Sinner is then in when Hell and Eternity are just presented before him then he parts with his Sins as a Man does with his Money when he has a Sword or a Pistol held to his Breast out of mere fear not out of free choice No Man but must be afraid of Hell who believes it and has any sense of it and all this dying sorrow and Repentance arises only from hence some I know make a mighty difference both as to the Cause and the Vertue and Efficacy of this sorrow if it arise only from the fear of Hell it is Attrition if from the Love of God joyned with it is Contrition and so will be more effectual Now I am afraid the first is the chief spring if not only cause of it in dying Sinners and that there is no real difference between these two sorts of sorrows in the Nature of the thing but only an over nice distinction in words and thoughts and in considering the same thing by several mental conceptions when the passion is the same in it self and the causes of it are not to be so nicely distinguisht but whatever be the principle of this sorrow and however strong and sincere it be and whatever purposes and resolutions it may be joyned with yet that this mere Mental Repentance is not true and Perfect Repentance such as the Gospel promises pardon to I have shown before in giving the Notion and describing the Nature of Repentance and particularly proved how short and imperfect this is in the fourth Section of the first Chapter so that a Dying Sinner cannot then perform such a full Repentance as hath a certain title to Pardon and Salvation by the promises of the Gospel But to show further that a foolish unprepared Dying Sinner can have no hopes of entering into Heaven by all he can then do and that his most earnest Prayers and Entreaties his Cryes and Sorrows his Wishes and Purposes and Resolutions and all the parts of his dying Repentance put together are not sufficient to do this as the Parable here supposes I shall produce some more Positive and Express Proofs and as I think convincing Arguments against this Efficacy and Validity of a Death-Bed Repentance SECT IV. More Positive Proofs and Arguments against the validity of a Death-Bed Repentance FIrst It does no way come up to the plain and indispensable Conditions of Salvation required by the Gospel for those are no other than Faith and Obedience believing the Gospel and living according to it which are the plain and only pathway to Heaven by Christianity and he that thinks of Christs bringing him thither any other way abuses his Saviour and his Religion and puts a wretched cheat upon himself I know Faith and Repentance and Faith alone are often set down as the only Terms and Conditions of Salvation by the Gospel but then they are to be taken not in a strict and narrow sense but in a large one as they include all that belongs and is consequent to them all that Obedience and new Christian Life which is made as plain a Condition of Salvation by the Gospel as Faith it self and Repentance I have shown plainly takes those in so that the whole Practical Condition of the Gospel is meant by them Faith is the first Principle and Foundation of Repentance Obedience and all Christian Vertues and therefore as including and containing those is made the Condition of our being saved by a Metonymy whereby the Cause comprehends also the Effect Faith does so plainly in Scripture mean not only an assent to anothers words or a trust and affiance in them but that which worketh by love Gal. 5.5 and that which produces good Works and is dead without them that 't is a strange mistake to make that the Condition of our being justified and saved without Obedience 'T is to be observed and I think it may help to clear this matter that when Faith and Believing is made the only Condition of being saved and nothing else is mentioned this is alwayes spoken to those Jews or Heathens who were not yet Christians and Believers and the only way for them to be saved was to believe and embrace Christianity and become Disciples of Christ As when Christ sayes John 3.15 Whosoever believeth on the Son of Man shall not perish but have everlasting life This is spoken to Nicodemus who then exprest his disbelief of Christs words and was not brought fully to believe in him though he was disposed to it So John 6.40 when Christ saith This is the will of him that sent me that every one which seeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life This is spoken to the Jews who murmured at Christ and were far from believing in him And so Christ bid the Apostles preach this to the unbelieving World Whosoever believeth and is baptized shall be saved Matth. 16.16 i.e. believing and professing Christianity puts them into a salvable state and if they live according to this Faith they shall certainly be saved As if we should say to a Person who desires to know how he may be a Schollar Go to School or to the University This would put him into a certain way to Learning but he must not only be enter'd and enroll'd and matriculated there but must study and read and do such things as belong to a Schollar When St. Peter advised the Jews who were pricked to the heart Acts 2.37 and St. Paul the Jaylor when he ask'd what must I do to be saved that they should believe in Christ and repent They meant thereby turn Christians which would put them into a salvable state but then they must perform all the other things which belong to Christians as well as have this Faith or else they would lose and forfeit this their good state When Christ therefore speaks to his Disciples who already believed in him and St. Paul writes to those who were Christians and Believers they tell them not only of Faith which is the first Christian Vertue and the root of all the rest but of Obedience and of all good Works of living as becometh the Gospel and adorning their Profession with all manner of Vertues which they make as necessary to Salvation as Faith it self Thus if ye keep my commandments saith Christ ye shall abide in my love John 15.20 And ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you ver 14. And not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven Mat. 7.21 If ye know these things happy are ye if ye do them John 13.17 So St. Paul to the Corinthians Circumcision is nothing nor uncircumcision but keeping the Commandments of God 1 Cor. 7.19 and to the Galatians In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but a new creature Gal. 6.15 For by the gospel the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all
matters of Vertue for not Drinking to the utmost pitch not daring to Swear the least Oath as other Gentlemen do not running into any the same excess of Riot or customary Wickedness but living up strictly to the Rules of the Gospel and the Terms of Salvation there laid down without any such abatements as the loose Opinions or the loose Practices of others are willing to put upon them since God will not alter his Methods or Judgments by any of those let them I say condemn or deride him never so much for this and call him precise Fool or formal Saint or the like yet no Man that knows the good of Vertue will be laughed out of it by a nick-name or be ashamed of being singular in that any more than in any other excellency of Learning or Knowledge above others and I suppose none of those who are so much against singularity but would be willing to be Rich though never so many others were Poor and why not then to be Vertuous which is ten times more valuable though never so many others were Vitious Example indeed is very prevailing and like a Contagion spreads and diffuseth it self very secretly and insensibly and infects all about it because it begets the same thoughts the same faise principles and so makes Men have less sense of the evil of Sin and of the danger of it but where a Man has fixt and steddy thoughts of those there the power of Example and the Temptation of it to unwary and unsetled Minds is taken off and removed Having examined those Enticements and Temptations by which Men are generally deluded into the deceitfulness of Sin and exposed the false Reasonings and Sophistry which impose upon them and perswade them to commit it I shall now offer the many Motives and Encouragements and greater Arguments to make Men leave their Sins and perswade them to Repentance And here I shall I. Consider the Motives to Repentance from the Reason and Nature of the thing II. Those which are peculiar to Revelation and proper to Christianity of which this is the great Duty SECT II. Motives to Repentance from Reason THE Motives to Repentance from the Reason and Nature of the thing such as would perswade a Wise Heathen or any Man of Sense and Understanding to Repent after he had been foolish and wicked These must be taken from the manifold evil and mischief of his Sins and Vices which though they invited him at first with the appearing charms of Pleasure or some other seeming good yet now he finds upon a better Consideration and a serious Reflection upon them that they are poysonous and bitter painful and irksome and have a thousand ill consequences and shameful effects that do necessarily attend them and are the cursed Fruit that spring out of that root of bitterness that though they are a little pleasant to the taste yet they are Gall and Wormwood i' the Stomach and like the Grapes of Sodom though they look fair to the eye yet they are but bitter and poysonous as the poyson of dragons and the venome of asps Deut. 32.33 and that there was little or no fruit in those things whereof he is now ashamed and besides that the end of those things is death Rom. 6.21 That he has Naturally an inward fear and dread of a Divine Nemesis and Vengeance hanging over his head and of some grievous Punishment or Evil befalling him for any ill thing he has done and that he finds by his own wiser thoughts and better observations now that he has given himself leave to think and to consider things over again with calm Thoughts and sober Reason after that his Lusts are cool and his Passions more sedate that Sin is but disguised misery that it is the mother of all evil and mischief as it is the daughter of folly and inconsideration that the most tempting Vice is but as a Pandar whose wayes lead to death and destruction Prov. 3.17 and that Vertue is the only true way to Comfort and Happiness That the wayes of that are wayes of pleasantness and all its paths are peace ver 3. and that the effect of it is quietness and ossurance for ever Isa 32.17 So that we must suppose such an one brought to Repentance by such Considerations and by such a Method as this following 1. He is brought to think and consider by some Accident Affliction or Judgment by Sickness or the fear of Death or something that awakens his Mind and the powers of Reason and Thinking which rouze his stupid and sensless Soul and excites his Lethargick drowsie Faculties dozed with brutishness and sensuality and which does in the Scripture Phrase bring him to himself Luke 15.17 This is generally done not only by the Grace of God working inwardly upon his Mind but by something else also at the same time from without which touches him to the quick and enters like Josephs fetters even into his Soul and with its piercing keenness stimulates and even forces him to attend and consider and think whether he will or no of his Spiritual state and condition and then when he looks about him he fees what a woful state he is in deep and in the mire of Sin and Guilt to go forward he is afraid for he now sees the dreadful precipice before him which he discerned not before when he ran blindfold into Sin or without sense or fear of danger as the horse rushes into the battle and how to go back he knows not 't is so difficult and he is so plunged in the depth of wickedness but he sees he must perish inevitably if he do not struggle and do what he can and endeavour to the utmost to get out of his miserable condition so he prayes to God to help him and sadly bewails himself and laments and weeps over his wretched case which he finds himself in and has brought himself to He repents and grieves for his past folly and is now willing to repair and amend it and to snatch himself if he can as a brand out of the fire and to lay hold upon some plank that may save him from sinking in this dreadful storm wherein he finds he has shipwreckt his Conscience and the waters are gone over his Soul and he is ready to be swallowed up of the gulph of destruction then he makes Vowes to Heaven and whilst the same thoughts continue upon his Mind resolves to keep them and if they go not off when the storm is over or he do not forget them when he comes to shore and is set upon dry land but these strong impressions last upon his Mind and leave a due sense abiding upon his Soul even when the violent cause is over and the affliction is removed then he is like to be a good Man and to repent in earnest and these thunder-strokes of Providence may not only startle and rouze him but as is reported of some Animals they may make him conceive and bring forth a
he feels an inward strength and vigour in himself and the constant springs of joy and comfort rising up in his own breast and overflowing his Soul But Vice sneaks and is cowardly and fills a Man with fear and confusion and all the mean and little and uneasie and tormenting Passions that belong to Humane Nature Vertue approves it self to our Reason and agrees with the native sense of our own Minds and has a Natural beauty and loveliness that commends it to our first sight and apprehension and makes it amiable and desirable esteemed and honoured and admired by every one even by those who forsake it who cannot but be so just to it as to commend and approve it very often in others But Vice has a Natural ugliness and deformity that makes Men ashamed of it after they have committed it and commit it in darkness and obscurity and after to deny and extenuate it as being presently sensible of the folly and undecency and unreasonableness of it as having done what they cannot justifie and what presently flyes in their faces if they have not a brow of Brass and a forehead of Steel It is contrary and awry to our own Nature and against the first sense and tenderness of our own Minds so that great violence must be used to commit it at first and great pain follows upon it 'T is a force a Rape upon the Virgin-modesty and the Natural sense of Good and Evil that we are born with Vertue has alwayes very good and desirable effects upon us in this Life as well as great Rewards in another 'T is in the Wise Mans Phrase and in a true literal sense Health to our navel and marrow to our bones Prov. 3.8 It keeps our Bodies in good plight neither drains or exhausts them with forced Pleasures or unruly Passions nor choaks or suffocates them with immoderate loads nor drowns and washes them away with floods of drink and cups of intemperance It brings a Blessing of God upon our Estates and often makes us Rich by the help of Industry and Frugality whilst nothing is so expensive and so impoverishing as Vice which spends many times all upon its Lusts and the hungry Wolf comes often to the door where the Swine and the Goat have been used to dwell Though Vertue may not alwayes bring abundance neither is it desirable alwayes to a wise Man though Solomon puts Riches as the common Blessing in the left hand of Wisdom Prov. 3.16 yet it makes a little that the righteous hath better than great riches of the ungodly Ps 37.16 Honour and a good Name do more certainly belong to Vertue than Riches and whilst Vice brings a blot and a reproach upon a Mans Credit Vertue makes him loved and honoured and esteemed by all that know him while he lives and embalms his Name when he is dead and makes his Memory to be precious But above all it makes a Man truly easie and happy within himself it secures him the peace and tranquillity of his own Mind which is the greatest happiness in the World So that all Natural Good and all that is desirable to Humane Nature growes as a proper Fruit out of Vertue which is the true Root that Naturally brings forth all Good as Sin does all Evil and these are so annexed to them by the nature and constitution of things as effects to their proper causes that nothing can cut them off or precide them and these besides all the super-added Motives of revealed Religion are by plain Reason and observation of things very strong Arguments to bring Men off from Vice to Vertue i. e. to true Repentance 4. Therefore Fourthly A wise Man when he comes to reflect and consider finds that that which hindered him from seeing all this before was only his foolish Lusts and his corrupt senfual Inclinations and his strong Passions and violent and unreasonable Appetites which blinded his Reason and clouded his Judgment and darkened his Understanding and besotted intoxicated and bewitched him i. e. by some unaccountable wayes hindered him from discerning and considering these things which are so plain and evident and therefore the reason why he before chose Vice and forsook Vertue was because he did not see and consider this nor was so truly convinced of the Evil of Sin and the Good of Vertue but now he has quite other thoughts and apprehensions about them and therefore he is changed in his Will and his Affections by this change wrought in his Mind and his Understanding and this being a lasting and effectual change upon all the inward principles of action has a necessary influence upon his outward actions that are alwayes moved and turned by those inward springs and wheels within us for though a Man is still at liberty and is under no force and compulsion from without but acts freely from within himself yet his Will will follow the last dictate of his Understanding and he will not choose Evil as Evil when he apprehends it to be so and he must some way have his Reason corrupted and judge falsly and erroneously before he will practice so Omnis peccans ignorat If he has a true and lively sense of the Good of Vertue abiding upon his Mind he will not choose Vice again 'T is this sense I doubt not confirms the blessed Spirits above and will do the Souls of all good Men in Heaven when they see and know this so perfectly that 't will be impossible for them to fall but now we see things darkly and judge weakly and often change and alter our Minds as not having such a clear view of things nor attending so closely to the dictates of impartial Reason but our thoughts are often lured off by the temptations of the Flesh and our Minds hearken but to one side to the false reasonings and suggestions of the Devil and our own Lusts or are surprized with the sudden importunity of a temptation before they can recollect themselves Else no Man could say Video meliora proboque deteriora sequor for we cannot but love and choose Good when we apprehend it and hate and abhor Evil when it is visible and naked to us We must therefore strip Vice of its disguise and its false colours and wash off its paint and meretricious charmes and see it as it is in its deformity and ugliness and in the miserable and sad consequences of it and then we shall hate that which we once loved and throw away the gilded poyson and shake the smooth and shining Viper off of our hands and cast the rotten curtizan from our armes and embraces We shall be ashamed that we were so cheated and imposed upon so deluded by the deceitfulness of sin that we were so weak as to be governed by our mean passions and low inclinations which are the imperfection and the soft side of our Nature and that we should not live up to that Reason which is proper to us and distinguishes us from brutes that we
an irresistible force and impulse which shall do all this in an instant and convert a Sinner in a moment No this must be done gradually and successively by the bringing in of other thoughts dispositions inclinations and practices by a kindly and gentle influence upon our Minds the Spirit descending like rain or shedding its Vertue like dew upon our Hearts and so bringing forth the fruits of Repentance in us not like a violent stream or a mighty torrent bearing down all immediately before it The Spirit of God which is compared in Scripture to the winds blowing where we see the effects though we discern not the cause does not by a sudden gust like a hurricane convert a Sinner and turn him from his Sins in such a manner as a tree is torn up by the roots with a violent tempest but by a fresh and gentle gale it carries the Sinner from Vice to Vertue by filling his Mind with new thoughts and strongly moving and determining him the right way and secretly inclining his Mind to choose and his Understanding to see and consider what is his true Interest and Happiness and by an inward energy and vertue as a principle of Life acts secretly and undiscernably upon all our Faculties changing our thoughts desires and affections and working upon our Minds though in a way agreeable to our Rational Faculties yet by a Power superiour and superadded to them And now let every Sinner consider what great Motives and Encouragements and so what Obligations he hath to Repent by the Gospel how powerfully and how endearingly by Motives both of Love and Fear Christ doth there call Sinners to Repentance It was his great work and for this purpose he came into the World to recover lost and undone Mankind and to rescue them from that state of Sin and Misery they were in and to restore them to a state of Vertue and Happiness This was a design worthy Christs coming into the World and all the mysterious dispensation of Christianity 7. And this is of such absolute necessity and importance to us that 't is impossible we can otherwise escape Misery and not perish inevitably God when he would show the greatest Mercy and Kindness to us in the World and demonstrate his Love to us in the highest manner as he hath done by the Gospel yet hath there told us that except we repent we shall all certainly perish Luke 13.5 This is the perpetual and indispensable condition upon which alone we must expect any benefit by Christ and the Gospel this is as low as God can go with us Perfect and uninterrupted Obedience all our lives is his due and when we have broken that and he compounds with us and accepts of Partial and Renewed Obedience instead of Entire i. e. of Repentance and returning to our Duty instead of keeping alwayes to it this is the utmost favour can be expected from him or that he can grant to us and Repentance is the only way by which it is possible for a Sinner to escape Wrath and Damnation This I shall a little clear and make out and then perswade to this Duty of Repentance from the absolute necessity of it 1. Then 't is this alone can consist with the Wisdom and Honour of God as he is Governour of the World God as he is a Being of Infinite Goodness and Compassion to his Creatures so he is a very Wise and Prudent Governour of the World and therefore though like a merciful Prince out of the Goodness of his Nature and the tender Inclinations he has for all his Subjects he is ready to shew all Mercy and Clemency to those that have offended him yet if he should do this too easily without any security of their good behaviour for the future or any care and provision for their better Obedience it would not a little reflect upon the Wisdom of his Government and represent him as too soft and easie a Being and render his Authority in time cheap and contemptible It would not only loosen the reins of Government but be a letting them go out of his hands and throwing them upon the necks of his insolent and rebellious Vassals if without any tyes or obligations for the future or letting them know upon what conditions they should be capable of his favour and continue in it he should take off all the Punishment their past Crimes had deserved this would be to encourage them to commit new ones and give them just grounds to hope for an absolute and perpetual impunity Should God have granted by the Gospel or any other way such an Unconditional Charter of Mercy and Pardon this would have certainly destroyed that very Power by which he granted it and such a Privilege or Concession as it would greatly have reflected upon his Honour so it would have quite undermined his Authority it would have been a resigning up his Throne and a laying his Crown at the feet of his own insolent Rebels For what would have remain'd to him of Power to Govern or to Punish if he had done this If he had set out a standing Act of Grace and Mercy to all Sinners without any Condition or Proviso that they turn from their Wickedness which they had committed that they should come in and lay down all their Hostile Weapons and be Faithful and Loyal hereafter or else be utterly uncapable of any benefit of it Without this it had been rather a Dispensation or Indulgence to be Wicked than a wise Proclamation of Mercy to serve the true Ends and Interest of Government God indeed has with great Wisdom and Goodness found out such a temper in his Government and contrived such an expedient as shews the most admirable Wisdom and the most wonderful Mercy both together and that is for the sake and by the mediation of a Sacrifice to pardon and yet to punish the Sinner by the same way to give an instance of his Mercy and a remonstrance of his Justice and the design of all that is to show that though he is the most inclined to Mercy and Clemency yet he will never show it but in such a way as is consistent with the Honour and Wisdom of his Government He is willing to abate of his extream Right over his Creatures and to take off the edge and severity of his Laws so far as Prudence and the Wise Ends of Government will give leave but not so far as shall give any manner of encouragement to Disobedience and Wickedness and that would be unavoidable if he should ever grant a Pardon to wicked Men upon any other condition than turning away from their Wickedness 2. As 't is this alone can consist with the Honour and Wisdom of God as he is a wise Governour so nothing but this can render us acceptable to him as he is a truly Righteous and Holy Being If we consider God as such as a Being essentially holy so that this is not only his Perfection but his very Nature then
it can never be imagined that he can have any love or kindness or show any favour to a wicked Man till he has turned away from his Wickedness What is so contrary to himself he can never love if he love himself for he might by the same reason as well hate himself as love that The love of God depends not upon any particular arbitrary inclination or unaccountable humour and fancy as in weak Mortals but it arises from his own Essential Excellencies and Perfections and is grounded upon a true and a lasting Principle his own Nature rather than his Will So that whilst God himself is unchangeably holy he will alwayes love any Soul that is truly holy and comes up to his original Holiness by such measures and proportions as its Nature will admit but whilst the Mind continues wicked it can never by any means in the World be reconciled to God 't is alienated from him 't is opposite to his Nature and 't is therefore the necessary object of his hatred and displeasure or as the Scripture speaks An abomination to him Sin is the only thing that God hates and the only cause why he is angry and displeased with any of his Creatures and as long as this remains there is an everlasting breach and a perpetual ground and foundation of enmity between them and not only Light and Darkness but Heaven and Hell are more irreconcilable than a Righteous God and a Wicked Soul All the Sacrifices that can be offered to atone and expiate for such an one if it continues such were they never so rich or never so many can no more commend it to God or make its peace with him than all the Bribes and Presents of the Indies could pervert a Just and Righteous Judge or blind the eyes of Justice and Integrity it self There can never be any other terms of Reconciliation between a Wicked Soul and a Righteous God but only this that it become Righteous and till it do so it can never become the object of Gods Love and Favour unless he change his own Righteous Nature and cease to be Righteous and Holy himself 3. Without this we can never be freed from the Natural and Necessary Evils of Sin upon our Minds whereby it will make us inwardly miserable till we are cured of them for though we should suppose all the Political Evils as I may call them of Sin taken away and removed i. e. all that outward Mischief and Punishment which is to be inflicted upon it from the Arbitrary Will and Threatning of the sovereign Lawgiver though he should out of tenderness and compassion or for the sake of a Sacrifice or other Consideration abate of that and not execute the utmost Penalties and those positive Severities that he had denounced against it yet so many are the Natural Evils that are annex'd to it that it would of it self make the Mind necessarily and inwardly miserable This does not depend upon the Will of God as a Governour only but as a Creator as he hath setled and ordered the nature of things and made it impossible they should ever be otherwise Misery is so entailed to Sin by the fundamental constitution of things that 't is impossible ever to cut it off It is as inseparable from and as closely connected to it as effects are to their causes and we may as well divorce Light from the Sun or Heat from Fire as Misery from Wickedness It springs out of it Naturally as a foul stream from such a corrupt fountain growes upon it as the proper and bitter fruit from such a poysonous root and Sin as a true Parent has the seeds of all Evil in its own bowels A Mind that is over-run with Vice will as necessarily be corrupted and weakened and vitiated as the Body is decayed and impaired by a Disease The one will as necessarily put the Mind out of order as Sickness does the other and till it be cured and made sound it will alwayes be in pain and uneasie Its Faculties will necessarily be weakened and impaired and disordered by it and so lose their true and proper happiness and it will be put into an unnatural frame and temper and be like the Body when its Limbs are out of joynt in great torture till it be set right again God must alter his own Nature and the Nature of things too or else Vice and Wickedness whilst 't is continued in will make the Mind miserable sickly and uneasie and fill it with restlesness and disquietude and make it a torment and vexation to it self 4. Without Repentance and being freed from our Sins we can never be capable of partaking or enjoying any true and positive Happiness much less that great and eternal one in Heave Happiness must be something within our selves like Health it consists in the right crasis and constitution of the Mind in the strength and vigour and regular operation of all its Faculties Till it be put into this state by Repentance and Vertue 't is uncapable of enjoying any true Happiness Our Vices must therefore be first cured and purged out or else our Souls will be as uncapable of enjoying their proper spiritual and rational pleasures with their Sins and wicked Habits and Dispositions upon them as our Bodies of enjoying their animal and sensual ones witha Lethargy or Apoplexy or whatever destroys their proper strength sense and perception Without Holy Minds and Vertuous Dispositions and Heavenly Affections and Inclinations as we can no way hope for Heaven so we are no way fitted or qualified for it and therefore our Minds must necessarily be disposed and prepared for that by Repentance and previous habits of Vertue and such a divine temper and holiness of Mind as can alone make us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light as St. Paul speaks Coloss 1.12 without which we should no more enjoy Heaven than a blind Man enjoyes the light of the Sun whose Organs are spoil'd and vitiated and who wants the use of those Senses and Faculties by which he should perceive it So that if a Sinner should be sent to Heaven with all his unrepented Sins unmortified Lusts and vitious Inclinations and without that love of God and Goodness which is to fit him for it he would be not only like him which came to the Marriage-feast without a Wedding-garment who must be turned out of that company he was so unfit for but like one that had the greatest dainties set before him but that was sick and had no stomach and so could not taste or relish any of them Till the Mind is brought to love God and delight in him and in all the actions of Vertue and exercises of Religion it canot be happy in Heaven but that would rather be unagreeable and an aversion to it than an Happiness Till a Sinner therefore be brought off from his Sins by Repentance and restored to a vertuous and holy and good Mind he cannot enjoy Heaven
very good Persons subject to it and one of the best means to cure it is to know that this is one cause of that trouble of Mind which will be so much abated when one is perswaded from whence it often comes or is heightened For Melancholly is not curable by Religion or Divinity and they who are subject to it should take the more care of their lives that there be no true and great cause to fall in and joyn with the Melancholly of their Bodies and they should make a judgment of themselves in their best tempers and when their thoughts are clearest and should trust others and especially their Spiritual Guides to judge for them since they are so unfit generally to pass judgment upon themselves 2. This Trouble of Mind which makes Men despair of Mercy is most unreasonable and contrary to the whole tenour and design of the Gospel for there is Pardon held out to the greatest Sinner by the Blood of Christ and to the greatest Sin or the greatest number of Sins if we Repent of them and leave them and become good Men before we dye This is as certain as the Gospel is true and therefore no Man has any just cause to despair for the greatest Sin or Sins who is so heartily troubled for them that he would not for the World commit them again and who resolves never to do so by the Grace of God but to practice the contrary Vertues and who makes good this Resolution by a Vertuous and Pious and Religious Life this Man will as certainly be happy as if he had been alwayes innocent and never had offended God I cannot say he will be in a state as comfortable and free from trouble though if he has thus Repented and become a good man he has good reason to be so but he will be as safe and if he has still some trouble of mind remaining upon the remembrance of his Sins though never so long past and he cannot see the Pardon of them with the same certainty and evidence that he knows he committed them yet this shall not hinder his Pardon nor affect his Salvation if he has truly and fully Repented of them For 3. And Lastly This Trouble of Mind which proceeds from judging too hardly or severely of himself is rather an Infirmity than a Sin and God will not condemn a Man for it though he may condemn himself for God will not condemn a Man unjustly though he should unjustly condemn himself much less because he does so Despair is indeed a sad state but I cannot say it is alwayes a damnable Sin or want of Faith as some think for it may arise not from a disbelief of the Gospel or of the Divine Goodness or the freeness and fullness of Gods Grace in and through Christ but meerly from a false and mistaken and too hard and humble an opinion of a Mans self and this is a fault not of a Mans Will but of his Judgment and a weakness and imperfection in his Understanding for which he shall never be condemned by a Righteous God but he will reverse this false Judgment which he made of himself when he lived or when he dyed and set it right in the Court of Heaven and do Justice to him at the great Tribunal though he did not do it to himself here That God will judge Men according to their Works is plain in Scripture but no where that I know that he will do so according to their Thoughts their vain Hopes and presumptuous or vain Fears and Troubles and Doubts and even Despairs of themselves So that tho' this Trouble of Mind or this Wounded Spirit be a comfortless and unhappy state yet it truly depends upon the cause to make judgment of it or to conclude any thing from it and true and timely Repentance is the best and certainest Remedy for it CHAP. IV. The ill Consequences drawn from the Priviledge of Repentance Obviated and Prevented THE most wicked and greatest of Sinners who have any thoughts of their Souls and of another World though they are not prevailed upon by this to become better yet make this reserve and refuge to themselves that they will Repent hereafter at some time or other and so escape the Wrath to come They know and are very sensible if they have not shaken off all Religion and all thinking and considering of these things that except they repent they shall all perish but they hope and intend to prevent this by the benefit of Repentance and so make use of that not to bring them off from their Sins but to encourage them in them with hopes to avoid all the miserable consequences of them and yet live in them and so by this priviledge of an after Repentance they set aside the present necessity of a good Life and wholly destroy or supersede all Religion I shall therefore endeavour to prevent that most common and most fatal abuse of it for I am confident there are more Souls perish by that than by any other mistake whatsoever and a thousand times more than by down-right Infidelity and Disbelief of all Religion which is a very rare thing and 't is hard to find out any certain instances that have ever been of it in the World 't is so much against the Natural Sense and Reason and Apprehension of Mankind but the other is the commonest thing in the World even for Christians perhaps above any others to make false Reasonings to themselves from this priviledge of Repentance which we have in the highest degree from the Gospel to think they may secure and save their Souls and yet indulge and allow themselves in the present enjoyment of their Sins because they may set all right by Repenting of them hereafter I shall therefore against this errour and abuse of Repentance and to obviate this mischievous Consequence offer these following Considerations 1. Can we think a Wise God would make such a Grant and Concession to his Creatures as should destroy all Religion and make void the necessity of Obedience and a good Life which according to these Mens thoughts is unavoidably done by this Gospel-priviledge of Repentance For since say they a Man is as certainly safe who comes in at any time upon Repentance and shall be as certainly saved by the Terms and Conditions of the Gospel as if he had spent all his Life in the strictest Vertue and Religion What need is there of such an early and constant and perpetual Obedience and spending a whole Life in the servitude and drudgery of Religion when coming in at the eleventh hour and working but a short space at the latter end of the day will have as much Wages and as sure a Reward and be as certainly accepted by God Shall not a Sinner when ever he returns and repents find Mercy Is there any time or bounds prefix'd to his Repentance so that he may not do it so many years hence as well as at present and after he has
which we can never enjoy the true Happiness we were made for and to which our Minds are fitted Vertue alone can give that and all the Pleasure Peace and Joy that result from it whereas Wickedness will necessarily not only corrupt and impair the Mind and spoil its Faculties but disorder and wound and corrode it and make it very painful and uneasie and a Hell and Torment to it self 2. As none but good Men shall enter into Heaven so none can be made good on a sudden Those Vertuous and Holy Habits and Dispositions of Mind are not to be had or attained immediately in a little time and on a sudden hurry as is intimated here by the Virgins wanting Oyl and not being able to procure or buy it in their present distress when the Bridegroom was a coming We must be prepared and provided with those things that are necessary for our Future Happiness before Death comes and puts us on a sudden hurry and alarums us with its unexpected approach or else we shall be sadly disappointed and unprovided if we expect to procure or attain them then If we think to borrow of anothers Vertues and Merits to help out our own defects and wants at that time as they of the Church of Rome imagine something like these foolish Virgins or as others that the Bridegroom himself shall supply them in an extraordinary manner out of his stock though they have no Oyl at all in their own Vessels no Righteousness of their own All these vain hopes and expectations of idle and careless and foolish Sinners will then deceive and disappoint them and make them miserable If Men have not attained to the Vertues and Graces of Religion nor any degrees of Holiness and Goodness all their Lives and think to acquire them now on a sudden when they are near dying they may as well hope that a Tree that has bore no Fruit all the Year should on a sudden when it is just to be cut down and the Axe is laid to the root of it sprout and bud and blossom and bring forth Fruit. This would be a strange Miracle and it must be as great and unaccountable to have a wicked Man on a sudden become a good one and bring forth the Fruits of Vertue and Repentance All our Vertues are owing to the Grace of God as the growth of all Plants and Trees is to the Rain and warmth and influence of the Heavens but to think that Gods Grace which could not work upon a Man all his Life before will now in such an extraordinary manner change and convert him on a sudden as to make him immediately become a good Man is to suppose a Saint made as Adam was in full growth and perfect flature the first day he lived without passing through the degrees of Youth and Childhood as God thinks not fit to make Mankind so now but produces them by the ordinary and appointed way of his Providence so he makes good Men by the ordinary methods of his Grace and influences of Religion and the New Creature is formed by degrees and growes into a perfect Man and increases in Wisdom and Goodness till it comes to the measure of the stature of the fulness in Christ Jesus The Spirit worketh upon our Mind agreably to their Nature in a manner indiscernable from its own proper operation enlighteneth the Understanding and inclineth the will gently and kindly by the thoughts and considerations of Religion offering them clearly and imprinting them strongly upon the Soul and so in a rational way begetting right apprehensions and affections in it and so altering the temper and disposition of the Mind and by frequent acts and repeated practices bringing a Man to new habits and thus converting him from bad to good not in an instant but by long strivings and gradual operations upon him No very bad Man was ever made a good one on a sudden nor can any more be so by the Grace of the Gospel than a Child over night become a Man the next morning by the course of Nature and Providence or Seed sown in the ground spring up and ripen and bear Fruit in a few hours Such Mushroon Converts and Penitents have no good root but dye away and wither as suddenly and instantaneously as they came up with the first heat and tryal of a Temptation till Religion shoots deeper into their Hearts and gets better rooting in their Souls like the Seed that fell on stony ground it is quickly gone and does not grow at all nor bring forth fruit with patience as the Scripture emphatically speaks i. e. with due continuance Good Purposes and Resolutions and such like good Principles of Action must continue some time upon the Mind and exert their power and efficacy upon it by proper acts and tryals and experiments or else they are but like false conceptions that produce nothing like Clouds without Rain Blossoms without Fruit and abortive causes without any effects A sudden Sorrow upon a wicked Mind will no more make it good nor bring forth the worthy fruits of Repentance than a sudden shower upon the Sands of Arabia or Rocks of Caucasus will make them become fertile and good ground there must be long cultivation and great labour and pains taken with such barren ground before it will be a fruitful Soil and bring forth any thing by all the showers and influences of Heaven upon it A hardened Sinner who hath lived many years in the wretched courses and habits of Wickedness must by long time and great care and many methods of Gods Grace and Goodness have his Heart changed and his Life mended and his old Vicious Habits plucked up and new Vertuous ones planted in their place and these take root and grow up and bear Fruit in his Life before he can become such a good Man as is fitted for Heaven Such an one can never be made so in a little time just before Death but it must require at least a good part of his Life to become such and it should be indeed the business of our whole Lives to make our selves such as shall be thus fit for Heaven To think that great work can be done at the latter end when we are just a dying and may be dispatched in a very little time all on a sudden is as idle and unreasonable as for a Man that has a good dayes journey to take to lye loytering and never mind it till the Sun is near down and night is coming upon him and then to set out and think to reach it by a sudden start or by some unaccountable wayes to fly thither or be Magically transported and set down he knows not how at his journeys end Or rather to make the Case more exactly parallel to an old Sinner like one who hath travelled almost all the day in a wrong way and spurred and driven on very furiously in his vicious courses and is now to turn back and begin to take the right way when