repent speedily is certainly a duty The earth does not open and swallow up all Rebels in the day of their Mutiny but it did so once and by that God did sufficiently consign to all ages his displeasure against Rebelsion So it is in the deferring Repentance That some have smarted for it eternally is for ever enough to tell us that God is displeased with every one that does defer it and therefore commands us not to defer it But this consideration is sufficiently heightned upon this account For there is no sinner dies but he is taken away without one dayes respite For though God did many times forbear him yet now he does not and to his last sin or his last refusal to hear God either he afforded no time or no grace of Repentance S. Pauls discourse and treaty of the Corinthians is sufficient to guide us here he fear'd that at his coming again God would humble him that is 1 Cor. 12.21 afflict him with grief and sorrow to see it that himself should be forc'd to bewail many that is to excommunicate or deliver to Satan them that have sinn'd already and have not repented If they had repented before S. Pauls coming they should escape that rod but for deferring it they were like to smart bitterly Neither ought it to be supposed that the not repenting of sins is no otherwise then as the being discovered of theft The thief dies for his robbery not for his being discovered though if he were not discovered he should have escaped for his theft So for their uncleanness S. Paul would have delivered them over to Satan not for their not repenting speedily For the case is wholly differing here A thief is not bound at all to discover himself to the Criminal Judge but every man is bound to repent If therefore his repenting speedily would prevent so great a calamity as his being delivered over to Satan besides the procuring his eternal pardon it is clear that to repent speedily was great charity and great necessity which is that which was to be prov'd Satan should have power over him to afflict him for his sin if he did not speedily repent but if he did repent speedily he should wholly escape therefore to repent speedily is a duty which God expects of us and will punish if it be omitted Hodiè mihi credes vivere serum est Ille sapit quisquis Posthume vixit Heri Think it not a hasty Commandement that we are called upon to repent to day It was too much that yesterday past by you it is late enough if you do it to day 5. Not to repent instantly is a great loss of our time and it may for ought we know become the loss of all our hopes Nunc vivit sibi neuter Martial ep 20. lib. 5. heu bonosque Soles effugere atque abire sentit Qui nobis pereunt imputantur And this not onely by the danger of sudden death but for want of the just measures of Repentance Because it is a secret which God hath kept to himself onely and he onely knows what degrees of Repentance himself will admit of how much the sin provok'd him and by what measures of sorrow and carefulness himself will be appeased For there is in this a very great difference To Simon Magus it was almost a desperate case If peradventure the thoughts of thy heart may be forgiven It was worse to Esau There was no place left for his repentance It was so with Judas he was not admitted to pardon neither can any one tell whether it was not resolved he should never be pardon'd However it be for the particulars yet it is certain there is a great difference in the admitting penitents On some have compassion Jude 22 23. others save with fear pulling them out of the fire Now since for all our sins we are bound to ask pardon every day if we do so who dares say it is too much that it is more then needs But if to repent every day be not too much who can be sure that if he puts it off one day it shall be sufficient To some men and at some times God is implacably angry some men and at some times God hath in his fury and sudden anger seis'd upon with the apprehensions of death and saddest judgements and broken them all in pieces and as there is a reign and kingdome of Mercy so there are sudden irruptions of a fierce Justice of which God hath therefore given us examples that we may not defer Repentance one day But this mischief goes further For 6. So long as we lie in the guilt of one sin unrepented of though we do not adde heaps upon heaps and multiply instances of the same or equal crimes yet we are in so unthriving a condition and so evil a state that all that while we lose all the benefit of any good thing that we can do upon the interest of any principle whatsoever For so long as we are out of Gods favour under the seisure and arrest of eternal guilt so long we are in a state of enmity with God and all our actions are like the performances of Heathens nothing to eternal life but mis-spendings of our powers and prodigalities of reason and wise discourses they are not perfective of our being neither do they set us forward to heaven until our state be changing Either then we are not by a certain Law and Commandement bound every day to serve God and please him or else we are positively and strictly bound instantly to repent of all our sins because so long as a known sin is unrepented of we cannot serve God we cannot do any thing that shall be acceptable to him in Jesus Christ 7. Every delaying of Repentance is one step of progression towards final Impenitence which is not onely then esteem'd a sin against the holy Ghost when a man resolves never to repent but if by carelesness he neglects or out of tediousness and an irreligious spirit quite puts off or for ever pass by it is unpardonable it shall never be forgiven in this world nor in the world to come Now since final impenitence is the consummation and perfection of all sin we are to remember that it is nothing but a perseverance of neglecting or refusing to repent A man is alwayes dying and that which we call death is but the finishing of death the last act of it So is final impenitence nothing but the same sin told over so many dayes it is a persevering carelesness or resolution and therefore it cannot be the sin of one day unless it be by accident it is a state of sin begun as soon as ever the sin is acted and grows in every day of thy negligence or forgetfulness But if it should happen that a sinner that sinn'd yesterday should die to day his deferring his Repentance that one day would be esteem'd so and indeed really be a final impenitence It follows therefore that to
good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth Lam. 3.26 27. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. Who is a God like unto thee Micah 7.18 that pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage he retaineth not his anger for ever because he delighteth in mercy He will turn again Mic. 7.19 he will have compassion upon us he will subdue our iniquities and thou wilt cast all our sins into the depth of the sea Remember now thy Creator in the dayes of thy youth Eccles 12.1 while the evil dayes come not nor the years draw nigh when thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them A PSALM O Lord though our iniquities testifie against us have mercy upon us for thy Names sake for our backslidings are many we have sinned against thee O the hope of Israel the Saviour thereof in time of trouble why shouldst thou be a stranger to us and as a wayfaring-man that turneth aside to tarry for a night Why shouldst thou be as a man astonied as a mighty man that cannot save yet thou O Lord art in the midst of us and we are called by thy name leave us not We acknowledge O Lord our wickedness and the iniquity of our fathers for we have sinned against thee Do not abhor us for thy Names sake Jer. 14.7 8 9. do not disgrace the Throne of thy Glory remember break not the Covenant with us I will no more sit in the assembly of mockers Jer. 15.17 nor rejoyce I will sit alone because of thy hand for thou hast filled me with indignation Why is my pain perpetual Ver. 18. and my wound incurable which refuseth to be healed wilt thou be altogether unto me as waters that fail O Lord I know that the way of man is not in himself it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps O Lord correct me but with judgement not in thine anger lest thou bring me to nothing O Lord the hope of Israel all that forsake thee shall be ashamed because they have forsaken the Lord the fountain of living waters Heal me O Lord and I shall be healed save me Jer. 17.13 and I shall be saved for thou art my praise Be not a terror unto me Ver. 17. thou art my hope in the day of evil Behold O Lord for I am in distress Lam. 1.20 my bowels are troubled mine heart is turned within me for I have grievously rebelled For these things I weep mine eye Ver. 15. mine eye runneth down with water because the Comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me Hear me O Lord and that soon Psal 14 3. for my spirit waxeth faint hide not thy face from me lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit O let me hear thy loving kindness betimes for in thee in is my trust shew thou me the way that I should walk in for I lift up my soul unto thee Teach me the thing that pleaseth thee for thou art my God let thy loving Spirit lead me forth into the land of righteousness Quicken me O Lord for thy Names sake and for thy righteousness sake bring my soul out of trouble The Lord upholdeth all such as fall Psal 142.9 and lifteth up those that be down I have gone astray like a sheep that is lost O seek thy servant for I do not forget thy Commandements O do well unto thy servant that I may live and keep thy word O spare me a little that I may recover my strength before I go hence and be no more seen Glory be to the Father c. As it was in the beginning c. A Prayer for a sinner returning after a long impiety I. OEternal Judge of Men and Angels Father of Mercy and the great lover of Souls I humbly acknowledge that the state of my soul is sad and deplorable and by my fault by my own grievous fault I am in an evil condition and if thou shouldst now enter into judgement with me I have nothing to put in barre against the horrible sentence nothing of my own nothing that can ease thy anger or abate the fury of one stroke of thy severe infliction I do O God judge and condemn my self and justifie thee for thou art righteous and whatsoever thou doest is good and true But O my God when the guilty condemns himself nothing is left for the offended party but to return to graciousness and pardon I O Lord have done thy severe and angry work I have sentenc'd a vile man to a sad suffering and if I so perish as I have deserved thou art just and righteous and thou oughtest for ever to be glorified II. BVt O my God though I know that I have deserv'd evils that I know not and hope I shall never feel yet thou art gracious and holy and lovest more to behold thy glory reflected from the flouds and springs of mercy then to see it refracted from the troubled waters of thy angry and severe displeasure And because thou lov'st it so highly to shew mercy and because my eternal interest is served in it I also ought to desire what thou lovest and to beg of thee humbly and passionately that I may not perish and to hope with a modest confidence that thou hast mercy in store for him to whom thou hast given grace to ask for it for it is one degree of pardon to be admitted to the station of penitent beggers it is another degree of pardon that thou hast given me grace to hope and I know that in the fountains of thy own graciousness thou hast infinite arguments and inducements to move thee to pity me and to pardon III. O My God pity me for thy Names sake even for thy own goodness sake and because I am miserable and need it And because I have nothing of my own to be a ground of confidence give thy servant leave to place my hopes on thee through Jesus Christ thou hast commanded me to come to the Throne of Grace with boldness that I may finde mercy in time of need and thou hast promised to give thy holy Spirit to them that ask him O dear God give me pardon and give me thy Spirit and I am full and safe and clothed and healed and all that I desire to be and all that I ought to be IV. I Have spent much time in vanity and in undoing my self grant me thy grace that I may recover my loss and imploy all the remaining portion of my time in holy offices and duties of Repentance My understanding hath been abused by false perswasions and vain confidences But now O God I offer up that imperious faculty wholly to the obedience of Christ to be govern'd by his Laws to be instructed by his Doctrine to be bended by all his arguments My will hath been used to crookedness
our diligence by greatning our evil necessity For death and sin were both born from Adam but we have nurs'd them up to an ugly bulk and deformity But I must now proceed to other practical rules 2. It is necessary that we understand that our natural state is not a state in which we can hope for heaven Natural agents can effect but natural ends by natural instruments and now supposing the former doctrine that we lost not the Divine favour by our guilt of what we never did consent to yet we were born in pure naturals and they some of them worsted by our forefathers yet we were at the best born but in pure naturals and we must be born again that as by our first birth we are heirs of death so by our new birth we may be adopted into the inheritance of life and salvation 3. It is our duty to be humbled in the consideration of our selves and of our natural condition That by distrusting our own strengths we may take sanctuary in God through Jesus Christ praying for his grace entertaining and caressing of his holy Spirit with purities and devotions with charity and humility infinitely fearing to grieve him lest he leaving us we be left as Adam left us in pure naturals but in some degrees worsted by the nature of sin in some instances and the anger of God in all that is in the state of flesh and blood which shall never inherit the Kingdome of heaven 4. Whatsoever good work we do let us not impute it to our selves or our own choice For God is the best estimator of that he knows best what portion of the work we did and what influence our will had into the action and leave it to him to judge and recompense But let us attribute all the glory to God and to Gods grace for without him we can do nothing But by him that strengthens us that works in us to will and to do of his good pleasure by him alone we are saved Giving all glory to God will take nothing of the reward from us 5. Let no man so undervalue his sin or over-value himself as to lessen that and to put the fault any where but where it ought to be If a man accuses himself with too great a rigour it is no more then if he holds his horse too hard when he is running down a hill It may be a less force would stop his running but the greater does so too and manifests his fear which in this case of his sin and danger is of it self rewardable 6. Let no man when he is tempted say that he is tempted of God Not onely because as S. James affirms most wisely every man is tempted Jam. 1â—â— 14. when he is led away by his own concupiscence but because he is a very evil speaker that speaks evil things of God Think it not therefore in thy thought that God hath made many necessities of sinning He that hath forbidden sin so earnestly threatned it so deeply hates it so essentially prevents it so cautiously disswades us from it so passionately punishes it so severely arms us against it so strongly and sent his Son so piously and charitably to root out sin so far as may be from the face of the earth certainly it cannot be thought that he hath made necessities of sinning For whatsoever he hath made necessary is as innocent as what he hath commanded it is his own work and he hateth nothing that he hath made and therefore he hath not made sin And no man shall dare to say at Doomsday unto God that he made him to sin or made it unavoidable There are no two cases of Conscience no two duties in any case so seemingly contradictory that which soever a man chooses he must sin and therefore much less is any one state a state of necessary unavoidable enmity against God 7. Use thy self to holy company and pious imployment in thy early dayes follow no evil example live by rule and despise the world relieve the usual necessities of thy life but be not sensual in thy appetite accustome thy self to Religion and spiritual things and then much of that evil nature thou complainest of will pass into vertuous habits It was the saying of Xenocrates in Aristotle Arist 2. Topic. c. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Happy is he that hath a diligent studious soul for that is every mans good Angel and the principle of his felicity 8. Educate thy children and charges strictly and severely Let them not be suffered to swear before they can pray nor taught little revenges in the Cradle nor pride at School nor fightings in company nor drinkings in all their entertainments nor lusts in private Let them be drawn from evil company and do thou give them holy example and provide for them severe and wise Tutors and what Alexander of Ales said of Bonaventure Adam non peccavit in Bonaventurâ will be as truly said of yong men and maidens Impiety will not peep out so soon Lib. 1. c. 2. It was wisely observed by Quintilian who was an excellent Tutor for yong Gentlemen that our selves with ill breeding our children are the Authors of their evil nature Antè palatum eorum quà m os instituimus Gaudemus si quid licentiùs dixerint Verba ne Alexandrinis quidem permittenda deliciis risu osculo excipimus We teach their palate before we instruct the tongue And when the tongue begins first to prattle they can efform wantonness before words and we kiss them for speaking filthy things Fit ex his consuetudo deinde natura Discunt haec miseri antequam sciunt vitia esse The poor wretches sin before they know what it is and by these actions a custome is made up and this custome becomes a nature §. 8. Rules and measures of deportment when a curse doth descend upon Children for their Parents fault or when it is feared 1. IF we fear a curse upon our selves or family for our fathers sin let us do all actions of piety or religion justice or charity which are contrary to that crime which is suspected to be the enemy in all things being careful that we do not inherit the sin Si quis paterni vitii nascitur haeres nascitur poenae The heir of the Crime must possess the revenue of punishment 2. Let the children be careful not to commend not to justifie not to glory in their fathers sin but be diligent to represent themselves the more pious by how much their fathers were impious for by such a contrariety and visible distance they will avoid their fathers shame Isocrat ep ad Tim. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For most men love not to honour and praise the sons of good men so much as the sons of wicked men when they study to represent themselves better and unlike their wicked parents Therefore 3. Let no childe of a wicked father be dejected and confounded in his spirit because his fathers were impious
with weeping and on my eie-lids is the shadow of death Not for any injustice in my hand also my prayer is pure Wretched man that I am Rom. 7.24 who shall deliver me from the body of this death I thank God I am delivered through Jesus Christ our Lord. But now being made free from sin 6.22 and become servants of God ye have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life For the wages of sin is death But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin reign in your mortal bodies V. 12,14 that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof For sin shall not have dominion over you for ye are not under the law but under grace The PRAYER O Almighty God great Father of Men and Angels thou art the preserver of men and the great lover of souls thou didst make every thing perfect in its kinde and all that thou didst make was very good onely we miserable creatures sons of Adam have suffered the falling Angels to infect us with their leprosie of pride and so we entred into their evil portion having corrupted our way before thee and are covered with thy rod and dwell in a cloud of thy displeasure behold me the meanest of thy servants humbled before thee sensible of my sad condition weak and miserable sinful and ignorant full of need wanting thee in all things and neither able to escape death without a Saviour nor to live a life of holiness without thy Spirit O be pleas'd to give me a portion in the new birth break off the bands and fetters of my sin cure my evil inclinations correct my indispositions and natural averseness from the severities of Religion let me live by the measures of thy law not by the evil example and disguises of the world Renew a right spirit within me and cast me not away from thy presence lest I should retire to the works of darkness and enter into those horrible regions where the light of thy countenance never shineth II. I Am ashamed O Lord I am ashamed that I have dishonoured so excellent a Creation Thou didst make us upright and create us in innocence And when thou didst see us unable to stand in thy sight and that we could never endure to be judged by the Covenant of works thou didst renew thy mercies to us in the new Covenant of Jesus Christ and now we have no excuse nothing to plead for our selves much less against thee but thou art holy and pure and just and merciful Make me to be like thee holy as thou art holy merciful as our heavenly Father is merciful obedient as our holy Saviour Jesus meek and charitable temperate and chaste humble and patient according to that holy example that my sins may be pardoned by his death and my spirit renewed by his Spirit that passing from sin to grace from ignorance to the knowledge and love of God and of his Son Jesus Christ I may pass from death to life from sorrow to joy from earth to heaven from the present state of misery and imperfection to the glorious inheritance prepar'd for the Saints and Sons of light the children of the new birth the brethren of our Lord and Brother our Judge and our Advocate our Blessed Saviour and Redeemer JESVS Amen A Prayer to be said by a Matron in behalf of her husband and family that a blessing may descend upon their posterity I. O Eternal God our most merciful Lord and gracious Father thou art my guide the light of mine eyes the joy of my heart the author of my hope and the object of my love and worshippings thou relievest all my needs and determin'st all my doubts and art an eternal fountain of blessing open and running over to all thirsty and weary souls that come and cry to thee for mercy and refreshment Have mercy upon thy servant and relieve my fears and sorrows and the great necessities of my family for thou alone O Lord canst doe it II. FIt and adorn every one of us with a holy and a religious spirit and give a double portion to thy servant my dear husband Give him a wise heart a prudent severe and indulgent care over the children which thou hast given us His heart is in thy hand and the events of all things are in thy disposition Make it a great part of his care to promote the spiritual and eternal interest of his children not to neglect their temporal relations and necessities but to provide states of life for them in which with fair advantages they may live chearfully serve thee diligently promote the interest of the Christian family in all their capacities that they may be alwayes blessed and alwayes innocent devout and pious and may be graciously accepted by thee to pardon and grace and glory through Jesus Christ Amen III. BLess O God my sons with excellent understandings love of holy and noble things sweet dispositions innocent deportment diligent souls chaste healthful and temperate bodies holy and religious spirits that they may live to thy glory and be useful in their capacities to the servants of God and all their neighbours and the Relatives of their conversation Bless my daughters with a humble and a modest carriage and excellent meekness a great love of holy things a severe chastity a constant holy and passionate Religion O my God never suffer them to fall into folly and the sad effects of a wanton loose and indiscreet spirit possess their fancies with holy affections be thou the covering of their eyes and the great object of their hopes and all their desires Blessed Lord thou disposest all things sweetly by thy providence thou guidest them excellently by thy wisdome thou unitest all circumstances and changes wonderfully by thy power and by thy power makest all things work for the good of thy servants Be pleased so to dispose my daughters that if thou shouldst call them to the state of a married life they may not dishonour their family nor grieve their parents nor displease thee but that thou wilt so dispose of their persons and the accidents and circumstances of that state that it may be a state of holiness to the Lord and blessing to thy servants And until thy wisdome shall know it fit to bring things so to pass let them live with all purity spending their time religiously and usefully O most blessed Lord enable their dear father with proportionable abilities and opportunities of doing his duty and charities toward them and them with great obedience and duty toward him and all of us with a love toward thee above all things in the world that our portion may be in love and in thy blessings through Jesus Christ our dearest Lord and most gracious Redeemer IV. O My God pardon thy servant pity my infirmities hear the passionate desires of thy humble servant in thee alone is my trust my heart and all my wishes are towards thee Thou hast
literae in quâ fuit secundum autem legem Spiritus cui nos annectit liberat ab infirmitate carnis Lex enim inquit Spiritus vitae manumisit te à lege delinquentiae mortis Licet enim ex parte ex Judaismo disputare videatur sed in nos dirigit integritatem plenitudinem disciplinarum propter quos laborantes in lege per carnem miserit Deus filium suum in similitudinem carnis delinquentiae propter delinquentiam damnaverit delinquentiam in carne Plainly he expounds this Chapter to be meant of a man under the law according to the law of the letter under which himself had been he denied any good to dwel in his flesh but according to the law of the Spirit under which we are plac'd he frees us from the infirmity of the flesh for he saith the law of the Spirit of life hath freed us from the law of sin and death Origen affirms that when S. Paul says In Cap. 7. ad Rom. I am carnal sold under sin tanquam Doctor Ecclesiae personam in semetipsum suscipit infirmorum he takes upon him the person of the infirm that is of the carnal and says those words which themselves by way of excuse or apology use to speak But yet says he this person which S. Paul puts on although Christ does not dwell in him neither is his body the Temple of the holy Ghost yet he is not wholly a stranger from good but by his will and by his purpose he begins to look after good things But he cannot yet obtain to doe them For there is such an infirmity in those who begin to be converted that is whose minde is convinc'd but their affections are not master'd that when they would presently doe all good yet an effect did not follow their desires S. Chrysostome hath a large Commentary upon this Chapter and his sense is perfectly the same Propterea subnexuit dicens Ego verò carnalis sum hominem describens sub lege ante legem degentem S. Paul describes not himself but a man living under and before the law and of such a one he says but I am carnal Who please to see more authorities to the same purpose may finde them in S. Basil a Lib. 1. de Baptism in moral sum 23. c. 2. quaest 16. quaest expl compend Theodoret b In hunc locum in cap. 8 ad Rom. S. Cyril c Contra Julian lib. 3. de rectâ fide ad Regin lib. 1. in epist prior ad Successum Macarius d Homil. 1. S. Ambrose e In hunc locum S. Hierom f In cap 9. Dan. and Theophylact g In hunc locum The words of the Apostle the very purpose and design the whole Oeconomy and analogy of the 6. 7. and 8th Chapters doe so plainly manifest it that the heaping up more testimonies cannot be useful in so clear a case The results are these 1. The state of men under the law was but a state of carnality and of nature better instructed and foundly threatned and set forward in some instances by the spirit of fear only but not cured but in many men made much worse accidentally 2. That to be pleased in the inner man that is in the Conscience to be convinc'd and to consent to the excellency of vertue and yet by the flesh that is by the passions of the lower man or the members of the body to serve sin is the state of Unregeration 3. To doe the evil that I would not and to omit the good that I fain would do when it is in my hand to doe what is in my heart to think is the property of a carnal unregenerate man And this is the state of men in nature and was the state of men under the law For to be under the law and not to be led by the Spirit Gal. 5.18 are all one in S. Pauls account for if ye be led by the Spirit ye are not under the law saith he And therefore to be under the law being a state of not being under the Spirit must be under the government of the flesh that is they were not then sanctified by the Spirit of grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ they were not yet redeemed from their vain conversation Not that this was the state of all the sons of Israel of them that liv'd before the law or after but that the law could doe no more for them or upon them Gods Spirit did in many of them work his own works but this was by the grace of Jesus Christ who was the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world this was not by the works of the law but by the same instruments and grace by which Abraham and all they who are his children by promise were justified But this is the consequent of the third proposition which I was to consider 3. From this state of evil we are redeemed by Christ and by the Spirit of his grace Wretched man that I am quis liberabit who shall deliver me from the body of this death He answers I thank God through Jesus Christ so S Chrysostome Theodoret Theophylact S. Hierom the Greek Scholiast and the ordinary Greek copies doe commonly reade the words in which words there is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and they are thus to be supplied I thank God through Jesus Christ we are delivered or there is a remedy found out for us But Irenaeus Origen S. Ambrose S. Austin and S. Hierom himself at another time and the vulgar Latin Bibles in stead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reade 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gratia Domini Jesu Christi the grace of God through Jesus Christ That is our remedy he is our deliverer from him comes our redemption For he not onely gave us a better law but also the Spirit of grace he hath pardon'd all our old sins and by his Spirit enables us for the future that we may obey him in all sincerity in heartiness of endevour and real events From hence I draw this argument That state from which we are redeemed by Jesus Christ and freed by the Spirit of his grace is a state of carnality of unregeneration that is of sin and death But by Jesus Christ we are redeemed from that state in which we were in subjection to sin commanded by the law of sin and obeyed it against our reason and against our conscience therefore this state which is indeed the state S. Paul here describes is the state of carnality and unregeneration and therefore not competent to the servants of Christ to the elect people of God to them who are redeemed and sanctified by the Spirit of Christ The parts of this argument are the words of S. Paul and proved in the foregoing periods From hence I shall descend to something that is more immediately practical and cloth'd with circumstances §. 5. How far an Unregenerate man
to the suggested evils 4. A regenerate person does not onely approve that which is best and desire to doe it but he does it actually and delights to doe it he continues and abides in it which the Scripture calls a walking in the Spirit and a living after it for he does his duty by the strengths of the Spirit that is upon considerations Evangelical in the love of God in obedience to Christ and by the aids he hath receiv'd from above beyond the powers of nature and education and therefore he does his duty upon such considerations as are apt to make it integral and persevering For 5. A regenerate man does not onely leave some sins but all and willingly entertains none He does not onely quit a lust that is against his disposition but that which he is most inclined to he is most severe against and most watchful to destroy it he plucks out his right eye and cuts off his right hand and parts with his biggest interest rather then keep a lust and therefore consequently chooses vertue by the same method S. Aug. ibid. by which he abstains from vice Nam ipsa continentia cum fraenat cohibétque libidines simul appetit bonum ad cujus immortalitatem tendimus respuit malum cum quo in hâc mortalitate contendimus that is He pursues all vertue as he refuses all vice for he tends to the immortality of good as he strives against evil in all the dayes of his mortality And therefore he does not choose to exercise that vertue onely that will doe him reputation or consist with his interest or please his humour but entertains all vertue whether it be with him or against him pleasing or displeasing he chooses all that God hath commanded him because he does it for that reason 6. A regenerate person doth not onely contradict his appetite in single instances but endevours to destroy the whole body of sin he does not onely displease his fond appetite but he mortifies it and never entertains conditions of peace with it for it is a dangerous mistake if we shall presume all is well because we doe some acts of spite to our dearest lust and sometimes cross the most pleasing temptation and oppose our selves in single instances against every sin This is not it the regenerate man endevours to destroy the whole body of sin and having had an opportunity to contest his sin and to contradict it this day is glad he hath done something of his duty and does so again to morrow and ever till he hath quite killed it and never entertains conditions of peace with it nor ever is at rest till the flesh be quiet and obedient * For sometimes it comes to pass that the old man being used to obey at last obeys willingly and takes the conditions of the Gibeonites it is content to doe drudgery and the inferior ministeries if it may be suffered to abide in the land So that here is a new account upon which the former proposition is verifiable viz. It is not the propriety of the regenerate to feel a contention within him concerning doing good or bad For it is not onely true that the unregenerate oftentimes feel the fight and never see the triumph but it is also true that sometimes the regenerate doe not feel this contention They did once with great violence and trouble but when they have gotten a clear victory they have also great measures of peace But this is but seldome to few persons and in them but in rare instances in carnal sins and temptations for in spiritual they will never have an intire rest till they come into their Country It is Angelical perfection to have no flesh at all but it is the perfection of a Christian to have the flesh obedient to the spirit always and in all things But if this contention be not a sign of regeneration but is common to good and bad that which can onely distinguish them is victory and perseverance and those sins which are committed at the end of such contentions are not sins of a pitiable and excusable infirmity but the issues of death and direct emanations from an unregenerate estate Therefore 7. Lastly The regenerate not onely hath received the Spirit of God but is wholly led by him he attends his motions he obeys his counsels he delights in his Commandements and accepts his testimony and consents to his truth and rejoyces in his comforts and is nourish'd by his hopes up to a perfect man in Christ Jesus This is the onely condition of being the sons of God Ro. 8.14 and being sav'd For as many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the sons of God None else And therefore if ye live after the flesh ye shall die but if through the Spirit ye do mortify the deeds of the body ye shall live This is your characteristick note Our obedience to the Spirit our walking by his light and by his conduct This is the Spirit that witnesseth to our spirit Ro. 8.16 that we are the sons of God That is if the Spirit be obeyed if it reigns in us if we live in it if we walk after it if it dwels in us then we are sure that we are the sons of God There is no other testimony to be expected but the doing of our duty All things else unless an extraregular light spring from heaven and tell us of it are but fancies and deceptions or uncertainties at the best §. 7. What are properly and truly sins of Infirmity and how far they can consist with the regenerate estate WE usually reckon our selves too soon to be in Gods favour While the war lasts it is hard telling who shall be the Prince When one part hath fought prosperously there is hopes of his side and yet if the adversary hath reserves of a vigorous force or can raise new and not onely pretends his title but makes great inrodes into the Countrey and forrages and does mischief and fights often and prevails sometimes the inheritance is still doubtful as the success But if the Usurper be beaten and driven out and his forces quite broken and the lawful Prince is proclaim'd and rules and gives laws though the other rails in prison or should by a sudden fury kill a single person or plot an ineffective treason no man then doubts concerning the present possession But men usually think their case is good so long as they are fighting so long as they are not quite conquered and every step towards grace they call it pardon and salvation presently As soon as ever a man begins heartily to mortify his sin his hopes begin and if he proceeds they are certain But if in this fight he be overcome he is not to ask Whether that ill day and that deadly blow can consist with the state of life He that fights and conquers not but sins frequently and to yeeld or be killed is the end of the long contentions this man
it may be usefull to every man and so inoffensively that it may hurt no man I know but one Objection which I am likely to meet withall excepting those of my infirmity and disability which I cannot answer but by protesting the piety of my purposes but this onely that in the Chapter of Original sin I speak otherwise then is spoken commonly in the Church of England whos 's ninth Article affirms that the natural propensity to evil and the perpetual lusting of the flesh against the spirit deserves the anger of God and damnation against which I so earnestly seem to dispute in the sixth Chapter of my Book To this I answer that it is one thing to say a thing in its own nature deserves damnation and another to say it is damnable to all those persons in whom it is subjected The thing it self that is our corrupted nature or our nature of corruption does leave us in the state of separation from God by being unable to bear us to heaven imperfection of nature can never carry us to the perfections of glory and this I conceive to be all that our Church intends for that in the state of nature we can onely fall short of heaven and be condemn'd to a poena damni is the severest thing that any sober person owns and this I say that Nature alone cannot bring us to God without the regeneration of the Spirit and the grace of God we can never go to heaven but because this Nature was not spoil'd by Infants but by persons of reason and we are all admitted to a new Covenant of Mercy and Grace made with Adam presently after his fall that is even before we were born as much as we were to a participation of sin before we were born no man can perish actually for that because he is reconcil'd by this He that sayes every sin is damnable and deserves the anger of God sayes true but yet some persons that sin of meer infirmity are accounted by God in the rank of innocent persons So it is in this Article Concupiscence remains in the regenerate and yet concupiscence hath the nature of sin but it brings not condemnation These words explain the former Original imperfection is such a thing as is even in the regenerate and it is of the nature of sin that is it is the effect of one sin and the cause of many but yet it is not damning because as it is subjected in unconsenting persons it loses its own natural venome and relation to guiltiness that is it may of it self in its abstracted nature be a sin and deserve Gods anger viz. in some persons in all them that consent to it but that which will always be in persons that shall never be damned that is in infants and regenerate shall never damn them And this is the main of what I affirm And since the Church of England intended that Article against the Doctrine of the Pelagians I suppose I shall not be thought to recede from the spirit and sense of the Article though I use differing manners of expression because my way of explicating this question does most of all destroy the Pelagian Heresie since although I am desirous to acquit the dispensation of God and his Justice from any imputation or suspicion of wrong and am loath to put our sins upon the account of another yet I impute all our evils to the imperfections of our nature and the malice of our choice which does most of all demonstrate not onely the necessity of Grace but also of Infant Baptism and then to accuse this Doctrine of Pelagianism or any newer name of Heresie will seem like impotency and weakness of spirit but there will be nothing of truth or learning in it And although this Article was penn'd according to the style of the Schools as they then did love to speak yet the hardest word in it is capable of such a sense as complies with the intendment of that whole sixth Chapter For though the Church of England professes her self fallible and consequently that all her truths may be peaceably improved yet I do think that she is not actually deceiv'd and also that divers eminently learned do consent in my sense of that Article However I am so truly zealous for her honour and peace that I wholly submit all that I say there or any where else to her most prudent judgement And though I may most easily be deceived yet I have given my reasons for what I say and desire to be tried by them not by prejudice and numbers and zeal and if any man resolves to understand the Article in any other sense then what I have now explicated all that I shal say is that it may be I cannot reconcile my Doctrine to his explication it is enough that it is consistent with the Article it self in its best understanding and compliance with the truth it self and the justification of God However he that explicates the Article and thinks it means as he says does all the honour he can to the Authority whose words if he does not understand yet the sanction he reverers And this liberty I now take is no other then hath been used by the severest Votaries in that Church where to dissent is death I mean in the Church of Rome I call to witness those disputations and contradictory assertions in the matter of some articles which are to be observed in Andreas Vega Dominicus à Soto Andradius the Lawyers about the Question of divorces and clandestine contracts the Divines about predetermination and about this very article of Original sin as relating to the Virgin Mary But blessed be God we are under the Discipline of a prudent charitable and indulgent Mother and if I may be allowed to suppose that the article means no more in short then the office of Baptism explicates at large I will abide by the trial there is not a word in the Rubricks or Prayers but may very perfectly consist with the Doctrine I deliver But though the Church of England is my Mother and I hope I shall ever live and at last die in her Communion and if God shall call me to it and enable me I will not refuse to die for her yet I conceive there is something most highly considerable in that saying Call no man Master upon earth that is no mans explication of her articles shall prejudice my affirmative if it agrees with Scripture and right reason and the doctrine of the Primitive Church for the first 300 years and if in any of this I am mistaken I will most thankfully be reproved and most readily make honourable amends But my proposition I hope is not built upon the sand and I am most sure it is so zealous for Gods honour and the reputation of his justice and wisdome and goodness that I hope all that are pious unless they labour under some prejudice and prepossession will upon that account be zealous for it or at least confess that
ends for which it was held over us now are served And at last how can it be agreeable to Gods wisdome and justice to exact of us a law which we cannot perform or to impose a law which cannot justly be exacted The answering and explicating this difficulty will serve many propositions in the doctrine of Repentance §. 2. Of the possibility or impossibility of keeping the Precepts of the Gospel IT were strange that it should be possible for all men to keep the Commandements and requir'd and exacted of all men with the intermination or threatning of horrid pains and yet that no man should ever do it Lib. 1. Dial. adve Pelag. S. Hierome brings in Atticus thus arguing Da exemplum aut confitere imbecillitatem tuam and the same also was the argument of Orosius and the reasonableness of it is a great prejudice against the contrary affirmation of S. Austin Alipius Evodius Aurelius Possidius who because it is no good consequence to argue à non esse ad non posse and though it is not done yet possibly it might conclude that it is possible to keep the Commandements though as yet no man ever did but he that did it for us all But as Marcellinus said well It is hard to say that by a Man a thing can be done of which although there was a great necessity and a severe Commandement yet there never was any example Because in men there is such infinite variety of tempers dispositions apprehensions designes fears and hopes purposes and interests that it were next to a miracle that not one of all mankinde should do what he can and what so highly concerns him But because this although it be a high probability yet is no certain demonstration that which S. Paul taught is certainly to be relied upon That the Law could not do it for us that is Rom. 8. could not bring us justification in that it was weak through the flesh meaning that because we were so weak we could not fulfill the righteousness of the Law therefore we could not be justified by that Covenant Mosi manus graves facies cornuta impedita lingua lapideae tabulae Moses's hand were heavy his face bright his tongue stammering and the tables were of stone by which is meant that the imposition and the burthen was great but the shoulder is weak and crushed and therefore was not able to bear it and therefore much less can it stand under a bigger load if the holy Precepts of the Gospel should prove so and we be assisted by no firmer supporters For the nature and constitution of man is such that he cannot perpetually attend to any state of things Voluntas per momenta variatur S. Hier. lib. 2. in Gal. c. c. 3. quia solus Deus immutabilis variety and change inconstancy and repentance are in his very nature * If he be negligent he is soon tempted * If he be watchful he is soon wearied * If he be not instructed he is exposed to every abuse * If he be yet he is ignorant of more then he knows and may be cousened by very many things and in what he knows or seems to know he is sometimes confident sometimes capricious curious and impertinent proud and contemptuous * The Commandments are instanc'd in things against our naturall inclinations and are restraints upon our appetite and although a man may do it in single instances yet to act a part of perpetual violence and preternatural contentions is too hard and severe an expectation and the often unavoidable failings of men will shew how impossible it is It is as S. Hieromes expression is as if a man should hale a boat against the stream if ever he slacken his hand the vessel falls back and if ever we give way to our appetite in any of the forbidden instances we descend naturally and easily * Some vices are proportionable to a mans temper and there he falls pleasantly and with desire Rhet. lib. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Aristotle That which is natural is sweet but that which is violent is troublesome to others he is indifferent but to them he is turn'd by every byas * If a man be morose he is apt to offend with sullenness and angry pretensions but if he be compliant and gentle he is easily cousened with fair entreaties * If he be alone he is sad and phantastick and woe to him that is alone If he be in company it will be very hard for him to go with them to the utmost limits of permission and not to step beyond it * No mans leisure is great enough to attend the inquiry after all the actions and particulars for which he is to be judged and he does many things which he considers not whether they be sins or no and when he does consider he often judges wrong * For some things there are no certain measures and there are very many constituent or intervening things and circumstances of things by which it is made impossible to give a certain judgement of the whole * Oftentimes a man is surpris'd and cannot deliberate for want of time sometimes he is amaz'd and wants order and distinction to his thoughts and cannot deliberate for want of powers * Sometimes the case is such that if a man determines it against his temporal interest he determines falsly and yet he thinks he does it safest and if he judges in compliance with his temporal regards he cannot be confident but that he was mov'd not by the prevailing reason but by prevailing passion * If the dispute be concerning degrees there is no certain measures to weigh them by and yet sometimes a degree does diversifie the kinde and vertue and vice are but differing degrees of the same instance and the wayes of sinning upon the stock of ignorance are as many as there are ignorances and degrees and parts and vicious causes and instances of it Concerning our infirmities they are so many that we can no more account concerning the wayes of errour coming upon that stock then it can be reckoned in how many places a lame man may stumble that goes a long journey in difficult and uneven wayes We have beginning infant strengths which are therefore imperfect because they can grow Crescere posse imperfectae rei signum est Seneca ep 67. and when they are most confirm'd and full grown they are imperfect still When we can reckon all the things of chance then we have summ'd up the dangers and aptnesses of man to sin upon that one principle but so as they can they are summ'd up in the words of Epiphanius Haeres 59. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The condition of our nature the inconstancy of our spirits the infirmity of our flesh the distraction of our senses are an argument to make us with confidence expect pardon and mercy from the loving kindness of the Lord according to the preaching of Truth the Gospel of Christ But besides all
we believe to be a sin Now that God requires no more and that we can do thus much and that good men from their conversion do thus much though in differing degrees is evident upon plain experience and the foregoing considerations I conclude with the words of the Arausican Councel Omnes baptizati Christo auxiliante cooperante possunt debent quae ad salutem pertineut si fidelitèr laborare voluerint adimplere All baptized Christians may by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ if they will faithfully labour perform and fulfill all things that belong to their salvation The summe of all is this The state of regeneration is perfection all the way even when it is imperfect in its degrees The whole state of a Christians life is a state of perfection Sincerity is the formality or the Soul of it A hearty constant endevour is the Body or materiall part of it And the Mercies of God accepting it in Christ and assisting and promoting it by his Spirit of Grace is the third part of its constitution it is the Spirit This perfection is the perfection of Men not of Angels and it is as in the perfection of Glory where all are perfect yet all are not equal Every regenerate man hath that perfection without which he cannot be accepted but some have this perfection more some less It is the perfection of state but the perfection of degrees is not yet Here men are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 made perfect according to the measure of their Fathers as Porphyrie express'd it that is by the measures of mortality or as it pleases God to enable and accept them §. 4. The former Doctrine reduc'd to Practise 1. THe Law is either taken for the Law of Moses or the Law of Works The Law of Works is that Empire and Dominion which God exercised over man using his utmost right and obliging man to the rigorous observation of all that Law he should impose upon him And in this sense it was a Law of death not of life for no man could keep it and they that did not might not live This was impos'd on Adam onely But when God brought Israel out of Egypt he began to make a Covenant with them with some compliance to their infirmities For because little things could not be avoided Sacrifices were appointed for their expiation which was a mercy as the other was a misery a repentance as the sin But for great sins there was no Sacrifice appointed no repentance ministred And therefore still we were in the ministration of death for this mercy was not sufficient as yet it was not possible for a man to be justified by the Law It threatned sinners with death it inflicted death it did not promise eternal life it ministred no grace but fear and temporal hope It was written in Tables of stone not in their hearts that is the material parts of the Law of Moses was not consonant to natural and essential reason but arbitrary impositions they were not perfective of a man but very often destructive This was a little alteration or ease of the Covenant of Works but not enough From this state of evil things we were freed by Christ The Law was called the letter the ministration of death the ministration of condemnation the old Testament apt to amaze and confound a sinner but did not give him any hopes of remission no glimpse of heaven no ministery of pardon But the Gospel is called the Spirit or the ministration of the Spirit the law of faith the law of liberty it ministers repentance it enjoyns holiness it gives life and we all have hopes of being saved This which is the state of things in which the whole world is represented in their several periods is by some made to be the state of every returning sinner and men are taught that they must pass through the terrors of the Law before they can receive the mercies of the Gospel The Law was a Schoolmaster to bring the Synagogue to Christ it was so to them who were under the Law but it cannot be so to us who are not under the law but under grace For if they mean the law of Works or that imposition which was the first entercourse with man they lose their title to the mercies of the Gospel If they mean the law of Moses then they do not stand fast in the liberty by which Christ hath made them free But whatsoever the meaning be neither of them can concern Christians For God hath sent his Son to establish a better Covenant in his blood to preach repentance to offer pardon to condemn sin in the flesh to publish the righteousness of God to convince the world of sin by his holy Spirit to threaten damnation not to sinners absolutely but absolutely to the impenitent and to promise and give salvation to his Sons and Servants 1. The use that we Christians are to make of the Law is onely to magnifie the mercies of God in Jesus Christ who hath freed us from so severe a Covenant who does not judge us by the measures of an Angel but by the span of a mans hand But we are not to subject our selves so much as by fiction of law or fancy to the curse and threatnings of the Covenant of Works or of Moses Law though it was of more instances and less severity by reason of the allowance of Sacrifices for expiation 2. Every Christian man sinning is to consider the horrible threatnings of the Gospel the severe intermination of eternal pains the goodness of God leading to repentance the severity of his Justice in exacting great punishments of criminals the reasonableness of this Justice punishing such persons intolerably who would not use so great a grace in so pleasing a service for the purchase of so glorious a reward The terrors of the Law did end in temporal death they could affright no further but in the Gospel Heaven and Hell were opened and laid before all mankinde and therefore by these measures a sinner is to enter into the sorrows of contrition and the care of his amendment And it is so vain a thing to think every sinner must in his repentance pass under the terrors of the Law that this is a very destruction of that reason for which they are fallen upon the opinion The Law is not enough to affright sinners and the terrors of the Gospel are farre more to persevering and impenitent sinners then the terrors of the Law were to the breakers of it The cause of the mistake is this The Law was more terrible then the Gospel is because it allowed no mercy to the sinner in great instances But the Gospel does But then if we compare the state of those men who fell under the evils of the Law with these who fall under the evils threatned in the Gospel we shall finde these to be in a worse condition then those by farre as much as hell is worse then being stoned to death
which they can obey And indeed no man could be a sinner but he that breaks that law which he could have kept We were all sinners by the Covenant of Works but that was in those instances where it might have been otherwise For the Covenant of Works was not impossible because it consisted of impossible Commandements for every Commandement was kept by some or other and all at some times but therefore it was impossible to be kept because at some time or other men would be impotent or ignorant or surpris'd and for this no abatement was made in that Covenant But then since in what every man could help he is found to be a sinner he ought to account it a mighty grace that his other services are accepted In pursuance of this 15. Let no man boast himself in the most glorious services and performances of Religion Qui in Ecclesiâ semper gloriosè granditer operati sunt Epist ad lapsos opus suum Domino nunquam imputaverunt as S. Cyprian's expression is They who have greatly served God in the Church and have not been forward to exact and challenge their reward of God they are such whom God will most certainly reward For humility without other external works is more pleasing to God then pride though standing upon heaps of excellent actions It is the saying of S. Chrysostome * For if it be as natural to us to live according to the measures of reason as for beasts to live by their nature and instinct what thanks is due to us for that more then to them for this And therefore one said well Ne te jactes si benè servisti Obsequitur Sol obtemperat Lunae Boast not if thou hast well obeyed The Sun and the Moon do so and shall never be rewarded * But when our selves and all our faculties are from God he hath power to demand all our services without reward therefore if he will reward us it must wholly be a gift to us Concil Aâ—ausic 2. c. 18. Dâ—betur merocs bonis operibus sed gratia quae non debetur praecedit ut fiant that he will so crown our services * But he does not onely give us all our being and all our faculties but makes them also irriguous with the dew of his Divine Grace sending his holy Son to call us to repentance and to die to obtain for us pardon and resurrection and eternal life sending his holy Spirit by rare arguments and aids external and internal to help us in our spiritual contentions and difficulties So that we have nothing of our own and therefore can challenge nothing to our selves * But besides these considerations many sins are forgiven to us and the service of a whole life cannot make recompence for the infinite favour of receiving pardon * Especially since after our amendment and repentance there are remaining such weaknesses and footsteps of our old impieties that we who have daily need of the Divine Mercy and Pity cannot challenge a reward for that which in many degrees needs a pardon for if every act we do should not need some degrees of pardon yet our persons do in the periods of our imperfect workings * But after all this all that we can do is no advantage to God he is not profited or obliged by our services no moments do thence accrew to his felicities and to challenge a reward of God or to think out best services can merit heaven is as if Galileo when he had found out a Star which he had never observed before Job 35.7 and pleased himself in his own fancy should demand of the Grand Signior to make him King of Tunis for what is he the better that the studious man hath pleased himself in his own Art and the Turkish Empire gets no advantages by his new Argument * And this is so much the more material if we consider that the littleness of our services if other things were away could not countervail the least moment of Eternity Rom. 8.18 and the poor Countryman might as well have demanded of Cyrus to give him a Province for his handful of river water as we can expect of God to give us Heaven as a reward of our good works 16. But although this rule relying upon such great and convincing grounds can abolish all proud expectations of reward from God as a debtor for our good works yet they ought not to destroy our modest confidence and our rejoycings in God who by his gracious promises hath not onely obliged himself to help us if we pray to him but to reward us if we work For our God is merciful Psa 62.12 he rewardeth every man according to his work so said David according to the nature and graciousness of the work not according to their value and proper worthiness Mat. 5.12 1 Cor. 3.8 Matt. 16. 27. 2 Cor. 4.17 2 Thess 1.5 Apoc. 3.4 16.6 Rom. 8.18 not that they deserve it but because God for the communication of his goodness was pleased to promise it Promissum quidem ex misericordiâ sed ex justitiâ persolvendum said S. Bernard Mercy first made the promise but Justice payes the debt Which words were true if we did exactly do all that duty to which the reward was so graciously promised but where much is to be abated even of that little which was bound upon us by so glorious promises of reward there we can in no sense challenge Gods justice but so as it signifies equity In Matth. lib. 3. cap. 20. v. 8. and is mingled with the mercies of the chancery Gratis promisit gratis reddit So Ferus God promised freely and payes freely If therefore thou wilt obtain grace and favour make no mention of thy deservings And yet let not this slacken thy work but reinforce it and enlarge thy industry since thou hast so gracious a Lord who of his own meer goodness will so plentifully reward it 17. If we fail in the outward work let it be so ordered that it be as little imputable to us as we can that is let our default not be at all voluntary but wholly upon the accounts of a pityable infirmity For the Law was a Covenant of Works such as they were but the minde could not make amends within for the defect without But in the Gospel it is otherwise for here the will is accepted for the fact in all things where the fact is not in our power But where it is there to pretend a will is hypocrisie Nequam illud verbum est benè vult nisi qui benè facit said the Comedian This rule is our measure in the great lines of duty in all negative Precepts and in the periods of the law of Christ which cannot pass by us without being observed But in the material and external instances of duty we may without our fault be disabled and therefore can only be supplied with our endevours and desires But that is our advantage
Thou O God didst see our follies and observe our weaknesses thou knowest the aversness of our nature to good and our proneness to commit vanity and because our imperfect obedience could not bring us to perfect felicity whither thou didst design us the great God of all the world was pleased to make a new Covenant with Man and to become a debtor to his servants Blessed be God and blessed be that Mercy which hath done so great things for us O be pleased to work that in us which thou expectest from us Let us not lose our title in the Covenant of Faith and Repentance by deferring the one or dishonouring the other but let us walk worthy of our vocation according to the law of Faith and the Mercies of God and the Covenant of our Lord Jesus II. O Blessed Jesus never suffer us to abuse thy Mercies or to turn thy Grace into wantonness Let the remembrance and sense of thy glorious favours endear our services and let thy goodness lead us to Repentance and our Repentance bring forth the fruits of godliness in our whole life Imprint deeply upon our hearts the fear and terror of thy Majesty and perpetually entertain our spirits with the highest apprehensions of thy loving kindeness that we may fear more and love more every day more and more hating sin crucifying all its affections and desires passionately loving holy things zealously following after them prudently conducting them and indefatigably persevering in them to the end of our lives III. O Blessed and Eternal God with thy Spirit inlighten our understandings in the rare mysterious Secrets of thy Law Make me to understand all the most advantageous wayes of duty and kindle a flame in my Soul that no difficulty or contradiction no temptation within or persecution without may ever extinguish Give me a mighty grace that I may design to please thee with my best and all my services to follow the best examples to do the noblest Charities to pursue all Perfection ever pressing forward to the mark of the high calling in Christ Jesus Let us rather choose to die then to sin against our Consciences Let us also watch that we may omit nothing of our duty nor pretermit any opportunity by which thou canst be glorified or any Christian instructed comforted or assisted not resting in the strictest measures of Command but passing forward to great and prudent significations of love doing heroick actions some things by which thou mayest be greatly pleased that thou mayest take delight to pardon to sanctifie and to preserve thy servants for ever Amen CHAP. II. Of the nature and definition of Repentance And what parts of duty are signified by it in holy Scriptures §. I. THe Greeks use two words to express this duty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Post factum angi cruciari to be afflicted in minde to be troubled for our former folly it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Phavorinus a being displeased for what we have done and it is generally used for all sorts of Repentance but more properly to signifie either the beginnings of a good or the whole state of an ineffective Repentance In the first sense we finde it in S. Matthew * 21.32 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and ye seeing did not repent that ye might believe him Of the second sense we have example in Judas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he repented too but the end of it was Mat. 27.3 he died with anguish and despair and of Esau it is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He found no place for an effective repentance but yet he repented too for he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 12 17. he fain would have had it otherwise and he sought it with tears which two do fully express all the meaning of this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when it is distinguished from the better and effective Repentance There is in this Repentance a sorrow for what is done a disliking of the thing with its consequents and effect and so farre also it is a change of minde But it goes no further then so farre to change the minde that it brings trouble and sorrow and such things which are the natural events of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Suidas It is an affection incident to man not to God who cannot repent where although by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he means an Accident or property of Man that is a quality in the general sense yet that it is properly a passion in the special sense was the sense of all men Lib. de poenit as Tertullian observes saying that the Heathens know Repentance to be passionem animi quandam the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Suidas a passion quae veniat de offensâ sententiae prioris coming from our being offended or troubled at our former course But Tertullian uses the Latine word of which I shall give account in the following periods But when there was a difference made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was the better word which does not properly signifie the sorrow for having done amiss but something that is nobler then it but brought in at the gate of sorrow For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a godly sorrow that is fo or the first beginning of Rapentance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 worketh this better Repentance 2 Cor. 7.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a repentance not to be repented of not to be sorrowed for a repentance that is unto salvation Sorrow may go before this but dwells not with it according to that of S. Chrysostome Homil. 9. de Poenit. Medicinae hic locus non judicii non poenas sed peccatorum remissionem poenitentia tribuit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the word Repentance brings not pains but pardon with it for this is the place of medicine and remedy not of judgement or condemnation meaning that this Repentance is wholly salutary as tending to reformation and amendment Lib. â—adv Marcion cap. 20. But Tertullian made the observation more express In Graeco sono Poenitentiae nomen non ex delicti confessione sed ex animi demutatione compositum est To repent among the Greeks signifies not a confession of our fault but the change of minde He speaks of the Grammatical sense of the word for in the whole use of it it is otherwise For however the Grammarians may distinguish them yet the words are used promiscuously for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is sometimes used in the bad sense and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies the better repentance not often but sometimes it does The son that told his Father he would not work in his Vineyard afterwards was sorry for refusing and he went to work 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in the same Chapter Matth. 21.29 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ye seeing were not troubled and sorrowful that ye might believe
iniquity and a sincere obedience in the faith of Jesus Christ which is the result of all the foregoing considerations and usages of words and is further manifested in the following appellatives and descriptions by which Repentance is signified and recommended to us in â—cripture 1. It is called Reconciliation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We pray you in Christs stead to be reconciled to God that is to be friends with him no longer to stand in terms of distance for every habitual sinner every one that provokes him to anger by his iniquity is his enemy not that every sinner hates God by a direct hate but as obedience is love so disobedience is enmity or hatred by interpretation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 enemies in their minde by wicked works Col. 1.21 So S. Paul expresses it and therefore the reconciling of these is to represent them holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight 23 Pardon of sins is the least part of this reconciliation Our sins and our sinfulness too must be taken away that is our old guilt and the remanent affections must be taken off before we are friends of God And therefore we finde this reconciliation press'd on our parts we are reconciled to God not God to us For although the term be relative and so signifies both parts as conjunction and friendship and society and union do yet it pleased the Spirit of God by this expression to signifie our duty expresly and to leave the other to be supposed because if our parts be done whatsoever is on Gods part can never fail And 2. Although this reconciliation begins on Gods part and he first invites us to peace and gave his Son a Sacrifice yet Gods love is very revocable till we are reconciled by obedience and conformity 2. It is called Renewing and that either with the connotation of the subject renewed or the cause renewing The renewing of the Holy Ghost Tit. 3.5 Rom. 18.2 Eph 4.23 and the renewing of the minde or the spirit of the minde The word is exactly the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is a change of minde from worse to better as it is distinguished from the fruits and effects of it So be renewed in your minde that is throw away all your foolish principles and non-sense propositions by which you use to be tempted and perswaded to sin and inform your minde with wise notices and sentences of God That ye put off concerning the old conversation the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitfull lusts and that ye put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness which is an excellent description of Repentance In which it is observable that S. Paul uses two words more to express the greatness and nature of this change and conversion It is 3. A new Creature The new Man Created in Righteousness Eph. 2.10.3.9 John 3.6 for the state of Repentance is so great an alteration that in some sense it is greater then the Creation because the things created had in them no opposition to the power of God but a pure capacity obediential Jam. 1.18 but a sinner hath dispositions opposite to the Spirit of Grace and he must unlearn much before he can learn any thing He must die before he can be born Nam quodcunque suis mutatum finibus exit Continuò hoc mors est illius quod fuit anté Lucret. Our sins the body of sin the spirit of uncleanness the old man must be abolished mortified crucified buried Jude Rev. 7.14 Heb. 10.22 23. Psal 50.9 2 Cor. 7.1 1 Joh. 3.3 our sins must be laid away we must hate the garments spotted with the flesh and our garments must be whitened in the blood of the Lamb our hearts must be purged from an evil conscience purified as God is pure that is as S. Paul expresses it from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit denying or renouncing all ungodliness and worldly lusts And then as the antithesis or consequent of this is when we have laid away our sin and renounced ungodliness We must live godly righteously and soberly in this present world Gal. 2.20 we must not live either to the world or to our selves but to Christ Hic dies aliam vitam adfert alios mores postulat Our manner of life must be wholly differing from our former vanities so that the life which we now live in the flesh we must live by the faith of the Son of God that is according to his Laws and most holy Discipline This is pressed earnestly upon us by those many Precepts of obedience to God to Christ Rom. 6.17 Acts 6.7 1 Pet. 4.3 Eph. 2 3. Jam. 1.22.23 1 Joh. 3.22 Joh. 3.4 1 Joh. 1.6 2 Cor. 8.21 Col. 1.10 1 Cor. 15.58 to the holy Gospel to the Truth to the Doctrine of Faith * of doing good doing righteousness doing the truth * serving in the newness of the Spirit * giving our members up as servants of righteousness unto holiness * being holy in all conversations * following after peace with all men and holiness being followers of good works providing things honest in the sight of God and men abhorring evil and cleaving to that which is good * perfecting holiness in the fear of God to be perfect in every good work * being filled with the fruits of righteousness walking worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing being fruitfull in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God * abounding in the work of the Lord. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are the words often used fill'd full and perfect To the same purpose is it that we are commanded to live in Christ and unto God that is 2 Tim. 3.12 to live according to their will and by their rule and to their glory and in their fear and love called by S. Paul to live in the faith of the Son of God Gal. 2.20 1 Cor. 2.1 1 Thess 16. Joh. 2.6 Eph. 2.10 to be followers of Christ and of God to dwell in Christ and to abide in him to walk according to the Commandements of God in good works in truth according to the Spirit to walk in light to walk with God which was said of Enoch of whom the Greek LXX reade 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He pleased God * There are very many more to the same purpose For with great caution and earnestness the holy Scriptures place the duties of mankinde in practice and holiness of living and removes it farre from a confidence of notion and speculation Qui fecerit docuerit He that doth them and teaches them Mat. 5 19. Luke 5.46 shall be great in the Kingdome and Why do you call me Lord Lord and do not the things I say to you Joh. 15.14 and Ye are my friends if ye do what I command you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignat. ad Magnes We must not onely be
called Christians but be so for not to be called but to be so brings us to felicity that is since the life of a Christian is the life of Repentance whose work it is for ever to contend against sin for ever to strive to please God a dying to sin a living to Christ he that thinks his Repentance can have another definition or is compleated in any other or in fewer parts must be of another Religion then is taught by Christ and his holy Apostles This is the Faith of the Son of God this is that state of excellent things which he purchased with his blood and as there is no other Name under heaven so there is no other Faith no other Repentance whereby we can be saved Upon this Article it is usual to discourse of Sorrow and Contrition of Confession of sins of making amends of self-affliction and some other particulars but because they are not parts but actions fruits and significations of Repentance I have reserved them for their proper place Now I am to apply this general Doctrine to particular states of sin and sinners in the following Chapters §. 3. Descriptions of Repentance taken from the holy Scriptures ¶ WHen heaven is shut up 1 Kings 8.35 36. and there is no rain because they have sinned against thee if they pray towards this place and confess thy name and turn from their sin when thou afflictest them * Then hear thou in heaven and forgive the sin of thy servants and of thy people Israel that thou teach them the good way wherein they should walk and give rain upon thy land which thou hast given to thy people for an inheritance ¶ And the Redeemer shall come to Zion Isa 59.20 21. and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob saith the Lord. * As for me this is my Covenant with them saith the Lord My Spirit that is upon thee and my words which I have put in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth nor out of the mouth of thy seed nor out of the mouth of thy seeds seed saith the Lord from henceforth and for ever Again when I say unto the wicked Ezek. 33.14 15 16. Thou shalt surely die if he turn from his sin and do that which is lawfull and right * If the wicked restore the pledge give again that he had rebbed walk in the statutes of life without committing iniquity he shall even live he shall not die * None of his sins that he hath committed shall be mentioned unto him he hath done that which is lawful and right he shall surely live Knowing this Rom. 6.6 11 12 13 18 19. that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin * Likewise reckon ye also your selves to be dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. * Let not sin therefore reign in your mortall body that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof * Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin but yield your selves unto God as those that are alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God * Being then made free from sin ye became the servants of righteousness * I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness Wherefore my brethren Rom. 7.4 5 6. ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ that ye should be married to another even to him who is raised from the dead that we should bring forth fruit unto God * For when we were in the flesh the motions of sins which were by the law did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death * But now we are delivered from the law that being dead wherein we were held that we should serve in the newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the letter And that Rom. 13.11 12 13. knowing the time that now it is high time to awake out of sleep for now is our salvation nearer then when we believed * The night is farre spent the day is at hand let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armour of light * Let us walk honestly as in the day not in rioting and drunkenness not in chambering and wantonness not in strife and envying * But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof Having therefore these promises dearly beloved let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the flesh 2 Cor. 7.1 10 11. and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God * For godly sorrow worketh Repentance to salvation not to be repented of but the sorrow of the world worketh death * For behold this self same thing that ye sorrowed after a godly sort what carefulness it wrought in you yea what clearing of your selves yea what indignation yea what fear yea what vehement desire yea what zeal yea what revenge in all things ye have approved your selves to be clear in this matter For the love of Christ constraineth us 2 Cor. 5.15 17. because we thus judge that if one died for all then were all dead * Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature old things are past away behold all things are become new That ye put off Ephes 4.22 23 24. concerning the former conversation the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts * And be renewed in the spirit of your minde * And that ye put on that new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness Let no man deceive you with vain words Eph. 5.6 7 8 9 10 11 15 16 17. for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience * Be not ye therefore partakers with them * For ye were sometimes darkness but now are ye light in the Lord walk as children of light * For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth * Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord * And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but rather reprove them * See then that ye walk circumspectly not as fools but as wise * Redeeming the time because the dayes are evil * Wherefore be ye not unwise but understanding what the will of the Lord is If ye then be risen with Christ Col 31 2 3 5 8 9 10. seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God * Set your affection on things above not on things on the earth * For ye are dead and your life is hidden with Christ in God * Mortifie therefore your members which are upon the
acting sin does to most men appear in all its ugliness and deformity and if in the dayes of your temptation you did lessen the measure of your sin yet in the days of your sorrow doe not shorten the measures of repentance Every sin is deadly enough and no repentance or godly sorrow can be too great for that which hath deserved the eternal wrath of God 12. I end these advices with the meditation of S. Hierom. Si ira sermonis injuria atque interdum jocus judicio concilióque atque Gehenne ignibus delegatur quid merebitur turpium rerum appetitio avaritia quae est radix omnium malorum If anger and injurious words and sometimes a foolish jest is sentenc'd to capital and supreme punishments what punishment shall the lustful and the covetous have And what will be the event of all our souls who reckon these injurious or angry words of calling Fool or Sot amongst the smallest and those which are indeed less we doe not observe at all For who is there amongst us almost who cals himself to an account for trifling words loose laughter the smallest beginnings of intemperance careless spending too great portions of our time in trifling visits and courtships balls revellings phantastick dressings sleepiness idleness and useless conversation neglecting our times of prayer frequently or causlesly slighting religion and religious persons siding with factions indifferently forgetting our former obligations upon trifling regards vain thoughts wandrings and weariness at our devotion love of praise laying little plots and snares to be commended high opinion of our selves resolutions to excuse all and never to confess an error going to Church for vain purposes itching ears love of flattery and thousands more The very kinds of them put together are a heap and therefore the so frequent and almost infinite repetition of the acts of all those are as Davids expression is without hyperbole more then the hairs upon our head they are like the number of the sands upon the Sea shore for multitude §. 6. What repentance is necessary for the smaller or more Venial sins 1. UPon supposition of the premises since these smaller sins are of the same nature and the same guilt and the same enmity against God and consign'd to the same evil portion that other sins are they are to be wash'd off with the same repentance also as others Christs bloud is the lavatory and Faith and Repentance are the two hands that wash our souls white from the greatest and the least stains and since they are by the impenitent to be paid for in the same fearful prisons of darkness by the same remedies and instruments the intolerable sentence can only be prevented The same ingredients but a less quantity possibly may make the medicine Caesarius Bishop of Arles who spake many excellent things in this article says that for these smaller sins a private repentance is proportionable Hom. 1. Si levia fortasse sunt delicta v.g. si homo vel in sermone vel in aliquâ reprehensibili voluntate si in oculo peccavit aut corde verborum cogitationum maculae quotidianâ oratione curandae privatâ compunctione terendae sunt The sins of the eye and the sins of the heart and the offences of the tongue are to be cured by secret contrition and compunction and a daily prayer But S. Cyprian commends many whose conscience being of a tender complexion they would even for the thoughts of their heart doe publick penance His words are these multos timoratae conscientiae De lapsis quamvis nullo sacrificii aut libelli facinore constricti â—ssent quoniam tamen de hoc vel cogitaverunt hoc ipsum apud Sacerdotes Dei dolentèr simplicitèr confitentes exomologesin conscientiae fecisse animi sui pondus exposuisse salutarem medelam parvis licet modicis vulneribus exquirentes Because they had but thought of complying with idolaters they sadly and ingenuously came to the Ministers of holy things Gods Priests confessing the secret turpitude of their conscience laying aside the weight that pressed their spirit and seeking remedy even for their smallest wounds Vide S. Aug. lib. 83. q. 26. Caesar Arelat hom 1. And indeed we finde that among the Ancients there was no other difference in assignation of repentance to the several degrees of sin but onely by publike and private Capital sins they would have submitted to publick judgement but the lesser evils to be mourn'd for in private of this I shall give account in the Chapter of Ecclesiastical repentance In the mean time their general rule was That because the lesser sins came in by a daily incursion therefore they were to be cut off by a daily repentance which because it was daily could not be so intense and signally punitive as the sharper repentances for the seldome returning sins yet as the sins were daily but of less malice so their repentance must be daily but of less affliction Lib. 50. hom h. 50. c. 8. Medicamento quotidianae pâ—â—â—itertiae dissecentur That was S. Austins rule Those evils that happen every day must be cried out against every day 2. Every action of repentance every good work done for the love of God and in the state of grace and design'd and particularly applied to the intercision of the smailest unavoidable sins is through the efficacy of Christs death and in the vertue of repentance operative towards the expiation or pardon of them For a man cannot doe all the particulars of repentance for every sin but out of the general hatred of sin picks out some special instances and apportions them to his special sins as to acts of uncleanness he opposes acts of severity to intemperance he opposes fasting But then as he rests not here but goes on to the consummation of Repentance in his whole life so it must be in the more venial sins A less instance of express anger is graciously accepted if it be done in the state of grace and in the vertue of Repentance but then the pardon is to be compleated in the pursuance and integrity of that grace in the Summes total For no man can say that so much sorrow or such a degree of Repentance is enough to any sin he hath done and yet a man cannot apportion to every sin large portions of special sorrow it must therefore be done all his life time and the little portions must be made up by the whole grace and state of Repentance One instance is enough particularly to express the anger or to apply the grace of Repentance to any single sin which is not among the Capitals but no one instance is enough to extinguish it For sin is not pardon'd in an instant as I shall afterwards discourse neither is the remedy of a natural and a just proportion to the sin * Ecclesia Romana alia excogitavit facilè quorum non nulla declinant aperte nimis ad superstitionem Confiteor tundo conspergor
is consistent but how long and how farre God onely knows 2. With the second period a frequency of falling into single sins is consistent But if he comes not out of this state and proceed to the third period he will relapse to the first he must not stay here long 3. But they that are in the third period do sometimes fall into single sins but it is but seldome and it is without any remanent portion of affection but not without much displeasure and a speedy repentance and to this person the proper remedy is to grow in grace for if he does not he cannot either be secure of the present or confident of the future 4. But then if by being in the state of grace is meant a being actually pardon'd and beloved of God unto salvation so that if the man dies so he shall be saved it is certain that every deliberate sin every act of sin that is considered and chosen puts a man out of the state of grace that is the act of sin is still upon his account he is not actually pardon'd in that for any other worthiness of state or relation of person he must come to new accounts for that and if he dies without a moral retractation of it he is in a sad condition if God should deal with him summo jure that is be extreme to mark that which was done amiss The single act is highly damnable the wages of it are death it defiles a man it excludes from heaven it grieves the holy Spirit of grace it is against his undertaking and in its own proportion against all his hopes if it be not pardon'd it will bear the man to Hell but then how it comes to be pardon'd in good men and by what measures of favour and proper dispensation is next to be considered Therefore 5. Though by the nature of the thing and the laws of the Covenant every single deliberate act of sin provokes God to anger who therefore may punish it by the severest laws which he decreed against it yet by the Oeconomy of God and the Divine Dispensation it is sometimes otherwise For besides the eternal wrath of God there are some that suffer his temporal some suffer both some but one God uses to smite them whom he would make to be or them who are his sons if they do amiss If a wicked man be smitten with a temporal judgement and thence begins to fear God and to return the anger will go no further and therefore much rather shall such temporal judgements upon the good man that was overtaken in a fault be the whole exaction God smites them that sin these single sins and though he could take all yet will demand but a fine 6. But even this also God does not do but in the case of scandal or danger to others as it was in the particular of David Because thou hast made the enemies of God to blaspheme the childe that is born unto thee shall die or else 2. When the good man is negligent of his danger or dilatory in his repentance and careless in his watch then God awakens him with a judgement sent with much mercy 7. But sometimes a temporal death happens to good men so overtaken It happened so to Moses and Aaron for their fault at the waters of Massah and Meribah to the Prophet of Judah that came to cry out against the Altar in Bethel to Vzzah for touching the Ark with unhallowed fingers though he did it in zeal to the Corinthians who had not observed decent measures in receiving the holy Sacrament and thus it happened say some of the ancient Doctors to Ananias and Sapphira God took a fine of them also salvo contenemento their main stake being secured Culpam hanc miserorum morte piabant There is in these instances this difference Moses and Aaron were not smitten in their sin but for it and as is not doubted after they had repented but Vzzah and the Prophet and Ananias and Sapphira and the Corinthians died not onely for their sin but in it too and yet it is hoped Gods anger went no further then that death because in every such person who lives well and yet is overtaken in a fault there is much of infirmity and imperfection of choice even when there are some degrees of wilfulness and a wicked heart And though it be easie to suppose that such persons in the beginning of that judgement and the approach of that death did morally retract the sinful action by an act of repentance and that upon that account they found the effect of the Divine mercies by the blood of the Lamb who was slain from the beginning of the world yet if it should happen that any of them die so suddenly as not to have power to exercise one act of repentance though the case be harder yet it is to be hoped that even the habitual repentance and hatred of sin by which they pleased God in the greater portions of their life will have some influence upon this also But this case is but seldome and Gods mercies are very great and glorious but because there is in this case no warrant and this case may happen oftner then it does even to any one that sins one wilful sin it is enough to all considering persons to make them fear but the fool sinneth and is confident 8. But if such overtaken persons do live then Gods Dispensation is all mercy even though he strikes the sinner for he does it for good For God is merciful and knows our weaknesses our natural and circumstant follies he therefore recals the sinning man he strikes him sharply or he corrects him gently or he calls upon him hastily as God please or as the man needs The man is fallen from the favour or grace of God but I say fallen onely from one step of grace and God is more ready to receive him then the man is to return and provided that he repent speedily and neither adde a new crime nor neglect this his state of grace was but allayed and disordered not broken in pieces or destroyed 9. I finde this thing rarely well discoursed of by some of the ancient Doctors of the Church Tertullians words are excellent words to this purpose Licet perisse dicatur Lib. de Pudicit c. 7. erit de perditionis genere retractare quia ovis non moriendo sed errando drachma non intereundo sed latitando perierunt Ita licet dici perisse quod salvum est That may be said to be lost which is missing and the sheep that went astray was also lost and so was the groat which yet was but laid aside it was so lost that it was found again And thus that may be said to have perish'd which yet is safe Perit igitur fidelis elapsus in spectaculum quadrigarii furoris gladiatorii cruoris scenicae foeditatis Xisticae vanitatis in lusus in convivia saecularis solennitatis in
that is properly a conversion from that act of sin 4. But because in some cases a moral revocation may be like an ineffective resolution therefore besides the inward nolition or hating of the sin in all signal and remarked instances of sin it is highly requisite that the sinning man doe oppose an act of vertue to the act of sin in the same instance where it is capable as to an act of gluttony let him oppose an act of abstinence to an act of uncleanness an act of purity and chastity to anger and fierce contentions let him oppose charity and silence for to hate sin and not to love vertue is a contradiction and to pretend it is hypocrisie But besides this as the nolition or hatred of it does if it be real destroy the moral being of that act so does the contrary act destroy its naturall being as far as it is capable And however it be yet it is upon this account necessary For since one act of sin deliberately chosen was an ill beginning and inlet of a habit it is necessary that there be as much done to obtain the habit of the contrary vertue as was done towards the habit of vice that to God as intire a restitution as can may be made of his own right and purchased inheritance 5. Every act of sin is a displeasure to God and a provocation of an infinite Majesty and therefore the repentance for it must also have other measures then by the natural and moral proportions One act of sorrow is a moral revocation of one act of sin and as much a natural deletion of it as the thing is capable * But there is something more in it then thus for a single act of sin deserves an eternal hell and upon what account soever that be it is fit that we doe something of repentance in relation to the offence of an infinite God and therefore let our repentance proceed towards infinite as much as it may my meaning is that we doe not finally rest in a moral revocation of an act by an act but that we beg for pardon all our days even for that one sin * For besides that every sin is against an infinite God and so ought to be wash'd off with a sorrow as near to infinite as we can we are not certain in what periods of sorrow God will speak to us in the accents of mercy and voice of pardon He always takes of them that repent less then he could in justice exact if he so pleased but how much less he will take he hath no where told us and therefore let us make our way as secure as we can let us still goe on in repentance and in the progression we are sure to meet with God * But there is in it yet more For however the act of sin be usually called and supposed to be a single act yet if we consider how many fancies and temptations were preparatory to it how many consentings to the sin how many desires and acts of prosecution what contrivances and resistances of the holy motions of Gods Spirit and the checks of conscience how many refusings of God and his laws what unfitting means and sinful progressions were made to arrive thither what criminal and undecent circumstances what degrees of consent and approaches to a perfect choice what vitious hopes and vile fears what expence of time and mis-imployed passions were in one act of fornication or murder oppression of the poore or subornation of witnesses we shall finde that the proportions will be too little to oppose but one act of vertue against all these evils especially since an act of vertue as we order our affairs is much more single then in act of vice is 6. Every single act of vice may and must be repented of particularly if it be a wilful deliberate and observed action A general repentance will not serve the turn in these cases When a man hath forgotten the particulars he must make it up as well as he can This is the evil of a delayed repentance it is a thousand to one but it is imperfect and lame general and unactive it will need arts of supply and collateral remedies and reflexe actions of sorrow and what the effect will be is in many degrees uncertain But if it be speedy and particular the remedy is the more easy the more ready and the more certain But when a man is overtaken in a fault he must be restored again as to that particular for by that he transgressed there he is smitten and wounded in that instance the habit begins and at that door the Divine judgement may enter for his anger is there already For although God pardons all sins or none in respect of the final sentence and eternal pain yet God strikes particular sins with proper and specifick punishments in this life which if they be not diverted by proper applications may break us all in pieces And therefore Davids repentance was particularly applied to his special case of murder and adultery and because some sins are harder to be pardoned and harder to be cured then others it is certain they must be taken off by a special regard A general repentance is never sufficient but when there cannot be a particular 7. Whoever hath committed any one act of a great crime let him take the advantage of his first shame and regret and in the activity of that passion let him design some fasting days as the solemnities of his repentance which he must imploy in the bitterness of his soul in detestation of his sin in judging condemning and executing sentence upon himself and in all the actions of repentance which are the parts and fruits of this duty according as he shall finde them described in their proper places These are the measures of repentance for single acts of deliberate sin when they have no other appendage or proper Consideration But there are some acts of sin which by several ways and measures pass into habits directly or by equivalency and moral value For 1. The repetition of acts and proceeding in the same crime is a perfect habit which as it rises higher to obstinacy to perseverance to resolutions never to repent to hardness of heart to final impenitence so it is still more killing and damnable 2. If a man sins often in several instances it is a habit properly so called for although the instances be single yet the disobedience and disaffection are united and habitual 3. When a single act of sin is done and the guilt remains not rescinded by repentance that act which naturally is but single yet morally is habitual Of these I shall give account in the next Chapter where they are of proper consideration But there are yet three ways more by which single acts doe become habits by equivalency and moral value and are here to be considered accordingly 8. First if a single act of sin have a permanent matter so long as that matter remains the
it then this For every one that breaks a Commandement let the instance be what it will is a transgressor of the same bond by which he was bound to all Non quòd omnia legis praecepta violârit sed quòd legis Authorem contempserit eóque proemio meritò careat quod legis cultoribus propositum est saith venerable Bede He did not violate all the Commandements but he offended him who is the giver of all the Commandements It is like letting one Bead fall from a Rosary or Coronet of Bugles This or that or a third makes no difference the string is as much broken if he lets one to slide as if he dropp'd twenty It was not an ill conceit of Menedemus the Eretrian that there was but one vertue which had divers names Aristo Chius express'd the same conceit with a little difference affirming all vertues to be the same in reality and nature but to have a certain diversification or rational difference by relation to their objects As if one should call the sight when it looks upon a Crow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if upon a Swan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so is vertue When it moderates the affections it is Temperance when it ballances contracts it is Justice when it considers what is and what is not to be done it is Prudence That which they call Vertue if we call it the Grace of God or Obedience it is very true which they say For the same spirit the same grace of obedience is Chastity or Temperance or Justice according as is the subject matter The love of God if it be in us is productive of all worthiness and this is it which S. John said This is love that we keep his Commandements The love of God constraineth us It worketh all the works of God in us It is the fulfilling of the Commandements For this is a Catholicon an Universal Grace Charity gives being to all vertues it is the life and spirit of all holy actions Abstinence from feasts and inordination mingled with Charity is Temperance And Justice is Charity and Chastity is Charity and Humility is still but an instance of Charity This is that Transcendent that gives life and vertue to Alms to Preaching to Faith to Miracles it does all obedience to God all good offices to our Neighbours which in effect is nothing but the sentence of Menedemus and Aristo that there is an Universal Vertue that is there is one soul and essence of all vertue They call it Vertue S. Paul calls it Charity and this is that one thing which is necessary that one thing which every man that sins does violate He that is guilty of all is but guilty of that one and therefore he that is guilty of that one of the breach of Charity is guilty of all And upon this account it is that no one sin can stand with the state of grace because he that sins in one instance sins against all goodness not against all instances of duty but against that which is the life of all against Charity and Obedience A Prayer to be said in the dayes of Repentance for the commission of any great Crime O Most glorious God I tremble to come into thy presence so polluted and dishonoured as I am by my foul stain of sin which I have contracted but I must come or I perish O my God I cannot help it now Miserable man that I am to reduce my self to so sad a state of things that I neither am worthy to come unto thee nor dare I stay from thee Miserable man that I am who lost that portion of innocence which if I should pay my life in price I cannot now recover O dear God I have offended thee my gracious Father my Lord my Patron my Judge my Advocate and my Redeemer Shame and sorrow is upon me for so offending thee my gracious Saviour But glory be to thee O Lord who art such to me who have offended thee It aggravates my sin that I have sinned against thee who art so excellent in thy self who art so good to me But if thou wert not so good to me though my sin would be less yet my misery would be greater The greatness of my Crime brings me to my Remedy and now I humbly pray thee to be merciful to my sin for it is very great II. O My God pity me and relieve my sad condition which is so extremely evil that I have no comfort but from that which is indeed my misery My baseness is increased by my hopes for it is thy grace and thy goodness which I have so provoked Thou O God didst give me thy grace and assist me by thy holy Spirit and call by thy Word and instruct me by thy Wisdome and didst work in me to will and to do according to thy good pleasure I knew my sin and I saw my danger and I was not ignorant and I was not surpris'd but wilfully knowingly basely and sensually I gave thee away for the pleasure of a minute for the purchase of vanity nay I exchanged thee for shame and sorrow and having justly forfeited thy love am plac'd I know not where nor in what degree of thy anger nor in what neighbourhood of damnation III. O God my God what have I done whither am I fallen I was well and blessed circled with thy Graces conducted by thy Spirit sealed up to the day of Redemption in a hopefull way towards thee and now I have listned to the whispers of a tempting Spirit and for that which hath in it no good no reason no satisfaction for that which is not I have forfeited those excellencies for the recovery of which my life is too cheap a price I am ashamed O God I am ashamed I put my mouth in the dust and my face in darkness and hate my self for my sin which I am sure thou hatest But give thy servant leave to hope that I shall feel the gracious effluxes of thy love I know thou art angry with me I have deserved it But if thou hadst not lov'd me and pitied me thou mightest have stricken me in the act of my shame I know the design of thy mercy and loving kindness is to bring me to repentance and pardon to life and grace I obey thee O God I humbly obey thy gracious purposes Receive O Lord a returning sinner a poor wounded person smitten by my enemies broken by my sin weary and heavy laden ease me of my burthen and strengthen me by a mighty grace that hereafter I may watch more carefully resist more pertinaciously walk more circumspectly and serve thee without the interruptions of duty by the intervening of a sin O let me rather die then choose to sin against thee any more Onely try me this once and bear me in thy arms and fortifie my holy purposes and conduct me with thy grace that thou mayest delight to pardon me and to save me through Jesus Christ my Lord and dearest Saviour Amen I
that intervenes So it is in repentance so it be done at all it matters not when as to the duty of it when you come to die or when you justly fear it as in the days of the plague or before a battel or when the holy man comes to take his leave of his dying Parishioner then let him look to it * Vide Infidelity unmask'd pag 604 It is true the best Divines teach that a sinner is not bound to repent himself instantly of his sin c. But else he is not obliged For the sin that was committed ten years since grows no worse for abiding and of that we committed yesterday we are as deeply guilty as of the early sins of our youth but no single sin can increase its guilt by the putting off our repentance and amendment 2. The guilt of sin which we have committed De poenit disp 7. sect 5. n. 48. they call habitual sin that is a remaining obligation to punishment for an action that is past a guiltiness or as Johannes de Lugo expresses it peccatum actuale moraliter perseverans Sic etiam Suarez tom 4. in 3. part disp 9. sect 4. n. 23. the actual sin morally remaining by which a man is justly hated by God But this habitual sin is not any real quality or habit but a kinde of Moral denomination or ground thereof Granatens in materiâ de peccatis tract 8. disp 1. sect 1. which remains till it be retracted by Repentance Insidelity unmask'd pag 605. The person is still esteemed injurious and obliged to satisfaction That is all 3. The frequent repetition of sinful acts will in time naturally produce a habit a proper physical inherent permanent quality but this is so natural that it is no way voluntary but in its cause that is Ibid. pag. 607. in the actions which produc'd it and therefore it can have in it no blame no sinfulness no obliquity distinct from those actions that caused it and requires no particular or distinct repentance for when the single acts of sin are repented of the remaining habit is innocent and the facility to sin which remains is no sin at all 4. These habits of sin may be pardon'd without the contrary habit of vertue even by a single act of contrition or attrition with the Sacrament * And the event of all is this It is not necessary that your repentance should be so early or so holy as to obtain by the grace of God the habits of vertue or to root out the habit of sin and 2. It is not necessary that it should be at all before the hour of death unless by accident it be inferr'd and commanded I doe suppose these propositions not onely to be false but extremely dangerous and destructive of the duty of repentance and all its consequent hopes and therefore I shall oppose against them these Conclusions 1. Every man is bound to repent of his sin as soon as ever he hath committed it 2. That a sinful habit hath in it proper evils and a proper guiltiness of its own besides all that which came directly by the single actions 3. That sinful habits doe require a distinct manner of repentance and are not pardon'd but by the introduction of the contrary * The consequent of these propositions will be this Our repentance must not be deferred at all much less to our deathbed 2. Our repentance must be so early and so effective of a change that it must root out the habits of sin and introduce the habits of vertue and in that degree in which this is done in the same degree the repentance is perfect more or less For there is a latitude in this duty as there are degrees of perfection §. 2. 1. Every man is bound to repent of his sin as soon as he hath committed it THat this doctrine is of great usefulness and advantage to the necessity and perswasions of holy life is a good probable inducement to beleeve it true especially since God is so essential an enemy to sin since he hath used such rare arts of the Spirit for the extermination of it since he sent his holy Son to destroy it and he is perpetually destroying it and will at last make that it shall be no more at all but in the house of cursing the horrible regions of damnation But I will use this onely as an argument to all pious and prudent persons to take off all prejudices against the severity of this doctrine For it is nothing so much against it if we say it is severe as it makes for it that we understand it to be necessary For this doctrine which I am now reproving although it be the doctrine properly of the Romane Schools yet it is their and our practice too We sin with greediness and repent at leisure Pars magna Italiae est si verum admittimus in quâ Nemo togam sumit nisi mortuus No man puts on his mourning garment till he be dead This day we seldome think it fit to repent but the day appointed for repentance is always To morrow Against which dangerous folly I offer these considerations 1. If the duty of repentance be indispensably requir'd in the danger of death and he that does not repent when he is arrested with the probability of so sad a change is felo de se uncharitable to himself and a murderer of his own soul then so is he in his proportion who puts it off one day because every day of delay is a day of danger and the same law of charity obliges him to repent to day if he sinn'd yesterday lest he be dead before to morrow The necessity indeed is not so great and the duty is not so urgent and the refusal is not so great a sin in health as in sickness and dangers imminent and visible But there are degrees of necessity as there are degrees of danger And he that considers how many persons die suddenly and how many more may and no man knows that he shall not cannot but confess that because there is danger there is also an obligation of duty and charity to repent speedily and that positively or carelesly to put it off is a new fault and increases Gods enmity against him He that is well may die to morrow He that is very sick may recover and live many years If therefore a periculum ne fiat a danger lest repentance be never done is a sufficient determination of the Divine Commandement to doe it then it is certain that it is in every instant determinately necessary because in every instant there is danger In all great sicknesses there is not an equal danger yet in all great sicknesses it is a particular sin not to repent even by the confession of all sides it is so therefore in all the periods of an uncertain life a sin but in differing degrees And therefore this is not an argument of caution onely but of duty For therefore it
S. Austin represents himself as a sad instance of this particular I was afraid lest God should hear me when I prayed against my lust As I fear'd death Lib. 8. Confess c. 7. c. 5. so dreadful it was to me to change my custome Velle meum tenebat inimicus inde mihi catenam fecerat constrinxerat me Quippe ex voluntate perversâ facta est libido dum servitur libidini facta est consuetudo dum consuetudini non resistitur facta est necessitas The Devil had made a chain for him and bound his will in fetters of darkness His perverse will made his lust grow high and while he serv'd his lust he superinduc'd a custome upon himself and that in time brought upon him a necessity For as an old disease hath not onely afflicted the part of its proper residence and by its abode made continual diminution of his strength but made a path also and a channel for the humours to run thither which by continual defluxion have digg'd an open passage and prevail'd beyond all the natural powers of resistance So is an habitual vice it hath debauch'd the understanding and made it to believe foolish things it hath abus'd the will and made it like a diseased appetite in love with filthy things it is like an evil stomach that makes a man eat unwholsome meat against his Reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That 's a sad calamity when a man sees what is good and yet cannot follow it nay that he should desire it and yet cannot lay hold upon it for his faculties are bound in fetters the habit hath taken away all those strengths of Reason and Religion by which it was hindred and all the objections by which it was disturbed and all that tenderness by which it was uneasie and now the sin is chosen and believ'd and lov'd it is pleasant and easie usual and necessary and by these steps of progression enters within the iron gates of death seal'd up by fate and a sad decree And therefore Simplicius upon Epictetus speaking of Medea seeing and approving good things by her understanding but yet without power to do them sayes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is to no purpose for us to think and to desire well unless we adde also deeds consonant to those right opinions and fair inclinations But that 's the misery of an evil habit in such as have them all may be well till you come to action Their principles good their discoursings right their resolutions holy their purposes strong their great interest understood their danger weighed and the sin hated and declaimed against for they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they have begun well and are instructed but because of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their intemperance and softness of spirit produc'd by vile customes there is as Plutarch observes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fatal bestiality in the men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plutarch they sin and can neither will nor choose They are driven to death and they see themselves crown'd with garlands for the Sacrifice and yet go to their ruine merry as the Minstrels and the temptations that entertain and attend those horrid rites Trinummus Scibam ut esse me deceret facere non quibam miser said he in the Comedy I knew it well enough how I should comport my self but I was so wretched that I could not do it Now all this being the effect of a vicious habit and not of sinful actions it being the product and sad consequent of a quality introduc'd first by actions so much evil cannot be caused and produc'd immediately by that which is innocent As the fruit is such is the tree But let us try further 3. A vicious habit makes our recovery infinitely difficult our vertues troublesome our restitution uncertain In the beginnings of his return it is most visible For even after we are entring into pardon and the favour of God we are forc'd to fight for life we cannot delight in Gods service or feel Christs yoke so easie as of it self it is For a vicious habit is a new Concupiscence and superinduces such contradictions to the supernatural contentions and designs of grace it calls back nature from its remedy and purifications of Baptism and makes such new aptnesses that the punishment remains even after the beginning of the sins pardon and that which is a natural punishment of the sinful actions is or may be morally a sin as the lust which is produc'd by gluttony And when a man hath entertain'd a holy sorrow for his sins and made holy vows of obedience and a new life he must be forc'd to contend for every act of duty and he is daily tempted and the temptation is strong and his progression is slow he marches upon sharp-pointed stones where he was not us'd to go and where he hath no pleasure He is forc'd to do his duty as he takes Physick where reason and the grace of God make him consent against his inclination and to be willing against his will He is brought to that state of sorrow that either he shall perish for ever or he must do more for heaven then is needful to be done by a good man whose body is chaste and his spirit serene whose will is obedient and his understanding well inform'd whose temptations are ineffective and his strengths great who loves God and is reconcil'd to duty who delights in Religion and is at rest when he is doing God service But an habitual sinner even when he begins to return and in some measure loves God hath yet too great fondnesses for his enemy his repentances are imperfect his hatred and his love mixt nothing is pure nothing is whole nothing is easie So that the bands of holiness are like a yoke shaken upon the neck they fret the labouring Ox and make his work turn to a disease and as Isaac he marches up the hill with the wood upon his shoulders and yet for ought he knows himself may become the Sacrifice S. Austin complains that it was his own case He was so accustomed to the apertures and free emissions of his lust so pleas'd with the entertainments so frequent in the imployment so satisfied in his minde so hardned in his spirit so ready in his choice so peremptory in his foul determinations that when he began to consider that death stood at the end of that life he was amaz'd to see himself as he thought without remedy and was not to be recover'd but by a long time and a mighty grace the perpetual the daily the nightly prayers and violent importunities of his Mother the admirable Precepts and wise deportments of S. Ambrose the efficacy of truth the horrible fears of damnation hourly beating upon his spirit with the wings of horrour and affrightment and after all with a mighty uneasiness and a discomposed spirit he was by the good hand of God dragg'd from his fatal ruine
be the immediate natural disposition to pardon All this is the gift of God a grace obtain'd by our holy Redeemer the price of his bloud but in this the case is all one as it is in the greatest innocence of the best of men which if it be not allowed by incorporation into Christ and sanctified by faith wants its proper title to heaven and so it is with Repentance For nature cannot teach us this lesson much less make it acceptable For it depending wholly upon Gods graciousness and free forgiveness can be taught onely by him by whom it is effectual and this is conveyed to us by our blessed Lord according to that saying Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ 2. Although a habit cannot be the meritorious cause of pardoning the contrary habit yet to him that hath contracted a vicious habit it is necessary in order to his pardon that he root out that habit and obtain the contrary in some degrees of prevalency so that the scales be turned on that side where is the interest of vertue and this depends upon the evidence of the former proposition If to be an habitual sinner be more then to be guilty of those actual sins by which the habit was contracted then as it is necessary to rescind the act of sin by an act of contrition and repentance so also it is as necessary that the habit be retracted by a habit that every wound may have its balsam and every broken bone be bound up and redintegrate 3. But in the case of habitual sins the argument is more pressing For if the act which is past and remains not yet must be reversed by its contrary much rather must that be taken off which does remain which actually tempts us by which we are in a state exactly contrary to the state of grace For some seldome acts of sin and in trifling instances may stand with the state of holiness and be incident to a good man but no vicious habit can neither in a small matter nor in a great this is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a destroyer and therefore as it hath a particular obliquity so it must have a special repentance a repentance proper to it that is as an act rescinds an act so must a habit be oppos'd to a habit a single act of contrition to a single sin and therefore it must be more no less then a lasting and an habitual contrition to obtain pardon for the habit And although a habit can meritoriously remit a habit no more then an act can do an act they being both equal as to that particular yet they are also dispositions equally at least on this hand necessary for the obtaining pardon of their respective contraries 4. It is confessed on all sides that every single sin which we remember must be repented of by an act of repentance that must particularly touch that sin if we distinctly remember it it must distinctly be revok'd by a nolition a sorrow and moral revocation of it Since therefore every habit is contracted by many single actions every one of which if they were sinful must some way or other be rescinded by its contrary the rescission of those will also introduce a contrary habit and so the question will be evinc'd upon that account For if we shall think one act of sorrow can abolish many foul acts of sin we but deceive our selves we must have many for one as I have already made to appear a multitude of sighs and prayers against every foul action that we remember and then the consequent is plain that upon this reckoning when a habit is contracted the actions which were its principle cannot be rescinded but by such Repentances which will extinguish not onely the formality but the material and natural effect of that cursed production at least in very many degrees 5. A habit oppos'd to a habit hath greater effect then an act oppos'd to an act and therefore is not onely equally requisite but the more proper remedy and instance of repentance For an act of it self cannot naturally extinguish the guilt nor meritoriously obtain its pardon but neither can it destroy its natural being which was not permanent and therefore not to be wrought upon by an after act But to oppose a habit to a habit can equally in the merits of Christ be the disposition to a pardon as an act can for an act and is certainly much better then any one act can be because it includes many single acts of the same nature and it is all of them and their permanent effect and change wrought by them besides So that it is certainly the better and the surer way But now the Question is not whether it be the better way but whether it be necessary and will not the lesser way suffice To this therefore I answer that since no man can be acceptable to God as long as sin reigns in his mortal body and since either sin must reign or the Spirit of Christ must reign for a man cannot be a Neuter in this war it is necessary that sins kingdome be destroyed and broken and that Christ rule in our hearts that is it is necessary that the first and the old habits be taken off and new ones introduc'd For although the moral revocation of a single act may be a sufficient disposition to its pardon because the act was transient and unless there be a habit or something of it nothing remains yet the moral revocation of a sinful habit cannot be sufficient because there is impressed upon the soul a viciousness and contrariety to God which must be taken off or there can be no reconciliation For let it be but considered that a vicious habit is a remanent aversation from God an evil heart the evil treasure of the heart a carnall mindedness an union and principle of sins and then let it be answered whether a man who is in this state can be a friend of God or reconcil'd to him in his Son who lives in a state so contrary to his holy Spirit of Grace The guilt cannot be taken off without destroying its nature since the nature it self is a viciousness and corruption 6. Either it is necessary to extirpate and break the habit or else a man may be pardon'd while he is in love with sin For every vicious habit being radicated in the will and being a strong love inclination and adhesion to sin unless the natural being of this habit be taken off the enmity against God remains For it being a quality permanent and inherent and its nature being an aptness and easiness a desire to sin and longing after it to retract this by a moral retractation and not by a natural also is but hypocrisie for no man can say truly I hate the sin I have committed so long as the love to sin is inherent in his will and then if God should pardon such a person it would be to justifie a sinner remaining such which God equally
that there is no ground for it in Scripture nor in Antiquity nor in right Reason but it is infinitely destructive of all that wise conduct of Souls by which God would glorifie himself by the means of a free obedience and it is infinitely confuted by all those Scriptures which require our cooperation with the assistance of Gods holy Spirit For all the helps that the Spirit of Grace ministers to us is farre from doing our work for us that it onely enables us to do it for our selves and makes it reasonable that God should therefore exact it of us because we have no excuse and cannot plead disability To which purpose that discourse of S. Paul is highly convincing and demonstrative Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling Phil. 2.12 13. for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to our desire so it is better read that is fear not at all but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 throughly do your duty †Magis operamini Syrus Augescite in opere Arabs for according as you desire and pray God will be present to you with his grace to bear you through all your labours and temptations And therefore our conversion and the working our salvation is sometimes ascribed to God sometimes to men * 1 Cor. 5. 7 8. 2 Tim. 2.21 Jam. 4.8 Epâ—â— 4.22 23 24. Col. 3 9 10. to God as the prime and indeficient cause to man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as to the fellow-worker with God it is the expression of S. Paul The Scripture mentions no other effect of Gods grace but such as I have now described But that Grace should do all our work alone and in an instant that which costs the Saints so much labour and fierce contentions so much sorrow and trouble so many prayers and tears so much watchfulness and caution so much fear and trembling so much patience and long-suffering so much toleration and contradiction and all this under the conduct of the Spirit in the midst of all the greatest helps of grace and the inhabitation of the holy Spirit of God that all this labour and danger should be spar'd to a vile person who hath griev'd and extinguish'd Gods holy Spirit and a way contriv'd for him that he should enjoy the pleasures of this world and the glories of the next is such a device as if it had any ground or colourable pretence for it would without the miracles of another grace destroy all piety from the face of the earth And in earnest it seems to me a strange thing that the Doctors of the Church of Rome should be so loose and remiss in this Article when they are so sierce in another that takes from such persons all manner of excuse It is I say very strange that it should be so possible and yet withall so unncessary to keep the Commandements Obj. 2. But if a single act of contrition cannot procure pardon of sins that are habitual then a wicked man that returns not till it be too late to root out vicious habits must despair of salvation I answer That such a man should doe well to ask his Physician whether it be possible for him to escape that sickness If his Physician say it is then the man need not despair for if he return to life and health it will not be too late for him by the grace of God to recover in his soul But if his Physician say he cannot recover first let the Physician be reproved for making his patient to despair I am sure he hath less reason to say he cannot live then there is to say such a person hath no promise that he shall be saved without performing the condition But the Physician if he be a wise man will say So farre as he understands by the rules of his art this man cannot recover but some secret causes of things there are or may be by which the event may be better then the most reasonable predictions of his art The same answer I desire may be taken in the Question of his soul Concerning which the Curate is to preach the rules and measures of God but not to give a resolution concerning the secret and final sentence 2. The case of the five foolish Virgins if we may construe it as it is expressed gives a sad account to such persons and unless that part of the Parable be insignificant which expresses their sorrow their diligence their desire their begging of oyle their going out to buy oyle before the Bridegroom came but after it was noised that he was coming and the insufficiency of all this we may too certainly conclude that much more then a single act of contrition and a moral revocation that is a sorrow and a nolition of the past sins may be done upon our death-bed without effect without a being accepted to pardon and salvation 3. When things are come to that sad state let the man hope as much as he can God forbid that I should be Author to him to despair The purpose of this discourse is that men in health should not put things to that desperate condition or make their hopes so little and afflicted that it may be disputed whether they be alive or no. 4. But this objection is nothing but a temptation and a snare a device to make me confess that the former arguments for fear men should despair ought to be answered and are not perfectly convincing I intended them onely for institution and instruction not to confute any person or any thing but to condemne sin and to resoue men from danger But truly I doe think they are rightly concluding as moral propositions are capable and if the consequent of them be that dying persons after a vicious life cannot hope ordinarily for pardon I am truly sorrowful that any man should fall into that sad state of things as I am really afflicted and sorrowful that any man should live vilely or perish miserably but then it ought not to be imputed to this doctrine that it makes men despair for the purpose and proper consequent of it is that men are warned to live so that they may be secur'd in their hopes that is that men give diligence to make their calling and election sure that they may take no desperate courses and fall into no desperate condition And certainly if any man preach the necessity of a good life and of actual obedience he may as well be charged to drive men to despair for the summe of the foregoing doctrine is nothing else but that it is necessary we should walk before God in all holy conversation and godliness But of this I shall give a large account in the fifth § Obj. 3. But if things be thus it is not good or safe to be a criminal Judge and all the Discipline of Warre will be unlawful and highly displeasing to God For if any one be taken in an act
specifical distinctive sense shall not suffice but faith and repentance and charity and patience and the whole circle and rosary of graces and duties must adorn our heads 4. Those graces and duties which are commanded us and to which God hath promised glorious rewards must not be single or transient acts but continual and permanent graces Joh. 4.14 He that drinks of the water which I shall give him shall never thirst again 6.58 He that eats of this bread shall live for ever He that believes in me rivers of living waters shall flow from his belly 7.38 He that confesseth his sins and forsaketh them shall have mercy Repent and beleeve and wash away your sins Now these words of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are of extended and produced signification as Divines observe and signify a state of duty such as includes patience and perseverance Such also are these 1 Joh. 2.17 1 Joh. 1.9 He that doth the will of my Father abideth for ever If we confess our sins he is just and faithful to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all iniquity Gal. 5.21 and they that doe such things shall possess the kingdome of Heaven And I will deliver him because he hath put his trust in me And If we love him he also will love us And Forgive and ye shall be forgiven These and many more doe not intend that any one grace alone is sufficient much less any one act of one grace proceeding from the Spirit of God can be sufficient to wipe off our leprosies But these signify states of duty and integrity not transient actions or separate graces And besides the infinite reasonableness of the thing this truth is consign'd to us plainly in Scripture Rom. 2.6 7. God will render to every man according to his deeds To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality eternal life And if men had pleased they might as well have fallen upon this proposition that an act of humility would have procur'd our pardon as well as that an act of contrition will doe it because of the words of David Psa 34.17 The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a contrite heart and will save such as be of an humble spirit Salvation is as much promised to humility alone as to contrition alone that is to neither separately but in the conjunction with other parts of duty 5. Contrition is either taken in its proper specifick signification and so it is but a part of repentance and then who can say that it shall be sufficient to a full and final pardon Repentance alone is not sufficient There must be faith and hope and charity therefore much less shall a part be sufficicient when the whole is not But if contrition be taken in a sense comprehending more then it self then I demand how much shall it involve That it does include in it an act of the Divine love and a purpose to confess and a resolution to amend is affirmed So far is well But why thus far and no farther Why shall not contrition when it is taken for a sufficient disposition to pardon and salvation signify as much as repentance does and repentance signify the whole duty of a converted sinner Unless it does repentance it self that is as it is one single grace cannot suffice as I proved but now And therefore how shall contrition alone much less an act of contrition alone doe it For my part I should be very glad it were so if God so pleased for I have as much need of mercy as any man and have as little reason to be consident of the perfection of my repentance as any returning sinner in the world But I would not willingly deceive my self nor others and therefore I must take the surest course and follow his measures who hath describ'd the lines and limits of his own mercy * But it is remarkable that the manner of the Scripture is to include the consequents in the antecedents Joh. 8.47 He that is of God heareth Gods word That is not onely hears but keeps it For not the hearer Apoc. 19.9 but the doer is blessed So S. John in the Revelation Blessed are they that are called to the marriage of the Lamb. They which are called are blessed that is They which being called come and come worthily having on the wedding garment For without this the meaning of the Spirit is not full For many are called but few are chosen And thus also it is in the present instance God will not despise the contrite heart that is the heart which being bruised with sorrow returns to duty and lives in holiness for in order to holiness contrition was accepted But one thing I shall remark before I leave this In the definition of Contrition all the Schools of Theology in the world that I know of put the love of God Contrition is not onely sorrow but a love of God too Now this doctrine if they themselves would give men leave rightly to understand it is not onely an excellent doctrine but will also do the whole business of this great Question Without Contrition our sins cannot be pardon'd It is not Contrition unless the love of God be in it Adde then but these Our love to God does not consist in an act of intuition or contemplation nor yet directly and meerly of passion but it consists in obedience If ye love me keep my Commandements That 's our love of God So that Contrition is a detestation of our past sin and a consequent obedience to the Divine Commandements Onely as the aversion hath been so must be the conversion It was not one act of disobedience onely which the habitual sinner is to be contrite for but many and therefore so must his contrition be a lasting hatred against sin and an habitual love that is an habitual obedience to the Divine Commandement 6. But now to the instances of David and the Prodigal and the sudden pronunciation of their pardon there is something particular to be said The Parable of the Prodigal can prove nothing but Gods readiness to receive every returning sinner but neither the measures nor the times of pardon are there described As for David his pardon was pronounced suddenly but it was but a piece of pardon the sentence of death which by Moses law he incurred that onely was remitted but after this pardon David repented bitterly in sackcloth and ashes he fasted and prayed he liv'd holily and wisely he made amends as he could and yet the childe died that was born to him his Son and Subjects rebelled his Concubines were dishonoured in the face of the Sun and the Sword never departed from his house 2. But to both these and all other instances that are or can be of the like nature I answer That there is no doubt but Gods pardon is as early and speedy as the beginnings of our repentance but then it is
7.7 Sin taking occasion by the law wrought in me all concupiscence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apprehending impunity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by occasion of the Commandement viz. so expressed and established as it was Because in the Commandement forbidding to lust or covet there was no penalty annexed or threatned in the sanction or in the explication Murder was death and so was adultery and rebellion Theft was punished severely too and so other things in their proportion but the desires God left under a bare restraint and affixed no penalty in the law Now sin that is men that had a minde to sin taking occasion hence that is taking this impunity for a sufficient warrant prevail'd by frequent actions up to an evil custome and a habit and so rul'd them who were not renewed and overruled by the holy Spirit of grace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies a caution in law or a security so Suidas and Phavorinus It is used also for impunity in Demosthenes though the Grammarians note it not But as to the thing When ever you see a sin thrive start back suddenly and with a trembling fear for it does nurse the sin from a single action to a filthy habit and that always dwels in the suburbs of the horrible regions No man is so much to be pitied as he that thrives and is let alone in his sin there is evil towards that man But then God is kinde to a sinner when he makes his sin to be uneasy and troublesome 6. But in prosecution of the former observation it is of very great use that the vigorous and healthful penitent doe use corporal mortifications and austerities by way of penance and affliction for every single act of that sin he commits whose habit he intends to mortify If he makes himself smart and never spare his sin but still punish it besides that it is a good act of indignation and revenge which S. Paul commends in all holy penitents it is also a way to take off the pleasure of the sin by which it would fain make abode and seisure upon the will A man will not so soon delight or love to abide with that which brings him affliction in present and makes his life miserable This advice I learn from Maimonides Morch Nevocin 341. Ab inolitâ peccandi consuetudine non posse hominem avelli nisi gravibus poenis Nothing so good to cure an evil custome of sinning as the inflicting great smart upon the offender He that is going to cure his habitual drunkenness if ever he be overtaken again let him for the first offence fast two days with bread and water and the next time double his smart and let the man load himself till he groans under it and he will be glad to take heed 7. He that hath sinn'd often and is now returning let him watch if ever his sin be offer'd to him by a temptation and that temptation dressed at formerly that he be sure not to neglect that opportunity of beginning to break his evil habit He that hath committed fornication and repents if ever he be tempted again not to seek for it but to act it and may enter upon the sin with ease and readiness then let him refuse his sin so dressed so ready so fitted for action and the event will be this that besides it is a great indication and sign of an excellent repentance it discountenances the habit and breaks the combination of its parts and disturbs its dwelling but besides it is so signal an action of repentance and so pleasing to the Spirit of God and of a good man that it is apt to make him doe so again and proceed to crucify that habit upon which he hath had so lucky a day and so great a victory and success It is like giving to a person and obliging him by some very great favour He that does so is for ever after ready and apt to doe that obliged person still more kindness lest the first should perish When a man hath gotten an estate together he is apt saith Plutarch to save little things and be provident even of the smallest summe because that now if it be sav'd will come to something it will be seen and preserv'd in his heap But he that is poor cannot become rich with those little arts of providence and therefore he â—ets them goe for his pleasure since he cannot keep them with hopes to improve his bank so is such an earnest and entry into piety it is such a stock of holiness that it is worth preserving and to have resisted once so bravely does adde confidence to the spirit that it can overcome and makes it probable that he may get a crown However it fals out it is an excellent act and signification of a hearty repentance and conversion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philemon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He is a just man not whosoever does no wrong but he that can and will not Maimonides saith excellently to the same purpose For to the Question Quaenam tandem est poenitentia perfecta He answers This is true and perfect repentance Canâ—n poenit cap. 2.1 Cum quis ad manum habet quo priùs peccavit jam penes ipsum est idem perpetrare recedens tamen illuà non committit poenitentiae causâ neque timore cohibitus neque defectu virium When the power and opportunity is present and the temptation it may be ready and urging when it is in a mans hand to doe the same thing yet retiring he commits it not onely for piety or repentance sake not being restrain'd by fear or want of powers 8. If such opportunities of his sin be not presented it is never the worse The penitent need not be fond of them for they are dangers which prove death if they be not triumphed over and if they be yet the man hath escap'd a danger and may both prove and act his repentance without it But therefore he that is not so tried and put to it must doe all that which he is put to and execute his fierce anger against the sin and by proper instances of mortification endevour the destruction of it and although every man hath not so glorious a trial and indication of his Repentance as in the former instance yet he that denies himself in any instance of his sin and so in all that he can or is tempted in does the same thing all the same duty and with less danger and with less gloriousness * But if it happen that his sin urge him not at all as formerly or the occasion is gone and the matter is subtracted he is to follow the measures of old men described in the next § 9. Let the penitent be infinitely careful that he does not mortify one vicious habit by a contrary vice but by a contrary vertue For to what purpose is it that you are cur'd of prodigality and then die by covetousness Quid te exempta juvat spinis
his animis incolumes non redeunt genae Trouble and sorrow will better become the spirit of an old sinner because he was a fool when he was young and weak when he is wise that his strengths must be spent in sin and that for God and wise courses nothing remains but weak hands and dim eyes and trembling knees 10. Let not an old sinner and young penitent ever think that there can be a period to his Repentance or that it can ever be said by himself that he hath done enough No sorrow no alms no affliction no patience no Sacraments can be said to have finish'd his work so that he may say with S. Paul I have fought a good fight I have finish'd my course nothing can bring consummation to his work till the day of his death because it is all the way an imperfect state having in it nothing that is excellent or laudable but onely upon the account of a great necessity and misery on one side and a great mercy on the other It is like a man condemn'd to perpetual banishment he is alwayes in his passive obedience but is a debtor to the law until he be dead So is this penitent he hath not finish'd his work or done a Repentance in any measure proportionable to his sins but onely because he can do no more and yet he did something even before it was too late 11. Let an old man in the mortification of his vicious habits be curious to distinguish nature from grace his own disability from the strengths of the Spirit and not think that he hath extirpated the vice of uncleanness when himself is disabled to act it any longer or that he is grown a sober person because he is sick in his stomack and cannot drink intemperately or dares not for fear of being sick His measures must be taken by the account of his actions and oppositions to his former sins and so reckon his comfort 12. But upon whatever account it come he is not so much to account concerning his hopes or the performance of his duty by abstaining from sin as by doing of good For besides that such a not committing of evil may be owing to weak or insufficient principles this not committing evil in so little a time cannot make amends for the doing it so long together according to the usual accounts of Repentance unless that abstaining be upon the stock of vertue and labour of mortification and resistance and then every abstinence is also a doing good for it is a crucifying of the old man with the affections and lusts But all the good that by the grace of God he superadds is matter of choice and the proper actions of a new life 13. After all this done vigorously holily with fear and caution with zeal and prudence with diligence and an uninterrupted observation the old man that liv'd a vile life but repents in time though he staid as long as he could and much longer then he should yet may live in hope and die in peace and charity To this purpose they are excellent words which S. Serm. 28. de temp Austin said Peradventure some will think that he hath committed such grievous faults that he cannot now obtain the favour of God Let this be farre from the conceits of all sinners O man whosoever thou art that attendest that multitude of thy sins wherefore doest thou not attend to the Omnipotency of the Heavenly Physician For since God will have mercy because he is good and can because he is Almighty he shuts the gate of the Divine Goodness against himself who thinks that God cannot or will not have mercy upon him and therefore distrusts either his Goodness or his Almightiness The proper Repentance and usage of sinners who repent not until their death-bed The inquiry after this article consists in these particulars 1. What hopes are left to a vicious ill liv'd man that repents on his death-bed and not before 2. What advices are best or can bring him most advantage That a good life is necessary * that it is requir'd by God * that it was design'd in the whole purpose of the Gospel * that it is a most reasonable demand and infinitely recompensed by the very smallest portions of Eternity * That it was called for all our life and was exacted by the continual voyce of Scripture of Mercies of Judgement of Prophets * That to this very purpose God offered the assistance of his holy Spirit and to this ministery we were supplied with preventing with accompanying and persevering grace that is powers and assistances to begin and to continue in well doing * That there is no distinct Covenant made with dying men differing from what God hath admitted between himself and living healthful persons * That it is not reasonable to think God will deal more gently with persons who live viciously all their lives and that at an easier rate they may expect salvation at the hands of God whom they have so provoked then they who have serv'd him faithfully according to the measures of a man * or that a long impiety should be sooner expiated then a short one * That the easiness of such as promise heaven to dying penitents after a vicious life is dangerous to the very being and constitution of piety * and scandalous to the honour and reputation and sanctity of the Christian Religion * That the grace of God does leave those that use it not * That therefore the necessity of dying men increases and their aids are lessen'd and almost extinguished * That they have more to doe then they have either time or strength to finish * That all their vows and holy purposes are useless and ineffective as to their natural production and that in their case they cannot be the beginnings of a succeeding duty and piety because for want of time it never can succeed * That there are some conditions and states of life which God hath determin'd never to pardon * That there is a sin unto death for which because we have no incouragement to pray it is certain there is no hope for it is impossible but it must be very fit to pray for all them to whom the hope of pardon is not precluded * That there is in Scripture mention made of an ineffective repentance and of a repentance to be repented of and that the repentance of no state is so likely to be it as this * That what is begun and produc'd wholly by affrightment is not esteem'd matter of choyce nor a pleasing sacifice to God * That they who sow to the flesh shall reap in the flesh and the final judgement shall be made of every man according to his works * That the full and perfect descriptions of repentance in Scripture are heaps and conjugations of duties which have in them difficulty and require time and ask labour * That those insinuations of duty in Scripture of the need of patience and diligence and watchfulness and the
their death-bed yet in behalf of those who have been unfortunately lost in their lives or less instructed or violently tempted or unhappily betrayed and are upon their death-beds because though nothing can be ascertain'd to them yet it is not to be suffer'd that they should utterly despair I have thought fit to transcribe out of the writings of the ancient Doctors such exhortations as may both instruct and comfort promote duty and give some little door of hope but not adde boldness in defiance of all the laws of holiness In an epistle of Celestine Bishop of Rome in S. Austins time we finde these words Vera ad Deum conversio in ultimis positorum mente potiùs aestimanda est quà m tempore .... Quum ergo Dominus sit cordis inspector quovis tempore non est deneganda poenitentia postulanti quum ille se obliget Judici cui occulta omnia noverit revelari True conversion is to be accounted of by the minde rather then by time Therefore repentance is not to be denied to him who at any time asks it And he despairs of the clemency of God who thinks it not sufficient or that it cannot relieve the sinner in an instant Donec sumus in hâc vitâ quantacunque nobis acciderint peccata possibile est omnia ablui per poenitentiam said S. Austin Serm. 181. de temp c. 16. As long as we are alive so long it is possible that the vilest sins that are may be wash'd off by repentance Si vulneratus es adhibe tibi curam dum vivis dum spiras etiam in ipso lecto positus etiam si dici potest animam efflans ut jam de hoc mundo exeas In Psa 50. hom 2. Non impeditur temporis angustiâ misericordia Dei. Quid enim est peccatum ad Dei misericordiam tela araneae quae vento flante nusquam comparet So S. Chrysostome If thou art wounded in thy soul take care of it while thou livest even so long as thou canst breath though thou beest now breathing thy last yet take care still The mercy of God cannot be hindred by time For what is thy sin to Gods mercy even as a spiders web when the winde blows it is gone in an instant Many more there are to the same purpose who all speaking of the mightiness of the Divine mercy doe insinuate their meaning to be concerning a miraculous or extraordinary mercy And therefore I shall oppose nothing against this onely say that it is very sad when men put their hopes of being sav'd upon a miracle and that without a miracle they must perish But yet then to despair is entring into hell before their time and even a course of the greatest imprudence in the world next to that they are already guilty of that is a putting things to that extremity Dandum interstitium poenitentiae said Tacitus And Inter vitae negotia diem mortis oportere aliquid spatium intercedere said Charls the Emperour For Nemo mortem venientem hilaris excepit nisi qui se ad eam diu composuerat said Seneca Repentance must have a space of time and from the affairs of the world to rush into the arms of death is too quick a change for him that would fain be saved If he can in the midst of all these disadvantages it is well but he cannot with chearfulness and joy receive his death unless he bestowed much time and care in preparations against that sad solemnity Now concerning these instruments of hope I am yet to give another account lest this either seem to be an easiness and flattery of souls and not warrantable from any revelation from God or if it be that it is also a perfect destruction of all the former doctrine For if it be inquired thus Hath God declared that death-bed penitents shall not be saved or that they may be saved or hath he said nothing at all of it If he hath said they cannot be saved why then doe I bid them hope and so abuse them with a false perswasion If he hath said that they may be saved why doe I dispute against it and make them fear where God by a just promise hath given them reason to be confident and hath obliged them them to believe they shall be saved If he hath said nothing of it why are not they to be comprehended within the general rules of all returning penitents especially since there was one case specially made for their interest the example of the Thief upon the Cross To this I shall give a clear and plain answer That God hath required such conditions of pardon and that the duty of repentance is of such extent and burden that it cannot be finish'd and perform'd by dying persons after a vicious life is evident from all the former arguments and therefore if we make dying mens accounts upon the stock of Gods usual dealing and open revelation their case is desperate for the preceding reasons But why then doe I bid them hope if their case be desperate Either God threatning death to all impenitent persons means not to exact death of all but of some onely or else when his holy Spirit describes Repentance in severe characters he secretly means to take less then he sayes For if it be such a work that cannot possibly be done on a death-bed how then can dying persons be called upon to repent for it is vain to repent if it be impossible to hope but if it be possible to do the work of Repentance on our death-bed but onely that it is very difficult there is in this affirmative no great matter Every one confesses that and all evil men put it to the venture For the first part of the dilemma I affirm nothing of it God threatning death to all the impenitent excepts none Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish Neither does God exacting or describing Repentance in severe lines use any respect of persons but with the same measures he will deal with all For when there is a difference in the Divine mercy it is in giving time and grace to repent not in sparing one and condemning another who die equally criminal and impenitent Those little lines of hopes are not upon either of these foundations For whatsoever is known or revealed is against these persons and does certainly condemn them Why then are they bidden to hope and repent I answer once for all It is upon something that we know not And if they be not saved we know not how they cannot expect to be saved by any thing that is revealed in their particular When S. Peter had declared to Simon Magus that he was in the gall of bitterness and yet made him pray if peradventure the thought of his heart might be forgiven him he did not by any thing that was revealed know that he should be pardoned but by something that he did not know there might be hope It is at no hand to be dissembled out
refrained their feet therefore the Lord doth not accept them he will now remember their iniquity and visit their sins Then saith the Lord Ver. 11 12. Pray not for this people for their good When they fast I will not hear their cry and when they offer an oblation I will not accept them but I will consume them by the sword and by famine and by the pestilence Therefore thus saith the Lord Jer. 15.19 if thou return then will I bring thee again and thou shalt stand before me and if thou take forth the precious from the vile thou shalt be as my mouth I am with thee to save thee and to deliver thee saith the Lord. And I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked Ver. 21. and I will redeem thee out of the hand of the terrible Learn before thou speak Ecclus. 18.19 and use Physick or ever thou be sick Before judgement examine thy self Ver. 20. and in the day of visitation thou shalt finde mercy Humble thy self before thou be sick Ver. 21. and in the time of sins shew repentance Let nothing hinder thee to pay thy vows in due time Ver. 22. and deferre not until death to be justified I made haste Psal 119. and prolonged not the time to keep thy Commandements Thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel Amend your ways and your doings and I will cause you to dwell in this place Trust not in lying words saying The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord. For if you throughly amend your ways and your doings if you throughly execute judgement If ye oppress not the stranger and the widow Jer. 7. then shall ye dwell in the land Thus saith the Lord God Ezek. 11.18 I will give you the land and they shall take away all the detestable things thereof and all the abominations thereof from thence And I will give them one heart Ver. 19. and I will put a new spirit within you and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh and will give them an heart of flesh That they may walk in my statutes Ver. 20. and keep mine ordinances and do them and they shall be my people and I will be their God But as for them whose heart walketh after their detestable things and their abominations Ver. 21. I will recompense their way upon their own heads saith the Lord God They have seduced my people saying Peace Ezek. 13.10 and there was no peace and one built up a wall and others dawb'd it with untemper'd morter Will ye pollute me among my people for handfuls of barley and pieces of bread Ver. 19. to slay the souls that should not die and to save the souls alive that should not live by your lying unto my people that hear your lies Therefore I will judge you ô house of Israel Ezek. 18.30 every one according to your ways saith the Lord God repent and turn your selves from all your transgressions so iniquity shall not be your ruine Cast away from you all your transgressions whereby you have transgressed Ver. 31. and make you a new heart and a new spirit for why will ye die ô house of Israel For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth saith the Lord God Ver. 32. wherefore turn your selves and live ye Ye shall remember your ways Ezek. 20.43 and all your doings wherein ye have been defiled and ye shall loath your selves in your own sight for all your evils that ye have committed Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity and sin as it were with a cart-rope Isa 5.18 Woe unto them that justify the wicked for a reward Ver. â—3 and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him And when ye spread forth your hands Isa 1.15 I will hide mine eyes from you yea when you make many prayers I will not hear your hands are full of bloud Wash ye Isa 1.16 make ye clean put away the evil of your doing from before mine eyes cease to doe evil Learn to do well Ver. 17. seek judgement relieve the oppressed judge the fatherless plead for the widow Come now and let us reason together Ver. 18. saith the Lord Though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow though they be red as crimson they shall be as wooll If ye be willing and obedient Ver. 19. ye shall eat the fruit of the land But if ye refuse and rebel Ver. 20. ye shall be devoured with the sword for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it She hath wearied her self with lies Ezek. 24. therefore have I caused my fury to light upon her Sow to your selves in righteousness Hos 10.12 and reap in mercy break up your fallow ground for it is time to seek the Lord till he come and rain righteousness upon you Turn thou unto thy God Mos 12.6 keep mercy and judgement and wait on thy God continually O Israel Hos 13.9 thou hast destroyed thy self but in me is thy help Return to the Lord thy God Hos 24. for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity Take with you words and turn to the Lord say unto him Take away all iniquity and receive us graciously so will we render the calves of our lips For in thee the fatherless findeth mercy I will heal their backsliding I will love them freely for mine anger is turned away Seek ye the Lord while he may be found Isa 55.6 call ye upon him while he is near Let the wicked forsake his way Ver. 7. and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon For thus saith the high and lofty One Isa 57.15 that inhabits eternity whose name is Holy I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones For I will not contend for ever Ver. 16. neither will I be alwayes wroth for the spirit should fail before mee and the soules which I have made For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth and smote him I hid me and was wroth Ver. 17. and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart I have seen his ways and will heal him Ver. 18. I will lead him also and restore comfort to him and to his mourners I create the fruit of the lips peace Ver. 19. peace to him that is afar off and to him that is near saith the Lord and I will heal him But the wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest Ver. 20. whose waters cast up mire and dirt There is no peace saith my God Ver. 21. to the wicked It is
and peevish morosity in all vertuous imployments but greedy and fierce in the election and prosecution of evil actions and designs But now O God I have no will but what is thine and I will rather die then consent and choose any thing that I know displeases thee My heart O God was a fountain of evil thoughts ungracious words and irregular actions because my passions were not obedient nor orderly neither temperate nor govern'd neither of a fitting measure nor carried to a right object But now O God I present them unto thee not as a fit oblation but as the Lepers and the blinde the lame and the crooked were brought unto the holy Jesus to be made straight and clean useful and illuminate and when thou hast taken into thy possession what is thine and what I stole from thee or detained violently and which the Devil did usurp then thou wilt sanctifie and save it use it as thine own and make it to be so for ever V. BLessed God refuse not thy returning son I have prodigally wasted my talents and spent my time in riotous and vain living but I have not lost my title and relation to thee my Father O my God I have the sorrow of an humble penitent the purposes of a converted sinner the love of a pardon'd person the zeal of an obliged and redeem'd prisoner the hope of him that feels thy present goodness and longs for more Reject me not O my God but do thou work all my works within me My heart is in thy hands and I know that the way of man is not in himself it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps But do thou guide me into the way of righteousness work in me an excellent Repentance a great caution and observance an humble fear a prudent and a religious hope and a daily growing charity work in me to will and to do of thy good pleasure Then shall I praise thy name and love thy excellencies and obey thy Commandements and suffer thy impositions and be what thou wouldst have me to be that I being rescu'd from the possession of the Devil and the torments of perishing souls may be admitted to serve thee and be a Minister of thy honour in the Kingdomes of Grace and Glory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen A Prayer for an old person returning after a wicked life I. O Eternal God give me leave to speak for my self before I die I would fain live and be heal'd I have been too long thine enemy and would not be so for ever My heart is broken within me and all my fortunes are broken without I know not how to speak and I must not I dare not hold my tongue II. O My God can yesterday be recall'd and the flying hours be stopped In my youth I had not the prudence and caution of old age but is it possible that in my old age I may be restored to the hopes and opportunities of youth Thou didst make the Sun to stand still at the prayer of Joshua and return back at the importunity of Hezekiah O do thou make a new account for me and reckon not the dayes of my youth but from this day reckon the beginnings of my life and measure it by the steps of duty and the light of the Sun of Righteousness now rising upon my heart III. I Am ashamed O God I am ashamed that I should betray my reason shame my nature dishonour all my strengths debauch my understanding and baffle all my faculties for so base so vile affections so unrewarding interests O my God where is all that vanity which I suck'd so greedily as the wilde Asses do the wind whither is that pleasure and madness gone which so ravish'd all my senses and made me deaf to the holy charms of thy divinest Spirit Behold O God I die for that which is not and unless thy mercy be my rescue for ever I shall suffer torments insufferable still to come still to succeed for having drunk of unsatisfying perishing waters which had no current no abode IV. O Dear God smite me not yet respite me one portion of time I dare not say how much but even as much as thou pleasest O stay a while and try me but this once It is true O God I have lost my strength and given my vigorous years to that which I am asham'd to think on But yet O Lord if thou pleasest my soul can be as active and dutiful and affectionate and humble and sorrowful and watchful as ever Thou doest not save any for his own worthiness but eternal life is a gift and thou canst if thou pleasest give it unto me But why does my soul run thither with all its loads of sin and shame upon it That is too great yet to be thought of O give me pardon and give me sorrow and give me a great a mighty grace to do the duty of a whole life in the remaining portion of my dayes V. O My gracious Lord whatever thy sentence be yet let me have the honour to serve thee Let me contribute something to thy glory let me converse with thy Saints and Servants in the entercourses of piety let me be admitted to be a servant to the meanest of thy servants to do something that thou lovest O God my God do what thou pleasest so I may not for ever die in the sad and dishonourable impieties of the damned Let me but be admitted to thy service in all the degrees of my soul and all the dayes of my short life and my soul shall have some comfort because I signifie my love and duty to thee for whom I will not refuse to die O my God I will not beg of thee to give me comfort but to give me duty and imployment Smite me if thou pleasest but smite me here kill me if thou pleasest I have deserved it but I would fain live to serve thee and for no other reason but that thou mayest love to pardon and to sanctifie me VI. O Blessed Jesus do thou intercede for me thy Father hears thee in all things and thou knowest our infirmities and hast felt our miseries and didst die to snatch us from the intolerable flames of Hell and although thou givest thy gifts in differing proportions to thy servants yet thou dost equally offer pardon to all thy enemies that will come unto thee and beg it O give me all faith and all charity and a spirit highly compunctive highly industrious passionate prudent and indefatigable in holy services Open thy fountains gracious Lord and bath my stained soul in thy blood Wash the Ethiop cleanse the Leper dress the strangers wounds and forgive thy enemy VII I Will not O my God I dare not distrust those infinite glories of thy mercy and graciousness by which thou art ready to save all the world The sins of all mankinde together are infinitely less then thy mercy and thou who didst redeem the Heathen world wilt also I hope
all spoken against this neither can they unless they also affirm that to arrive at Heaven was the natural end of man For if it be not then neither we nor Adam could by Nature doe things above Nature and if God did concreate Grace with Adam that Grace was nevertheless Grace for being given him as soon as he was made For even the holy Spirit may be given to a Chrysome childe and Christ and S. John Baptist and the Prophet Jeremy are in their several measures and proportions instances of it The result of which is this That the necessity of Grace does not suppose that our Nature is originally corrupted for beyond Adams meer Nature something else was necessary and so it is to us 2. But to the main objection I answer That it is certain there is not onely one but many common principles from which sin derives it self into the manners of all men 1. The first great cause of an universal impiety is that at first God had made no promises of Heaven he had not propounded any glorious rewards to be as an argument to support the superior faculty against the inferior that is to make the will choose the best and leave the worst and to be as a reward for suffering contradiction For if the inferior faculty be pleas'd with its object and that chance to be forbidden as it was in most instances there had need be something to make recompence for the suffering the displeasure of crossing that appetite I use the common manner of speaking and the distinction of superior and inferior faculties though indeed in nature there is no such thing and it is but the same faculty divided between differing objects of which I shall give an account in the Ninth Chapter § 3. But here I take notice of it that it may not with prejudice be taken to the disadvantage of this whole Article For if there be no such difference of faculties founded in Nature then the rebellion of the inferior against the superior is no effect of Adams sin But the inclination to sensual objects being chastis'd by laws and prohibitions hath made that which we call the rebellion of the inferior that is the adherence to sensual objects which was the more certain to remain because they were not at first enabled by great promises of good things to contest against sensual temptations And because there was no such thing in that period of the world therefore almost all flesh corrupted themselves excepting Abel Seth Enos and Enoch we finde not one good man from Adam to Noah and therefore the Apostle calls that world 2 Pet. 2.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the world of the ungodly It was not so much wonder that when Adam had no promises made to enable him to contest his natural concupiscence he should strive to make his condition better by the Devils promises If God had been pleased to have promis'd to him the glories he hath promised to us it is not to be suppos'd he had fallen so easily But he did not and so he fell and all the world followed his example and most upon this account till it pleas'd God after he had tried the world with temporal promises and found them also insufficient to finish the work of his graciousness and to cause us to be born anew by the revelations and promises of Jesus Christ 2. A second cause of the universal iniquity of the world is because our Nature is so hard put to it in many instances not because Nature is originally corrupted but because Gods laws command such things which are a restraint to the indifferent and otherwise lawful inclinations of Nature I instance in the matters of Temperance Abstinence Patience Humility Self-denial and Mortification But more particularly thus A man is naturally inclined to desire the company of a woman whom he fancies This is naturally no sin for the natural desire was put into us by God and therefore could not be evil But then God as an instance and trial of our obedience put fetters upon the indefinite desire and determin'd us to one woman which provision was enough to satisfie our need but not all our possibility This therefore he left as a reserve that by obeying God in the so reasonable restraint of our natural desire we might give him something of our own * But then it is to be considered that our unwillingness to obey in this instance or in any of the other cannot be attributed to Original sin or natural disability deriv'd as a punishment from Adam because the particular instances were postnate a long time to the fall of man and it was for a long time lawful to do some things which now are unlawful But our unwillingness and aversness came by occasion of the law coming cross upon our nature not because our nature is contrary to God but because God was pleas'd to superinduce some Commandements contrary to our nature For if God had commanded us to eat the best meats and drink the richest wines as long as they could please us and were to be had I suppose it will not be thought that Original sin would hinder us from obedience But because we are forbidden to do some things which naturally we desire to do and love therefore our nature is hard put to it and this is the true state of the difficulty Sen. lib. 3. Quaest Natur. c. 3. Citò nequitia subrepit virtus difficilis inventa est Wickedness came in speedily but vertue was hard and difficult 3. But then besides these there are many concurrent causes of evil which have influence upon communities of men such as are Evil examples the similitude of Adams transgression vices of Princes wars impunity ignorance error false principles flattery interest fear partiality authority evil laws heresie schisme spite and ambition natural inclination and other principiant causes which proceeding from the natural weakness of humane constitution are the fountain and proper causes of many consequent evils Quis dabit mundum ab immundo Job 14.14 saith Job How can a clean thing come from an unclean We all naturally have great weaknesses and an imperfect constitution apt to be weary loving variety ignorantly making false measures of good and evil made up with two appetites that is with inclination to several objects serving to contrary interests a thing between Angel and Beast and the later in this life is the bigger ingredient Hominem à Naturâ noverca in lucem edi corpore nudo fragili atque infirmo animo anxio ad molestias humili ad timores debili ad labores proclivi ad libidines in quo Divinus ignis sit obrutus ingenium mores Lib. 4. contra Julianum So Cicero as S. Austin quotes him Nature hath like a stepmother sent man into the world with a naked body a frail and infirm minde vex'd with troubles dejected with fears weak for labours prone to lusts in whom the Divine fire and his wit
punire conscientiam munire non poterant Itaque quae antè palà m fiebant clam fieri coeperunt circumscribi etiam jura For all the threatnings of the Law they were wicked still though not scandalous vile in private and wary in publick they did circumscribe their laws and thought themselves bound onely to the letter and obliged by nothing but the penalty which if they escaped they reckoned themselves innocent Thus far the law instructed them and made them afraid But for the first they grew the more greedy to doe what now they were forbidden to desire The prohibition of the law being like a damme to the waters the desire swels the higher for being check'd and the wisdome of Romulus in not casting up a bank against parricide had this effect that until the end of the second Punick war which was almost DC years there was no example of one that kill'd his Father Lucius Ostius was the first And it is certain that the Easterlings neither were nor had they reason to be fond of Circumcision it was part of that load which was complain'd of by the Apostles in behalf of the Jewish Nation which neither they nor their Fathers could bear and yet as soon as Christ took off the yoke and that it was forbidden to his Disciples the Jews were as fond of it as of their pleasures and fifteen Bishops of Jerusalem in immediate succession were all circumcised and no arguments no authority could hinder them And for their fear it onely produc'd caution and sneaking from the face of men and both together set them on work to corrupt the spirit of the law by expositions too much according to the letter so that by this means their natural desires their lustings and concupiscence were not cured For as Lactantius brought in the Heathen complaining so does S. Paul bring in the Jew That which I doe I allow not Rom. 7.25 19. for what I would that I doe not but what I hate that I doe I say this is the state of a man under the law a man who is not regenerate and made free by the Spirit of Christ that is a man who abides in the infirmities of nature of which the law of nature warn'd him first and the superinduc'd law of God warn'd him more but there was not in these Covenants or Laws sufficient either to endure or to secure obedience they did not minister strength enough to conquer sin to overthrow its power to destroy the kingdome and reign of sin this was reserv'd for the great day of triumph it was the glory of the Gospel the power of Christ the strength of the Spirit which alone was able to doe it and by this with its appendages that is the pardon of sin and a victory over it a conquest by the prevailing and rule of the Spirit by this alone the Gospel is the most excellent above all the covenants and states and institutions of the world But then the Christian must not complain thus if he be advanced into the secrets of the kingdome if he be a Christian in any thing beyond the name he cannot say that sin gives him laws that it reigns in his mortal body that he is led captive by Satan at his will that he sins against his will frequently and habitually and cannot help it But so it is men doe thus complain and which is worse they make this to be their excuse and their incouragement If they have sinn'd foully they say It is true V. 15. but it is not I but sin that dwelleth in me For that which I doe I allow not for what I would that doe I not and what I hate that doe I. And if they be tempted to a sin they cannot be disswaded from it or incouraged to a noble and pertinacious resistance because they have this in excuse ready V. 18. To will is present with me but how to perform that which is good I finde not For the good which I would I doe not but the evil which I would not that I doe That is it is my infirmity give me leave to doe it I am the childe of God for all my sin for I doe it with an unwilling willingness I shall doe this always and shall never be quit of this tyranny of sin It was thus with S. Paul himself and I ought not to hope to be otherwise then he and a person more free from sin We finde in the life of Andronicus written by Nicetas Choniates the same pretence made in excuse for sin they could not help it and we finde it so in our daily experience and the thing it self warranted by many Interpreters of Scripture who suppose that S. Paul in the seventh Chapter to the Romanes from the fourteenth verse to the end describes his own state of infirmity and disability or which is all one the state of a regenerate man that it is no other but an ineffective striving and strugling against sin a contention in which he is most commonly worsted and that this striving is all that he can shew of holiness to be a testimony of his regeneration §. 2. HOw necessary it is to free the words of S. Paul from so dangerous a sense we may easily believe if we consider that to suppose a man who is regenerate by the Spirit of Christ to be still a slave under sin and within its power and that he fain would but cannot help it is very injurious to the power of Christ and the mightiness of the spirit of grace when all its effect is onely said to be that it strives but can doe nothing that is sin abounds more then grace and the man that is redeemed by Christ is still unredeem'd and a captive under sin and Satan this is not onely an incouragement of evil life 1 Joh. 4.4 but a reproach and scorn cast upon the holy Spirit It is verbum dictum contra Spiritum sanctum a word spoken against the holy Ghost Serm. 43. 45. de tempore And as S. Austin cals it it is tuba hostis non nostra unde ille incitetur non unde vincatur the Devils trumpet to encourage him in his war against poor mankinde but by this means he shall never be overcome And therefore he gives us caution of it for speaking of these words The good which I would that do I not but the evil that I would not that I doe advises thus Lectio Divina quae de Apostoli Pauli epistolâ recitata est quotiescunque legitur timendum est ne malè intellecta det hominibus quaerentibus occasionem When ever these words of S. Paul are read we must fear lest the misunderstanding of them should minister an occasion of sin to them that seek it For men are prone to sin and scarce restrain themselves When therefore they hear the Apostle saying I doe not the good which I would but I doe the evil which I hate they do evil and as it were
as in the unregenerate there might be some good such as are good desires knowledge of good and evil single actions of vertue beginnings and dispositions to grace acknowledging of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ some lightnings and flashes of the holy Ghost a knowing of the way of righteousness but sanctifying saving good does not dwell that is doth not abide with them and rule so in the regenerate there is sin but because it does not dwell there they are under the Empire of the Spirit and in Christs Kingdome Gal. 2.20 or as Saint Paul expresses it Christ liveth in them and that cannot be unless sin be crucified and dead in them The summe of which is thus in S. Pauls words Rom. 6.11 12 14. Reckon your selves indeed to be dead unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof For sin shall not have dominion over you because we are not under the law but under grace 7. Lastly the man whom S. Paul describes is carnal but the regenerate is never called carnal in the Scripture Ro 7.14 but is spiritual oppos'd to carnal A man not onely in pure naturals but ever plac'd under the law is called Carnal that is until he be redeemed by the Spirit of Christ he cannot be called spiritual but is yet in the flesh Now that the regenerate cannot be the carnal man is plain in the words of S. Paul Rom. 8.7 The carnal minde is enmity against God and they that are in the flesh cannot please God To which he addes But ye are not in the flesh V. 8. but in the Spirit if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you But the Spirit of God does dwell in all the servants of God in all the regenerate V. 9. For if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his Now as these are in Scripture distinguished in their appellatives and in their character so also in their operations They that are carnal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 V. 5. according to the flesh do minde or relish the things of the flesh They that are after the Spirit do minde the things of the Spirit And they that are Christs Gal. 5.24 have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts Now they that have crucified the flesh cannot in any sense of Scripture or Religion be called Carnal That there is something of carnality in the regenerate is too true because our regeneration and spirituality in this life is imperfect But when carnal and spiritual are oppos'd in Scripture and the Question is Whether of these two is to be attributed to the servants and sons of God to the Regenerate it is certain by the analogy of the thing and the perpetual manner of speaking in Scripture that by this word Carnal the Spirit of God never means the sons of God or the spiritual that is the Regenerate Rom. 8. The sons of God are led by the Spirit of God therefore not by the flesh which they have crucified Whatsoever is essential to regeneration to new birth to the being the sons of God all that is in the regenerate for they cannot be that thing of which they want an essential part as a thing cannot be a body unless it be divisible nor a living creature if it have not life Therefore regeneration is perfect in respect of its essentials or necessary parts of constitution But in the degrees there is imperfection and therefore the abatement is made by the intermixture of carnality For it is in our new and spiritual birth as in our natural The childe is a man in all essential parts but he is as a beast in some of his operations he hath all the faculties of a man but not the strengths of a man but grows to it by the progression and encrease of every day So is the spiritual man regenerate in his minde his will his affections and therefore when carnal and spiritual are oppos'd in their whole nature and definitions the spiritual man is not the carnal though he still retain some of the weaknesses of the flesh against which he contends every day To this purpose are those words of S. Leo. De resuâ— Dom. Quamvis spe salvi facti sumus corruptionem adhuc carnémque mortalem gestamus rectè tamen dicimur in carne non esse si carnales nobis non dominentur affectus meritò ejus deponimus nuncupationem cujus non sequimur voluntatem We are not to be called Carnal though we bear about us flesh and its infirmities yet if carnal affections doe not rule over us well are we to quit the name when we doe not obey the thing Now if any man shall contend that a man may be called Carnal if the flesh strives against the Spirit though sin does not rule I shall not draw the Saw of Contention with him but onely say that it is not usually so in Scripture and in this place of which we now dispute the sense and use it is not so for by Carnal S. Paul means such a person upon whom sin reigns I am carnal V. 14. sold under sin therefore this person is not the spiritual not the regenerate or the son of God 1 Cor. 3.1 2â—3 S. Paul uses the word Carnal in a comparative locution for babes and infants or unskilful persons in the Religion but then this carnality he proves to be in them wholly by their inordinate walking by their strifes and contentions by their being Schismaticks and therefore he reproves them which he had no reason to doe if himself also had been carnal in that sense which he reproves The Conclusion from all these premises is I suppose sufficiently demonstrated that S. Paul does not in the seventh Chapter to the Romans describe the state of himself really or of a regenerate person neither is this state of doing sin frequently though against our will a state of unavoidable infirmity but a state of death and unregeneration §. 3. St. Austin did for ever reject that interpretation and indeed so did the whole Primitive Church but yet he having once expounded this Chapter of the unregenerate or a man under the law not redeemed by the Spirit of Christ from his vain conversation he retracted this Exposition Ver. 15. 19. and constru'd those words in question thus Non ergo quod vult agit Apostolus quia vult non concupiscere Serm. 43. 45. de temp tamen concupiscit ideo non quod vult agit The Apostle does not doe what he would because he would fain not desire but yet because he desires he does what he would not Did that desire lead him captive to fornication God forbid He did strive but was not mastered but because he would not have had that concupiscence left against which he should contend therefore he said What I would
the lusts of the flesh To doe one is not to doe the other whoever fulfils the lusts of the flesh and is rul'd by that law he is not ruled by the grace of Christ he is not regenerate by the Spirit But the other sense is the best reddition of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if he had said Walk in the Spirit and then the event will be that the flesh shall not prevail over you or give you laws you shall not then fulfil the lusts thereof And this is best agreeable to the purpose of the Apostle For having exhorted the Galatians that they should not make their Christian liberty a pretence to the flesh Ver. 23. as the best remedy against their enemy the flesh he prescribes this walking in the Spirit which is a certain deletery and prevalency over the flesh And the reason follows for the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh so that ye cannot doe the things that ye would that is though ye be inclined to and desirous of satisfying your carnal desires yet being under the empire and conduct of the Spirit ye cannot doe those desires the Spirit over-rules you and you must you will contradict your carnal appetites For else this could not be as the Apostle designs it a reason of his exhortation For if he had meant that in this contention of flesh and Spirit we could not doe the good things that we would then the reason had contradicted the proposition For suppose it thus Walk in the Spirit and fulfil not the lusts of the flesh For the flesh and the Spirit lust against each other so that ye cannot doe the good ye would This I say is not sense for the latter part contradicts the former For this thing that the flesh hinders us from doing the things of the Spirit is so far from being a reason why we should walk in the Spirit that it perfectly discourages that design and it is to little purpose to walk in the Spirit if this will not secure us against the domineering and tyranny of the flesh But the contrary is most clear and consequent If ye walk in the Spirit ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh for though the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and would fain prevail yet it cannot for the Spirit also lusteth against the flesh and is stronger so that ye may not or that ye doe not or that ye cannot for any of these readings as it may properly render the words of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so are not against the design of the Apostle do what ye otherwise would fain do and therefore if ye will walk in the Spirit ye are secured against the flesh The result is this 1. An impious profane person sins without any contention that is with a clear ready and a prepared will he dies and disputes not 2. An animal man or a meer moral man that is one under the law one instructed and convinced by the letter but not sanctified by the Spirit he sins willingly because he considers and chooses it but he also sins unwillingly that is his inclinations to vice and his first choices are abated and the pleasures allayed and his peace disturbed and his sleeps broken but for all that he sins on when the next violent temptation comes The contention in him is between Reason and Passion the law of the minde and the law of the members between conscience and sin that weak this prevailing 3. But the Regenerate hath the same contention within him and the temptation is sometimes strong within him yet he overcomes it and seldome fails in any material and considerable instances Because the Spirit is the prevailing ingredient in the new Creature in the constitution of the regenerate and will prevail For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world 1 Joh. 9.4 5. and this is the victory that overcometh the world even your faith that is by the faith of Jesus Christ by him you shall have victory and redemption and again Resist the devil and he will flee from you Jam. 4.7 1 Joh. 4. for he that is within you is stronger then he that is in the world and Put on the whole armour of God Eph. 6.11 13. that ye may stand against the snares of the devil that ye may resist in the evil day and having done all to stand for Mark 9.23 All things are possible to him that believes and Through Christ that strengthens me I can doe all things Phil. 4.13 and therefore in all these things we are more then conquerours for Eph. 3.20 Rom. 8.13 〈◊〉 37. God is able to doe above all that we can ask or think he can keep us from all sin and present us unblameable in the sight of his glory So that to deny the power of the Spirit in breaking the tyranny and subduing the lusts of the flesh besides that it contradicts all these and divers other Scriptures it denies the Omnipotency of God Jude 24. and of the Spirit of his grace making sin to be stronger then it and if grace abound to make sin superabound but to deny the willingness of the Spirit to redeem us from the captivity of sin is to lessen the reputation of his goodness and to destroy the possibility and consequently the necessity of living holily But how happens it then that even the regenerate sins often and the flesh prevails upon the ruine or the declensions of the Spirit I answer It is not because that holy principle which is in the regenerate cannot or will not secure him but because the man is either prepossess'd with the temptation and overcome before he begins to oppose the arms of the Spirit that is because he is surpris'd or incogitant or it may be careless the good man is asleep and then the enemy takes his advantage and sows tares for if he were awake and considering and would make use of the strengths of the Spirit he would not be overcome by sin For there are powers enough that is arguments and endearments helps and sufficient motives to enable us to resist the strongest temptation in the world and this one alone of resurrection to eternal life which is revealed to us by Jesus Christ and ministred in the Gospel is an argument greater then all the promises and inticements of sin if we will attend to its efficacy and consequence But if we throw away our arms and begin a fight in the Spirit and end it in the flesh the ill success of the day is to be imputed to us not to the Spirit of God to whom if we had attended we should certainly have prevailed * The reliques and remains of sin are in the regenerate but that is a sign that sin is overcome and the kingdome of it broken and that is a demonstration that when ever sin does prevail in any single instances it is not for want of power but of using that power for
Spiritual and Evangelical that is not only that good which he is taught by natural reason or by civil sanctions or by use and experience of things but even that also which is onely taught us by the Spirit of grace For if he can desire the first much more may he desire the latter when he once comes to know it because there is in spiritual good things much more amability they are more perfective of our minde and a greater advancer of our hopes and a security to our greatest interest Neither can this be prejudic'd by those words of S. Paul 1 Cor. 2.24 The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned For the naturall man S. Paul speaks of is one unconverted to Christianity the Gentile Philosophers who relied upon such principles of nature as they understood but studied not the Prophets knew not of the Miracles of Christ and his Apostles nor of those excellent verifications of the things of the Spirit and therefore these men could not arrive at spiritual notices because they did not go that way which was the onely competent and proper instrument of finding them Scio incapacem te Sacramenti impie Prudent Non posse caecis mentibus mysterium Haurire nostrum They that are impious and they that go upon distinct principles neither obeying the proposition nor loving the Commandement they indeed viz. remaining in that indisposition cannot receive that is entertain him And this is also the sense of the words of our blessed Saviour Joh. 14 17. The world cannot receive him that is the unbeleevers such who will not be perswaded by arguments Evangelical But a man may be a spiritual man in his notices and yet be carnal in his affections and still under the bondage of sin 2 Pet. 2 21. Such are they of whom S. Peter affirms it is better they had never known the way of righteousness then having known it to fall away Such are they of whom S. Paul says Rom. 1.18 They detain the truth in unrighteousness Now concerning this man it is that I affirm that upon the same account as any vicious man can commend vertue this man also may commend holiness and desire to be a holy man and wishes it with all his heart there being the same proportion between his minde and the things of the Spirit as between a Jew and the Moral Law or a Gentile and Moral vertue that is he may desire it with passion and great wishings But here is the difference A regenerate man does what the unregenerate man does but desire 4. An unregenerate man may leave many sins which he is commanded to forsake For it is not ordinarily possible that so perfect a conviction as such men may have of the excellency of religion should be in all instances and periods totally ineffective Something they will give to reputation something to fancy something to fame something to peace something to their own deception that by quitting one or two lusts they may have some kinde of peace in all the rest and think all is well These men sometimes would fain obey the law but they will not crucify the flesh any thing that does not smart Their temper and constitution will allow them easily to quit such superinduc'd follies which out of a gay or an impertinent spirit they have contracted or which came to them by company or by chance or confidence or violence but if they must mortify the flesh to quit a lust that 's too hard and beyond their powers which are in captivity to the law of sin * Some men will commute a duty and if you will allow them covetousness they will quit their lust or their intemperance according as it happens Herod did many things at the preaching of John the Baptist and heard him gladly Balaum did some things handsomely though he was covetous and ambitious yet he had a limit he would obey the voyce of the Angel and could not be tempted to speak a curse when God spake a blessing Ahab was an imperfect penitent he did some things but not enough And if there be any root of bitterness there is no regeneration Colloquintida and Death is in the pot 5. An unregenerate man may leave some sins not onely for temporal interest but out of reverence of the Divine law out of fear and reverence Under the law there were many such and there is no peradventure but that many men who like Felix have trembled at a Sermon have with such a shaking fit left off something that was fit to be laid aside To leave a sin out of fear of the Divine judgement is not sinful or totally unacceptable All that lest sin in obedience and reverence to the law did it in fear of punishment because fear was the sanction of the law and even under the Gospel to obey out of fear of punishment though it be less perfect yet it is not criminal nay rather on the other side The worse that men are so much the less they are afraid of the Divine anger judgements To abstain out of fear is to abstain out of a very proper motive and God when he sends a judgement with a design of emendation or threatens a criminal or denounces woes and cursings intends that fear should be the beginning of wisdome Knowing therefore the terrors of the Lord 2 Cor. 5.11 we perswade men saith S. Paul And the whole design of delivering criminals over to Satan was but a pursuance of this argument of fear that by feeling something they might fear a worse and for the present be affrighted from their sin And this was no other then the argument which our blessed Saviour used to the poor Paralytick Goe and sin no more lest a worse thing happen to thee But besides that this good fear may work much in an unregenerate person or a man under the law such a person may doe some things in obedience to God or thankfulness and perfect meer choice So Jehu obeyed God a great way but there was a turning and a high stile beyond which he would not goe and his principles could not carry him through Few women can accuse themselves of adultery in the great lines of chastity they choose to obey God and the voyce of honour but can they say that their eye is not wanton that they do not spend great portions of their time in vanity that they are not idle and useless or busy-bodies that they doe not make it much of their imployment to talk of fashions and trifles or that they do make it their business to practise religion to hear and attend to severe and sober counsels If they be under the conduct of the Spirit he hath certainly carried them into all the regions of duty But to goe a great way and not to nnish the journey is the imperfection of the unregenerate For in some persons fear
or love of God is not of it self strong enough to weigh down the scales but there must be thrown in something from without some generosity of spirit or revenge or gloriousness and bravery or natural pity or interest and so far as these or any of them go along with the better principle this will prevail but when it must goe alone it is not strong enough But this is a great way off from the state of sanctification or a new birth 6. An unregenerate man besides the abstinence from much evil may also do many good things for heaven and yet never come thither He may be sensible of his danger and sad condition and pray to be delivered from it and his prayers shall not be heard because he does not reduce his prayers to action and endevour to be what he desires to be Almost every man desires to be sav'd but this desire is not with every one of that perswasion and effect as to make them willing to want the pleasures of the world for it or to perform the labours of charity repentance A man may strive and contend in or towards the ways of godliness and yet fall short Many men pray often fast much and pay tithes do justice and keep the Commandements of the second Table with great integrity and so are good moral men as the word is used in opposition to or rather in destrution of religion Some are religious and not just some want sincerity in both and of this the Pharisees were a great example But the words of our blessed Saviour are the greatest testimony in this article Many shall strive to enter and shall not be able Luke 13.14 Either they shall contend too late like the five foolish Virgins and as they whom S. Paul by way of caution likens to Esau or else they contend with incompetent and insufficient strengths they strive but put not force enough to the work An unregenerate man hath not strengths enough that is he wants the spirit and activity and perfectness of resolution Not that he wants such aids as are necessary and sufficient but that himself hath not purposes pertinacious and resolutions strong enough All that is necessary to his assistance from without all that he hath or may have but that which is necessary on his own part he hath not but that 's his own fault that he might also have and it is in his duty and therefore certainly in his power to have it For a man is not capable of a law which he hath not powers sufficient to obey he must be free and quit from all its contraries from the power and dominion of them or at least must be so free that he may be quit of them if he please For there can be no liberty but where all the impediments are remov'd or may be if the man will 7. An unregenerate man may have received the Spirit of God and yet be in a state of distance from God For to have received the holy Ghost is not an inseparable propriety of the regenerate The Spirit of God is an internal agent that is the effects and graces of the Spirit by which we are assisted are within us before they operate For although all assistances from without are graces of God the effects of Christs passion purchased for us by his bloud and by his intercesson and all good company wise counsels apt notices prevailing arguments moving objects and opportunities and endearments of vertue are from above from the Father of lights yet the Spirit of God does also work more inwardly and creates in us aptnesses and inclinations consentings and the acts of conviction and adherence working in us to will and to doe according to our desire or according to Gods good pleasure yet this holy Spirit is oftentimes grieved sometimes provoked and at last extinguish'd which because it is done onely by them who are enemies of the Spirit and not the servants of God it follows that the Spirit of God by his aids and assistances is in them that are not so with a design to make them so and if the holy Spirit were not in any degree or sense in the unregenerate how could a man be born again by the Spirit for since no man can be regenerate by his own strengths his new birth must be wrought by the Spirit of God and especially in the beginnings of our conversion is his assistance necessary which assistance because it works within as well and rather then without must needs be in a man before he operates within And therefore to have received the holy Spirit is not the propriety of the regenerate but to be led by him to be conducted by the Spirit in all our wayes and counsels to obey his motions to entertain his doctrine to do his pleasure This is that which gives the distinction and the denomination Rom. 8.9 And this is called by S. Paul the inhabitation of the Spirit of God in us in opposition to the inhabitans peccatum the sin that dwelleth in the unregenerate The Spirit may be in us calling and urging us to holiness but unless the Spirit of God dwell in us and abide in us and love to doe so and rule and give us laws and be not griev'd and cast out but entertain'd and cherish'd and obey'd unless I say the Spirit of God be thus in us Christ is not in us and if Christ be not in us we are none of his § 6. The Character of the Regenerate estate or person FRom hence it is not hard to describe what are the proper indications of the Regenerate 1. A regenerate person is convinc'd of the goodness of the law and meditates in it day and night Psal 1.2 Psal 119.77 103. His delight is in Gods law not onely with his minde approving but with his will choosing the duties and significations of the law 2. The Regenerate not onely wishes that the good were done which God commands but heartily sets about the doing of it 3. He sometimes feels the rebellions of the flesh but he fights against them alwayes and if he receive a fall he rises instantly and fights the more fiercely and watches the more cautelously and prays the more passionately and arms himself more strongly and prevails more prosperously In a regenerate person there is flesh and Spirit but the Spirit onely rules There is an outward and an inward man but both of them are subject to the Spirit There was a law of the members but it is abrogated and cancell'd the law is repeal'd and does not any more inslave him to the law of sin Aug. l. de Contin c. 2. Nunc quamdiu concupiscit caro adversus spiritum spiritus adversus carnem sat est nobis non consentire malis quae sentimus in nobis Every good man shall alwayes feel the flesh lusting against the Spirit that contention he shall never be quit of but it is enough for us if we never consent
that hath none is dead 13. Let no man think that the proper evil of his age or state or of his Nation is in the latitude and nature of it a sin of a pardonable infirmity The lusts of youth and the covetousness or pride of old age and the peevishness of the afflicted are states of evil not sins of infirmity For it is highly considerable that sins of infirmity are but single ones There is no such thing as a state of a pardonable infirmity If by distemper of the body or the vanity of years or the evil customes of a Nation a vice does creep upon and seise on the man it is that against which the man ought to watch and pray and labour it is a state of danger and temptation But that must not be called infirmity which corrupts Nations and states of life but that onely which in single instances surprises even a watchful person when his guards are most remiss 14. Whatsoever sin comes regularly or by observation is not to be excused upon the pretence of infirmity but is the indication of an evil habit Therefore never admit a sin upon hopes of excuse for it is certain no evil that a man chooses is excusable cusable No man sins with a pardon about his neck But if the sin comes at a certain time it comes from a certain cause and then it cannot be infirmity for all sins of infirmity are sins of chance irregular and accidental 15. Be curious to avoid all proverbs and propositions or odde sayings by which evil life is incouraged and the hands of the spirit weakned It is strange to consider what a prejudice to a mans understanding of things is a contrary proverb Can any good thing come out of Galilee And when Christ cometh no man knoweth whence he is Two or three proverbs did in despight of all the miracles and holy doctrines and rare example of Christ hinder many of the Jews from beleeving in him The words of S. Paul misunderstood and worse applied have been so often abused to evil purposes that they have almost passed into a proverbial excuse The evil that I would not that I doe Such sayings as these are to be tried by the severest measures and all such senses of them which are enemies to holiness of life are to be rejected because they are against the whole Oeconomy and design of the Gospel of the life and death of Christ But a proverb being used by every man is supposed to contain the opinion and belief or experience of mankinde and then that evil sense that we are pleased to put to them will be thought to be of the same authority I have heard of divers persons who have been strangely intic'd on to finish their revellings and drunken conventicles by a catch or a piece of a song by a humor and a word by a bold saying or a common proverb and whoever take any measures of good evil but the severest discourses of reason and religion will be like a ship turned every way by a little piece of wood by chance and by half a sentence because they dwell upon the water and a wave of the Sea is their foundation 16. Let every man take heed of a servile will and a commanding lust for he that is so miserable is in a state of infirmity and death and will have a perpetual need of something to hide his folly or to excuse it but shall finde nothing He shall be forc'd to break his resolution to sin against his conscience to doe after the manner of fools who promise and pay not who resolve and doe not who speak and remember not who are fierce in their pretences and designs but act them as dead men do their own wils They make their will but die and doe nothing themselves 17. Endevour to doe what can never be done that is to cure all thy infirmities For this is thy victory for ever to contend and although God will leave a remnant of Canaanites in the land to be thy daily exercise and endearment of care and of devotion yet you must not let them alone or entertain a treaty of peace with them But when you have done something goe on to finish it It is infinite pity that any good thing should be spent or thrown away upon a lust But if we sincerely endevour to be masters of every action we shall be of most of them and for the rest they shall trouble thee but do thee no other mischief We must keep the banks that the Sea break not in upon us but no man can be secure against the drops of rain that fall upon the heads of all mankinde but yet every man must get as good shelter as he can The PRAYER I. O Almighty God the Father of Mercy and Holiness thou art the fountain of grace and strength and thou blessest the sons of men by turning them from their iniquities shew the mightiness of thy power and the glories of thy grace by giving me strength against all my enemies and victory in all temptations and watchfulness against all dangers and caution in all difficulties and hope in all my fears and recollection of minde in all distractions of spirit and fancy that I may not be a servant of chance or violence of interest or passion of fear or desire but that my will may rule the lower man and my understanding may guide my will and thy holy Spirit may conduct my understanding that in all contentions thy Spirit may prevail and in all doubts I may choose the better part and in the midst of all contradictions and temptations and infelicities I may be thy servant infallibly and unalterably Amen II. BLessed Jesu thou art our High-priest and incompassed with infirmities but always without sin relieve and pity me O my gracious Lord who am encompassed with infirmities but seldome or never without sin O my God my ignorances are many my passions violent my temptations ensnaring and deceitful my observation little my inadvertencies innumerable my resolutions weak my dangers round about me my duty and obligations full of variety and the instances very numerous O be thou unto me wisdome and righteousness sanctification and redemption Thou hast promised thy holy Spirit to them that ask him let thy Spirit help my infirmities give to me his strengths instruct me with his notices encourage me with his promises affright me with his terrors confirm me with his courage that I being readily prepared and furnished for every good work may grow with the increase of God to the full measure of the stature and fulness of thee my Saviour that though my outward man decay and decrease yet my inner man may be renewed day by day that my infirmities may be weaker and thy grace stronger and at last may triumph over the decayes of the old man O be thou pleased to pity my infirmities and pardon all those actions which proceed from weak principles that when I doe what I can I may
be accepted and when I fail of that I may be pitied and pardoned and in all my fights and necessities may be defended and secured prospered and conducted to the regions of victory and triumph of strength and glory through the mercies of God and the grace of our Lord Jesus and the blessed communication of the Spirit of God and our Lord Jesus Amen CHAP. VIII Of the effect of Repentance viz. Remission of sins §. 1. THE law written in the Heart of man is a law of obedience which because we prevaricated we are taught another which S. Austin says is written in the Heart of Angels Lib. 6. cont Julian c. 9. Vt nulla sit iniquitas impunita nisi quam sanguis Mediatoris expiaverit For God the Father spares no sinner but while he looks upon the face of his Son but that in him our sins should be pardon'd and our persons spared is as necessary a consideration as any S. Ambr. de poenit l. 1. c. 2. Nemo enim potest benè agere poenitentiam nisi qui speraverit indulgentiam To what purpose does God call us to Repentance if at the same time he does not invite us to pardon It is the state and misery of the damned to repent without hope and if this also could be the state of the penitent in this life the Sermons of Repentance were useless and comfortless Gods mercies were none at all to sinners the institution and office of preaching and reconciling penitents were impertinent and man should die by the laws of Angels who never was enabled to live by their strength and measures and consequently all mankinde were infinitely and eternally miserable lost irrecoverably perishing without a Saviour tied to a law too hard for him and condemned by unequal and intolerable sentences Tertullian considering that God threatens all impenitent sinners Lib. 2. de poenit argues demonstratively Neque enim comminaretur non poenitenti si non ignosceret delinquenti If men repent not God will be severely angry it will be infinitely the worse for us if we doe not and shall it be so too if we doe repent God forbid Frustra mortuus est Christus si aliquos vivificare non potest S. Hierom. Epist ad Ocean Mentitur Johannes Baptista digito Christum voce demonstrans Ecce agnus Dei ecce qui tollit peccata mundi si sunt adhuc in saeculo quorum Christus peccata non tulerit In vain did Christ die if he cannot give life to all And the Baptist deceiv'd us when he pointed out Christ unto us saying Behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world if there were any in the world whose sins Christ hath not born But God by the old Prophets called upon them who were under the Covenant of Works in open appearance Exod. 34.6 Psa 103. per totum 128. Isa 55.7 8. Jer. 18.7 8. Ezek. 18.21 22. 33.11 Dan. 4.27 Mal. 3.7 Joel 2.13 Jonah 4.2 3.9 that they also should repent and by antedating the mercies of the Gospel promised pardon to the penitent He promised mercy by Moses and the Prophets He proclaimed his Name to be Mercy and Forgiveness He did solemnly swear he did not desire the death of a sinner but that he should repent and live and the holy Spirit of God haâ—â— respersed every book of holy Scripture with great and legible lines of mercy and sermons of Repentance In short it was the summe of all the Sermons which were made by those whom God sent with his word in their mouthes that they should live innocently or when they had sinned they should repent and be sav'd from their calamity But when Christ came into the world he open'd the fountains of mercy and broke down all the banks of restraint he preach'd Repentance offer'd health gave life call'd all wearied and burthen'd persons to come to him for ease and remedy he glorified his Fathers mercies and himself became the great instrument and channel of its emanation He preach'd and commanded mercy by the example of God he made his Religion that he taught to be wholly made up of doing and receiving good this by Faith that by Charity He commanded an indefinite and unlimited forgiveness of our brother repenting after injuries done to us seventy times seven times and though there could be little quostion of that yet he was pleased to signifie to us that as we needed more so we should have and finde more mercy at the hands of God And therefore he hath appointed a whole order of men whom he maintains at his own charges and furnishes with especial commissions Mat. 1â— 15 16. Joh. 20.23 2 Cor. 7.10 Gal. 6.1 Jam. 1.15 16 19 20. 1 Joh. 2.11 1.9 Rev. 2.5 3.1 2 3 19 20. and endues with a lasting power and imployes on his own errand and instructs with his own Spirit whose business is to remit and retain to exhort and to restore sinners by the means of Repentance and the word of their proper Ministery Whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted that 's their Authority and their Office is to pray all men in Christs stead to be reconciled to God And after all this Christ himself labours to bring it to effect not onely assisting his Ministers with the gifts of an excellent Spirit and exacting of them the account of Souls but that it may be prosperous and effectual himself intercedes in Heaven before the Throne of Grace doing for sinners the office of an Advocate and a Reconciler If any man sins 1 Joh. 2.2 3. we have an Advocate with the Father and he is the propitiation for all our sins and for the sins of the whole world and therefore it is not onely the matter of our hopes but an Article of our Creed that we may have forgiveness of our sins by the blood of Jesus Qui nullum excepit in Christo donavit omnia God hath excepted none and therefore in Christ pardons all For there is not in Scripture any Catalogue of sins set down for which Christ died and others excluded from that state of mercy All that believe and repent shall be pardon'd if they go and sin no more Deus distinctionem non facit qui misericordiam suam promisit omnibus relaxandi licentiam sacerdotibus suis sine ullâ exceptione concessit Lib. 1. de poenit c. 2. said S. Ambrose God excepts none but hath given power to his Ministers to release all absolutely all And S. Bernard argues this Article upon the account of those excellent examples which the Spirit of God hath consign'd to us in holy Scripture If Peter after so great a fall did arrive to such an eminence of sanctity In solenni Petri Pauli Ser. 3. hereafter who shall despair provided that he will depart from his sins For that God is ready to forgive the greatest Criminals if they repent appears in the instances of Ahab and
and a long iniquity the unhappy man shall be restor'd because it wholly depends upon the Divine acceptance In smaller offences and the seldome returns of sin intervening in a good or a probable life the Curates of souls may make safe and prudent judgements But when the case is high and the sin is clamorous or scandalous or habitual they ought not to be too easy in speaking peace to such persons to whom God hath so fiercely threatned death eternal But to hold their hands may possibly increase the sorrow and contrition and fear of the penitent and returning man and by that means make him the surer of it But it is too great a confidence and presumption to dispense Gods pardon or the Kings upon easy terms and without their Commission For since all the rule and measures of dispensing it is by analogies and proportions by some reason and much conjecture it were better by being restrain'd in the Ministeries of favour to produce fears and watchfulness carefulness and godly sorrow then by an open hand to make sinners bold and many confident and easy Those holy and wise men who were our Fathers in Christ did well weigh the dangers into which a sinning man had entred and did dreadfully fear the issues of the Divine anger and therefore although they openly taught that God hath set open the gates of mercy to all worthy penitents yet concerning repentance they had other thoughts then we have and that in the pardon of sinners there are many more things to be considered besides the possibility of having the sin pardoned §. 4. Of the sin against the Holy Ghost and in what sense it is or may be Unpardonable UPon what account the Primitive Church did refuse to admit certain Criminals to repentance I have already discoursed but because there are some places of Scripture which seem to have incouraged such severity by denying repentance also to some sinners it is necessary that they be considered also lest by being misunderstood some persons in the days of their sorrow be tempted to despair The Novatians denying repentance to lapsed Christians pretended for their warrant those words of S. Paul Heb. 6.4 5 6. It is impossible for those who were once inlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come if they shall fall away to renew them again unto repentance seeing they crucify to themselves the son of God afresh and put him to an open shame and parallel to this are those other words Hebr. 10.26 27. For if we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins but a certain fearful looking for of judgement and fiery indignation which shal consume the adversaries The sense of which words will be clear upon the explicating what is meant by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and what by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If they shall fall away viz. from that state of excellent things in which they had received all the present endearments of the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a full conviction pardon of sins the earnest of the Spirit the comfort of the promises an antepast of heaven it self if these men shall fall away from all this it cannot be by infirmity by ignorance by surprise this is that which S. Paul cals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to sin wilfully after they have received the knowledge of the truth Malicious sinners these are who sin against the Holy Spirit whose influences they throw away whose counsels they despise whose comforts they refuse whose doctrine they scorn and from thence fall not onely into one single wasting sin but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they fall away into a contrary state into Heathenism or the heresy of the Gnosticks or to any state of despising and hating Christ expressed here by Crucifying the Son of God afresh and putting him to an open shame these are they here meant such who after they had worshipped Jesus and given up their names to him and had been blessed by him and felt it and acknowledged it and rejoyc'd in it these men afterwards without cause or excuse without error or infirmity choosingly willingly knowingly call'd Christ an Impostor and would have crucified him again if he had been alive that is they consented to his death by believing that he suffer'd justly This is the case here described and cannot be drawn to any thing else but its parallel that is a malicious renouncing charity or holy life as these men did the faith to both which they had made their solemne vows in Baptism but this can no way be drawn to the condemnation and final excision of such persons who after baptism fall into any great sin of which they are willing to repent There is also something peculiar in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 renewing such men to repentance that is these men are not to be redintegrate and put into the former condition they cannot be restored to any other gracious Covenant of repentance since they have despis'd this Other persons who hold fast their profession and forget not that they were cleansed in baptism they in case they doe fall into sin may proceed in the same method in their first renovation to repentance that is in their being solemnly admitted to the method and state of repentance for all sins known and unknown But when this renovation is renounc'd when they despise the whole Oeconomy when they reject this grace and throw away the Covenant there is nothing left for such but a fearful looking for of judgement for these persons are incapable of the mercies of the Gospel they are out of the way For there being but one way of salvation viz. by Jesus Christ whom they renounce neither Moses nor Nature nor any other name can restore them And 2. Their case is so bad and they so impious and malicious that no man hath power to perswade such men to accept of pardon by those means which they so disown For there is no means of salvation but this one and this one they hate and will not have they will not return to the old and there is none left by which they can be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 renewed and therefore their condition is desperate But the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or impossible is also of special importance and consideration 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is impossible to renew such For impossible is not to be understood in the natural sense but in the legal and moral There are degrees of impossibility and therefore they are not all absolute and supreme So when the law hath condemned a criminal we usually say it is impossible for him to escape meaning that the law is clearly against him Magnus ab infernis revocetur Tullius umbris Mart. Ep. l. 4.
Ep. 16. Et te defendat Regulus ipse licèt Non potes absolvi That is your cause is lost you are inexcusable there is no apology no pleading for you and that the same is here meant we understand by those parallel words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is left no sacrifice for him alluding to Moses law in which for them that sin'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with a high hand Heb. 10.26 for them that despised Moses law there was no sacrifice appointed which Ben Maimon expounds saying that for Apostates there was no sacrifice in the law So that it is impossible to renew such means that it is ordinarily impossible we have in the discipline of the Church no door of reconciliation If he repents of this he is not the same man but if he remains so the Church hath no promise to be heard if she prays for him which is the last thing that the Church can doe To absolve him is to warrant him that in this case is absolutely impossible but to pray for him is to put him into some hopes and for that she hath in this case no commission For this is the sin unto death of which S. John speaks and gives no incouragement to pray So that impossible does signify in sensu forensi a state of sin which is sentenc'd by the law to be capital and damning but here it signifies the highest degree of that deadliness and impossibility as there are degrees of malignity and desperation in mortal diseases for of all evils this state here described is the worst And therefore here is an impossibility But besides all other senses of this word it is certain by the whole frame of the place and the very analogy of the Gospel that this impossibility here mentioned is not an impossibility of the thing but onely relative to the person It is impossible to restore him whose state of evil is contrary to pardon and restitution as being a renouncing the Gospel that is the whole Covenant of pardon and repentance Such is that parallel expression used by S. John 1 Joh. 3.9 He that is born of God sinneth not neither indeed can he that is it is impossible he cannot sin for the seed of God remaineth in him Now this does not signify that a good man cannot possibly sin if he would that is it does not signify a natural or an absolute impossibility but such as relates to the present state and condition of the person being contrary to sin the same with that of S. Paul Be ye led by the spirit Gal. 5.17 for the spirit lusteth against the flesh so that ye cannot doe the things which ye would viz. which the flesh would fain tempt you to A good man cannot sin that is very hardly can he be brought to choose or to delight in it he cannot sin without a horrible trouble and uneasiness to himself so on the other side such Apostates as the Apostle speaks of cannot be renewed that is without extreme difficulty and a perfect contradiction to that state in which they are for the present lost But if this man will repent with a repentance proportion'd to that evil which he hath committed that he ought not to despair of pardon in the Court of Heaven we have the affirmation of Justin Martyr Dial. cont Tryph. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They that confess and acknowledge him to be Christ and for whatsoever cause goe from him to the secular conversation viz. to Heathenism or Judaism c. denying that he is Christ and not confessing him again before their death they can never be saved So that this impossibility concerns not those that return and doe confess him but those that wilfully and maliciously reject this onely way of salvation as false and deceitful and never return to the confession of it again which is the greatest sin against the Holy Ghost of which I am in the next place to give a more particular account §. 5. HE that speaketh against the Holy Ghost Matth. 12.32 it shall never be forgiven him in this world nor in the world to come so said our blessed Saviour Origen and the Novatians after him when the Scholars of Novatus to justify their Masters Schism from the Church had chang'd the good old discipline into a new and evil doctrine said that all the sins of Christians committed after Baptism are sins against the Holy Ghost by whom in Baptism they have been illuminated and by him they were taught in the Gospel and by him they were consign'd in confirmation and promoted in all the assistances and Conduct of grace and they gave this reason for it Because the Father is in all Creatures the Son only in the Reasonable and the Holy Spirit in Christians against which if they prevaricate they shall not be pardon'd while the sins of Heathens as being onely against the Son are easily pardon'd in baptism I shall not need to refute this fond opinion as being already done by S. Athanasius in a Book purposely written on this subject and it fals alone for that to sin against the Holy Ghost is not proper to Christians appears in this that Christ charg'd it upon the Pharisees and that every sin of Christians is not this sin against the Holy Ghost appears because Christians are perpetually called upon to repent for to what purpose should any man be called from his sin if by returning he shall not escape damnation or if he shall then that sin is not against the Holy Ghost or if it be that sin is not unpardonable either of which destroys their fond affirmative S. Austin makes final impenitence to be it against which opinion though many things may be oppos'd yet it is openly confuted in being charged upon the Pharisees who were not then guilty of final impenitence But the instance clears the article The Pharisees saw the light of Gods Spirit manifestly shining in the miracles which Christ did and they did not onely despise his Person and persecute it which is speaking against the Son of Man that is sinning against him for speaking against is sinning or doing against it in the Jews manner of expression but they also spightfully and maliciously blasphemed that Spirit and that power of God by which they were convinc'd and by which such Miracles were done Vers 36. And this was that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that idle and unprofitable word spoken of in the following verses by which Christ said they should be judged at the last day such which whosoever should speak he should give account thereof in that day Now this was ever esteemed a high and an intolerable Crime for it was not new but an old Crime onely it was manifested by an appellative relating to a power and a name now more used then formerly This was the sin for which Corah and his Company died who did despise and reproach the works of God his power and the mightiness of his hand manifested in
his servant Moses It is called sinning with a high hand that is with an hand lift up on high against God Corah and his Company committed the sin against the Holy Spirit for they spake against that Spirit and power which God had put into Moses and prov'd by the demonstration of mighty effects It is a denying that great argument of Credibility by which God goes about to verifie any mission of his to prove by mighty effects of Gods Spirit that God hath sent such a man When God manifests his holy Spirit by signs and wonders extraordinary not to revere this good Spirit not to confess him but to revile him or to reproach the power is that which God ever did highly punish Thus it happened to Pharoah he also sinn'd against the Holy Ghost the good Spirit of God for when his Magicians told him that the finger of God was there yet he hardned his heart against it and then God went on to harden it more till he overthrew him for then his sin became unpardonable in the sense I shall hereafter explicate And this pass'd into a law to the children of Israel and they were warned of it with the highest threatning that is of a capital punishment The soul that doeth ought presumptuously or with an high hand the same reproacheth the Lord Num. 15.30 that soul shall be cut off from among his people and this is translated into the New Testament They that doe despite to the Spirit of Grace shall fall into the hands of the living God That 's the sin against the Holy Ghost Now this sin must in all reason be very much greater under the Gospel then under the Law For when Christ came he did such miracles which never any man did and preach'd a better law and with mighty demonstrations of the Spirit that is of the power and Spirit of God prov'd himself to have come from God and therefore men were more convinc'd and he that was so and yet would oppose the Spirit that is defie all his proofs and hear none of his words and obey none of his laws and at last revile him too he had done the great sin for this is to doe the worst thing we can we dishonour God in that in which he intended most to glorifie himself Two instances of this we finde in the New Testament though not of the highest degree yet because done directly against the Spirit of God that is in despite or in disparagement of that Spirit by which so great things were wrought it grew intolerable Ananias did not revere the Spirit of God so mightily appearing in S. Peter and the other Apostles and he was smitten and died Simon Magus took the Spirit of God for a vendible commodity for a thing less then money and fit to serve secular ends and he instantly fell into the gall of bitterness that is a sad bitter calamity and S. Peter knew not whether God would forgive him or no. But it is remarkable that the holy Scriptures note various degrees of this malignity grieving the holy Spirit resisting him quenching him doing despite to him all sin against the Holy Ghost but yet they that had done so were all called to repentance S. Stephens Sermon was an instance of it and so was S. Peters and so was the prayer of Christ upon the Cross for the malicious Jews the Pharisees his betrayers and murtherers But the sin it self is of an indefinite progression and hath not physical limits and a certain constitution as is observable in carnal crimes Theft Murther or Adultery for though even these are increased by circumstances and an inward consent and degrees of love and adhesion yet of the crime it self we can say this is Murther and this is Adultery and therefore the punishment is proper and certain But since there are so many degrees of the sin against the Holy Ghost and it consists not in an indivisible point but according to the nature of internal and spiritual sins it is like time or numbers of a moveable being of a flux unstable immense constitution and may be alwayes growing not onely by the repetition of acts but by its proper essential increment and since in the particular case the measures are uncertain the nature secret the definition disputable and so many sins are like it or reducible to it apt to produce despair in timorous consciences and to discourage Repentance in lapsed persons it will be an intolerable proposition that affirms the sin against the Holy Ghost to be absolutely unpardonable That the sin against the Holy Ghost is pardonable appears in the instance of the Pharisees to whom even after they had committed the sin God was pleased to afford preaching signs and miracles and Christ upon the Cross prayed for them but in what sense also it was unpardonable appears in their case for they were so far gone that they would not return and God did not and at last would not pardon them For this appellative is not properly subjected nor attributed to the sin it self but it is according as the man is The sin may be and is at some time unpardonable yet not in all its measures and parts of progression as appears in the case of Pharaoh who all the way from the first miracle to the tenth sinn'd against the Holy Ghost but at last he was so bad that God would not pardon him Some men are come to the greatness of the sin or to that state and grandeur of impiety that their estate is desperate that is though the nature of their sins is such as God is extremely angry with them and would destroy them utterly were he not restrain'd by an infinite mercy yet it shall not be thus for ever for in some state of circumstances and degrees God is finally angry with the man and will never return to him Untill things be come to this height whatsoever the sin be it is pardonable For if there were any one sin distinguishable in its whole nature and instance from others which in every of its periods were unpardonable it is most certain it would have been described in Scripture with clear characters and cautions that a man might know when he is in and when he is out Speaking a word against the Holy Spirit is by our blessed Saviour called this great sin but it is certain that every word spoken against him is not unpardonable Simon Magus spoke a foul word against him but S. Peter did not say it was unpardonable but when he bid him pray he consequently bid him hope but because he would not warrant him that is durst not absolve him he sufficiently declared that this sin is of an indefinite nature and by growth would arrive at the unpardonable state the state and fulness of it is unpardonable that is God will to some men and in some times and stages of their evil life be so angry that he will give them over and leave them in their reprobate minde But no
man knowes when that time is God only knowes and the event must declare it But for the thing it self that it is pardonable is very certain because it may be pardoned in baptisme The Novatians denied not to baptisme a power of pardoning any sin in this sense it is without doubt true what Zosimus by way of reproach objected to Christian religion it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a deletery and purgative for every sin whatsoever And since the unconverted Pharisees were guilty of this sin and it was a sin forbidden and punished capitally in the law of Moses either to these Christ could not have been preached and for them Christ did not die or else it is certain that the sin against the holy Spirit of God is pardonable Now whereas our B. Lord affirmed of this sin it shall not be pardoned in this world nor in the world to come we may best understand the meaning of it by the parallel words of old Heli to his sons If a man sin against another 1 Sam. 2 25. the Judge shall judge him placari ei potest Deus so the vulgar latine reads it God may be appeased that is it shall be forgiven him that is a word spoken against the Son of man which relates to Christ only upon the account of his humane nature that may be forgiven him it shall that is upon easier terms as upon a temporal judgment called in this place a being judged by the Judge But if a man sin against the Lord who shall intreat for him that is if he sin with a high hand presumptuously against the Lord against his power and his Spirit who shall intreat for him it shall never be pardoned never so as the other never upon a temporal judgement that cannot expiate this great sin as it could take off a sin against a man or the Son of man for though it be punished here it shall be punished hereafter But 2. It shall not be pardoned in this world nor in the world to come that is neither to the Jewes nor to the Gentiles For Saeculum hoc this World in Scripture is the period of the Jewes Synagogue and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the world to come is taken for the Gospel or the age of the Messias frequently among the Jews and it is not unlikely Christ might mean it in that sense which was used amongst them by whom he would be understood But because the word was also as commonly used in that sense in which it is understood at this day viz. for the world after this life I shall therefore propound another exposition which seems to me more probable Though remission of sins is more plentiful in the Gospel then under the Law yet because the sin is bigger under the Gospel there is not here any ordinary way of pardoning it no Ministery established to warrant or absolve such sinners but it must be referred to God himself and yet that 's not all For if a man perseveres in this sin he shall neither be forgiven here nor hereafter that is neither can he be absolved in this world by the ministery of the Church nor in the world to come by the sentence of Christ and this I take to be the full meaning of this so difficult place For in this world properly so speaking there is no forgivenesse of sins but what is by the ministery of the Church For then a sin is forgiven when it is pardon'd in the day of sentence or execution that is when those evils are removed which are usually inflicted or which are proper to that day Now then for the final punishment that is not till the day of judgement and if God then gives us a mercy in that day then is the day of our pardon from him In the mean time if he be gracious to us here he either forbears to smite us or smites us to bring us to repentance and all the way continues to us the use of the Word and Sacraments that is if he does in any sense pardon us here if he does not give us over to a reprobate minde he continues us under the means of salvation which is the ministery of the Church for that 's the way of pardon in this * vide infrà numb 66. World as the blessed sentence of the right hand is the way of pardon in the World to come So that when our great Lord and Master threatens to this sin it shall not be pardon'd in this World nor in the World to come he means that neither shall the Ministers of the Church pronounce his pardon or comfort his sorrowes or restore him after his fall or warrant his condition or pray for him publickly or give him the peace and communion of the Church neither will God pardon him in the day of Judgement But all this fearful denunciation of the Divine judgement is only upon supposition the man does not repent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said S. Athanasius Quaest 71. to 2. God did not say to him that blasphemes and repents it shall not be forgiven but to him that blasphemes and remains in his blasphemy for there is no sin which God will not pardon to them that holily and worthily repent S. Chrys in 1 Cor hom 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To be wounded is not so grievous but it is intolerable when the wounded man refuses to be cured For it is considerable Whoever can repent may hope for pardon else he could not be invited to repentance I do not say whoever can be sorrowfull may hope for pardon for there is a sorrow too late then commencing when there is no time left to begin much lesse to finish 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Athanasius calls it a holy and a worthy repentance and of such Philo affirmed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in allegor◠Some unhappy soules would fain he admitted to repentance but God permits them not that is their time is past and either they die before they can performe it or if they live they return to their old impieties like water from a rock But whoever can repent worthily and leave their sin and mortify it and make such amends as is required these men ought not to despair of pardon they may hope for mercy and if they may hope they must hope for not to do it were the greatest crime of despair For despair is no sin but where to hope is a duty But if this be all then the sin against the holy Ghost hath no more said against it then any other sin for if we repent not of theft or adultery it shall neither be forgiven us in this world nor in the world to come and if we do repent of the sin against the holy Ghost it shall not be exacted of us but shall be pardoned So that to say it is unpardonable without repentance is to say nothing peculiar of this To this I answer that pardonable and unpardonable have no definite
signification but have a latitude and increment and a various sense but seldome signifie in the absolute supreme sense sins of infirmity such I mean which in any sense can properly be called sins must in some sense or other be repented of and they are unpardonable without repentance that is without such a repentance as does disallow them and contend against them But these are also pardonable without repentance by some degrees of pardon that is God pities our sins of ignorance and winks at them and upon the only account of his own pity does bring such persons to better notices of things And they are pardonable without repentance if by repentance we mean an absolute dereliction of them for we shall never be able to leave them quite and therefore either they shall never be pardoned or else they are pardoned without such a repentance as signifies dereliction or intire mastery over them 2. But sins which are wilfully and knowingly committed as theft adultery murder are unpardonable without repentance that is without such a repentance as forsakes them actually and intirely and produces such acts of grace as are proper for their expiation but yet even these sins require not such a repentance as sins against the holy Ghost do These must have a greater sorrow and a greater shame and a more severe amends and a more passionate lasting prayer and a bigger fear and a more publick amends and a sharper infliction greater excellency of grace then is necessary in lesser sins But in this difference of sins it is usual to promise pardon to the less and not to the greater when the meaning is that the smaller sins are onely pardon'd upon easier terms an example of this we have in Clemens Alexandrinus Vid. etiam Caesar Arelat hom 42. quaedam ad hanc rem spectantia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sins committed before Baptism are pardon'd but sins after it must be purged that is by a severe repentance which the others needed not and yet without repentance baptism would nothing avail vicious persons So we say concerning those sins which we have forgotten they may be pardon'd without repentance meaning without a special repentance but yet not without a general Thus we finde it in the Imperial Law that they that had fallen into heresie or strange superstitions they were to be pardon'd if they did repent but if they did relapse they should not be pardon'd but they mean L. 4. Cod. Theod. ne sacrum baptisma iteretur venia eâdem modo praestari non potest so Gratian Valens and Valentinian expressed it So that by denying pardon they onely mean that it shall be harder with such persons their pardon shall not be so easily obtained but as they repeat their sins so their punishment shall increase and at last if no warning will serve it shall destroy them For it is remarkable that in Scripture Pardonable and Vnpardonable signifies no more then Mortal and Venial in the writings of the Church of which I have given accounts in its proper place But when a sin is declared deadly or killing and damnation threatned to such persons we are not therefore if we have committed any such to lie down under the load and die but with the more earnestness depart from it lest that which is of a killing damning nature prove so to us in the event For the sin of Adultery is a damning sin and Murther is a killing sin and the sin against the Holy Ghost is worse and they are all Vnpardonable that is condemning they are such in their cause or in themselves but if they prove so to us in the event or effect it is because we will not repent 1 Cor. 11.27 He that eateth drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself that 's as high an expression as any and yet there are several degrees and kindes of eating and drinking unworthily and some are more unpardonable then others but yet the Corinthians who did eat unworthily some of them coming to the holy Supper drunk and others schismatically were by S. Paul admitted to repentance Some sins are like deadly potions they kill the man unless he speedily take an Antidote or unless by strength of nature he work out the poison and overcome it and others are like a desperate disease or a deadly wound the Iliacal passions the Physicians give him over it is a Miserere mei Deus of which though men despair yet some have been cured Thus also in the capital and great sins many of them are such which the Church will not absolve or dare not promise cure Non est in medico semper relevetur ut aeger Interdum doctâ plus valet arte malum But then these persons are sent to God and are bid to hope for favour from thence and may finde it But others there are whom the Church will not meddle withall and sends them to God and God will not absolve them that is they shall be pardon'd neither by God nor the Church neither in this world nor in the world to come But the reason is not because their sin is in all its periods of an unpardonable nature but because they have persisted in it too long and God in the secret Oeconomy of his mercies hath shut the everlasting doors the olive doors of mercy shall not be open'd to them And this is the case of too many miserable persons They who repent timely and holily are not in this number whatsoever sins they be which they have committed But this is the case of them whom God hath given over to a reprobate minde and of them who sin against Gods holy Spirit when their sin is grown to its full measure So we finde it express'd in the Proverbs Turn ye at my reproof Pro. 1.23 26 28. I will pour out my Spirit unto you and then it follows Because I have called and ye refused I also will laugh at your calamity I will mock when your fear cometh But this is not in all the periods of our refusing to hear God calling by his Spirit but when the sin of the Amalekites is full then it is unpardonable not in the thing but to that man at that time And besides all the promises this is highly verified in the words of our blessed Saviour taken out of the Prophet Isaiah where it is affirmed that when people are so obstinate and wilfully blinde Mat. 12.15 that God then leaves to give them clearer testimony and a mighty grace lest they should hear and see and understand it follows and should be converted and I should heal them plainly telling us that if even then they should repent God could not but forgive them and therefore because he hath now no love left to them by reason of their former obstinacy yet where ever you can suppose Repentance there you may more then suppose a pardon But if a man cannot or will not repent then it is another consideration In the mean
and heart But if thou canst know thy self you need not enquire any further If thy duty be performed you may be secure of all that is on Gods part 5. When ever repentance begins know that from thence-forward the sinner begins to live but then never let that repentance die Doe not at any time say I have repented of such a sin and am at peace for that for a man ought never to be at peace with sin nor think that any thing we can doe is too much Our repentance for sin is never to be at an end till faith it self shall be no more for Faith and Repentance are but the same Covenant and so long as the just does live by faith in the Son of God so long he lives by repentance for by that faith in him our sins are pardoned that is by becoming his Disciples we enter into the Covenant of Repentance And he undervalues his sin and overvalues his sorrow who at any time fears he shall doe too much or make his pardon too secure and therefore sets him down and sayes Now I have repented 6. Let no man ever say he hath committed the sin against the Holy Ghost or the unpardonable sin for there are but few that doe that and he can best confute himself if he can but tell that he is sorrowful for it and begs for pardon and hopes for it and desires to make amends this man hath already obtained some degrees of pardon and S. Pauls argument in this case also is a demonstration If when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son Rom. 5.10 much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life That is if God to enemies gives the first grace much more will he give the second if they make use of the first For from none to a little is an infinite distance but from a little to a great deal is not so much And therefore since God hath given us means of pardon and the grace of Repentance we may certainly expect the fruit of pardon for it is a greater thing to give repentance to a sinner then to give pardon to the penitent Whoever repents hath not committed the great sin the Unpardonable For it is long of the man not of the sin that any sin is unpardonable 7. Let every man be careful of entring into any great states of sin lest he be unawares guilty of the great offence Every resisting of a holy motion calling us from sin every act against a clear reason or revelation every confident progression in sin every resolution to commit a sin in despite of conscience is an access towards the great sin or state of evil Therefore concerning such a man let others fear since he will not and save him with fear plucking him out of the fire but when he begins to return that great fear is over in many degrees for even in Moses law there were expiations appointed not onely for errour but for presumptuous sins The PRAYER I. OEternal God gracious and merciful I adore the immensity and deepest abysse of thy Mercy and Wisdome that thou doest pity our infirmities instruct our ignorances pass by thousands of our follies invitest us to repentance and doest offer pardon because we are miserable and because we need it and because thou art good and delightest in shewing mercy Blessed be thy holy Name and blessed be that infinite Mercy which issues forth from the fountains of our Saviour to refresh our weariness and to water our stony hearts and to cleanse our polluted souls O cause that these thy mercies may not run in vain but may redeem my lost soul and recover thy own inheritance and sanctifie thy portion the heart of thy servant and all my faculties II. BLessed Jesus thou becamest a little lower then the Angels but thou didst make us greater doing that for us which thou didst not doe for them Thou didst not pay for them one drop of bloud nor endure one stripe to recover the fallen stars nor give one groan to snatch the accursed spirits from their fearful prisons but thou didst empty all thy veins for me and gavest thy heart to redeem me from innumerable sins and an intolerable calamity O my God let all this heap of excellencies and glorious mercies be effective upon thy servant and work in me a sorrow for my sins and a perfect hatred of them a watchfulness against temptations severe and holy resolutions active and effective of my duty O let me never fall from sin to sin nor persevere in any nor love any thing which thou hatest but give me thy holy Spirit to conduct and rule me for ever and make me obedient to thy good Spirit never to grieve him never to resist him never to quench him Keep me O Lord with thy mighty power from falling into presumptuous sins lest they get the dominion over me so shall I be innocent from the great offence Let me never despair of thy mercies by reason of my sins nor neglect my repentance by reason of thy insinite loving kindness but let thy goodness bring me and all sinners to repentance and thy mercies give us pardon and thy holy Spirit give us perseverance and thy infinite favour bring us to glory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen CHAP. IX Of Ecclesiasticall Penance or The fruits of Repentance §. 1. THe fruits of Repentance are the actions of spiritual life and signifie properly all that piety and obedience which we pay to God in the dayes of our return after we have begun to follow sober counsels For since all the duty of a Christian is a state of Repentance that is of contention against sin and the parts and proper periods of victory and Repentance which includes the faith of a Christian is but another word to express the same grace or mercies of the Evangelical Covenant it follows that whatsoever is the duty of a Christian and a means to possess that grace is in some sense or other a Repentance or the fruits of Gods mercy and our endevours And in this sense S. John the Baptist means it saying Bring forth therefore fruits meet for Repentance that is since now the great expectation of the world is to be satisfied and the Lords Christ will open the gates of mercy and give Repentance to the world see that ye live accordingly in the faith and obedience of God through Jesus Christ That did in the event of things prove to be the effect of that Sermon But although all the parts of holy life are fruits of Repentance when it is taken for the state of favor published by the Gospel yet when Repentance is a particular duty or vertue the integral parts of holy life are also constituent parts of Repentance and then by the fruits of Repentance must be meant the less necessary but very useful effects and ministeries of Repentance which are significations and exercises of the main duty And these are sorrow for sins
and is a state of pardon and acceptable services But then there is a sorrow also proper to it For as this grace comes from the noblest passions and apprehensions so it does operate in the best manner and to the noblest purposes It hates sin upon higher contemplations then he that hates it upon the stock of fear he hates sin as being against God and Religion and right reason that is he is gone farther from sin He hates it for it self Poenitet ô si quid miserorum creditur ulli Poenitet facto torqueor ipse meo Cúmque sit exilium magis est mihi culpa dolori Estque pati poenam quà m meruisse minus That is not onely the evil effect to himself but the irregularity and the displeasure to Almighty God are the incentives of his displeasure against sin and because in all these passions and affective motions of the minde there is a sorrow under some shape or other this sorrow or displeasure is that which is a very acceptable signification and act of repentance and yet it is not to be judged of by sense but by reason by the caution and enmity against sin to which this also is to be added That if any man enquires whether or no his hatred against sin proceed from the love of God or no that is whether it be Attrition or Contrition he is onely to observe whether he does endevour heartily and constantly to please God by obedience for this is love that we keep his commandements and although sometimes we may tell concerning our love as well as concerning our fear yet when the direct principle is not so evident our onely way left to try is by the event That is Contrition which makes us to exterminate and mortify sin and endevour to keep the Commandements of God For that is sorrow proceeding from love And now it is no wonder if to Contrition pardon be so constantly annexed in all the Discourses of Divines but unless Contrition be thus understood and if a single act of something like it be mistaken for the whole state of this grace we shall be deceived by applying false promises to a real need or true promises to an incompetent and uncapable state of things But when it is thus meant all the sorrows that can come from this principle are signs of life His lacrymis vitam damus miserescimus ultrè No man can deny pardon to such penitents nor cease to joy in such tears The sum of the present enquiry is this Contrition is somtimes used for a part of repentance somtimes taken for the whole duty As it is a part so it is that displeasure at sin and hatred of it which is commonly expressed in sorrow but for ever in the leaving of it It is somtimes begun with fear somtimes with shame and somtimes with kindness with thankfulness and love but Love and Obedience are ever at the latter end of it though it were not at the beginning and till then it is called Attrition But when it is taken for the whole duty it self as it is always when it is effective of pardon then the elements of it or parts of the constitution are fides futuri saeculi Judicii fides in promissis passionibus Christi timor Divinae majestatis amor misericordiae dolor pro peccatis spes veniae petitio pro gratiâ Faith in the promises and sufferings of Christ an assent to the Article of the day of judgement and the world to come with all the consequent perswasions and practices effected on the spirit fear of the Divine Majesty love of his mercy grief for our sins begging for grace hope of pardon and in this sense it is true Cor contritum Deus non despiciet God will never refuse to accept of a heart so contrite §. 4. Of Confession THe modern Schoolmen make Contrition to include in it a resolution to submit to the Keyes of the Church that is that Confession to a Priest is a part of Contrition as Contrition is taken for a part of Repentance for it is incomplete till the Church hath taken notice of it but by submission to the Church Tribunal it is made complete and not onely so but that which was but Attrition is now turned into Contrition or perfect Repentance In the examining of this I shall because it is reasonable so to doe change their manner of speaking that the inquiry may be more material and intelligible That Contrition does include in it a resolution to submit to the Church Tribunal must either mean that godly sorrow does in its nature include a desire of Confession to a Priest and then the very word confutes the thing or else by Contrition they meaning so much of Repentance as is sufficient to pardon mean also that to submit to the Keyes or to confess to a Priest is a necessary or integral part of that Repentance and therefore of Contrition Concerning the other part of their affirmative that Attrition is by the Keyes chang'd into Contrition this being turned into words fit for men to speak such men I mean that would be understood signifies plainly this That the most imperfect Repentance towards God is sufficient if it be brought before the Church that is a little on the penitent mans part and a little on the Priests part is disposition enough to the receiving of a pardon So that provided you doe all that the Church commands you you may make the bolder to leave out something of Gods command which otherwise you might not doe The Priest may doe half the work for you These thus represented I shall consider apart 1. Confession is an act of Repentance highly requisite to its perfection and in that regard particularly called upon in holy Scripture But concerning this and all the other great exercises actions or general significations of Repentance every word singly is used indefinitely for the whole duty of Repentance Thus Contrition is used by David A broken and a contrite heart O God thou shalt not despise that is a penitent heart God will not reject The same also is the usage of Confession by S. John 1 Joh. 1.9 If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness that is if we repent God hath promised us pardon and his holy Spirit that he will justifie us and that he will sanctifie us And in pursuance of this the Church called Ecclesiastical Repentance by the name of Exomologesis which though it was a Greek word yet both Greeks and Latines used it Exomolegesis est humiliandi hominis disciplina So Tertullian Confession is the discipline of humiliation for a man for his sins and S. Ambrose calls Confession poenarum compendium De Abel Cain l. 2. c. 9. the sum or abbreviature of penance And this word was sometimes chang'd and called Satisfaction which although the Latine Church in the later ages use onely for corporal austerities
such persons to the communion of prayers and holy offices at least the Church may choose whether she will or no. The Church in her Government and Discipline had two ends and her power was accordingly apt to minister to these ends 1. By condemning and punishing the sin she was to doe what she could to save the criminal that is by bringing him to repentance a holy life to bring him to pardon 2. And if she could or if she could not effect this yet she was to remove the scandal and secure the flock from infection This was all that was needful this was all that was possible to be done In order to the first the Apostles had some powers extraordinary which were indeed necessary at the beginning of the Religion not onely for this but for other ministrations The Apostles had power to binde sinners that is to deliver them over to Satan and to sad diseases or death it self and they had power to loose sinners that is to cure their diseases to unloose Satans bands to restore them to Gods favour and pardon This manner of speaking was used by our blessed Saviour in this very case of sickness and infirmity Ought not this woman a daughter of Abraham whom Satan hath bound lo these eighteen years be loosed from this band on the Sabbath day The Apostles had this power of binding and loosing and that this is the power of remitting and retaining sins appears without exception in the words of our blessed Saviour to the Jews who best understood the power of forgiving sins by seeing the evil which sin brought on the guilty person taken away That ye may know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins He saith to the man sick of the palsy Arise take up thy bed and walk For there is a power in heaven and a power on earth to forgive sins The power that is in heaven is the publick absolution of a sinner at the day of judgement The power on earth to forgive sins is a taking off those intermedial evils which are inflicted in the way sicknesses temporal death loss of the Divine grace and of the privileges of the faithful These Christ could take off when he was upon earth and his heavenly Father sent him to do all this to heal all sicknesses and to cure all infirmities and to take away our sins and to preach glad tidings to the poor and comfort to the afflicted and rest to the weary and heavy laden The other judgement is to be perform'd by Christ at his second coming Now as God the Father sent his Son so his holy Son sent his Apostles with the same power on earth to binde and loose sinners to pardon sins by taking away the material evil effects which sin should superinduce or to retain sinners by binding them in sad and hard bands to bring them to reason or to make others afraid Thus S. Peter sentenc'd Ananias and Saphira to a temporal death and S. Paul stroke Elymas with blindness and deliver'd over the incestuous Corinthian to be beaten by an evil spirit and so also he did to Hymenaeus and Alexander But this was an extraordinary power and not to descend upon the succeeding ages of the Church but it was in this as in all other ministeries something miraculous and extraordinary was for ever to consign a lasting truth and ministery in ordinary The preaching of the Gospel that is faith it self at first was prov'd by miracles and the holy Ghost was given by signs and wonders and sins were pardon'd by the gifts of healing and sins were retained by the hands of an angel and the very visitation of the sick was blessed with sensible and strange recoveries and every thing was accompanied with a miracle excepting the two Sacraments in the administration of which we doe not finde any mention of any thing visibly miraculous in the records of holy Scripture and the reason is plain because these two Sacraments were to be for ever the ordinary ministeries of those graces which at first were consign'd by signs and wonders extraordinary For in all ages of the Church reckoning exclusively from the days of the Apostles all the graces of the Gospel all the promises of God were conveyed or consign'd or fully ministred by these Sacraments and by nothing else but what was in order to them These were the inlets and doors by which all the faithful were admitted into the outer Courts of the Lords Temple or into the secrets of the Kingdome and the solemnities themselves were the keys of these doors and they that had the power of ministration of them they had the power of the keys These then being the whole Ecclesiastical power and the sum of their ministrations were to be dispensed according to the necessities and differing capacities of the sons and daughters of the Church The Thessalonians who were not furnished with a competent number of Ecclesiastical Governours were commanded to abstain from the company of the brethren that walk'd disorderly S. John wrote to the Elect Lady that she should not entertain in her house false Apostles and when the former way did expire of it self and by the change of things and the second advice was not practicable and prudent they were reduced to the onely ordinary ministery of remitting and retaining sins by a direct admitting or refusing and deferring to admit criminals to their ministeries of pardon which were now onely left in the Church as their ordinary power and ministration For since in this world all our sins are pardon'd by those ways and instruments which God hath constituted in the Church and there are no other external rites appointed by Christ but the Sacraments it follows that as they are worthily communicated or justly denied so the pardon is or is not ministred And therefore when the Church did binde any sinner by the bands of Discipline she did remove him from the mysteries and sometimes enjoyn'd external or internal acts of repentance to testify and to exercise the grace and so to dispose them to pardon and when the penitents had given such testimonies which the Church demanded then they were absolved that is they were admitted to the mysteries For in the primitive records of the Church there was no form of absolution judicial nothing but giving them the holy Communion admitting them to the peace of the Church to the society and privileges of the faithful For this was giving them pardon by vertue of those words of Christ Whose sins ye remit they are remitted that is if ye who are the Stewards of my family shall admit any one to the Kingdom of Christ on earth they shall be admitted to the participation of Christs Kingdom in Heaven and what ye binde here shall be bound there that is if they be unworthy to partake of Christ here they shall be accounted unworthy to partake of Christ hereafter if they separate from Christs members they also shall be separate from the head
and this is the full sense of the power given by Christ to his Church concerning sins and sinners called by S. Paul the word of reconciliation For as for the other later and superinduc'd Ministery of pardon in judicial forms of absolution that is wholly upon other accounts of good use indeed to all them that desire it by reason of their present perswasions and scruples fears and jealousies concerning the event of things For sometimes it happens what one said of old Mens nostra difficillimè sedatur Deus faciliùs God is sooner at peace with us then we are at peace with our own mindes and because our repentances are always imperfect and he who repents the most excellently and hates his sin with the greatest detestation may possibly by his sense of the foulness of his sin undervalue his repentance and suspect his sorrow and because every thing is too little to deserve pardon he may think it is too little to obtain it and the man may be melancholy and melancholy is fearful and fear is scrupulous and scruples are not to be satisfied at home and not very easily abroad in the midst of these and many other disadvantages it will be necessary that he whose office it is to separate the vile from the precious and to judge of leprosie should be made able to judge of the state of this mans repentance and upon notice of particulars to speak comfort to him or something for institution For then if the Minister of holy things shall think fit to pronounce absolution that is to declare that he believes him to be a true penitent and in the state of grace it must needs adde much comfort to him and hope of pardon not only upon the confidence of his wisdome and spiritual learning but even from the prayers of the holy man and the solemnity of his ministration To pronounce absolution in this case is to warrant him so farre as his case is warrantable That is to speak comfort to him that is in need to give sentence in a case which is laid before him in which the party interested either hath no skill or no confidence or no comfort Now in this case to dispute whether the Priests power be Judicial or Optative or Declarative is so wholly to no purpose that this sentence is no part of any power at all but it is his office to do it and is an effect of wisdom not of power it is like the answering of a question which indeed ought to be askt of him as every man prudently is to inquire in every matter of concernment from him who is skill'd and experienced and profest in the faculty But the Priests proper power of absolving that is of pardoning which is in no case communicable to any man who is not consecrated to the Ministery is a giving the penitent the means of eternal pardon the admitting him to the sacraments of the Church and the peace and communion of the faithful because that is the only way really to obtain pardon of God there being in ordinary no way to heaven but by serving God in the way which he hath commanded us by his Son that is in the way of the Church which is his body whereof he is Prince and Head The Priest is the Minister of holy things he does that by his Ministery which God effects by real dispensation and as he gives the Spirit not by authority and proper efflux but by assisting and dispensing those rites and promoting those graces which are certain dispositions to the receiving of him just so he gives pardon not as a thing does it nor yet as a Messenger that is not by way of authority and real donation nor yet only by declaration but as a Rhysician gives health that is he gives the remedy which God appoints and if he does so and if God blesses the medicines the person recovers and God gives the health For it is certain that the holy man who ministers in repentance hath no other proper power of giving pardon then what is now described Because he cannot pardon them who are not truly penitent and if the sinner be God will pardon him whether The Priest does or no and what can be the effect of these things but this that the Priest does only minister to the pardon as he ministers to repentance He tells us upon what conditions God does pardon and judges best when the conditions are performed and sets forward those conditions by his proper ministery and ministers to us the instruments of grace but first takes accounts of our soules and helps us who are otherwise too partial to judge severe and righteous judgement concerning our eternal interest and he judges for us and does exhort or reprove admonish or correct comfort or humble loose or binde So the Minister of God is the Minister of reconciliation that is he is the Minister of the Gospel for that is the Word of Reconciliation which S. Paul affirms to be intrusted to him in every office by which the holy man ministers to the Gospel in every of them he is the Minister of pardon But concerning that which we call Absolution that is a pronouncing the person to be absolved it is certain that the forms of the present use were not used for many ages of the Church In the Greek Church they were never used and for the Latine Church in Thomas Aquinas his time they were so new that he put it into one of his Quaestiones disputatae whether form were more fit the Optative or the Judicial whether it were better to say God of his mercy pardon thee or by his authority committed to me I absolve thee and in Peter Lombards days when it was esteemed an innocent doctrine to say that the Priests power was only declarative it is likely the form of absolution would be according to the power believed which not being then universally believed to be Judicial the Judicial form could not be of universal use and in the Pontifical there is no Judicial form at all but only Optative or by way of prayer But in this affair besides what is already mentioned I have two great things to say which are a sufficient determination of this whole article 1. The first is that in the Primitive Church there was no such thing as a judicial absolution of sins used in any Liturgy or Church so far as can appear but all the absolution of penitents which is recorded was the meer admitting them to the mysteries and society of the faithful in religious offices the sum and perfection of which was the holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper So the fourth Councel of Carthage Can. 76. makes provision for a penitent that is neer death reconcilietur per manus impositionem infundatur ori ejus Eucharistia let him be reconciled by the imposition of hands and let the Eucharist be poured into his mouth that was all the solemnity even when there was the greatest need of the Churches
to the necessity of holy life it is a device onely to advance the Priests office and to depress the necessity of holy dispositions it is a trick to make the graces of Gods holy Spirit to be bought and sold and that a man may at a price become holy in an instant just as if a Teacher of Musick should undertake to convey skill to his Scholar and sell the art and transmit it in an hour it is a device to make dispositions by art and in effect requires little or nothing of duty to God so they pay regard to the Priest But I shall need to oppose no more against it but those excellent words and pious meditation of Salvian Non levi agendum est contritione ut debita illa redimantur quibus mors aeterna debetur nec transitoriâ opus est satisfactione pro malis illis propter quae paratus est ignis aeternus It is not a light contrition by which those debts can be redeem'd to which eternal death is due neither can a transitory satisfaction serve for those evils for which God hath prepared the vengeance of eternal fire §. 6. Of Penances or Satisfactions IN the Primitive Church the word Satisfaction was the whole word for all the parts and exercises of repentance according to those words of Lactantius Poenitentiam proposuit ut si peccata nostra confessi Deo satisfecerimus veniam consequamur He propounded repentance that if we confessing our sins to God make amends or satisfaction we may obtain pardon Where it is evident that Satisfaction does not signify in the modern sense of the word a full payment to the Divine Justice but by the exercises of repentance a deprecation of our fault and a begging pardon Satisfaction and pardon are not consistent if satisfaction signify rigorously When the whole debt is paid there is nothing to be forgiven The Bishops and Priests in the Primitive Church would never give pardon till their satisfactions were performed To confess their sins to be sorrowful for them to express their sorrow to punish the guilty person to doe actions contrary to their former sins this was their amends or Satisfaction and this ought to be ours So we sinde the word used in best Classick Authors So Plautus brings in Alomena angry with Amphitruo Quin ego illum aut deseram Aut satisfaciat mihi atque adjuret insuper Nolle esse dicta quae in me insontem protulit i.e. I will leave him unless he give me satisfaction and swear that he wishes that to be unsaid which he spake against my innocence for that was the form of giving satisfaction to wish it undone or unspoken and to adde an oath that they beleeve the person did not deserve that wrong as we finde it in Terence Adelph Ego vestra haec novi nollem factum jusjurandum dabitur esse te indignum injuriâ hâc Concerning which who please to see more testimonies of the true sense and use of the word Satisfactions may please to look upon Lambinus in Plauti Amphiâ—r and Laevinus Torrentius upon Suetonius in Julio Exomologesis or Confession was the word which as I noted formerly was of most frequent use in the Church Si de exomologesi retractas gehennam in corde considera quam tibi exomologesis extinguet He that retracts his sins by confessing and condemning them extinguishes the flames of hell De poenit c. 12. So Tertullian The same with that of S. Cyprian Deo patri misericordi precibus operibus suis satisfacere possunt They may satisfy God our Father and merciful by prayers and good works that is they may by these deprecate their fault and obtain mercy and pardon for their sins Peccatum suum satisfactione humili simplici confitentes De lapsis So Cyprian confessing their sins with humble and simple satisfaction plainly intimating that Confession or Exomologesis was the same with that which they called Satisfaction And both of them were nothing but the publick exercise of repentance according to the present usages of their Churches as appears evidently in those words of Gennadius L. de dogm Eccles Poenitentiae satisfactionem esse causas peccatorum exscindere nec eorum suggestionibus aditum indulgere To cut off the causes of sins and no more to entertain their whispers and temptations is the satisfaction of repentance and like this is that of Lactantius Potest reduci liberari si eum poeniteat actorum ad meliora conversus satisfaciat Deo The sinner may be brought back and freed if he repents of what is done and satisfies or makes amends to God by being turned to better courses And the whole process of this is well described by Tertullian De poenit c. 9. Exomologesis est qua delictum Demino nostrum confitemur non quidem ut ignaro sed quatenus satisfactio confessione disponitur confessione poenitentia nascitur poenitentiâ Deus mitigatur we must confess our sins to God not as if he did not know them already but because our satisfaction is dispos'd and order'd by confession by confession our repentance hath birth and production and by repentance God is appeased Things being thus we need not immerge our selves in the trifling controversies of our later Schools about the just value of every work and how much every penance weighs and whether God is so satisfied with our penal works that in justice he must take off so much as we put on and is tied also to take our accounts Certain it is if God should weigh our sins with the same value as we weigh our own good works all our actions and sufferings would be found infinitely too light in the ballance Therefore it were better that we should doe what we can and humbly begge of God to weigh them both with vast allowances of mercy All that we can doe is to be sorrowful for our sins and to leave them Tertul. de poenit and to endevour to obey God in the time to follow and to take care ut aliquo actu administretur poenitentia that our repentance be exercised with certain acts proper to it Of which these are usually reckoned as the principle 74. Sorrow and mourning So S. Cyprian Serm. de lapsis Satisfactionibus lamentationibus justis peccata redimuntur Our sins are redeem'd or wash'd off by the satisfactions of just sorrow or mourning And Pacianus gives the same advice Paraen ad Poenit. Behold I promise that if you return to your Father by a true satisfaction wandring no more adding nothing to your former sins and saying something humble and mournful We have sinn'd in thy sight O Father we are not worthy of the name of sons presently the unclean beast shall depart from thee and thou shalt no longer be fed with the filthy nourishment of husks And S. Hom. in die Ciner Maximus cals this mourning and weeping for our sins moestam poenitentiae satisfactionem the sorrowful