any or such and such a Sin rather than Affliction This plainly and in the Name of God and of Conscience that is made a Judg within a Man and the Soul hearing it with Terror and Awe upon it is the true Work of Repentance This is a severe Discipline a day of Terror indeed upon the Soul when it is carried home by the Hand and Finger of God Now this Scripture calls a Judging our Selves and this Self-examination and Self-judging are recommended to us as what would save Gods Judging us If we would judg our selves we should not be Judged of the Lord 1 Cor. 11.31 and surely if it be done to the purpose and so as strongly to affect the Heart it is a very great Effect oâ— the Spirit of God and and of Christ convincing of Sin and of Righteousness John 16.8 c. and of Judgment And I should rather choose it as an Evidence of the Grace of God than some fair appearances that corrupt Nature can better bear 3. In Repentance there is a real Trembling and Afflicting and Grieving and Shaming a Mans self a smiting on a Mans Thigh a being Asham'd and Confounded by bearing the Reproach of our ways a loathing our selves an abhorring our selves in dust and ashes a not opening of our Mouths in any self Apology or Justification but a smiting on our Breast as so great sinners as the chief of sinners This is the true and real work of Repentance in this part of it This is a truly Spiritual Penance in comparison of which all imposed Bodily hardships are nothing and yet if God lays Affliction upon us though it be very severe there is an Acceptance of the Punnishment of our Iniquities Lev. 26.41 Oh! that God would enable us to these secret Acts upon our corrupt selves to rend our Hearts and not our Garments to Sacrifice to God broken Hearts and contrite Spirits to Tremble at his word to humble our selves and to lye down before him with our very Souls and Spirits as well as to roll our Bodies in the Dust Oh! that God would give us these proofs of true unfeign'd Repentance 4. There follows in a true Repentance a real execution upon our corrupt impure selves a cutting off the Right Hand Mark 9.43 and the Right Foot a pulling out the Right Eye a true Spiritual being put to Death a slaying a crucifying our selves in the Flesh that we may Live to God in the Spirit a suffering the Spirit of Judgment and of Burning a salting the Saorifice not only with Salt but with Fire Now All these Things are of great use as they are Acknowledgments of the Righteous Judgment of God due to us in our Eternal Condemnation as they are Judging our selves to the very Fire of Hell As they declare the exceeding Evil of Sin and the Foulness of it as they shew us the absolute Necessity of a Redeemer as they lay a Foundation of separating our selves from sin and of the utter Hatred of it And lastly They are such as must needs result from Rational Nature endued with most powerful Principles of the Law of Righteousness Knowledge of God and of his Righteous Judgment written in the Hearts and the Thoughts he hath made the Conscience he hath created either for Accusing or Excusing and especially all these mightily set home by the power of the Spirit of God that so he may have though not Real Satisfaction from the Sinner for that is alone from Christ Yet such an Honorary satisfaction and Acknowledgment as is due from a sinner even in his very Soul and from the bottom of his Heart in the Day wherein rhe Lord is pacified towards him that flies for Refuge to the hope set before him Particular 2. The second Particular in this Head concerning Repentance in the strict consideration of it is That it imports very close and particular Negotiationn and Transactions with God in relation to Forgiveness and such as express our particular shame and sorrow that we have offended him and earnest Desires that he would shew us that he is at peace with us and hath pardon'd all that is pass'd in Christ. Under this I will Discourse these following Particulars 1. In Repentance The Humble Repenting Soul casts it self down in the most lowly and Self-abasing Acknowledgment of sin and confession of it Scripture therefore points so much at Confession He that confesseth and forsaketh He must first confess and then forsake his sins and he shall find mercy Prov. 28.13 And David describes a Penitent as one in whose Spirit there is no guile that is he makes an open sincere hearty Confession This is one Branch of the Description of the Blesled Man whose Iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered and to whom the Lord will not impute Iniquity And after it follows I acknowledg'd my Iniquity unto thee and my sin have I not hid I said I will confess my transgression unto the Lord and thou forgavest the Iniquity rf my s n. But before I did this and while I kept silence thy hand was heavy upon me so that my moisture was tu ned inio the drought of summer Psalm 32.1 c. I acknowledge my tnansgression and my sin is ever before me Psalm 51.3 Ezra thus made confession c. 9. So Nehemiah c. 9. So Daniel c. 9. And the Apostle John Ep. 1. c. 1.9 says If we confess our sins he is fâ—ithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness Thus we see how much Scripture puts upon Confession throughout Now Confession of sin is not accepted of God for it self For what can we suppose the Relation of our sins can be to God the Eyes of whose Holiness and Glory are so pâ—ovok'd by our sins But he hath only Regard to us that we should in hatred of our sins and of our sinful selves expose them with hatred and abhorrence of our selves and because we are resolved to have no more to do with them we discover and detect them without any thing of Guile without any Reserve For as the Expression is in Job when we spare our sins we roll them under our Tongues The more therefore we confess them with trouble of Mind and in bitterness of Spirit and with Resolutions of having no more to do with them the more acceptable is our Confession to God because thereby our Confession the more attains God's Ends and what he is most pleas'd with in our Confession For therein is our sincerity when we confess sin because it is Reasonable to expect we will not be reconcil'd to the sins we confess For that is for the Dog to return to his Vomit Confession of our sins with Loathing and Abhorrence is vomiting them out of our mouths And sherefore to return to them again is to return to our Vomit and Confession is like Washing and Purifying our selves To retturn therefore to the sins we have confess'd is wallowing our selves in the mire after washing
dependences together with earnestest Application to the Grace of God These unclean Spirits therefore that dissemble a retreat return immediately and make a Prey of the deluded Soul Acts 19.14 c. 3. Although Heaven and Hell Happiness and Misery take up the thoughts of a true Penitent yet not separated from God and Christ but as it were compounded into the Sense of God angry and the desire of Attonement with him in Jesus Christ. Happiness and Misery considered apart are not the object of the gracious Soul But God and Christ considered apart are an infinitely sufficient Reason of Repentance The clear love of God upwards the Soul as a Father in Christ without Reflections upon Happiness is though not the single yet the paramount Consideration in Repentance unfeigned But Men a Dying are generally so over-possessed with the Terrors of an Eternal Suffering and meer desires of Freedom from pain and of well-being and so in haste that they generally miss these higher Considerations which being further off not only from corrupt Nature but even from natural Conscience are not commonly espied but therefore argue greater Sincerity and truth of Heart 4. The truest Repentance lies in the bosom of Faith the apprehensions of the Love and Goodness of God in Christ melt the Soul and give it most perfect Separation from Sin the most effectual Purification of the Heart all which express the height of Repentance Upon the soft Fire of the pardoning Goodness of God the Soul most kindly distils into repentant Tears Here flows that Spirit of Grace and ingenuous Goodness which bringeth forth the clearest and holiest Affection towards God But at the time we are now speaking of It is very seldom that either Horror or Presumption do not swallow all Presumption where there is little Sense or Judgment of the Case Horror where the Judgment is clearer and the Sense quicker for evey thing disposes now rather to Fear and to the Spirit of Bondage Rom. 8.15 and a Man naturally does all he does under a servile dread of God and his Eternal Justice And though there may be much mention of Christ and desire of Mercy through him yet it is but as a Malefactor convicted beseeches the Mercy of the Judge no otherwise than as of a Judge So such call out for the Mercy of God to pardon them but still as a Judge not with the Spirit of the Son sent into the Heart the Spirit of Adoption crying Abba Father Nor with that love that casteth out unworthy Fear Gal. 4.6 And indeed how can it be otherwise there having been no acquaintance with God in the way Job 22.21 but a long Enmity and the time now too strait for a free and full Consideration of the riches of Grace such as may still an awakened Conscience Fear presses in every way and shuts out Faith What can now redeem the Soul from this hellish Terror but a light from Heaven immediately darting into it a Grace above that Grace that ordinarily saves Men For a well setled Trust and Confidence in Mercy according to the general Rule is not but after some sad debates and experimental Consultations that have passed between the sense of Sin and the affiancing Acts of the Soul upon Christ This Repentance then is in great danger of missing the Spirit of the Gospel and falling into the Rank of those Repentances of Cain Esau Judas This I have endeavoured to shew that though we suppose a Dying Man to spread his Soul and Thoughts every way and to all the parts of Repentance yet it is extremely to be suspected there will want the true and right quality of them in regard of the very disadvantageous Circumstances wherein such an one is found and the great unfitness of the Soul at that time to begin to do anything worthy to which it hath not been before inured or if it did begin it would be much more unlikely to bring forth fruit as our Saviour speaks to perfection Luke 8.14 I add nothing of the Exercises of a full and well grown Repentance whereby it is daily espying the risings of Sin and suppressing them and filling up the Defects of Holiness and Obedience because they are not to be thought possible in the point I am now speaking of and I have already given a Resolution in that Case I shall now set my self to find out the low Causes that are alway to be suspected to have the great Influence upon such a Latter-end Penitency In general therefore we must take notice that there are several vapors of misapprehension rising upon the Soul when we are a Dying that do so disguise it to it self and disfigure the true face of it that from thence arise dangerous Mistakes concerning a Mans Condition towards God We see into how many shapes upon ordinary Occurrences we change and how easily we exchange them for quite different without any good Cause what continual Ebbs and Flows there are of the Humours and how do these cast the Ballance of the Superiour Soul One Man is every hour some several sorts of Men. How much more do great Accidents and removes out of one Condition into another alter us Which yet are but the sudden and just now state of our Minds upon such Alterations which not continuing we return to our former Figure Vnstable and weak as water Gen. 49.3 we take the form of every Vessel we are put into Who knows then whether his Dying Repentance be any more than the Mould not of his Mind but of his Dying Condition approaching him big with so great a Change We know many things befal us in our Lives which put a greater sense of Religion upon us than we find at other times and yet how variable are we our goodness at such times is as the Morning Dew and as the early Dew it goeth away Hose 6.4 How often are we from the occasions of Mercies Afflictions Fears Hopes good Discourses carried into high Apprehensions of God And we lose them again we know not how Now out of doubt a Dying Condition of any thing we meet with in the World is most apt to move us upon God and a Sense of him But can we think Those fleeting Shoots of the Soul that have no certainty are accepted for Repentance How strangely doth Melancholly and Oppressions of that transform Men which when it falls upon the Motions of Conscience gives us strong Imaginations of Eternal Things which yet being nothing but the cast of that Melancholly upon the Thoughts when that is removed they are quite of another hue It is evident the Mind sees much through the Body and the Representations are coloured by its Temper As the Eye sees through yellow or green Glass differently from the things themselves So the Serenity or Cloudiness of the Humours makes a different Reflection of things upon the Mind and the liveliness or heaviness of the Spirits incline us to very varying Apprehensions Now what time is more like to be so incumber'd with
of in that forenam'd Rom. 2. 3. The great Goodness of God in Christ giving the Notion of Repentance into the Heart of Man seeing the Original of whatever is worthy or Excellent in Man is but a Transcript or Copy taken from the supâ—eme Excellency and Goodness hath thereby dlspos'd the Hearâ— of Man to a Readiness to forgive one man to forgive another and thereby to be engaged to an Acknowledgment of Offences one againâ—t anoâ—her to desire Pardon and to offend no more Wherein much of the Peace and Happiness of Humane Nature in this present state is supported and preserv'd And herein and by these very mutual Repentances toward and Forgivenesses one of another is there a greater Illustration of the Grace and Goodness of God in Pardon and Forgiveness upon Repentance and thereby an Invitation Encouragement and leading to Repentance towards God For in that the Gospel-Command to forgive them who having trespassed against us tho seven times a day turn again and say I repent and that if we forgive not men their trespasses neither will our Heavenly Father forgive us Our Lord both appeals to the Sense of Mankind and excites and encourages unto Repentance towards God in hope of Forgiveness as well as to mutual Repentances and Forgiveness for the Peace and Good of Mankind to which our Lord had great Regard in all he said and did 4. The Natural Light God hath given concerning Repentance and the Sense in Man's Soul concerning the Goodness and Reasonableness of that Grace and Duty upon which the Redeemer hath pointed the Law written in the Heart is as a Ground and Rude Draught that the Knowledge of Repentance by the Word of God and Divine Revelation accomplishes and fills up and that the Spirit of God plants his Supreme Operations upon even as Sanctification is engrafted into that Sense of Good and Evil that is found in the Soul of Man and those Irritations and Provokings of Natural Conscience to do the Good and fly from the Evil. For thus Jesus Christ hath as our Creator and Redeemer our Preserver and Mediator in one taken Care to secure a Remnant and Remainder of whatever was excellent in his first Creation that it may be taken hold of and be applied to in Redemption And thus I have â—â—deavoured to discourse the Ground-work and Foundation of this Grace Duty and Doctrine of Repentance That it is all setled in the Grace and Mercy of God in the Redeemer without which it had been an utter Impossibility and there had been no more nor any other Repentance than what is in Hell I come therefore to the Second Head Head 2. Here is plainly laid down to us the great Elaboratory or Instrument God hath prepared in infinite Wisdom and Grace and in-laid the Soul with in order to Repentance Godly Sorrow or Sorrow after and according to God worketh down or brings into Effect this Repentance This God hath prepar'd as a Natural Affection of it self and in its own General and Original Form fit to such a purpose and then God sanctifies it to rhis Great Purpose Acts 4.12 to work this Repentance to Salvation not to be repented of It is an immediate Instrument in the Hand of God to operate under his Spirit to so great an Effect Of this I shall discourse in Three Generals General 1. I begin therefore with a Description of Sorrow first as it is a Natural Affection or Passion of the Humane Nature and then as it is sanctified by God or as it becomes a Sorrow after God and is fitted to so great an End and Purpose and as it is so it is counterdistinguish'd to worldly Sorrow that worketh Death General 2. I will consider the excellent Use and Service of godly Sorrow to so great an End and Putpose as the working Repentance to Salvation General 3. I will open the Wisdom of God and the Reasonableness of his making use of Sorrow and fitting it as after himself or according to himself to so great an End and Purpose and that according to the very Reason and Nature of Things it could not be otherwise but that godly sorrow must be so made use of above and before any other Affection and that it becomes him by whom and for whom are all things so to make use of it General 1. For the Description of this Affection of godly Sorrow First as it is a Natural Affection or Passion of the Humane Nature and then as it is sanctified by God or becomes Sorrow ofter God and is counter-distinguish'd to the sorrow of the World that worketh Death Sorrow then as it is an Affection or Passion of the Humane Nature must be considered Two ways and each of them must be applied to the Sorrow that works Repentance or to Sorrow according to God and so a different and opposite Sorrow to the sorrow of this World 1. Sorrow that is a Humane Passion or Affection must either begin in the Body and so passeth from the Soul and ascends up to the Spirit of a Man or it begins in the higher Region the Spirit and descends by the Soul into the Body and makes Impressions suitable to its own Nature there and the Body is govern'd according to this Affection and to its Place Estimation Power with and Interest in the Spirit Now indeed all Affection and even Passion to speak most strictly and properly is in the Spirit For it is all one to matter how it be used or into what Form it is made to pass or out of what or in disjunction from what Form it is forc'd to move So that All we feel by way of suffering or Enjoyment is by the Spirit 's having a Pleasing or an Afflicting Sense of Things But this I wave as not so necessary to the Practical Discourse of Repentance I intend It is plain and certain the sense of some things begins in the Spirit viz. those things which are proper to the Narure of a Spirit and which are so proper to a Spirit whether it dwelt in a Body or not But yet when the Spirit is affected with them because it inhabits a Body the Affection of the Spirit even whether the Spirit will or not works upon the Matter and Frâ—me of that Body and thereby the Truth and Reality of the Spirit 's being affected is discovered to it self and it may also be thereby discovered to others On the other side there are Passions or Affections that the Spirit is affected with as finding it self mov'd and concern'd as that Frame of Body wherein it dwells is either more or less fited for its Enjoyment of it self in that Body or put quite out of Order or is in pain and afflicted so as to afflict the Spirit And both and each of these is in some Degree serviceable to godly sorrow though the first is the Chief and Principal in godly sorrow 1. The Spirit of Man affected with the consideration of sin as it hath all the Reasons of sorrow in it as
it is a foul and impure and shameful thing and as it is an Offence against the Holy and only Wife and gracious Majesty of God and as it brings Wrath and Ruine and Condemnation upon it contemplates considers and weighs those Reasons and thereby finds it self affected with sorrow and affliction as if it were after the manner of a broken Bone or bruised Flesh Thus we read of a broken and contrite Spirit and of those who are bruised in Spirit and grieved in Spirit and of a wounded and a troubled Spirit and of a sorrowful Spirit And this when it eyes God as a Father in Christ Gracious and Good and ready to be Reconcil'd and to forgive is a true godly Sorrow or a Sorrow after God For it is in the True Region of godly sorrow the Spirit and it hath the Right Sense and Affection even such an apprehension of God And such a Sorrow the Spirit communicates to the Body in which it dwells so as to make the Appearance of it Solemn Humble and Lowly It denies it those Ornaments or Refreshments that it self at other Times desires for it it bridles and curbs its own appetites and desires of pleasure and satisfaction in it it humbles it by Fasting it lays it in the Dust it keeps it waking it dissolves it into Tears and if it be very great as sometimes it dries up the Benign Juices of it and it carries all the Marks of the Spirit so affected And because these arise from a sorrow within after God God is pleased with them and accepts them as signs of such sorrow and calls for them 2. The Sicknesses or Wants or Pains or Notes of Disgrace that the Wise and Holy Providence of God sends sometimes upon the Body that make it an uneasie or a dishonourable Habitation of the Spirit These the Spirit takes Notice of with troublesome and unquiet thoughts the thoughts being in a Motion a Conflict and Agony if by the Grace of God they are guided to search the Causes of these Strokes on the Body and finds them to be an offended Justice a provoked and displeased Holiness upon the account of Sin and Iniquity and that it apprehends These are but the Beginnings of Sorrows and that they are Indications and Fore-bodes of Wrath to come and of further Judgments from Heaven even at the present upon both Body and Spirit if there be not that course taken of seeking Pardon and Reconcilement in Christ and turning from Iniquity These thoughts sanctified and conducted by God upon himself thus upon the occasion of outward affliction become that sorrow after God of which the Apostle speaks and often works that Repentance to salvation never to be Repented of Thus Scripture very often speaks of Outward Afflictions made serviceable to Conversion to returns to God Famine and Pestilence and War and Captivity in the Land of Enemies are Represented in the Prayer of Solomon as great Motives and even procuring and exciting Causes of Humiliation Bethinking our selves turning to the Lord. The Afflictions of Men are often spoken of by God and used as Arguments to such Resentments as call to Self-judging and so to reforming â—ven often not only in the Old but in the New Tectament We are Chasten'd of the Lord that we might not be condemned with the World Affliction yieldeth the peaceable Fruit of Righteousness to them who are exercised thereby 1 Cor. 11.31 Heb. 12.11 Both these Operations of godly sorrow seem to be Represented with a great Elegancy V. 14. and Holy Eloquence Job 33. the first when this Sorrow begins in the Spirit of a Man and Thoughts arising therein God speaks once and twice in a Dream in a Vision of the Night He opens the Ears of Men and sealeth their Instruction That he may withdraw Man from his purpose and hide Pride from Man He brings him to such Humiliation as keeps him from going on in his former purpose Again when sorrow begins in the Body v. 19. He a man any man upon whom the methods of God for Repentance are so laid is chasten'd with pain upon his Bed and the multitude of his Bones with strong Pain so that his Life abhorreth Bread and his Soul dainty meat his Flesh is consumed away that it cannot be seen and his bones that were not seen stick out yea his Soul draweth near unto the Grave and his Life to the Destroyers if there be a Messenger with him an Interpreter one among a thousand to shew to man his uprightness then he is gracious unto him and saith deliver him from going down to the Pit I have found a Ransom his Flesh shall be fresher than a Childs He shall pray unto God and he will be Favourable unto him and he shall see his Face with Joy he will Render unto man his Righteousness And now this sorrow thus after God sanctified thus to have Respect to God and carried out after him is Counter distinguish'd it is most different from the sorrow of the World that worketh Death The sorrow that hath no higher spring than this World works Death that is however the Mind or the Body be Affected when it does not mount up to a consideration of God offended for sin when it does not seek pardon of him and Reconciliation to him in Christ when it only pores upon the things of this World and agitates it self about them it runs down into the dead Sea of Sorrow that weeping and wailing and gnashing of Teeth that is in Hell It is an Idolatrous Sorrow arising from an Heart deeply set on this World and glewed to it and so goes down into the Vault and Pit of eternal Sorrow It tends to the Death of the Body it brings down the Head to the Grave It tends to wear and grind bodily Nature to the Dust every such sorrow not after God that hath no tincture from him on it If it be not Antidoted by sorrow after God and by Repentance to Salvation It tends to eternal Death and is the Inlet unto it For it is certain all sorrow here that comes from Heaven ascends up to Heaven as Water ascends as high as its Spring But that which is of a terrene earthly Nature sinks down to the Center which is the neathermost Hell I come now to the second Head to shew the excellent use and service sorrow after God yeilds in this wise and holy preparation of it by God to that Repentance to salvation not to be Repented of 1 In that so great and principal an Affection of the Soul is given up to God It hath an use and a service to steer the Soul to God For the Affections are as the Rudder of the Soul as the Helm of it guided by the judgment as by a Pilot And these affections are all in a Linck and in a chain If any one of the principal Affections are mov'd that mighty Vessel of the whole Soul is turn'd this way or that way by a very small thing as it may seem
even by one Affection because all are joyn'd and united with it For where Sorrow goes Love goes because sorrow is for the want of some good the Souls desires If then sorrow be after God and for Holiness It assures the Soul hath a springing Love for God and Holiness and in the distance it apprehends it self from these it laments Where sorrow goes there hatred also goes For sorrow arises from some evil that the Soul hates and abhors that presses in upon it In sorrow after God sin and the wrath and displeasure of God is what the Soul hates and it finding these near and closing upon it it sorrows and laments that they may be cast out and removed And how do these the Love of God and hatred of sin work to Repentance And thus also it might be shewn How Fear Hope Joy Delight move as sorrow moves The Apostle knowing with what a strength and force and presence the Affections move writes to the Colossians c. 2. To set their Affections on things above For if the Affections are so set the Spirit and Soul will be so set and therefore the whole man will be so set Oâ— the contrary the sorrow of the World carries the strength of the Soul the Affections on the World which not able to sustain and bear up an Immortal Spirit it often destroys the Body by Violence and leaves the Soul to sink also the Spirit to fall down from God which is the Death of it 2. The Affection of sorrow is the Affection that is most properly conversant about sin and the consequences of it the wrath and displeasure of God the curse and evil Now then as sin is a departure from God the fountain of Life and happiness the supreme good and so ushers in and introduces all unhappiness so sorrow that is after God begins in the apprehension of God and of his Law and so descends on all the evil consequential or following on the loss of God But the sorrow of the World not beginning with God fetters it self with the Evils which press upon it with relation to the present World which can never be well removed without removing the principal cause sin and the displeasure of God for it But to this the sorrow of this World hath no regard and so is never cured but becomes of a peice with the sorrows of the second Death For so all sorrow here not Healed by the repentance to Salvation not to be repented of which Heals the sorrow after God becomes one with the sorrows of Hell and everlasting wailing By godly sorrow therefore sorrow is made to be its own Death and Plagues For working repentance to Salvation never to be repented of When it is sorrow after God it is the Destruction of all sorrow For it can be no longer but as Scripture speaks forrow and sighing shall flee away and there shall be no more sorrow As it came in by sin so by sin Repented of and Pardoned it for ever ceases and vanishes away So sorrow is conversant about its proper object and cause and it hath the great effect of removing it self and of it self loosing it self in that Joy that follows upon the Salvation of that Repentance it self hath wrought which must needs make an end of Sorrow or Perfects it into it self never to be Repented of 3. The serviceableness of godly sorrow to Repentance is that this Affection of all the Affections or Passions of the human Soul is that which makes it wise and considerative seeing Repentance then that is to Salvation is a most Wise and prudent grace This Affection of sorrow is most preparatory and contributary to it The sorrow after God is no Ignorant or unreasonable Passion or Affection call'd Attrition no superstitious Pennance or ceremony of Sorrow not a mere softness and dissolving into Tears not any desultory Passion that falls into some morning Dew or as it were heat Drops but a deep inward trouble that we have offended God and sinn'd against him and endangered our selves to Eternity by our sins And however there may be at first some sudden stroke or Impression and a Passion upon it that may go off yet it is indeed a spring that dis-embogues it self through the whole course of a Christians Life There is a sorrow and a relenting of Soul that is a soft Dew or Distillation from the Soul upon it self that makes it very tender humble and Apprehensive of the Evil of Sin of the Ingratitude and unthankfulness of having sinned against God and given Offence to the Eyes of his Holiness and of his Glory And as this arises from understanding so it begets understanding and close Consideration It is observ'd in Nature that sorrow and sadness encline to Wisdom and attentness of Mind Vexation gives understanding is a saying And hereunto the wise King Solomon agrees Eccles 7.3 c. sorrow is better than laughter It is better to go to the house of Mourning than to the house of Feasting for the Living will lay it to Heart And by the sadness of the Countenance the Heart is made better In the day of Adversity consider that is the proper season of it Generally our Mirth and Rejoycing is too lighr and flashy it scatters and sets the Spirits in wandring I said of Laughter it is Mad and of Mirth what does it As the cracking of Thorns under a Pot so the Laughter of Fools is Vanity Sorrow is like a shade that congregates and gathers up the Spirits to think and weigh and poize things Sorrow loves solitude and so the Repenting Person is described he sitteth alone and keepeth silence because he hath born it upon him Lam. 3.28 Vanity and folly the pleasures of sin that are but for a season cannot endure the tediousness and melancholly of an Hour alone And this is the unhappiness of mankind they cannot endure to be alone and to speak with themselves I hearken'd and heard but no man spake aright Jerem. 8.6 or said What have I done We are so naturally for Diversion They that are not so mad as to to be for the roar and madness of Company yet they cannot be content without what we call Divertisement and Merryment and cannot endure sorrow and sadness Let us now but ask our selves whether we think Solomon was a Wise Man or not and whether he was not in circumstances of greatest advantages to rejoyce in all the Pleasure Mirth and Enjoyment of this World which he calls Laying hold on folly Eccles 2.1 c. while yet he acquainted his Heart with Wisdom to understand what was the utmost amount or to be had from all the Entertainments of that kind And when he assures us as he does that Mirth is but Madness and the Laughter of this World so unreasonable that no Man can tell what it serves for or to what purpose it is and that he so much commends sorrow to us let us then take Counsel with our selves whether he spake wisely or not
the midst of the Paradise of God and even in any of the sadnesses of the Servants of God by reason of Afflictions Temptations any Agonies of Conscience Desertions there is Light in the midst of that Darkness whereas in the false Joys of counterfeit Repentance there are such either presumptuous sensual Intermixtures or such a want of true Spiritual Light that the midst of that Joy is Heaviness But the Fruit of this Repentance is that Peace of God that passeth all understanding Phil. 4.7 guarding the Heart and Mind through Jesus Christ 5. To all these both Motives Means and Signs of Repentance must be always added Prayer even all Prayer and Supplication with Perseverance and continuance therein even to extraordinary Watchings and Fastings as occasion requires Ephes 6.18 Colos 4.2 Luke 11.9 For as the Soul in Prayer and Supplication feels the strong motions and excitations of Repentance by setting before our selves and making close Applications of our selves to the great considerations of God of Christ of Sin of Holiness of Eternal Happiness and Misery so herein is the earnestness of Supplication asking seeking and knocking for the Holy Spirit engaged and employ'd as knowing him the supreme Mover Principle and efficient of Repentance and the Divine Spirit coming down to Dwell in the Spirit of the true Penitent and shedding its efficacies and operations in it as a Spirit of Grace and Supplication seals to the Soul the truth of Repentance and becomes a spiritual visible sign and evidence of the Truth of it as Christ says of Paul upon Repentance behold he Prayeth Acts 9.11 6. Some Great and Heroick Acts and Effects of Repentance according to the Ability and Opportunity of Persons and according to the Sins persons have been guilty of before Repentance are sometimes absolutely necessary Evidences of the Truth of Repentance and sometimes Illustrious and extraordinary Signals of the mighty Power and Force and largeness of Efficacy in this grace of Repentance where it meets with Subjects whom God by outward enablements of Providence as well as inward Grace and Power hath fitted hereunto Such are in cases of great Scandal and publick Offence publick and open Confessions of sin endeavours and close Applications upon Persons that have been of the knot and fellowship of our sins or private Parties and confederates in them moving them by all the Sentiments of our Minds and the Affections of our Hearts to Repentance sollemn Fastings and Humiliations with usual Watchings not only for the Taming bringing Down and Abasing of our selves and by the acknowledgment of our own unworthiness of the least of Mercies and that we are worthy of Wrath and Judgment only and to be strip'd of all Enjoyments but because the Heart is so taken up and engag'd that it can mind nor attend nor be at leisure for the most necessary Refreshing of Bodily Nature which is made and taught and disciplin'd as heretofore to serve sin so now to cry out for Mercy and Pardon and to undergo the severities of Repentance and to be brought under to them in extraordinary Weepings according to the most Affectionate Emotions of the Soul and suitable Temper of Body And such as these are also the Acts of just Restitution to persons injured according to our utmost Abilities or great Alms-givings and acts of Mercy of which Zaccheus Luke 19. is a great Example Great Acts of Service to Jesus Christ in the Salvation of Souls either by our own personal Ministry as Paul so zealously Preaching the Faith Gal. 1.23 Psal 66.16 he once destroyed or private endeavours by Holy Discourses and Declarings what God hath done for our Souls by Exhortations and good Counsels by Holy Examples by great Liberalities for the promotion of Christianity and the Powers of it in Repentance and general Reformation and bringing in Souls to the most publick open and notorious renunciations of former sins and the very instruments of them of which we have a great example in the burning their Magical Books of so great valew Acts 19.19 Job 34.31 These are not to be bound as heavy Burdens to the entanglement and enthralment of Conscience upon All but according to the opportunities and advantages Persons have their state of Body temper of Mind freedom of Time abilities of Estate and leaving to supreme Grace the giving of various degrees of Grace and making among the Pleiades the watry Weeping Stars of Repentance one Star to differ from another in Glory But when there is a meeting and concurrence of all these or an eminency in any they who can shew forth the truth of Repentance in these Fruits Job 38.41 1 Tim. 3.13 purchase to themselves good Degrees in the Academy or School of Repentance and bring great Honour to Christ and to it and according to our Talents receiv'd sincerity in each of them is essential to the truth of our Repentance and if they are in us and abound they make us to be neither Barren nor Vnfruitful in this great Gospel Grace given from the Lord Jesus but without any trurh of them we are as a Well without Water Clouds without Rain frothy Waves driven of some Imaginary or Earthly Winds and Vapors Epist Jude v. 12. and tossed and in great danger of prooving falling Stars for whom is reserv'd the blankness of darkness for ever 4th I come now to the Fourth Head in this Head of the Doctrine of Repentance viz. The great saving benefit the blessing of this Grace and Gift of Repentance which hath the upper and the neither Spings Josh 15.19 from the neither Springs all gracious Affections and Fruits of a sollemn and serious Resipiscency or growing Wise upon sad Afflicting Remembrances and reviews of sinful ways and the upper Springs of Joy Peace Happiness and Blessedness for ever and eternal Rejoycings we have so Sorrowed so Repented Of this I will give but a very short Representation because the enlargement upon it more properly belongs to another grand principle in the Doctrine of Christ and yet what I do say I will endeavor distinguishingly to Discourse it to the Doctrine of Repentance and with a peculiarity to it 1. In that it is Repentance to Salvation wrought by a sorrow after God it is ordain'd by God as a security and preservative by his especial Grace in Christ from everlasting Weeping Wailing and gnashing of Teeth a Repentance without any Fruit or Effect but a continual Circulation of it self in Horrors and fruitless renewals without ease or remedy without possibility of Amendment of recovery to God and Holiness For in Hell there is no such Woe therefore to you that Laugh now without this true Repentance For you shall weep and weep for ever it is the state of utter Darkness extremity of Darkness and to extremity of Duration even Eternal Duration But true Repentance hath had its Proportion here 〈◊〉 this World of sorrow that God Accepts in Christ and through his Agonies for sin 2. It is not only a
these Clouds and Vapours than a Dying Hour When every thing is ready to contribute them and nothing to scatter them If then Natural Conscience and implanted Sense of God together with the Notions given us from Scripture pass through these they become very impressive and affecting for the time and yet he much mistakes Repentance who thinks it no more than a fit of Religious Melancholly But let us enquire after some more setled and constant Causes of these Penitential Motions near Death and we shall find many very likely to be so that are not yet worthy of true Repentance and therefore what springs from them is not accepted before God 1. When Men find all their Being in the World at an end and feel themselves falling they know not whither It is no strange thing they should catch at God and that they may take hold of him at Holiness also Seeing ingraffed Principles together with general Discourse teach every one how dear Holiness is to God If God and Goodness were no more than Imaginary things It would be no wonder if they who are tossed off the World and thrown over-board from it should snatch at them if there were no more in the Case than this that every one hath heard so much speech and talk of them among Men. For to him that hath nothing in reality even a Shadow a Phancy are valuable Men that are dropping through the Air or sinking under Water without Consultation offer at every thing they meet with In great Extremities short of Death they that are bereft of all worldly Assistance fly to the Divine Succours though as Jonah's Marriners they pray to an Idol instead of the true God and their Devotion is no better than Superstition which is but a Phancy in Religion What strange thing then is it for nature to cry out for God and Christ for Pardon of Sin to be delivered from Hell and to have Heaven for an everlasting Rest when all things else evidently fail as they do in Death and when not only Phancy and general Opinion but most substantial Reason inlightned by the Scripture provoke up a Man to it even for Self-preservation Yet this differs but little from howling upon our Beds for Corn and Wine and Oyl Hos 7.14 for though the things differ much in their Nature yet the Esteem Men have of them and the desire they have after them is much upon the same ground for these Spiritual things appear to that natural Sense of Self-preservation as necessary in Death as the other do in Life and Health But if the approaches of Death happen to be again drawn off the value of Spiritual things removes with them and the things of this World with all the sensual and sinful Delights of it return to their former price which argues the ineffectualness of this cause of Repentance and the Unacceptableness of the Repentance it self to God that flows from it God disclaims Men that have never come to him before their Extremity and come then only because of it In the time of their trouble they will say Arise and save us But where are thy Gods that thou madest Let them arise if they can save thee Jer. 2.27 28. Thus to such Dying Men crying out to him God says Let your former Lusts and Pleasures now be your Happiness Fools and scorners that would not be warned call upon God in their calamity and seek him early when the whirlwind of their destructions hurries them but cannot make him hear cannot find him Prov. 1.14 2. Suppose the desires after God and Eternal Happiness with all the Retinue of those Desires rise not so much from the Necessities of remove from this Life and sensible Supports but immediately from the sight of Eternal things themselves yet will not this conclude the Repentance sincere For we may easily pitch upon several so plain reasons of these quick Apprehensions of another World that it is much more strange if any Man be not struck with them and they that are are not in greater Extasies of these Considerations than that most die in some fair inclinable Temper towards them and others are extraordinarily surprized with them yet without true Repentance For First If it were no more but the leisure and uninterestedness of the Mind in all worldly things that Death brings It is no wonder that the Action of it should immediately and necessarily flow upon God for it being always in action and motion from its very Nature and God having made it for himself and the manner of its living here in the World being a slavery willingly undertaken for the Service of the Body and the Enjoyment of this present Life in its being fallen from God It is nothing strange that that Drudgery being now at an end and the chains wherein it was held just a breaking it should fall upon God and Spiritual Objects whither the stream of it was prepared to run and which are most truly its own business For the distance being so wide and irreconcilable between Man and this Earth in Death the very having nothing else to do must carry him upon the Future State seeing his Soul is such a Being as cannot naturally lie still and that State is all that it hath to work upon and further than that it is so nearly allied to it Secondly The very loosening and uncementing the Soul from the Body wherein it dwelt and wherein the Motions of it were restrained Multi enim quum remissi liberi sunt futura prospiciunt ex quo intelligitur quales futuri sint quum se plane corporis vinculis relaxaverint Cic. de Senectut hath been thought very probably to give Men lesser degrees of those Advantages near their Death which naked and free Spirits not inclosed and pent up in Bodies have whereby they have been able to make Conjectures of future things and to speak prophetically The less the Soul is bound to work by the Body the higher are its Operations All extraordinary Motions of the Soul are a kind of Ravishment from Sense Those great Prophetick Blessings of Jacob and Moses were near their Dying Gen. 49. Deut. 32. c. 33. It is therefore very easie to be thought that when the Soul and Body are ready to cleave asunder and the Spirit to be separated from Flesh that it should make an higher flight towards Eternal Things The nearer every thing is to its own Residence the more vehement is its motion said to be thither So there may very well be quick sallies of the Soul towards Eternity before it enters into it when it is so near that everlasting Receptacle of it self Thirdly We may observe in the Experience of all times every appearance of the other World hath strange effects of Fear and affrightment upon Mens Minds When any one is entring then into that whole World it may well put him upon purifying himself more than they that fall upon Leviathan Job 41.25 When Men are just upon that Region
by their constant Course of the former Life the true Image of their Hearts as we see in the same Balaam who after died by the Israelites hand Num. 31.8 whose greatness he had prophesied Yet I will not deny but they may have their reward in mitigation of Punishment for any Service done to God If God did not interpose thus sometimes he might seem wanting in something that concerned him at least as a gracious Ruler of the World He therefore over-rules some who have lived so as to make a constant Argument against him and a future State so far as Wickedness could do it to retract the whole Course of their Life and give their Vote for what they had so long withstood I will yet further add another Cause of a Death-Bed Repentance that sometimes falls out to have a most powerful Influence and yet the Repentance that springs from it is very unsafe to confide in Cause 4. Dying Men are oft under the play and force of other Mens Reason and Religion For it is a general and necessary Charity of Men affected to Religion themselves to offer the sense of it to others in a time when they think it likely to be accepted and so infinitely necessary which Practice however needful and most commendable in it self yet by accident may have raised higher the opinion of a Death-Bed Repentance and is often the occasion of great Error in the thing it self For suppose a Man followed with sound and affectionate Perswasions to do all that may be done for his Soul in this exigent how conceiveable is it that Man may be so far wrought upon as to entertain a present sense of Religion and yet have no true Life no Life that arises from a true intimate Principle But as those Bodies of Air taken and moved by Angels seem to perform the Functions of living Bodies yet do but seem to do so for they have no Principle of Life natural to them but as soon as they are forsaken by the Spirits that made use of them they fly abroad and disperse themselves Thus that general sense of Conscience that lies scattered through the Soul and unable for action being gathered together and united by good and holy Applications and acted thereby may have force so long as that Union continues but that Discourse that holds it together ceasing it immediately falls asunder and loses its Efficacy The Stone that receives motion from the Hand that throws it goes on whilst that motion lasts when that is spent it falls to the ground so the force of Exhortation ceases too often when he that gives it leaves those to whom it was given The Instrument to which the Musician's Hand gives tune and voice lies dead when he deserts it Mans Soul is made by God capable of religious tune and motion and while a skillful hand plays upon it it may give that sound very distinctly and yet have no Life in it self The striking of Conscience makes the Sparks fly out yea and sometime kindle in a flame and yet it presently dies because not supplied with a continual Oyl to feed it The Mind of one Man is very apt to receive Impressions from another we see what Passions and Motions are raised by an Eloquent Speaker how the Understanding is carried captive while the Orator works upon it and yet all the Affection thus blown up falls flat again when the Breath that swell'd it lies still and is apt to be carried the contrary way by cross Perswasions equally insinuated How much more may this be in religious things Conscience being so easily stirred by such Applications as we see in Felix though it is as easily becalmed when sinful Lusts through the Efficacy of Temptation are loud and high And all this is certainly much easilier done near Death when Men are so soft that they are apt to take any stamp so melting as to be gathered into any mould It is possible for one Man's Spirit to carry another for some considerable space of time as we see in Jehoiadas influence upon Joash who was not yet all that time possessed with the things themselves 2 King 12.1 whereunto he was directed But true Repentance is a Frame set up by the Spirit of God in the Heart subsisting by that Spirit upon it self and makes use only of all Helps subordinated to it by the Wisdom of that Spirit but doth not live from that Help but from it self through that Spirit its supreme Life To draw these things therefore to a Sum It will appear after all these Causes have done what they can these great Errors following are generally found and always to be suspected in a Death-Bed Repentance 1. In a Death-Bed Repentance There is only a Judgment made of the Case of Eternity considered by it self and without a Conterpoise The Excellency of God and Eternal Things are minded as they stand out of the Air of Temptation Now though this be a good Opportunity for the first consideration yet that Consideration must grow so strong as to retain the same sense in the midst of all Pretences from the World and Sathan Else in the time of Temptation this Repentance falls away * Dr. Jackson Book 10. Chap. 23. Sect. 3. For there may be many true Apprehensions which may make deep Impression not only in the Brain and Phancy and upon our Affections whilest these are calm and unprovok'd and yet both the Apprehension and Impression quickly vanish upon the starting or provocation of contrary Fancies or Affections When the Blood cools in the Veins and the Spirits are ready to stand still when a Man is no longer to live in the World the season of the pleasures of Sin is over then to cast out his Lusts What excellent thing does he does not even nature Matth. 5.46 whether he will or no the same True Repentance encounters Temptation and resists unto Blood when those Pleasures of Sin are at the height and the tide of Corruption from within swells most As Moses chose to suffer affliction with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season Heb. 11.25 although they were in their growing and ascending Morning Repentance will not worship that Sun in the East It is a very small thing to despise it in the West and just a setting to choose Religion when there is nothing to vie with it 2. It is not a Consideration of heavenly Things in their true worth but only as recommended by the present Necessity For who would not die the Death of the Righteous and have his latter end like his Every Man at that time would be glad to find he hath lived well and he that hath lived worst except he be outrageous in Prophaneness will wish he had lived better Eternity at hand gives value to all Holiness and sense of God in spight of the World and lessens all things else to a nothing and less than nothing imprints a Ghastliness and Horror upon all
so many Discourses that the Kingdom of Heaven is nigh at Hand that upon that very Consideration you may be most Zealous in it So I earnestly Pray you may be Blessed in your Lord finding you so doing Verily I say unto you he shall make you greater Rulers in a truly Evangelical Sense than now you are And as to the black and dark side I make no mention of it because I am perswaded better things of you and such as Accompany the Salvation and Glory of that Kingdom Herein I am Your most Humble and Affectionate Orator T. BEVERLEY A Discourse upon Evangelical Repentance to Salvation not to be Repented of and the Godly Sorrow working it 2 Cor. 7.10 For Godly Sorrow worketh Repentance to Salvation not to be Repented of but the Sorrow of the World worketh Death THERE is no more Universal Notion in the Soul of Man in those Things wherein he hath to do with God or even with Man or with Himself then to Repent that is to be sorry for what he hath done Amiss and wherein he hath Offended and to Resolve and Promise to Amend and to do the Evil he hath done no more It is fitted as a great Instrument of Reconciliation and a second state of Innocency a Reserve after the Ruin and Shipwrack of our First Innocency a Remedy a Reparation after the first Advantages of doing well are lost And it is the infinite Grace of God in a Mediator that there is such a Notion in the World It preserves it from being a Hell in regard either of the extremity and utmost Rages of Wickedness or of the Horrors and Fury of Despair It is the infinite Grace of God in a Redeemer That there is a Place of Repentance as the Apostle calls it Heb. 12. that is place and room for it in mans Heart and that there is place for it in the Acceptance of God that God does not scorn and utterly reject it against him that hath once sinned That he is not inexorable and not to be intreated concerning it For how woful and even Hellishly Miserable would man be without it That the Nature of Man is inclin'd to offer and accept such Repentance one towards another and so that there are mutual Forgivenesses among men and not unappeasable hatreds and that there is in a mans own Conscience a preparedness to acquiesce to be satisfied to Rest and to be Appeased upon finding in the Soul and Action a sorrow for sin and Reformation from it All this keeps the World from being absolutely Hell For Sorrow Dislike Trouble Remorse for what a Man hath done evil move a man to review to acknowledgment to bewailing to confession to change and reformation to a new course of Life and Action Seeing then Man is such a fallen such a Peccant and offending Nature it is infinite grace in God that there is such a Notion such Action in mans Soul as Repentance and that there is not an utter irreconcilableness an unpardonableness after Offense committed neither in Heaven nor on Earth not in the Court of Heaven nor in the Court of Human Nature one towards another nor in the Court of a mans Conscience within himself If it were not so every sin would be like the Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit Matt. 12. Unpardonable and because Unpardonable Impenitable or not to be Repented of and that not only in this World but in that which is to come the World would become a Theater of sin and damnation even a Hell without any Chancery any Appeal to Grace to Mercy or Relenting of Repentance from the hopes of Mercy the reverence and awes of Goodness and Forgiveness Now that which lies loose and scattered or disseminated sown through the whole human Creation That the word of God especially in the Gospel in the New Testament that the Spirit of God hath collected into a more full and solemn Doctrine and open'd the Foundation and laid bare and in view the root or the great place of it How it hath room and reception what are the Sources springs of Efficacy from which it Rises even in the Sacrifice Blood and Redemption of Christ and the mighly Efficacy and Grace of the Divine Spirit what is that godly sorrow which is given by God as the Elaboratory or the Instrument of God for the Operation of it what are the Laws and Rules of it the true form and constitution of it what are the motives and inward considerations mooving to it what are the signs and evidences of its Truth what is the proper time and space for it It resolves the Scruples or Cases of Conscience that may arise in the Soul of Man concerning it it shews the great Fruit certain Benefit and Advantage of it And all these are either most innately residing or some way reducible to this great and excellent Context of the Apostle in which regard I have chosen it and shall endeavour to bring Light accordingly to it and according to these heads I will by the grace of God endeavour to Discourse it 1. In regard it is Repentance to Salvation and that Salvation is no other but in Christ alone Acts 4.12 it plainly shews That the whole Redemption and Salvation of Christ is the proper Basis and Foundation of it the whole Area Court Space and most proper place of it and that the whole Notion and Spirit of it as any way Commensurate to or extended upon the whole human Nature hath its Rise and Original flows from some Communication to the human Nature from Jesus Christ the Redeemer and that yet the word of God and his Gospel only Reveals it fully and genuinely and his spirit is the supreme Operator of it 2. Here is plainly laid down to us the Elaboratory or Instrument God hath prepared in infinite Wisdom and Grace and inlay'd the Soul with in order to Repentance First as it is a Natural Affection subservient to it and then as it is Sanctified by God to so great an end Godly sorrow or sorrow after and according to God worketh down Repentance or brings it forth a sorrow opposed to the sorrow of the World that worketh Death 3. In that it is 1. Repentance to Salvation effectual to it 2. Repentance not to be Repented of 1. Not as a false counterfeit Repentance to be Repented of 2. Always to be carried on and promoted and not recall'â— repeal'd or revers'd but confirm'd by progressive repeated Acts and renewed after Falls 3. In that it is to or lays hold of Salvaetion 4. In that it rises not from an earthly spring or any sorrow not after God In all these Regards it yeilds just reason to Discourse the true Laws and Rules the Frame and true constitution the motives means and considerations for the signs and evidences of sincere Repentance 4. The admirable Fruit and Benefit of it is most visibly and illustriously set forth before us in those words It is Repentance to Salvation not to be repented of 1. It is
to Salvation It is a great and certain security against Ruin Damnation Perishing for ever 2. It shall not only be a security from Damnation but an assurance of a state of Life Glory Blessedness 3. There shall never be the least cause to Repent to look back with Sorrow or Regret that we have Repented For we shall find we have lost no good we have run upon no evil in having Repented 4. It shall give us Reason of everlasting Joy Rejoycing Triumph Blessing and Adoring God in Christ we have so by his grace Repented to Salvation 5. I will Reduce to the Doctrin of Repentance the sâ—ruples and Cases of Conscience that may arise concerning either the true Doctrinal State of it or the grace of or practise it self of repentance These are the heads I Propose by Divine Grace and Assistance to Discourse the Doctrin and grace of Repentance upon but I find it is in the first place necessary to give some short descriptions of the thing Repentance according to the very importance of the word and of the General Importance and Nature of the Notion or the thing it self The words us'd by the Spirit of God in the Old Testament are either that strict word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word that also signifies Consolating a mans self shewing after sin and offense reflected upon viz. with Gâ—ief and Trouble supposed the greatest consolation is recovery of a mans self by Repentance Or else it is a word that signifies Turning from what a man has bâ—en Turn'd and Posited and set himself â—o before On this Account we meet so often with the words of Turning in the Old Testament and being Converted and Turning in the New The most proper and strict words in the New Testament are either an After Care a Reflection with sorrow and sollicitousness upon what a man hath done with Trouble He did so and a care a caution not to do so any more for the time to come or an after-mind an after-wit an after understanding a transmentation a new Mind a new Heart and Spirit To speak of it therefore in the general Repentance is given by God as a mighty Spiritual Instrument or Engine in the hand of his Grace in the Arm of God made Bare by which the sinful Nature in every true Penitent is unhing'd uncenter'd from sin and corruption It is a return of the Soul home to it self after a Spiritual Phrensy and Madness The Prodigal is said to come to himself It is a return to its Fathers House after a long bewildred State This my Son was lost and is found But beyond all this it is a Spiritual Resurrection a return from Death to Life This my Son was Dead and is A Live Luke 15. And indeed as there is no notion of Scripure that is more suited to express the corrupt Nature of Man than Death so the first Threat Ran In the day thou eatest thereof Gen. 2.17 thou shalt dye the Deatb Death hy sin passed upon all Dead in Trespasses Rom. 5.12 Ephes 2.1 and sins Vniversal Death And so in the Levitical Law there was no greater uncleanness than the Touch of a Dead Body Accordingly when the Apostle Heb. 6. names Repentance among the grand Fundamentals or Principles of the Doctrin of Christ He calls it Repentance from Dead Works or Re-enstating the Soul in Life after sin or Works as Unclean and Loaâ—hsome as a Dead Body removed from the sight of the Living Or as a Dead Body was in the Eye of God under the Levitical Law This is the general Notion of Repentance but it may be further Explain'd in these three Particulars and yet in a general way 1. Repentance is an inward sincere habitual Change of the Heart and of the design and purpose and so of the outward Action and Course of Life and Conduct of a mans ways arising from an utter dislike of his former Counsel Purpose and Design and the course of Conversation Life and Action proceeding from it so that it becomes wholly New This is the generel Nature of Repentance as it looks to the government of a mans self and of his Actions Now this in Scripture and Evangelical Repentance is the change from sin to Holiness from a worldly state and conversation to an Heavenly and from the Creature to God and to Christ an utter dislike of and trouble at the former Regiment and steerage of a mans course so as utterly to forsake it and with sorrow shame and astonishment to say to his sinful ways so contrary to the Rules of Holiness Righteousness and Purity Get ye hence and what have I to do any more with you I will now guide my self by the word of my God and hate every false way Psal 119. This is that oâ— which Scripture is full every where the through amending she ways and doings which were not good the wicked man forsaketh his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and returns to the Lord Jerem. 7.3 Esay 55.7 Acts 3.26 James 4 8. Rom. 6.21 Christ blesses in Turning us every one from our Iniquities Cleanse your Hands you sinners and Purify your Hearts you double minded What profit had you in these things whereof you are now ashamed For the end of those things is Death 1 Cor. 6.11 such were some of you But now ye are washed c. 2. Repentance as it looks to an offended Person is full of sorrow that it hath offended moves earnestly to Pardon and Reconciliation and is ready to make use of any powerful Mediator in order to Reconciliation and desires ever after to please and to offend no more and herein the Affections are all mov'd according to the degrees of obligation Now in Scripture and Gospel Repentance the offending person the sinner hath â—o do with God the offended person in â—â—d through Christ and so bewails offence and moves earnestly to Pardon and Reconciliation with Gâ—d by the Mediation of Christ and with Christ â—or his own Names sake I beseech thee O Lord Take away the Iniquity of thy Servant Hos 14.3 â—ake away all Iniquities Receive us gâ—aciously And here also â—â—ises an ingenuous sorrow shame and confusion â—hat we have offended a God so Good so Holy so Wise so Tender and Compassionate a Father and despis'd so gracious and obliging a Redeemer David's Heart smâ—te him and he said to the Lord I have sinned in that I have done I have done very foolishly 2 Sam. 24.10 I was ashamed yea even confounded I smote on my thigh Jerem. 31.19 Ezra 9.6 becausâ— I did bear the Reproach of my youth We are ashamed and blush to lift up our Faces They shall under a spirit of Grace and melting sense of God Zach. 12.10 Job 34.31 Deuteron 31 6. 1 Tim. 1 15. look upon him whom they have peirced and mourn It is meet to be said to God If I have offended I will do so no more Oh foolish people and unwise do you ihus requite the
this thing in the Gospel let us therefore by Repentance press home and return to God in Christ 2. Again Repentance is the gift of God a Grace given by him If God peradventure will give Repentance and then hath God granted unto the Gentiles Repentance unto Life Christ is a Prince and Saviour raised up by God to give Repentance 2 Tim. 2.25 Acts 5.31 and Remission of Sins So Repentance is a Gift or a Grace It cannot be Educed it cannot be drawn out by anâ— Powers of Nature It is not of Man or of the Will of Man It is not of Bloods It is not by Derivation or Descent from Adam It does not run in the Channel of Human Blood God therefore does not give such Grace in Vain but when he hath settled a Fund of Pardon Reconcilement and Salvation He first settled that else Repentance had been in Vain as the Eye would have been if God had not first made Light Light is alone in Christ He does not give Grace that shall be to no purpose he gives no man the Repentance he will not Accept and Pardon upon He does not expose his own Grace to Damnation or to the Flames of Hell nor does he give any Grace but in the Mediator in the Redeemer So the Redemption of Christ must needs be the Foundation of Repentance there had never been else the Notion the possibility of Repentance there had never been the sound or report of it heard in the World This then being the Foundation let us take the true degrees of the state of Repentance in two Positions Posit 1. God hath wriâ—ten in the very Heart of Man the excellency of this Grace â—nd Duty of Repentance thaâ— it is not far from him that he should go up into Heaven Rom. 10. or down into the Deep or beyond the Sea for it It is in his Heart So the Knowledg of it is very near him God hath also put a Tenderness towards it a Flexibleness he hath made the Soul of Man the Conscience and Affections plyable to it And this we shall see is from the Mediator I confess this may seem hard to be understood seeing Repentance is fitted and prepared for a sinful fallen Creature Now in that man was at first Created upright and perfect and good and what was written in mans Heart was written there in his Creation what place could there be for Repentance Adam was so righteous a person he could need no Repentance why then should repentance be written in his Heart And yet notwithstanding we find by experience and universal Observation It is a notion very intimate to every mans Soul and even indear'd to his Thoughts Every man seems to be glad there is such a notion such an Idea in his Soul and they that hear of it and know it from Scripture acknowledg immediately the goodness and reasonableness of it and rejoyce in it And tho a man do not fall down right upon the Practise of it yet he is pleased with the promise to himself he will at some time repent and reform and grow better and there is proportionably a general Faith Repentance will be accepted and the repenting Offender Pardoned If men are told they must of necessity change repent and reform from their sinful courses If they are perswaded to become other men they are not so apt to be Angry but rather say Acts 24.25 They will take a convenient time for it tho Temptation carry them away yet they heartily Embrace the thing it self as to the assent and submission and acknowledgment that it ought to be so Men are convinc'd that while they defer to enter into the Practise that yet they ought to repent This I assert is through the Grace of the Redeemer I would therefore endeavour to find out how this notion of repentance comes to be so very intimate and connatural to mans Soul and with such a Engraven Engrafted Hope and belief of Pardon upon it How it comes to pass that the demands of Natural Conscience do so wonderfully lead to Repentance and are like those of Natural Justice and common Honesty of Soberness and Temperance of Truth Mercy and Compassion or whatever is accepted in the World as morally good and excellent and even as the deep impressions of natural Religion sense of God and obedience to him All these give an honour â—o Repentance exert and urge the Soul to it By the same sentiments of Soul we allow the one we allow the other also If the remains of natural Conscience call a man out to the one they summon him to the other also And yet all this I affirm is from the Grace of the Redeemer And this I would make out by two things 1. The Lord Jesus Christ the one Mediator between the one God and man who is the Light that Lighteth every Man that commeth into the World 1 Tim. 2.5 John 1 9. Heb. 1.3 hath natural Conscience under his hand and upholdeth all things â—ven as Redeemer by the word of his Power He thâ—n bears up that Law of Holiness engraven on mans Heart in Creation he holds up that rational Moral Frame he keeps that Light that Candle or Taper of God in mans Spirit that it may not be a Lamp put out in obscure Darkness Through him therefore there are remains of that excellent Image wherein Man was first Created even in that Knowledg Righteousness and true Holiness so that Man does not sink either into that blackness of darkness an utter Ignorance of God and insensibleness of him or into an extreme hatred and enmity to God and all Goodness as damned Spirits do Here is the great Efficacy of the Mediator that he shores up and staies this Law of Original Goodness and Holiness in Mans Heart that it does not slide utterly away nor sink 2. Through the Redeemer there is yet so gracious an Administration of the Government of the World the Vengeance of God his just Indignation and Fury against a sinful World and against particular Sinners is restrained God Refrains himself in and through Christ and does not speedily execute Judgment He Exercises an admirable Patience and long Suffering Jere. 9.24 and loving Kindness in the Earth The Earth is full of his Goodness in the midst of much Provocation Lamen 3.22 Malac. 3.6 It is of his tender Mercy we are not Consumed and because his Compassions fail not I am the Lord I change not therefore you the Children of Men are not Consumed The Lord is gracious merciful long-suffering slow to wrath Exod. 34.6 and of great mercy And all this is very Visible every Man may see it Job 36.25 Man may behold it afar off The Heaven and the Earth the Sun and the Moon and the Stars Proclaim it every motion of Nature within and without us Psal 136. tell us that his mercy endureth for ever Now these two laid together explain to us how Repentance is through the Grace of the
is as it were taking the stone out of the Flesh and giving a Heart of Flesh It is that Spirit of Grace of Ingenuous sense of our Ingratitude and unworthy carriage towards God mentioned before out of Zech. 12. and Ezek. 36. Hereupon the Apostle James presses to a great Mourning after God or exercise of Godly sorrow James 4.8 Draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you cleanse your hands you sinners purify your hearts you double minded How should this great Self-Purification be Effected By being Afflicted by mourning and weeping by having the Laughter turned to Mourning and the Joy to Heaviness This Godly Sorrow like washing and rubbing the Hands with Water and the close Application of it softens and loosens the Filth that cleaves so close adheres and sticks so fast to the Hands And it arises from that Love and Compassion that is seated towards our selves in our own Natures which when it is by the Hand of Grace pointed aright It is made a mighty Instrument a mighty Efficacy for Conversion and Repentance because when our great Disgust our Sorrow and Self-Affliction is pitch'd upon sin we cast it off as that which is the reason of our sorrow and that stands in our Eye as hateful loathsome filth and impurity that we can by no means endure and therefore we say to it get ye hence Oh! you Foul and abominable Lusts what have I any more to do with you But more particularly two ways this Godly sorrow works to Conversion Repentance Self-Purification 1. By being so prevailing upon the Soul as to drink up all the impure and unholy Affections in our Hearts God giving it therefore by that his Spirit of Grace and ingenuous sense an ascendency a superiority over all other Affections in the Heart at this time he is working Repentance it drinks up all the pleasurable sensual Affections in a Man when a man is in bitterness as one is in bitterness for his first Born and for an only Begotten Child He hath no more Appetite nor Emotion of his Spirits to Lust and Sensuality and sinful Pleasures than such a one hath to do the usual Entertainments and Pleasures of Life when God therefore calls for this sorrow he looks upon it as a great Offence when there is slaying of Oxen and drinking of Wine Esay 22.13 Amos 6.3 c. lying upon beds of Ivory Chaunting to the sound of Viols Inventing Instruments of Musick like David when there is putting on Apparel and the Furniture of Pride For then he commands us as he did the Children of Israel after the sin of the Golden Calf to put off their Ornaments Exod. 33.5 that he might know what to do to them whether theâ— should as true Penitents be spar'd or destroyed in their Impenitency And indeed when any are under the power of this Godly Sorrow in such a posture to Repentance all such Ornaments are nothing All such pleasures are quite out of Tast The Soul hath no relish of them 2 Godly sorrow thus made an Instrument in the Hâ—nd of Grace for working Repentance hath by that its ascendency and superiority an engagement upon all the other Affections with it self to the working Repentance also this the Apostle shews in the very next words to these we are Discoursing upon 2 Cor. 7.11 For this very self same thing that ye sorrowed after a Godly sort what carefulness it wrought in you how great is the care and sollicitude it works in all that so sorrow to get out of their Sins and to return home to God What Apology for Holyness for God and against Sin what Judgment against sin What Fear and Awe of God striking to the very Heart of sin what vehement desire after God after true Grace and perfect Reformation and this boyling up to Zeal or the heigth of Desire that Powerful Religious Affection under the Operation of which a Man cannot bear Evil no not for a moment And lastly there is an holy Revenge upon sin Sathan lust even a man's sinful self by which the Irreconcilable Hatred to every sin is Discovered and a Monument of that Hatred set up in the Soul Thus works godly sorrow to Repentance but the forrow of the World having nothing to do with God with sense of his Displeasure for sin with sin as so great a reason of sorrow and trouble the Spirit remains in all its former Frame of union to the world and to sin and so with the whole state of sin and of the World and of sorrow it sinks down to the center to the place of sorrow for ever For when sorrow that is the Instrument of God in working Repentance does not prevail to that God's end it more certainly sinks down to its Center and that with great Violence as we see in those fore-nam'd Examples of Cain Esau Saul Akitophel Judas who not sorrowing to Repentance went down with greater violence to the Chambers of Death and Sorrow even everlasting sorrow 5. The efficacy of godly sorrow to Repnntance is that it makes the Soul very humble before God the natural effect of sorrow is to meeken and bow the Spirit heaviness in the Heart of Man makes it stoop Prov. 12.25 the guise and mein or Posture of sorrow is to bow down the head like a Bull-rush The Hipocritical mourner does so to imitate true sorrow Esay 58.5 Now this indeed except it turn to God and have Relation to him is the meanness and pusilanimity of a Man but it is the true greatness of Mind to lye down before God and Tremble in his Presence as the melted Metal trembles and quivers before the Founder This dissolving melting Efficacy of godly sorrow is that which turning to God makes the Heart submit it self as the Apostle James speaks in the same Context c. 4.10 Vnder the mighty hand of God Acts c. 9.6 c. 16.30 that he may lift it up it says to God Lord what wilt thou have me to do It says what shall I do to be sav'd What shall I do what shall I do in obedience to God It treads softly before God as if it said to him Lord which way wilt thou have me to go Which Ahab doing tho not with a perfect Heart receiv'd some degree of Favour by 1 Kings 21.27 29. Now this Humility how acceptable is it to God! How yeilding to his Command God gives grace to it Esay 66.2 c. 57.15 God looks off from Heaven and Earth to look to that man that is of a contrite Spirit and trembles at his word He that is the high and lofty one that dwells in the high and holy Place and Inhabits Eternity will Dwell also with the humble spirit to revive the Spirit of the Humble Job 33.17 This sorrow hides Pride from man as the expression is in Job and so fits it to all holy returns to God by Repentance It withdraws man from his purpose It changes the purpose of Man Acts 11.13 that which was
stand for ever obliged and deeplyest indebted to true Grace that not only their after thoughts and Judgment in Repentance are accepted but that they are Retriev'd by the Eâ—â—cacious Operations of it to Newness of Life General 2d I have thus far open'd the Nature of Repâ—nâ—ance by considering the strict and precise Notion of it and shewing how excellent admirable and even noble a Grace this Evangelical Grace is even in that strict and precise Notion I will now go on to consider it in the excellent motives and Incentives to it that will further shew the excellency of its Nature and then the signes of its Truth that it is Repentance of the true Alloy the truly excellent Nature under that great sign It is Repentance to Salvation and that is never to be Repented of which is the Second General under this Third Head in the Doctrin of Repentance Particular 1. I begin with Motives to this true Repentance wherein I Record these following of which I will but briefly speak having already comprehended much of them And as they are motives so they are to be look'd upon as the highest means and instructions fitted by God for Repentance and the Soul accordingly is to apply and stretch forth it self in the use of them 1. The principal not Motive but Mover is the Supreme Grace and Operation of the Divine Spirit who siâ—s as a Refiners Fire and Fâ—llers Soap within the Temple of the Soul Malac. 4.2 Zech. 12.10 Esay 4.4 is a Spirit of Grace and of Supplication a Spirit of Judgment and Burning washing away the Filthiness of the Flesh and of the Spirit The divine Spirit is the great Superintendent of the Grace and Work of Repâ—nâ—ance by his inward Motives and Overshaddowings of the Soul For seeing Repentance is the Gift and Grant of God Acts 11.18 2 Tim. 2.25 Luke 11.20 the Divine Spirit that is the Power and Finger of God must needs be the Supreme Operator What the Love of God is the Fountain of in the Divine Operation that the Spiâ—it of God by whom the last Operation and â—ffect is in every thing perfected is the immediate Hand and Finger that bâ—ings it to pâ—ss and so what Jesus Christ is a Prince to Giâ—e that which is his the Riches the Pâ—â—chase of his Redemption his Spirit is sent John 16.15 he sends him in the Fathers Name to take of it and to give it to â—is Râ—dâ—emed Repentance therefore being the â—urchase of the Reâ—emption of Christ he gives it as â—he Fruit of that Redemption and whence else should Repentance arise For except by vertue of the Redemption of Christ it were Created and Lorn with us It is noâ— in aâ—y Created Power to raise or to bring it forth That belongs to the all Creaâ—ing Power That Christ hath shored up the Moral Faculties so far as to preserve the possibilities of Repentance is Evident and to his Glory be it declared That by him the same motions and endeavours that Natural Conscience hath to Holyness and Righteousness before sin the same it hath to Repentance after sin and so even as in sinning so in not Repenting the Impenitent Sinner is most righteosly Condemned But even as a Man cannot exert nor put forth his Faculties to Holiness and Righteousness before sin without a Regâ—neration and new Creation even so can he not after sin either as it is habituâ—l in his Nature or as he is fallen by innumerable Actual Sins return by Repentance except by the speciâ—l Assistances of Divine Grace and Almighty Power For surely as nothing lies for ever in a state of nothing except an almighty moover gives Being from himself so Impenitency lies for ever in a state of Impenitency except an infinite Spirit of Grace give Repentance to â—ife which shews that mankind stands in no other state for Repentance than it does to Holiness and Righteousness There is that preserv'd in him that shews the goodness of both and moves him to both but how to Perform in either he finds not but as he is Assisted by Infiâ—ite Grace and by an Infinite Spirit And this shews Supremacy of Grace distinguishing between those to whom it gives Repentance unto Life and to whom it does not give even â—s it destinguishâ—s between those to whom it gives Regeneration Renovation new Creation to Holiness and Righteousness and to whom it does not give For except these even Repentance new Creaâ—n Regâ—nâ—raâ—ion were so by Christ communicated to our very Natures that every man had them by the very Grace of conâ—iâ—â—ing Creâ—tion except he Lost it for himself as Adam did Original Righteousness for himself and his Posterlty which no man will dare to assert it is so evident to the contrary else what is not never will be and what is at Rest will never move except an Almighty Mover give it Motion For though it is true the Engrafted Notions of Righteousness and Holiness first and then of Repentance in case of sin or Fall have a Residence in the very Spirit of Man or Human Nature except utterly quench'd by a Malice even Diabolical as in the sin against the Divine Spirit yet they cannot rise beyond themselves to true Repentance without a new Donation from God and Christ by the Holy Spirit and only shew the exceeding first Corruption and Degeneracy of Human Nature and aggravate Condemnation in that they reach not that end they should reach to nor indeed to their own utmost possibility but men are condemn'd and depriv'd of further Grace by not improving the Talent given to them so far as they indeed might But from all this it arises that the Supreme Mover in true Repentance is the Holy Spirit of Grace and if there be any appearance of Repentance that is not a Repentance given from the Divine Spirit it is not the Repentance to Salvation not to be Repented of but a semblance and Counterfeit only of it Now in this point I have been the larger be cause I had not before spoken to it I shall but just name thâ—se following because I have before comprehended them in former Particulars 2. The sense of our own lost condition without Repentance is generally the first motive to Repentance in which regard our Lord pronounces once and again except ye Repent you shall all Perish â—uke 13.3.5 Repent and turn your selves so iniquity shall not be your ruin Cast away your Transgressions make you a new Heart and a new Spirit for why will you Die Implying this as the great motive to Repentance that without it we must needs Die Ezek. 18.30 Acts 17.31 God commands all Men every where to Repent because he hath appointed a day wherein he will Judg the World The consideration of a Judgment to wit of Condemnation upon an Impenitent Person as one great motive to Repentance God is pleas'd therefore generally to usher in Repentance by a shaking an Earthquake in the Soul shewing it the Horrors of Wrath and eternal Punishment which is call'd
the Spirit of Bondage Rom. 8.15 For that Law of Self-preservation being seated so deep in Man the fear of an evil so Destructive to â—our Beings as wrath to come and the eternal Displeasure of the Supreme Being Nothing moves so strongly and powerfully nothing makes so violent concussions in the Heart of Man as these deep apprehensions or tears up the very Roots of that old sinful Frame and make it fly every way to change its Scituation and Posture for the avoiding of that Displeasure Thus Nineveh affrightned with that present dreadful Dâ—nunciation of Judgment turn'd it self every way to Attonement with God although the Judgment then Denounc'd did not râ—ach to Everlasting Punnishment how much more do the Apprehensions of Wrath to come and ever to come as was before observed of it move And though this is not the highest and noblest Kind of Motive yet it is such as our Lord earnestly and doubly recommends to his Friends I say unto you my Freinds fear not them that kill the Body and have no more that they can do Luke 12.14 but I will forewarn you whom you shall fear fear him that after he hath kill'd hath power to cast into Hell yea I say unto you fear him 3. The so greâ—t Assurance God hath given in Jesus Christ the Mediator and Redeemer that our sâ—â—s shall be Pardoned upon our Repentance is a most excellent motivâ— to Repentance and follows the former as that still Voice wherein God is did the â—arthquake 1 Kingâ— c 19.12 This Assurance is that which gives Life and Spirit to Repentance and also the true Evaâ—gelical Sweetness and Divine Temper to iâ— which else would turn into the Horrors of Cain and Esau which afterwards relaps'd into a Worâ—ly sâ—curity senselesness and sensiâ—ility for Cain went out from the Pâ—ese ce of the Lord Gen. 4.15 c. 36.15 and dwelt in the Land of Nod and fell to Building Esau bâ—came a greaâ— Earthly Prince and Faâ—her to many Dâ—kes without any further thought of the Birthrigâ—t or Blessing or else the ho â—ors arising from the sense of sin and Divine Dâ—spleasure turn into the Dâ—spair of Saul and Judas â—â—at are but the forâ—casts of Hell and everlasting sâ—pâ— aâ—ion from the presence of God and the light of his Countenance This sense of the Love and Favor of God in Christ is that which draws the Soul by the melting and dissolving that Stony Heart and making that stiff Neck and Iron Sinnew to be ready and pliant to all Holy Rules and Heavenly Motions and sweetens fear sorrow and horror into Love and Reverence and filial dispâ—sitions to Obedience while there are any beginnings of shedding abroad the Love of God in the Heart and when the Love of Christ begins to Constrain us This glance of the Eye of Christ on Peter wiâ—h Love and Grace made him go out and weep bitterly this sense of Mercy humbled David and Distill'd into all those Heavenly Penitential Expressions we have Psal 51. 4. When by the grace of God the Heart is deeply Affâ—cted with the sight of the great Evil abominable Foulness and Hatefulness of sin and with the Beauty of Holiness this is a most effective motive to Repentance when we are struck with the sense of the Intrins ck shamefulness of every evil way the falseness of those appearances of good that aâ—e found upon sin but werâ— an Inheritance of Lies it makes us hate every false way and cast away the Things that can yeild no true good or profâ— and of which we have reason for ever â—o be ashamâ—d the end of which is Death Rom. 6. Through the word of thy Lips I keep my sâ—lf fâ—â—m the Paths of the Destroyer Psal 17.4 Through thy Precepts I get understanding therefore I hate every false way Thy word is very pure therefâ—re thy sâ—rvant loveth it I hâ—ve found thy Precepts concerning all things to be right and I hate every false way The righteousness of thy Testimonies is everlasting give me understanding and I shall live Psalm 119. The Law of the Lord is right converting the soul the testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the simple the Statutes of the Lord are right rejoycing the heart How sweet are thy words to my taste sweeter than honey to my mouth Moreover by them is thy servant warned and in the keeping of them there is great reward Psalm 19 All these are Expressions of the mighty Power of Holiness moving to Repentance from the Beauty and Amiableness of it self and the Odiousness of Contrary Sin and Evil. 5. The Word of God throughout all these is the Instrument of the Holy Spirit and with the Variety of its Divine Representations Collects and Diffuses into the Soul and Universâ—l Spirit of a Man being suited to every Faculty and Affection the Reasons and mighty Efficacies â—oth of Fear and Hope viz. the Wrath and Indignation against sin of Grace and Mercy in Christ to the truly Repenting sinner and together with them the Beauty of Holiness and the Hatefulness of Sin For the Word of God is the Sword of the Spirit executing Vengeance on sin and yet sparing the Humble Returning sinner and effectually moving him by it to Repentance 6. The sixth and last Motive I shall use is the true Consider tion of the Gospel state both as it is now and as it shall be in its Glorious Manifestation For that being a state so New and so different from the present state of Sin and Flesh and Corruption we can never be suited to it but by this great Change by Repentance for it the putting off the Old Man which is corrupt according to its deceitful Lusts Ephes 4.22 23. and putting on the New Man which is renewed after God in Knowledge Righteousness and true Holiness is most absolutely necessary to enjoy this Kingdom And this is the Truth of Repentance It is the having such an Eye upon him 2 Cor. 5.15 who is Risen from the Dead and to the Resurrection of the Dead it self as to know neither Persons nor Things as we knew them before after the Flesh On this account our Lord sent John as an Herald before him preaching and saying Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand And as soon as John had finish'd his Ministry of Repentance to shew it was not only the Message of the Fore runner but of the Lord himself whose way he was to prepare Jesus himself from that time began to preach and to say Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand Matth. 3.1 c. 4.17 he shewed to us this New state requires New Persons New Hearts and Spirits New Lives and Actions to lay the Foundations and Beginnings of it here and now and that it may break out into Salvation and Glory at the Glory of that Kingdom That it may be so tryed now as to be found unto Honour Praise and Glory at the appearance of Jesus Christ I come now to the second part of this
of deep Tribulation and Temptation such as none ever was before to All but the Servants of God and Christ Dan. 12.1 Mat. 24.21 Rev. 3.10 c. 7.14 Now therefore It becomes him by whom are All things and for whom are All Things seeing he hath determined so great an Earthquake at last to give such Terellaes of it such little Parts Pieces and Models of it that might Inlighten Awaken and Assure the World concerning it and to have set up such a Pyramid of it by the Flood in general to all the World and to Sodom and the Cities about it in more particular in the Beginning of the World and to speak in the Eloquence of what he will do on every occasion of a greater Judgment on any Nation or People and to ioyn with it the Thunder and Lightnings of his Power and Voice that are as the Shakings of Heaven and generally fall in with the Shaking of the Earth And thus we find all along the Scripture and with great Relation to this very Earthquake ushering in the Kingdom of Christ and the Destruction of Babylon the great Symbol of his Enemies so Psal 18.7 Esay 13.13 with very many Pieces more And this is to make the Thoughts of it familiar to Men and to acquaint them throughly with God's great purpose herein for hereby a short Work will God make on Earth yet every Man Woman and Child shall be rais'd on purpose to see this great Sight and to feel it The Earth shall cast out her dead for it and no more cover them This is that Earthquake in which God arises to shake terribly the Earth Esay 2. wherein it shall be indeed as a chaâ—ed Roe and as a Sheep no man cares to take up tho now they are so greedy of it Then the Lord will make it empty and under the great Desolation overthrowing and turning upside down Persons and Things and all distinction of Servants Masters and Mistresses Purchasers Sellers Lenders Borrowers as is describ'd Esay 24. which shall end in the Sun 's being confounded the Moon asham'd when God comes to Reign before his Ancients in Glory And in the New Testament we find at the Death of our Lord Jesus Christ Mat. 27.50 when he gave up that mighty Breath and with that loud Voice commended that immortally blessed Spirit into the Hand of God There was a Great Earthquake and the Rocks rent and the Graves opened and after his Resurrection many Bodies of Saints came forth and appeared to many in the Holy City a most admirable Type of the Last Great Earthquake At the Resurrection of Christ there was again an Earthquake Matth. 28.2 At the Pouring out of the Spirit Acts 2.1 There was from Heaven a mighty rushing Wind that fill'd the House and so must needs shake it and as the Appearance of Fiery Tongues when the Apostles Pray'd after that solemn Conference with the Elders of the Jews the House shook c. 4. When Paul and Silas had praised God in Prison there was an Earthquake and the Foundations of the Prison were shaken the Doors opened and the Chains of every one were loosed Acts 16.25 All these were real Historical Earthquakes or Matters of Fact and they are also great Types and Emblems with Relation to what shall be at the Kingdom of Christ and even Predictions and lively Assurances thereof In the Revelation that most August Prophecy of the Kingdom of Christ we read of Four great Earthquakes that were so many Advances of the Kingdom of Christ 1. That grand Deturbation of or dismounting Paganism or the casting down the Dragon or Devil inhabiting it from Heaven who was worshipped in Paganism as a God and all his Host in the Fourth or Roman Empire were cast down with him when that Empire in Constantine became Christian And this was celebrated by those lofty Expressions concerning it as a great Shaking even of Heaven and Earth Rev. 6.12 c. 12.5 as shall be at the Kingdom of Christ. 2. The final Extirpation of Paganism or Rooting it out though with that unhappy Revolution of Antichristianism ready to come in with the Barbarous Nations into that Empire and so undermining the Kingdom of Christ. This was at the famous Victory of Theodosius And this was as Church Historians tell us with a very great Tempest of Thundring and Lightning and motion of the Earth in the Letter as well as the Prophetic Representation of the Thunder Lightnings Voices and Earthquake the great Emblems of the Kingdom of Christ 3. The Earthquake that shall be at the Rising of the Witnesses when that Great City whose Emblem is Ten or Tenth in regard of the Ten Kings who give their Kingdom to the Beast that carries it shall fall Rev. 11. cap. 17. 4. The whole Time of the Seventh Trumpet shall in regard of the mighty Effects and Events be a continual Earthquake even till the great and real Shake of Heaven and Earth the once more in the Text that what cannot be shaken may remain as hath been explained Rev. 16.18.20 compared with c. 11. Now that Earthquake nam'd last but this last viz. the Fall of the great Antichristian State I affirm to be so near as 1697. approaching wherein the Kingdom of Christ shall be in its Succession Now what arises from all this Inference but that it may both urge the Necessity and give all Invitations and Incitements to Repentance which cannot be higher express'd than in the Apostle's own Words as 't is us'd in this Context Let us have Grace or rather Take Hold lay earnest Hold of Divine Grace and Power in Christ that we may serve him with Reverence or all Holy Awes of Modesty and Shamefacedness as the Angels that cover Faces and Feet lest we give distaste and with good Heed-taking as the Israelites that kept within bounds lest God should have broken out And this Service of God with holy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Modesty and shame of our own Unworthiness and horrid Nakedness This Good Heed-taking not to run into God as a Consuming Fire is most shewn exercis'd and practis'd in timely Repentance For all at that Day of Earthquake Thunders and Lightnings once for All All must be near for God will come near to them as a swift Witness and to All not Repenting and Reconcil'd in Christ he will be a Consuming Fire Mal. 3.5 With this Heb. 12. And to this purpose Let these very late Motions of the Earth be consider'd in all the foregoing Discourse for I cannot but be perswaded they are Pledges of that great Change that shall suddenly be in the World in the Fall of the whole Papal and Antichristian State besides their general strong Motive to Repentance as they speak God both in his Divine Power and Ability to execute Wrath as also in his Goodness Long-suffering and Patience leading to Repentance and how much more if the Approach of his Kingdom it self the greatest Motive to Repentance be by it declar'd so near That I may therefore
greater Punishment and heavier Condemnation and though it seem more chooseable than a fruitless Repentance yet doubtless Eternity makes a difference though not such an one as should give any one Confidence to imbarque into it in a Coffin-Repentance But whether it be rather to be chosen or not this is past question It is unavoidable to some whether they will or no they are surprized with Thoughts what will become of them for ever and few Men but have thoughts this way at such a time above ordinary But I intend to speak of the fairest and best spread Repentance that is found upon a Death-bed That which gives the liveliest Hopes of it self that it is true and sincere not such an one that to a serious Observer betrays it self not either that forced composure to the Expectation of the World which looks for a solemn Profession of God from every one that dies nor an ignorant and formal Repentance but a Repentance that hath much of Vigor and inward Affection and is driven on by great knowledge and light that is accompanied with much Sorrow and very considerate Apprehensions of Eternal Things And if such an one be so questionable what can become of others There is no reason any Repentance should be the better esteemed because Men are Dying but much the less Now while Men are living a thousand of these seeming Changes for the better are evidently confuted without more ado by after returns to Wickedness and they that have to do with such shews of Reformation have no regard of them nor of the Persons for them Apud illum Cordis Interpretem Ars non admittitur ad salutem August Serm. 120. Now God who is the exact Searcher of Hearts can much less be imposed upon by the fairest appearances nor can Men wise according to the Rules of Scripture be easily well perswaded of them and when they are best perswaded there must needs be a very trembling Consideration of so great a hazard But to come more particularly to what I have proposed viz. To shew that Repentance is a Height to which these general Motives of this late Repentance can never mount the Soul In which I will begin with the Descriptions of true Repentance in that wherein it is most difficult not to say impossible to rise to it upon a Dying Bed Repentance in all the parts of it is the fullest clearest act of the Soul and Judgment wherein it is most perfectly it self Remove a Man never so far from all kind of Fears from the Appearances of Death if he were to live Ages he would be of the same Sense He that truly Repents doth not snatch up Repentance as an Expedient for a present Extremity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hieroc Carm. Pyth Pura voluptatum mutatio Cypr. but chooses it as an entrance into the best state of Life and lives always and rests himself in this choice For however this may be introduced by very troublesom and tumultuous Motions yet it is it self the easie sitting down of the Soul with abundant Pleasure and Satisfaction in the abhorrence of Sin and love of Holiness in the dislike of Vanity and Sensuality in the Approbation of heavenly Purity of Heart and Life It is not a Trance wherein Sin lies dead and a Man is in a Rapture of Goodness for a time but a most setled State Godly sorrow that worketh Repentance worketh Carefulness Fear Revenge Desire 2 Cor. 7.11 and by these accomplisheth a Repentance to Salvation that hath no after-pain or trouble no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vers 10. These Affections are Preparations Repentance enters as a Soul into these which is a still solid clear Act of Reason renewed and a Mind which gives an uniform Vote at all times A Change that is never changed back again no more than things can put off themselves or evil it self become good It is therefore upon fullest Deliberation to choose with Joshuah I and my house those whom I can govern will serve the Lord Josh 24.15 It is Engaging the Heart to approach to God the joining our selves to him by an everlasting Covenant never to be forgotten Jer. 30.21 and 50.5 The cleaving to him with full purpose of Heart Acts 11.23 When all forerunning Affections are laid and quiet or worn out this Judgment still remains and raiseth other Affections like it self that ever remain with it into which the Spirits of the former are extracted and wherein they exercise all the true power they had But now on a Death-bed there is often a great Commotion raised a loud blustre of Passion never arriving at this point at this Settlement But if a Man should live after it would go off as Clouds and Storms that when they have spent themselves vanish and lie down And when a Man dies it is to be fear'd that as they were raised by approach to the unappeasable Tempests of Darkness so they are hurried with their Violence 2. It is carefully to be observed that there is in true Repentance a due Proportion betwixt the contrite Indignation of the Soul against past Sin and the love and zeal it hath for Holiness whereas in Death-bed Repentances it is oftenest found that there is either a terrifying Presence only of former Sins appearing to the affrighted Conscience without a more hopeful Indication of the Soul truly composed to Righteousness or else some high flying Resolutions of better Life afterward offered as a kind of Bribe to the Patience and Mercy of God in hopes of present Deliverance or at best as a Ransom from Hell and Eternal Damnation but without a deep sense of the guilt and evil of past Sins or the just apprehension of that continually running issue of Corruption that is still defiling anew Either of these is a main Error and pernicious For if on the one side the Heart in a Rage be forced to cast out some Sins for the turbulency of them if it be not immediately filled with better Guests Seven other Spirits are ready to enter and make the last state of that Man worse than the first Mat. 12.43 For Repentance is no void space no silent or unactive state but when it hath dislodged Lusts furnishes and fills the Soul with the best things and carries the vigor of a Man's Action to the best effect When by repentance a Man ceases to do evil he learns to do Well Isai 1.16 17. And brings forth fruits meet for repentance and amendment of life Mat. 3.8 On the other side he that seems to make a hasty motion to Holiness without due sense of Sin first thinks to overrule the method God hath set who requires Humiliation godly Sorrow Anger Revenge Fear as preparing to Repentance And further he conceits a freedom to himself when he is fetter'd and bound without a power given him from God he offers to cast out Devils with ease that cannot be cast out but by fasting and prayer Mark 9.29 that is severe courses of Self-abasement and lowliest
to make so cheap of that infinitely precious Goodness that whoever aright considers the Case must needs infinitely abhor the thoughts Yet this is the necessity of such Mens Condition that they must either think themselves worthy thus to becken the Grace of God or they must perish for ever They enter then a contest of Precedency and Superiority with this Grace and decide against it That it is fit for that to stoop and humble yea to prostitute it self rather than they should be for ever Miserable yea rather than they should have been obliged to a Holy Life 2. It is for a Man to desire God to Mis-time his Grace for the Season of it is the present offer in the Gospel Now is the time accepted 2 Cor. 2.9 now is the day of Salvation It is to desire God to give him a Spring in Autumn or Winter when the time of the Patience of God is over to expect the Salvation of God now God who hath with infinite Wisdom and Equality weighed out Times and Seasons Eccles 3.11 and 9.12 Luke 19.42 and made every thing beautiful in its time doth not reverse his own Appointments to serve the Folly of Man who have not known their times and the things of their peace in their day For can it seem reasonable that Mountains should remove out of their places and Rocks wander from their Situation That Man more unintelligent than the Swallow and Crane that observe their appointed times Jer. 8.7 might not be insnared by the evil times that fall suddenly upon them Eccles 9.12 He that trusts then to such a Repentance doth as it were resolve to be saved by Miracle or else perish 3. Men do not consider the Jealousie of God nor are afraid of his Oath against them that harden their Hearts and do not hear his voice to day so that some Heb. 3.9 10 11. who have trifled with the Grace of God seek him early and do not find him The Israelites that said Whither shall we go up when they were commanded to go up and possess the land Deut. 1.28 when they would have gone up afterwards and fought for it were rejected by God So in Zechary God gives account of that great Judgment of their Captivity concerning which though Moses Samuel and Job had interceded he would not have heard As when I cried they would not hear so it came to pass that they cried and I would not hear Zech. 7.13 Many fail of the Grace of God that prophanely sell their Birth-right for a transitory Satisfaction and find no place for their Repentance Heb. 12.16 17. or of Gods Repentance in favour towards them though they seek it carefully and with Tears While Men are busie in fulfilling the corrupt Desires of their sinful Flesh and make slight of the Mercy that so freely presents their Souls a silent Decree passes against them that though it makes no noise in their Ears yet seals them in blindness and hardness so that their Souls are for ever closed therein For who can open what is shut by so powerful and awful a Hand 4. It is impossible to a Man to die with good composure of Mind that trusts to a Dying Repentance for let the Case be thus stated That Repentance which will not inable a Man to a holy Life is not saving suppose a Man then in a Dying Sickness making great acknowledgment of Sin full of Resolutions of leaving Sin and this Man recovering and peforming nothing but sliding back into the former Wretchedness of Life this Repentance however serious and earnest it seemed would not have saved him if he had died he had perished in his Sins and his false Repentance together For that his Repentance was truly inferior to his Sins appears in that as soon as ever that is over which gave it a seeming Advantage his Sins throw off that Repentance Rev. 2.7 c. but true Repentance always overcomes that Repentance therefore could not be true And if Repentance be false and counterfeit there is no amendment of it in Eternity when once the Master of the House is risen up and hath shut to the Door Luke 13.25 there is no entrance While the foolish Virgins too late understanding the Error of Oyl in their Lamps only and not in their Vessels Mat. 25.3 c. went to correct it by buying Oyl They were shut out and no knocking powerful enough for their Admission Yea though a Man may seem to be well quieted and comforted and to have the Testimony of the Spirit of God yet all this may be but a Delusion and Satan in an Angel of light for though they that have truly this Testimony may be supposed to know it is that true Spirit yet they that have it not 2 Cor. 11.14 may have something they so strongely imagine to be it that thereby they may be deceived This Testimony therefore must be proportionable to the assurance this Dying Man had from Christ else even a Man that dies safe must die in such an unexpressible Torment of Mind that it had been much better he had enjoyed no such seasons of Sin than only endure that And who can presume so upon God as to promise himself such a train of Miracles to carry him not only to Heaven but without those Agonies of Horror that are like Hell after so long Impenitency Thus on all sides it is most necessary for every one to Repent while he may behold the Truth of his Repentance in the ordinary Fruits of a holy Life and see himself in all the Circumstances of Temptation change of Condition Varieties which Life and the Course of it carry along with it For that is often by length of time cast up and appears upon the Surface that lay concealed at the bottom till such a Concurrence of things gives it the advantage to rise I understand nothing that can be objected to this last Argument I have used to disable the Confidence of such a Repentance except this It may be supposed the Repentance that is full of passionate and affectionate Motions towards God though amidst the fears of Death may be good till it be blotted out by returns to Sin and therefore if it be taken in the just time while it is good that is if a Man dies before it be reversed it may serve the great purpose of Eternity This Supposition I must confess hath a seeming Countenance from that particular place Ezek. 33.12 The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression as for the wickedness of the wicked he shall not fall thereby in the day that he turneth from his wickedness But if the scope of Scripture-Discourse in general or the very sense of Morality be taken in the Case no Man may trust so great a weight here For Christ looks upon the stony ground with the same Eye while it receives the word with joy Mat. 1.3.20 21. as when
by and by it is offended and it was therefore truly no better at first than at last Mat. 7.26 The House that is not founded upon the Rock is as ill founded in the Calm as in the Storm only the Storm discovers what it was Morality it self requires a better rooting of virtuous Habits than that they should be set only in loose Ground thrown up by Extremity of Condition and not in the Soil it self That Repentance which will not bear the trial of time will much less sustain the Test of Eternity wherein every thing that stands must be solid and substantial Things that suffer the loss of themselves when they are tried by mans day will suddenly be consumed by the hotter Beams of God 1 Cor. 4.3 That hath need of good Founding that must undergo an Eternity and have all advantage of Concoction that must be laid up for ever which the short Moments of a Death-Bed without a miraculous Assistance will not allow The Fruit of it generally like that Hasty-ripe perishes while it is in the Hand Isai 28.4 This Repentance gives up the Ghost as soon as it is born Now as for that place in Ezekiel so much vexed with Controversie I do not think it convenient for me to intangle a Discourse intended wholly for practice with the Perplexities of it Only I am concerned to shew that it doth not afford the favour supposed to this kind of Repentance For first We must not mistake the day it speaks of as if it signified so strait a compass of Time as a Day but that Season wherein either the righteous Man wasts and destroys his Righteousness or a Sinner over comes his Vitious Customs and Inclinations neither of which are usually done on the sudden Secondly The turning from Wickedness intended is certainly a sincere and impartial one and not such as we have rendred this Dying Repentance suspicious to be Thirdly It must be justified by a walking in the Statutes and Judgments of God and doing that is right that is by a continued Reformation which will least agree to this Repentance and therefore this place of Scripture will not protect this Supposition but rather damns it Having now in the foregoing Discourse in a practical and perswasive way endeavoured to engage Men to a timely Repentance by setting out the hazard of a late one I have thought it necessary to make the state of the whole Doctrin as exact as I can by considering whatever might with fair appearance of Scripture-Reason call into question and scruple what I have grounded my Perswasions upon I will therefore as a Supplement to all I have said First recollect what I have intended all along And then cast all I can possibly suppose against it into Objections and Answers that by closer atention to the Case it self every one that will be at the cost to consider it may be convinced to the main End viz. A present Religious Life 1. First then I make it not the question Whether a true Repentance how late soever be a Repentance to Salvation 2. Nor Secondly Whether God hath reserved it to the Prerogative of his Grace to give a true Repentance at last 3. Nor Thirdly Whether a Repentance that is true and sincere though but in the Seeds being surprized with a Death-Bed may not then break out and shew it self more fully 4. Nor Lastly Whether a Man that hath the light of the Gospel brought to him but just before his Dying Condition may not expect the Grace of God working with it then even as in the freer times of Life All these I do with great Confidence acknowledge The Substance of what I have said against a Death-Bed Repentance will be comprised in these following Assertions which I restrain wholly to Men that have lived under the Light and Exhortations and Applications of the Word of God with all usual Freedom and yet have not begun sincerely to Repent till they come to die The First is That a Death-Bed Repentance how fair soever it may appear hath yet the greatest Doubt imaginable upon it whether it be true The Second There is greatest Reason of Fear God will not give his Grace to such a Dying Man to Repent The Third That a Repentance at Death is not that general Repentance the Scripture Discourses of makes promises of Pardon upon offers the Assistances of the Spirit to enjoins the Duty of with so many pressing commands For that Repentance immediately to be begun is supposed to govern a following Life It must therefore be an extraordinary and miraculous Repentance if true Lastly That it is therefore against all rules of Piety and Prudence by mispending Life to cast our selves upon the necessity of Repentance at Death This I say is the Substance of what I have designed all along and which I would now further clear and vindicate from these following Objections Objection 1. Doth not the Parable of calling some Labourers into the Vineyard at the Eleventh Hour imply That God doth in ordinary Convert some at the last Hour as well as sooner Mat. 20. v. 1. c. Answer The main scope of Parables is only argumentative and so far as the scope of that Parable relates to this Case It is no more than what I acknowledge That God gives Eternal Life to true Repentance if true at last even as to the first and earliest Repentance The reward being to all of Grace and not of Debt It is also to be considered there remained an Hour of working representing rather old Age than a Death-Bed if the colours of a Parable prove any thing and so are rather against this Repentance than for it In the Second Objection I suppose Men taking Sanctuary at infinite Mercy and Power in this manner Although no thought of Man can reach the Mercy that accepts or gives Repentance at the last yet Mercy being as much above our Thoughts as the Heaven above the Earth what can we define concerning it And though there are so many Circumstances of Impossibility according to our measure of things Yet the things that are impossible with Men with God are possible for with God all things are possible How can we then determine in this Case Can we by searching find out the Almighty in his Mercy and Power Can we find him out to perfection It is high as Heaven what can we do It is deeper than Hell what can we know The measure thereof is longer than the Earth and broader than the Sea Answer Now because in this Objection the sinews of all Hope and Expectation from this late Repentance meet I will endeavour to give the most punctual Answer to it And though I know after all that is or can be said Men will not quit it Yet I shall rest upon this Answer as my last Resolution of this Case and by it raise the disswasions from a trust in such a Repentance to the height the greatness of the hazard appearing most fully from it In general