of it that feeles not the sowre of this 2. That it is made a doctrine fitting all sorts and conditions Some doctrines are for Gouernours some for Subiects some for Rich some for Poore some for young some for olde some for the wicked some for the godly some for the Court some for the Countrey but Repentance being for sinners I came to call sinners to Repentance Matth. 9. it is for all none can exempt himselfe from the reach thereof vnlesse withall hee can free himselfe from the touch of sinne Therfore it must be preached among all nations Repentance then neuer beeing vnseasonable surely not now when God what by our sinnes what by his iudgements calleth vnto weeping and mourning vnto baldnesse and girding with sacke-cloath Is 22. And yet behold ioy and gladnesse slaying of oxen and sheep Epicure-like eating of flesh and drinking of wine It is high time therefore both for Presse and Pulpit to ring lowde peales of this argument Which though it be much in many mens mouthes yet is it little in their reines being more spoken of then vnderstood and yet better vnderstood then practised better knowen then felt Wherfore for our more happy direction in it let vs first see what it is Now I thinke it may not amisse thus be described Repentance is a supernaturall grace of the sanctifying spirit wherby a beleeuing sinner so humbleth himselfe for sinne that hee turnes from it to the Lord. 1. I call it a Grace Some thinke it onely an action Repentance is a grace But that phrase Ezech. 12. 10. of powring the spirit of grace meaning Repentance on the house of Iudah seemes to argue it to be a quality or infused gift so as faith and charity are So also that phrase of giuing Repentance Acts 5. 31. and 11. 18. for if God giue it we receiue it Now wee cannot properly be sayd to receiue an action which wee doe but the power gift or grace whereby we do it That speech also Matth. 3. 8. Bring forth fruits worthy Repentance shewes that Repentance it selfe is not an outward action as the Papists would make it but an inward grace to bee expressed in outward actions 2. I call it a supernaturall grace not onely in regard Supernaturall of corrupt nature for so euery grace is supernaturall but also of innocent for though Adam before the fall had loue feare temperance c. yet Faith and Repentance had hee not for he needed them not This shewes that Repentance is not a Legall but an Euangelicall grace For all legall graces And therfore
into the teares of godly sorrow For after that in the Law we haue seene our miserable and desperate estate in our selues we should presently raue and rage against the Lord did hee not in this our extremity giue vs some hope and inckling of mercy presenting vnto our eye the infinite merits of Christ the indefinite promises of the Gospell calling all without exception to the fruition of those merits excluding none but such as exclude themselues and despise the grace that is offered them But when once mercy is tendred to vs that stand condemned in the Law and that onely vpon condition of our humble submissiue embracing of it Oh then the working of our bowels the stirring of our affections the melting relenting of our repenting hearts reasoning thus with themselues And is it so indeed hath the Lord giuen his owne Son to the death to saue sinners doth hee offer vs the benefit therof who hauing been such desperate Rebels against him stand cast and condemned euen in the sentence of our own consciences What marble brest what oaken heart is there whom such kindnes would not affect How can we chuse but out of loue and affection towards so sweet and gracious a God grieue that euer we haue so grieued him And now hath Contrition it perfect worke in vs when the bloud of the Lambe hath melted the Adamant and the Sun-shine of Gods loue in Christ hath thawen the ice of our hearts For before it was the feare of hell and so indeed selfe-loue and in a manner pride that humbled vs because we would not be miserable But now it is the loue of God that humbleth vs because of the wrong wee haue done him who hath done vs so much good Before it was the hatred onely of punishment that made vs to grieue but now it is the hatred of sin that brings the punishment and that specially because displeasing to the Lord our good God that causes all the trouble And thus we see in what order and by what degrees Contrition is wrought But heere certaine questions may be mooued Quest 1. Whether the sole threatnings and curses of the Law are not of themselues auaileable vnto true contrition forasmuch as Iosiahs heart melted in godly sorrow vpon the hearing of the 2. Chro. 34. 27 threatnings Answ Those threatnings were not meerely Legall but such as were qualified with some tincture of mercy in the Gospell Afflictions soften our hearts but how no otherwise then as we apprehend Gods mercy in them So did Iosiah apprehend mercy in those threatnings that they proceeded from Gods loue and so accounted them as the wounds of a friend and thence came the melting of his heart Dauid relented euen at Shemeies bitter reuilings but it was through the sense of Gods sweet mercy in them Quest 2. Whether God keepe the order spoken of constantly in humbling his children so that none can truely be grieued for sinne till they haue beene cast downe with legall terrours Answ 1. Many may haue the first degree of humiliation by the Law which neuer come to the second by the Gospell As Iudas Caine and other Reprobates vtterly ouerwhelmed with the terrors of the Law as children sometimes in the trauell are killed with the paines thereof before they can be borne But as there can bee no birth without the paines of the trauell going before so neither no true Repentance without some terrours of the Law and streights of conscience None can haue the second degree without the first The Reason is plaine None can haue Repentance but such as Christ cals to Repentance Now he cals onely sinners to Repentance Matth. 9. 13. euen sinners heauy laden with the sense of Gods wrath against sinne Math. 11. 29. He comes only to saue the lost sheep that is such sheep as feele themselues lost in themselues and know not how to find the way to the folde Rom. 8. 15. Yee haue not againe receiued the spirit of bondage vnto feare which shews that once they did receiue it namely in the very first preparation vnto conuersion that then the spirit of God in the Law did so beare witnesse vnto them of their bondage and miserable slauery that it made them to tremble Now there vnder the person of the Romans the Apostle speaks to all beleeuers and so shewes that it is euery Christians common case 2. Yet all are not handled alike Though none wholly scape yet some haue gentler fits then others and some are but sprinkled in this baptisme wherein others are euen doused ouer head and eares and some doe but sippe of that cuppe wherof others drinke to the very dregges It is with the trauell of a sinner in his Repentance as with a womans in child-birth None trauels heere without paine yet some are like those Hebrew women Exod. 1. and haue a farre quicker dispatch then many others Those conuerts Acts 2. in their Repentance had some grudgings and prickes of conscience but yet they had none of Iobs nor Dauids fits which held them many dayes together For the same Peter that wounded presently healed them and being filled with the ioy of the holy Ghost they comfortably conuersed with the Christians Matthew as it is thought at his first conuersion entertained Christ with a feast and so did Lydia the Apostles which they could not haue done if they had beene in any extremities of the agonies of conscience God applies himselfe heere to the seuerall natures conditions and dispositions of his children 1. Some haue beene more hainous sinners and of longer standing then the rest Now the more festred and dangerous the wound is the sharper must be the cure Some sores will as easily bee let out with the pricking of a pinne as others with the Surgeons launching The more viscous and glutinous the humour is the stronger must the purge be The greater the burthen is the greater will bee the paine of the backe Hence it was that Paul being a more hainous offender then the rest of the Apostles as being a malicious persecutor whereas they had beene honest and sober fishermen hence it was I say that hee tasted deeper of this cup then they as we see Acts 9. insomuch that he sayes the Law slew him Rom. 7. Hence also it is that such who in their tender yeeres by meanes of religious nurture haue beene seasoned with the grace of God dropping by little and little into them before any grosser defilement of actuall transgression doe not behold that grim and seuere countenance of the Law which those commonly see who stand idle to the twelfth houre 2. God meanes to employ some in more worthy seruices For the which hee sees it fit to prepare them by the deepest humiliation For the higher and greater the building is the deeper must the foundation be layd in the earth 3. Some are of greater places and parts then others some naturally of a more crabbed crooked disposition some more stout bold hardy then others
1. out of the belly of hell with Ionas call vpon God Euen when wounded by God they goe to him to Ion. 2. 2. be healed Come let vs returne to the Lord hee hath Hos 6. 1. wounded vs and he will heale vs. The Reprobate in hell weepe and waile and yet no godly sorrow there because they cannot crie to God Excellently Luther Hell were no hell if the least whispering vnto God could bee heard there Despaire stops the mouth of the Reprobate that they cannot speake one word to God in their deiections so as the godly do As Ionas complaining of God in the whales belly complaines yet to God Thou hast cast me out Whereas a Reprobate as Caluin notes would haue sayd He hath cast me away in the third person Heere then is further triall of our sorrow and Repentance if as Paul speakes in another case Wee mourne not without hope if as the Lord inuites vs we 1. Thess 4. Is 1. 18. Mar. 1. 15. can come and reason with him if as Christ commands wee repent and in repenting beleeue that as our sinne so also Gods mercy be euer before vs. The wicked as they beleeue without repenting their faith being presumption so they repent without beleeuing their repentance is desperation And therfore they mutter and murmure like the chaffe which when it is shaken flutters in the face of the fanner as angry with him But the Godly are good wheat falling downe at the feete of the fanner as those conuerts that humbled themselues and sought for ease of him that pricked them Men Acts 2. and brethren what shall we doe And the reason is because they haue faith supporting them that they sincke not in the Deepes of Desperation As in Dauid in the 51. Psalme when begging mercy his wounded conscience obiected the greatnesse of his sinnes faith opposeth the greatnesse and multitude of Gods mercies According to the multitudes of thy compassions And againe to that obiection of the deepe rooting of his sinne because hee had lien in it three quarters of a yeere Faith answers Wash me throughly There is no staine so deep but thy hand can fetch it out Heere Dauids faith plucked him out of the mire and made him come to the Lord clinging and clasping about him 3. Because it is offered vp to God as a seruice 3. It is voluntary and sacrifice and that with a free and voluntary spirit Psal 51. The sacrifices of God are a broken and contrite spirit The Godly are Agents in their sorrow For because it is mingled with the sense of ioy in the apprehension of Gods loue by faith they take delight therein and their teares become their meat Psal 42. This voluntarinesse of sorrow in the Godly appeares in two things 1. In the Vse of all good incentiues and prouokements thereof They worke and labour their hearts what they can thereto according to that commandement Iames 4. Suffer affliction And nothing grieues them more then that they cannot grieue But the wicked are meere patients in their sorrow because wanting faith to temper the cup they drinke nothing but pure gall yea deadly poison Hence those strugglings those wrastlings with and murmurings against God With the sturdy horse they irefully champ the bit and desire nothing more then to haue the deadly arrow fall out of our side Hence those so many sleights of their feasting musicke mirth pastime to driue away this so vnwelcome a ghuest Which the Godly haue both inuited and welcommed with sacke cloth ashes fasting going into the house of mourning rending of cloathes and powring foorth whole buckets of water as some expound that 1. Sam. 7. 6. 2. In turning euery thing vnto sorrow worldly not onely griefes but euen ioyes also According to that of Iames Let your laughter be turned into weeping that is let your laughter be made the matter of your weeping Let it bee the fuell to feede that fire So doth repenting Salomon Eccl 2. out of the hony of his abused pleasures hee gathers gall contrary to the Bee sucking sweetnesse out of bitternesse The pleasant witted man will turne euerie thing to a lest euen sad and serious but the touched sinner euery thing vnto sorrow euen sweete and ioyfull The practise of Bradford that worthy M. Samsons preface to his Sermon of Repentance Repentant in this kind was very memorable who to this purpose booked euery notable accident each day that passed and that so that in the penning a man might see the signes of his smitten heart For if he did see or heare any good in any man by that sight he found and noted the want thereof in himselfe crauing mercy and grace to amend If he did see or heare any plague and misery he noted it as a thing procured by his owne sinnes and still added Lord haue mercy on me 4. Because it keeps our hearts in a blessed frame 4. It fits for holy duties of godlinesse fitting them for prayer meditation reading hearing conference admonition or any other spirituall duty Worldly sorrow is a heauy leaden thing making a man fitter to sleepe then to pray as we see in Ionas and the Disciples But godly sorrow in the sense of Gods loue is fresh and liuely and full of spirits We neuer pray or performe any Christian duty better then when our hearts are fullest of this sorrow Againe it makes the heart exceeding soft and tender and so sensible euen of the least sinnes As Dauids heart smote him for cutting off but the lap of Sauls coate and for the entertainement of euill motions Why art thou disquieted why frettest thou my Psal 42. soule It makes the heart like the eye that will feele the least mote or like a straight shooe that cannot endure the least pebble stone which in a wide one would neuer be perceiued And thus we see the properties of true Sorrow or Contrition that it is both a louing Sorrow proceeding from the loue and affection of our hearts towards the Lord and a beleeuing Sorrow comming to God and fastening vpon his mercy and a willing and voluntary Sorrow delightfully bathing it selfe in her teares and lastly a soft and tender-hearted Sorrow working a disposition vnto deuotion And therefore woorthily called godly Sorrow And of the nature of humiliation so much CHAP. IV. Of the measure of Humiliation THe next point is touching the measure of Humiliation or Sorrow for sinne Where I 2. The measure of it propound three rules 1. Rule Of all other sorrowes sorrow for sin must be the greatest Reason 1. Griefe is founded in loue According as our loue is so is our griefe But our loue of God and his fauour is the greatest loue and therfore our griefe for his offence by sinne the greatest griefe Therefore as Dauid saies Thou hast giuen me Psalm 4. more ioy in the light of thy countenance then they haue had when their corne oile abounded So on the contrary must euery
tell his dreame that is awakened out of his dreame so he only can confesse his sinne that is truely and throughly awakened out of his sinne by the spirit of God farre are they from repentance who in stead of a free and childlike confession after their sinne are ready to vse shifts excuses extenuations minsings mittigations daubings with vntempered mortar nay that do sow cushions vnder their elbowes and lay pillowes vnder their heads that thy may sleepe securely in their sinnes A pittifull thing it is that whereas God hath giuen shame to sinne boldnesse to confession the matter should bee so inuerted Pudorem et vere undiam Deus dedit peccatâ— Confessioni fidutiam Inuertit rem Diabolus et peccato fiduciam praebet confessioni pudorem Non pudet peccare poeuitere pudet Chrys Iosh 7. 19. Dan 9. that men should be impudently bold in sinning and yet ashamed to confesse when they haue sinned Well in concealing thy sinne thou doest but keepe the Diuells counsell his secretary thou art whose pollicie it is thus to ouerthrow thee Hee knowes right well the next way for vs to get glory from God is to glorifie God And then doe wee glorifie him when by confession wee shame our selues According to that of Ioshua to Achan My sonne giue glory vnto God and of Daniel Glory to thee O Lord shame to vs. When man will not glorifie God by shaming himselfe God will glorifie himselfe by shaming man When man will not open his mouth to pleade against himselfe and his sinnes God will stop his mouth when hee would faine plead for himselfe before his iudgement seat and strike him dumbe that hee shall not haue one word to say in his own defence It is deceit enough that the Diuell should bring vs to sinne t is double deceit to make vs hide and excuse our sinnes and so to preuent vs of that mercy which is promised to simple and ingenious confession Hauing sinned therefore lay not in the way of Gods mercy the Noli opponere obicem defensionis sed aperi sinum confessionis Aug. Psal 51. 1. 2. 3. stumbling blocke of thine owne iustification but open the lap of thy confession to receiue it as Dauid doth Haue mercy vpon mee c. but why for I know or acknowledge my iniquity Well may hee open his lap to receiue Gods mercy that opens his mouth to confesse his owne misery Open thy mouth Psal 81. wide in hearty prayer and confession and I will fill it with the sense of fauour and mercy CHAP. VIII Of reall Humiliation THe expressing of our Humiliation in Deede 2. In deed followes And it consists in three sorts of actions 1. Such as respect our selues 2. Such as respect God 3. Such as respect our brethren 1. For our selues And that is the restraint of 1. In regard of our selues our selues in the vse of the comforts and pleasures of this life as meats mirth marriage musicke apparell company c. This restraint must be somtimes Ioel 2 15 16. 17. Exod. 33 4. in action when in more speciall sort we humble our selues in fasting but alwayes in affection so that we bee not deuoured and eaten vp of any earthly pleasure but may reioyce as though we reioyced 1. Corinth 7. not In wearing of sumptuous apparell bee no more puffed vp nor make any more reckoning of it then if it were sack-cloath in faring more dantily be no more prouoked to excesse in gluttony or to satisfying of our appetite then if we sate at a poore leane table Repentance is the sobriety of minde but wordly pleasures make the minde drunken This is the heauinesse spoken of Luc. 21. 34. Take heede lest your hearts bee oppressed with surfetting and drunkennesse It is a drunken heauinesse not the heauinesse of godly sorrow And indeed this is the reason that many are so eager in the pursuits of their pleasures because they would make Gods Sergeant their owne conscience that pursues them drunken with these pleasures iust as many men vse to doe getting the Sergeant that comes to arrest them into the Tauerne and there making him drunke that so they may escape This excesse that is in pleasures shewes how little men haue tasted of true humiliation If they did bathe themselues in salt teares could they bathe themselues in this sweet milke If they did consider what Christ suffred for their sinnes his want of all these outward comforts euen of an house to hide his head in his hunger thirst nakednesse his vineger on the crosse Could they so fill and glut themselues euen to satiety and surfet with the pleasures of this life and spend their whole precious time in them would they not rather steepe their owne dainties in this vineger of godly sorrow and delay this strong wine with this water and eate their meats as the Iewes their Passeouer with sowre hearbs If Exod. 12. their spirituall ioy in that Sacrament where Christ was giuen to the Beleeuer was to be seasoned with this sorrow how much more should this outward temporall ioy Thus did Dauid notably expresse his humiliation I cause my bed euery night to swimme Psal 6. 6. and water my couch with my teares His bedde is the place of his ease Now look how he qualefied that one ease and comfort so by proportion did he all the rest Not our beds onely but our boords our gardens our fine buildings all our delights must be washed with this water as good Bradford vsually at his dinner vsed to shed teares on his trencher So the woman Luc. 7. sate weeping and wiping while they were eating at table Ioseph of Arimathea makes his garden or place of pleasure to be a place of Humiliation by building a sepulcher therein Thus also doth Ieremie bring in the repenting sinner testifying his humiliation He sits Lam. 3. 28. alone retyring himselfe into his closet from his vain and delightfull company he shuts him vp himselfe close and layes his mouth in the dust what then shall we say to our Epicures to our good fellowes and the rest of that crue but that of Amos 6. Woe bee to them that are at ease in Zion not sitting alone not washing their beds with their teares but with their quaffings and carowsings They lie stretching themselues on iuory beds eating the lambs of the flocke and the calues out of the stall and sing to the sound of th violl c. For as they forget Iosephs affliction so they forget their owne sinnes were they remembred they would be sowre sawce to their sweete meate and would be as gall and wormewood to imbitter vnto them all their vaine delights 2. Such as respect God And those actions are 2. Such as respect God are twofold twofold 1. Feare trembling silence at his rebukes and 1. Feare threatnings Is 66. 2. I looke to him that is of an humble and contrite heart but who that is he shewes by the words following
neuer yet truely humbled for their sinnes 3 In not daring Masterly and Iudge-like to censure 3. In not censuring for the humbled sinner finds so much matter at home within himselfe that he hath no leysure to looke so much into others And therfore though seuere to himselfe yet more milde to others in meekenesse of minde esteeming euery man better then Phil 2. 3. himselfe And those faults he sees in others he takes notice of happily in himselfe or else of others as bad at least of the seedes and inclinations to those sinnes Therefore Iames after he had commanded vs to humble our selues hee addes speake not euill Aut sumus aut fuimus aut possumus esse quod hic est Iam. 4. 10 11. one of another For how doth hee humble and cast downe himselfe that goes about to cast downe others and trample them vnder his feete 4 In abasing and submitting our selues to the lowest and meanest offices of loue to our brethren 4. In submitting to lowest offices Thus the humbled sinner will make himselfe a seruant vnto all and according to the Apostles commandement will serue others by loue and bearing other 1. Cor 9. 19. Gal. 5. 13. Gal. 6 2. mens burdens so fulfills the law of Christ CHAP. IX Of the contraries to Humiliation Despaire and a seared Conscience HItherto of the grace of Humiliation it selfe Now to adde a worde or two of the contraries to it Contrary to godly humiliation or contrition are these two 1. Desperation 2. The blockish the seared and sencelesse Conscience that is past feeling Both these indeed must be auoyded but Ephes 4. yet the latter of the two is more vsuall and more dangerous more vsuall because it is more pleasing to our nature whereas Desperation is more distastefull in regard of the bitternesse And therfore Sathan wants that bait to bring men to despaire which he hath to bring men to senslesse security Therefore heere we may say as they sang of Saul and Dauid Desperation slayes thousands Security Sam. ten thousands euen as more die of intemperancy of diet then are killed by the Sword so though Despaire be more fearefull yet Security is more frequent More dangerous also because Desparation may be turned sooner to good for that the despairing person is touched with the sight of his sins feeles his owne misery But the senslesse conscience is nothing so it hath neither sight of sin nor sense of misery Both these extreames of Desperation and of Senslesnesse come from one cause and that is the neglect of the prickes and wounds of conscience It is a great mercy of God to giue vs so faire warning from a monitour within our owne bosomes The warnings others giue vs wee are ready to except against Wee cannot except against the warnings of our owne hearts But as when milder correction preuailes not with our children wee proceed to seuerer discipline so when Conscience her gentler prickings are neglected shee falles to deeper wounding and cutting when rods will do no good God puts Scorpions into her hands to scourge vs to death Euery little prick of an accusation fetches as it were some blood from thy soule Now if presently with a repenting heart thou wouldest craue the bloud of Christ to be applyed to thy soule the bleeding would be stayed But because thou neglectest the bleeding and thinkest to stay it by base medicines of thine owne therefore the wound bleedes still and thou shalt dye of it And thus we see how desperation comes from the neglect of the pricks of Conscience But againe and that more commonly the Conscience growes seared and past feeling so that a man may now sinne freely and that without controule of Conscience after that hee hath once begunne to despise the admonitions and accusations thereof So we see the Father giues ouer correcting his vnhappy child when hee growes worse for all his correcting of him Thus many mens consciences deale with them speaking in a manner vnto them as God speakes to the Iewes Why should we smite you any more since ye fall away more and more you set light by our warning we will euen giue ouer Isay 1. 5. Conscience is Gods officer and it is set by God to doe the best office that can bee to vs. But when God sees his officer not regarded hee will discharge him of his office When a wound is not taken in time the flesh festers and growes dead and rotten so also it fares with the wounds of Conscience A wounding Conscience neglected will grow a dead Conscience O then howsoeuer thou mayst set light by the checkes and rebukes of men and mayst shake off them yet neuer reiect or con-contemne the checks of Conscience In any case take heed of that for either it will continually ring such a loud peale in thine eares as shall make them to tingle and thine heart to tremble or else that which is worse it shall for euer after hold its peace Doe wee then feele the priuy nippes and secret snibs and pulls of our consciences Let vs giue ear to so wholsome a rebuker Let vs seeke presently to the Lord for mercy and forgiuenesse Let vs humble our soules before him in confession Let vs put Conscience out of office no otherwise then thus that as Conscience hath accused vs to our selues so now we will goe and accuse our selues to our God For if Consciences roddes and checks cannot driue thee to Repentance whose should Many there are that in regard of their places are free from the rods and the cheekes of men as Kings and great ones Who dare checke them None may smite them yet God in mercy towards them will 2. Sam. 24. 10. haue their Conscience to smite them as Dauids heart smote him though a King Conscience takes no notice of Kingship Therefore all euen great States and they of all others must most listen to and heede the voice of Conscience lest otherwise it fare with vs as with those whom great and violent noises continually herd at length make deafe as in those that dwell by the fall of the riuer Nilus Or as it doth with vnlucky boyes who beeing vsed to the rodde at length harden themselues and regard it not CHAP. X. Of the names whereby the second part of Repentance viz. change of heart is set out in Scripture HItherto of the former part of Repentance 2. The second part of Repentance Conuersion where Mourning Humiliation or Contrition The second followeth Turning Reformation or Conuersion where consider wee 1. The Names 2. The Nature 3. The Practise of it 1. For the names they are more especially two 1. The names of it 1. An Hebrew name signifying Turning or Conuersion 2. A Greeke name signifying After-wit or wisdome The first name is a metaphor drawen from trauellers who hauing gone out of their way must come backe againe and returne into the right way if euer they meane to arriue vnto the intended period
out of Satans snare but yet so as the prisoner out of prison with the bolt on his legge and so he can goe but slowly yet in his desire hee flies and wishes euery step twenty Wee are still fettered with many infirmities that presse vs so downeward that we cannot runne vp Gods hill and therefore this encreases the vehemency of our desires This is a great comfort to euery true Repentant heart Thou that hast these desires it is an argument of the truth of thy repentance whereby hauing turned thy face towards God thou hast gotten sight of his face and therfore doest so long after him and desire to draw neerer and neerer vnto him A repenting heart is neuer without these earnest desires Blessed saith our Sauiour are they Matth. 5. 3. 6. which are poore in spirit and then hee addes Blessed are they which hunger and thirst after righteousnesse where-euer there is a poore there is a thirsting spirit and these hungring and thirsting desires are euidences of a repenting hearts 6. Duety is Zeale which is a compounded affection 6. Zeale of Loue and Anger There may bee deceit and often is in our desires Euery one pretends they desire Gods commandements but there is no zeale in their desires they are lazie and sluggish desires therefore is Zeale added next to Desire to shewe what kinde of desires these must bee to wit they should be feruent and zealous desires The Desire of the sloathfull slayes him for his hands refuse to worke Prou. 21. 25. But true desire hath zeale ioyned with it which causes vs eagerly to pursue the thing desired and to ouercome all impediments hindring our desires We see in nature how the irascible faculties backes the concupiscible And as fire hath lightnesse whereby it aspires to the highest place so it hath also heat to consume that which should hinder his ascent In the like manner hath the true desire of a repenting sinner the grace of zeale to second it when one had vttered that affectionate speech Blessed are Luc. 14. 14. they that eate bread in the Kingdome of God see how Christ presently entertaines it with the Parable of the ghuests who being inuited to the supper had euery one their excuses from their farmes oxen and wiues whereby Christ seemes to giue a checke to the counterfet desires of many and seemes to insinuate thus much oh you indeede make as if you had a desire to come but you doe but counterfet you meane it not for when God calles you to this supper yee are ready to shuffle off his inuitation with one worldly excuse or another and so are your desires zeale-lesse desires They are so colde so heartlesse and so heatlesse that they cannot leap ouer the least blocke that lyes in their wayes Thus wee see then how fitly zeale followes desire And indeede a true penitentiary cannot but be zealous Zeale must needes be ioyned with repentance for these reasons 1. Repentance is a turning vnto God and a returning into our way out of which we had wandred by our sinnes Now the more way and time a man hath lost the more earnest and zealous he is in the redemption of both A man that hath rid out of his way when once he perceiues it will spurre the harder and gallop the faster till he hath recouered so farre as he might haue beene if hee had kept his way in a good reasonable pace So when the Repentant considers how much knowledge and experience hee might haue gained if the good time which he hath mispent in his sins had beene spent vpon better things when he considers how much of his life is past in sin and knows not how little he hath to come wherin he may walk in obedience he layes the more zealousty about him that what he wants in time he may redeem with his zeale And this is that which Peter vrges That henceforward we should liue as much time as remaines in the body not after 1. Pet. 4. 2. 3. the lusts of men for it is sufficient for vs that we haue spent the time past after the lusts of the Gentiles The longer wee haue beene stragling the more quicke should be our speed in our returne And the same thing doth Paul vrge the Romanes withall As yee haue giuen your members seruants to Rom. 6. 19. Qui per poenitentiam resurgunt magna charitato resplendent saepe maiori quā illi qui nunquā cecidernut Chry. vncleannesse and iniquitie to commit iniquity so now giue your members seruants vnto righteousnesse in holinesse The Repentant will be no lesse zealous in the wayes of grace then hee was in the wayes of sinne and the more zealous will hee bee in the seruice of righteousnesse because hee spent so much of his time and strength in the seruice of iniquity 2. Before repentance wee are blind and cannot see God nor the sweete beauty of his face for indeed our faces are turned from him but in repentance wee turne our faces to God and then seeing him his bounty our crowne and recompence of reward wee arc so rauished and enamoured vpon him as that with Paul in an holy zeale wee forget that which is behind endeuouring our selues to that Phil. 3. 13. 14. which is before and following hard toward the marke for the price of the high calling of God in Christ Iesus 3. The Repentant considers the vnconceiuable loue of God towards him in the pardon of his sins that howsoeuer hee was running headlong into hell to cast away himselfe and his soule yet the Lord stayd him and was mercifull vnto him in the remission of all his offences The meditation of which sweete goodnesse and loue of God constraines 2. Cor. 5. him to bee zealous for the glory of so gracious a God This loue of God in Christ to him constrains him and inflames and fires his heart with an earnest zeale to glorifie the Lord. That whereas before by his sinnes hee had wounded Gods glory now the loue of God who hath had mercy vppon him in plucking him out of the iawes of Sathan makes him now zelous of his glory and carefully to labour to heale these wounds which before his sins had made This we may see in that repenting woman who because much was forgiuen her therefore Luke 7. she loued much that is zelously She had not beene so zelous before in following her filthy and vnclean loues as now she was zelous in following her holy and spirituall loue Now this zeale in repentance shewes it selfe in these properties 1. Property It ouerlookes all difficulties and ouercomes all impediments Much water cannot Cant. 8. quench loue nay it kindles rather and the more water the more loue Zeale dampes at no bogges quagmires hilles or mountaines it is an affection that will wing a man and mount him ouer all It is not a Lyon in the way no nor yet Legions of Deuils in the way can coole it's courage Michols scoffs
casts them vp euery day shall the easier cast them vp at the weekes end and he that casts them vp euery weeke shall the easier cast them vp at the yeeres end but hee that lets them runne on from day to day and from weeke to weeke hee shall finde them so perplexe and intricate as that they shall trouble his best braines to bring all ends together The practise of this continued repenatnce is 1 Hearty confession and bewailing of our sins to the Lord. 2 Carefull watchfulnes ouer our harts to keepe out all sinne 3. Strict examination of our selues at the dayes end and so censuring our selues for that we finde amisse with earnest calling on GOD for greater Grace 3 The third degree is renued repentance Repentance 3. Renued repentance Where is oftentimes discontinued interrupted or at least increases not so as it should therefore euer and anone it is in speciall sort to bee renued Now here are two things to be considered The practise and the times of this Repentance 1 The practise of this repentance what it is 1. The practise wherein it consists Ans 1. In performing the duties of Repentance handled before in generall in a greater measure and a more powerfull manner Acts 2. Corin. 7. 11. speaking of this renewed repentance which some call extraordinary repentance Beholde saith the Apostle what care what cleering c. They had care before but now a greater measure and a more watchfull care 2. In a more strickt examination of our selues Examination of our selues is to bee practised dayly but now a stricter and seuerer and that specially for our estate to godward And therefore this narrow search must discouer some secret infirmities before not found out As in reading ouer our owne workes or writings the second or third time wee espye that which we did not before So in the second reuiew of our liues by renued repentance we find out more sinnes then before 3. In a greater measure of contrition and humiliation as in those Israelites drawing buckets of water in a greater plenty of teares deeper sighes and sobbes 2. The times and occasions of this renued repentance 2. The times They are fiue 1. When wee are to performe speciall seruices to God because then wee may feare least our former negligences may come vp in account against vs therefore we must in speciall sort renue our repentance and so seeke vnto God Thus before the Sacrament of the Lords Supper Paul commands a 1. Cor. 11. 31. Gen. 35. 1. 2. c. renuing of our repentance and a fresh iudging and condemning our selues Thus Iakob renued his repentance before he went vp to Bethell and purged his family of the idolls This God also first cals for before our approching into his presence in the duties of his worship wash you make you cleane and then Isay 1. 16. 18. Come and let vs reason together So oft then as an holy seruice is to bee performed to God wee must renue our Repentance 2. When wee seeke for any speciall blessing at the hands of God Because then our sinnes may interpose themselues and so intercept the blessing desired then are wee especially to renue our repentance As when our aduersaries renue the battell against vs wee are to renew our preparation against them so must we doe heere Thus Isaac when he Gen. 24. Gen. 32. 9. sought the blessing of a good wife went out into the fields into some secret corner or other to pray Acts. 1. in speciall manner vnto the Lord. So did Iakob when he sought the mercy of deliuerance from his brother Esau So the election of ministers in the Primitiue Church was done with prayer 3 In speciall afflictions when God corrects our dulnesse and by them as by whetstones seemes to sharpen our repentance and to put an edge vppon our prayers So did Dauid in the rebellion of his son 2. Sam. 15. 26. 30. 2. Chron. 20. Absolom and Iehoshaphat when the Moabites and Ammonites came vp against him And this is that which the Prophet calls for Search your selues Zeph. 2. 1. search your selues before the decree come foorth c. wishing them in that speciall affliction to enter into a speciall examination and search of all their waies 4 In and after our speciall falls and sinnes whether grosse and more palpable or more secret such as are dulnesse coldnesse security Thus Dauid after his two sinnes of adultery and murther in a most speciall sort renued his repentance in his priuate confession to Nathan and his publique confession 2. Sam. 12. 13. Psal 51. to the whole Church Peter after his deniall went out and wept bitterly So when the Church of Ephesus was fallen into coldnesse and security the Lord calls vppon her to remember from whence Reuel 2. 5. shee was fallen to repent and doe her first workes 5. At the time of death Then because the children of God take their farewell of repentance they take also their fill of it they thinke with themselues this is the last act of my repentance it shall be therfore the best And in death Sathans temptations and consciences accusations will be strongest and therefore our preparation against them must bee more then ordinary On the sixt day the Israelites gathered double Manna because none was to bee gathered by the day following the day of rest So because the time after death is a time of rest and Sabbath from repentance therefore then should there bee a double portion of Repentance Euery motion is the swiftest towards the center It is good indeed to see men ioyfull and comfortable in their death but yet withall if we see them not humbled and penitent wee may iustly suspect their ioy Euen the holy Martyrs who exceeded in spirituall ioy and had the greatest cause of ioy that might bee were yet great in their repentance at their death Hezekiah receiuing the sentence of death turned to the wall and prayed and wept sore 2. King 20. Here mark the preposterous course of the world that make death the time of beginning repentance whereas it is indeed onely the time of renuing repentance begunne and practised before in our life-time Obiect But the thiefe on the crosse began to repent but at his death Ans It was a miracle with the glory whereof our Sauiour would honor the ignominy of the crosse We may almost as well expect a second crucifying of Christ as such a second thiefe Christ then triumphing on the crosse did as Princes doe in the triumph of entring into their kingdomes they pardon grosse offences before committed such as they pardon not afterwards CHAP. XVIII Of the motiues to Repentance from the euill it remooues HAuing thus absolued the doctrine of Repentance it will not bee amisse to close vp this Treatise with some perswasiues motiues wherby men may be induced to the practise of it Indeed the bare necessity of it might mooue but such is our dulnesse that
vp to the wealthy nation that dwels without care which haue neither gates nor barres but dwell alone And their camels shall be a booty c. Men are neuer so fit a booty for Gods iudgements as when they are without care As generall hardnesse fore-runnes generall iudgments so in particular men their hardnesse goes before destruction See Ieroboams example Hee was reprooued by the Prophet for his idolatry the Altar cleft his hand dried vp and healed againe Any of these might haue cleft his heart and had wrought him to Repentance But yet after this Ieroboam conuerted not but turned againe to his idolatrous 1. King 13. 33 34. courses and continued in his impenitency and what was the issue of all this And this thing turned vnto sinne vnto the house of Ieroboam as who should say all that hee had done before had not turned to sinne had it not beene for this sin of his impenitency But this turned to sinne to his house euen to root it out and destroy it from the face of the earth Balaam hardening his heart against Gods command the Asses rebuke and the Angels sword returnes home by weeping crosse and he that would not returne for the Angels sword was afterward slaine by the sword of the Israelites So was Pharaohs Num. 31. 8. Exod 14. heart hardened to his destruicton in the sea So of the cities of Canaan it is sayd That it came of the Iosh 11. 20 Lord to harden their hearts that they should come against Israel in battle to the iutent they should destroy them vtterly and shew them no mercy but that they should bring them to nought This is made the cause of Gods iudgements vpon Saul Saul died for his transgression against the Lord. Now what was his transgression first hee brake the commandement 1. Chron. 10. 13. 14. of God then he sought and asked counsell of a familiar spirit and last of all which was his sinning sinne after all this hee sought not to the Lord by Repentance therefore the Lord slue him 2. If any impenitent sinner doe escape some 2. Reseruation to worse iudgements temporal iudgements as often he may doth yet his impenitency turnes all his deliuerances but into further curses and iudgements and his deliuerance is a worse iudgement then the iudgements from which he is deliuered for it argues either Gods vtter forsaking of them as desperate patients are giuen ouer by the Physician Why should ye bee smitten any more for yee fall away more and more Or else it Isay 1. 5. argues a reseruation of them for some more fearefull plague If by these former iudgements before specified yee will not be reformed by me but walke stubbornely against me then I will walke stubbornely against you and smite you yet seauen times for your sins So that an impenitent mans preseruation out of one iudgement is but a further reseruation of him to seauen iudgements What mercy or fauour is this nay the mercy is seauen times a greater iudgement C ham was saued from the flood in the Arke but it Gen 9. was for a greater iudgement for his fathers and for Gods curse as good to be drowned as to bee cursed as good to die vnder the waters as to liue vnder a curse Pharaoh escaped many of the former Exod. 14. plagues vnder which the rest of the Aegyptians smarted he was but kept for the sea to be made a prey to the waters Lots wife escaped from Sodom but Gen. 19. Gen. 14. was turned into a pillar of salt The Sodomites were rescued out of the hand of Chedor-laomer but were Gen. 19. after consumed with fire and brimstone from heauen It had beene happy for them if they had bin still captiued slaues vnder Chedor-laomer So true is that of Amos that it is with wicked impenitent Amos 5. 19. sinners as if a man did flie from a Lyon and met with a Beare or went into the house and leaned his hand on the wall and a serpent bit him As also that of Isaiah repeated Isay 24. 18. Ierem. 48 44. by Ieremy He that flyeth from the noyse of the feare shall fall into the pit and hee that comes vp out of the pit shall be taken in the snare Euen as good be in the pit still This is but out of the frying pan into the fire or as Ezekiel speakes out of one fire into Ezek. 15. 7. another fire and the last fire happily like Nebuchadnezzars furnace seauen times hotter then ordinary 3. Thirdly God will euen take pleasure in inflicting Gods delight in iudgement iudgement God indeed delights in mercy but mans impenitency will make him delight in iudgement Heereupon he threatens Loadicea Reuel 3. to vomit her foorth of his mouth if shee still went on impenitently in her luke-warmnesse God signifies by that phrase that hee would take pleasure and delight in their destruction as it giues great ease to the ouer-pressed stomacke to bee disburdened and eased by vomiting Such is that threatning Prou. 1. 24. 25. 26. Because I baue called and yee haue refused I haue stretched out mine hand and none would regard but yee haue despised my counsell and would none of my correction I will also laugh at Risus Dei longa grauiâ—r est ira Dei Quid Deus loquitur cum risu in legas cum luctu Augustin your destruction and mocke when your feare cammeth God is neuer more angry then when hee laughes Gods laughter is an heauier iudgement then his anger for when once hee comes to delight in his anger it is a signe his anger is implacable Wee haue most cause to weepe when God laughes 2. Spirituall euils procured by impenitency 2. Spirituall which are are these 1. Spirituall blindnesse and blockish senslesnesse 1. Spirituall blindnesse further hardnesse and obduration My people would not heare my voyce and Israel would none of mee See what was the punishment that followed vpon it So I gaue them vp to the hardnes of their harts Psal 81. 11. 12 they walked in their own counsels As if he had said Since they will harden their hearts their hearts shall be hardened since they will harden them against my mercy I will harden them in my iustice Thus was Balaam besotted thorough the hardnesse of his heart that hee could not see so much as the Asse did hee rode vpon And the Sodomites were smitten as well with a spirituall as a temporal iudgment of blindnesse So Pharaoh hardening his hart against each plague was also giuen vp to further hardnesse Thus the Apostle seemes to make this the cause of the Gentiles hardnesse of heart because Eph. 4. 18. 19. they being past feeling gaue vp themselues to wantonnesse to worke all vncleannesse with greedinesse So God punished their former hardnesse with further obduration So elsewhere he makes this the cause why they were giuen vp to a reprobate sense and a cauterized conscience
his intemperancy The eight in touching anothers goods against the will of the Lord. The ninth in receiuing the Diuels false witnesse against God The tenth in being discontent with his estate and lusting after an higher Take we heed now of the deceit of sinne It shewes little sometimes but oh the bundle of mischiefe that is lapped vp in that little The second point followes The arguments whereby the Diuell tempts First to vnbeleefe and 2. The Arguments which the Diuell vseth to Christ distrust thus 1 If God regarded thee ought much more if indeed in this manhood this second person in Trinity dwelt personally surely thou shouldst haue bread to preserue thee in this neede though it were made miraculously of stones But thou hast no releefe no stones turned into bread Therefore God regards thee not c. The proposition is built on this ground God prouides for all his specially for such a creature as the humanity of Christ that is vnited to the God-head The husband would prouide for the wife the father for the son in lesse need then this But the vnion betwixt the God-head and humanity of the Messiah is far greater And this ground is true But then another ground necessarily implied by Sathan is false that no other prouision could be had but by bread Doct. D. Hereby we see how Sathan vseth to descant vpon our afflictions therby casts doubts into our It is vsual with Sathan to cast into our minds doubts of Gods loue Psal 73. Iudg 6. mindes of Gods loue So did he with Dauid Ps 73. So Gedeon Iudg. 6. If the Lord be with vs how then is all this vpon vs. As in prosperitie the diuells endeuour is to make vs lay our hearts too neere to it whence that of the Psalmist If riches increase set not your hearts thereon Psal 62. 10. So in aduersitie to Psal 62. 10. make vs to lay it to neere our hearts Vse 1 1. It must teach vs in our afflictions specially to strengthen our faith in the mercy of God It is Sathans pollicie to imbitter our afflictions with this gall of diffidence and so to adde sorrow to our affliction but we must not yeeld but rather take our afflictions as markes of our adoption And as in this hunger of Christ yea in his greater afflictions yea in his death and being in his graue the personal vnion was not dissolued so must we assure our selues that neither is the mysticall vnion betwixt Christ and our selues dissolued by any of our afflictions no not by death or the graue it selfe wherevpon we are said to sleepe in Christ 1. Thess 4. 14. 1. Thess 4. 14. euen then are we in Christ when we are in our graues If any man should be vsed like a dogge or a Beare yet as long as he sees humane shape and discernes the vse of humane reason in himselfe he would still for all this vsage thinke himselfe to be a man So though the children of God be vsed here in this world as if they were wicked yet as long as they feele the worke of grace and the power of Gods spirit they must still hold themselues to be Gods children Vse 2 2. Take we heed that we neuer thus cast downe the smitten of God and vrge them to despayre of Gods mercy as Dauid complaines of some Psal 3. 2. Many say to my soule There is no helpe for him in God This is Sathans course and in so doing we shall shew our selues his instruments The second Argument was to perswade him to the working of the myracle because he was the sonne of God and therfore he was able to worke it Doct. See the Diuells diuinitie That that which wee can do for helping or benefiting of our selues that Psal 3 2. The Diuell tempteth vs to doe what we can doe though neuer so vnlawfull we should do It is no matter whether lawfull or vnlawfull that skills not he would neuer haue vs to sticke at ought Thus deales he here with Christ Thou art the sonne of God and thou canst doe all things and wilt thou not vse this power of thine to helpe thy selfe by turning stones into bread And yet this was an vnlawfull meanes of helping himselfe So Iezebell reasons with Ahab about Naboths vineyard Thou the King of Israel and suffer such a base fellow to crosse thee So still speaks Satan to great men Thou of such a place and power suffer such an one to stand in thy way So in sicknesse he presents vngodly meanes as charmes and witches and tells vs if when we may be holpen and will not we are worthy to be sicke still So to schollers you are men of parts and learning and liue you thus Get you to Rome and to Rhemes and there ye shall haue respect answerable to your desires and deserts The third poynt followes The manner of conueyance 3. The manner of conveyance full of craft and cunning for 1. The matter whereto he perswades as we saw in outward appearance was but small and yet full of deadly danger 2. He framed his tenations so that he might catch him which way soeuer he should take though yet our Lords skill was aboue his for thus the deuill thought If he doe worke the myracle then haue I foyled him and made him to distrust his Fathers prouidence in the vse of an vnlawfull meanes If he doe not then shall I insult ouer him as not being able to doe it and so make him doubt of the truth of his Fathers voyce Thou art my sonne but he was deceiued here 3. Like a Waterman he lookes one way and rowes another The speciall thing he shot at indeed was to make Christ call in question the truth of that oracle that sounded at Iordan to thinke thorough vnbeliefe that he was not the sonne of God But yet the words of the temptation seeme to import that he sought onely the working of the miracle And yet the deuill would rather a great deale he would neuer worke the miracle so he would doubt himselfe not to be the sonne of God for this would haue been the greater foyle Doct. This discloses to vs one of Satans mysteries Somtimes he will tempt vs to some sinne to which yet he cares not much whether wee yeeld or no hoping to get a greater conquest of vs by not yeelding As thus when by not yeelding wee grow proud vaine-glorious secure confident wherein the deuil seemes to deale like a cunning gamester that hides his skill and loses two or three games at the first that he may winne so much the more afterwards 4. He transformes himselfe into an Angell of light and makes semblance of religion for 1. He acknowledges plainely that the sonne of God is God and can doe that which God can that God onely by his meere word can worke miracles and that it seemed likely that Christ was the sonne of God Loe an orthodoxe deuill sound in iudgment 2. He bids not our
say The Scripture is a dumbe iudge The Church must interpret it Christ the head of the Church and the authour of the Scripture though by the power he had he might haue interpreted this Scripture yet hee would not that hee might giue vs an example how to cleere the Scriptures when any doubts arise namely diligently to confer one place with another Therefore must the whole Scripture be read that with attention with obseruation Doct. 4 4. That the Scriptures must be read with the spirit of application This appeares by the manner of Christs alledging this text for in Deuteronomy it is in The Scripture must be read with the spirit of applicatiō the plurall yee shall not tempt heere it is in the singular spoken to euery one in particular and so to Christ Thou shalt not tempt It is the fashiō of men to take that which is spoken generally to all to be spoken to none or rather to others then to themselues and therfore in hearing and reading the word they put it off from themselues But heere we see Christ applyed that ro himselfe which was spoken generally to the whole body of the Israelites So Psal 40. It is written of mee saith Dauid in the volum of thy Psal 40. booke that I should doe thy will No where is it so written of Dauid by name But the generall commandements giuen to men of his place hee applied particularly to himself We must apply those things that are spokē in the Scriptures to our selues as Paul applies that to the Hebrewes Heb. 13. which was spoken by name to Ioshua I will not faile thee Iosh 1. Heb. 13. So Peter applies that of Gods patience written by Iosh 1. Paul to the Romanes Rom. 2. vnto the Iewes As Rom. 2. our beloued brother Paul wrote to you 1. Pet. 3. This particular application is that which incorporats the 2. Pet. 3. word into vs And as it must bee in the commandements so likewise in the promises as we saw in the former verse and in the threatnings also The Papists say where is it said by name to any man Thou Peter or Iohn shalt be saued I aske where is sayd to any by name Doe thou this or that sweare not sanctifie the Sabboth and yet commandements belong to vs why then by the same reason also doe not the promises though not spoken to vs by name The second poynt The Scripture Christ doth alledge 2. The particular Scripture alledged by Christ Mal. 3. 10. Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God It containes a prohibition of tempting God Obiect Mal. 3. 10. God bids vs prooue him For whereas to tempt God is to proue or try some property or properties in him to see whether he bee so powerfull patient iust wise and mercifull as hee hath reuealed himselfe in his word it is impossible wee should liue in the world and conuerse in our callings without hauing this triall Answ A thing is tried either when there is no other end in the vse but to try it or when vsed for some other purposes As an horse is tried both when I ride him for no other end but to trie him and when I ride about necessary businesse Now it is the former trying and tempting of God that is condemned which is a needlesse trying And it is twofold Mixt and Simple Mixt tempting 1. Mixt tempting is that which is compounded of infidelity and presumption And this tempting of God is in euery sinne that is committed against the cleere light and checke of conscience For first thorough infidelity in such sinnes men try 1. Gods knowledge whether he know their sinne or no. 2. His iustice in case he know it 3. The truth of his threatnings 4. His power in case he be iust and true Secondly thorough presumption they trie his mercy and patience In which regard such sinnes are called presumptuous sinnes Psal 19. 13. This shewes the Psal 19. 13. hainousnesse of such sinnes as are committed against knowledge Therfore such sinners are called proud sinners Mal. 3. 11. and tempters of God So likewise Numb 14. 22. those that were disobedient Mal. 3. 11. Numb 14. 22. notwithstanding they had seene Gods glory and miracles in Aegypt are sayd to tempt God So Ananias and Sapphiraes hypocrisie is called tempting of God in this regard Acts 5. 9. Acts 5. 9. Simple Tempting is twofold 2. Simple tempting 1. Of infidelity 2. Of presumption 1. Of Infidelity When not content with that 1. Of Infidelity God hath done already to settle our faith wee prescribe him meanes of our owne Examples Exod. 17. Exod. 17. 7. 7. God must shew his presence by giuing them water at that time or else not amongst them So Ps 78. Psal 78 41. 41. These two ioyned together They tempted they limited the Holy one of Israel Thus did they Luc. 11. Luc. 11. tempt Christ in demanding a signe and so heere the diuell We must take heed of this The Diuell will bee ready to put such thoughts as these into our mindes If God bee our God and so as the word saies let him shew it by doing this or that This is horrible tempting of God 2. Of Presumption When we in the vaine expectation 2. Of Presumption of Gods helpe and grace either doe that we ought not or omit that we should doe There are three maine particulars of this 1. When without any iust calling from God we rush our selues into danger whether certaine or ineuitable 1. When without iust calling we rush into any danger or very probable When God cals vs then we haue reason to expect his helpe according to his promise Examples heereof are first in things temporall as to rush into houses infected or possessed by Satan to set open the doores in the night to ride thorough doubtfull places and in dangerous times without weapons which besides the tempting of God is a tempting of man oftentimes So to runne to the aduersaries of the truth and to put our selues into the Lyons mouth Heere certaine heroicall examples of some carried by an extraordinary spirit are to be excepted Secondly in things spirituall to goe into dangerous places and companies where we are likely to be corrupted to goe see the masse with Peter to goe into Caiaphas hall to marry with idolaters and prophane persons to entertaine prophane companions and seruants to reade Popish bookes not being first grounded in religion and without praying vnto God that thou mayst not be led into temptation reading also in filthy play-bookes and raking in such filthy dung-hils venturing the beeing poysoned with the stench for the hope of finding some conceited iewell in a word when we cast our selues vpon temptations and dangerous occasions of sinne that wee might well enough auoyd wee tempt God This was Salomons sinne Eccles 2. in following his pleasures and delights as if a man should put his finger into the fire