Repentance and Sincere Obedience be not the Terms of Salvation and the necessary Conditions of Happiness Whether there shall be a future Judgment when all men shall be sentenced according to their works Whether there be a Heaven and Hell Whether good men shall be eternally and unspeakably happy and wicked men extreamly and everlastingly miserable These are the great Controversies of Religion upon which we are to dispute on God's behalf against sinners God asserts and sinners deny these things not in Words but which is more emphatical and significant in their Lives and Actions These are practical Controversies of Faith and it concerns every man to be resolved and determined about them that he may frame his life accordingly And so for Repentance God says Repentance is a forsaking of sin and a through change and amendment of life the sinner says that it is only a formal Confession and a slight asking of God forgiveness God calls upon us speedily and forthwith to repent the sinner saith 't is time enough and it may safely be defer'd to sickness or death these are important Controversies and matters of moment But men do not affect common Truths whereas these are most necessary And indeed whatever is generally useful and beneficial ought to be common and not to be the less valued but the more esteemed for being so And as these Doctrines of Faith and Repentance are never unseasonable so are they more peculiarly proper when we celebrate the Holy Sacrament which was instituted for a solemn and standing Memorial of the Christian Religion and is one of the most powerful Arguments and Perswasives to repentance and a good life The Faith of the Gospel doth more particularly respect the death of Christ and therefore it is call'd Faith in his Blood because that is more especially the Object of our Faith the Blood of Christ as it was a Seal of the truth of his Doctrine so it is also a Confirmation of all the Blessings and Benefits of the New Covenant And it is one of the greatest Arguments in the world to repentance In the Blood of Christ we may see our own guilt and in the dreadful Sufferings of the Son of God the just desert of our sins for he hath born our griefs and carried our sorrows he was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities therefore the Commemoration of his Sufferings should call our sins to remembrance the Representation of his Body broken should melt our hearts and so often as we remember that his blood was shed for us our eyes should run down with rivers of tears so often as we look upon him whom we have pierced we should mourn over him When the Son of God suffered the rocks were rent in sunder and shall not the consideration of those sufferings be effectual to break the most stony and obdurate heart What can be more proper when we come to this Sacrament than the renewing of our Repentance When we partake of this Passover we should eat it with bitter herbs The most solemn Expressions of our Repentance fall short of those Sufferings which our blessed Saviour underwent for our sins if our head were waters and our eyes fountains of tears we could never sufficiently lament the cursed Effects and Consequences of those provocations which were so fatal to the Son of God And that our Repentance may be real it must be accompanied with the Resolution of a better life for if we return to our sins again we trample under foot the Son of God and profane the Blood of the Covenant and out of the Cup of Salvation we drink our own damnation and turn that which should save us into an instrument and Seal of our own ruin SERMON II. Serm. 2. Preach'd on Ash-Wednesday Of confessing and forsaking Sin in Order to Pardon PROV XXVIII 13 He that covereth his sins shall not prosper but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy SInce we are all sinners and liable to the Justice of God it is a matter of great moment to our comfort and happiness to be rightly informed by what Means and upon what Terms we may be reconciled to God and find mercy with him And to this purpose the Text gives us this advice and direction whoso confesseth and forsaketh his sin shall have mercy Vol. 8. In which words there is a great Blessing and Benefit declared and promised to sinners upon certain Conditions The Blessing and Benefit promised is the mercy and favour of God which comprehends all the happy Effects of God's mercy and goodness to sinners And the Conditions upon which this Blessing is promised are two Confession of our sins and forsaking of them and these two contain in them the whole nature of that great and necessary Duty of Repentance without which a sinner can have no reasonable hopes of the mercy of God I. Here is a Blessing or Benefit promised which is the mercy and favour of God And this in the full extent of it comprehends all the Effects of the mercy and goodness of God to sinners and doth primarily import the pardon and forgiveness of our sins And this probably Solomon did chiefly intend in this expression for so the mercy of God doth most frequently signifie in the Old Testament viz. the forgiveness of our sins And thus the Prophet explains it Isa 55.7 Let the wicked forsake his ways and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy and to our God for he will abundantly pardon But now since the clear revelation of the Gospel the mercy of God doth not only extend to the pardon of sin but to power against it because this also is an Effect of God's free grace and mercy to sinners to enable them by the grace of his holy Spirit to master and mortifie their lusts and to persevere in Goodness to the end And it comprehends also our final pardon and absolution at the great day together with the glorious Reward of eternal life which the Apostle expresseth by finding mercy with the Lord in that day And this likewise is promised to Repentance Acts 3.19 Repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord and he shall send Jesus Christ who before was preached unto you that is that when Jesus Christ who is now preached unto you shall come you may receive the final sentence of absolution and forgiveness And thus much shall suffice to have spoken of the Blessing and Benefit here promised the mercy of God which comprehends all the blessed Effects of the divine grace and goodness to sinners the present pardon of sin and power to mortifie sin and to persevere in a good course and our final absolulution by the sentence of the great day together with the merciful and glorious Reward of eternal life II. We will consider in the next place the Conditions upon
mixture of so many infirmities and pains of so much trouble and sorrow I say that even this sort of Life for all that we are so fondly in love with it does hardly deserve the name of Life But the Life of the world to come of which we now speak this is Life indeed to do those things which we were made for to serve the true Ends of our Being and to enjoy the Comfort and Reward of so doing this is the true notion of Life and whatever is less than this is Death or a degree of it and approach towards it And therefore very well may Heaven and Happiness be describ'd by the notion of Life because truly to live and to be happy are words that signifie the same thing But what kind of Life this is I can no more describe to you in the particularities of it than Columbus could have described the particular Manners and Customs of the People of America before he or any other person in these parts of the World had seen it or been there But this I can say of it in general and that from the infallible testimony of the great Creator and glorious Inhabitants of that blessed place that it is a state of pure Pleasure and unmingled Joys of Pleasures more manly more spiritual and more refined than any of the Delights of sense consisting in the enlargement of our Minds and Knowledge to a greater degree and in the perfect exercise of Love and Friendship in the Conversation of the best and wisest Company free from self-interest and all those unsociable passions of Envy and Jealousie of Malice and Ill-will which spoil the Comfort of all Conversation in this World and in a word free from all other Passion or Design but an ardent and almost equal desire to contribute all that by all means possible they can to the mutual Happiness of one another For Charity reigns in Heaven and is the brightest Grace and Virtue in the Firmament of Glory far out-shining all other as St. Paul who had himself been taken up into the third Heaven does expresly declare to us Farther yet this blessed state consists more particularly in these two things In having our Bodies raised and refined to a far greater Purity and Perfection than ever they had in this World and in the consequent Happiness of the whole Man's Soul and Body so strictly and firmly united as never to be parted again and so equally match'd as to be no trouble or impediment to one another 1. In having our Bodies raised and refined to a far greater Purity and Perfection than ever they had in this World Our Bodies as they are now are unequally temper'd and in a perpetual flux and change continually tending to Corruption because made up of such contrary Principles and Qualities as by their perpetual conflict are always at work conspiring the Ruin and Dissolution of them but when they are raised again they shall be so temper'd and so refin'd as to be free from all those destructive Qualities which do now threaten their change and dissolution and tho' they shall still consist of Matter yet it shall be purified to that degree as to partake of the Immortality of our Souls to which it shall be united and to be of equal duration with them So the Scripture tells us 1 Cor. 15.52 53. That our dead Bodies shall be raised incorruptible for this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality Our Bodies when they are laid down in the Grave are vile Carcases but they shall be raised again Beautiful and Glorious and as different from what they were before as the Heavenly Mansions in which they are to reside for ever are from that dark Cell of the Grave out of which they are raised and shall then be endowed with such a Life and Strength and Vigour as to be able without any change or decay to abide and continue for ever in the same state Our Bodies in this World are gross Flesh and Blood liable to be affected with natural and sensual Pleasures and to be afflicted with natural Pains and Diseases to be prest with the natural necessities of Hunger and Thirst and obnoxious to all those Changes and Accidents to which all natural things are subject But they shall be raised spiritual bodies pure and refin'd from all the dregs of Matter they shall not hunger nor thirst nor be diseased or in Pain any more These Houses of Clay whose Foundation is in the dust are continually decaying and therefore stand in need of continual Reparation by Food and Physick but our House which is from Heaven as the Apostle calls it shall be of such lasting and durable Materials as not only Time but even Eternity it self shall make no impression upon it or cause the least decay in it They says our Blessed Saviour who shall be accounted worthy to obtain that World and the Resurrection from the dead cannot die any more but shall be like the Angels and are the children of God i. e. shall in some degree partake of the Felicity and Immortality of God himself who is always the same and whose years fail not Nay the Apostle expresly tells us that our Bodies after the Resurrection shall be spiritual Bodies so that we shall then be as it were all Spirit and our Bodies shall be so raised and refined that they shall be no clog or impediment to the Operation of our Souls And it must needs be a great comfort to us whilst we are in this World to live in the hopes of so happy and glorious a change when we consider how our Bodies do now oppress our Spirits and what a melancholy and dead weight they are upon them how grievous an Incumbrance and Trouble and Temptation they are for the most part to us in this mortal state 2. The blessedness of this state consists likewise in the consequent Happiness of the whole Man Soul and Body so strictly and firmly united as never to be parted again and so equally matched as to be no trouble and impediment to one another In this World the Soul and Body are for the most part very unequally yoked so that the Soul is not only darkned by the gross Fumes and Clouds which rise from the Body but loaded and opprest by the dull weight of it which it very heavily lugs on and draws after it and the Soul likewise and the vicious Inclinations and irregular Passions of it have many times an ill influence upon the Body and the humours of it But in the next World they shall both be purified the one from Sin and the other from Frailty and Corruption and both admitted to the blessed sight and enjoyment of the ever blessed God But the Consideration of this as I said before is too big for our narrow apprehensions in this mortal state and an Argument not fit to be treated of by such Children as the wisest of men are in this World and whenever we attempt
them in the other I reckon saith St. Paul Rom. 8.8 that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us Particularly the Consideration of that glorious change which shall be made in our Bodies at the Resurrection ought to be a great comfort to us under all the Pains and Diseases which they are now liable to and even against Death it self One of the greatest burdens of Humane Nature is the frailty and infirmity of our Bodies the necessities which they are frequently prest withal the Diseases and Pains to which they are liable and the fear of death by reason whereof a great part of Mankind are subject to bondage against all which this is an everlasting Spring of Consolation to us that the time is coming when we shall have other sort of Bodies freed from that burden of Corruption which we now groan under and from all those Miseries and Inconveniences which Flesh and Blood are now subject to For the time will come when these vile Bodies which we now wear shall be changed and fashioned like to the glorious Body of the Son of God and when they shall be raised at the last day they shall not be raised such as we laid them down Vile and Corrruptible but Immortal and Incorruptible for the same Power which hath raised them up to Life shall likewise change them and put a glory upon them like to that of the glorified Body of our Lord and when this glorious change is made when this corruptible hath put on incorruption and this mortal hath put on immortality then shall come to pass the saying that is written Death is swallowed up in victory and when this last enemy is perfectly subdued we shall be set above all the Frailties and Dangers all the Temptations and Sufferings of this mortal state there will then be no fleshly lusts and brutish Passions to War against the Soul no law in our members to rise up in Rebellion against the law of our minds no diseases to torment us no danger of Death to terrifie us all the Motions and Passions of our outward Man shall then be perfectly subject to the Reason of our Minds and our Bodies shall partake of the Immortality of our Souls How should this Consideration bear us up under all the Evils of Life and the fears of Death that the Resurrection will be a perfect Cure of all our Infirmities and Diseases and an effectual Remedy of all the Evils that we now labour under and that it is but a very little while that we shall be troubled with these Frail and Mortal and Vile Bodies which shall shortly be laid in the dust and when they are raised again shall become Spiritual Incorruptible and Glorious And if our Bodies shall undergo so happy a change what Happiness may we imagine shall then be conferr'd upon our Souls that so much better and nobler part of our selves As the Apostle reasons in another Case Doth God take care of Oxen Hath he this Consideration of our Bodies which are but the brutish part of the Man What regard will he then have to his own Image that spark of Divinity which is for ever to reside in these Bodies If upon the account of our Souls and for their sakes our Bodies shall become Incorruptible Spiritual and Glorious then certainly our Souls shall be endued with far more Excellent and Divine Qualities if our Bodies shall in some degree partake of the Perfection of our Souls in their Spiritual and Immortal Nature to what a pitch of Perfection shall our Souls be raised and advanced even to an equality with Angels and to some kind of participation of the Divine Nature and Perfection so far as a Creature is capable of them II. The Comparison which is here in the Text and which I have largely explain'd between the manifest Inconveniences of a Sinful and Vicious Course and the manifold Advantages of an Holy and Virtuous Life is a plain direction to us which of these two to chuse So that I may make the same appeal that Moses does after that he had at large declared the Blessings promis'd to the Obedience of God's Laws and the Curse denounc'd against the Violation and Transgression of them Deut. 30.19 I call Heaven and Earth to record against you this day that I have set before you life and death blessing and cursing therefore chuse life that you may be happy in Life and Death and after Death to all Eternity I know every one is ready to chuse Happiness and to say with Balaam Let me die the death of the righteous and let my latter end be like his but if we do in good earnest desire the End we must take the Way that leads to it we must become the Servants of God and have our fruit unto holiness if ever we expect that the end shall be everlasting life SERMON IX Serm. 8. The Nature and Necessity of holy Resolution The First Sermon on this Text. JOB XXXIV 31 32. Surely it is meet to be said unto God I have born chastisement I will not offend any more That which I see not teach thou me if I have done iniquity I will do no more THESE words are the words of Elihu one of Job's Friends and the only one who is not reproved for his Discourse with Job and who was probably the Author of this ancient and most eloquent History of the sufferings and patience of Job and of the end which the Lord made with him Vol. 8. and they contain in them a Description of the temper and behaviour of a true Penitent Surely it is meet c. In which words we have the Two essential parts of a true Repentance First An humble Acknowledgment and Confession of our Sins to God Surely it is meet to be said unto God I have born chastisement Secondly A firm Purpose and Resolution of amendment and forsaking of Sin for the future I will not offend any more if I have done iniquity I will do no more First An humble Acknowledgment and Confession of our Sins to God Surely it is meet to be said unto God I have born chastisement that is have sinned and been justly punish'd for it and am now convinced of the Evil of Sin and resolved to leave it I have born chastisement I will offend no more Of this First part of Repentance viz. An humble Confession of our Sins to God with great Shame and Sorrow for them and a thorow Conviction of the Evil and Danger of a sinful Course I have already treated at large In these Repentance must begin but it must not end in them for a penitent Confession of our Sins to God and a Conviction of the evil of them signifies nothing unless it bring us to a Resolution of amendment that is of leaving our Sins and betaking our selves to a better Course And this I intend by God's assistance to speak to now as being the