cause our Enemies to be at peace with or defend us from them as if he be our Enemy he can expose us to them If he love us in Christ who or what shall separate us from it who shall hinder the Fruits and Effects of it nothing so saith the Apostle with as just as mighty a Triumph Rom. 8. 15. But 2 what are the Consequents of God's Enmity at last In few words oft-times severe Punishment in respect of this bodily Life and hardned Heart and a seared Conscience and a reprobate Sense to be forsaken of God to heap one load of guilt upon another to die sensless without Comfort or with Despair and Terrour and finally to be condemned publickly to Eternal Misery without mercy once despised but now too late sought after If these things be true as most certainly they are if Religion and Reason are to be believed then surely it is good to be well advised be times to make our peace with God our Adversary while we are in the way and agree with him upon his own Terms and whilst he continues such kind and gracious Offers unto us 'T is too true that there are too many who will make light of such counsel And what 's the reason of it Is it because they think there is no God or that he is not powerfull holy and just or that he is all mercy or rather softness or that they are well enough with him and sufficiently reconciled to him already no more need to be answered to all this than to ask one question Suppose there were at this time many shrewd Signs of the near Approach of the End of the World and the Day of Judgment Suppose the Sun and the Moon should stand still as it did upon Gibeon and in the Valley of Ajalon in the Days of Joshua for a Month instead of a Day and the Sun to go backwards really as many Degrees in the Heavens as it did Degrees on the Dial of Ahaz Suppose all the Seasons of the Year Retrograde or at a stand and the Sun growing pale and sick as it is said to have been in one of the Roman Emperour's Time Imagine we a-while from beneath horrible Roarings in the Bowels of the Earth and its lofty and massy Structures every where tumbled down or swallowed whole into an Abyss the Sea boiling and the Air filled with fiery and sulphureous Steams hideous Storms of Thunder and Lightning for some Days together Let us Imagine I say all these and it is nothing new but what every one talks of would the Men of Infidelity Security and Bravery be then of the same Opinion they are now would they then question whether there was a God and a great just and terrible one too would they then think their Case well enough and dare to expect the Universal Judgment and appear with the same Unconcernedness and Confidence that they now pretend to Should we not rather see all but a few penitent sincerely vertuous Souls who were indeed at peace with God through Christ and lived constantly in love and duty to him I say should we not see all the rest except this small Number with trembling Hearts misgiving accusing and condemning Consciences crowding to the Churches and Altars nay every where in Streets and Fields crying for mercy and most humbly begging for Forgiveness and Favour what would they refuse to be or do so they might have but a gracious look from an angry God or a despised Saviour and yet perhaps when they should find all this to prove a Mistake and their Panick fears over they would return to be the same they were before and live as carelesly and contemptuously of God's most gracious Offers of Peace and Friendship as ever be as unbelieving secure and confident as they were in the Days of Noah till Death or Judgment really come upon them when all Repentance and Mercy Designs and Conditions of Reconciliation are at an End Nevertheless hence it appears how little reason they have for their present Infidelity Carelesness and Presumption what they would do then they should do now It is really as true now that they ought to take care without delay and to be well assured of being reconciled to God by Christ as it will be when God shall come to judge the World by Christ It remains only then to renew the Advice and to repeat the Exhortation to embrace and pursue our Reconciliation to God with all due Thankfulness and Sense of the Divine Goodness with all Diligence and Industry If God be in Christ reconciling the World to himself I think we may say it is our Duty and Interest to be reconciling God in Christ to our selves also by Repentance and constant future Obedience and in order thereto by effectually making use of those means Jesus Christ hath left us for that purpose his holy Doctrine and Example for our direction and encouragement his holy Spirit for our Assistance his meritorious Life and Death for our comfort satisfaction and assurance And in his stead it is as the meanest of his Embassadours according to our Duty and Trust we beseech and earnestly pray all to be reconciled unto God FINIS Books lately printed for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's-Head in St. Paul 's Church-Yard 1. A Treatise relating to the Worship of God divided into six Sections concerning 1st The Nature of Divine Worship 2 d The peculiar Object of Worship 3 d The true Worshippers of God 4th Assistance requisite to Worship 5th The Place of Worship 6th The solemn Time of Worship 2. A Defence of reveal'd Religion in six Sermons upon Romans 1. 16. Wherein it is clearly and plainly shown that no Man can possibly have any real Ground or Reason to be asham'd of Christianity By Henry Halliwell M. A. and Vicar of Cowfold in Sussex 3. Miscellanies in five Essays 1. Upon the Office of a Chaplain 2. Upon Pride 3. Upon Cloaths 4. Upon Dealing 5. Upon general Kindness The four last of which are by way of Dialogue By Jer. Colliers A. M. 4. Miscellanies upon moral Subjects the second Part By Jeremy Collier A. M. 5. The Mysteries in Religion vindicated or the Filiation Deity and Satisfaction of our Saviour asserted against Socinians and others With occasional Reflections on several late Pamphlets By Luke Milbourn a Presbyter of the Church of England 6. Apparatus ad Theologiam in Usum Academiarum 1. Generalis 2. Specialis Auctore Stephano Penton Rectore de Glympton Oxon. 7. Guardian 's Instruction or the Gentleman's Romance written for the Service and Diversion of the Gentry 8. New Instructions to the Guardian shewing that the last Remedy to prevent the Ruine advance the Interest and recover the Honour of this Nation is 1st A more serious and strict Education of the Nobility and Gentry 2 d To breed up all their younger Sons to some Calling and Employment 3 d More of them to Holy Orders with a Method of Institution from 3 Years of Age to twenty One By Stephen Penton Rector of Glympton Oxon. 9. Johannis Antiocheni Cognomento Mallalae Historia Chronica è M. SS Bibliothecae Bodleianae Praemittitur Dissertatio de Authore per Humph. Hodium D. D. 10. A Sermon preached before the King at Kensington Jan. 13. 95. By John Lamb D. D. Dean of Ely and Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty 11. The Dean of Canterbury's Sermon before the King at Kensington Sunday Jan. 20. 95. 12. Dr. Isham's Sermon at the Funeral of Dr. Scott late Rector of St. Giles's in the Fields March 15. 95. 13. Profitable Charity A Sermon preached before the Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen at the Parish Church of St. Brides on Easter-Munday By Robert Grove Lord Bishop of Chichester 14. The Doctrine of the glorious Trinity not explained but asserted by several Texts as they are expounded by the Ancient Fathers and later Divines By Francis Gregory D. D. and Rector of Hambeden Bucks 15. An Essay to receive the Necessity of the Ancient Charity and Piety wherein God's Right in our Estates and our Obligations to maintain his Service Religion and Charity is demonstrated and defended against the Pretences of Covetousness and Appropriation In 2 Discourses By George Burghope Rector of Little Gaddesden in Hertfordshire and Chaplain to the Right Honourable the Earl of Bridgewater The End of the Catalogue
without reflection may conceit that the Honour they do to God by confessing all and more than all the sins they are guilty of may procure a Connivance for some sins though they never forsake them It is enough or very well to load themselves with the heaviest Accusation though they do not or perhaps think they cannot grow better Much like a great Debtor who will readily own greater Summs than he really owes if for that his Creditor will permit him to run further into his Debt and not be angry But the most frequent Cause of this Miscarriage is Superstition i. e. a groundless Timidity by reason of mistake in the Nature and Degrees of Sin which is a thing of bad consequence when our Judgments are deceived and our Affections abused we may swallow that which is truly wicked and greatly mischievous and be frighted at that which is really so far from being evil that it may be good and commendable Let our confession therefore of sin be truly informed and well advised Which is the first Direction 2dly The second is to confess our sins most impartially As we must not on the one side make or magnifie our Sins through Self-revenge Flattery of Almighty God Superstition or Timidity So we must on the other hand take great care that we do not excuse connive at or extenuate any Such are our most profitable and delightfull Sins Those which by corrupt Nature or evil Custom and Practice are deepest in our Hearts and therefore most difficult and painfull to forsake We must be in all sincerity most willing to see acknowledge and amend what is truly faulty in our selves and what is most so The Design of a true hearted Christian is to be better and his hearty desire is to reform universally and in order to that he must know what is really amiss and out of order Like the wounded or sick Man who longs for his Cure and Health He is not willing to conceal or forget any of his Ailments from himself or his Physician So far from that that he beseecheth his Physician 's care as well as useth his own observation to discover all least through ignorance or neglect something may prove fatal to him And what a foolish thing is it to say nothing of or slubber over some sweet some darling Sins we are loth to leave when we are upon our knees before God He needs not our confession for his information He seeth the most secret and dark Corners of our Hearts and knows full well whether we hide any thing there or no. He observes whether we deal truly or hypocritically with him and if he find the last will reject us and our confession too Follow we that great Example David Cleanse me from my secret sins Psalm 19. 33. prays that holy Man and see if there be any way of wickedness in me and lead me in the way everlasting He that thus prayed for the discovery of all his sins without reserve no doubt in his Confession spared none 3dly A third Rule of our Confession is that it be performed seriously and affectionately The confession here meant is not uttering a few words with our Mouths though never so good but it is in the mind and spirit though we should not speak a syllable Nor is it to be slight and careless as if it were a thing of no great moment whether it were true or no and we indifferent whether it were done at all No! It is at the same time to be expresly assented to by our Judgment owned by our Consciences and thence pass further into our affections We are to be really troubled ashamed disordered and tremble at the mention and remembrance of our sins according to the various Degrees and Aggravations We are to be affected with them in our Devotion when our own Conscience only can accuse us as if men of Gravity and Authority should openly and publickly charge us Nay setting aside the difference which the hopes of pardon here may make as if God himself instead of our Consciences was judging of us And do we think at that terrible Day when Jesus Christ shall appear with all the Ensigns of Justice and Majesty with Rewards and Punishments in his hands we shall be looking another way Shall we then stand unconcern'd and confess our sins in such a manner as if neither God nor our selves need take any notice of it No then with sinking Hearts and trembling Knees we shall see believe and confess that we are miserable Sinners indeed And yet all in vain because it proceeds only from the Terrour of the Sentence and Punishment just ready to be executed not from the hatred of sin from the dread of the Judge not from the love of him or hatred of our Crimes But now in this Day of Grace our passionate Confession and Cries from a truly penitent that is changed Heart to the Judge of all the World that indeed we have presumptuously and ungratefully offended against his holy Laws and that he would have mercy upon us miserable offenders shall through Heav'ns Goodness find a gracious Audience and Acceptance Of such temper and in such manner should be our confession in the third place 4ly Our confession ought to be suitable and proportionable I mean our confessions is to be proportionable to our sins Thus we ought between God and our own selves most frequently and passionately to confess those sins which are in themselves really the greatest and which we most frequently and deliberately commit To be always with great vehemency filling our Prayers with smaller Faults though none are to be slighted and indulged for small sins known weaken conscience and make way for greater but more rarely or faintly to mention those sins which are truly more provoking is to offend against this Rule Thus to confess impertinent and wandering Thoughts in Religious Duties vain use of God's Name though these things are by no means to be allowed or neglected but never to say any thing of Pride Covetousness Injustice Fraud Hypocrisie Malice or the like or so coldly as if we scarce thought them any sins I say this is to perform this Duty with great indiscretion if not Hypocrisie For it is a shrewd sign we can be very favourable to sin when it is agreeable or profitable and therefore painfull to subdue and mortifie it When we are clamorous against the sins we get little by or which cost us little of expence or pains to forsake but otherwise silent or soft it is very suspicious that there is not in us that hearty Zeal against sin which we would seem to be possessed withall 5ly And lastly Our confession will be the more commendable if it be voluntary and from pious Motions in our heart allowed by our judgments when we freely open and disclose our Souls to God and earnestly desire witness and judge God and our Consciences to inform and remember us of our Faults As may be more especially done at those times which
are set a-part for a longer and more deliberate performance of this Religious Duty This is better surely than when our confession is thrust upon us by a persecuting guilty Conscience which we fly from as much as we can or when it is extorted from us by the urging Interrogatories or undeniable Proofs of our Friends or Enemies and then uttered with coldness and indifferency Such are some of the Directions or Rules for our Confession which was the second general Head 3ly The third is some good for the frequent performance of this Duty of Religion They are many 1. First By a serious affectionate and impartial Confession of our sins we give God and his Laws their just Honour At the same time we acknowledge and bewail our evil doings in sinning against God and transgressing his Laws we proclaim the Righteousness of both nay the Justice of our Punishment which God hath or may inflict upon us When we accuse confess condemn our selves we justifie God in his Nature Commands and Dealings towards us when we seriously cry guilty confess what we have done and deserve we at the same time declare that God's Nature is holy his Precepts right and all his Dealings with his Creatures just and unblameable Like that great Example of Penitents Psalm 51. Against thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight that thou may'st be justified when thou speakest and clear when thou judgest 2ly This confession of sin is very edifying to others both good and bad when it is performed publickly or with others and owned our Duty in secret too We hereby do somewhat considerable towards the Confirmation of the good and Reformation of the bad The mischief we have been the Authors of by our naughty Example we undo again in part by a free and serious Confession we thereby tell the World it was not our discretion or commendation to have lived and done as we have done formerly No! 't was our folly and shame We call now to them not to follow us or if they have adventured after us to retreat presently If they have imitated us in sinning they would do it now in confessing and condemning themselves 4ly This confession of sin is very acceptable to good Men nay I may say generally to bad Men too who have some kindness and good liking for Vertue and Piety but are so entangled and captivated in vicious Courses that they cannot find in their heart to take the pains to leave them The conversion of a sinner of which free and humble Confession is a fair step and a great mark is certainly the joy of Angels and Saints Nothing more melting than the hearty and unaflected Confession of a Penitent sinner It is a sign of so many amiable Qualities as sincere Piety Humility c. that a good Man cannot observe it without joy and even a bad Man without some motion and tenderness It is a more than ordinary pleasure to hear a pious Soul sighing out his confession of his sins and desires of grace and pardon before God when he thinks no body hears or is regardless whether they do or no. 5ly This confession of sin is a very comfortable Duty to us What calmness ease and secret comfort is diffused through the Soul of a devout Man after he hath opened and disburthened himself by a sincere and humble Confession to Almighty God His conscience softly tells him that he hath not in vain disclosed his heart that he hath not confessed his faults to the deaf Ear of too rigid a Master or severe Father that God as great and as high as he is regards the Soul in such a posture with great kindness and compassion and that now the offender may safely put himself into his hands If in our Confession we are conscious to our selves of no Hypocrisie or Formality it creates an humble confidence in God with a free resignation and submission of our selves to him notwithstanding our former sins and contracted guilt Nor is this confidence vain For so far as our confession is a sign and exercise of real Goodness and Piety in us it doth render us more capable of his Favour and truly acceptable to him 6ly Confession of our sins such as I have directed is a Duty of Devotion of great benefit to us and that many ways As 1. It is a certain and notable means for preserving us in that Degree of Holiness and Goodness we may have attained to and of making further progress therein continually For as it brings to remembrance our former known sins nor are we only to confess new sins but old ones and the same very often especially if more heinous nor even to forget them to our lives end so it discovers to us many before unknown Before especially a more deliberate Confession we are to reflect upon and examine our selves carefully and that will hardly be done without some further knowledge and discovery of our faults and which is of great use of their temptations and occasions And even in the times themselves of our devout Confession usually the temper of our minds is such that some sins then may first appear which before we had never observed or suspected Now all this is necessary for our amendment and the prevention of the like again For how shall we avoid that which we never knew or have forgot Add to this that every serious and hearty not customary Confession impresseth upon us some more dislike and aversion from the sins confessed Insomuch that by the frequent practice of it we may at last become utterly ashamed to confess our sins so often but not to forsake them to sin on in a round perpetually committing and confessing the same sins by turns Our consciences will be apt so to reproach that we shall leave off either to commit or confess Thus as an hearty and unconstrained Confession is a sign and effect of an ingenuous and generous Dislike and Hatred of sin so doth it confirm heighten and increase it 2. Another benefit and advantage of this Religious Duty is a right Understanding a true and just Opinion of our selves to know what is bad and defective in our selves as well as what is good and usefull This is one principal Branch of that most excellent Grace humility which containeth many other The great Errour of the World is on that hand to be arrogant and presumptuous Foolish Self-love renders us wilfully blind so as to see no faults spy no defects observe no sins in our selves We deny all or excuse all or justifie all We all know the Behaviours of the Pharisee and the Publican in their Devotion Luke 18. 9. They both went up into the Temple to pray The Pharisees Prayer was so far from any confession that it was all boasting God I thank thee that I am not as other men c. The Publicans contrary was all Confession Shame Sorrow begging for Mercy He stands a far off with a dejected Countenance He with a revengefull hand
in the Affairs of his Soul nor is he slothfull or afraid to take notice of and bring an Indictment against the Offender though it be himself when he thinks he hath been guilty he will bring his Accusation and let him answer for himself as well as he can Nor doth he after this endeavour to withdraw himself not to appear to his Action or Indictment but to sculk lie hid or have the business passed over nor doth he when his carriage comes to be canvassed alledge Pretences make frivolous Apologies shift and turn himself any way to excuse and defend himself or to abate and extenuate what he cannot deny No but he willingly makes his appearance desires nothing more than that the Truth may be known and all that can be said against him may be produced that either he may where he justly can vindicate or where he cannot condemn himself were he is convinc'd of his Faults or Crimes though never so heinous he owns it he cries guilty to God saying O Lord I have indeed transgressed thy Commandments I have done foolishly I have been wicked ungratefull wilfully ignorant or careless or presumptuous I confess it I am perfectly ashamed of my self I despise and abhor my self what shall I say unto thee O thou great Maker and Preserver and Benefactor of Men I am obnoxious to thy greatest Severity and Justice I deserve to be punished as thy unerring Wisdom thinketh most fit I submit my self to thy Sentence and receive and own it whatsoever it shall be as the most just But I hope that Justice may be mixed and allayed with Mercy and that that Goodness which hath some way thus far led me to true Repentance will go on so far to compleat it in me as to render me capable of thy pardon and forgiveness Nor is this Confession forced from this confessing Penitent nor wrung out of him nor thrust upon him by his persecuting conscience which he flies as much as he can nor extorted by the urging Interrogatories of his Friends or Enemies with a great coldness and unwillingness No it is the most free and voluntary he himself discloseth and openeth all his Heart and whatever he knows by himself and earnestly desires both witness and judge too to produce all his faults and to tell him what he may be ignorant of or hath forgotten He is not willing to connive at any in himself though never so criminal and shamefull nor doth he desire any to conceal them from him he hath no darling which he would not look upon because he would not leave or wink hard because he would not see it or believe it to be no sin or so small that it deserves not the trouble of any notice or acknowledgment He drags out his most beloved and his most justly suspected sins and is not ashamed to betray them which he hath so perniciously hugged and which have and would betray him by their Flatteries Insinuations and Charms to his utter Ruin and Destruction He prudently hath his Eye there where there is the greatest danger and his greatest most delightfull and most frequent Sins he will bring to the light and so often till he makes almost the sins themselves to blush and perfectly wonders at his own blindness and stupidity 'T is not a few words only that this man mumbles over or a Repetition of any Form as it were of Recantation with his Lips when he is insensible or perhaps laughs at it in his heart no it is within in his Soul judgment and conscience and affections all within him is employed and moved He is no Hypocrite or Actor of a part but oft-times appears rather on the other hand to have no such thing or to be of no such temper when he is None can tell perhaps whether he hath been in his Closet or what he hath been doing there Nevertheless he doth not refuse if there be just occasion as in publick Devotion to let all the World know both by his words and carriage what he thinks of himself generously to justifie God and his most righteous Laws and Dispensations but to accuse reproach and condemn himself To advise and admonish all men that they beware of what he seeth his Folly in and not to imitate his past bad Example He is willing that good men should understand they have one come over to their party and that bad men should follow him He is very glad to please good men with such a sight nad even to add to the Joy of Angels He soon spies the great benefits of this devout Exercise and is very sensible of the pleasure and comfort of it He now discovers more pravity disorder and sin and more aggravations of them than he did and consequently according to his earnest desire can better prevent or amend them he understands himself infinitely better than he did and sees great reason for humility charity pity and compassion to offenders but not for an indifferency and neglect of the properest way he can use to reform them As he is grave and serious and hath a very indifferent and mean and sometimes contemptuous opinion of himself so is he for that very reason again cheerfull and gay for that nothing is more so than innocence or repentance He makes his address to God Almighty as with great humility and modesty so with great good hopes for success in his requests or for that which is better He makes use of God upon all occasions and in all concerns as his refuge his shelter his support his supply his patron protectour benefactour nay his Father casting all his cares upon him with moderate industry and endeavour but without solicitude and vexation In fine Though he have grievously and unworthily for the time past offended and displeased God yet he is not afraid of him but assured of his pardon love and favour for Christ's Sake because he is well assured of his Repentance and because that God cannot lye who hath said That he that confesseth and forsaketh his sins shall find mercy SERMON IV. PSALM XIV 1. The Fool hath said in his heart there is no God They are corrupt c. AN Argument of late especially often treated of and perhaps in this great Audience and truly for great reason It may be hoped there is less need of it now I am sure there are great hopes that there will be when simplicity probity and piety have more seasoned the first sources of manners and opinions However I doubt there may be some need of it still The God whom the wicked Fool denies only knows when it will be otherwise Good men would rejoyce to see the time and it may come when it shall be as ridiculous to doubt of the Being Attributes and Providence of the true God as it is of the Sun 's Being in Heaven and its influences upon this Earth as indeed it now is too in it self and to an honest man's thinking in a right method But let us briefly run over the