our Saviour speaks in these Cases The things impossible with Men with God are possible Objection 3. But according to this state of the Case What should a Dying Man do that hath not yet repented Should he expect a Miracle or do nothing through despair Answer Have ye not read what David did when he was an hungry and had need He adventured over Laws and was blameless If any Man feel the necessities of a Soul perishing let him lay hold upon Mercy and Grace to help There is a Faith in this Case like the Faith of Miracles that removes Mountains and divides Seas He that can receive it let him receive it Mat. 19.12 But let every Man take heed how he falls into these Necessities For multitudes not having the right Faith like the Egyptians Essay this and are drowned Heb. 11.29 It is a very hard thing to distinguish between mirum and miraculum a Wonder and a Miracle so is it between a saving Faith and Repentance that may have wonderful effects through the Conviction of a Death-Bed and this true saving Faith this Faith of Miracles and for any thing I know Eternity only can make a Man safe concerning it and sure that he had it Doubtless many like Joab perish catching hold of the Horns of the Altar Objection 4. But what If Men having made a Profession of Religion have done many things religiously and soberly and yet through the prevalency of some Lusts it appears they have not truly repented May not the Conversation they have had with Religion so prepare things that their Repentance may be dispatched in the Instants of Death Answer 1. It is dreadful to consider how the unhappy pleas of some upon such kind of accounts recited by Christ are also rejected by him Many shall say in that day Lord Lord have we not eaten and drunk in thy presence and thou hast taught in our streets Luk. 13.26 c. In thy Name have we cast out Devils and in thy Name done many wonderful Works Mat. 7.22 Yet he shall profess unto them I never knew you Depart from me ye workers of iniquity Besides all the Doubts already insisted upon such Men have made a Custom of deluding Religion and have great cause to fear they should do so at last God also is so provoked by such as have long tempted him proved him and seen his works and yet err from him in their hearts and do not know his ways that he comes to his oath against them Heb. 3.9 10. Answ 2. But lest this should discourage and suffocate all motions after God either in Life or at Death and they seem in as good condition that never mind Religion as those that do I add Any good thing found in Men either in their Life or Death though it have not the worthiness of Repentance to Salvation yet shall certainly have its reward in mitigations of Punishment which Consideration fully explained at the Day of Judgment will assoyl many of this sort of Doubts concerning the ways of God I believe those very early seekings of God notwithstanding which he is said to laugh at the Destruction of those from whom they come when they have first served the gloryings of Justice obtain lessenings of Pain as conquered Enemies after they have been led in Triumph to wait on the Conqueror's Glory may have even that Service recompensed with a more compassionate Captivity Answer 3. If there have been solidity and sincerity in any religious Exercises in the time of Life whereby the Heart by the Grace of God is prepared for further Grace as very often Conversion is by degrees It is hopeful God may use Death as a Season of compleating his Work yet this is to be registred among the seldomer disposes of God and both those Preparations and the Complement of them is under the caution of our Saviour Strive to enter in at the strait gate for many I say unto you shall seek to enter and shall not be able Luke 13.24 Objection 5. Is it not at all times a great Folly to promise a to morrow to Repentance how long soever we may live after that to morrow because we daily harden through the deceitfulness of sin Is it not also always a curious Point and that requires a great jealousie over it whether our Hearts are at any time sincere in returns to God Is it not lastly always to be feared lest our to day the time of Grace slip from us Why then are the dangers placed so industriously upon this Repentance at Death Answer 1. First as concerning the time of Repentance It is to be acknowledged Every Man that is come to the strength and fixedness of his Understanding to the poize and inclination of his Will and Affections to the habit and custom of his Life and Actions and hath not determined for God hath great reason to fear lest as there is a deep print of the high hand of Nature upon his unconverted state so there should be a Seal of Justice also and this Doubt increases every day Notwithstanding this All Doubts and Scruples that have an appearance of insnaring and intangling the minds of Men with fears they begin too late are to be avoided if it be not so late that it is just now dark and their feet stumbling upon the dark mountains Jer. 13.16 And these things being written especially for the living Isa 38.19 who have in ordinary probability time to lose the danger is best placed here where it takes them every way By the way of Encouragement that the time is not yet past while they have the spaces of Life and of the Patience of God which is not a slackness of Justice but a designed Salvation By the way of Caution because they know not how soon they may be cast upon a Death-Bed and this Patience be at an end With Dying Men the case is otherwise who are already in the thickest of the Danger and must work themselves out in that moment or perish for ever without any Injury therefore to them the living are thus to be warned Isa 38.19 Further It is evident all delays of Repentance roll down hither however Men propose a stop yet hither the generality come at last So that in effect it is all one whether Men are disswaded from trusting to a Dying Repentance or from delaying their Repentance For if they are given to delay It comes to this They repent and die together But if a Man be afraid to venture Eternity upon his last Breath he will repent presently 2. For the difficulty of being sincere in Repentance I place it here because though every Man should by drawing the parallel lines of Delusion and mistake upon himself try his Repentance when ever it is yet these Errors fall in greatest numbers upon that point of Extremity and with least possibility of rectifying them But seeing there are at all times such deceits in this Case there is nothing so necessary as to repent
even by one Affection because all are joyn'd and united with it For where Sorrow goes Love goes because sorrow is for the want of some good the Souls desires If then sorrow be after God and for Holiness It assures the Soul hath a springing Love for God and Holiness and in the distance it apprehends it self from these it laments Where sorrow goes there hatred also goes For sorrow arises from some evil that the Soul hates and abhors that presses in upon it In sorrow after God sin and the wrath and displeasure of God is what the Soul hates and it finding these near and closing upon it it sorrows and laments that they may be cast out and removed And how do these the Love of God and hatred of sin work to Repentance And thus also it might be shewn How Fear Hope Joy Delight move as sorrow moves The Apostle knowing with what a strength and force and presence the Affections move writes to the Colossians c. 2. To set their Affections on things above For if the Affections are so set the Spirit and Soul will be so set and therefore the whole man will be so set Oâ— the contrary the sorrow of the World carries the strength of the Soul the Affections on the World which not able to sustain and bear up an Immortal Spirit it often destroys the Body by Violence and leaves the Soul to sink also the Spirit to fall down from God which is the Death of it 2. The Affection of sorrow is the Affection that is most properly conversant about sin and the consequences of it the wrath and displeasure of God the curse and evil Now then as sin is a departure from God the fountain of Life and happiness the supreme good and so ushers in and introduces all unhappiness so sorrow that is after God begins in the apprehension of God and of his Law and so descends on all the evil consequential or following on the loss of God But the sorrow of the World not beginning with God fetters it self with the Evils which press upon it with relation to the present World which can never be well removed without removing the principal cause sin and the displeasure of God for it But to this the sorrow of this World hath no regard and so is never cured but becomes of a peice with the sorrows of the second Death For so all sorrow here not Healed by the repentance to Salvation not to be repented of which Heals the sorrow after God becomes one with the sorrows of Hell and everlasting wailing By godly sorrow therefore sorrow is made to be its own Death and Plagues For working repentance to Salvation never to be repented of When it is sorrow after God it is the Destruction of all sorrow For it can be no longer but as Scripture speaks forrow and sighing shall flee away and there shall be no more sorrow As it came in by sin so by sin Repented of and Pardoned it for ever ceases and vanishes away So sorrow is conversant about its proper object and cause and it hath the great effect of removing it self and of it self loosing it self in that Joy that follows upon the Salvation of that Repentance it self hath wrought which must needs make an end of Sorrow or Perfects it into it self never to be Repented of 3. The serviceableness of godly sorrow to Repentance is that this Affection of all the Affections or Passions of the human Soul is that which makes it wise and considerative seeing Repentance then that is to Salvation is a most Wise and prudent grace This Affection of sorrow is most preparatory and contributary to it The sorrow after God is no Ignorant or unreasonable Passion or Affection call'd Attrition no superstitious Pennance or ceremony of Sorrow not a mere softness and dissolving into Tears not any desultory Passion that falls into some morning Dew or as it were heat Drops but a deep inward trouble that we have offended God and sinn'd against him and endangered our selves to Eternity by our sins And however there may be at first some sudden stroke or Impression and a Passion upon it that may go off yet it is indeed a spring that dis-embogues it self through the whole course of a Christians Life There is a sorrow and a relenting of Soul that is a soft Dew or Distillation from the Soul upon it self that makes it very tender humble and Apprehensive of the Evil of Sin of the Ingratitude and unthankfulness of having sinned against God and given Offence to the Eyes of his Holiness and of his Glory And as this arises from understanding so it begets understanding and close Consideration It is observ'd in Nature that sorrow and sadness encline to Wisdom and attentness of Mind Vexation gives understanding is a saying And hereunto the wise King Solomon agrees Eccles 7.3 c. sorrow is better than laughter It is better to go to the house of Mourning than to the house of Feasting for the Living will lay it to Heart And by the sadness of the Countenance the Heart is made better In the day of Adversity consider that is the proper season of it Generally our Mirth and Rejoycing is too lighr and flashy it scatters and sets the Spirits in wandring I said of Laughter it is Mad and of Mirth what does it As the cracking of Thorns under a Pot so the Laughter of Fools is Vanity Sorrow is like a shade that congregates and gathers up the Spirits to think and weigh and poize things Sorrow loves solitude and so the Repenting Person is described he sitteth alone and keepeth silence because he hath born it upon him Lam. 3.28 Vanity and folly the pleasures of sin that are but for a season cannot endure the tediousness and melancholly of an Hour alone And this is the unhappiness of mankind they cannot endure to be alone and to speak with themselves I hearken'd and heard but no man spake aright Jerem. 8.6 or said What have I done We are so naturally for Diversion They that are not so mad as to to be for the roar and madness of Company yet they cannot be content without what we call Divertisement and Merryment and cannot endure sorrow and sadness Let us now but ask our selves whether we think Solomon was a Wise Man or not and whether he was not in circumstances of greatest advantages to rejoyce in all the Pleasure Mirth and Enjoyment of this World which he calls Laying hold on folly Eccles 2.1 c. while yet he acquainted his Heart with Wisdom to understand what was the utmost amount or to be had from all the Entertainments of that kind And when he assures us as he does that Mirth is but Madness and the Laughter of this World so unreasonable that no Man can tell what it serves for or to what purpose it is and that he so much commends sorrow to us let us then take Counsel with our selves whether he spake wisely or not
security from Damnation but an assurance of a state of Life Glory and Blessedness For upon this very reason because God hath Sanctified Repentance to Difference and separate his Servants by from all the lost and perishing Repentance is so eminently call'd Repentance unto Salvation and Repentance unto Life For when the miserable and undone shall complain and endeavour to Impeach the Divine Justice with the Salvation of Sinners as great or greater than themselves Publicans and Harlots such as the Apostle speaks of 1 Cor. 6. When many sober moral Men both Heathens Jews and Christians are shut out from Heaven Salvation Life Matt. 8.11 and Happiness and fall into the Condemnation of Hell God justifies and Vindicates himself by the vast Distance between the one and the other Repentance hath made which as it should engage our Thoughts in deep search what kind of Repentance we have whether it can make such a Difference so it assures us there is a great excellency and Dignity in true Repentance when it shall be seen in the Glory of the Righteousness of Christ wherein it shall be display'd as in its chief Light Life and Lustre 3. There shall never be any cause the least cause to look back with sorrow or regret that we lost any of the pleasures of Sense or of this World or that we pass'd through the Severities or Rigors or Sadness of Repentance or that sorrow after God by which it was wrought And which expresses the Blessedness and Grace of this Repentance much more we shall not look back upon any of the Imperfections and impure Allays of it the Vacuities and Emptinesses of it that were not fill'd up now For it shall in every regard be filled up to the Highest Complement of Perfection because it is surrounded with the Righteousness of Jesus Christ and Adorn'd with its Rays and Perfections and the mighty Operations of the Spirit of Christ holds them fast in that very moment wherein his servants go out of this World He apprehends them he holds them in his mighty Hand and Arm to perfect them to the Mark both in their Repentance and in all other Graces 4. There shall be Everlasting Joy Rejoycing and Triumph in the Acceptance of our Repentance by Christ So that all truly Repenting Sinners shall say with everlasting Hallalujahs blessed be God who hath given us Repentance to the Acknowledging of the Truth whereby we recovered our selves from the snare of the Devil when we were taken Captive by him at his Will Blessed be God 2 Tim. 2.26 who hath granted us Repentance unto Life Blessed be the Lamb who hath loved and washed us from our sins and even our Repentance from sin in his own Blood that it might how ere Imperfect be accepted before him who sits on the Throne Blessed be he who as a Prince and Saviour hath given us Repentance and Remission of sins Revel 5.6 Blessed be the Eternal Spirit who as seven Spirits before the Throne hath Diffus'd his Graces and among them this Grace of Repentance as the Spirit of Grace and Supplication Blessed be the word of his Grace that held out Repentance in its whole Circumference and Center Blessed be God for all the Preachers and Ministers of Repentance and Blessed of God are our Spirits and all the Faculties God hath given them that Ministred each in their courses to this great Grace and exercise of Repentance Hallelujah for ever and ever Head 5th I come now to the Fifth and last Head in the Doctrine of Repentance that is to reduce the Discourse of the Scruples and Cases of Conscience concerning Repentance that have not yet fallen under any proper resolution to this great Doctrine as I have now laid it down Herein I shall propose only these three as necessary to be more fully Debated any other that have Represented themselves to my thoughts I have already laid in Provision for the satisfying them in the plain Doctrine of Repentance easing the scruples without express naming them Quer. 1. Whether Repentance wrought by sorrow after God be not either unnecessary seeing there is full satisfaction for sin and Redemption for it in the â—lood of Christ Or 2dly If it must be acknowledged necessary whether it does not derogate from the Freeness of Grace and the Fulness and Perfection of Redemption in that Blood and so entrench upon Faith alone in it Quer. 2. Whether our Repentance is not made subject to Human Judgment in two Cases 1. To the Judgment of Ministers or as men speak of the Church seeing so many expressions of Christ seem to suspect it there whose sins so ever you remit Matt. 16.19 c. 18.18 John 20.23 they are remitted and whose sins you retain they are retained 2. When our sins are Trespasses and Injuries against Men whether if they do not forgive us it be not a prejudice and Bar to Divsne Forgiveness yea though we have but griev'd scandaliz'd or especially drawn them into sin by our example or even sollicitation and temptation to sin seeing some Scriptures command us to Agree with our Adversaries c. To leave our gift before the Altar Matt. 5.23 24 c. 18.15 c. Answer 1. Sorrow for sin and Repentance are by no means to be look'd upon as separate from the Blood and Redemption of the Lord Jesus but as flowing from it and Ordain'd by God in the hand of the Mediator who truly gives it washes it in his own Blood and as the great High Priest Offers it with the Incense Oyntments and rich Perfumes of his own Holiness Righteousness and Purity He Promotes Advances and gives Grace of a continual Renewing of it And this is the true account of the room and place all Graces have in the Covenant of Grace so that though they are required of us as indispensable Duties and even as it were Conditions of the Covenant of Grace on our parts and we are spoken to in a way of Rational and Intellectual manner of Exhortations Counsels Reproofs Promises Threatnings yet these are all but instrumental Conveyances of the Efficacies of the Spirit of our great Melchisedec who blesses his People in turning them every one from their Iniquities Even from every one of their own Iniquities and makes up whatever is wanting in the severities or Powers of Holiness in Repentance by his own Sufferings and Obedience And thus the weight of the Covenant that shall never be found fault with because the Covenantees brake it is suspended upon him that is mighty the Nail fasten'd in a place so sure that the weight of not only Cups but Flagons Vessels of all Quantities both the Issue and the Off-spring rest secure upon him even to Eternity Esay 22.23 And thus Discoursing of Repentance it can be no derogation either in the sorrowing nor the Reforming Parts of it Answ 2. The Administration of the Church or of the Pastors or Elders who are also the Evangelical Bishops hath no other Power but of Ministry in the Declaring
doeth the Will of God abideth for ever No Saint shall be Transposed out of his Saintship He that is Righteous let him be Righteous still He that is Holy let him be Holy still These Things are Asaluta not to be shaken And then on the other part it must be sadly said that Wickedness shall not be Transpos'd in regard of its Guilt in regard of its Filth If not removed in this World by Faith and Repentance not in the World to come Wickedness shall be Wickedness still it shall have a House builded it shall be established Zech. 5.11 and it shall be setled on its own Base and wicked Men shall be wicked Men still When once it is come to that Time there shall be no Transposal He that is Vnrighteous let him be Vnrighteous still He that is Filthy let him be Filthy still Rev. 21.11 Now seeing all this great Doctrine of the Apostle is conveyed to us under this Symbol or Representation of an Earthquake or the Shaking of the Earth and not only of the Earth but of the Heaven also let us enquire into the Scripture-Accounts of an Earthquake and apply it to the present Occasion that it may bring us to a serious holy sense and that what we have seen in a hand breadth may move us to consider what we shall see and feel as in the whole Heaven and Earth in large and in full For if what we have been sensible of as in a Glance or in Passage hath affected any with Fear especially what was done in a part of our Nation beyond the Sea which is but a very little Thing yea a Nothing in comparison of what shall be in its own Times in its proper Times How much more ought we to be affected with the Assurances God hath given us of a Change so much greater For as it may be said to us If we have run with the Foot-men and they have wearied us How shall we contend with Horses If in the present State which is as a Land of Peace and wherein we trust we have been so affrighted What shall we do in the swelling of Jordan I come therefore to the second Head viz. To make Remarks upon the nature of such Motions and Trembles of the Earth and their Fitness to be a Shade of the Kingdom of Christ and wherein they are so And herein I propose three things 1. To consider the strict nature of Earthquakes according to the Scripture-Foundations of Discourse concerning them 2. To enquire into the Causes why God is pleas'd to make such Concussions and Convulsions in Nature 3. To observe upon the great Metaphorical or Figurative Earthquakes that is Changes in the present State of the World that have been since the Death and Resurrection of our Lord and how the Observation of them may be made subservient to the due Improvement of our Thoughts in regard to the late Earthquakes we have heard of or been at all sensible of more of late I begin then with the first Head in Four Points Point I. The Scripture teacheth us This great Globe of Earth and Water is hung by the mighty Wisdom Skill and Power of the great Geometer of Heaven and Earth The Earth being Round is on every side encompassed with Air and Skie as they who sail it round find as well as by Reason it is demonstrated as a Ball in the Air So we read Job 26.7 He stretcheth out the North over the empty Place for so to our eye and motion the meer Air seems to be and he hangeth the Earth upon nothing I know this is a Point proper to Philosophical Discussion that it may go as far as it can upon But those Questions God asked Job 38.4 c. would pose the wisest of the World Declare if thou hast understanding Who hath laid the Measures of the Earth If thou knowest who hath stretched the Line upon it so that it is in just number weight and measure Whereupon are the Foundations thereof fastned or who laid the Corner-stone thereof There may be handsome and plausible solving the Phenomenae as they speak before Men who know as little the best of them one as another but before God all is but darkning Counsel by Words without Knowledge Now when it is so that the Earth hangs thus How must it needs be that God as he pleases may shake the Earth out of its place with a touch of his hand and all the Inhabitants thereof and his Enemies particularly be shaken out of it or off from it or whither or how he pleases For if that bold Man of Mathematicks durst say Give me where to set my foot and I will remove the Earth what can infinite Understanding and Power do or if he does but slacken his hand from holding the Ballance even keeping the Scales of Earth and Air just or if there be such a one as with great Reason hath been thought the Poize of the Central Fire Even all would be in immediate Confusion On this Consideration then any kind of Earthquakes is no wonder the wonder is they are not every day and not to the utmost The only security is the unchangeableness of Divine Ordination for such a time as he hath decreed since the Flood wherein in all appearance of Reason as well as Scripture there was even in this regard a Jog as one may say of it 2. The Ballance is in this regard yet so Even and just that nothing we account most surely founded stands so fast so firm and secure as the Earth that it cannot be moved So that allowing it to have a Diurnal or every days Revolution from East to West yet it is with such equality that it disturbs all upon it no more than a Fly sitting it self fast on a Globe is unsettled by its being turn'd round Notwithstanding this motion the Earth is founded on the Seas and Established on the Floods that is the Waters are so every way compacted under and about and over it that it is as it were founded upon it as on Pillars of Marble which may have been understood first according to the excellent forementioned Theory of the Earth 2. As the Cement and Fixation of the upper Parts of the Earth is the moisture it receives from the Waters 3. As the ambient or round-about Air hath a more immediate force upon the Waters to crowd and keep them close to the Earth than the Air it self could have upon the Earth the Water being a middle Body between Air and Earth even as the Air is between that subtile Matter we call Ether and Air. So that the Earth hath Foundations Pillars Corner-stone in Scripture-Language And this is indeed absolutely necessary for such kind of Bodies and Works as are to move and rest upon this Earth which is as a Sea in regard of the variety of Creatures in it wherein are Things creeping innumerable and both great and small Beasts and Man the highest Order of Animals Now these require such a
all natural voluntary and fortuitous as we Poreblind think them Causes work in and out of his hand For if in the Killing King Ahab a man drew a Bow at a venture or as in the Margin out of the Hebrew In his Simplicity without Design without Aim and yet it was directed to Ahab as by God's immediate Hand to fulfil his Word upon him How much more are all natural Causes directed by him 1 Kings 22.34 And those Things which he knows will with such extraordinary Amazes change the World he ascribes them more emphatically to Himself His Thunder his Lightnings I shake Heaven and Earth Let us then consider Why God does thus disorder Nature And I shall instance in these following Reasons 1. That when we see these Contests and Jars in Nature we may adore and praise the infinite Wisdom Power and Goodness of God who keeps All so much in Peace and Quiet For as great Engines or Machines that have various and cross Wheels and curious Works in them it requires as great Art to harmonize them at first so great care to keep them in order and as vast Armies call for the highest Spirit Wisdom and Conduct of the Generalissimo as Men speak to inspire them with Order Peace Regular Action in their several Stations so it is said of God Job 25.2 Dominion and Fear are with him He maketh Peace in his high and in his Deep Places also Is there any number of his Armies All which he yet keeps in Peace as he pleases Oh therefore that as in that Song of Praise Psal 107. Men considering All these Things well would make it ‖ Glory to God the Foot of every Thing Oh that Men would praise the Lord for his wonderful Works to the Children of Men For we see by a little what great Things he can do Whoso therefore is wise and will observe these Things even he shall understand the loving kindness of the Lord. For indeed That on which the Pride and Prophaneness and Insolency of Men is grounded is That God will still from Time to Time keep Things in the Quiet and Peace he generally does And if he does not they fall down into Death and Ruine immediately in his doing otherwise He therefore shews sometimes by such Disorders what he always does how he exercises Long-suffering Loving kindness in the Earth for if he did otherwise Nature would be always cracking in pieces and if it were so What could the greatest Monarchs say to it Would they stay his hand or would they render him a Recompence for not doing as they think he should and ought to do Their Recompence he would speedily return upon their own heads God therefore shews How all the World is bound and beholden to him by shewing at such Times what he can do without any Controul and yet does not and what he does in maintaining Order and Peace when none can compell him to it if He did not please to do so 2. Men loath what they have constantly as if it were no Argument for fear of God as if God were tied to do so but think at least such Wonders of extraordinary Power which they do not see every day would like one from the Dead move to Repentance But even this depends on Grace That he may give Witnesses and Demonstrations of his Wrath Justice and Power to either as he pleases punish and execute Judgment from Heaven or move to Repentance For as he gives Fruitful Times and Seasons that he might not leave himself without witness of his Goodness leading to Repentance so of his Wrath and Justice to necessitate Men that way For all these Things Preach Repentance and Reformation aloud and for that End I have thus superadded to the Discourse of Repentance 3. That God may give notice of any great Changes he will make in the World that are near at hand and which within any little Time he will make in it he gives Warning by Earthquakes and other unusual Things For so in spight of all that can be said to the contrary God hath generally usher'd in any great Changes he hath made in the World by such Signs and Wonders in Heaven and Shakings of the Earth beneath and therefore with great Right he cloaths his Denunciations and Threats of such great Judgments in such Language of Thunder and Lightnings and Earthquakes A very remarkable Instance we have of this in the Prophet Amos. When God was about as it were to Ride a Circuit in Judgment upon the Nations for Three Transgressions and for Four even upon each single Nation or People Amos dates his Prophecy two Years before the Earthquake in the Days of Uzziah Amos 1.1 How general that was is not known to us But there is plain importance God first began to give notice of his Judgments by Amos his Prophecy in his two first Chapters That not prevailing to Repentance he gave a loud Alarm by the Earthquake which it is most probable was as general as those Nations threatned by Amos. Then follows the Judgment it self on the several People nam'd and executed by the Assyrian and Babylonian Conquests And why was there a mention of the Earthquake two Years after if God had not pleased to give that Intimation that an Earthquake was a fit Forerunner of that Judiciary Progress that follows in those two Chapters of Amos so our Lord Matt. 24. makes Earthquakes in Divers Places the certain Forerunners of the Desolations of Jerusalem 4. The Lord Jehovah is pleased to suffer Earthquakes because he hath determined upon this one Earthquake wherein he will shake not only the Earth but the Heaven also a great Earthquake such as hath not been since men were upon earth so mighty an Earthquake and so great wherein every Island shall flee away and the Mountains shall not be found Revel 16.18.20 And of this God foretold Hagg. 2.6 Yet once I will shake Heaven and Earth c. And in this Text Yet once more I shake not only the Earth but the Heaven also Where though the Apostle opposes the once more to the shaking of the Earth at Mount Sinai because that was to his present purpose yet it leaves room for that most sagacious Interpretation of Dr. Burnet in the forenamed Discourses That it is oppos'd to the shaking not only the Earth but the Heaven also in and by the Flood for in that he says once more it supposes that not only the Earth but the Heaven had been shaken before And when could that be but in the Flood the on purpose-Type of this as appears by what that excellent Person hath said on 2 Pet. 3. Although This shall be greater and to far greater purpose in the new Heaven and the new Earth to perfection Whereas That Flood brought forth a Heaven and Earth for the worse and Men grew as and more wicked but here Righteousness shall dwell and This shall be the greatest since Man was on Earth This is the Time of Trouble
these Clouds and Vapours than a Dying Hour When every thing is ready to contribute them and nothing to scatter them If then Natural Conscience and implanted Sense of God together with the Notions given us from Scripture pass through these they become very impressive and affecting for the time and yet he much mistakes Repentance who thinks it no more than a fit of Religious Melancholly But let us enquire after some more setled and constant Causes of these Penitential Motions near Death and we shall find many very likely to be so that are not yet worthy of true Repentance and therefore what springs from them is not accepted before God 1. When Men find all their Being in the World at an end and feel themselves falling they know not whither It is no strange thing they should catch at God and that they may take hold of him at Holiness also Seeing ingraffed Principles together with general Discourse teach every one how dear Holiness is to God If God and Goodness were no more than Imaginary things It would be no wonder if they who are tossed off the World and thrown over-board from it should snatch at them if there were no more in the Case than this that every one hath heard so much speech and talk of them among Men. For to him that hath nothing in reality even a Shadow a Phancy are valuable Men that are dropping through the Air or sinking under Water without Consultation offer at every thing they meet with In great Extremities short of Death they that are bereft of all worldly Assistance fly to the Divine Succours though as Jonah's Marriners they pray to an Idol instead of the true God and their Devotion is no better than Superstition which is but a Phancy in Religion What strange thing then is it for nature to cry out for God and Christ for Pardon of Sin to be delivered from Hell and to have Heaven for an everlasting Rest when all things else evidently fail as they do in Death and when not only Phancy and general Opinion but most substantial Reason inlightned by the Scripture provoke up a Man to it even for Self-preservation Yet this differs but little from howling upon our Beds for Corn and Wine and Oyl Hos 7.14 for though the things differ much in their Nature yet the Esteem Men have of them and the desire they have after them is much upon the same ground for these Spiritual things appear to that natural Sense of Self-preservation as necessary in Death as the other do in Life and Health But if the approaches of Death happen to be again drawn off the value of Spiritual things removes with them and the things of this World with all the sensual and sinful Delights of it return to their former price which argues the ineffectualness of this cause of Repentance and the Unacceptableness of the Repentance it self to God that flows from it God disclaims Men that have never come to him before their Extremity and come then only because of it In the time of their trouble they will say Arise and save us But where are thy Gods that thou madest Let them arise if they can save thee Jer. 2.27 28. Thus to such Dying Men crying out to him God says Let your former Lusts and Pleasures now be your Happiness Fools and scorners that would not be warned call upon God in their calamity and seek him early when the whirlwind of their destructions hurries them but cannot make him hear cannot find him Prov. 1.14 2. Suppose the desires after God and Eternal Happiness with all the Retinue of those Desires rise not so much from the Necessities of remove from this Life and sensible Supports but immediately from the sight of Eternal things themselves yet will not this conclude the Repentance sincere For we may easily pitch upon several so plain reasons of these quick Apprehensions of another World that it is much more strange if any Man be not struck with them and they that are are not in greater Extasies of these Considerations than that most die in some fair inclinable Temper towards them and others are extraordinarily surprized with them yet without true Repentance For First If it were no more but the leisure and uninterestedness of the Mind in all worldly things that Death brings It is no wonder that the Action of it should immediately and necessarily flow upon God for it being always in action and motion from its very Nature and God having made it for himself and the manner of its living here in the World being a slavery willingly undertaken for the Service of the Body and the Enjoyment of this present Life in its being fallen from God It is nothing strange that that Drudgery being now at an end and the chains wherein it was held just a breaking it should fall upon God and Spiritual Objects whither the stream of it was prepared to run and which are most truly its own business For the distance being so wide and irreconcilable between Man and this Earth in Death the very having nothing else to do must carry him upon the Future State seeing his Soul is such a Being as cannot naturally lie still and that State is all that it hath to work upon and further than that it is so nearly allied to it Secondly The very loosening and uncementing the Soul from the Body wherein it dwelt and wherein the Motions of it were restrained Multi enim quum remissi liberi sunt futura prospiciunt ex quo intelligitur quales futuri sint quum se plane corporis vinculis relaxaverint Cic. de Senectut hath been thought very probably to give Men lesser degrees of those Advantages near their Death which naked and free Spirits not inclosed and pent up in Bodies have whereby they have been able to make Conjectures of future things and to speak prophetically The less the Soul is bound to work by the Body the higher are its Operations All extraordinary Motions of the Soul are a kind of Ravishment from Sense Those great Prophetick Blessings of Jacob and Moses were near their Dying Gen. 49. Deut. 32. c. 33. It is therefore very easie to be thought that when the Soul and Body are ready to cleave asunder and the Spirit to be separated from Flesh that it should make an higher flight towards Eternal Things The nearer every thing is to its own Residence the more vehement is its motion said to be thither So there may very well be quick sallies of the Soul towards Eternity before it enters into it when it is so near that everlasting Receptacle of it self Thirdly We may observe in the Experience of all times every appearance of the other World hath strange effects of Fear and affrightment upon Mens Minds When any one is entring then into that whole World it may well put him upon purifying himself more than they that fall upon Leviathan Job 41.25 When Men are just upon that Region
against the old one beyond hope of Pardon whence Men generally receive this Recompence that Conscience is put into amuse having nothing at present to say against it And had this been the top of his Case that it had been thus could it have been saving Nay that it might possibly have been thus though indeed it had been otherwise yet this very liableness to such a mistake had unspeakably abated the rational Security and safety of his Condition so that there had remained good cause for Conscience to have mistrusted which way his Condition would have fallen to Eternity 3. The Third thing therefore that gave him and gives to all Ages undoubted Testimony of the Truth of his Conversion is the immediate attestation to that Truth and Sincerity of it This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Now that Repentance which enters into Heaven that passes into Paradise not hinder'd by those flaming Cherubs of Divine Truth that which is within the Door before the Master of the House is risen up and hath shut it to Luke 13.25 that is true Repentance and prosperous and successful how late soever But to know that it is true when it is so late needs a Voice from Heaven or something proportional to it to verifie it as is after to be urged The last thing I take notice of in this Repentance is the unparallellable Circumstance of time wherein it was accepted 1. It was in the time of a publick act of mercy to the World Joh. 3.16 God was in love to Mankind giving his only begotten Son Eph. 5.25 Christ was giving himself at this time Therefore that there should be an Instance and Monument of this Mercy seem'd condecent to so great and solemn a time 2. This Penitent stood close to that Sacrifice that was offering it self up to God He stood within the Savour the Odor the Incense of it That Sacrifice that purchases men from a vain conversation 1 Pet. 18. that draws down all the Blessings of Salvation that therefore the force of it should reach so near it self is not strange I know no nearness of place signifies at all How many saw his Miracles heard him Preach look'd upon him Dying without benefit yet was his Presence also as he pleased full of Divine effects That therefore there should be an experiment of so great a Balsom just as it was preparing was most suitable 3. It was in the time that Christ was triumphing over Principalities and Powers and making a shew of them openly upon the very Cross * Vicem versam reddidit Christus Diabolo quemadmodum Diabolus depravando hominem abstulerat de Paradiso sic Christus latronem confitentem erueret de inferno Ille de interdicto ligno praesumentem decepit Iste pendentem de poenali ligno redemit Aug. Serm. 122. De Temp. That he should bear off in the Field the prey taken out of the mouth of the proud Foe was very agreeable to the expectation so great a Conqueror raises Colos 2.15 But whoever considers the Thief on the other side not converted or saved will find Cause to observe The Salvation of Christ doth not sweep the World but is rarelier vouchsafed than we think That a man may die without going to Heaven That the mercy of the Gospel is most arbitrary and sovereign chusing and leaving That it depends not on humane Expectation or any Superstitious phancies that have been raised about the Cross of Christ for so much appears by one only taken here the other left though upon the Cross together with Christ and near him in the great and mediatory Act who that considers will not tremble to think of one left in his sins falling down into Hell from such a Heaven as Christ in his great Act of Redemption And although it may be truly said it was the fault and negligence and obstinacy of the Unconverted Malefactor that he did not use aright the Grace offered or the Light vouchsafed him yet it doth not alleviate the danger for it still remains very uncertain to whom God will give a Heart to use Opportunities aright though they have them from God with an equal Liberality as those that do so improve them But indeed the Supremacy of Grace is here very much acknowledged by all that a Ray of the Divinity of Christ with infinite kindness smote his Soul * Nova insolita quaedam divinae virtutis efficacia in exemplum omnibus seculis memorabile c. Grot. In locum I infer nothing from that increase the Evangelist Matth. c. 27.44 gives the Miracle That he was Converted after he had joined with the other Malefactor in reproaching Christ Because †Hieron In locum some Interpreters question it Upon the whole then of this Example let Men that would be befriended by a Dying Repentance examine whether these things found in this Example are like to meet upon them I will not say till there be a time Beneficium multis modis insigne non temere trahendi in consequentias exempli Grot. In locum a fulness of time wherein Christ shall again die for Sinners such a Repentance is not to be expected but I may safely say he that in the Observation of this Example trusts himself to a Dying Repentance should startle his Presumption with this Interrogation Will there ever be such a Conjunction as was here again while the World endures I come now to the last Head of down-right Arguments against committing our Eternal State to a Death-Bed Repentance 1. It is against all the Prudence and Providence of a Man seeing no Man knows what kind of Death he shall die whether it will afford him the possibilities of Repenting How many die suddenly and in so short a Breath that they have not time to desire Mercy in general How many of Apoplexies seizing upon the very Top of Sense at first Many by Phrensies have no rational Motions of themselves innumerable Accidents and oft-times made dreadful by the Wickedness wherewith they have been accompanied have snatch'd away Men in a Moment Such are taken away living and in his wrath before the Pots can feel the Thorns Psal 58.9 before ever those hasty flames of Motion towards God blown up for such an Extremity can be raised Such are taken in the very manner without so much time as to put off the Every-Day Habit of Sin like those that were carried out dead in their Coats Lev. 10.5 And though from the ordinary manner of Dying we may hope for the warning ordinarily given yet we see others surprized who have had the same reasons of Hope with our selves We cannot then without madness trust our selves to accident or boast our selves of to morrow of which we know not what is within it Prov. 27.1 seeing the future is wholy concealed from us They that make a Covenant with death and are at an agreement with Hell meet with nothing but Perfidiousness when the overflowing