upon us and even laden us with How early were we acquainted with his Will and made sensible of our Duty and Obligations to him What Aids have we received by Education What Warnings by Ministers by Parents by Friends Having even been hewed by the words of his Messengers or Agents of all sorts What quickning by his Spirit Has not his Word to allude to holy Jeremy's expression been in our heart as a burning fire shut up in our Bones Yet have we suppress'd or smothered all this warmth and quenched the holy Spirit Nor Conscience nor Grace has prevailed to restrain us from Sin we have trampled on both We have heard again and again of the Blood of Jesus shed for us and been press'd with our duty thereto yet in effect have we accounted it an unholy thing at least made it to us hitherto very ineffectual for Baseness or Trifles denying the Lord that bought us And all this how often how long Are not in a manner all our Sins become habitual to us A second Nature by our own very Act So that being accustomed Learn'd as the Original Word signifies namely by our own wicked practice to do evil we can now no more do good than the Aethiopian change his Skin or the Leopard his Spots Look look poor Soul that canst not mourn for Sin look upon thy sins what an infinite number or heap is there of them reaching up to Heaven And all of them Crimson sins too crying to God in heaven for vengeance upon thee Look I say as near as thou canst on their Number and Nature and look till thine Eyes affect thine Heart and thine Heart dissolve in Tears This is the readiest way to produce Contrition or Godly Sorrow the Endeavour of which is a second step to Repentance § 9. A third will be Confession of Sin and indeed without this especially to God Contrition will be very faint Our affections are not ordinarily moved without attent and continued thought and thought will not well be kept attent without words When therefore we say a sight and sense of Sin together with Contrition for it and Confession of it are a first second and third step to repent this is not to be so taken as if they were disjoyned separate and practised perfectly apart from one another or any of them without the other they who would be true penitents must seriously casting themselves before God in secret Examine Mourn and Confess as new matter offers it self and then Examine again for more matter and Confess and Mourn again All these run into one another and lead one to the other as I may say backward and forward And a Soul by honest endeavours of them before God in secret will even by its own experience and the duct or course of its own affections find the due method order and savory practice of them better than words can express or any Casuist advise Now by Confession of Sin we must not conceive to be meant a meer reciting of our Sins or rehearsing before God our several Acts of Sin which yet God knows to do perfectly is impossible for the best of us no nor giving account even of all the several kinds of our Sins though both these are to be done as far as we are able but a hearty affectionate charging and accusing our selves before God according to what we know to the very full heighth of our guilt acknowledging together that our Confessions and Self-accusations come far short of the just account or summ of our Sins whereof a vast multitude are unknown to us owning our selves therefore to have deserved eternally the Divine wrath and curse and at present to lie at God's mercy Thus at once not only accusing but condemning and as it were passing Sentence on our selves and giving thereby glory to God whatever becomes of us This kind of reflections will certainly by God's grace bring us to deep remorse and humiliation of Soul abhorrence of our selves and admiring the goodness of God who has born with us so long and has never all this time taken advantage against us while going on in the affronting his Justice abusing his Grace and by all ways provoking him to cut us off in the midst of our Days as well as midst of our Sins And from hence our Confessions will lead us insensibly into deprecating that wrath which we have owned our selves to have deserved to the begging mercy and pardon as earnestly as ever poor Malefactor when about to receive Sentence acknowledged what he had before endeavoured to hide and cast himself upon mercy Such affectionate work as this I say is that Confession of Sin before God which leads to and together ever accompanies Repentance § 10. Some indeed make Confession as it is a part of what they call Penance and in the name of Penance they would be content we should think they include all Repentance or rather mean thereby the whole Method of reconciling Men to God some I say would make Confession to be little if any thing else but an unbosoming our selves to a Priest discovering to him all our most secret sins which either are or we suspect to be mortal as they speak with their several Circumstances But this Usurpation upon Mens Consciences and Oppression of Souls without any Command in Scripture introduced only into the Church declined in Purity and serving meerly to maintain an extravagant power in every Father Confessor that is generally in every Priest our Church has most deservedly abrogated and though there be some particular Cases in which with the Holy Scriptures and Ancient Church we teach the confessing our Sins to Man to be expedient if not necessary also to our Peace with God yet out of these Cases is not confessing to man either requir'd or even always fit The Cases wherein it is necessary are but Three as far as I am able to comprehend The First That of Publick Scandal given to the Church by gross and open sin whereby any person has forfeited his Christianity or his Right and Title as well to Heaven or the Church above as to his Membership of the Church on Earth It is very necessary such person take publick shame to himself and openly declare his Sin to the end he may as openly declare and give proof of his Repentance and Christian People may be satisfied in communicating with him again And this if some will call a kind of satisfaction for sin they may have their pleasure provided they neither imagine nor bear the World in hand it avails to make atonement for the guilt of Sin before God in which behalf nothing was or ever will be meritorious but the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ upon the Cross 2. In case of having wronged any particular person by Word or Deed it is requisite the Person who has done wrong go to or send for meet or otherwise apply to the party wronged and confess the wrong he has done if able making also satisfaction if not
a new Life or a Change of Manners for the better it is a sorrow consisting not so much in grief or transient Affection though there is many times that too in it as of setled Dissent and Dislike and so of real Action it is setting the Heart against Sin and because it is impossible for us to undo the Ill we have done a taking care we sin no more whether by doing what we ought not or the neglecting what we ought to do and as it is an Habit or State it is a changed Heart and Life For by frequent and constant endeavour of a new Life the very frame and temper of our Hearts will be changed and that changed Frame and Temper will have a constant influence upon our Actions and so our Life will be changed Thus as to the nature of Repentance Now as to Faith The most general Act of Christian Duty so called is the Soul 's agreeing or yielding that the Gospel or the way to Heaven which Christ Jesus and his Apostles taught is true It presupposes therefore the understanding of that Doctrine or Way Now the particular Acts of it are as various as the Parts of the Gospel And though with many People Use hath obtained that a Belief of the Promises and indeed of one part of them of the promised Blessing without the respect due to the other part the Condition of that Blessing and so a trust in God through Christ is esteemed the great Act of Faith yet is the assenting or agreeing to whatsoever is affirmed in the Gospel as that Christ died rose again now sits in Heaven shall come to judge the World c. as much or more properly an Act of true Christian Faith as such Trust or Affiance which in strictness is a distinct Christian Vertue grounded in Faith In like manner also is the receiving this dreadful Threat He that believeth and so repenteth not shall be damned a true Act of Faith yet not of Trust And to conclude the Belief of all the Commands in the Gospel not only that they came from God are reasonable and fit for us to observe but that they are an effectual and certain way to everlasting happiness so that whosoever yields the obedience of Faith shall be saved is as much an Act a necessary Act of Christian Faith as any of the rest And the Habit of Faith is nothing else but a rooted perswasion of all these the several parts of the Gospel by which the Soul is ready as occasion offers to exert any of these Acts Thus as to the Nature of Repentance and Faith when they signifie or are taken for Christian Vertues or Graces And yet even when thus taken in Scripture though they are not always even in Scripture it self taken for Christian Vertues yet I say when thus taken they are each of them used in a very different extent § 4. Sometimes in a very ample and large sence Synecdochically as we speak are they put not only for themselves but what accompanies them And thus the Scripture seems to make one while Repentance one while Faith the whole Condition of the Covenant of Grace or to put one of them for all that we on our part are by that Covenant bound to do in order to our acceptance with God or to the pardon of our Sin and Salvation Thus not only when St. John the Baptist and the Apostles but when Christ himself first went out to preach the Kingdom of Heaven or teach people the way thither the Sum of their Doctrine is recorded to have been Repent ye for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand Mat. 3. 2. and 4. 17. Mark 6. 12. No doubt both our Lord and his Apostles preached Faith as well as Repentance all along and St. Mark in the beginning of his Gospel expresly brings in our Lord so preaching ch 1. 14 15. Jesus came preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and saying The time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God is at hand repent ye and believe the Gospel Yet in the other places Repentance is put alone but with an intent no question that people should understand therewith its necessary Concomitant and Companion Faith And thus when our Lord instructs the Apostles in what they were to preach he tells them It behooved that he should suffer and rise again and that Repentance and Remission of Sin should be preached in his name among all Nations Luke ult 47. And as pursuant hereto St. Peter when he preaches to those who were pricked in their heart by the sense of their guilt in crucifying the Lord of Life who therefore had as much need of Faith in the blood of Jesus for Remission as any could have When he preaches I say to them what they should do to obtain Pardon he requires in express terms only Repent and be Baptized Acts 2. 38. and chap. 3. 10. to others of the same Nation and under the same guilt Repent ye and be converted In this last place indeed Repentance is more explained than before but yet no mention made of Faith in any of these places where yet the Design was to set down the Condition on which Sin might be pardoned which as will be soon evident is Faith as well as Repentance Again in other places me meet with mention of Faith or believing alone without any mention of Repentance Thus in the promise annex'd to the Apostle's Commission for preaching the Gospel Mark 16. 16. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned And when St. Paul teacheth the poor humble Jailor what he should do to be saved all he gives in Instruction is only Believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved and thine House Acts 16. 31. Here we see believing or Faith alone without any mention of Repentance has Salvation promised to it as if a Man were to do nothing to be saved but believe the Gospel Nay St. Paul in his Epistles seems to go beyond what is asserted in any of these places concluding from due Premises Rom. 3. 28. Therefore a Man is justified by Faith without the Deeds of the Law That is without a Jewish Mosaical Righteousness And the same he says in other places The Reason hereof undoubtedly is for that sincere believing the Gospel or Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ doth most certainly involve or carry with it Repentance He that receives from his heart that Doctrine or believes that way to Heaven which our Lord Christ taught will seek Heaven by Repentance or breaking off his Sin Else it is plain he believes not what Christ preached at the very first Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand And if he truly and Christianly repent it is plain he believes in Christ for he takes that very way to Salvation to which Faith in Christ directs him § 5. Yet at another time when the Holy Ghost speaks more at large distinctly and expresly both Repentance and Faith are
After this how can I think of neglecting him through any tenderness of face Especially when I am at present in so far better that is easier and more tolerable Circumstances than he was I perhaps am laugh'd at by some Fools or Mad-men for obeying him but I am otherwise at ease and to have Heaven for the reward of overcoming this petty private affront Shall then such inconsiderable Trifles make me wave or forgo my Duty Far be it from me In any other Case whatsoever by like Consultations or Considerations as in these Cases now set down shall we through God's Grace and Blessing upon our honest endeavour find out particular means and by such thought work our hearts to particular resolution for breaking our selves of any other or whatsoever Sins we have found more peculiarly prevalent in us And thus as to the second Step of this Head of Practice The Third will be A particular Resolution or as occasion serves Vow touching the use of those Means which we have found most proper to amend us and touching such instances of our Manners which upon enquiry we have found most to need Reformation All general Resolutions we know must be performed in particular instances of Life and Action and therefore a particular Resolution touching those Means which by consideration we have found proper to each Case will be no less necessary than the general Resolution first proposed as to the main Body of the Work As for example Suppose avoiding ill Company be one Means I have found out to keep me from Intemperance and Excess or from loss of Time c. I 'll immediately resolve not only against loose but against vain Companions I 'll keep home more abandon certain Familiars estrange my self from such and such I 'll set my self certain employment so much for such a time c. Suppose again contenting my self with sufficient Provisions and abandoning a too peremptory Resolution I had taken up to be rich to such a degree be the Means I have discovered proper for the remedying my unjust oppressive dealing I 'll resolve on that and immediately order my Affairs accordingly But in such Cases as these perhaps single resolution will not suffice to hold our unstable Souls sometimes therefore but with much caution and deliberation we may do well to add Vow David or whatever holy Man was the Author of that Psalm did so Psal 119. 51. I have said that is resolved with my self to keep thy Words and lest that should not do ver 106. I have sworn and I will perform it that I will keep thy righteous Judgments Thus as to the first Part of the Method for breaking our selves of Sin by such Acts as are to be done for the present Those which are to be continued are the prosecution of these Resolutions or Vows by a constant study of Mortification and by daily endeavours of proficiency in Holyness through the whole following part of our Life Now the treating hereof belongs not to this first Class of Advices but is to be set down in the second Part. In the mean while we are to proceed with what yet remains for our present making our peace with God § 14. And now after this Practice of Repentance Faith interposes again and that not meerly Faith towards God or a belief of the Being Nature and Providence of God as hitherto most insisted on but Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ or Faith as called by the Apostle Rom. 3. 25. Faith in his Blood For him as bleeding for us upon the Cross as sacrificed upon that Altar hath God set forth to be a propitiation and it is by the Blood of his Cross that he made peace Col. 1. 20. 'T is the Blood of Christ who through the Eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God that purges our Consciences from dead Works to serve the living God Heb. 9. 14. 'T is by that one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified Heb. 10. 14. This is that Fountain set open to the House of David and to the Inhabitants of Jerusalem for Sin and for Vncleanness Zechar. 13. 1. Hither therefore after all Confessions Contrition Tears Resolutions Vows and endeavours of Reformation the faithful Soul comes Here it exerts new Acts of Faith that is Trust Affiance and Dependance And as the Holy persons Matth. 28. 9. did corporally to our Saviour after his Resurection so must true Penitents as it were catching the Crucified Jesus by the Feet hold him fast after a spiritual sort as their only hope and refuge that only name given under Heaven that Dear Jesus which redeemed us from the Wrath to come and with Christ thus not in their Arms but Heart look up to the Eternal Father for pardon and peace through the Son of his Loves This distinct trust in Christ as sacrificed for our Sins in this Order or thus in conjunction with such practice of Repentance as set down exerted or exercised I conceive of most essential and singular Force to the perfecting our Peace both with God and in our own Consciences § 15. And now I see not any thing which remains speaking as to a certain course of transient Acts ordinarily to compleat a Man's Reconciliation with God except we should say it is requisite to Cloath all these Acts with serious and suitable Prayer Prayer is that Christian Duty which as I may say alone as it were gives a body to all the Acts of Grace in the Soul or as one well observes It is indeed that single Duty wherein Dr. Owen of the Spirit of Prayer every Geace is acted every Sin opposed every good thing obtained or impetrated of God Without it Contrition and Faith and Resolution are after a sort airy and volatil This fixes them and makes them substantial mature and permanent Nay it raises and strengthens or heightens them Prayer is such an Office as not only actuates or draws out into Exercise all Christian Graces but makes the Soul more earnest and zealous in the Actings of them Having therefore proceeded as above directed towards making thy Peace with God cast thy self in secret at the Throne of Grace in earnest and humble supplication confessing and bewailing thy Sin with the Exercise of all the Contrition thou canst excite passing Sentence on thy self acknowledging what thou hast deserved but withall pleading the Sacrifice of the Death of Christ the atonement made by the Blood of his Cross and casting thy self upon God's mercy through that great and alone true Propitiation bringing indeed the heartiest Purposes and making the firmest Resolutions thou can'st endeavouring to the utmost of thy Power to perform all that concerns thee on thy part by the Covenant of Grace but after all acknowledging thy self an unprofitable servant Luke 17. 10. disclaiming therefore any righteousness of thine own and beseeching Pardon for thy very Repentance begging to be sprinkled with the Blood of Jesus and to be found in him For he is the Lord our
Righteousness And thus in him and through him thou shalt find Peace § 16. Whoso has thus proceeded may be presumed for the present as to what can be effected by private Applications to have made their Peace with God Only they must be careful in the sequel or following part of their Life to bring forth Fruits meet for Repentance and as both has been suggested and will be further given in directions to pursue or go on in Holiness and to maintain this temper and state by all suitable Endeavours to their lives end And it will be highly convenient if any possible opportunity offer to come solemnly to the Great Sacrament of Reconciliation the Lord's Supper the best Seal in this kind and thither to bring our Resolutions and Vows there to ratify them to God and form them into a Covenant with him publickly before Men and Angels devoting and consecrating our selves to him in the Union of his Church through our Crucified Lord. And thus upon the whole of a Man's present making his Peace with God Which is a Second step in our First Stage of Preparation towards a happy Death Matter and a Method for Devotion suitable to the Third Chapter 1. IN secret having at least briefly prayed and being composed Examine Conscience First touching the more remarkable preventions of Grace which through thy life as well in thy younger as especially in thy later Years God has vouchsafed thee and what effect they have had upon thee That is 1. What Convictions or sense of particular Sins their guilt and danger has God at such and such times affected thee with or made thee feel And didst thou yield thereto Didst thou acknowledge thy Sin hateful deserving God's Wrath and Curse both here and Eternally Thou couldest not it may be but be offrighted at the sense of thy danger But notwithstanding thou sawest thy Sin thus provoking to God and thus dangerous to thy self Didst thou not then nay even now dost thou not still love it as much as ever if thou couldst but safely enjoy it Didst thou by what sins thou sawest in thy self go on to enquire after other sins of which thou mightest be ignorant to search thy heart to the bottom that thou mightest attain a full sight of all thy sins if possible and so a full sence of thy sinful and miserable Estate Or didst thou stifle these first impressions divert them by Company Pleasure or other Employment put them off to a convenient season And though perhaps that season has come didst thou ever yet resume or endeavour to recover and improve them Answer each of these Questions faithfully to thy self 2. What Contrition or Sorrow for Sin upon such sight and sence of thy sin as beforesaid hast thou ever conceived by God's moving thy heart even without any endeavours of thine And when thou hast felt those meltings of heart and that mourning temper hast thou cherish'd it retired or gone alone and considered the particular grievousness of thy Sins the vast multitude of them the Mercy Love and Goodness thou hast sinn'd against c. That by this means thy sorrow might bear in some measure a due proportion to thy guilt or hast thou endeavoured to put off the melancholy mood as thou hast accounted it and returned to the commission of the same or like Sins as formerly Further Examine In case thou hast made any improvements of the first workings of Grace What has been thy progress How far hast thou gone in the work of Repentance and making thy peace with God That is 1. Hast thou endeavoured fully to confess thy sins before God Not excusing this Act or reserving and flattering thy self touching that beloved Practice as if no Sin but heartily and impartially before God accusing thy self of all acknowledging thy full guilt and condemning thy self giving glory to God and owning his Justice whatever becomes of thee yet together deprecating his Wrath and supplicating for Pardon And in case thy Sins have been such which need Confession to men hast thou been free herein and faithful to thy own Soul Or hast thou through tenderness of face concealed together thy shame and sore Poor Soul Consider be faithful 2. Hast thou upon such Confessions and Deprecations really resolved on a new Life and set thy self seriously to study it Hast thou consulted of fit Methods of Amendment and Means proper to thy Condition for obviating the Wiles of the Devil and the Course of Temptation by which thou hast fallen Hast thou then particularly resolved upon these Means and Methods and endeavoured faithfully the Use and Practice of them 3. Hast thou then afterward by Faith betaken thy self to the Blood of Jesus as having a Sentence of Death in thy self lost and undone without that all-sufficient Sacrifice on the Cross but casting thy self on God's Mercy according to his Covenant of Grace and resolving to abide by it Lastly What have thy solemn penitential Prayers been in this Case What thy Vows And hast thou been at the Lord's Table according to thy Duty Hast thou used tolerable endeavours to perfect thy peace Or in what part of the fore-mentioned practice of Repentance hast thou stuck In what of these hast thou failed Be faithful remember Matters of greater concernment to thee than are these never did never can fall into thine enquiry Now secondly As to fuller present Prayer suitable to these Advices and the Penitent's Condition whosoever hath thus faithfully examined Conscience cannot be at a loss either 1. For Confession Every Particular to which Conscience pleads guilty is most easily by accusing ones self of it before God turned into proper and particular Confession As for example in the first point of Examination If guilty I accuse my self thus I have not yielded to these Convictions of my particular Sins of my of my c. their guilt and danger which yet thou O Lord hast affected me with and made me feel I did not acknowledge or inwardly agree that my Sin was so hateful so deserving thy Wrath and Curse as I begun to see it I could not indeed but be affrighted c. But if any should be so weak as that they cannot turn these and like Materials into Confession let them but again before God on their knees read over the Questions and putting them to their own Souls make answer to them This Answer I say is true proper and particular Confession most certainly engaging the heart made with understanding and attention as are not always some elegantly prepared and formed Confessions For instance as to this kind of Practice also in the 〈…〉 part of Examination 〈◊〉 Contrition or sorrow for sin upon such sight and sense of thy sin as beforesaid hast thou ever conceived by God's moving thy heart without any endeavours of thine own Answer More O God than I have now Or more than I have improv'd cherish'd kept or maintain'd Again Quest. When thou hast felt those meltings of heart and that mourning temper hast thou cherish'd it
provided against what he may fear there Thirdly He is to disentangle himself from this World and all secular Concerns that he may be able easily to part hence whensoever the appointed hour shall come For it is certainly a great misery to be torn hence instead of quietly and willingly yielding up all These three Intentions whoso has obtained is as well provided sor Death as at a distance a Man can be well conceived to be nor is it easie to comprehend at least I must confess I do not see what can be in those of this Order required more But for attaining these there are sundry Counsels to be taken and much Work to be done § 6. And first above all things such persons are to bend their minds to Religion in good Earnest and really to make that their Business Religion of all Doctrines in the World alone can pretend to bring a Man to the knowledge of his true Happiness And of all Religions none does that but the Christian Our Lord Jesus has pronounc'd it I am the Way the Truth and the Light that is I alone have effectually brought to Light the true way to Life 2 Tim. 1. 10. He hath abolished Death and hath brought Life and Immortality to Light through the Gospel Whosoever therefore thou art that wouldst provide to thy self a Happiness in another World which indeed is the only true Happiness all else is but Spectres meer Ghosts and Apparitions of Happiness resolve on being Religious in good Earnest and give thy mind thereto § 7. This the generality even of them which profess Religion do not do Religion God help us is taken up by most of us as other Fashions of the Countrey are meerly of course and in compliance with the multitude and if Men perform some outward Exercises thereof in the mean time not living very extravagantly bad they are look'd upon by their Neighbours as Religious Men. And as long as they do not believe contrary to the Doctrines of Christianity but look upon them as things which perhaps may be true and have been taken for Truths never doubted of time out of mind they themselves esteem themselves to have a very tolerable Faith and then a few customary Formalities observed will easily pass in their savourable Judgment of themselves for a Christian Practice And thus alas we have many a current Christian without real Christianity a religious Multitude without a grain of true Religion For Christianity or True Religion consists in a changed heart and a changed life But the generality of people rise not hereto much less contents them As to the getting into their hearts a solid and rational Persuasion of the being of a God and of a World to come as to affecting themselves with a sense of Sin and putting themselves into a state of Pardon through the Blood of Christ and then settling and maintaining in themselves a Love and Fear of God Resolutions and Endeavours of Justice Charity Purity and Humility and finally keeping to this Temper these are things which either they never thought of or have put off the concerning themselves with them till they have done what they account the business of Life that is gotten a fair Estate and in the end of their days may as they hope time enough have leisure and ease to consider of these Matters and settle them to their hearts desire This as far as can be judged by ordinary Fruits is the state and pitch of Religion with the Multitude Nay there are many touching whom it is a high degree of Charity to think even thus much Now he who will be prepared for Death and Judgment must be religious at another rate § 8. He must first look upon Religion not meerly as a thing probable or which perhaps may be so as it is pretended a possible Truth but as indeed it is actually the greatest Truth and Matter of most pressing Concernment in the World Whether this Imployment Trade and Way of Life or whether that be the surest and speediest Method for me to get an Estate is uncertain They are both probable and perhaps there may be a third or fourth way as probable And whether I ever be rich or no the Matter is not of the greatest moment Man's Life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he doth possess many Men live happily who have but from hand to mouth But whether I be saved or damned whether I be everlastingly blessed or everlastingly tormented with the Devil and his Angels this is a Matter of Concernment indeed And then that there is not Salvation in any other but in the Crucified Jesus nor any other name given under Heaven amongst men whereby we must be saved No Blessedness to be had but by true Religion is a thing most certainly true and 't is most vain to think of any other course but this which the Gospel has laid down Now to the end that a Man may be truly convinced of thus much he must give his mind first to understand the Doctrine of Christian Religion that is in plain Terms the Articles of our Christian Faith he must read if he be able honest and easie Expositions of them having before treasured up in his memory the Articles of Belief and Rules of Life and if he be not able to read he must diligently hear enquire particularly of his Minister and Friends touching any thing he understands not which he conceives necessary to Salvation He must not rest till he has satisfied himself in some plain Notion or Conception of that whereof he is ignorant This being done in the next place he must attend unto the Reasons and Evidences which there are of the Truth of such Doctrines Why should I believe there is a God and he Almighty and the Maker of all things seen and unseen My Reason if I will but take the pains to think tells me it must necessarily be so For no Man nor all Men together could ever make this World the visible Heaven and Earth the Sun and Moon and Stars and put them all into that orderly motion in which they circle rising moving setting then hidden to us but enlightening and chearing others Nor can any stop the Heavens from moving nor stir the Earth or make it bring forth otherwise than in season All the Powers we know cannot alter Spring or Harvest Summer or Winter They cannot make the Sun rise sooner or set later Theresore some Being of greater and indeed of infinite Power there must be that is the Almighty God must have made and doth uphold and govern Heaven and Earth and all therein Again Holy Scripture gives Account and farther Proof of all these things There I read or thence I may hear the whole History of the Creation how all and every of these things were made and how they have been governed ever since and what God made them for and what he will do with them These and the like Evidences of the Truths of Religion must such
each in terminis set down and mentioned as distinct parts of our Christianity and so of that Condition of Pardon and Eternal Life which the Gospel proposeth to us thus in the Text of St. Mark already cited Repent ye and believe the Gospel And in Acts 20. 21. St. Paul protesting to the Ephesian Elders that in his preaching he had kept back nothing that was profitable for them reduces the summ of all he had shewed them and taught them either publickly or from house to house that is the whole way of Salvation to these two Points He had testified both to the Jews and also to the Greeks Repentance towards God and Faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ. And agreeably hereto the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews makes Repentance from dead Works and Faith towards God two Foundations or Principles of the Doctrine of Christ Heb. 6. 12. Upon the whole then being that all these Texts contain the undoubted Words of our Lord himself or of his Apostles or Persons inspired by him for the instructing Mankind in the way to Pardon and Salvation we must conclude either that sometimes Repentance is so put as to comprise or understand in it Faith and sometimes again Faith so put as to comprise Repentance or else one of these Absurdities will follow Either that 1. our Lord Christ and the Apostles sometimes taught an insufficient way to Pardon and Salvation or 2. that there are two or three ways to them and 't is no matter which we take Neither of which Consectaries can be ever admitted at least not by Protestants Wherefore it is not reasonable to imagine the practice either of Repentance or of Faith in order to our Peace with God may be spared because in some places only one of them is mentioned for that those places which make both necessary evidently inforce us where one only is expressed there to understand the other And besides that we have seen the Nature of each of them is such that they mutually inferr one the other that is neither can be without the other This will yet further appear in the Account now to be given of the due Method of the practice of both in order to make our Peace with God The Son of Sirach spoke more like an experienced Christian than a Jewish Apochryphal Author when he said Faith is the beginning of our cleaving unto God Eccles 25. 12. for one greater than he tells us He that cometh unto God must believe that he is and that he is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him Heb. 11. 6. But Repentance is a coming and turning unto God 't is a departing from or putting away what he most hates a wicked heart and life therefore there can be no practice of it without Faith foregoing And not only without such a Faith foregoing as that now mentioned out of the Author to the Hebrews That God is and that he is a Rewarder of them that seek him which is only the Faith due by the Law of Nature for the Light of Nature will convince us of the Being of a God and his just Government of the World but even not without most of the Acts of Faith truly Christian will Repentance ever be effected We have therefore in the first place and before any thing advised and conjured to be serious intent and in good Earnest in Religion and that as explained imports the giving a Man's self honestly to understand and by due Evidences to perswade himself of the truth of Christianity so that we suppose him who is to practise Repentance not only to know in general what his Duty is what Sin is what the Rewards belonging to Obedience and what the Wrath and Curse of God belonging to Sin but to be heartily perswaded of all these as also of the whole Covenant of Grace and its Conditions that God will as surely pardon and save every repenting and believing Sinner as he will damn all impenitent unbelieving wretches The Belief of this certain Woe if he go on in Sin and certain Pardon and Blessedness if he take up is the foundation and inducement of all true Repentance Thus a Faith or a Belief of the Doctrines Threats Promises and Commands of the Gospel when hearty and real moves acts and sets on the Soul at the very first to Repentance nor is Repentance possible without such Christian Knowledge or without the hearty perswasion of the truth of what we know and understand as before set forth Yet over and above all this we shall anon see Faith farther concerned than what has yet been said comes to in making our Peace or reconciling us to God § 6. In the mean while let us take a distinct view of the practice of Repentance and do what we can particularly to see by what steps or acts we may arrive at a true penitent state that is a Heart and Life changed from a course of Sin to the honest and stedfast endeavour of Holiness For no less than such a changed Heart and Life does true Repentance or a penitent state import And the Steps are four First A particular sight and sense of Sin Secondly Contrition under it Thirdly Confession of it Fourthly Actual breaking off the course of Sin both by the study of Mortification and of a Holy and Vertuous Life The due practice of Repentance includes I say all these four He who writes this is not ignorant a certain Church has made the Practice of Repentance a Sacrament and calls it by the name of Penance and tells us thereof there are but three parts Contrition Confession and Satisfaction in to which they hedge in Priestly Absolution And these indeed after their way or common road of Practice are quickly dispatch'd But they have herein disguised the Truth and abominably corrupted the most necessary part of Christian Religion The whole Truth which really lies under this Disguise we will endeavour faithfully and plainly to represent by viewing particularly every one of the four forementioned Steps of Practice which bring to this happy and peaceful state § 7. And the first of them is a plain and particular sight and sense of our own Guilt A sense I say as well as sight and I mean thereby such a Consciousness of our being transgressors of God's Holy Commands together with such a Perswasion both of the foulness of the Fact or Facts whereby we have transgress'd and the danger thereof that we are as far from excusing or thinking slightly of the Matter as from denying it We see our selves guilty vile and loathsome and without God's special Mercy everlastingly miserable Some Protestant People at present delight rather to call what we are now speaking of Conviction or in the Plural Number Convictions of Sin than to give it the Name we do And both they and we mean I conceive thereby much the same with what has been more anciently by others termed from that Passage as I suppose touching those Converts mentioned Acts 2. 37.
Compunction They were says the Text pricked at their hearts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 compunged point by point pricked and wounded The like whereto is also recorded of David 2 Sam. 24. 10. David's heart smote him after he had numbred the People But the Name Conviction of Sin is taken out of St. John chap. 16. 8. Where we read it to be a promised Work of the Holy Ghost's that when he should come into the World he should reprove 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Margin of our Bibles convince the World of Sin wherefore there is no fault at all to be found with that Term provided it be allowed that that conviction of Sin which leads to Contrition and Repentance must consist in the Sinner's sight and sense first of his own particular Guilt secondly of the real Evil of his Sin 1. Of a sight of Sin that is of our own particular Guilt We must not only see in general that we are Sinners Transgressors of the Laws of God at random but as to this or that kind and in these or these instances that we have offended against particular Commands Namely we have been or are either Covetous or Drunkards or Revilers or Extortioners or Unjust or Swearers or Blasphemers or Lustful and Unclean or Proud or Sinners in some of these or like kinds by divers particular Acts notorious in such or such part or parts of our Lives Thus St. Paul of himself who was saith he a Blasphemer and a Persecuter and Injurious 1 Tim. 1. 13. And in the aforementioned place the Original of this Phrase Conviction of Sin 't is said The Holy Ghost should convince the world of Sin on that peculiar account because they believed not on Christ Jesus Now this part of the Conviction of Sin is nothing but a particular accusation of Conscience which sometimes God in a great measure prevents us with without any endeavours of our own under the Ministry of his Word as in the Case of those Converts before spoken of Acts 2. Sometimes by the Holy Spirit 's secret and more immediate quickning or awakening Conscience as in the Case of David already also mentioned Or otherwise by some surprizing Affliction or cross Providence as in the Case of Joseph's Brethren when they had been apprehended and kept three days in durance for being as was pretended Spies We are say they verily guilty concerning our Brother in that we saw the anguish of his Soul when he besought us and we would not hear therefore is this distress come upon us Gen. 42. 21. Or perhaps in some other Methods But as for a full and due sight of all the Particulars of ones Guilt I conceive no person can attain to it without a strict and long scrutiny search or examination of Conscience without very mature and considerate enquiry into his Heart Life and Actions Which therefore every one who would reconcile himself to God must upon the first pricking or smiting of his heart in whichsoever of the Methods before-mentioned he feel it immediately set upon For where there is one Sin undoubtedly there are more God having therefore graciously shewn us some we being awakened thereby should search after the rest Convictions of Conscience from God should put us upon stricter self-examination No corner of our Heart as I may so say that is no part or powers of our Soul should be left unsearch'd An Enquiry after Sin should be made through all our Desires Designs Counsels Business and Employments and if possible through all the Actions and Parts of our Life So as to have all our Sins after some sort in order before us bare-faced and open 2. The other part of Conviction of Sin is a sight and sense of the Evil of Sin that it is not only foul and odious disagreeable to the true Principles of our Nature to what in our hearts we approve and unworthy of the sence and understanding of a Man making us brutish loathsome in the eyes of God and of all good and wise men and even of our selves when we are truly our selves and judge of things as they really are but also most mischievous and destructive that it at first brought Death and all temporal Miseries into the World that it brings upon us at present the Wrath and Curse of God Curses in our Persons Estates and Names Curses in our Families Relations and all our Concerns Curses more than we can well comprehend yet are all these present Curses nothing in comparison of what it will bring upon us without Repentance a Portion with the Devil and his Angels The Wrath to come or the Vengeance of everlasting Fire And this part of the Conviction of Sin is nothing else but the Sentence or Doom of Conscience upon the former Convictions Now with this also sometimes does God prevent us either by the Ministry of the Word or by secret Terrors immediately sent into the Conscience flashing as it were Hell-fire in our faces or by more moderate Afflictions sealing instructions to our Ears The Degrees wherein Holy Men are exercised herewith as well have been as are and ever will be very different But it is surely the Duty as well as Interest of every one who would be penitent and holy either in Heart or Life to endeavour by a frequent consideration as well of the real shamefulness vileness and detestable Nature of Sin as of the Dangers thereby present and future to Body and Soul Person and all personal Concerns to possess their hearts with a deep sense of its Evil. 'T is as certain as God is true that Mischief will hunt the wicked man to overthrow him Psal 140. 11. And be sure your Sin will find you out Numb 32. 23. There is no possibility of flying from Guilt except a man could fly from himself nor of flying that is escaping from punishment except it were possible to fly from God These things he should frequently and seriously think upon whosoever would fix in his Heart a sight and sense of his Sin the honest endeavour whereof is the first step to true Repentance § 8. A Second is Contrition Brokenness of Heart so named from Psal 51. 17. or sorrowing after a godly sort as the Apostle calls it 2 Cor. 7. 11. when looking upon our Sin we really in heart are afflicted for it and mourn over it This ordinarily through the Grace of God follows naturally upon the other in the conversion of every Sinner but in case we find it either always to have been much wanting or at present decayed and lost to our sense in us there is no such way to beget or raise it again as to endeavour to heighten the sight and sense of our own Guilt and God's infinite Grace and Goodness To this purpose the several aggravations of our Sins are to be considered We it may be from our Cradle to our present Age have all along been in such Circumstances that all our Sins are exceeding sinful What Mercies has God continually heaped
retired or gone alone and considered the particular grievousness of thy sins the vast multitudes of them the Mercy Love and Goodness thou hast sinn'd against c. Answ Lord I have not And so in others This is most easie and even this will be very profitable and soon bring Christian people of all sorts in secret freely to pour out their Souls before God Nor 2. Can any such person after this practice be well at a loss for Petition The Soul seeing in particular what it wants cannot be presumed ignorant what to ask or unable to ask it At least it is but looking over the Particulars again and turning them into Petitions Nay even while confessing our Guilt and our Wants we can hardly forbear at least we may both naturally and profitably proceed at the end of each Particular conâ—essed to add Petitions for pardon of Sin and for supply of the Grace we need As suppose in my examination of my self I find I want a sight of my Sins and have confessed so much to God how can I forbear to add by way of Petition Lord shew them to me in which case no one that reads Holy Scripture can be so barren as not many times to recollect sundry Petitions of Holy Men to like effect which will be marvellously helpful and quickning As particularly that Psal 19. 12. Who can understand his Errors Cleanse thou me from secret faults To which a Soul in the condition we suppose will naturally add And that I may be cleansed shew them me O Lord so as I may mourn over them duly and throughly repent The like I cannot but presume a little Practice will soon naturalize any to in other points and therefore forbear adding more in this Case Lastly As to Resolution Though the Particulars requisite here may be very different according as People have been more or less guilty in resisting Grace neglecting Repentance and hardning their hearts yet thus much may be of general behoof to resolve upon 1. To set apart for a while daily or weekly some time for the particular survey of our whole Life from our first memory of our selves and for the viewing as near as able all the Sins of each part of our Age. 2. Daily to particularize in our Confessions and ever to go mourning over such sins wherein we have more grievously or more frequently fallen 3. To be impartial in the practice of every particular Branch of Duty in the whole forementioned Method or Course of making our Peace with God And whatever else God shall move thy heart to For these are only Instances of some material Points by way of Direction to make pious Souls understand that practice which a little Vse and God's Grace will soon familiarize to them CHAP. IV. The Third Duty advised to Laying up our Treasure in Heaven § 1. THree Points necessary to be spoken to under this head § 2. A short account what the Heavenly happiness is which we are to endeavour to secure § 3. It is no presumption in a faithful Soul to aim at or seek after this happiness but in strictness a duty § 4. Directions to secure it Of chusing God for our happiness § 5. Of being full of Good Works § 6. Of Good Works in a more special sence § 7. How Christians of all sorts may be rich in Good Works § 8. Works of Liberality and Mercy or of bodily charity peculiarly accounted laying up a Treasure in Heaven § 9. Charity to Men's Souls no less so § 1. HE who has been careful and conscientious in his endeavors to reconcile himself to God as before directed may through our Lord Christ who is our Peace come with an humble boldness to the Father He may in his name ask of the Father whatsoever he can need or finds himself at a loss for and he shall receive it He may in special ask of him everlasting life and happiness in Heaven Nay he ought now to think of no happiness below Heaven but there to place his heart there to settle his affections and in a word as our Lord enjoyns to lay up his Treasure in Heaven the doing which is the next advice or third step in this our first Stage But for sinful Dust and Ashes to aim so high may perhaps at first seem to many poor dejected Souls as much a presumption as to secure a happiness in Heaven seems to carnal Men impossible Nay 't is not improbable many may be much at a loss what conceptions to frame of any happiness there at all We have been here so accustomed to live meerly by sense that we can conceive of little or nothing which falls not under our senses What the pleasures of Eating and Drinking are what sleep and carnal joys we know too well But what happiness there can be in a World where 't is said there 's none of these we cannot easily apprehend It will therefore be necessary here First to shew what that Happiness is which we are to propose to our selves in Heaven Secondly to prove in a few words that for persons who have made their peace with God 't is not presumption but their Duty as well as Interest to lay up their Treasure or place their happiness in Heaven and indeed in God himself And Lastly to assign such means whereby we may secure to our selves the heavenly Happiness or Treasure § 2. And First to give some account what that happiness in Heaven is which we are to propose to our selves Not at present so largely and distinctly as in a fitter place will be expedient to be given but at least generally and in the gross so as may inflame our desires after it and excite our diligence to fecure it The happiness above then is a State of fuller and more absolute blessedness and joy than here we are able to conceive of A State wherein all our reasonable powers shall be made perfect and perfectly imployed on such things which will be most intirely suitable and satisfactory to them And not only the Soul thus raised but even the Body it self shall be exalted to such a degree of Purity and Eternal Ease as to have nothing in it or about it which argues any imperfection in its kind nothing which can hinder the mind in its noblest Actions nothing which can affect the Man with any inconvenience We shall see God as he is face to face See him I say with the eyes of our mind not these poor weak bodily ones That is we shall know him even as we our selves are known 1 Cor. 13. 12. not indirectly or by a long compass about as we now do but intuitively by immediate Revelation as it were looking straight upon him The mind shall be so raised as to be able to conceive truly and properly of the Being Nature and Perfections of God Our bodily Eyes indeed shall behold the Lord Jesus for he has a body visibly to be beheld and even this certainly will be a glorious and most
I were now dying and breathing out my last with that last breath would I give thee this counsel make this request impose upon thee this command or otherwise c. Take it therefore now lest thou and I should not have then opportunity for it and remember it as the Counsel Admonition or Command c. of thy dying Father Friend c. Then give thy Counsel signifie thy desire c. Counsel thus once given and as occasion may offer thus at convenient times ingeminated or repeated may have the same weight make the same impression and will every whit as much serve to the discharging of our Conscience and so for the composing our minds for death as if it were given upon the Death-bed The same may I say as to any secrets which we have to impart and which it is expedient our Friends or Relations should know convenient time in state of health and leisure may be taken and needful Prefaces used so as to impart them even at a distance from our death Or if the secrets be of such nature as it is not expedient our Friends should know them when we are in health or till we are going or gone out of the world a Letter may be writ and put up sealed with our Will to such person to whom the secret does belong Or in case we are not able to write some faithful friend with whom we can or do intrust the secrets of our Estate may be intrusted herewith to impart it to our Friends at or after our death By these or like means which common discretion will suggest may a man before hand discharge his Conscience to his Friends so as to have his mind even in reference to them composed and easie and himself at a distance as ready for death as if it were at hand § 10. Lastly whether of the main or subordinate Directions it matters not having done thy best as has been before prescribed with good Conscience to settle thy affairs and thy mind though thou presumest thy self never at so great a distance from death yet as fully and intirely as if thou wert now to die and together comfortably and quietly resign up thy self and all thine to God Let him now from henceforth work his will and dispose of thee and thine as he pleases Do thou quietly await his good pleasure Thine own person soul and body and the persons of all thy dear Relations or Friends by Faith and Prayer commit to him as into the hands of a faithful Creator and do this daily as long as thou livest Thy Estate and Goods give up according to his good pleasure he being the most wise Disposer as well as the alone true Proprietor and Lord of all Thou hast as his Instrument endeavoured to dispose of all as wisely and conscionably as thou canst but when thou art gone which way in a short time all will go whether to thine or to strangers whether to a wise man or to a fool thou Eccles 2. 19. neither canst nor shalt know nor does it truly concern thee to presage or forebode Much less shouldest thou disturb thy quiet about it thy duty 's done Thy children may Job 14. 21. come to Honour and thou know it not and they may be brought low but thou perceive it not of them Trouble not therefore thy self now as to what comes after thee If thou considerately survivest these Preparations thou maist alter things as in Christian prudence thou at leisure shalt see occasion If not thy Province is discharged God is at peace with thee thou hast a happiness Him for thy happiness to go to Happy man set thy heart at rest abandon Sollicitude address to what comes with a Christian temper and make the most Heavenly and Spiritual use thou canst of all that comes bidding still all welcome as from God § 11. This is plainly a most easeful and blessed temper able in a great measure to felicitate any person Whosoever has thus practised and continues in this state and practice is plainly prepared for death For the three aforementioned intentions beyond which in this period we could see nothing necessary are attained He has a Happiness to go to the infinite God is his Portion He has provided against all he can fear sin and the wrath due to it Sin he has forsaken and endeavoured to extirpate and the guilt of it that is obligation to the wrath due is done away for he has made his peace with God in Christ and he has disintangled himself from the world He may therefore take up good old Simeon's Hymn Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace And add thereto St. John's Response to the Churches Invitatory Come Lord Jesus come quickly Only if his Lord delayeth his coming it will concern him to watch To have his light burning and to keep oyl in his vessel with his lamp that is to maintain this blessed temper and to strengthen those things which are weak to fill up what is defective to take care his heart and his works be perfect before God that is sincere to hold fast and be faithful to the end that no man take his Crown Of which Duties we are next to consider In the mean time Blessed is that servant whom his Lord at his coming shall find so doing Matter and a Method for Devotions suitable to Chapter the Fifth IN point of Examination or Inquiry into our condition here will be Matter of a new nature and different from what as yet came before us For hitherto in our Devotional engagements the enquiries we have still made were touching disorders of heart or our particular guilt Sins Habitual or Actual But now being engaged as well to settle our worldly affairs as to purge our Souls and quiet our minds and the purging disentangling and quieting our selves depending so much on our outward circumstances After such endeavours of a serious thoughtful temper and short Prayer as usual at our entring into our privacy we must look without and set our selves to consider in plain terms What estate or worldly substance we have and how it lyes What Relations also and Dependants Or what Dependencies we our selves have upon others What Dealings and Contracts we are engaged in What our Debts and Credits These questions we must seriously put to our selves and endeavour true answers and accompts in the fear of God as really making matter of Conscience of such Inquest For without this kind of practice a person that has had any thing to do in the world or has lived any considerable time therein cannot be just to the world when he goes out of it And for directing to such work as this in quality of a matter of Conscience and a work of secret or Closet-Devotion I have great reason in as much as good conscience and our peace both with God and our selves is so intimately concerned in it For 't is most certain a man cannot die a good Christian or with just hopes