which their souls did breath but a miserable necessity under which they were bound and that divine will to which they must subscribe had determined on them their seventy years captivity till the time of their return Jerem. 25.12 and till then though they might with tears have prevented that captivity yet though they should now as Esau for his blessing beg deliverance carefully with tears they shall nevertheless till then weep for that misery which till they felt they would not believe That penitent sorrow which would prevent the decree of vengeance before it brings forth is oft too late to reverse it when it is put in execution Those daily tears which had they been shed at home might have expiated their offences and been in mercy accepted for their Countries ruine are now condemned to wash a prophane land where hopeless Exiles they are faster bound by the decree of Heaven then by all the power of their enemies Their lusts had led them willing captives under the Law of sin and their enemies led them into an unwilling captivity under the power of sinners and as they had a long time sinned without repentance so shall they be a long time punished without remission The gliding streams with happy freedom wash the several banks they passe by and at length repose themselves in the desired common bosom of waters but perpetuity gives perfection to these captives misery from day to day from morning to evening they sit down in sorrow and tyre their weary souls in a longing expectation of long delayed felicity The dayes of our age are but threescore years and ten and though some be so strong as to live fourscore years yet then is their strength naturally but labour and sorrow saith Moses so soon passeth it away and we are gone Psalm 90.10 yet lo seventy years threescore years and ten is the time for their captivity Sin hastens on and lengthens to us the miseries of our life When God sets our misdeeds before him and our secret sins in the sight of his countenance our dayes we pass in his anger and our years in troubles we consume away in displeasure and tremble at his wrathful indignation we are killed from day to day every dayes fear ushers in a new trouble and every dayes trouble brings forth a further fear wave after wave and billow after billow come tumbling to our shores whilest we by these waters of Babylon sit down and weep Again secondly if we refer their posture to their affection we sate down and wept those postures of the body are to be used most which suit best with the occasion and move or at least express the inward affection Isaac walked and meditated old Jacob leaned upon his staffe and worshipped Abraham bowed his face to the ground and did reverence Solomon stood and prayed Daniel kneeled upon his knees to deprecate the captivity of his people which here the people did bewail but sitting Standing suits not with a dejected condition kneeling not with a simple bewailing of our condition to our selves but to God Job indeed in his affliction arose and fell down but because he worshipped Nehemiah when he heard of the afflictions of Jerusalem sate down and wept Hagar when in the bitterness of her soul she bewailed the death of her son sate down Gen. 21.16 and the Jewes when in the like sorrow of heart for the Temple their own captivity and the distresses of Zion as if they would dwell and feed upon sorrow sate down we sate down and wept Long afflictions require alike length of sorrow to repentance They are grievous sins that have provoked the God of mercy to lengthen the smart of his judgments gravia peccata gravia desiderant lamenta saith Isidore grievous sins require the greatness of our sorrow both for intention and duration But to be plagued for sin and yet to be senceless of the judgement is the worst of judgments No greater Symptome of death then when the sick man grows senceless and knows not that he is sick at all And I would to God such a Crisis could not be made of us else why such weariness and neglect of our humiliation whilest the judgment is continued Nay as if our sores were the more festered for their lancing why such exemplary prophaness as former ages have been piously ignorant of and future I hope will detest to imitate Why such notorious sins such noon-day evils to which each mans eye and ear bears witness perhaps some with tingling others with tears Why such debauchedness of life which when it hath unsouled the man buries the beast in excess and riot Why such execrable oaths and blasphemies which pass so frequently through those common shores the fatal ports of our mouths which are seldom open but to transport such carrion and filth Why those unworthy actions of luxury that mark of reprobation as one which engulphs the soul in such base pleasures and makes it like the worst of Devils that are more gross as the Caldean and Egyptian that which hath gluttony for the fuel pride for the flame unclean words for the sparkles infamy for smoak ordure for ashes a hell for Centre O deceive not your selves all our longing expectation of the removal of these judgments will be unsatisfied till we heartily sorrow and earnestly repent of those our misdoings whereby we have provoked Gods wrath and indignation against us there is no hope of our returning to the fair hill of Zion the beauty of holiness and the beauty of order till in sorrow for our transgressions that have made a separation betwixt God and us by these waters of Babylon we sit down and weep And so I have done with the third thing and come to The fourth thing their affection in that posture We sate down and wept As all rivers so those of Babylon run into the sea and as others so they receive addition of waters as they run The heads of the drooping captives were as waters and their eies as fountains of tears that streamed into the rivers current as they sate down by them and wept their whole composition was but like engendred clouds exhaled vapours drawn up by the heat of Gods anger and now distil and melt themselves into continual showers of tears So as if Babylons rivers as once Hagars bottle should chance to fail as she set her dying child so have they their expiring mother before their eyes which will force a new supply to fill them up again And should I say the waters tides were caused by the ebbes and flouds of the captives tears it would be but an Hyperbole that would expresse the victors cruelty and the captives griefs Nay their grief knows no ebb their Moon and so their sorrow calls for a Change at last is at her Full of sorrow each pensive enslaved Jew payes to the waters of Babylon their tears for tribute to the memory of Zion And as if what they shed for her sake they would commit to
will be grains of allowance to thee without question therefore be converted and turn from the broad way of sin and death to the narrow path of life and eternal glory for such a soul will be acceptable unto the Lord the blessed Quire of Angels will rejoyce at the conversion of such a sinner For according to my Text joy shall be in Heaven over one sinner that repententh more then over ninety and nine just persons that need no repentance So much for this time Repentance Conversion THE Fabrick of Salvation In the Gospel according to St. Luke Chap. 15. vers 7. it is thus written I say unto you that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth more then over ninety and nine just persons that need no repentance WE have already discoursed upon these words SERM. II. and demonstrated unto you both by Scripture and other authority the necessity and excellency of Repentance We have largely discoursed of the nature of repentance and defined it unto you Now not to detain you with any farther repetition we shall immediately fall upon the second observation that we raised from the words of the Text and that was this viz. How to become true poenitents And really beloved hic labor hoc opus est or at least should be this should be the white at which every true Christian should level his thoughts This ought to be the Asylum unto which every godly man should have recourse when he is prosecuted and persecuted both by sin and Satan This should be the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or sum of every mans actions and the chiefest and first of his intentions the cream and top of his holy ambition But where shall we traffick for true penitent souls what climate affords them all Nations are more or less given to some hainous crime To be sober among the Germans setled among the French chaste among the Italians and loyal among the English is rare and worthy admiration you need not make any strict inquisition after impiety there is enough daily presented upon the stage of the world there is too too much God knows Truth the pure innocent undefiled Truth like the Dove of Noah flies about and scarce gets any room for her footing she is mounted to heaven with Astraea but if you desire to finde out a whorish Achan a covetous Ahab a hard-hearted Pharaoh a Nebuchadonozor quaffing in the bowls of the Sanctuary a sacrilegious fellow buying Bishops Lands you may meet with him in every corner Scatent plateae hujusmodi viris nequam for truth is expelled nunc dierum To be true and loyal marcheth in the rank of impossibilities as the world is now but let us operum dare labour tooth and nail as we say proverbially to avoid the accursed punishment of impenitent persons seek after the remission of sins by the bloody death and passion of our Saviour and lay hold with the hand of faith on all Gospel-promises applicable to a conscience-wounded sinner that so after we have lived a life of grace here in this vale of misery we may enjoy a life of glory in perpetuum hereafter Now the main point intended in this discourse is to discover unto you some wayes or means how to apprehend when you are truly penitent that I shall demonstrate unto you 1. Negatively and 2. Affirmatively 1. Negatively and here I will declare unto you beloved auspiciis Divinis by the help of the Deity what it is not viz. being true penitents and that in 5. particulars 5 Discoveries of true penitency which shall be as so many brands on their foreheads to inform the world of their impenitency 1. He is no true penitent that is not so perplexed as to be gnawen at the very heart by that viper Sorrow for his many enormous offences and sensible of the need that he stands in of Gods mercy an Ocean of mercy nay unless he think the burthen of his sin so ponderous and weighty so filthy and impure as to require every drop of the blood of our Saviour to satisfie for them King David if it be not a crime to allow him his Title having implunged himself into a gulf and multitude of sins begs a multitude of mercies as it appears in the 51. Psal vers the 1. Have mercy upon me O God according to thy loving kindness according to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions We stand in need of a Sea of mercies for the innumerable number of our hainous crimes that we are guilty of Now he that is so hardned with the yoke of sin that he is become brawny and insensible of the weight and hainousness of it this man hath no penitent frame of spirit and we may safely say without any prejudice to our charity or incurring the evil of censure that such a man is no true penitent 2. They are not become true penitents no nor in the way to repentance that are so far from being grieved at sin as to make no bones of great sins nay to dally and toy with sin and impiety but 't is bad handling such edged tools for the sword of Gods indignation will soon cut them off swearing with such persons is but a grace and lustre to their speech a splendor but I fear such a one as will light them to hell lying but wit's craft or policy drunkenness jovialness or good fellowship whoring a trick of youth covetousness thriftiness thus do they baptize vice by the name of vertue see how bestial fowl and deformed a thing vice is that it dare not appear in its own native deformity and hue but it must borrow the Mask of vertue they think that they can shift well enough without mercy and imagine that three words at the last gasp is sufficient to save their soul but I pray God they may not share with that Gentleman in fortune that was very debauched and had streamed out his youth in wine and venery who being desired by his Confessor to acknowledge his misdemeanors towards God and man and to beseech God to vouchsafe him pardon of his sins put him off with a pish Three words at last are of sufficient power to save my soul meaning Miserere mei Deus but it hapned that this Gentleman not long after as he was riding over a bridge his horse slipt and down fell horse and man into the river and in falling instead of Miserere mei Deus he was heard to say Capiat omnia Daemon The devil take both horse and man sad words to be the vehiculo animae suae to waft his soul over into the other world a sweet Epilogue to the Tragedy of his life His Catastrophe was as damnable as his whole life abominable and odious This will be a caveat to all serious and solid Christians to avoid procrastination in repentance and endeavour after it with all possible speed 3. They are not true penitens that are meerly earal verbal and worded
men now adaies like the Pellaean Hero Alexander the Great do Aestuare angusto limite mundi Sweat for want of room in the world there is not space enough for the flight of their soaring thoughts that are wing'd with ambition but this is according to the Wiseman nothing but vanity vanitas vanitatum omnia vanitas They fish after impossibilities and grant they could subdue the whole world and reduce it into their own possession 't would not it could not satisfie their heart or give them any real solid content for the world is a Circle the heart of man a Triangle now we all know that a Circle cannot fill a Triangle Cease then all you that aim at the hilling up of fatal gold and employ your hours in a more noble traffick in procuring the riches and treasures of Jesus Christ that may serve you and be of use to you in the day of wrath to get your Sins pardoned all your crimes expunged with the Spunge of Oblivion that the Lord may nevermore lay them to your charge and this must be by an unfeigned repentance though none of the five forementioned ways Now that you may know how to gain the salvation of your souls how to be eternally blessed and sing Hallelujahs to God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost world without end which felicity will undoubtedly be attained unto by all true penitent souls And that you may know affirmatively what it is to be true penitents take it in these following Considerations The five steps of ascention by Repentance To this felicity we must ascend by 5 degrees or steps of true and unfeigned repentance 1. The first step whereof that leads and conducts to heaven is for a man to have an internal regret for sin to be grieved and perplexed for it to be wounded in conscience for it for till a man see his Sins in the glass of repentance and weigh them and meditate upon the curse of God that hangs over his head in a judgment for them he will never repent This is the godly sorrow that leadeth unto repentance never to be repented of This compunction or pricking of the heart is a clear demonstration of repentance sincere and sound and is the first step to heaven and so per consequens to the salvation of the never dying soul And if it be so that this is the first step to heaven Use 1 how sad a thing is it to see men in such a miserable estate as many are in these distracted times how many are there that have not set one foot forward in the way to heaven and you know the old saying Non progredi est regredi Not to go forward is to go backward How many are there that never have been humbled never touched never wounded in conscience for their Sins Wilful impenitency or a careless neglect of Repentance very dangerous O what a miserable condition what a deplorable estate do they lye in Now apply this to your selves Beloved did the sacrificing Knife of Gods Word never wound your conscience nor extract one tear from your eyes for the deluge of your Sins that will overwhelm your soul eternally without Gods infinite mercy if you have not been thus and thus grieved for your trespasses and transgressions you are in a desperate condition and there is very little hope or probability of your salvation Vse 2 This serves then for a Use of Consolation to all the Children all the Sons and Daughters of God for if you feel your hearts wounded for your Sins and you bath your soul in true penitent tears for the many hainous crimes that you are conscious of it is a true indicium or sign of being in the state of grace and that Gods spirit hath met with us and his Word hath cut the throat of Sin which otherwise would have ruinated you nay aims at God himself for peccatum saith Parisiensis est Deicidium Sin is the Cut-throat of God with holy reverence be it spoken Sin strives to dethrone God therefore let us endeavour to cast Sin down the precipice of our hearts and nevermore afford it house-room since it offends so merciful so gracious and so kind a God as ours for Sin is an abomination unto the Lord and so are all Sinners and evil-doers 2. The second sign of or way to true penitency is this when a man fears to Sin not because of the punishment but because he offends so great a God in so doing like holy Joseph who when he was tempted by the sweet caresses of his Mistris cried out How can I do this great evil and sin against God! Therefore from him we may learn what is most to be desired here on earth viz. the love and favour of God so that if any one should put the question to you and demand what your desire most hunted after and what your affections were most fixed on You ought to answer The love and favour of God in Christ Jesus 'T is not your embroidered apparel your manners and mannors your parts and arts that are able to appease the trouble and perplexity of a distressed conscience nothing but the mercy of God in Christ Jesus will afford it This is the onely refuge for a troubled conscience in the greatest extreamity Men may in their extremities go to drink away sorrow as they term it in their profane gibbrish and betake themselves to their merry company but alas this is no comfort this no remedy for their disease an old sore gangren'd or putrified if it be not very skilfully handled will hardly admit of cure but if it be superficially healed at top and not throughly at the bottom as soon as 't is skin'd at the top it will break out at the bottom so when men seek to smother the accusation of their own consciences and strive to blunt the edge of it it will rebound again and give a deadly wound even to desperation Beg of God therefore power and ability through his strengthning grace that you may be buoy'd up thereby in the midst of an Ocean of troubles and that the burden of an afflicted wounded conscience may be minorated and lessened that so you may not fall into despair To prevent despair all godly persons ought like Heraclitus to weep away their daies and indeed they are a sea of tears a meer vapour melted into tears his voice is painted with tears which have such an airy power and faculty as that they are able to mount up to Heaven and there to insinuate themselves into the ear of the Almighty begging and craving pardon for sin and a preservation from despair by the mighty power of God Lachrymae preces are the only weapons in a Christian battel let us so fight with these weapons as to get the peace of conscience and joy of the Holy Ghost that passeth all understanding and that speedily too for our journey is long and our time short therefore we had need to husband
of Heaven and these devout Jews here whom it pitied to see the glory of Zion laid in the dust wept when they remembred it Appl. What shall we say then of those who now in the time of our Church and Kingdoms calamity when God seems to call to us as sometimes Jehu did Who is on my side who When the Church cries to us as sometimes she did Is it nothing to you all ye that passe by the way have ye no regard behold and see if ever sorrow were like my sorrow yet neither in heed to his voice nor in pity to her complaints will they humble themselves by fasting and prayer to cry to Heaven for mercy upon her but rather when God calls to mourning they are a revelling they drink wine in bowles and anoint themselves with precious oyntments but remember not the afflictions of Joseph wherefore I have sworn by my self saith the Lord God of hosts I abhor the excellency of Jacob Amos 6.6 8. And let such read the 22 Chapter of Isaiah vers 12 13 14. and tremble at the close of it Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till you dye Ye would take it in foul disgrace to be called hard-hearted Jews yet these were more compassionate of the Churches miseries then are many of you these wept when they remembred Zion How then shall not our hearts agonize under Gods displeasure and our bedewed cheeks trickle down with tears for the miseries of our Church and State seeing the Heavens themselves have with waterish eyes long wept for our calamities not with dews but showers of compassion all the summer long and still now in winter keep their gloomy face to reproove the hardness of our obdurate hearts that can neither weep for our own nor pity the miseries of others O insensate hearts Is it nothing to you that you all passe by Zions sorrow wherewith the Lord hath afflicted her in the day of his fierce anger The senceless creatures groan and travel in a fellow-feeling pain but you when your own members suffer and perish O where are the sounding of your bowels are they quite restrained The earth trembles at the voice of God the Sea saw him and was afraid and the rocks cleft at our Saviours passion and shall men be so obdurate as not to be moved nor split asunder at a Church and a Kingdoms passion If rocks be more affected then we O God take away from us these obdurate hearts of flesh and give us hearts of stone that seeing we cannot with innocent yet we may with hearts broken by repentance for all these sins that have pulled down those judgments upon our heads by these waters of Babylon sit down and weep when we remember thee O Zion And so I have done with the words in their literal sense and proceed now to them Secondly in their moral sense of which briefly In this sense St. Hilary St. Augustine Hugo de Sancto Victore Hugo Cardinalis with many others have taken these words nor in this do we offer any violence to the truth of the history but only digest gesta in exemplum scripta in doctrina as saith St. Hilary the passages into example and Scripture into doctrine The soul we all know hath four several states 1. Of innocence 2. Of a lapsed condition 3. Of renovation by grace 4. Of expectation of glory And going along with her from her first instant of creation to the last of eternity we shall find all of them in the Text. 1. That of innocence but implied so as that captivity supposeth a foregoing freedom this freedom was that of our created holiness which we enjoyed in Paradise that new Jerusalem that vision of peace but God knows we stay'd not long there before we were carried captive by the devil into Babylon from Paradise into the world from our country into exile from liberty into servitude from glory into disgrace from pleasure into grief from happiness into misery from integrity into corruption from life into death and therefore Merito illic sedemus merito flemus there we deservedly sit and weep as Hugo Victorinus concludes and that is the second state 2. The souls lapsed condition figured in Babylon and the waters of Babylon That Babylon properly signifies a City of confusion and that mystically here is meant this sinful world is agreed on by a general suffrage of Fathers and therefore consonantly they make the waters of Babylon to be bona temporalia so Hugo Cardinalis temporal things which as the rivers stay not but pass from one elbow of earth unto another the world passeth away and the lusts thereof 1 Joh. 2.17 or as Victorinus calls them decursiones nostrae corruptiones the decursions of our corruption and mortality which as Solomon speaks tend to the grave as the rivers into the Sea or as saith St. Augustine flumina Babyloniae sunt omnia quae hic amantur transeunt the rivers of Babylon are all transitory things whereon we set our hearts and so St. Hilarie omnia saeculi corporalium opera all secular and corporal travels which like rivers are transient without the least station for what bodily pleasure is it but when once 't is past by that time becomes none What earthly joy that dies not in the sense and perishes not in the enjoying yet are these those rivers on which the heart of man sets and fastens his delight and engulphs his care till at last they drown his soul and sink it as low as that pit which knows no bottom 3. But not so the Saints whose spiritualized souls are lifted up to a third state of graces renovation who though they do with patience wait their desired change in this flesh of sin as well as of mortality and so may be said to sit by the waters of Babylon which they account no better then the place of their short captivity yet humiliatione humiliati saith St. Augustine they sit in humiliation so Victorinus not erect by pride nor cast down by despair but humbly set so Hugo Cardinalis because they attend that misery in which they are that happiness from which they are distant Or there they sit but 't is supra flumina above the waters so the old Latine word reads it The Citizens of Babylon so drench themselves into the delights of the sinful world as they drown themselves in their pleasing but deadly waters whereas the Citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem sit higher sit above not so low as to fear drowning nor so high as not to need to weep and weep they do too as well as sit if sitting be a posture that pleaseth the body weeping I am sure is an evacuation that easeth the soul O quam fic flere juvat saith St. Hierome O what sweets are there in hallowed tears how the soul delights to melt it self into such blessed showers because when she goeth into the lowest pitch of mourning she is then lifted up into the highest rapture of joy You have heard of them that have wept for joy but not so oft of them that have rejoyced for weeping yet of all the passions the soul is owner of she is a debtor to none more for her joy then this this is her rich treasure in which she traffiques with Heaven this the rarest dissolved pearl with which she defrayes all the passages of her captivity through the valley of tears Feel'st thou sin sit down and weep there is no innocence so clear among mortal men as that which is drencht in tears Fear'st thou hell sit down and weep flames cannot burn where these drops do fall O happy weeping that redeems from eternal weeping 4. But lookest thou up to Heaven that last state of thy souls glory her Country her Kingdom her Security sit down and weep that thy Pilgrimage is prolonged that mortality is not swallowed up of life that thou art yet a stranger and a sojourner nor art thou yet joyned with those innumerable companies of Angels and the first born that are written in Heaven O when shall that time be when our souls being delivered from the Babylon of this world from the prison of this flesh from the bondage of this corruption shall be delivered into the glorious liberty of the sons of God How long Lord till these souls of ours which like streams here wander from the fountain of bliss be again re-admitted into that glorious source of immortality For this we breathe for this we groan for this each devout heart weeps when he recounts the miseries of this present exile but the happiness of Zion which we expect where all tears shall be wiped from our eyes where is no death nor sorrow nor lamentation any more but all joyes tranquillity and peace even for ever and ever To which the God of mercy for his Sons sake who is gone before us thither in his due time bring us to whom with the holy and ever-blessed Trinity three Persons and one God be all honour and glory world without end Amen FINIS
what is feigned of the Phoenix in a bed of spices in odors of devotion kindled by the beams of the true Sun of righteousness quickning out of the ashes an acceptable sacrifice to the Father of Lights for he delighteth not in the death of a sinner but rather that he should turn from his wickedness and live 'T is not a light sorrow or petty sigh or a Miserere mei Domine at the last gasp when the soul is going to give his ultimum vale to the body will serve your turn or procure pardon of your sins from God no no you must labour to be humbled more deeply for your enormous offences and hainous sins which seale the heavens with their clamor and cry for vengeance from the Lord of heaven so that if we could possibly shed tears of blood for our crimson scarlet sins we should do it for all come short of that grief for sin and real contrition of heart that we ought to have Could we stream out the residue of our dayes that it shall please the Almighty to allow us in this vale of misery could we consume and wast the Taper of our life in sighs and heart-breaking groans 't were all little enough to beg and obtain pardon of God for our sins You must bath the Leprosie of your sin in a Jordan of tears before you can come to the Land of Canaan the Zoar of salvation Life you know is uncertain death certain you had best therefore beloved take hold of opportunity by the fore-lock for post est occasio calva an opportunity once slipt is seldom recover'd whilst it is call'd to day harden not your heart Nemo sibi crastinum promittat Let no man assure himself of the morrow for death wrestleth with every man and serius aut citius mortem properamus adunam sooner or later he gets a fall he hath tript up the heels of all our Ancestors and you know not how soon he may foyl you Venienti occurrite morbo meet the distemper and remedy it whilst it is curable Delays in rebus sanctis are very dangerous repent therefore of your sins before death that though he be termed by the Heathen Philosophers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he may be to you a Messenger that bringeth glad tidings a guide to conduct you from a momentany unto eternal life which we shall enjoy with God in secula seculorum I could wish cordially that that saying of that good old man St. Cyprian were not so true as daily experience manifests it In aetate senescunt in pietate juvenescunt Most men now adayes have gray heads and green wits capita cana and corda vana and when their heads are ful of silver hairs they have not so much as suckt in their Rudiments they have need of milk the food of babes and sucklings instead of the more solid grounds and fundamentals of Religion Whereas ancient Christians should be walking Laws and talking Statutes their dicta edicta and their actiones axiomata as Gregory Nazianzen saith 'T is a sad thing to be near heaven and never the near to be at the gates of death before they have learnt one lesson of repentance and if their repentance be sorrowless 't will prove but a sorry one Old men should like trees of righteousnesse bear fruit in their old age when their heads are candied with hoary hair but not the fruits of old age covetousness suspicion and the like If the Evangelists in their time could cry out Repent repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand it must of necessity be nearer at hand now then it was then therefore beloved I have the more cause to press this Doctrine of repentance upon you and let me tell you that there is no musick so melodious in the ears of God as that which resounds from a broken instrument God loves a broken heart and yet he 'll have the whole heart or none 't is strange and yet true repentance is a consumption yet no sickness and what man would not willingly condescend to undergo such a consumption here that he might not be consumed in endless easeless and remediless flames and torments hereafter One thing I do very much admire at viz. how they can expect favour from God that will grant favour to none but upon the divels conditions in the 24 of St. Matthew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if falling down thou wilt worship They would have others fall down and worship them when as they will not worship and adore God Dejecisti eos dum elevarentur saith the Psalmist a strange kind of expression Thou hast taken them down whilest thou liftedst them up this seems to have an allusion to the Eagle and other birds of prey who having found an Oyster that they with their own strength cannot break or open they soar aloft and spying the clift of a rock for they are very quick-sighted as natural Philosophers inform us they let the Oyster fall perpendicularly and so it breaking to pieces they come to their desired food so God he lifts them up on high that they may the better get a fall Tolluntur in altum Ut lapsu graviore ruant Such haughty minds are not season'd aright they have no true frame of a penitent spirit neither will God accept of such persons and till you be reconciled to God through his son Jesus Christ and are washed and cleansed from all your iniquities by the tears of repentance and be converted from sin to God your case is desperate and it had been better for you to have been a beast than a man Display your sins before God not hypocritically but really for there is no dissembling with God and confession in your mouth if it be hypocritical will be like a Shibboleth in the Hebrew you cannot pronounce it without lisping your sins are hainous confess them cordially to be so your sins are many in number acknowledg them to be so the Terra incognita of your corruptions is far larger then the Terra cognita But let not the hainousness of thy sin the number or multitude of them deter thee from repentance but proceed with a holy resolution to go through all difficulties by the help of Christ Jesus and all objections that the world the flesh and the devil can alleadge against you till you have obtained pardon and remission of your sins never cease till you come to a period for he that intends to sing Te Deum to the Almighty must not break off till he come to the end Proceed I say beloved ad finem usque and rely upon the merits of our Jesus and be not put off by the hainousness of your sins and the rigour of the Law of God for if the most holy man that ever breath'd upon the face of the earth should be weighed in the balance of the Sanctuary and no grain of favour be allowed him then without all doubt mene tekel might be applied to him he would be found too light There
it well Can there be a longer journey then from earth to heaven and a shorter time than a moment Yet such is our journey such is our time Repent therefore now while it is called to day harden not your hearts for procrastination is dangerous doubt not of the power of God for he is Omnipotent and this attribute of his is manifested in every petty piece of the Hexameron Fabrick There is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 something that may challenge our admiration even in the borders of a gaudy Butterfly saith Aristotle which do afford an evident smack or view of the Omnipotency of God Rely upon him therefore fear sin and avoid it because it offends so gracious a God 3. The third step to true repentance is a constant and setled resolution never to sin or displease God to do his will walk in the way of his Commandments I do not say that a truly sanctified person never sins at all but he never sins with an intent and purpose to sin he takes no delight or complacency in sin 't is the sole object of his hatred and resolveth to please God as far as possibly he may by the grace of God that strengthens him When he can say with holy David Psalm the 18. and the 23. I have refrained my feet from every evil way Again 1 John 3.9 He that is born of God sinneth not i. e. not with a full purpose of heart or with a delight in it or affection to it but they constantly strive against it shun and avoid the occasions of sin suspect themselves upon every occasion and are continually arm'd to give battel to the devil and his temptations In may things we sin all saith St. James But if we can but say really and experimentally that it is against our intention that we hate abhor detest sin with an unutterable hatred and that we condemn the very sins we commit then we may be comforted receive joy and assure our selves that we are true penitents for this takes away the dominion of sin in our mortal bodies doth not quite thrust it out it doth devest it of its authority so that it hath no power to prejudice or injure us in our salvation 4. The fourth sign of or way unto true repentance is an aggravation of our sins when we render them hainous in the sight of God acknowledging we have sinned so much that we deserve eternal damnation we deserve that the Vials of Gods wrath should be poured down upon our heads You would fare the better not the worse for aggravating your transgressions For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believed in him might not perish but have everlasting life This is a sic without sicut Such a so as never man loved so and all this for the salvation of mankind 5. The fifth and last sign of or step unto repentance is a frank and free confession of sins not extorted and wrung out of you but flowing from you liberally chearfully and really in hope of the pardon and remission of them We must so confess our sins as to beg pardon for them and to entreat the Lord to have pity on us out of the bowels of his tender compassion Do not abscond and conceal your sins manifest them publickly both to God and man be cordially penitent for them and no doubt but the merciful God will save your souls Confession of sins is the forerunner of remission and this must not be flashy and for a time but so long as are our years upon the earth measured out for he that will serve the primus motor must not write his ne ultra till he come to the Terminus ad quem He must proceed with a courage we must confess them openly and not like the worldly wise whose wisdom Lactantius saith abscondit non abscindit peccata conceals and not cuts asunder or separates sin Now we must confesse our sins 1. To God and 2. To Man 1. To God as holy David teacheth us in his own example Psalm the 51. vers 4. Against thee against thee only have I sinned and again in the 32 Psam vers the 6. I said I will confess my sins unto the Lord and so thou forgavest the wickedness of my sin 'T is true we may injure men by our sin as David did Uriah but being sin the chiefest wrong and injury falleth upon God 2. We must confess to men and that both privately and publickly according to the quality of the sin for though we condemn auricular confession as a trick of State-policy yet we allow and not only so but exhort all Christians to a true voluntary and sincere confession of their sins to the Bishop and Superintendents of the Church confession must be made to men in respect of the Church that the Congregation that hath been offended may be satisfied and that others may be deterred from falling into the same sins as it is in the 2 Epistle to St. Timothy 4 ch and the 26 vers Them that sin rebuke openly that the rest may fear And last of all in respect of the Sinner himself that he may be humbled for it for were it a pecuniary mulct onely and his purse were to do penance he would not probably value that but now it may bring him to an humiliation and a sincere repentance accompanied with a godly life hereafter Now this serves to condemn all those that are so far from acknowledging and confessing their sins as to justifie themselves in them and plead for them with all the Rhetorick they have so that if any one in a Christian way reprove them with meekness 't is verba ventis dare to prattle to the wind they will probably reply with some such kind of cross answer What need you busie your self about the state of my soul I shall be responsible not to you for it look to your self first if they carouse follow strange attire they will say they do but as others do 't is the fashion what care they and this slye trick of dissimulation we suckt from our first Parents Genesis the 3. and the 12. where when Adam was examined he posted off the matter from himself to his wife The woman that thou gavest me she gave me of the fruit and I did eat We are unwilling to confess and acknowledg our sins when as we have encouragement enough for it from our Text since there is such an excessive joy in Heaven at the conversion of one Sinner God himself rejoyceth the blessed quire of Angels rejoyce and all the Host of Heaven How then should we labour after true repentance since we have so many sacred invitations to it in holy writ Since God himself doth vouchsafe to come and invite us unto him and promiseth us acceptance from him he will bid us welcom be confident beloved whenever we approach his presence with a real and a contrite heart Overcome your selves though it be very difficult for
innocent from the great transgression And the Apostle himself who in the exercise of his Apostleship finds himself exempt of fault yet forgets not to sigh and demand deliverance from this law of his members which makes him carnal and sold under sin Rom. 7.24 And this excellent Organ of the Spirit of God knew very well that to obtain justification by works it was necessary that works should be perfect and innocency and sanctification should be entire as well in their parts as their degrees because that he that fails in one point of the Law makes himself guilty of the transgression of all and that no single action though perfect in it self can make a perfection of justice whereas one sin alone is able to slay the soul to ternish the lustre and corrupt the value of all precedent justices and therefore he abandons this feeble prop whereon whosoever thinks to rely remains alwaies in uncertainty And therefore not to testifie any incertitude of his salvation but to affirm the assurance of it upon a foundation invariable he reputes all things even his own innocency as dung that he may gain Christ and be found in him having not his own justice which is of the Law but the justice of God which is by faith in Jesus Christ This is then to beat the air and fight with his own shadow to go about to shew the weakness and infirmity of man to sound the depth of the malice of his heart and to open the dark corners and retraicts of his hypocrisie we confesse more then they can accuse us of being only sorry that it is out of an envy to do ill in troubling the consciences and not the love of the truth which pulls this confession from our mouth that no man living can say My heart is clean and I am pure from sin and yet at other times they contest with this confession when they fall upon the strength of their free will and to establish their works of supererogation Yes it is true that there is no just man on earth that doth well and sins not Eccl. 7.21 In many things we offend all James 3.2 If we say we have no sin we are lyars 1 Joh. All the most holy among men have confest their sins before God Job 15.15 and why not since the Heavens themselves are not pure before him He put no trust in his servants and his Angels he charged with folly Job 4.18 But so little doth this confession shake the assurance of the faith that contrarywise it settles it so much the more because hereby a man is led to go forth of himself to go and put his whole affiance in the only mercy of God and to withdraw all his hopes from the merit of his own works to rely entirely upon the infinite merits of him who of God is made unto us wisdome and righteousness and sanctification and redemption 1 Cor. 1.30 Of our selves we have not so much as a good thought but all our sufficiency cometh from God but yet able to do all things in him that strengthens us Philip 4.13 we are combated by him but we are in all things more then Conquerors through him that loved us Rom. 8.36 And very well said St. Bernard in the fifth Homily of the dedication of the Temple entring into consideration of the soul I seem to have found two things contrary to each other for if I behold it such as it is in it self and of it self I cannot speak better then in saying that it is reduced to nothing for what need is it for me to recount all her miseries how it is charged with sins envelopt in darkness environ'd with temptations boyling with lusts subject to passions fill'd with illusions inclined to vice full of shame and confusions If all the righteousness of man be before God nothing but pollution what shall be his unrighteousness If there be nothing but darkness in his light how obscure then shall be the darkness it self What shall I then say For certain man is nothing but vanity he is reduc'd to nothing man is nothing But how is he thus nothing whom God so magnifies How is he nothing since Godsets his heart upon him Let us have courage although we be nothing in our hearts yet we shall find in Gods heart something hidden of us O Father of mercies O Father of miserable how is it that thou setst thy heart upon us for thy treasure is where is thy heart and how are we thy treasure if we be nothing Certainly in the judgment of thy verity we are nothing but not so in the affection of thy piety and goodness But why say they if we have absolute assurance of our Salvation are there so many advertisements given us in holy Scripture to take heed to our selves to watch to pray and that he that stands take heed he do not fall and if these be truly profitable as it is to be presum'd then this is a testimony that a man may fall and consequently that he cannot stand firm in his assurance To this we answer That the exhortations and threatnings in Scripture which are commonly made ought to be applied according to the quality and necessity of every one The visible Church to which the Word of God is announced is composed of divers sorts of people some have need of a bridle others of a spur some to be held back by threatnings from their abandoned vices others to be waken'd from a natural lethargy by lively exhortations to some consolation to others correction is necessary There are that abuse themselves who under pretext of exterior piety wherein they seem very zealous thinking themselves to be high-flown upon the wings of a holy devotion while avarice and luxury and other vanities have tyed them fast to earth and drag them through the dirt To these men the saying of the Apostle addresses properly 1 Cor. 10.12 that he that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall and those that stand truly ought not to slight this advice but rather to take it not as a presage of their misfortune but as a testimony that although of our selves we are subject to fall yet nevertheless God would not have us fall because he directs his word to us who putting us in mind of our condition conducts us more and more to seek the confirmation of his grace And then to fall is not to make a total loss of our salvation but only a stumbling or a fall in a spiritual course a thing that may happen to the most righteous and yet not that they should fall from the hope of their salvation because they are soon again restored by repentance For if the just man fall yet he can fall no farther because the Lord holds him by the hand Psal 37.24 And so these exhortations tend only to make us distrust our selves but not to ravish us of the confidence we ought to have in God They fight with the carnal security of profane ones but not