that we may not be pleased and contented with a Counterfeit with any other Repentance than that unto Salvation not to be Repented of Least we for ever Repent of our Repentance in Hell where there is no place of Evangelical saving Repentance but of that only which is a barren Fiery Horror and Despaire scorching the Conscience for ever and not allaying it with a Drop of Water to Cooll outragious Tongue Luke 16.24 Blaspheming at the same time God and Christ and our impenitent selves who would not Repent while we had space and place for our Repentance Infer 5. Let us by all the most moving Considerations of the Evil of sin the hatefulness and unreasonableness of it the sense of the Goodness and Grace of God in Christ all his Judgments all his Mercies the sense of an Eternal Misery and Punnishment from his Presence be strongly mov'd excited stirr'd and led to Repentance Infer 6. Let us rejoyce in the sweet Reposes of Conscience when we have truly Repented in the infinite Power Authority and Supreme right of God to Pardon upon Repentance not dependent upon Man nor upon the Will of Man Who is a God like unto him who Pardons Iniquity Transgression and Sin and casts it into the depth of the Sea who makes by his Pardon sins as Scarlet and Crimson to be White as Snow and Wooll that blots out Iniquity as a Cloud and a thick Cloud with the same Potency and Ease that the Sun does off a Cloud and with infinitely greater Let us Rejoyce in the great Efficacies of the Redeemer Pardoning sin upon Earth as the great High Priest of our Profession and the Bishop of our Souls Absolving truly Repenting Sinners by the Witness of his Blood sprinkling the Heart from an evil Conscience and speaking better things than the Blood of Abel The Blood as of a Lamb without spot Offer'd by the Eternal Spirit Purging the Conscience from dead works together with and even as the Author and Finisher of faith and repentance from dead works to serve the Living God Heb. 9. c. 10. c. 12. Let us rejoyce in the Witness of the Divine Spirit Sealing and Witnessing to us by Repentance washing the Body the whole Conversation as with pure water Let us rejoyce in all the Blessed Promises and Assurances of the Word of God made by it to sincere Penitents which are yea and Amen in Christ For all these are of far greater Authority Truth Certainty than All Bindings or Loosings on Earth whether by the Ecclesiastical as we call it Administration of the Keyes or by Men forgiving one Another however necessary these may be in their place Infer 7th Seeing the Kingdom of God and of Heaven is the great Motive to Repentance as hath been before on great Reason made out The high Reason we have to believe that by the Apostles calling it the Last time the last hour the ends of the World so many Hundreds of Years ago we must needs be now upon the very last issue and determination of that Time when the Kingdom shall appear in Glory and all other kind of Time shall be no more How great a Cloud does therefore Encompass us that we should by no means be willing or able to Rend to Engage us to run with Patience the Race of Repentance set before us Heb. 12.1 and to that End to lay aside every weight and the sin that doth so easily beset us looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our Repentance that it may be to Salvation and never to be Repented of Hearing him who in the days of his Flesh because the offers and first appearances and First Fruits of his Kingdom were then begun Preach'd saying Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand so the full Harvest of that Kingdom being now ready to appear he does by the Voices of all his Prophets in the Old and New Testament instantly Preach to us Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand And of how strong and close Connexion the Kingdom of God and of Christ and Repentance are I shall more fully and largely at this time Represent as a most solemn Conclusion of this Discourse There is a fixed space given and a peculiar Interval Appointed Lying between the time of the Apostacy call'd the Time Times and Half Time or the 1260 Days and the Time of the Vials And it is 30 years making the 1260 1290 Years Dan. 12.11 even as the 45 Years of the Vials to the Absolutely blessed state of the Kingdom of Christ in Glory when the Saints shall all stand in their Lots fill up to that very Fulness of Times Now at this space of the Thirty Years the Spirit shall be powred out from on High The Song of the Lamb which hath been so long out of use that it becomes as it were a new Song and can be at first learnt only by the 144000 shall be Taught by them immediately and the Everlasting Gospel shall be without delay upon it Preach'd to every Nation Tongue and People under Heaven and then there shall be as in preparation to the Glory of the Kingdom of Christ but under the Influence of that Kingdom in Succession a mighty Spirit of Godly Sorrow working Repentance to Salvation never then indeed to be Repented of pour'd out upon all Flesh Now because this is a point of great moment to the Doctrine of Repentance and sets forth much of the Excellency of Repentance I shall give very great Scriptures and argue upon them for the truth of ir Scripture 1. The first Scripture I would insist upon shall be from a consideration of that great Ordinance of God concerning the Day of Attonement among the Children of Israel This Ordinance We find Levit. 23.27 In the tenth day of the seventh the Sabbattical Month there shall be a day of attonement It shall be an Holy Convocation to you and you shall afflict your Souls And you shall do no work in that same day For it is a day of Attonement to make Attonement for you before the Lord your God for whatsoever Soul it be that shall not be afflicted in that same Day he shall be cut off from among his People And whatsoever Soul it be that doth any work in that same day the same Soul will I destroy from among his People It shall be a statute for ever throughout your Generations in all your Dwellings It shall be to you a Sabbath of Rest and you shall Afflict your Souls And on that day there were the great rites of Sacrifice the Bullock the sin Offering the Blood of which was carried into the Holy of Holies to make an attonement for the Vncleannesses of the Priests and People and to reconcile the Holy of Holies and the Mercy Seat and the Tahernacle of the Congregation and the Goat that was to be Kill'ed in the same Manner and the scape-Goat throughout c 16. Now that which I lay in the Foundation is That God never appointed
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
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
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 Spirits what appalements of Mind and strong working of Thoughts must there needs be Much more if the Soul have any sense of its approach to the infinite Holiness of God at whose rebuke the Pillars of Heaven tremble whose presence astonishes the purer Spirits of Angels and beats down the Souls of good Men to the Dust as of Moses Heb. 12.21 Isai 6.5 Job 42.6 Dan. 10.8 Job Isaiah c. in his interviews with them How much more of those that have never thought of God and now must come near his Seat Nothing so composes the Soul to this amazing change of Condition and Converse as long continued Treaties with God through Christ when though Men change their place they do not change their company Job 24.17 Job 38.15 Others when this great light strikes them are in the very terrors of the shadow of death and shaken out of their place out of all the Security and quiet Sensuality they lived in Let us now take the estimate or avail of these things to true Repentance and we shall find when the Soul lies thus uncovered to the things of Eternity it hath natural Reasons for all it may seem to do like return to God and so that all argue nothing of the true Grace of God but if a Man were again in his former State he would be the very same he was For first as one thing strikes upon another with a natural Effect Light upon the Eye Sound upon the Ear so Eternal Things upon the Immortal Spirit when there is nothing between to intercept the stroke Further 1 John 2.16 when the lust of the flesh the lust of the eye and the pride of life are as a Scene removed and a Play at an end and instead of them another World drawing near just as Men defeated in all their attempts for Riches and Honours and beaten off from them to a private Life call all these things Cheats not out of true Reason but because they cannot reach them on the other side they praise Retirement and a Cloyster not that they like it but because they must live so which begets some kind of Contentedness so to live Thus and no otherwise do many Dying Men call all this World Vanity and profess an high Esteem for all things pertaining to that to come Cause 3. There is yet a more pressing Account of the most notable motions that were ever found in any of their Repentances viz. The awakenings of Conscience usual at this time because of the Sense of a Judgment while common Experience tells Men It is appointed to all Men once to die Heb. 9.27 and sinking Nature gives notice This is the time Conscience lifts up to the next thing After that the Judgment Now no Man sees Judgment a Judgment Omniscient Omnipresent Eternal without great shakes of Soul especially that hath done nothing seriously to agree with the adversary in the way Luk. 12.18 Conscience then rising up with the Awe of a Tribunal upon it stirs up all the Powers to fly from the Wrath that is to come by desires of Pardon and Resolutions of Amendment The very hearing of Judgment made such a one as Foelix tremble Acts 24.25 When Judgment seems to us at the other end of Heaven all is quiet but when Death brings us to the very seat of it how loud may be the cries for Mercy The bewailing the former evils of Life Now Men pour out their Complaints for the want of God the misimprovement of former time Now they make large offers of a strict and severe Mortification and Devotion to Religion Now they would give the thousand Rams the ten thousand Rivers of Oyl their first born for their Trasgression the fruit of their Body for the sin of their Soul Mic. 6.6 7. And yet all but the Eye opened to see the flaming Sword of Justice that makes even a Balaam wish to die the death of the Righteous Num. 22.32 cap. 23.10 and to have a latter End Sober Just Religious The very Suspition of a Judgment inclines Men thus far universally almost that hardly any choose to die in a Rant in a Madness but had rather by virtue and Religion be consigned over to another World and have their Eyes closed by Mercy and Grace in Christ They would see the Salvation of God and so depart in Peace Object 1. But it may be objected Seeing these granted to rise from true Conviction and not to be Dissimulation or counterfeit Pretence Why may not they have the worth of true Repentance Answ 1. To answer this Let me consider pure Conviction and enlightned Apprehension and the Affections begotten of them are no Argument of true Goodness where the Light hath not a benign and free Operation upon the Judgment an Allurement upon the Will an Indearment upon the Affections to turn them to a full Delight and Satisfaction in God and Holiness and to a dislike and abhorrence of Sin For else the Devils who believe and tremble Jam. 2.19 must be thought Converts For who have clearer sight of things than they Balaam whose Eyes were opened and spoke so great things of God and his People must be concluded a good Man Esau and Judas who had so sad apprehensions of Sin Matth. 27.4 Heb. 12.7 Dan. 4.17 and 6.26 Luk. 6.20 Acts 24.25 and their loss by it must be affirmed to be Penitents Nebucadnezar's and Darius his acknowledgments of God must be taken for true Grace Herod his hearing John Baptist gladly Felix his trembling at Paul's Discourse may be thought Evidences of true Repentance Object 2. But Secondly it may be supposed because these very Convictions and Affections are not universal but we see multitudes go out of the World without them carrying little better than a decent and civil Respect to Religion that therefore there is something of God something Heroick in them that have them Answ 2. This indeed may be no other than the wise and good Government of God over the World whereby he takes care there should be Testimonies of himself and the Goodness of his ways that Atheism and Wickedness may not carry it as if all were their own as if there were an unexceptionable Concurrence on their side against God and Holiness For as he receives witness from the constant gracious and religious Lives of good Men so he constrains some of them that have lived contrary to him all their lives to give him glory at last for the good of others though without saving benefit to themselves Which he may justly do and without any injury to them Seeing all the Service every Creature can do to him is infinitely due he may make use of that which is his own so far as he pleases And because what the word God puts in their mouths Num. 23.5 Matth. 12.35 is not their own not arising out of the good treasure of their hearts as appears in Balaam therefore their everlasting Condition is not determined by it but
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
Instruction c. 33 16. c. 36.10 This is that earnest motion of Natural Conscience to take fast hold of Repentance to return all it can after it hath lost its Inocency Purity and â—erfection of Righteousness and Obedience even as it should have mov'd first powerfully and effectually against sin and to good and the same motion of Natural Conscience that is to the one is to the other also when it is stirr'd up by further Gâ—ace from the Spirit of God and there are generally such motions as argue this work in the Heart when the Conscience is not depriv'd of sense Feeling Vigor not twice Dead pull'd up by the roots deliver'd up to a reprobate sense and when God hath given so great and gracious Aussrance that Repentance shall find Plâ—ce for it self That this state is not Hell either in regard of the height of Wickedness or unpardonableness it is an easy and very Intelligible Declination of Conscience from the Azimuth the highest point of Innocency to the next point Repentance which by the righteousness and obedience of the Redeemer shall transcend the very first heighth But that indeed is known by Revelation and not by Natural Light But take Repentance as it is the necessary reserve after sin and that God hath provided it a Place so it is near and even next to Natural Conscience Posit 2. The second position I lay down concerning Repentance and that gives the truest degree of its Elevation through the Redeemer is That the word of God in the Old and New Testament gives the clearest and fullest knowledg of Repentance and of the Divine Spring of it the grace of God in Christ and the blessed operation of the Holy Spirit through his Redemption Repentance therefore is found to be one of the principal Doctrines of Scripture whein it is conveyed unto us under all the variety and complex of Notions that can express so great a point to us viz. remembring bethinking turning converting renewing amending searching and Trying our ways turning to the Lord bringing forth fruits meet for Repentance The Revâ—lation of the word of God beyond all expression excells Natural Knowledg concerning it It opens to us the great Prince the Redeemer and Mediator who gives it a place a possibility he is the Prince whom God hath raised up to make this supreme Donation Acts c. 5.35 c. 3.26 repentance and forgiveness of Sins and blesses in turning us away from every one of our Iniquities Scripture opens to us that great and blessed Spring â—â—d â—fficient of it viz. the true grace of God and the blessed Spirit is the efficient of it It lays before us the great motives of it the sense of the favor and goodness of God who will have mercy Esa 55.7 Heb. c. 12.24 v. 29. and abundantly Pardon seal'd to us by so great an Attonement as the Blood of Jesus speaking better things than the Blood of Abel and on the other side a dread of him who is a consuming fire the living Gâ—d into whose hands in his wrath and displeasure It is a dreadful thing to fall the wrath that is to come 1 Thes 1.10 and ever to come it gives us all the qualifications of it Repentance with the whole Heart turning from all our evil ways and all the evil in our evil ways it moves us with all manner of Applications that may stir us up to it commands exhortations counsels Threats it never leaves speaking Ezek. 18.30 and crying out to us Repent it says to us Repent and turn your selves Matt. 4.17 so Iniquity shall not be your Ruin It preaches Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand Ezek. 18.30 it even weeps over us that we would do it Luke 19.42 Turn you turn you for why will ye Die It weeps when we have not known even we in our day the things of our peace It offers it as the only remedy against Eternal Misery Repentance is advised expresly to five of the seven Churches Revel c. 2. c. 3. to shew the universality and necessity of its use It is one of the great principles of the Doctrine of Christ Heb. 6.1 and thus Repentance is the most Native Domestick Doctrin of the Word of God and of the Gospel of Jesus Christ so that what is found in the Light of Nature serves to these lower purposes only 1. It serves to the purpose of Human Order Government and preservation of the World from falling into a perfect Hell for were there not some sentiments of God of his Mercy and readiness to forgive tending to make men better were there not a sense of the goodness of Righteousness Temperance Mercy and of all Virtue not only as what we should first be but also what we should endeavour to return to when we have Fallen were there not such a thing as Vicious Men being restrain'd from running into utmost excess and extremity and as being reclaimld corrected reform'd moderated and cultivated by precepts of Natural Religion Wisdom add Morality all which flow from and are specimens of the Scripture Doctrin and grace of Repentance the World would be a stye of sensualists and impure Creatures wallowing in bruitish and worse than Swinish Lusts And did not this Notion sweeten men one to another the World would be a Desert or Wilderness of Savage and Wild Beasts tearing in peices one another and both ways a Hell of a World 2. Hereby God will justify himself in the condemnation of the Pagan World that they have not only the Law Written in their Hearts but so much of the Gospel also as this great notion of Repentance Teaches For when the Respit of forty Days imported it to the King and City of Nineveh why should not that Patience wherewith God governs even the Pagan World Preach Repentance to it Why should they not be led to Repentance by the Witness they have of God and of his goodness in giving them fruitful times and seasons and silling their Hearts with food and gladness which he would not leave himself without in his great Wisdom and Righteousness as well as Mercy and Grace How does this riches of Goodness Long-suffering and Forbearance Rom. 2.3.4 if not lead them to Repentance justify their Condemnation who after their hardness and Impenitent Hearts Treasure up to themselves wrath against the day of wrath So that as Niniveh shall rise up in Judgment with those who repented not at the Preaching of Christ the greater than Jonah so it shall rise up in Judgment with other Heathen Nations Cities and People who might by the same proportion have been argued to Repentance so that tho God hath in his supreme Dominion and Justice thought fit to deny them what Christ says They would have repented in Sack-cloth and Ashes upon yet even by the standard of Nineveh's Repentance they 'r not Repenting by that Light they have will be Condemned at the manifestation of that righteous Judgment of Gâ—d the Apostle speaks
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 full purpose of the Heart before was to cleave to sin and the world now the heart cleaves to God with its full purpose This humble broken Spirit is the Sacrifice of God the Sacrifice he will not despise because it is ready to yeild up it self in all obedience to him Psal 51.17 But the sorrow of the World not eying God nor having regard to him never changes the Heart nor Life into obedience to him and so leaves a man in the same lost undone state and so becomes desperate Sorrow and Anguish as the Scripture calls it Esay 8.22 and may be most fitly described by Jer. c. 4.28 They are all greivous Revolters they are Brass and Iron they are all Corrupters the Bellows are burnt the Lead is consumed of the Fire the Founder melteth in vain for the Evil of the Heart is not pulled away reprobate silver shall men call them because the Lord hath rejected them When God therefore as the great Founder Casting men as into the Furnace of sorrow they are not purged fâ—om Evil the Melting is in vain and they are therefore Rejected by God as Reprobate Silver When Sorrow and Affliction which are as the Chirurgery or Blood-Letting of the gracious Hand of God Effects nothing of Good it is as the Corruption of the whole Mass of Blood and is certainly to Death 6. When sorrow is placed upon offence against a Person and upon unthankful and disingenuous Treaty of him there arises a Love and Compassion to that Person a shame to offend further a resolution to make him all the reparations we are able and the greater the Bitterness the greater the Effect And though these cannot be properly placed as issuing from the Creature towards the Creator yet Scripture representing God as hath been said Grieved Peirced press'd with Sin it represents the grieved sorrowing relenting sinner so Affected as if there were an Ingenuous even Compassion and Love towards God the Creator and unwillingness so to grieve and provoke any further It represents therefore the highest degrees of Bitterness and a sorrow as for a First Born Zech. 12.10 and for an only begotten Child or Son or like that most compassionate Lamentation for the excellent Prince Josiah 2 Chron. 25.25 slain at Megiddo that was so continued a sorrow as to be spoken of in Lamentation to that day as Scripture uses to speak now seeing Repentance it self as hath been shewn in the general Nature of it hath so much of this The sorrow that is Affected like it is most fitted and prepard to work it and it is so blessed by God to work it whereas the sorrow of the World is like Clouds without this Rain of Heaven and Wells without this Water of Salvation and therefore settles as into the Lake of the second Death and smells of its Brimstone And thus far I have proceeded to make out the serviceableness of godly sorrow or sorrow after God that works Repentance to Salvation never to be Repented of General 3d. I come now to the third General concerning sorrow for Sin viz. To shew 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 are all things and for whom are all things so to make use of it 1. There can be according to what the Apostle says no other object of Rational Intellectual Sorrow but only the loss of the Favour of God or his displeasure for sin or subordinated to it which makes it sorrow after God For if on one side the sorrow so plac'd and fix'd hath so blessed Effects that he that so sorrows receives no iniury by it but so great good as Repentance to Salvation never to be Repented of that it is not so much Lost as chang'd into Fulness of Joy and so perfected and on the other side that sorrow laid out on any other object which is sorrow after the World works Death Then it must needs become the wise and gracious God of whom by whom are all things in bringing many Sons to Glory to bring them to Perfection by such a sorrow as this For if God was pleas'd to make such a Rational Intellectual Nature as man that might though made Holy fall into sin It must needs be that it must have a fitness to turn it self with sorrow upon such an evil and reason of sorrow as God offended and displeas'd for sin supposing a man by that sin had not lost either the use of his Understanding or not lost the sense of God Holiness and Goodness seeing if it did not lye Dead and Benummed or strongly diverted and turned off from its Object or that God does not appear an Irreconcileable Judg and Revenger and give up man to the wickedness and rage of Death It must so turn Whenever therefore God by his grace in Christ and by his Spirit turns any sinner to himself and stirs up those Powers of understanding and Conscience after himself The very order of the Creation of God Requires that the understanding and Natural Conscience and Affection of Man should be turn'd upon him displeas'd by Sin by this humble sorrow of Love even as upon his wrath and Vengeance with a sorrow of Pain Fear and Terror so that both the Bondage of Fear of Death Heb. 2.15 and the Reverence of godly Fear and Love move to this sorrow and the wise order of Things settled by God cannot allow it otherwise On the other side if the turn of the Rational Nature and Affection be drawn out upon the sense of any evil with trouble and dislike and reflection on its disagreeableness and inconveniency and yet its pressure upon it which is sorrow grief and sadness it must either be turn'd upon God offended and displeas'd by sin or it is to no purpose of good that there is such a Passion or Affection in man For if it be plac'd on any other object it is but sorrow of this World how just so ever in regard of any evil of suffering it may seem to be It is but sorrow to Death and so of no good at all to us but evil till it be deriv'd into a higher and more excellent Channel So that it may be said of this sorrow as Solomon says of Laughter It is madness and what doth it And in place of Thorns crackling under a Pot It is as the slow Fire Eccles 7.2 c. of too near agreement with that of Brimstone of the Lake It is not of any merciful or gracious use but for the manifestation of the wrath and displeasure of God against sin 2. Let us consider seriously what Jesus Christ our Lord suffered under the sense of sin and then think whether
For I know it does not really and substantially differ from other grand Evangelical Notions of a through change of Heart and Life as Regeneration the new Creation a new Heart a new Spirit the Laws of God put into our Hearts Jerem. 31. Ezek. 36 and writ in our minds that we may never depart from him the Heart of Stone taken out of our Flesh and having Hearts of Flesh a being caus'd to walk in his statutes and judgments and to do them His fear put into our hearts and his spirit within us Psal 19.12.19 It is Mortification and Sanctification It is Conversion and turning to the Lord a being cleans'd from secret sins and kept back from presumptuous sins a cleansing our way by taking heed thereto according to the word of God the ordering our steps in his word Psal 119.133 that no Iniquity may have dominion over us Nay It differs not from Faith in the Blood of Christ by any Essential Difference from seeking Pardon and Reconciliation by Faith in that great Attonement and Sacrifice nor from the Love of Christ constraining all those who Live that is have their Lives given to them through his Death to Live to him who dyed for them All these are as I have said Essentially and substantially the same But yet there is a very Distinct and even Critical consideration of Repentance that I shall apply to in the present Treaty under these three heads Particular 1st Repentance carries always a Notion of severe and rigorous Acts in relation to our selves upon account of our Sins and high Offences against God Particular 2. Repentance imports very close and particular Negotiations 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 to us that he is at Peace with us and hath Pardon'd all that is past in Christ Particular 3. Repentance is a hearty an universal Change of our inward Thoughts Counsel Purpose and Design and of our outward Conversation out of a true and real Hatred and dislike of what we have been done and chosen and a Love Choice and Delight in what we have not been and have not done nor delighted in Particular 1. Repentance consists of many great and severe Acts in Relation to our selves upon Account of our sins and High Offences against God under which I will in every one of them shew the great excellency and usefulness of this duty and the acceptableness of it to God 1. The seriousest closest and most deep examination of our Hearts and Thoughts and Lives so as to know them and to sit in Judgment upon them is found in true Repentance This is a wonderful Power and grace that God gives when he gives Repentance that a Man shall be made to sit upon himself and to call himself to an Account to search himself as it were with Candles and to say what have I done To search and to try his ways and to turn to the Lord to think of his ways and to turn his Feet to God's Testimonies to declare his ways in God's hearing and because his own search cannot be close and exact to cry out to God to search Psalm 139.23 24. and to try him and to lead him into the way everlasting And this is performed by laying a mans Actions to the Line and Rule of the Law of God and entring into the pâ—rticulars of every Command of every Age and as much as may be every great and râ—markable Action Now this is evidently a very supernatural â—fficacy for we see how afraid we are all of it a Man in this way of Inquisition and Visitation of himself is in a manner as afraid of himself as he is of God and hides himself from himself even as from the Eyes of God it is true when men are in the cariere of sin they are bold enough with themselves they devise mischief upon their Bed the secret Thought and Heart of every one of us is very deep in sin and we know it and are willing enough to know we know it when all is of a Peice to go on in sin But when a Man finds himself coming as a Judg upon himself he is presently aware of himself and desirous to hide himself from himself and to start away from himself when any therefore come to say to themselves I will find out all the secret ways of my own sinful Heart of my Pride of my Lust of my Hipocrisy of my Deceit of my Formality and vain shews in Religion and the worship of God that I may Reform all and cast out all that is evil I will be known to my self even the worst of my self I will make known to my self to hate and to loath it we may certainly say It is very hopeful God is giving Repentance to Life For I would not walk in Disguise under a Vizor and a Mask to my self we hear therefore so often this Voice of Scripture Examin your selves prove your own selves 2 Cor. know ye not your own selves except we are in a state that as to its present is reprobated by God So let a man Examin himself let him prove his own work Gal 6. There are certainly many Truths of God and parts of Religion and of the Action and Duty of it that aâ—e more smooth and agreeable to Men of Reason and Ingenious Temper that do not though seemingly complyed with search the carnal unregenerate Heart to the bottom These therefore will not give such Evidence of the Truth of Grace and of the mighty Operation of the Divine Spirit But this Duty of Self-examination it can serve no Carnal Interest so far as a man is led in it he is led by the mighty Hand and Power of God For in this Point he is else ready to be Merciful to himself to spare himself Wâ—â—n God causes a man to search himself that what is lowest and at the bottom in him may rise up when he makes a Man pursue himself and all his sins till he can find none that he hath not had his Eâ—e and his Search upon surely there is nothing that more assures a sincere work of God upon a mans Heart nor nothing more than the want of this Discovers Insincerity 2. In true Repentance there is an Authoritative and down right Self-Judgding a Condemnation of what is Evil and contrary to the Word of God and the Laws of Holiness and Rules of the Gospel of Christ In Repentance a man must plainly say with and in the Authority of God upon himself 2 Sam. 12.1 c. Thou art the Man Thou art such a sinner such an unclean sensual voluptuous Person Thou art such a Covetous Worldly Griping Extorting Person Thou art such a deceitful unjust Cheat or Lyar Thou art such a Hipocrite that art more afraid of the Eye of the judgment of the censure of Man than of God Thou art he that choosest
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
from Pardon when the Humiliation is sincere and the Soul exchanges impure Delights for those of Holiness without Counterfeit or Dissimulation It may seem in all those Discourses that he had forgot to enter a Caution against Presumption but it is to be considered while he thus frankly pours out himself he was one while inviting * In Libr. ad Demetrianum Credite vivite qui nos ad tempus persequimini in aeternum gaudete nobiscum Persecutors of Christianity into the Confessions of it whom he would not have debarred with the sense of so great past Offences against it Another while designing against the Novatian Heresie which took upon it to tie up the freeness of Grace as he says †Velit nolit Novatus Haereticus omni tempore Dei gratia recipit penitentes In spight of the Heretick Novatus the Throne of Grace is early and late accessible to true Repentance This therefore is not to be pressed beyond the design of the excellent and holy Writer but will very well agree with all that I am presently to add as a Ballance to this favourable Judgment for such a Repentance Daille For as that most prudent Discourse of the right use of the Fathers teaches us we must always attend their scope in the pursuit of which they were often transported towards the other extreme But that a dying Repentance in the nature of the thing is no Incompossibility we have fullest Assurance in the Example of the Text wherein we see one in a moment conceived brought forth and even a grown Man in Repentance one passing through some short Instants of holy Action and entring into Paradise like Aaron's Rod budding blossoming and bringing forth ripe Almonds in a Night and laid up in the Sanctuary for ever That it was most probably the first Call he had to Repentance agrees fully with the Intention of my Discourse which granting so much as a Possibility would yet take all advantage against the easie Confidence of those that living daily under the offers of Grace and yet despising them commit themselves first to the Intentions and at last to the faint motions of a late Repentance To whom that Admonition of Austin is most seasonable concerning the Instance we have in hand * Ad consequendam fidem non fuit illi extrema hora sed prima Nec Religionem ante nec Christum scivit non remedia status sui in momenta ultima infoelici fraude posuit Serm. 120. de Temp. If we respect his Opportunities for attaining Faith his Repentance was not late but early and soon he took the very first Season as soon as ever he descried Christ and Religion he embraced them He did not wretchedly cheat himself of the Remedies of his miserable Condition by adjourning the Vse of them to a late and incertain Futurity which seldom or never succeeds well This Consideration leads me therefore from the most favourable the light side of this milder Sentence to the black and dark part of it That is to say There is an Extreme peradventure whether God will give Repentance at the last or not for this Grace being acknowledged extraordinary if it were common it would cease to be extraordinary It is most undoubted in Scripture God is often provoked against Men to swear they shall never enter into his rest Heb 3.8 9. c. when they have long tempted him and Erred from his ways The Heart is daily hardened by the deceitfulness of Sin till it grow to that the Apostle calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Heart that is Irrepentable Rom. 4.2 or that cannot be repented of Customs in Sin long setled become like the Ethiopians Skin Jerem. 13.23 and the Leopards Spots that cannot be changed And though it is true the Spirit of God is not hindered in its Inspirations but that it bloweth where it listeth yet the course of it is so attemper'd to the state and motion of the Soul it self that it most usually takes the opportunity so generally requisite to the setling a Constitution and Temper in us that is the freest and most unprejudiced and larger spaces of a Man's Life So that whenever it works upon Dying Men I mean those that have had the free use of the means of Grace of old It works by such a Prerogative that a Man may as well expect a Prerogative of Providence to bear him walking upon the Sea because it did once so to Peter as this Most even of the fairest Appearances of this kind of Repentance miscarry having no true Virtue in them and though in regard of their vehemency they are called early Seekings of God yet which is horrible to be spoken they are as it were prepared for the Triumphs of the Justice and Indignation of God over those Prov. 1.28 who would have none of his Counsel in former times but despised all his reproof Lastly Whoever seeing and knowing calls himself with design upon Repentance at Death is like to fall headlong by tempting God and expecting he should stand ready for him with that Grace at last he hath so long resisted and refused And now when this Judgment of Divines with this Ballance upon it is compared with the former the result will be only this the kindest Divinity in the point and that seems to do the most favor is very dreadful and leaves such Men in a Condition next to desperate which is but an Aggravation of the danger when what Men would choose to appeal to so far condemns them It is then agreed on all hands that for any Man to live so as if he did contrive and forecast a Dying Repentance altho it be yielded him it is no impossibility as the safe expedient first of an Irreligious Life free from the troublesome Thoughts of a present Amendment and then of a secure Passage into Eternity It is first an exceeding Irreligion and Immorality in it self and then to run so desperate a Risque and Adventure for an Immortal Soul that he is a pardonable Mad-man in comparison of such an one that drinks a deadly Poyson because he hath heard there is a certain Antidote in the World that will expel it though he cannot tell whether he can have it at all much less whether time enough for his necessity and lastly whether the Endeavors he uses for it will not be deluded with the Counterfeits of it it being supposed they are thousands for one of the true kind and he thereby perish pleasing himself with the hopes he hath it when he hath indeed but a likeness of it 2. Head I come now to the second Proposal which is to make inquiry seeing the Case is thus as it every way appears to be How the name or notion of a Death-Bed Repentance as such an universal Refuge came up in the World for it is a new Repentance much like those new-come-up Gods Moses speaks of Deut. 32.17 that Christianity and the Gospel know not The
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
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
And what shall we think of the words of our Lord Luke 6.21 Blessed are you that Weep and you that Mourn and woe to you that Laugh Now it is not to be supposed that so Good and so Merciful and so Gracious a Saviour as our Lord Jesus Christ is should envy to man any thing that could be to the Good and Welfare of his Nature But he knew how much the Carnal Joy and Mirth that is so common and so much valued among Men lavishes out those Thoughts and Spirits and that Time that should be laid out upon so serious and great things as Reconciliation to God Pardon of Sin Newness of Heart and Life and that Sorrow and Mourning and Weeping are prepared by God as fitted in their Nature to make us more Grave and Pondering of Things and that being Sanctified and in the Hand of his Grace are made use of to bring us home to himself For when men are under sadness finding the prints of the Wrath Justice and Displeasure of God upon them they enquire after the Reason Their sins as to Joseph's Brethren come to their Remembrance They are provoked to move to God by Humiliation Confession of Sin Prayer for Pardon Desire of his Grace and Spirit to enable them to Reform they enquire into his word how they may cleanse their way order their Conversation aright to please him they are moved to consider by these drops and Touches of Sorrow what that state of sorrow without Banks or Bounds or Bottom is where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of Teeth They are taken off from that Pride and Self-Conceit they find so little in all things here below and in this present State that they enquire for those better and greater Things that are Above and in Eternity When sorrow that disposes to strong and serious enquiries becomes sorrow after and according to God Oh! how excellently does it work How do men search Lam. 3.40 and try their ways that they may turn to God Now because of the Order that God hath plac'd sorrow in to all these great Effects therefore our Lord pronounc'd a Blessing upon Weeping and Mourning For else he loves our Joy when it is Spiritual he commands to Rejoyce in the Lord all way and again he says Rejoyce He spoke many great things John 15.11 that our Joy might be full that he might fill our Mouths with Laughter and our Tongues with Singing But our carnal our sensual Joys he knows are our Death and Destruction he knows we are in no better case in our prophane foolish sinful Laughter than they who are stung with the Tarantula and Dye Laughing Thus we have greatest reason in the midst of such Laughter to be Sorrowful and the end of that Mirth will be heaviness Thus it will be bitterness in the latter end therefore he warns us of it before and in greatest Love to us declares a Woe on such Laughter But now to conclude this particular The sorrow of the World How different a thing is it For tho it causes Thoughts and Enquiries yet it is only how to be rid of the Worldly Causes of Sorrow and it turns only to Worldly Remedies And it is very often in a rage at the causes it finds and when either the Remedies are not to be found or fail in their Success it is in a Rage and flies out too often against God and Providence and so it works Death It begins that Hatred of God that Blasphemy and Rage that is in Hell or if it does not thus it is a sullen despondent unactive state of Mind that shuts and seals up all Activity like the Night wherein no Man can Work John 9.4 and so goes down into utter Darkness It either sayâ— This evil is of the Lord 1 Kings 6.33 why should I wait any longer Or like Cain My Iniquities are greater than can be Forgiven and so hastens out from the Presence of God or it recoyls upon it self as Saul Achilophel Judas or the Heart under the Power of it Dies as a stone within it self as Nabals Heart died within him 1 Sam. 25.27 Thus it every way works Death because it hath nothing to do with him who is the Fountain of Life For the Being of God is infinitely happy and blessed and all light and lustre and in him is no Darkness at all of sorrow as not of Sin he therefore when sorrow is after him springs a Light into it that whereas the Dark and Black part arises from sin and the sinful Creature yet because it is after him it shall never set in the darkness of Death and Hâ—ll It receives from him as a Tincture of Holiness so a Tincture of Life a Ray and Beam of it It works Repentance unto Life and to Salvation and so it springs up aftâ—r into Joâ— in his Favour in the Light of his Countenance in the assurance of his Love But the Sorrow of the World is like a Night that no kind of Light at all Enlightens Like the Night Job Cursed it does not turn to the Light because it is not turn'd to God and so is a shade of Hell â—efore Hell it self a valley of the shaddow of Death and the horrors of it are the beginnings of the horrors of Hell As therefore Carnal Joys are sparks of our own kindling Esay 50. notwithstanding which we shall lye down in sorrow even so is sorrow not after God as a black shade of our own 4. The service of sorrow after God to Repentance unto Salvation is that it breaks and forces asunder that sinful Frame in our Hearts of sin and contrariety to God and to Holyness The very Natural Affection of sorrow loosens and Divides the Heart from that which is the Cause and occasion of such sorrow Because that great Self-love the force of that Law of Self-preservation is so strong upon us that seeing sorrow is an Affection that stands in an enmity to our Peace Comfort and Enjoyment and to our Life it self if it be extreme or too long continuing we therefore come off from what is the occasion or that gives reason to our sorrow though we had exceedingly lov'd it before This we find in all Cases and through the whole Nature of Things when therefore sin and loss of the favour of God because of it is made by the grace of God the just Reason and most sensible and prevailing reason of our sorrow It dissolves the Frame of sin in our Heart that had been before compact as the Adamant and as the neither Mill-stone Now this sorrow dividing and separating between sin and the Soul it brings forth that broken and contrite Heart that God will not despise Again This sorrow is a spiritual melting softning and dissolving Thing It separates the Soul every particle as it were from other so that it is supple soft and ready to tâ—ke any figure thaâ— God would have it take It brings the Soul to quick and lively sense which