Repentance and Sincere Obedience be not the Terms of Salvation and the necessary Conditions of Happiness Whether there shall be a future Judgment when all men shall be sentenced according to their works Whether there be a Heaven and Hell Whether good men shall be eternally and unspeakably happy and wicked men extreamly and everlastingly miserable These are the great Controversies of Religion upon which we are to dispute on God's behalf against sinners God asserts and sinners deny these things not in Words but which is more emphatical and significant in their Lives and Actions These are practical Controversies of Faith and it concerns every man to be resolved and determined about them that he may frame his life accordingly And so for Repentance God says Repentance is a forsaking of sin and a through change and amendment of life the sinner says that it is only a formal Confession and a slight asking of God forgiveness God calls upon us speedily and forthwith to repent the sinner saith 't is time enough and it may safely be defer'd to sickness or death these are important Controversies and matters of moment But men do not affect common Truths whereas these are most necessary And indeed whatever is generally useful and beneficial ought to be common and not to be the less valued but the more esteemed for being so And as these Doctrines of Faith and Repentance are never unseasonable so are they more peculiarly proper when we celebrate the Holy Sacrament which was instituted for a solemn and standing Memorial of the Christian Religion and is one of the most powerful Arguments and Perswasives to repentance and a good life The Faith of the Gospel doth more particularly respect the death of Christ and therefore it is call'd Faith in his Blood because that is more especially the Object of our Faith the Blood of Christ as it was a Seal of the truth of his Doctrine so it is also a Confirmation of all the Blessings and Benefits of the New Covenant And it is one of the greatest Arguments in the world to repentance In the Blood of Christ we may see our own guilt and in the dreadful Sufferings of the Son of God the just desert of our sins for he hath born our griefs and carried our sorrows he was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities therefore the Commemoration of his Sufferings should call our sins to remembrance the Representation of his Body broken should melt our hearts and so often as we remember that his blood was shed for us our eyes should run down with rivers of tears so often as we look upon him whom we have pierced we should mourn over him When the Son of God suffered the rocks were rent in sunder and shall not the consideration of those sufferings be effectual to break the most stony and obdurate heart What can be more proper when we come to this Sacrament than the renewing of our Repentance When we partake of this Passover we should eat it with bitter herbs The most solemn Expressions of our Repentance fall short of those Sufferings which our blessed Saviour underwent for our sins if our head were waters and our eyes fountains of tears we could never sufficiently lament the cursed Effects and Consequences of those provocations which were so fatal to the Son of God And that our Repentance may be real it must be accompanied with the Resolution of a better life for if we return to our sins again we trample under foot the Son of God and profane the Blood of the Covenant and out of the Cup of Salvation we drink our own damnation and turn that which should save us into an instrument and Seal of our own ruin SERMON II. Serm. 2. Preach'd on Ash-Wednesday Of confessing and forsaking Sin in Order to Pardon PROV XXVIII 13 He that covereth his sins shall not prosper but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy SInce we are all sinners and liable to the Justice of God it is a matter of great moment to our comfort and happiness to be rightly informed by what Means and upon what Terms we may be reconciled to God and find mercy with him And to this purpose the Text gives us this advice and direction whoso confesseth and forsaketh his sin shall have mercy Vol. 8. In which words there is a great Blessing and Benefit declared and promised to sinners upon certain Conditions The Blessing and Benefit promised is the mercy and favour of God which comprehends all the happy Effects of God's mercy and goodness to sinners And the Conditions upon which this Blessing is promised are two Confession of our sins and forsaking of them and these two contain in them the whole nature of that great and necessary Duty of Repentance without which a sinner can have no reasonable hopes of the mercy of God I. Here is a Blessing or Benefit promised which is the mercy and favour of God And this in the full extent of it comprehends all the Effects of the mercy and goodness of God to sinners and doth primarily import the pardon and forgiveness of our sins And this probably Solomon did chiefly intend in this expression for so the mercy of God doth most frequently signifie in the Old Testament viz. the forgiveness of our sins And thus the Prophet explains it Isa 55.7 Let the wicked forsake his ways and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy and to our God for he will abundantly pardon But now since the clear revelation of the Gospel the mercy of God doth not only extend to the pardon of sin but to power against it because this also is an Effect of God's free grace and mercy to sinners to enable them by the grace of his holy Spirit to master and mortifie their lusts and to persevere in Goodness to the end And it comprehends also our final pardon and absolution at the great day together with the glorious Reward of eternal life which the Apostle expresseth by finding mercy with the Lord in that day And this likewise is promised to Repentance Acts 3.19 Repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord and he shall send Jesus Christ who before was preached unto you that is that when Jesus Christ who is now preached unto you shall come you may receive the final sentence of absolution and forgiveness And thus much shall suffice to have spoken of the Blessing and Benefit here promised the mercy of God which comprehends all the blessed Effects of the divine grace and goodness to sinners the present pardon of sin and power to mortifie sin and to persevere in a good course and our final absolulution by the sentence of the great day together with the merciful and glorious Reward of eternal life II. We will consider in the next place the Conditions upon
and the real Reformation of our Lives Ahab humbled himself but we do not find that he was a true Penitent Judas was sorry for his Sin and yet for all that was the Son of perdition Esau is a sad type of an ineffectual Sorrow for Sin Heb. 12. where the Apostle tells us that He found no place for Repentance that is no way to change the mind of his Father Isaac tho' he sought it carefully with tears If Sorrow for Sin were Repentance there would be store of Penitents in Hell for there is the deepest and most intense sorrow weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth 2. Another mistake which Men ought to be caution'd against in this Matter is of those who exact from themselves such a degree of Sorrow for Sin as ends in deep melancholy as renders them unfit both for the Duties of Religion and of their particular Callings But because there are but very few who fall into this mistake I shall need to say the less to it This only I shall say that those who indulge their sorrow to such a degree as to drown their Spirits and to sink them into melancholy and mopishness and thereby render themselves unserviceable to God and unfit for the necessities of this life they commit one Sin more to mourn for and overthrow the End of Repentance by the indiscreet use of the Means of it For the End of Sorrow for Sin is the forsaking of it and returning to our Duty But he that Sorrows for Sin so as to unfit him for his Duty he defeats his own design and destroys the end he aims at II. The Other part of the Aplication of this Discourse should be to stir up this affection of Sorrow in us And here if I had time I might represent to you the great evil of sin and the infinite Danger and inconvenience of it If the holy men in Scripture David and Jeremiah and St. Paul were so deeply affected with the sins of others as to shed rivers of tears at the remembrance of them how ought we to be touched with the sense of our own sins who are equally concerned in the dishonour brought to God by them and infinitely more in the danger they expose us to Can we weep for our dead Friends and have we no sense of that heavy load of Guilt of that body of death which we carry about with us Can we be sad and melancholy for temporal Losses and Sufferings and refuse to be comforted And is it no Trouble to us to have lost Heaven and Happiness and to be in continual danger of the intolerable Sufferings and endless Torments of another World I shall only offer to your Consideration the great Benefit and Advantage which will redound to us from this godly Sorrow it worketh Repentance to Salvation not to be repented of saith St. Paul If we would thus sow in Tears we should reap in Joy This Sorrow would but continue for a time and in the morning of the Resurrection there would be Joy to all Eternity Joy unspeakable and full of Glory It is but a very little while and these days of Mourning will be accomplish'd and then all Tears shall be wiped from our Eyes and the ransomed of the Lord shall come to Sion with Songs and everlasting Joy shall be upon their Heads They shall obtain Joy and Gladness and Sorrow and Sighing shall flee away Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted but wo unto you that laugh for ye shall mourn and weep If Men will rejoice in the pleasures of Sin and walk in the ways of their hearts and in the sight of their eyes if they will remove Sorrow from their heart and put away all sad and melancholy Thoughts from them and are resolved to harden their Spirits against the sense of Sin against the Checks and Convictions of their own Consciences and the Suggestions of God's Holy Spirit against all the Arguments that God can offer and all the Methods that God can use to bring them to Repentance let them know that for all these things God will bring them into judgment and because they would not give way to a timely and a seasonable Sorrow for Sin they shall lye down in eternal Sorrow weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth shall be their portion for ever From which sad and miserable Estate beyond all Imagination and past all Remedy God of his infinite Goodness deliver us all for Jesus Christ his sake To whom c. SERMON IV. Serm. 4. Preach'd on Ash-Wednesday 1689. The unprofitableness of Sin in this Life an Argument for Repentance JOB XXXIII 27 28. He looketh upon men and if any say I have sinned and perverted that which was right and it profited me not He will deliver his soul from going into the pit and his life shall see the light THE great Folly and Perverseness of humane Nature is in nothing more apparent than in this that when in all other things Men are generally led and governed by their Interests Vol. 8. and can hardly be imposed upon by any Art or perswaded by any Solicitation to act plainly contrary to it yet in matter of their Sin and Duty that is in that which of all other is of greatest concernment to them they have little or no regard to it but are so blinded and bewitched with the deceitfulness of sin as not to consider the infinite Danger and Disadvantage of it and at the same time to cast the Commandments of God and the consideration of their own Happiness behind their backs And of this every Sinner when he comes to himself and considers what he hath done is abundantly convinced as appears by the Confession and Acknowledgment which is here in the Text put into the Mouth of a true Penitent I have sinned and perverted that which is right and it profited me not c. In which Words here is a great Blessing and Benefit promised on God's part and the Condition required on our part First The Blessing or Benefit promised on God's part which is Deliverance from the ill Consequences and Punishment of Sin he will deliver his soul from going into the pit and his life shall see the light that is he will deliver him from Death and Damnation And tho' perhaps temporal Death be here immediately intended yet that is a Type of our Deliverance from eternal Death which is expresly promised in the Gospel Secondly Here is the Condition required on our part If any say I have sinned and perverted that which was right and it profited me not In which Words there are contained I. A penitent Confession of our Sins to God for he looketh upon men and if any say I have sinned that is make a penitent Confession of his Sin to God II. A true Contrition for our Sin not only for fear of the pernicious Consequences of Sin and the Punishment that will follow it implyed in these Words and it profited me not this is but a
accompanied with great sorrow for our sins considering the great dishonour we have brought to God and the danger into which we have brought our selves I will declare mine iniquity says David and I will be sorry for my sin And this Sorrow must be proportionable to the degree of our Sin If we have been very wicked and have sinned greatly against the Lord and have multiplied our transgressions and continued long in an evil course have neglected God and forgotten him days without number the measure of our sorrow must bear some proportion to the degree of our Sins if they have been as Scarlet and Crimson as the Prophet expresseth it that is of a deeper dye than ordinary our Sorrow must be as deep as our Guilt for it is not a slight trouble and a few tears that will wash out such stains Not that tears are absolutely necessary tho' they do very well become and most commonly accompany a sincere Repentance All tempers are not in this alike some cannot express their sorrow by tears even then when they are most inwardly and sensibly grieved But if we can easily shed tears upon other occasions certainly rivers of tears ought to run down our eyes because we have broken Gods Laws the Reasonable and Righteous and good Laws of so good a God of so Gracious a Soveraign of so mighty a Benefactor of the Founder of our Being and the perpetual Patron and Protector of our lives but if we cannot command our tears there must however be great trouble and contrition of Spirit especially for great sins to be sure to that degree as to produce the 3. Property I mentioned of a Penitent Confession namely a sincere Resolution to leave our sins and betake our selves to a better course He does not confess his fault but stand in it who is not resolved to amend True Shame and Sorrow for our Sins is utterly inconsistent with any thought of returning to them It argues great obstinacy and impudence to confess a fault and continue in it Whenever we make Confession of our sins to God surely it is meet to say unto him I will not offend any more that which I know not teach thou me and if I have done iniquity I will do no more This is the first part of Repentance mentioned in the Text the first Condition of our finding mercy with God the Penitent acknowledgment of our sins to him I proceed to the Second Condition required to make us capable of the mercy of God which is the actual forsaking of our sins whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy I shall not go about to explain what is meant by forsaking sin it is that which every body can understand but few will do there lies all the difficulty I shall only put you in mind that forsaking of sin comprehends our return to our duty that necessarily follows from it In sins of Commission he that hath left any Vice does thereby become master of the contrary Virtue virtus est vitium fugere not to be drunk is to be sober not to oppress or defraud or deal falsly is to be Just and Honest and for sins of Omission the forsaking of them is nothing else but the doing of those Duties which we omitted and neglected before And therefore what Solomon here calls forsaking of sin is elsewhere in Scripture more fully exprest by ceasing to do evil and learning to do well Isa 1.16 By forsaking our sins and turning to God Isa 55.7 Let the wicked man forsake his ways and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord. By turning from all our sins and keeping all Gods Laws and Statutes Ezek. 18.21 If the wicked will turn from all his sins which he hath committed and keep all my statutes and do that which is lawful and right And this is a most Essential part of Repentance and a necessary condition of our finding mercy with God That part of Repentance which I have mentioned and insisted upon before the Penitent acknowledgment of our sins to God with Shame and Sorrow for them and a firm purpose and Resolution to leave them all this is but Preparatory to the actual forsaking of them that which perfects and compleats our Repentance is to turn from our evil ways and to break off our sins by righteousness And these terms of confessing and forsaking our sins are Reasonable in themselves and Honourable to God and Profitable to us and upon lower Terms we have no reason to expect the Mercy of God nor in truth are we capable of it either by the present forgiveness of our sins or the final absolution of the great day and the blessed Reward of Eternal Life God peremptorily requires this change as a condition of our Forgiveness and Happiness Repent and be converted that your sins may be blotted out Acts 3.19 If thou wilt enter into life keep the commandments Matth. 19.17 Without holiness no man shall see the Lord Heb. 12.14 And why should any man hope for the Mercy of God upon other Terms than those which he hath so plainly and peremptorily declared It is a mean and unworthy thought of God to imagine that he will accept men to his favour and eternal life upon other Terms than of better obedience Will any wise Father or Prince accept less from his Children and Subjects will they be satisfied with sighs and tears as well as with Obedience And well pleased if they be but melancholy for their faults tho' they ne-never mend them We must not impute that to God which would be a defect of Wisdom and good Government in any Father or Prince upon Earth God values no part of Repentance upon any other account but as it tends to reclaim us to our Duty and ends in our Reformation and amendment This is that which qualifies us for the Happiness of another Life and makes us meet to be made partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light And without this tho' God should be pleased to forgive us yet we could not forgive our selves and notwithstanding the legal discharge from Guilt the Sting of it would remain and we should like our first Parents after they had sinn'd run away and hide our selves from God tho' he spake never so kindly to us God hath placed in every Man's mind an inexorable Judge that will grant no Pardon and Forgiveness but to a reformed Penitent to him that hath such a sense of the Evil of his past Life as to become a better man for the future And whoever entertains any other notion of the Grace and Mercy of God to Sinners confounds the Nature of Things and does plainly overthrow the Reason of all Laws which is to restrain men from Sin But when it is committed to Pardon it without Amendment is to Encourage the Practice of it and to take away the Reverence and Veneration of those Laws which seem so severely to forbid it So that next to impunity the forgiveness of
the Efficacy of it in Conjunction with our Repentance and Fasting and Prayers I shall only offer to your consideration a few plain Texts of Scripture which need no comment upon them Dan. 4.27 it is the Prophets advice to Nebuchadnezzar Break off thy sins by righteousness and thine iniquity by shewing mercy to the poor if so be it may be a lengthning of thy tranquillity Acts 10.4 the Angel there tells Cornelius Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God Isa 58.5 Is not this the fast which I have chosen to loose the bands of wickedness to undo the heavy burthens and to let the oppressed go free and that ye break every yoke Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house when thou seest the naked that thou cover him and that thou hide not thy self from thine own flesh Then shall thy light break forth as the morning and thine health shall spring forth speedily and thy righteousness shall go before thee and the Glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward then shalt thou call and the Lord shall answer thee thou shalt cry and he shall say here I am To which I will only add that Gracious promise of our Saviour Blessed are the merciful for they shall find mercy and that terrible sentence in St. James He shall have Judgment without mercy that hath shewed no mercy SERMON III. Serm. 3. Of Confession and Sorrow for Sin PSAL. XXXVIII 18 I will declare mine iniquity and be sorry for my Sin IN this Psalm David does earnestly beg Mercy and Forgiveness of God and in order to the obtaining of it he declares both his Sins and his Repentance for them in these Words which contain in them two of the Necessary Ingredients or at least Concomitants of a true Repentance viz. Confession of Sin and Sorrow for it Vol. 8. I shall speak something of the first of these viz. Confession of Sin but the Second viz. Sorrow for Sin shall be the main Subject of my Discourse I. Confession of Sin I will declare mine iniquity or as it is in the Old Translation I will Confess my wickedness Of which I shall speak under these three Heads I. What Confession of Sin is II. How far 't is necessary III. What are the Reasons and grounds of this necessity I. What Confession of Sin is It is a Declaration or Acknowledgment of some moral evil or fault to another which we are conscious to our selves we have been Guilty of And this Acknowledgment may be made by us either to God or Man The Scripture mentions both Confession of our Sins to God is very frequently mentioned in Scripture as the first and necessary part of Repentance and sometimes and in some cases Confession to men is not only recommended but enjoyned II. How far Confession of our Sins is Necessary That it is necessary to confess our Sins to God the Scripture plainly declares and is I think a matter out of all dispute For it is a Necessary part of Repentance that we should confess our Sins to God with a due sense of the evil of them and therefore the Scripture maketh this a Necessary qualification and Condition of Pardon and Forgiveness Prov. 28.13 Whoso confesseth and forsaketh his sins shall have mercy 1 John 1.9 If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness implying that if we do not confess our sins to God the guilt of them will still remain to God I say for of Confession to him St. John plainly speaks when he says He is faithful and just Who God surely who tho' he be not named before yet is necessarily understood in the words before If we confess our sins i. e. to God he is faithful and just A general Confession of our sins is absolutely necessary and in some cases a particular acknowledgment of them and repentance for them especially if the sins have been great and deliberate and presumptuous in this Case a particular Confession of them and Repentance for them is necessary so far as we can particularly recollect them and call them to Remembrance Whereas for sins of ignorance and infirmity of surprize and daily incursion for lesser Omissions and the Defects and Imperfections of our best Actions and Services we have all the Reason that can be to believe that God will accept of a general Confession of them and Repentance for them And if any Man ask me where I find this distinction in Scripture between a general and particular Repentance I answer that it is not necessary it should be any where exprest in Scripture being so clearly founded in the Nature and Reason of the thing because in many cases it is not possible that we should have a particular Knowledge and Remembrance of all our particular Sins as is plain in Sins of ignorance since our very calling them by that Name does necessarily suppose that we do not know them It is impossible we should remember those Sins afterwards which we did not know when they were committed And therefore either a general Repentance for these and the other Sins I mentioned of the like Nature must be sufficient in order to the Pardon of them or we must say that they are unpardonable which would be very unreasonable because this would be to make lesser Sins more unpardonable than those which are far greater And yet tho' this difference between a general and particular Repentance be no where expresly mention'd in Scripture there does not want foundation for it there Psal 19.12 Who can understand his errours Cleanse thou me from secret Sins i. e. Such as we do not discern and take notice of when they are committed And yet David supposeth that upon a general Acknowledgment of them and Repentance for them we may be cleansed from them tho' we cannot make a particular Acknowledgment of them and exercise a particular Repentance for them because they are secret and we do not particularly understand what they are As for our confessing our Sins to Men both Scripture and Reason do in some cases recommend and enjoyn it As 1. In order to the obtaining of the Prayers of good men for us James 5.16 Confess your Sins one to another he said before The prayer of faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise him up This in all probability is meant of the Miraculous Power of Prayer which St. Chrysostom reckons among the Miraculous Gifts of the Spirit bestowed upon Christians in the first Ages of the Church and this is very much countenanc'd and confirm'd by what presently follows after this command of Confessing our Sins one to another and praying one for another and given as the Reason of it for the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous Man availeth much the Original is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the inspir'd prayer which in the verse
is ingenuity because we are sensible that we have carried our selves very unworthily towards God and have been injurious to him who hath laid all possible obligations upon us For he hath made us and hath given us our beings and hath charged his watchful Providence with the continual care of us his bounty hath ministred to the necessities and comforts of our Life all the Blessings that we enjoy are the Effects of his meer love and goodness without any hope of requital or expectation of any other return from us than of love of gratitude and obedience which yet are of no advantage to him but very beneficial and comfortable to our selves For he does not expect Duty and Obedience from us with any regard of Benefit to himself but for our sakes and in order to our own Happiness Nay his kindness did not stop here but after we had abused him by our repeated provocations yet he still continued his care of us and when we had farther provoked him to withdraw his Love and to call in his abused Goodness and had done what lay in us to make our selves miserable he would not suffer us to be undone but found out a Ransom for us and hath contrived a way for the pardon of all our offences and to reconcile us to himself and to restore us to Happiness by the most stupendous and amazing condescension of love and goodness that ever was even by giving his only Son to dye for us And can we reflect upon all this and not be sorry and grieved at our very hearts that we should be so evil to him who hath been so good to us that we should be so undutiful to so loving a Father so unkind to so faithful and constant a Friend so ungrateful and unworthy to so mighty a Benefactor If any thing will melt us into Tears surely this will do it to consider that we have sinned against him who made us and continually preserves us and after all our unkindness to him did still retain so great a love for us as to redeem us from Hell and Destruction by the Death and Suffering of his Son and notwithstanding all our offences does still offer us Pardon and Peace Life and Happiness Such Considerations as these seriously laid to heart should one would think break the hardest heart and make Tears to gush even out of a Rock I proceed in the III. Place to consider the Measure and Degree of our Sorrow for Sin That it admits of degrees which ought to bear some proportion to the heinousness of our Sins and the several aggravations of them and the time of our continuance in them is out of all dispute For tho' the least Sin be a just cause of the deepest Sorrow yet because our greatest grief can never bear a due proportion to the vast and infinite evil of Sin God is pleased to require and accept such measures of Sorrow as do not bear an exact correspondence to the Malignity of Sin provided they be according to the capacity of our Nature and in some sort proportioned to the degree and aggravations of our Sins i. e. Tho' the highest degree of our Sorrow doth necessarily fall below the evil of the least Sin yet God requires that we should be more deeply affected with some Sins than others But what is the lowest degree which God requires in a true Penitent and will accept as it is impossible for me to tell so it is unprofitable for any body to know For no Man can reasonably make this enquiry with any other design than that he may learn how he may come off with God upon the cheapest and easiest terms Now there cannot be a worse sign that a Man is not truly sensible of the great evil of Sin than this that he desires to be troubled for it as little as may be and no longer than needs must And none surely are more unlikely to find acceptance with God than those who deal so nearly and endeavour to drive so hard a bargain with him And therefore I shall only say this in general concerning the degrees of our Sorrow for Sin that Sin being so great an evil in it self and of so pernicious a consequence to us it cannot be too much lamented and grieved for by us And the more and greater our Sins have been and the longer we have continued and lived in them they call for so much the greater Sorrow and deeper humiliation from us For the reasoning of our Saviour concerning Mary Magdalene She loved much because much was forgiven her is proportionably true in this case those who have sinned much should sorrow the more And then we must take this Caution along with us that if we would Judge aright of the truth of our Sorrow for Sin we must not measure it so much by the Degrees of sensible trouble and affliction as by the rational Effects of it which are hatred of Sin and a fixt purpose and resolution against it for the future for he is most truly sorry for his Miscarriage who looks upon what he hath done amiss with abhorrence and detestation of the thing and wisheth he had not done it and censures himself severely for it and thereupon resolves not to do the like again And this is the Character which St. Paul gives of a Godly Sorrow 2 Cor. 7.10 that it worketh repentance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it produceth a real change in our minds and makes us to alter our purpose and resolution And tho' such a Person may not be so passionately and sensibly afflicted for Sin yet it appears by the Effect that he hath a deeper and more rational resentment of the evil of it than that man who is sad and melancholy and drooping for never so long a time and after all returns to his former sinful course the Degree of his Sorrow may appear greater but the Effect of it is really less IV. As for the outward expressions of our Grief and Sorrow The usual sign and outward expression of Sorrow is Tears but these being not the Substance of our Duty but an external Testimony of it which some tempers are more unapt to than others we are much less to Judge of the Truth of our Sorrow for Sin by these than by our inward sensible Trouble and Affliction of Spirit Some Persons are of a more tender and melting disposition and can command their Tears upon a little occasion and upon very short warning and such Persons that can weep for every thing else that troubles them have much more reason to suspect the Truth of their Sorrow for Sin if this outward expression of it be wanting And we find in Scripture that the Sorrow of true Penitents does very frequently discover it self by this outward sign of it Thus when Ezra and the people made Confession of their Sins to God it is said that they wept very Sore Ezra 10. Peter when he reflected upon that great Sin of denying his Master 't is said He
went forth and wept bitterly David also was abundant in this expression of his grief In the Book of Psalms he speaks frequently of his sighs and groans and of watering his couch with his tears yea so sensibly was he affected with the Evil of Sin that he could shed tears plentifully for the Sins of others Psal 119.136 Rivers of waters run down mine eyes because men keep not thy law In like manner Jeremiah tells us that his Soul did weep in secret places for the pride and obstinacy of the Jews that his eye did weep sore and run down with tears Jer. 13.17 And so likewise St. Paul Philip 3.18 19. There are many that walk of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping that they are enemies to the Cross of Christ And there seems to be this natural Reason for it that all great and permanent impressions upon the Mind all deep inward resentments have usually a proportionable effect upon the Body and tâ—â— inferiour Faculties But tho' this happen very frequently yet it is not so constant and certain For all men have not the same tenderness of Spirit nor are equally prone to tears nay tho' a Man can weep upon natural accounts as upon the loss of a Child or near Relation or an intimate Friend or when he lyes under a sharp Bodily pain yet a Man may truly repent tho' he cannot express his Sorrow for Sin the same way provided he give Testimony of it by more real Effects And therefore the Rule which is commonly given by Casuists in this case seems to be more ensnaring than true and useful Namely that that man that can shed Tears upon account of any evil less than that of Sin as certainly all natural evils are ought to question the Truth of his Repentance for any Sin that he hath committed if he cannot shed Tears for it This I think is not true because there is scarce any Man of so hard and unrelenting a Spirit but the loss of a kind Father or a dear Child or other near Relation will force Tears from him And yet such a Man if it were to â—ave his Soul may not be able at some times to shed a Tear for his Sins And the Reason is obvious because Tears do proceed from a sensitive trouble and are commonly the Product of a natural affection and therefore 't is no wonder if they flow more readily and easily upon a natural account because they are the Effect of a Cause suitable to their Nature But Sorrow for Sin which hath more of the Judgment and Understanding in it hath not it's Foundation in natural affection but in Reason and therefore may not many times express it self in Tears tho' it may produce greater and more proper Effects So that upon the whole matter I see no Reason to call in question the Truth and Sincerity of that Man's Sorrow and Repentance who hates Sin and forsakes it and returns to God and his Duty tho' he cannot shed Tears and express the bitterness of his Soul for his Sin by the same significations that a Mother doth in the loss of her only Son He that cannot weep like a Child may resolve like a Man and that undoubtedly will find acceptance with God A learned Divine hath well illustrated this Matter by this Similitude Two Persons walking together espie a Serpent the one shrieks and cries out at the sight of it the other kills it So is it in Sorrow for Sin some express it by great Lamentation and Tears and vehement transports of passion others by greater and more real effects of hatred and detestation by forsaking their Sins and by mortifying and subduing their Lusts But he that kills it does certainly best express his inward displeasure and enmity against it The Application I shall make of what hath been said upon this Argument shall be in two particulars I. By way of Caution and that against a double mistake about Sorrow for Sin 1. Some look upon Trouble and Sorrow for Sin as the whole of Repentance 2. Others exact from themselves such a degree of Sorrow as ends in melancholy and renders them unfit both for the Duties of Religion and of their particular Calling The first concerns almost the generality of men the latter but a very few in comparison 1. There are a great many who look upon Trouble and Sorrow for their Sins as the whole of Repentance whereas it is but an Introduction to it It is that which works repentance but is not Repentance it self Repentance is always accompanied with Sorrow for Sin but Sorrow for Sin does not always end in true Repentance Sorrow only respects Sins past but Repentance is chiefly preventive of Sin for the future And God doth therefore require our Sorrow for Sin in order to our forsaking of it Heb. 6.1 Repentance is there call'd repentance from dead Works It is not only a Sorrow for them but a turning from them There is no Reason why men should be so willing to deceive themselves for they are like to be the losers by it But so we see it is that many men are contented to be deceived to their own ruin and among many other ways which men have to cheat themselves this is none of the least frequent to think that if they can but shed a few Tears for Sin upon a death-bed which no doubt they may easily do when they see their Friends weeping about them and apprehend themselves to be in imminent danger not only of Death but of that which is more terrible the heavy displeasure and the fiery Indignation of Almighty God into whose hands it is a fearful thing to fall I say they think that if they can but do thus much God will accept this for a true Repentance and hereupon grant them Pardon and eternal life And upon these fond hopes they adjourn their Repentance and the Reformation of their lives to a dying hour Indeed if I were to speak to a Man upon his Death-bed I would encourage him to a great Contrition and Sorrow for his Sins as his last and only remedy and the best thing he can do at that time but on the other hand when I am speaking to those that are well and in health I dare not give them the least Encouragement to venture their Souls upon this because it is an hazardous and almost desperate remedy especially when men have cunningly and designedly contriv'd to rob God of the Service of their lives and to put him off with a few unprofitable Sighs and Tears at their departure out of the World Our Saviour tells us that it is not every one that shall say unto him Lord Lord that shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven and that there is a time when many shall seek to enter in but shall not be able The Summ of this Caution is that men should take heed of mistaking Sorrow for Sin for true Repentance unless it be followed with the forsaking of Sin
and the monstrous irregularity and disorder of our Affections and Appetites it is the mis-placing of our Powers and Faculties the setting of our Wills and Passions above our Reason all which is ugly and unnatural and if we were truly sensible of it matter of great Shame and Reproach to us There is hardly any Vice but at first sight hath an odious and ugly Appearance to a well disciplin'd and innocent Mind that hath never had any acquaintance with it And however Familiarity and Custom may abate the sense of it's Deformity yet it is at it was before and the change that is made in us does not alter the nature of the thing Drunkenness and furious Passion Pride and Fashood Covetousness and Cruelty are odious and matter of Shame in the sincere and uncorrupted Opinion of all Mankind And tho' a Man by the frequent Practice of any of these Vices and a long familiarity with them may not be so sensible of the Deformity of them in himself yet he quickly discerns the ugliness of them in others when ever they come in his way and could with Salt and Sharpness enough upbraid those whom he sees guilty of them but that he is inwardly conscious that the Reproach may be so easily return'd and thrown back upon himself However this is a natural acknowledgment of the Deformity and Shamefulness of Sin and Vice 2. They are likewise shameful because they are so great a Dishonour to our Nature and to the Dignity and Excellency of our Being We go below our selves and act beneath the Dignity of our Nature when we do any thing contrary to the Rules and Laws of it or to the revealed Will of God because these are the Bounds and Limits which God and Nature hath set to Humane Actions and are the measures of our Duty i. e. what is fit and becoming for us to do and what not So that all Sin and Vice is base and unworthy and beneath the Dignity of our Nature it argues a corrupt and diseased Constitution and Habit of Mind a crooked and perverse Disposition of Will and a sordid and mean temper of Spirit And therefore the Scripture doth frequently represent a state of Sin and Wickedness by that which is accounted the basest and meanest Condition among Men by a state of Servitude and Slavery especially if it had been our Choice or the evident and necessary Consequence of our wilful Fault For we do as bad as chuse it when we wilfully bring it upon our selves So that to be a Sinner is to be a Slave to some vile Lust Appetite or Passion to some unnatural or irregular Desire it is to sell our selves into Bondage and to part with one of the most valuable things in the World our Liberty upon low and unworthy terms Such a State and Condition does unavoidably debase and debauch our Minds and break the force and firmness of our Spirits and robs us as Dalilah did Sampson of our Strength and Courage of our Resolution and Constancy so that Men have not the Heart left to design and endeavour in good earnest their own Rescue out of this mean and miserable estate into which by their own Folly and Fault they have brought themselves When Men are engaged into a custom of sinning and have habituated themselves to any vicious Course how do they betray their Weakness and want of Resolution by being at the beck of every foolish Lust and by suffering themselves to be commanded and burried away by every unruly Appetite and Passion to do things which they know to be greatly to their Harm and Prejudice and which they are convinced are mean and sordid things and such as they are ashamed that any wise Man should see them doing And there is no greater Argument of a pitiful and degenerate Spirit than to commit such things as a Man would blush to be surprized in and would be mightily troubled to hear of afterwards And which is more after he hath been convinc'd by manifold Experience that they are a Shame and Disgrace to him and make him to hang down his Head and let fall his Countenance whenever he is in better Company than himself yet after this to go and do the same things again which he is sensible are so shameful and to be so impotent and to have so little Command of himself as not to be able to free himself from this Bondage nor the heart to pray to God that by his Grace he would enable him hereto And that Sin is of this shameful Nature is evident in that the greatest part of Sinners take so much Care and Pains to hide their Vices from the sight and notice of Men and to this purpose chuse Darkness and secret places of Retirement to commit their Sins in The Apostle takes notice that thus much Modesty was left even in a very wicked and degenerate Age 1 Thes 5.7 They that be drunk says he are drunk in the night Now all this is a plain acknowledgment that Sin is a spurious and degenerate thing that it misbecomes Humane Nature and is below the Dignity of a reasonable Creature Otherwise why should Men be so solicitous and concern'd to cover their Faults from the sight of others If they are not ashamed of them why do they not bring them into the broad Light and shew them openly if they think they will endure it So true is that Observation which Plato makes That tho' a Man were sure that God would forgive his Sins and that Men should never know them yet there is that Baseness in Sin that a wise Man that considers what it is would blush to himself alone to be guilty of it and tho' he were not afraid of the Punishment would be ashamed of the Turpitude and Deformity of it Did but a Man consider seriously with himself how mean and unmanly it is for a Man to be drunk and what an apish and ridiculous thing he renders himself to all sober Men that behold him and with what Contempt and Scorn they entertain such a sight and how brutish it is to wallow in any unlawful Lust and how much a Man descends and stoops beneath himself what shameful Fear and Cowardise he betrays when he is frighted to tell a Lye out of Fear or tempted thereto for some little Advantage and yet is so inconsistent with himself as to have or to pretend to have the Courage to fight any Man that shall tell him so sawcy a Truth as that he told a Lye Would but a Man think before hand how unworthy and how unequal a thing it is to defraud or cheat his Brother or to do any thing to another Man which he would be loth in the like case that he should do to him how base a thing it is for a Man to be perfidious and false to his Promise or Trust how monstrous to be unthankful to one that hath highly obliged him and every way and upon all occasions deserved well at his Hands and
so I might instance in all other sorts of Sins I say he that considers this well and wisely tho' there were no Law against Sin and if it were a possible case and fit to be supposed tho' there were no such Being as God in the World to call him to account and punish him for it yet out of meer Generosity and Greatness of Mind out of pure respect to himself and the Dignity and Rank of his Being and of his Order in the World out of very Reverence to Humane Nature and the inward Perswasion of his own Mind however he came by that Perswasion concerning the Indeceny and Deformity and Shamefulness of the thing I say for these Reasons if there were no other a Man would strive with himself with all his might to refrain from Sin and Vice and not only blush but abhor to think of doing a wicked Action 3. Sin will yet farther appear shameful in that it is so great a Reproach to our Understandings and Reasons and so foul a Blot upon our Prudence and Discretion Omnis peccans aut ignorans est aut incogitans is a Saying I think of one of the School-men as one would guess by the Latin of it Every Sinner is either an ignorant or inconsiderate Person Either Men do not understand what they do when they commit Sin or if they do know they do not actually attend to and consider what they know Either they are habitually or actually ignorant of what they do for Sin and Consideration cannot dwell together 't is so very unreasonable and absurd a thing that it requires either gross Ignorance or stupid Inadvertency to make a Man capable of committing it Whenever a Man sins he must either be destitute of Reason or must lay it aside or asleep for the time and so suffer himself to be hurried away and to act brutishly as if he had no understanding Did but Men attentively consider what it is to offend God and to break the Laws of that great Law-giver who is able to save or to destroy they would discern so many invincible Objections against the thing and would be filled with such strong Fears and Jealousies of the fatal Issue and Event of it that they would not dare to venture upon it And therefore we find the Scripture so frequently resolving the Wickedness of Men into their Ignorance and Inconsiderateness Psal 14.4 Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge intimating that by their Actions one would judge so And the same account God himself also gives elsewhere of the frequent Disobedience and Rebellion of the People of Israel Deut. 32.28 29. They are a nation void of counsel neither is there any understanding in them Oh! that they were wise that they understood this that they would consider their latter end Knowledge and Consideration would cure a great part of the Wickedness that is in the World Men would not commit Sin with so much greediness would they but take time to consider and bethink themselves what they do Have we not reason then to be ashamed of Sin which casts such a reproach of Ignorance and Rashness upon us and of Imprudence likewise and Indiscretion Since nothing can be more directly and plainly against our greatest and best Interest both of Body and Soul both here and hereafter both now and to all Eternity And there is nothing that Men are more ashamed of than to be guilty of so great an Imprudence as to act clearly against their own Interest to which Sin is the most plainly cross and contrary that it is possible for any thing to be No Man can engage and continue in a sinful Course without being so far abused and infatuated as to be contented to part with Everlasting Happiness and to be undone and miserable for ever none but he that can perswade himself against all the Reason and Sense of Mankind that there is pleasure enough in the transient acts of Sin to make amends for Eternal Sorrow and Shame and Suffering And can such a Thought as this enter into the Heart of a considerate Man Epicurus was so wise as to conclude against all Pleasure that would give a Man more Trouble and Disturbance afterwards against all Pleasures that had Pain and Grief consequent upon them and he forbids his Wise Man to taste of them or to meddle with them and had he believed any thing of a future State he must according to his Principle have pronounc'd it the greatest Folly that could be for any Man to purchase the Pleasures and Happiness of a few Years at the dear rate of Eternal Misery and Torment So that if it be a Disgrace to a Man to act imprudently and to do things plainly against his Interest then Vice is the greatest reproach that is possible The 4 th and last Consideration which renders Sin so shameful to us is that it is our own Voluntary Act and Choice We chuse this Disgrace and willingly bring this Reproach upon our selves We pity an Ideot and one that is naturally destitute of Understanding or one that loseth the use of his Reason by a Disease or other inevitable accident But every one despiseth him who besots himself and plays the fool out of carelessness and a gross neglect of himself And this is the Case of the Sinner there is no Man that sinneth but because he is wanting to himself he might be wiser and do better and will not but he chuseth his own Devices and Voluntarily runs himself upon those inconveniences which it was in his Power to have avoided Not but that I do heartily own and lament the great Corruption and Degeneracy of our Nature and the strong Propensions which appear so early in us to that which is Evil but God hath provided a Remedy and Cure for all this For since the Grace of God which brings Salvation unto all men hath appeared under the influence and through the assistance of that Grace which is offer'd to them by the Gospel men may deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and live soberly righteously and godly in this present World For I make no doubt but since God hath enter'd into a new Covenant of Grace with Mankind and offered new Terms of Life and Salvation to us I say I doubt not but his Grace is ready at hand to enable us to perform all those Conditions which he requires of us if we be not wanting to our selves There was a way of Salvation established before the Gospel was clearly reveal'd to the World and they who under that Dispensation whether Jews or Gentiles sincerely endeavour'd to do the will of God so far as they knew it were not utterly destitute of Divine Grace and Assistance But now there is a more plentiful Effusion of God's Grace and Holy Spirit so that whoever under the Gospel sins deliberately sins wilfully and is wicked not for want of Power but of Will to do otherwise And this is that which makes Sin so shameful a thing and so
himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works and herein the great Mercy and Compassion of God towards Mankind appeared in that he sent his Son to rescue us from that Servitude which we had so long groaned under that being made free from sin we might become the servants of God and the servants of righteousness And this he hath done not only by the price of his Blood but by the Power and Purity of his Doctrine and the Holy Example of his Life and by all those Considerations which represent to us the Misery of our sinful state and the infinite danger of continuing in it and on the other Hand by setting before us the Advantages of a Religious and Holy Life and what a blessed change we make when we quit the Service of Sin and become the Servants of God It will not only be a mighty present Benefit to us but will make us happy to all Eternity and these are the Two Considerations which at first I propounded to speak to at this time First The present Benefit of an Holy and Virtuous Life which the Apostle here calls Fruit But now being made free from sin and become the servants of God ye have your fruit unto holiness Secondly The future Reward and Recompence of it and the end everlasting life First Let us consider the present Benefit and Advantage of an Holy and Virtuous Life which the Apostle here calls Fruit. If all things be truly consider'd there is no Advantage comes to any Man by a wicked and vicious Course of Life A wicked Life is no present Advantage the reflection upon it afterwards is shameful and troublesom and the end of it miserable But on the contrary the Advantages of an holy and good life are many and great even in this World and upon temporal accounts abstracting from the Consideration of a future Reward in the World to come I shall instance in Five or Six eminent Advantages which it usually brings to men in this World I. It brings great Peace and Contentment of Mind II. It is a very fit and proper Means to promote our outward temporal Interest III. It tends to the lengthning our days and hath frequently the Blessing of long Life attending upon it IV. It gives a Man great Peace and Comfort when he comes to die V. After Death it transmits a good Name and Reputation to Posterity VI. It derives a Blessing upon our Posterity after us And these are certainly the greatest Blessings that a wise Man can aim at and design to himself in this World Every one of these taken severally is very considerable but all of them together compleat a Man's temporal Felicity and raise it to as high a pitch as is to be expected in this World I. A Religious and Virtuous course of Life is the best way to Peace and Contentment of Mind and does commonly bring it And to a wise Man that knows how to value the ease and satisfaction of his own Mind there cannot be a greater temptation to Religion and Virtue than to consider that it is the best and only way to give rest to his Mind And this is present Fruit and ready Payment because it immediately follows or rather accompanies the discharge of our Duty The fruit of righteousness is peace saith the Prophet and the Apostle to the Hebrews speaks of the peaceable fruits of righteousness meaning that inward Peace which a Righteous Man hath in his own Mind A Man needs not to take pains or to use many Arguments to satisfie and content his own Mind after he hath done a good Action and to convince himself that he hath no cause to be troubled for it for Peace and Pleasure do naturally spring from it Nay not only so but there is an unexpressible kind of pleasure and delight that flows from the testimony of a good Conscience Let but a Man take care to satisfie himself in the doing of his Duty and whatever troubles and storms may be raised from without all will be clear and calm within For nothing but guilt can trouble a Man's Mind and fright his Conscience and make him uneasie to himself that indeed will wound his Spirit and sting his very Soul and make him full of fearful and tormenting thoughts This Cain found after he had committed that crying sin of Murdering his Brother Gen. 4.6 The Lord said unto Cain why art thou wrath and why is thy Countenance fall'n His guilt made him full of wrath and discontent fill'd his Mind with vexation and his Countenance with shame and confusion When a Man's conscience is awakened to a sense of his guilt it is angry and froward and harder to be still'd than a peevish Child But the practice of Holiness and Virtue does produce just the contrary effects it fills a Man's Mind with Pleasure and makes his Countenance chearful And this certainly if it be well consider'd is no small and contemptible advantage The peace and tranquillity of our Minds is the great thing which all the Philosophy and Wisdom of the World did always design to bring men to as the very utmost happiness that a Wise Man is capable of in this Life and 't is that which no considerate Man would part with for all that this World can give him The greatest fortune in this World ought to be no temptation to any Man in his Wits to submit to perpetual Sickness and Pain for the gaining of it and yet there is no disease in the World that for the sharpness of it is comparable to the sting of a guilty Mind and no pleasure equal to that of Innocence and a good Conscience And this naturally springs up in the Mind of a good Man where it is not hindred either by a melancholy temper or by false Principles in Religion which fill a Man with groundless fears and jealousies of the love and favour of God towards him and excepting these two cases this is the ordinary fruit of an holy and good course which is not interrupted by frequent falling into sin and great omissions and violations of our duty For in this case the interruptions of our Peace and Comfort will naturally be answerable to the inequality of our Obedience II. Besides the present and inestimable Fruit of Holiness the quiet and satisfaction of our own Minds it is likewise a proper means to promote our Interest and Happiness in this World For as every Vice is naturally attended with some Temporal Inconvenience of Pain or Loss so there is no Grace or Virtue but does apparently conduce to a Man's temporal Felicity There are some Virtues which tend to the health of his Body and the prolonging of his Life as Temperance and Chastity others tend to Riches and Plenty as Diligence and Industry in our callings others to the secure and peaceable Enjoyment of what we have as Truth and Fidelity Justice and Honesty in all our dealings and
Penitent here described in the Text takes up I will not offend any more That which I see not teach thou me and if I have done iniquity I will do no more He resolves against all known Sin I will not offend any more and if through Ignorance he had sinned and done contrary to his Duty he desires to be better instructed that he may not offend again in the like kind That which I see not teach thou me and if I have done iniquity I will do no more So that the true Penitent resolves upon these two things 1. To forsake his Sin And 2. To return to God and his Duty 1. To forsake his Sin and this implies the quitting of his sinful Course whatever it had been and that not only by abstaining from the outward act and practice of every Sin but by endeavouring to crucifie and subdue the inward Affection and Inclination to it And it implies farther the utter forsaking of Sin for Repentance is not only a Resolution to abstain from Sin for the present but never to return to it again Thus Ephraim when he repented of his Idolatry he utterly renounced it saying What have I to do any more with Idols Hos 14.8 He that truly repents is resolved to break off his sinful Course and to abandon those Lusts and Vices which he was formerly addicted to and lived in 2. The true Penitent resolves likewise to return to God and his Duty he does not stay in the negative part of Religion he does not only resolve not to commit any Sin but not to neglect or omit any thing that he knows to be his Duty and if he has been ignorant of any part of his Duty he is willing to know it that he may do it he is not only determined to forsake his Sin which will make him miserable but to return to God who alone can make him happy he is now resolved to love God and to serve him as much as he hated and dishonoured him before and will now be as diligent to perform and practise all the Duties and Parts of Religion as he was negligent of them before and as ready to do all the good he can to all men in any kind as he was careless of these things before these in general are the things which a true Penitent resolves upon I proceed to the III. Thing I proposed to consider namely what is implyed in a sincere Resolution of leaving our Sins and returning to God and our Duty And this holy Resolution if it be thorow and sincere does imply in it these three things 1. That it be Universal 2. That it be a Resolution of the Means as well as of the End 3. That it presently come to effect and be speedily and without delay put in Execution 1. A sincere Resolution of amendment must be universal a Resolution to forsake all Sin and to return to our whole Duty and every part of it such a Resolution as that of holy David to hate every false way and to have respect to all God's Commandments This Resolution must be universal in respect of the whole Man and with regard to all our Actions in respect of the whole Man for we must resolve not only to abstain from the outward Action of Sin but this Resolution must have its effect upon our inward Man and reach our very hearts and thoughts it must restrain our inclinations and mortifie our lusts and corrupt affections and renew us in the very spirit of our minds as the Apostle expresses it And it must be universal in respect of all our Actions For this is not the Resolution of a sincere Penitent to abstain only from gross and notorious from scandalous and open Sins but likewise to refrain from the Commission of those Sins which are small in the esteem of men and not branded with a Mark of publick Infamy and Reproach to forbear Sin in secret and when no Eye of Man sees us and takes notice of us This is not a sincere Resolution to resolve to practice the Duties and Virtues of Religion in publick and to neglect them in private to resolve to perform the Duties of the first Table and to pass by those of the second to resolve to serve God and to take a liberty to defraud and cozen men to honour our Father which is in Heaven and to injure and hate our Brethren upon Earth to love our Neighbour and to hate our Enemy as the Jews did of old time to resolve against Swearing and to allow our selves the liberty to speak falsely and to break our Word to flee from Superstition and to run into Faction to abhor Idols and to commit Sacriledge to resolve to be devout at Church and deceitful in our Shops to be very scrupulous about lesser matters and to be very zealous about indifferent things to tithe mint and anise and cummin and to omit the weightier matters of the Law Mercy and Fidelity and Justice to be very rigid in matters of Faith and Opinion but loose in Life and Practice No the Resolution of a sincere Penitent must be universal and uniform it must extend alike to the forbearing of all Sin and the exercise of every Grace and Virtue and to the due Practice and Performance of every part of our Duty The true Penitent must resolve for the future to abstain from all Sin to be holy in all manner of Conversation and to abound in all the fruits of righteousness which by Jesus Christ are to the praise and glory of God For if a Man do truly repent of his wicked Life there is the very same Reason why he should resolve against all Sin as why he should resolve against any why he should observe all the Commandments of God as why he should keep any one of them For as St. James reasons concerning him that wilfully breaks any one Commandment of God that he is guilty of all and breaks the whole Law because the Authority of God is equally stampt upon all his Laws and is violated and contemned by the wilful transgression of any one of them For he that hath said thou shalt not kill hath likewise said thou shalt not commit adultery and thou shalt not steal so he that resolves against any one Sin or upon Performance of any one part of his Duty ought for the very same reason to make his Resolution universal because one Sin is Evil and Provoking to God as well as another and the Performance of one part of our Duty good and pleasing to him as well as another and there is no difference So that he that resolves against any Sin upon wise and reasonable gounds because of the Evil of it and the danger of the wrath of God to which it exposeth us ought for the same reason to resolve against all Sin because it is damnable to commit adultery and to steal as well as to kill and that Resolution against Sin which is not universal it is a plain Case that it
every whit as forcible and powerful to perswade thee to put it speedily in Execution And then there is this Reason besides and that a very considerable one why thou shouldest immediately put this Resolution in practice and not delay it for a moment Thou may'st at present do it much more certainly and much more easily Much more certainly because thou art surer of the present time than thou canst be of the future The present is in thy Power but not one moment more And thou may'st at present do it more easily for the longer thou continuest in Sin thy Resolution against it will still grow weaker and the habit of Sin continually stronger Thou wilt every day be more enslaved by the Power of thy Lusts and thy heart will every day be more hardened through the deceitfulness of sin All the change that time makes will still be for the worse and more to thy disadvantage Sin will be as pleasant to thee hereafter and thou more loth to leave it than at present Sin was never mortified by Age. It will every day have more strength to bind thee and hold thee fast and thou wilt every day have less to break loose from it For by every Sin thou dost commit thou addest a new degree to the strength and force of it and so much strength as thou addest to it so much thou takest from thy self and so much thou losest of thine own Power and Liberty For a Man and his Lusts are like Nature and a Disease so much strength as the Disease gains Nature loseth and the Man is hereby doubly weakned for he does not only lose so much of his own strength but the Enemy gets it Nay thou dost hereby likewise forfeit that auxiliary strength and assistance which the Grace of God is ready to afford to men his restraining and his preventing Grace For as a Man goes on in Sin and advanceth in an evil Course the Grace of God draws off by degrees and his Holy Spirit doth insensibly leave him and when a sinner is come to this his best Resolutions will vanish like the morning cloud and the early dew which passeth away So that it cannot be a true and sincere Resolution of leaving our Sins if it do not take place and have not its effect presently For there is no Man that takes up a Resolution upon weighty and considerable Reasons of doing any thing but if the Reasons upon which he takes it up urge him to do the thing at present he will presently set about it and that Man is not resolved to do a thing whatever he may pretend who hath most Reason to do it at present and may best do it now and yet delays it And thus I have opened to you the Nature of this holy Resolution of leaving our Sins and returning to God and our Duty and have shewn what is necessarily implyed in such a Resolution if it be sincere and in good earnest That it be Universal and that it be a Resolution of the Means as well as of the End and that it presently take place and be put in Execution And these are three the best Signs and Marks that I know of whereby a Man may try and examine the truth and sincerity of that Resolution of Amendment which we call Repentance If it be against all Sin and have an equal regard to every part of our Duty if when we resolve upon the End that is to avoid Sin and to perform our Duty we are equally resolved upon the Means that are necessary to those Ends if the Resolution we have taken up commence presently and from that day forward be duly executed and put in practice then is our Repentance and Resolution of Amendment sincere but if there be a defect in any of these our Resolution is not as it ought to be SERMON X. Ser. 10. The Nature and Necessity of holy Resolution The Second Sermon on this Text. JOB XXXIV 31 32. Surely it is meet to be said unto God I have born chastisement I will not offend any more That which I see not teach thou me if I have done iniquity I will do no more THESE words are the Description of the temper and behaviour of a true Penitent and do contain in them the two essential parts of a true Repentance Vol. 8. First An humble Acknowledgment and Confession of Sin Secondly A firm Purpose and Resolution of amendment and forsaking our Sins for the future And this latter is so necessary a part of Repentance that herein the very Essence and formal Nature of Repentance does consist In handling of this Argument I proposed to consider I. What Resolution in general is II. What is the special Object or Matter of this kind of Resolution III. What is implyed in a sincere Resolution of leaving our Sins and returning to God and our Duty IV. To shew that in this Resolution of amendment the very Essence and formal Nature of Repentance doth consist V. To offer some Considerations to convince men of the necessity and fitness of this Resolution and of keeping stedfast to it VI. To add some Directions concerning the managing and maintaining this holy Resolution The three first I have spoken to I now proceed to the IV. To shew that in this Resolution the very Essence and formal Nature of Repentance doth consist A Man may do many reasonable Actions without an explicit Resolution In things that are more easie and natural to us Judgment and Resolution are all one it is all one to judge a thing fit to be done and to resolve to do it But in matters of difficulty when a Man is to strive against the Stream and to oppose strong Habits that have taken deep root there is nothing to be done without an explicit Resolution No Man makes any remarkable change in his Life so as to cross his Inclinations and Custom without an express Resolution For tho' a Man's Judgment be never so much convinced of the reasonableness and necessity of such a change yet unless a Man's Spirit be fortified and fixt by Resolution the power of Custom and the violence of his own Inclinations will carry him against his Judgment Now there is no change of a Man's Life can be imagined wherein a Man offers greater violence to inveterate Habits and to the strong Propensions of his present temper than in this of Repentance So that among all the Actions of a Man's Life there is none that doth more necessarily require an express Purpose than Repentance does And that herein Repentance doth chiefly consist I shall endeavour to make evident from Scripture and from the common apprehensions of Mankind concerning Repentance The Scripture besides the several descriptions of Repentance useth two words to express it to us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The former properly signifies the inward trouble and displeasure which men conceive against themselves for having done amiss which if it be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
Chuse that is to resolve to do it or not And there is nothing more evident and more universally acknowledged in temporal Cases and in the Affairs and Concernments of this Life In these matters Resolution is a thing ordinary and of frequent practice it is the Principle of all great and considerable Actions Men resolve to be great in this World and by Virtue of this Resolution when they have once taken it up what industry will they not use what hazards will they not run in the pursuit of their Ambitious Designs Difficulties and Dangers do rather whet their Courage and set an edge upon their Spirits Men resolve to be rich the Apostle speaks of some that will be rich 1 Tim. 6. They that will be rich and tho' this be but a low and mean Design yet these Persons by Virtue of this Resolution will toil and take prodigious pains in it And as to Spiritual things every Man hath the same Power radically that is he hath the Faculties of Understanding and Will but these are obstructed and hinder'd in their exercise and strongly byassed a contrary way by the Power of Evil Inclinations and Habits so that as to the exercise of this Power and the effect of it in Spiritual things men are in a sort as much disabled as if they were destitute of it For 't is in effect all one to have no Understanding at all to consider things that are Spiritual as to have the Understanding blinded by an invincible prejudice to have no Liberty as to Spiritual things as to have the Will strongly byassed against them For a Man that hath this prejudice upon his Understanding and this byass upon his Will it is to all intents and purposes as if he were destitute of these Faculties But then we are not to Understand this Impotency to be absolutely natural but accidental not to be in the first Frame and Constitution of our Souls but to have hapned upon the depravation of Nature It is not a want of natural Faculties but the binding of them up and hindring their Operations to certain purposes This Impotency proceeds from the Power of evil Habits And thus the Scripture expresseth it and compares an Impotency arising from bad Habits and Customs to a natural Impossibility nothing coming nearer to Nature than a powerful Custom Can the Ethiopian change his Skin or the Leopard his Spots Then may ye also that are accustomed to do evil learn to do well But now God by the Gospel hath designed the Recovery of Mankind from the slavery of Sin and the Power of their Lusts and therefore as by the death of Christ he hath provided a way to remove the guilt of Sin so by the Spirit of Christ he furnisheth us with sufficient Power to destroy the dominion of Sin I say sufficient if we be not wanting to our selves but be workers together with God and be as diligent to work out our own salvation as he is ready to work in us both to will and to do So that when we perswade men to repent and change their Lives and to resolve upon a better Course we do not exhort them to any thing that is absolutely out of their Power but to what they may do tho' not of themselves yet by the Grace of God which is always ready to assist them unless by their former gross neglects and long obstinacy in an evil Course they have provoked God to withdraw his Grace from them So that tho' considering our own strength abstractedly and separately from the Grace of God these things be not in our Power yet the Grace of God puts them into our Power And this is so far from derogating from the Grace of God that it is highly to the Praise of it For if the Grace of God make us able to repent and resolve upon a new Life he that asserts this does not attribute his Repentance to himself but to the Grace of God nay he that says that God's Grace excites and is ready to assist men to do what God Commands represents God immensely more good and gracious than he that says that God Commands men to do that which by their natural Power they cannot do and will condemn them for not doing it and yet denies them that Grace which is necessary to the doing of it Let this then be establish'd as a necessary Consideration to prevent discouragement that to resolve upon the change of our Lives is that which by the Grace of God we are enabled to do if we will Resolution is no strange and extraordinary thing it is one of the most common Acts that belongs to us as we are men but we do not ordinarily apply it to the best purposes It is not so ordinary for men to resolve to be good as to be rich and great not so common for men to resolve against Sin as to resolve against Poverty and Suffering It is not so usual for men to resolve to keep a good Conscience as to keep a good Place Indeed our corrupt Nature is much more opposite to this holy kind of Resolution But then to balance and answer this God hath promised greater and more immediate assistance to us in this case than in any other There is a general blessing and common assistance promised to Resolution and Diligence about temporal things and God's Providence doth often advance such Persons to riches and honour The diligent hand with God's blessing makes rich as Solomon tell us Prov. 10.4 and 22 19. Seest thou says he a Man diligent in business He shall stand before Princes he shall not stand before mean Persons Now diligence is the effect of a great and vigorous Resolution But there is a special and extraordinary blessing and assistance that attends the Resolution and Endeavour of a holy Life God hath not promised to strengthen men with all might in the way to Riches and Honours and to assist the ambitious and covetous designers of this World with a mighty and glorious Power such as raised up Jesus from the Dead but this he hath promised to those who with a firm Purpose and Resolution do engage in the ways of Religion Let us then shake off our sloth and listlesness and in that strength and assistance which God offers let us resolve to leave our Sins and to amend our Lives 2. Consider what it is that you are to resolve upon to leave your Sins and to return to God and Goodness So that the things I am perswading you to resolve upon are the strongest Reasons that can be for such a Resolution Sin is such a thing that there can be no better Argument to make men resolve against it than to consider what it is and to think seriously of the Nature and Consequence of it And God and Goodness are so amiable and desirable that the very proposal of these Objects hath invitations and allurements enough to inflame our desires after them and to make us rush into the embraces of them If
if any Man draw back my soul shall have no pleasure in him which words are a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and signifie a great deal more than seems to be exprest My soul shall have no pleasure in him that is let such an one expect the effects of God's fiercest wrath and displeasure For so the Hebrews are wont to express things that are great and unspeakable when they cannot sufficiently set them forth by saying less they say more So Psal 5.4 Where it is said Thou art not a God that hast pleasure in wickedness the Psalmist means and would have us to understand it so that God is so far from taking any Pleasure in the Sins of men that he bears the most violent hatred and displeasure against them So when the Apostle here says If any Man draw back my soul shall have no pleasure in him he means that it is not to be exprest how God will deal with such Persons and how severely his Justice will handle them To the same purpose is that Declaration 2 Pet. 2.20 21. For if after they have escaped the Pollutions of the World through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ they are again entangled therein and overcome the latter end is worse with them than the beginning For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than after they have known it to turn from the holy Commandment delivered unto them The condition of all impenitent sinners is very sad but of Apostates much worse not only because the Sins which they commit afterwards are much greater receiving a new aggravation which the Sins of those who are simply impenitent are not capable of but likewise because such Persons are usually more wicked afterwards For they that break loose from severe Purposes and Resolutions of a better Course do by this very thing in a great measure fear and conquer their Consciences and then no wonder if afterwards they give up themselves to commit all iniquity with greediness When after long abstinence men return to Sin again their Lusts are more fierce and violent like a Man who after long fasting returns to his meat with a more raging appetite This our Saviour sets forth to us in the Parable of the unclean Spirit 's returning again and taking possession of the Man after he had left him Matth. 12.43 44 45. When the unclean Spirit is gone out of a Man he walketh through dry places seeking rest and findeth none Then he saith I will return into my House from whence I came out And when he is come he findeth it empty swept and garnisht Then goeth he and taketh with himself seven other Spirits more wicked than himself and the end of that Man is worse than his beginning The Moral of which is that when a Man hath once left his Sins if afterward he entertain thoughts of returning to them again Sin will return upon him with redoubled force and strength and his Heart will be but so much the more prepared and disposed for the entertaining of more and greater Vices and his leaving his Sins for a time will be but like a running back that he may leap with greater violence into Hell and Destruction Besides that such Persons do the greatest injury to God and the holy ways of Religion that can be by forsaking them after they have owned and approved them For it will not be so much regarded what wicked men who have always been so talk against God and Religion because they do not talk from Experience but speak evil of the things which they know not whereas those who forsake the ways of Religion after they have once engaged in them do disparage Religion more effectually and reproach it with greater Advantage because they pretend to speak from the Experience they have had of it they have tryed both the ways of Sin and the ways of Religion and after Experience of both they return to Sin again which what is it but to Proclaim to the World that the ways of Sin and Vice are rather to be chosen than the ways of Holiness and Virtue that the Devil is a better Master than God and that a sinful and wicked Life yields more Pleasure and greater Advantages than are to be had in keeping the Commandments of God And this must needs be a high Provocation and a heavy Aggravation of our Ruin Let these Considerations prevail with us to pursue this holy Resolution after we have taken it up and to persist in it There remains only tho VI. And last particular which I proposed to be spoken to viz. To add some directions for the maintaining and making good of this Resolution of Repentance and Amendment and they shall be these three 1. Let us do all in the strength of God considering our necessary and essential dependance upon him and that without him and the assistance of his Grace we can do nothing We are not as the Apostle tells us sufficient of our selves as of our selves that is without the assistance of God's holy Spirit to think any thing that is good much less to resolve upon it It is God that worketh in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure that is of his own goodness as the same Apostle speaks Phil. 2.13 It is God that upholds us in Being and from whom we have all our Power as to natural Actions but as to spiritual things considering the great Corruption and Depravation of Humane Nature we stand in need of a more especial and immediate assistance If we know any thing of our selves we cannot but know what foolish and ignorant Creatures we are how weak and impotent how averse and opposite to any thing that is good And therefore it is wise counsel in all Cases but chiefly in spiritual Matters which Solomon gives Prov. 3.5 6. Trust in the Lord with all thine Heart and lâ—an not to thine own understanding Acknowledge him in all thy ways and he shall direct thy steps Let us then address our selves to God in the words of the holy Prophet Jer. 10.23 O Lord I know that the way of Man is not in himself and that it is not in Man that walketh to direct his steps And let us beg of him that he would consider our Case commiserate our weakness and pity our impotency and that he would joyn his strength to us and grant us the assistance of his Grace and holy Spirit to put us upon sincere Resolutions of a new Life and to keep us constant and stedfast to them to open the Eyes of our Minds and to turn us from darkness to light and from the Power of Satan and our Lusts unto God that we may repent and turn to God and do works meet for Repentance that so we may receive forgiveness of Sins and an Inheritance among them that are sanctified through faith that is in Christ And for our Encouragement in this matter God hath bid us to apply our selves to