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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A95515	Vnum necessarium. Or, The doctrine and practice of repentance. Describing the necessities and measures of a strict, a holy, and a Christian life. And rescued from popular errors. / By Jer. Taylor D.D.	Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667.; Lombart, Pierre, 1612-1682, engraver.	1655 (1655)	Wing T415; Thomason E1554_1; ESTC R203751	477,444	750

Manasses of Mary Magdalen and S. Paul of the Thief on the Cross and the deprehended Adulteress and of the Jews themselves who after they had crucified the Lord of life were by messengers of his own invited passionately invited to repent and be purified with that blood which they had sacrilegiously and impiously spilt But concerning this who please may reade S. Austin discoursing upon those words Mittet Crystallum suum sicut buccellas which saith he mystically represent the readiness of God to break and make contrite even the hearts of them that have been hardened in impiety Gemara de Synedrio c. 11. Quo loco consisi●●t poenitentia●●●gentes ibi justi non poterunt stare said the Doctors of the Jews The just and innocent persons shall not be able to stand in the same place where the penitent shall be Pacem pacem remoto propinquo ait Dominus ut sanem eum Peace to him that is afar off and to him that is near saith the Lord that I may heal him Praeponit remotum That 's their observation He that is afar off is set before the other that is he that is at great distance from God as if God did use the greater earnestness to reduce him Upon which place their gloss addes Magna est virtus eorum qui poenitentiam agunt ita ut nulla Creatura in septo illorum consistere queat So great is the vertue of them that are true penitents that no creature can stand within their inclosure And all this is farre better expressed by those excellent words of our blessed Saviour Luk. 15.7 There is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth more then over ninety nine just persone that need no repentance I have been the longer in establishing and declaring the proper foundation of this Article upon which every one can declaim but every one cannot believe it in the day of temptation because I guess what an intolerable evil it is to despair of pardon by having felt the trouble of some very great fears And this were the less necessary but that it is too commonly true that they who repent least are most confident of their pardon or rather least consider any reasons against their security but when a man truly apprehends the vileness of his sin he ought also to consider the state of his danger which is wholly upon the stock of what is past that is his danger is this that he knows not when or whether or upon what terms God will pardon him in particular But of this I shall have a more apt occasion to speak in the following periods For the present the Article in general is established upon the testimonies of the greatest certainty §. 2. Of pardon of sins committed after Baptism BUt it may be our easiness of life and want of discipline and our desires to reconcile our pleasures and temporal satisfactions with the hopes of heaven hath made us apt to swallow all that seems to favour our hopes But it is certain that some Christian Doctors have taught the Doctrine of Repentance with greater severity then is intimated in the premises For all the examples of pardon consign'd to us in the Old Testament are nothing to us who live under the New and are to be judged by other measures And as for those instances which are recorded in the New Testament and all the promises and affirmations of pardon they are sufficiently verified in that pardon of sins which is first given to us in Baptism and at our first Conversion to Christianity Thus when S. Stephen prayed for his persecutors and our blessed Lord himself on his uneasie death-bed of the Cross prayed for them that Crucified him it can onely prove that these great sins are pardonable in our first access to Christ because they for whom Christ and his Martyr S. Stephen prayed were not yet converted and so were to be saved by Baptismal Repentance Then the Power of the Keyes is exercised and the gates of the Kingdome are opened then we enter into the Covenant of mercy and pardon and promise faith and perpetual obedience to the laws of Jesus and upon that condition forgiveness is promised and exhibited offer'd and consign'd but never after for it is in Christianity for all great sins as in the Civil law for theft L. 65. D. de furtis l. 1. D. de Aedili●io edicto Qui eâ mente alienum quid contrectavit ut lucrifaceret tametsi mutato consilio id Domino postea reddidit fur est nemo enim tali peccato poenitentiâ suâ nocens esse desinit said Vlpian and Gaius Repentance does not here take off the punishment nor the stain And so it seems to be in Christianity in which every baptized person having stipulated for obedience is upon those terms admitted to pardon and consequently if he fails of his duty he shall fail of the grace But that this objection may proceed no further it is certain that it is an infinite lessening of the mercy of God in Jesus Christ to confine pardon of sins onely to the Font. For that even lapsed Christians may be restored by repentance and be pardoned appears in the story of the incestuous Corinthian and the precept of S. Paul to the spiritual man or the Curate of souls If any man be overtaken in a fault Gal. 6.1 ye which are spiritual restore such a man in the spirit of meekness considering thy self lest thou also be tempted The Christian might fall and the Corinthian did so and the Minister himself he who had the ministery of restitution and reconciliation was also in danger and yet they all might be restored To the same sense is that of S. James Jam. 5.15 Is any man sick among you let him send for the Presbyters of the Church and let them pray over him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 although he was a doer of sins they shall be forgiven him For there is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sin that is not unto death And therefore when S. Austin in his first Book de Sermone Dei had said that there is some sin so great that it cannot be remitted he retracts his words with this clause addendum fuit c. I should have added If in so great perverseness of minde he ends his life For we must not despair of the worst sinner we may not despair of any since we ought to pray for all For it is beyond exception or doubt that it was the great work of the Apostles and of the whole new Testament to engage men in a perpetual repentance For since all men doe sin all men must repent or all men must perish And very many periods of Scripture are directed to lapsed Christians baptized persons fallen into grievous crimes calling them to repentance Acts 8.22 So Simon Peter to Simon Magus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Repent of thy wickedness and to the Corinthian Christians S. Paul urges the purpose of his legation

since the Spirit hath prevailed upon the flesh in its strengths and hath crucified it there is no question but it can also prevail upon all its weaknesses For we must be curious to avoid a mistake here The dominion of the Spirit and the remains of the flesh may consist together in the regenerate as some remains of cold with the prevailing heat but the dominion of one and the other are in every degree inconsistent as both cold and heat cannot in any sense be both said to be the prevailing ingredient A man cannot be said to be both free from sin and a slave to sin If he hath prevailed in any degree upon sin then he is not at all a servant of that portion from whence he is set free but if he be a captive of any one sin or regular degree of it he is not Gods freed man for the Spirit prevails upon all as well as upon one and that is not an infinite power that cannot redeem us from all our slavery But to be a slave of sin and at the same time to be a servant of righteousness is not onely against the analogy of Scripture and the express signification of so many excellent periods but against common sense it is as if one should say that a man hath more heat then cold in his hand and yet that the cold should prevail upon and be stronger then the heat that is that the weaker should overcome the stronger and the less should be greater then that which is bigger then it But as the choice of vertue is abated and as the temptation grows more violent and urges more vehemently is made less pleasant in the regenerate person so is the choice of vice in the Moral or Animal man The contention abates the pleasure in both their choices but in the one it ends in sin in the other it ends in victory So that there is an unwillingness to sin in all but in the impious and profane person in the far distant stranger But the unwillingness to sin that is in the Animal or Moral man is nothing else but a serving sin like a grumbling servant or like the younger son of the Farmer in the Gospel he said he would not but did it for all his angry words And therefore that the unregerate man acts the sin against his minde and after a long contention against it does not in all cases lessen it Caus 24. q. 1. C. Schisma but sometimes increases it Nec leviat crimen corum magis verò auget quòd eos diùrestitisse dixistis said Pope Pelagius To resist long and then to consent hath in it some aggravations of the crime as being a conviction of the mans baseness a violence to reason a breach of former resolutions a recession from fair beginnings and wholly without excuse * But if ever it comes to pass that in the contention of flesh and spirit the regenerate man does sin he does it unwillingly that is by ignorance or inadvertency The unregenerate sins unwillingly too but it is by reason of the dominion and rule that sin bears over him but still this difference distinguishes them in the event of things that when it comes to the question whether sin shall be done or no the one wills and the other wills not though it may happen that the consent or dissent respectively may be with the same unwillingness by reason of the contention and strife from the adverse though weaker party The unregenerate man may be unwilling to obey sin but he obeys it for all that and the unwillingness is a sign of the greater slavery but there can be no sign of his regeneration but by not obeying the sin in the day of its own power and temptation A servant is still a servant whether he obeys with or against his will His servants we are to whom we obey saith S. Paul all therefore that is to be considered in the Question of regeneration is whether the man obeys or not obeys for whether he be willing or unwilling is not here considerable Let no man therefore flatter himself that he is a regenerate person because though he is a servant to sin and acts at the command of his lust and cannot resist in the evil day or stand the shock of a temptation yet he finds an unwillingness within him and a strife against sin Hugo de S. Victore or else S. Austin in the Book de continentiâ gave beginning or countenance to this error Hanc pugnam non experiuntur in semetipsis nisi bellatores virtutum debellatorésque vitiorum This fight none finde in themselves but they that fight on vertues side and destroy vice Which words though something crudely set down and so not true yet are explicable by the following period Non expugnat concupiscentiae malum nisi continentiae bonum onely holy and continent persons doe overcome their concupiscence and in that sense it is true Onely the regenerate feel this fight which ends in victory But he whose contention ends in sin and after a brave onset yeelds basely frequently I mean or habitually every such person is a servant of sin and therefore not a servant of the spirit but free from that is not rul'd by the law of righteousness And this is so certain that this unwillingness to sin which ends in obeying it is so far from being a note of a regenerate person that it is evidently true that no man can come from the servitude or slavery of sin but the first step of his going from it is the sense and hatred of his fetters and then his desire of being freed but therefore he is not free because he complains of his bands and finds them heavy and intolerable and therefore seeks for remedy For if an unregenerate person did always sin willingly that is without this reluctancy and strife within and the regenerate did sin as infallibly but yet sore against his will then the regenerate person were the verier slave of the two for he that obeys willingly is less a slave then he that obeys in spight of his heart Libertatis servaveris umbram Si quicquid jubeare velis He that delights in his fetters hath at least the shadow and some of the pleasure of liberty but he hath nothing of it who is kept fast and groans because his feet are hurt in the stocks and the iron entreth into his soul It was the sad state and complaint of the Romans when by the iniquity of war and the evil success of their armies they were forc'd to entertain their bondage tot rebus iniquis Paruimus victi venia est haec sola pudoris Degenerísque metus nil jam potuisse negari It was a conquest that gave them laws and their ineffective strugling and daily murmurs were but ill arguments of their liberty which were so great demonstrations of their servitude 3. An unregenerate man may not onely will and desire to doe Natural or Moral good things but even

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 ha●● 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. 1● 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