to Salvation It is a great and certain security against Ruin Damnation Perishing for ever 2. It shall not only be a security from Damnation but an assurance of a state of Life Glory Blessedness 3. There shall never be the least cause to Repent to look back with Sorrow or Regret that we have Repented For we shall find we have lost no good we have run upon no evil in having Repented 4. It shall give us Reason of everlasting Joy Rejoycing Triumph Blessing and Adoring God in Christ we have so by his grace Repented to Salvation 5. I will Reduce to the Doctrin of Repentance the sâ—ruples and Cases of Conscience that may arise concerning either the true Doctrinal State of it or the grace of or practise it self of repentance These are the heads I Propose by Divine Grace and Assistance to Discourse the Doctrin and grace of Repentance upon but I find it is in the first place necessary to give some short descriptions of the thing Repentance according to the very importance of the word and of the General Importance and Nature of the Notion or the thing it self The words us'd by the Spirit of God in the Old Testament are either that strict word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word that also signifies Consolating a mans self shewing after sin and offense reflected upon viz. with Gâ—ief and Trouble supposed the greatest consolation is recovery of a mans self by Repentance Or else it is a word that signifies Turning from what a man has bâ—en Turn'd and Posited and set himself â—o before On this Account we meet so often with the words of Turning in the Old Testament and being Converted and Turning in the New The most proper and strict words in the New Testament are either an After Care a Reflection with sorrow and sollicitousness upon what a man hath done with Trouble He did so and a care a caution not to do so any more for the time to come or an after-mind an after-wit an after understanding a transmentation a new Mind a new Heart and Spirit To speak of it therefore in the general Repentance is given by God as a mighty Spiritual Instrument or Engine in the hand of his Grace in the Arm of God made Bare by which the sinful Nature in every true Penitent is unhing'd uncenter'd from sin and corruption It is a return of the Soul home to it self after a Spiritual Phrensy and Madness The Prodigal is said to come to himself It is a return to its Fathers House after a long bewildred State This my Son was lost and is found But beyond all this it is a Spiritual Resurrection a return from Death to Life This my Son was Dead and is A Live Luke 15. And indeed as there is no notion of Scripure that is more suited to express the corrupt Nature of Man than Death so the first Threat Ran In the day thou eatest thereof Gen. 2.17 thou shalt dye the Deatb Death hy sin passed upon all Dead in Trespasses Rom. 5.12 Ephes 2.1 and sins Vniversal Death And so in the Levitical Law there was no greater uncleanness than the Touch of a Dead Body Accordingly when the Apostle Heb. 6. names Repentance among the grand Fundamentals or Principles of the Doctrin of Christ He calls it Repentance from Dead Works or Re-enstating the Soul in Life after sin or Works as Unclean and Loaâ—hsome as a Dead Body removed from the sight of the Living Or as a Dead Body was in the Eye of God under the Levitical Law This is the general Notion of Repentance but it may be further Explain'd in these three Particulars and yet in a general way 1. Repentance is an inward sincere habitual Change of the Heart and of the design and purpose and so of the outward Action and Course of Life and Conduct of a mans ways arising from an utter dislike of his former Counsel Purpose and Design and the course of Conversation Life and Action proceeding from it so that it becomes wholly New This is the generel Nature of Repentance as it looks to the government of a mans self and of his Actions Now this in Scripture and Evangelical Repentance is the change from sin to Holiness from a worldly state and conversation to an Heavenly and from the Creature to God and to Christ an utter dislike of and trouble at the former Regiment and steerage of a mans course so as utterly to forsake it and with sorrow shame and astonishment to say to his sinful ways so contrary to the Rules of Holiness Righteousness and Purity Get ye hence and what have I to do any more with you I will now guide my self by the word of my God and hate every false way Psal 119. This is that oâ— which Scripture is full every where the through amending she ways and doings which were not good the wicked man forsaketh his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and returns to the Lord Jerem. 7.3 Esay 55.7 Acts 3.26 James 4 8. Rom. 6.21 Christ blesses in Turning us every one from our Iniquities Cleanse your Hands you sinners and Purify your Hearts you double minded What profit had you in these things whereof you are now ashamed For the end of those things is Death 1 Cor. 6.11 such were some of you But now ye are washed c. 2. Repentance as it looks to an offended Person is full of sorrow that it hath offended moves earnestly to Pardon and Reconciliation and is ready to make use of any powerful Mediator in order to Reconciliation and desires ever after to please and to offend no more and herein the Affections are all mov'd according to the degrees of obligation Now in Scripture and Gospel Repentance the offending person the sinner hath â—o do with God the offended person in â—â—d through Christ and so bewails offence and moves earnestly to Pardon and Reconciliation with Gâ—d by the Mediation of Christ and with Christ â—or his own Names sake I beseech thee O Lord Take away the Iniquity of thy Servant Hos 14.3 â—ake away all Iniquities Receive us gâ—aciously And here also â—â—ises an ingenuous sorrow shame and confusion â—hat we have offended a God so Good so Holy so Wise so Tender and Compassionate a Father and despis'd so gracious and obliging a Redeemer David's Heart smâ—te him and he said to the Lord I have sinned in that I have done I have done very foolishly 2 Sam. 24.10 I was ashamed yea even confounded I smote on my thigh Jerem. 31.19 Ezra 9.6 becausâ— I did bear the Reproach of my youth We are ashamed and blush to lift up our Faces They shall under a spirit of Grace and melting sense of God Zach. 12.10 Job 34.31 Deuteron 31 6. 1 Tim. 1 15. look upon him whom they have peirced and mourn It is meet to be said to God If I have offended I will do so no more Oh foolish people and unwise do you ihus requite the
it is a foul and impure and shameful thing and as it is an Offence against the Holy and only Wife and gracious Majesty of God and as it brings Wrath and Ruine and Condemnation upon it contemplates considers and weighs those Reasons and thereby finds it self affected with sorrow and affliction as if it were after the manner of a broken Bone or bruised Flesh Thus we read of a broken and contrite Spirit and of those who are bruised in Spirit and grieved in Spirit and of a wounded and a troubled Spirit and of a sorrowful Spirit And this when it eyes God as a Father in Christ Gracious and Good and ready to be Reconcil'd and to forgive is a true godly Sorrow or a Sorrow after God For it is in the True Region of godly sorrow the Spirit and it hath the Right Sense and Affection even such an apprehension of God And such a Sorrow the Spirit communicates to the Body in which it dwells so as to make the Appearance of it Solemn Humble and Lowly It denies it those Ornaments or Refreshments that it self at other Times desires for it it bridles and curbs its own appetites and desires of pleasure and satisfaction in it it humbles it by Fasting it lays it in the Dust it keeps it waking it dissolves it into Tears and if it be very great as sometimes it dries up the Benign Juices of it and it carries all the Marks of the Spirit so affected And because these arise from a sorrow within after God God is pleased with them and accepts them as signs of such sorrow and calls for them 2. The Sicknesses or Wants or Pains or Notes of Disgrace that the Wise and Holy Providence of God sends sometimes upon the Body that make it an uneasie or a dishonourable Habitation of the Spirit These the Spirit takes Notice of with troublesome and unquiet thoughts the thoughts being in a Motion a Conflict and Agony if by the Grace of God they are guided to search the Causes of these Strokes on the Body and finds them to be an offended Justice a provoked and displeased Holiness upon the account of Sin and Iniquity and that it apprehends These are but the Beginnings of Sorrows and that they are Indications and Fore-bodes of Wrath to come and of further Judgments from Heaven even at the present upon both Body and Spirit if there be not that course taken of seeking Pardon and Reconcilement in Christ and turning from Iniquity These thoughts sanctified and conducted by God upon himself thus upon the occasion of outward affliction become that sorrow after God of which the Apostle speaks and often works that Repentance to salvation never to be Repented of Thus Scripture very often speaks of Outward Afflictions made serviceable to Conversion to returns to God Famine and Pestilence and War and Captivity in the Land of Enemies are Represented in the Prayer of Solomon as great Motives and even procuring and exciting Causes of Humiliation Bethinking our selves turning to the Lord. The Afflictions of Men are often spoken of by God and used as Arguments to such Resentments as call to Self-judging and so to reforming â—ven often not only in the Old but in the New Tectament We are Chasten'd of the Lord that we might not be condemned with the World Affliction yieldeth the peaceable Fruit of Righteousness to them who are exercised thereby 1 Cor. 11.31 Heb. 12.11 Both these Operations of godly sorrow seem to be Represented with a great Elegancy V. 14. and Holy Eloquence Job 33. the first when this Sorrow begins in the Spirit of a Man and Thoughts arising therein God speaks once and twice in a Dream in a Vision of the Night He opens the Ears of Men and sealeth their Instruction That he may withdraw Man from his purpose and hide Pride from Man He brings him to such Humiliation as keeps him from going on in his former purpose Again when sorrow begins in the Body v. 19. He a man any man upon whom the methods of God for Repentance are so laid is chasten'd with pain upon his Bed and the multitude of his Bones with strong Pain so that his Life abhorreth Bread and his Soul dainty meat his Flesh is consumed away that it cannot be seen and his bones that were not seen stick out yea his Soul draweth near unto the Grave and his Life to the Destroyers if there be a Messenger with him an Interpreter one among a thousand to shew to man his uprightness then he is gracious unto him and saith deliver him from going down to the Pit I have found a Ransom his Flesh shall be fresher than a Childs He shall pray unto God and he will be Favourable unto him and he shall see his Face with Joy he will Render unto man his Righteousness And now this sorrow thus after God sanctified thus to have Respect to God and carried out after him is Counter distinguish'd it is most different from the sorrow of the World that worketh Death The sorrow that hath no higher spring than this World works Death that is however the Mind or the Body be Affected when it does not mount up to a consideration of God offended for sin when it does not seek pardon of him and Reconciliation to him in Christ when it only pores upon the things of this World and agitates it self about them it runs down into the dead Sea of Sorrow that weeping and wailing and gnashing of Teeth that is in Hell It is an Idolatrous Sorrow arising from an Heart deeply set on this World and glewed to it and so goes down into the Vault and Pit of eternal Sorrow It tends to the Death of the Body it brings down the Head to the Grave It tends to wear and grind bodily Nature to the Dust every such sorrow not after God that hath no tincture from him on it If it be not Antidoted by sorrow after God and by Repentance to Salvation It tends to eternal Death and is the Inlet unto it For it is certain all sorrow here that comes from Heaven ascends up to Heaven as Water ascends as high as its Spring But that which is of a terrene earthly Nature sinks down to the Center which is the neathermost Hell I come now to the second Head to shew the excellent use and service sorrow after God yeilds in this wise and holy preparation of it by God to that Repentance to salvation not to be Repented of 1 In that so great and principal an Affection of the Soul is given up to God It hath an use and a service to steer the Soul to God For the Affections are as the Rudder of the Soul as the Helm of it guided by the judgment as by a Pilot And these affections are all in a Linck and in a chain If any one of the principal Affections are mov'd that mighty Vessel of the whole Soul is turn'd this way or that way by a very small thing as it may seem
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
And what shall we think of the words of our Lord Luke 6.21 Blessed are you that Weep and you that Mourn and woe to you that Laugh Now it is not to be supposed that so Good and so Merciful and so Gracious a Saviour as our Lord Jesus Christ is should envy to man any thing that could be to the Good and Welfare of his Nature But he knew how much the Carnal Joy and Mirth that is so common and so much valued among Men lavishes out those Thoughts and Spirits and that Time that should be laid out upon so serious and great things as Reconciliation to God Pardon of Sin Newness of Heart and Life and that Sorrow and Mourning and Weeping are prepared by God as fitted in their Nature to make us more Grave and Pondering of Things and that being Sanctified and in the Hand of his Grace are made use of to bring us home to himself For when men are under sadness finding the prints of the Wrath Justice and Displeasure of God upon them they enquire after the Reason Their sins as to Joseph's Brethren come to their Remembrance They are provoked to move to God by Humiliation Confession of Sin Prayer for Pardon Desire of his Grace and Spirit to enable them to Reform they enquire into his word how they may cleanse their way order their Conversation aright to please him they are moved to consider by these drops and Touches of Sorrow what that state of sorrow without Banks or Bounds or Bottom is where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of Teeth They are taken off from that Pride and Self-Conceit they find so little in all things here below and in this present State that they enquire for those better and greater Things that are Above and in Eternity When sorrow that disposes to strong and serious enquiries becomes sorrow after and according to God Oh! how excellently does it work How do men search Lam. 3.40 and try their ways that they may turn to God Now because of the Order that God hath plac'd sorrow in to all these great Effects therefore our Lord pronounc'd a Blessing upon Weeping and Mourning For else he loves our Joy when it is Spiritual he commands to Rejoyce in the Lord all way and again he says Rejoyce He spoke many great things John 15.11 that our Joy might be full that he might fill our Mouths with Laughter and our Tongues with Singing But our carnal our sensual Joys he knows are our Death and Destruction he knows we are in no better case in our prophane foolish sinful Laughter than they who are stung with the Tarantula and Dye Laughing Thus we have greatest reason in the midst of such Laughter to be Sorrowful and the end of that Mirth will be heaviness Thus it will be bitterness in the latter end therefore he warns us of it before and in greatest Love to us declares a Woe on such Laughter But now to conclude this particular The sorrow of the World How different a thing is it For tho it causes Thoughts and Enquiries yet it is only how to be rid of the Worldly Causes of Sorrow and it turns only to Worldly Remedies And it is very often in a rage at the causes it finds and when either the Remedies are not to be found or fail in their Success it is in a Rage and flies out too often against God and Providence and so it works Death It begins that Hatred of God that Blasphemy and Rage that is in Hell or if it does not thus it is a sullen despondent unactive state of Mind that shuts and seals up all Activity like the Night wherein no Man can Work John 9.4 and so goes down into utter Darkness It either sayâ— This evil is of the Lord 1 Kings 6.33 why should I wait any longer Or like Cain My Iniquities are greater than can be Forgiven and so hastens out from the Presence of God or it recoyls upon it self as Saul Achilophel Judas or the Heart under the Power of it Dies as a stone within it self as Nabals Heart died within him 1 Sam. 25.27 Thus it every way works Death because it hath nothing to do with him who is the Fountain of Life For the Being of God is infinitely happy and blessed and all light and lustre and in him is no Darkness at all of sorrow as not of Sin he therefore when sorrow is after him springs a Light into it that whereas the Dark and Black part arises from sin and the sinful Creature yet because it is after him it shall never set in the darkness of Death and Hâ—ll It receives from him as a Tincture of Holiness so a Tincture of Life a Ray and Beam of it It works Repentance unto Life and to Salvation and so it springs up aftâ—r into Joâ— in his Favour in the Light of his Countenance in the assurance of his Love But the Sorrow of the World is like a Night that no kind of Light at all Enlightens Like the Night Job Cursed it does not turn to the Light because it is not turn'd to God and so is a shade of Hell â—efore Hell it self a valley of the shaddow of Death and the horrors of it are the beginnings of the horrors of Hell As therefore Carnal Joys are sparks of our own kindling Esay 50. notwithstanding which we shall lye down in sorrow even so is sorrow not after God as a black shade of our own 4. The service of sorrow after God to Repentance unto Salvation is that it breaks and forces asunder that sinful Frame in our Hearts of sin and contrariety to God and to Holyness The very Natural Affection of sorrow loosens and Divides the Heart from that which is the Cause and occasion of such sorrow Because that great Self-love the force of that Law of Self-preservation is so strong upon us that seeing sorrow is an Affection that stands in an enmity to our Peace Comfort and Enjoyment and to our Life it self if it be extreme or too long continuing we therefore come off from what is the occasion or that gives reason to our sorrow though we had exceedingly lov'd it before This we find in all Cases and through the whole Nature of Things when therefore sin and loss of the favour of God because of it is made by the grace of God the just Reason and most sensible and prevailing reason of our sorrow It dissolves the Frame of sin in our Heart that had been before compact as the Adamant and as the neither Mill-stone Now this sorrow dividing and separating between sin and the Soul it brings forth that broken and contrite Heart that God will not despise Again This sorrow is a spiritual melting softning and dissolving Thing It separates the Soul every particle as it were from other so that it is supple soft and ready to tâ—ke any figure thaâ— God would have it take It brings the Soul to quick and lively sense which
the full purpose of the Heart before was to cleave to sin and the world now the heart cleaves to God with its full purpose This humble broken Spirit is the Sacrifice of God the Sacrifice he will not despise because it is ready to yeild up it self in all obedience to him Psal 51.17 But the sorrow of the World not eying God nor having regard to him never changes the Heart nor Life into obedience to him and so leaves a man in the same lost undone state and so becomes desperate Sorrow and Anguish as the Scripture calls it Esay 8.22 and may be most fitly described by Jer. c. 4.28 They are all greivous Revolters they are Brass and Iron they are all Corrupters the Bellows are burnt the Lead is consumed of the Fire the Founder melteth in vain for the Evil of the Heart is not pulled away reprobate silver shall men call them because the Lord hath rejected them When God therefore as the great Founder Casting men as into the Furnace of sorrow they are not purged fâ—om Evil the Melting is in vain and they are therefore Rejected by God as Reprobate Silver When Sorrow and Affliction which are as the Chirurgery or Blood-Letting of the gracious Hand of God Effects nothing of Good it is as the Corruption of the whole Mass of Blood and is certainly to Death 6. When sorrow is placed upon offence against a Person and upon unthankful and disingenuous Treaty of him there arises a Love and Compassion to that Person a shame to offend further a resolution to make him all the reparations we are able and the greater the Bitterness the greater the Effect And though these cannot be properly placed as issuing from the Creature towards the Creator yet Scripture representing God as hath been said Grieved Peirced press'd with Sin it represents the grieved sorrowing relenting sinner so Affected as if there were an Ingenuous even Compassion and Love towards God the Creator and unwillingness so to grieve and provoke any further It represents therefore the highest degrees of Bitterness and a sorrow as for a First Born Zech. 12.10 and for an only begotten Child or Son or like that most compassionate Lamentation for the excellent Prince Josiah 2 Chron. 25.25 slain at Megiddo that was so continued a sorrow as to be spoken of in Lamentation to that day as Scripture uses to speak now seeing Repentance it self as hath been shewn in the general Nature of it hath so much of this The sorrow that is Affected like it is most fitted and prepard to work it and it is so blessed by God to work it whereas the sorrow of the World is like Clouds without this Rain of Heaven and Wells without this Water of Salvation and therefore settles as into the Lake of the second Death and smells of its Brimstone And thus far I have proceeded to make out the serviceableness of godly sorrow or sorrow after God that works Repentance to Salvation never to be Repented of General 3d. I come now to the third General concerning sorrow for Sin viz. To shew the Wisdom of God and the Reasonableness of his making use of sorrow and fitting it as after himself or according to himself to so great an end and purpose and that according to the very Reason and Nature of Things it could not be otherwise but that godly sorrow must be so made use of above and before any other Affection and that it becomes him by whom are all things and for whom are all things so to make use of it 1. There can be according to what the Apostle says no other object of Rational Intellectual Sorrow but only the loss of the Favour of God or his displeasure for sin or subordinated to it which makes it sorrow after God For if on one side the sorrow so plac'd and fix'd hath so blessed Effects that he that so sorrows receives no iniury by it but so great good as Repentance to Salvation never to be Repented of that it is not so much Lost as chang'd into Fulness of Joy and so perfected and on the other side that sorrow laid out on any other object which is sorrow after the World works Death Then it must needs become the wise and gracious God of whom by whom are all things in bringing many Sons to Glory to bring them to Perfection by such a sorrow as this For if God was pleas'd to make such a Rational Intellectual Nature as man that might though made Holy fall into sin It must needs be that it must have a fitness to turn it self with sorrow upon such an evil and reason of sorrow as God offended and displeas'd for sin supposing a man by that sin had not lost either the use of his Understanding or not lost the sense of God Holiness and Goodness seeing if it did not lye Dead and Benummed or strongly diverted and turned off from its Object or that God does not appear an Irreconcileable Judg and Revenger and give up man to the wickedness and rage of Death It must so turn Whenever therefore God by his grace in Christ and by his Spirit turns any sinner to himself and stirs up those Powers of understanding and Conscience after himself The very order of the Creation of God Requires that the understanding and Natural Conscience and Affection of Man should be turn'd upon him displeas'd by Sin by this humble sorrow of Love even as upon his wrath and Vengeance with a sorrow of Pain Fear and Terror so that both the Bondage of Fear of Death Heb. 2.15 and the Reverence of godly Fear and Love move to this sorrow and the wise order of Things settled by God cannot allow it otherwise On the other side if the turn of the Rational Nature and Affection be drawn out upon the sense of any evil with trouble and dislike and reflection on its disagreeableness and inconveniency and yet its pressure upon it which is sorrow grief and sadness it must either be turn'd upon God offended and displeas'd by sin or it is to no purpose of good that there is such a Passion or Affection in man For if it be plac'd on any other object it is but sorrow of this World how just so ever in regard of any evil of suffering it may seem to be It is but sorrow to Death and so of no good at all to us but evil till it be deriv'd into a higher and more excellent Channel So that it may be said of this sorrow as Solomon says of Laughter It is madness and what doth it And in place of Thorns crackling under a Pot It is as the slow Fire Eccles 7.2 c. of too near agreement with that of Brimstone of the Lake It is not of any merciful or gracious use but for the manifestation of the wrath and displeasure of God against sin 2. Let us consider seriously what Jesus Christ our Lord suffered under the sense of sin and then think whether
it be reasonable that the whole should fall on him and none of the drops and end of it come to us and so be fill'd up by us Col. 1.24 We should never read that part of Sacred History of the Agony of Christ but we should deeply take it to Heart Luke 22.44 He being in an Agony Prayed more earnestly and his sweat was as it were drops of Blood Christ was not at this time seiz'd upon and in the hands of those that Crucified him but was in perfect Meditation in an entire solitude of Thoughts He was in Contemplation of the great evil of sin and of the wrath and justice of God upon it We may then say Dyed Christ as a Fool Or was Christ in an Agony as a Fool or as a weak person Did he not pursue the true Reason of Things Did he not follow sin by his holy and wise consideration of it from its beginning to its end Did he not see it as God looks upon it and as the Nature of sin requires it should be looked upon Did he not behold it in the ruin and damnation of mankind in the everlasting horror of Conscience in Hell If not why this Agony Did he not behold our sins in all the aggravations of them Else why was our Lord under a sorrow that no ones sorrow was like to it He might justly say to all that Read of it behold was any mans sorrow like to mine Ought we not therefore though we cannot suffer as he did nor to such an effect of Suffering Yet ought we not to be Conformed to our Head If these things were done in the green Tree ought there not to be a Conformable Sense of them upon us who are as the dry Tree and much more reasonbly to be so affected 3. The great disadvantages that come upon the profession of Christianity in the want of this godly sorrow press for it 1. Either Men rest and center in a false Repentance The fallow ground of the Heart is not truly broken up Jerem. 4 3 so that they sow on the Rock or among Thorns and build in the Sand and their Repentance is not this Repentance the Apostle speaks of they do not go down to the bottom of the Heart nor dig deep to find the Springs of true Repentance 2. Or 2dly Suppose the Repentance not False such are yet in Danger of Falls after Conversion for no man is so truly and continually afraid of sin as he that hath found the smart and evil in profoundest sorrow for it 3. There is Danger when godly sorrow hath not had its perfect work there should arise after perplexities of Conscience either upon the surprisal of outward Afflictions or on the Death Bed and sometimes with great Agonies because we have not gone through the exact course of Repentance in sorrow for sin and after God 4. Oftentimes God leads through outward Chastisements to bring us through a more solemn sense of sin and the evil of it and to closer acts of self Judging and more exact Reformation of our Hearts and ways 4. That we may be under the full efficacy of godly sorrow God hath made that gracious promise Ezek. 36.25 That he will take away the Heart of Stone and give the Heart of Flesh Thus that Adamantine and nether Millstone Temper is removed anâ— a soft tender Heart that fears the first approach of sin is Introduc'd It may seem an objection against this Doctrine of sorrow for sin as if the pressing of it is a Derogation from the Blood of Christ and the fulness of his Redemption as if his sufferings sacrifice and satisfaction were not enough without our sorrow as a kind of Penance But this I shall endeavour fully to remove hereafter as the same Objection may seem to lye against the whole Doctrine of Repentance I will therefore conclude this part of the Discourse viz. concerning sorrow for sin by giving some practical inferences by way of Application from it Infer 1. Let us be content to suffer in the Flesh as the Apostle Peter speaks 1 Peter 4.4 by deep sorrow for sin and after God as it were the Death of thâ— Flesh and of the corrupt part that we may Live according to God in the Spirit arm your selves with the same mind that was in Christ Be willing to be as Condemned and put to Death in the sense of sin desire to know Hell and everlasting Misery as he did in your own sense of it he went down to Hell in the Contemplation of it though not Locally Let us be in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Communion in the Fellowship of his Sufferings Phil. 5.10 It is better to know it now and here while it may be escap'd than to know it hereafter when there will be a gulf between it and the state of Life that cannot be passed Infer 2 Let us possess our selves with the mighty Reasons and Arguments of godly sorrow the Motives and inward operative Influences of it the serious consideration of the great evil of sin the foulness of it the dishonour the neglect the contempt of God that is found in it the unreasonable ingratieude and unkindness of it to the Lord our God and to Jesus Christ the Saviour and Redeemer but especially let us earnestly beg that Spirit of Grace and Ingenuous sense that may cause us to be in bitterness as he that is in bitterness for his First Born that we may thus sorrow after God Infer 3. Let us sweeten to our selves that which may seem very harsh and contrary to Flesh and Blood this sorrow after God with the consideration of this that Christ hath established a Blessing upon it the blessing of an everlasting Consolation Luke 6.21 25. Blessed are you that Mourn and that Weep for you shall be Comforted And on the other side there is a Woe on them that Laugh now Consider Christ the Captain of our Salvation and all the Saints of God have passed through the Vally of Baca this Valley of Weeping the way to the Heavenly Jerusalem while the mad roaring merry World are going that broad way down to Destruction This works that Repentance to Salvation never to be Repented of Head 3d. I come now to the Third Head in the Doctrin of Repentance and that is to Discourse the true Laws and Rules of Repentance the Frame and the true constitution of Repentance the Motives and considerations for it the signs and evidences of true Repentance all which must needs be very great in that it is Repentance to Salvation not a false or counterfeit Repentance or but to be Repented of not to be recall'd revers'd or repented but to be confirm'd by progressive repeated Acts and renewals after Falls even till it lays hold of Salvation General 1. In the opening the grand Doctrin of Repentance as on this head I shâ—ll endeavour to guide the Discourse of it by keeping to the strict proper and precise Nature and notion of Repentance
a shaking so universal and things have never yet been so shaken but they have gotten again into their old posture state and as we say wont so as to need to be shaken again But this once is like the Expression Jerem. 16.21 Behold I will for this once I will cause them to know my might I will do it so at the Great Conversion of the Gentiles then spoken of It shall never need to be done any more They shall know by that once for ever Even as it shall be known to my People Israel Amos 4.13 For in this Kingdom that Name is known indeed which was known but in Type Exod. 6.3 that my name is Jehovah God hath done these things in a Degree and in some measure a Hundred and a Hundred Times But now they shall be done once for all I am fully assured we shall All be at this shaking of the Earth You may think you may be in your Graves but you shall certainly be brought forth to see and feel God's doing this thing once The Earth shall cast out it 's Dead by the beginnings of it that all may see it in its Fulness Now this Doing the Thing shall make a great Change a Transpose of the Things that are or have been made or done The Word Metathesis signifies a Dispose of Things out of the Places where they had been into Places where they had not been before or into a different Order or State And it is of very great importance because it may be a Transpose for the better or for the worse Enoch was thus Transpos'd the same Word is us'd several times concerning him Heb. 11.5 and it was highly for the better he was Translated to Heaven without Dying So Transpos'd It is used for the Galatians being Removed to another Gospel and that was for the worse Gal. 1.5 This shake of the Earth shall make a great Transpose of Things Many poor Persons that have feared God and yet embrac'd Dunghils who have been forc'd to lye on the Earth in the Dust and in the filth of Things shall be Transpos'd for they shall Inherit the Throne of Glory 1 Sam. ch 2. The Bodies of Saints that lye in the Earth or wherever in the Dark the Dust of Death shall be Transpos'd they shall shine above But on the other side the Great the Rich and the Brave and the Honorable that have been High and Honorable they will be wofully Transpos'd they shall be turned down into a State of Everlasting Contempt And so there shall be a Translation a Transpose of the very Creation out of this Earth as under the Curse and Defilement into a new Earth and of the Heaven into a new Heaven not where Spiritual Wickednesses but Christ and his Saints shall inhabit Things shall not cease to be but shall be changed and removed some for the better some for the worse as to themselves But all Things of this World shall then be chang'd and remov'd All the Things that have been made or done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There are great Things in the World of all kinds made or done Great Palaces great Cities great Temples or as we call them Churches Great Castles Fortifications Navies There are other great Things made and done There are the several Laws and Constitutions of Government great Volumes of Books great Furniture of Palaces and Houses Bravery of Equipage and Apparel exquisite Engines and curious Pictures all these are Things that have been made or done There are the heaps of Gold and Silver so impressed so minted so coined All these and an unexpressible variety more shall be Transpos'd for the Day of the Lord shall be upon them all Esay chap. 2. It shall be upon the High and Lofty every one that is lifted up shall be brought low It shall be upon all the Cedars of Lebanon and upon all the Oaks of Bashan both in a natural and figurative Sense and upon all the High Mountains the mountainous Towers and Piles of Building upon all great Ships those floating Palaces the Loftiness of Men shall be brought low and the Haughtiness of Men shall be humbled and the High Looks shall be bowed down And they shall cast their Images of Gold and Silver he means not only their Idolatrous Images but their minted Gold and Silver bearing the Images of Princes which Gold and Silver they commit Idolatry with also to the Bats and the Moles to go into the Caves and the Rocks and the Tops of the rugged Rocks for fear of the Lord and for the glory of his Majesty and all this in the Day when he rises to shake terribly once for all the Earth Oh how great will this Transpose then be And then all the Religion that Men have made shall become a perfect Transpose into a Nullity and indeed there is not a greater Poema or more made thing than False Religion and particularly the Religion of Popery it is a strange kind of Fabrick a strange kind of Frame so indeed is Mahometanism and so was Paganism heretofore but none like that of Popery But yet whatever hath been of the Substance of either true Natural or Revealed Religion in any False Religion adulterating it shall be then Transpos'd back into Truth and all else shall be abolished And lastly That Heaven and Earth that are now viz. since the Flood to which Flood this once more may refer shall be changed and transposed by Fire all shall be removed by Fire as I remember that most Learned and Ingenious and Christian Philosopher Dr. Burnet of the Charterhouse shews Theory of the Earth 1st and 2d Parts How much the State of our Heaven and Earth as before the Flood was chang'd and Transpos'd by the force of Water the Water of the Flood for the worse But they shall by the force of Fire be Purified and Renewed and Rescituated for Beauty and Glory as he also asserts All shall be Transpos'd All shall come under a new Make It is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Work of God it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What hath been already made It shall be chang'd by him that will say from the Throne upon which he sits Behold I make all new Rev. 21.5 They had been made before but saith he Now I come to make All over anew I will bring them to that Excellent State wherein they shall continue till God be All in All. For only the Things that cannot be shaken shall Remain Now what are those Things that cannot be shaken They are the Blood Sacrifice and Redemption of Christ his Redemption and Intercession these are for ever They remain in his Priesthood for ever after the Order of Melchisedech after the Power of an Endless Life The Spirit of God in his Grace upon his Servants in Conversion Faith Repentance Holiness shall remain as in the Glory and Salvation they are unto This is an incorruptible Seed from the Word and Truth of God that abideth for ever He that
Scriptures that treat most professedly of Repentance always insist upon it as a reformed course of Life to be undertaken even now while the Proposals of Grace and Reconciliation are made to us and only by very silent Intimations the track of which is hardly discerned leave it possible that God should by miracle save some very few out of the Fire and pull them as Brands out of the Burning by giving them Repentance at the last Whereas this is now become the only Repentance in use and hath devoured the other as if to press Men upon it were to torment them before their time and to lessen the Validity of this were to take away the Mercy of God and deny the Grace that is so free and universal Let us search therefore how this sort of Repentance hath come into such Repute And if we observe we shall find it first rising from the intimate Sense the Conscience hath of the necessity of Repentance For were it not so clear and evident a Duty a Death-Bed Repentance had never been heard of most would choose to go out of the World as they have lived in it not suffering any degree of the trouble of Conscience or vexing themselves with Reflections upon an unholy and ill-spent Life As Men have chose to live freely and uninterruptedly in forgetfulness of God and an Eternal Condition days without number Jer. 2.32 so would they choose to die were there not a Law within that however it hath lain covered with the Dust of Sensuality yet is now restored to its Authority and urges the Soul with the Terror of Punishment for so long Disobedience And secondly this necessity of Repentance though secretly understood yet was not sufficiently considered in the time of Health for had it been equally regarded it had not been now to begin He that had rightly measured it would not for a thousand Worlds so have adjourned it These two things then meeting so oft together viz. The necessity of Repentance and the neglect of it all along our Life the necessity it should be performed some time ere Men go out of the World and the neglect of it in the freer Opportunities of Life These I say bring forth hasty motions of it at last For it losing nothing of its necessity by its delay it must be done as well as it may be at that time even as the last Moments wherein Businesses of great Consequence are to be dispatched press for Expedition the more earnestly because they must be done then or never though it often falls out the time is so far past they suffer not only much disadvantage but even defeat by the delay The Notion of a Death-Bed Repentance then we may perceive rising from the great Indisposition to Repent while the Pleasures of Sin are in their Season and flourish and Men in Health and Strength to enjoy them and from the necessities of Repentance falling upon them at the last and wringing from them sometimes very high Acknowledgments of God and an Eternal Condition passionate Expressions of the folly evil and vanity of former Life desires of Mercy Professions of strong Resolvedness to serve God and if they had many Lives to give God they would give them all All which being so unusual to hear formerly out of such Mouths and coming from Dying Men for whose Sayings we have a natural regard Charity towards them and willingness to hope well of them gives these Semblances the Reputation of Repentance To which may be added That those who are Guides and Seers in Religion too often errante Clave by too Liberal an Absolution open the Kingdom of Heaven to such and taking the Instruments of a foolish Shepherd to themselves heal the hurt of their Souls slightly so that their Repentance is saincted here and though it miscarry in the other World yet the miscarriage is hid also in that other World From all this hath arisen a down-right Opinion of this kind of Repentance as the only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Prudent Expedient that compounds two so different Interests first that of a worldly Conversation to which it gives no hinderance then that of Eternal Life in appearance because it assumes the Promises of Mercy to it self especially those gracious Assurances in Ezek. 18. Chap. 33. it reckons as made on purpose for it All which argues a very vile Sense both of the Justice and Mercy of God of his Justice as if it had no authority of his Mercy as if it had no sense of Honour And lastly it is grown into a general Expectation rhat however ill and carelesly of God Men have lived here yet they should go out of the World with good words of him and Religious Professions as an Inbalm to their Memory and a Dirge to their Souls into the Happiness of an Everlasting Condition Thus they call Repentance and Heaven after their own name This their way is their folly Psal 49.11.13 14 c. yet their Posterity men of like Inclinations approve their sayings because such Men as they speak go away like Lambs but as the Scripture says like sensless Sheep are laid in the Grave and Death feeding upon them the Error is not discovered till the morning when the upright have dominion over them that is infinitely excel them and their counterfeit Repentance which cannot stand in judgment nor they in the congregation of sincere Penitents Psal 1. vers 5. Now this account I have given of a Death-Bed Repentance obtaining among us is too comprehensive yet I must acknowledge that there are many whose Judgments are more enlightned and the Sentiments of their Consciences quicker than to be satisfied at so easie a rate who yet fall into the common unhappiness of not having repented till they come to die I will therefore enquire further why many who are able to feel before-hand the necessities of a speedy Repentance and also to draw their Death so near them as to die daily in the sense of Death and thereby further perceive those Necessities do not yet Repent daily but betray themselves to an Evening or Twilight Repentance The Resolution of this lies not only in the immoderate love of Sin and its Pleasures and the too low apprehension of God and Eternal Things though these are always present in the case but chiefly it lies in the great Confidence such Men have in the present time not sensible of the continual waste of it Under the favour of which they put away the evil day far from them and stretch themselves upon this moment Amos 6.3 c. that they may take their full Ease and Satisfaction In the mean while stifling the Thoughts of Dying and Judgment Were it not for this no other Reason would encourage them to delay their Repentance for when this Fails all others generally fail also and therefore none are so passionately moved as such when they come to die This Cloud that is but as big as a Man's hand our days are as an hands breadth
of Spirits what appalements of Mind and strong working of Thoughts must there needs be Much more if the Soul have any sense of its approach to the infinite Holiness of God at whose rebuke the Pillars of Heaven tremble whose presence astonishes the purer Spirits of Angels and beats down the Souls of good Men to the Dust as of Moses Heb. 12.21 Isai 6.5 Job 42.6 Dan. 10.8 Job Isaiah c. in his interviews with them How much more of those that have never thought of God and now must come near his Seat Nothing so composes the Soul to this amazing change of Condition and Converse as long continued Treaties with God through Christ when though Men change their place they do not change their company Job 24.17 Job 38.15 Others when this great light strikes them are in the very terrors of the shadow of death and shaken out of their place out of all the Security and quiet Sensuality they lived in Let us now take the estimate or avail of these things to true Repentance and we shall find when the Soul lies thus uncovered to the things of Eternity it hath natural Reasons for all it may seem to do like return to God and so that all argue nothing of the true Grace of God but if a Man were again in his former State he would be the very same he was For first as one thing strikes upon another with a natural Effect Light upon the Eye Sound upon the Ear so Eternal Things upon the Immortal Spirit when there is nothing between to intercept the stroke Further 1 John 2.16 when the lust of the flesh the lust of the eye and the pride of life are as a Scene removed and a Play at an end and instead of them another World drawing near just as Men defeated in all their attempts for Riches and Honours and beaten off from them to a private Life call all these things Cheats not out of true Reason but because they cannot reach them on the other side they praise Retirement and a Cloyster not that they like it but because they must live so which begets some kind of Contentedness so to live Thus and no otherwise do many Dying Men call all this World Vanity and profess an high Esteem for all things pertaining to that to come Cause 3. There is yet a more pressing Account of the most notable motions that were ever found in any of their Repentances viz. The awakenings of Conscience usual at this time because of the Sense of a Judgment while common Experience tells Men It is appointed to all Men once to die Heb. 9.27 and sinking Nature gives notice This is the time Conscience lifts up to the next thing After that the Judgment Now no Man sees Judgment a Judgment Omniscient Omnipresent Eternal without great shakes of Soul especially that hath done nothing seriously to agree with the adversary in the way Luk. 12.18 Conscience then rising up with the Awe of a Tribunal upon it stirs up all the Powers to fly from the Wrath that is to come by desires of Pardon and Resolutions of Amendment The very hearing of Judgment made such a one as Foelix tremble Acts 24.25 When Judgment seems to us at the other end of Heaven all is quiet but when Death brings us to the very seat of it how loud may be the cries for Mercy The bewailing the former evils of Life Now Men pour out their Complaints for the want of God the misimprovement of former time Now they make large offers of a strict and severe Mortification and Devotion to Religion Now they would give the thousand Rams the ten thousand Rivers of Oyl their first born for their Trasgression the fruit of their Body for the sin of their Soul Mic. 6.6 7. And yet all but the Eye opened to see the flaming Sword of Justice that makes even a Balaam wish to die the death of the Righteous Num. 22.32 cap. 23.10 and to have a latter End Sober Just Religious The very Suspition of a Judgment inclines Men thus far universally almost that hardly any choose to die in a Rant in a Madness but had rather by virtue and Religion be consigned over to another World and have their Eyes closed by Mercy and Grace in Christ They would see the Salvation of God and so depart in Peace Object 1. But it may be objected Seeing these granted to rise from true Conviction and not to be Dissimulation or counterfeit Pretence Why may not they have the worth of true Repentance Answ 1. To answer this Let me consider pure Conviction and enlightned Apprehension and the Affections begotten of them are no Argument of true Goodness where the Light hath not a benign and free Operation upon the Judgment an Allurement upon the Will an Indearment upon the Affections to turn them to a full Delight and Satisfaction in God and Holiness and to a dislike and abhorrence of Sin For else the Devils who believe and tremble Jam. 2.19 must be thought Converts For who have clearer sight of things than they Balaam whose Eyes were opened and spoke so great things of God and his People must be concluded a good Man Esau and Judas who had so sad apprehensions of Sin Matth. 27.4 Heb. 12.7 Dan. 4.17 and 6.26 Luk. 6.20 Acts 24.25 and their loss by it must be affirmed to be Penitents Nebucadnezar's and Darius his acknowledgments of God must be taken for true Grace Herod his hearing John Baptist gladly Felix his trembling at Paul's Discourse may be thought Evidences of true Repentance Object 2. But Secondly it may be supposed because these very Convictions and Affections are not universal but we see multitudes go out of the World without them carrying little better than a decent and civil Respect to Religion that therefore there is something of God something Heroick in them that have them Answ 2. This indeed may be no other than the wise and good Government of God over the World whereby he takes care there should be Testimonies of himself and the Goodness of his ways that Atheism and Wickedness may not carry it as if all were their own as if there were an unexceptionable Concurrence on their side against God and Holiness For as he receives witness from the constant gracious and religious Lives of good Men so he constrains some of them that have lived contrary to him all their lives to give him glory at last for the good of others though without saving benefit to themselves Which he may justly do and without any injury to them Seeing all the Service every Creature can do to him is infinitely due he may make use of that which is his own so far as he pleases And because what the word God puts in their mouths Num. 23.5 Matth. 12.35 is not their own not arising out of the good treasure of their hearts as appears in Balaam therefore their everlasting Condition is not determined by it but
Wickedness and Sensuality The thirty pieces are nothing worth Mat. 27.3 and the innocent blood above all value when Men suffer in the Agonies of Conscience and Fears of the approaching Judge A House full of Silver and Gold will not buy a Man to resist God when indeed he appears to him when the terrible Majesty opens it self Numb 22.18 what is so precious that Men will not fling to the Bats and Moles Isai 2.20 When the Breath is going out of the Nostrils how precious is Repentance Faith a Pardon in Christ a happy Eternity to those who have heretofore slighted them as the off-scouring of all things But these things are always so rich Wisdom is always so precious that it disdains to borrow Esteem from a minute of Extremity and therefore it most often falls out that those who would none of its counsel but despised all its Reproof when they come to seek it early cannot find it but it laughs at their Calamity as Men laugh at the unhappiness of Fools that would not be corrected in their Folly till their Misery confute their Confidence 3. From hence it follows That this Repentance is a Choice when there is no other Choice If a Man loved his Sins or the World never so passionately he must leave them if he disliked God and his Holiness and an everlasting Abode with him to the utmost yet he is even forced upon them or dashed upon an Eternal Misery and Unhappiness which it is impossible to choose And therefore though he would not choose the holy ways of God if he might still enjoy former Vanity yet that being out of his reach and way he must take what is to be had The Sense therefore is no more than this All these things are good when a Man is just a Dying but while he lives and can have the World they are troublesom and unprofitable Death makes them good upon this account only because else there would be something worse and there can no longer be any thing better A Man is now willing to offer a Life he hath not to give but Eternal Life is not worth any part of that Life he thinks in his power to do any thing else with Let us then observe at what rate it is set for to use Tertullian's words in another Case we may thus Reason * Quale bonum hoc est quod melius est poena quod non potest videri bonum nisi pessimo comparatum ut ideo bonum sit resipiscere quia deterius est ardere Caeterum si per mali collationem cogitur bonum dici non tam bonum est quam genus mali inferioris quod altiori malo obscuratum ad nomen boni impellitur Tertul. De Monogamia Chap. 3. What a mean sort of good is this that only excels Punishment which needs the worst of States for a Foil to it self that it may be thought Good It is good to repent and be saved because who can dwell with everlasting Burnings But if it must purchase the Reputation of being Good from Evil it is not so much a Good as a lower degree of Evil which while the greater Evil Eclipses it is compelled as it were to accept the name of a good being driven upon the confines of Goodness by the Violence of greater Evil. 4. This Repentance is not the Free but inslaved Judgment and Choice of the Soul as Men cast out Goods in a Storm and receive a Power to Rule over them that they cannot endure but that it is too strong for them Men are afraid what God will do to them therefore they submit His Enemies in Heart are found Lyers to him they flatter him with their Mouth as Julian oppressed by the Almightiness of Christ is storied to have cried out Vicisti Galilaee Thou hast overcome me Galilean Thus they are overcome by Death and the apprehension of Judgment In the sight and view of the Danger Men resolve to part with their Sins Let but that remove they call for their Sins again as Mariners wish for their Goods after the Storm They throw up their Lusts in their sickness but drink them in when their trouble is past as the Dog returns to his vomit 2 Pet. 2.22 In all this there is nothing of the love of God 5. In this Repentance the Soul of it is generally a pitiful mean Self-love even the meanest kind imaginable wherein a Man considers himself as a Creature in being and likely or at least possible to be for ever without any apprehension of himself as a rational Creature made for God and the Enjoyment of him in conforming with whom his Happiness consists and in the resting for ever in his love Of this part he hath no distinct apprehension only he would be happy though he knows not what it is or rather he would not be miserable yet even that he truly understands not But as the Jews said to Christ when he spake to them of the Bread of Life Lord ever more give us this bread and yet were scandalized at his Explanation of himself to be that Bread so far as to leave him John 6.34 And the Pharisees hearing of the Vineyard to be let out to other Husband-men and the Judgment upon themselves to be executed Luk. 20.16 Cried out God forbid yet run on in the Sin that brought it upon them This little point of Self-love into which all is crowded is ennobled with no sight of the Excellency of the things themselves or a due Estimation of them as the true pleasure and joy of an Immortal Spirit This is not that allowable love of a Man's self which incircles it self within the love of God as the lesser Circle is comprehended by the greater but this either leaves out that love wholly or debases it to basest self Let us now compare both sides together and see how much true Repentance differs from that which is always to be feared lest it should be the height of the Death-Bed And of that which hath been spoken this is the Sum True Repentance is the most free Election of the Soul inabled by the Grace of God upon a clear and just Dictate of the Judgment attended with sincerest Affection to give up it self to God through Jesus Christ and when it is most it self not under any irregular fear or constraint and at least would be the same in a time when it hath all the probability that can be to lay hold upon things present The other Repentance arises from a Soul all troubled and discomposed with the throws of Death the fears of Hell the Doubts what will become of it in another World the Uproars of a guilty Conscience when it supposes it self necessarily at the full stop of its former Courses by being cut off from longer Life in the midst of all which arise vehement Resolutions to turn from Sin to God and possibly with many fair Apparences but without opportunity to give proof of themselves Let
to make so cheap of that infinitely precious Goodness that whoever aright considers the Case must needs infinitely abhor the thoughts Yet this is the necessity of such Mens Condition that they must either think themselves worthy thus to becken the Grace of God or they must perish for ever They enter then a contest of Precedency and Superiority with this Grace and decide against it That it is fit for that to stoop and humble yea to prostitute it self rather than they should be for ever Miserable yea rather than they should have been obliged to a Holy Life 2. It is for a Man to desire God to Mis-time his Grace for the Season of it is the present offer in the Gospel Now is the time accepted 2 Cor. 2.9 now is the day of Salvation It is to desire God to give him a Spring in Autumn or Winter when the time of the Patience of God is over to expect the Salvation of God now God who hath with infinite Wisdom and Equality weighed out Times and Seasons Eccles 3.11 and 9.12 Luke 19.42 and made every thing beautiful in its time doth not reverse his own Appointments to serve the Folly of Man who have not known their times and the things of their peace in their day For can it seem reasonable that Mountains should remove out of their places and Rocks wander from their Situation That Man more unintelligent than the Swallow and Crane that observe their appointed times Jer. 8.7 might not be insnared by the evil times that fall suddenly upon them Eccles 9.12 He that trusts then to such a Repentance doth as it were resolve to be saved by Miracle or else perish 3. Men do not consider the Jealousie of God nor are afraid of his Oath against them that harden their Hearts and do not hear his voice to day so that some Heb. 3.9 10 11. who have trifled with the Grace of God seek him early and do not find him The Israelites that said Whither shall we go up when they were commanded to go up and possess the land Deut. 1.28 when they would have gone up afterwards and fought for it were rejected by God So in Zechary God gives account of that great Judgment of their Captivity concerning which though Moses Samuel and Job had interceded he would not have heard As when I cried they would not hear so it came to pass that they cried and I would not hear Zech. 7.13 Many fail of the Grace of God that prophanely sell their Birth-right for a transitory Satisfaction and find no place for their Repentance Heb. 12.16 17. or of Gods Repentance in favour towards them though they seek it carefully and with Tears While Men are busie in fulfilling the corrupt Desires of their sinful Flesh and make slight of the Mercy that so freely presents their Souls a silent Decree passes against them that though it makes no noise in their Ears yet seals them in blindness and hardness so that their Souls are for ever closed therein For who can open what is shut by so powerful and awful a Hand 4. It is impossible to a Man to die with good composure of Mind that trusts to a Dying Repentance for let the Case be thus stated That Repentance which will not inable a Man to a holy Life is not saving suppose a Man then in a Dying Sickness making great acknowledgment of Sin full of Resolutions of leaving Sin and this Man recovering and peforming nothing but sliding back into the former Wretchedness of Life this Repentance however serious and earnest it seemed would not have saved him if he had died he had perished in his Sins and his false Repentance together For that his Repentance was truly inferior to his Sins appears in that as soon as ever that is over which gave it a seeming Advantage his Sins throw off that Repentance Rev. 2.7 c. but true Repentance always overcomes that Repentance therefore could not be true And if Repentance be false and counterfeit there is no amendment of it in Eternity when once the Master of the House is risen up and hath shut to the Door Luke 13.25 there is no entrance While the foolish Virgins too late understanding the Error of Oyl in their Lamps only and not in their Vessels Mat. 25.3 c. went to correct it by buying Oyl They were shut out and no knocking powerful enough for their Admission Yea though a Man may seem to be well quieted and comforted and to have the Testimony of the Spirit of God yet all this may be but a Delusion and Satan in an Angel of light for though they that have truly this Testimony may be supposed to know it is that true Spirit yet they that have it not 2 Cor. 11.14 may have something they so strongely imagine to be it that thereby they may be deceived This Testimony therefore must be proportionable to the assurance this Dying Man had from Christ else even a Man that dies safe must die in such an unexpressible Torment of Mind that it had been much better he had enjoyed no such seasons of Sin than only endure that And who can presume so upon God as to promise himself such a train of Miracles to carry him not only to Heaven but without those Agonies of Horror that are like Hell after so long Impenitency Thus on all sides it is most necessary for every one to Repent while he may behold the Truth of his Repentance in the ordinary Fruits of a holy Life and see himself in all the Circumstances of Temptation change of Condition Varieties which Life and the Course of it carry along with it For that is often by length of time cast up and appears upon the Surface that lay concealed at the bottom till such a Concurrence of things gives it the advantage to rise I understand nothing that can be objected to this last Argument I have used to disable the Confidence of such a Repentance except this It may be supposed the Repentance that is full of passionate and affectionate Motions towards God though amidst the fears of Death may be good till it be blotted out by returns to Sin and therefore if it be taken in the just time while it is good that is if a Man dies before it be reversed it may serve the great purpose of Eternity This Supposition I must confess hath a seeming Countenance from that particular place Ezek. 33.12 The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression as for the wickedness of the wicked he shall not fall thereby in the day that he turneth from his wickedness But if the scope of Scripture-Discourse in general or the very sense of Morality be taken in the Case no Man may trust so great a weight here For Christ looks upon the stony ground with the same Eye while it receives the word with joy Mat. 1.3.20 21. as when
in a clear light and full leisure 3. For the severity of God in denying his Grace though I acknowledge his Indignation condemns many who have dallied with him and their own Souls to be suck'd in again by the whir-pool of their Lusts when they would have risen out of them yet this Indignation is never so certainly at the height as when Men have provoked it as long as they could It is most miserable therefore to make our last motions within the command of such a horrible Pit lest they prove only the struggles of sinking Men yet this we must do if we are not before got out of it There is much greater hope how bad soever their Condition may be to them who are yet in the hand of patience lifting and leading them to Repentance Rom. 2.4 2 Pet. 3.9 and do not despise it but account it Salvation Objection 6. This Doctrin does not savor enough of the Grace of the Gospel that would have all Men come to Repentance Answ To discourse the Severities of the Gospel to the ends of the Gospel is most Evangelical Discourse For as the Gospel doth with all clearness declare its own Rigors that Men might not mistake it for a loose and careless Doctrin and so miss the Salvation of it so have I discovered the great hazard of a Dying Repentance that Living Men might be perswaded not to cast themselves upon it and Dying Men excited to an Action suitable to the extremity of their Case And this is indeed preaching the Gospel and to be moved upon it with fear to prepare an Ark to the saving our Souls before the flood come Heb. 11.7 is as true an effect of Faith as to be constrained by love to live to him 2 Cor. 5.14 that hath died for us I say as true and gives us a Title to the Inheritance of the Righteousness which is by Faith together with the other For the Prudence of Faith makes us apprehensive of the Reasons of Danger and so to Fear even as the Gratitude of it ties us with the Obligations of Love This is not that Fear that Love casts out but that it self quickens and is also both quickned and guarded by it nor is it the bondage but the wisdom of Fear Rom. 8.15 Job 28.28 Objection 7. But is the general Judgment of Divines thus Answer All judicious Divines are very tender of binding the Prerogative of Grace or clipping off the Action of Men towards God even at this time See besides the concurring Judgment of the Ancients Bishop Andrews Sermons on Repentance Dr. Hammond and Dr. Taylor in their Treatises of this Point Bolton Dyke c. in Observation whereof I have desired to be cautious herein also But in their cautions against Presumption their Expressions amount to the utmost I have spoken Infer 1. But setting aside the whole danger of a Death-Bed Repentance Let me now lastly thus reason and thus expostulate Why should we desire to Repent so late It is good to be betimes doing that which is most comporting with our truest Happiness Reconciliation with God return to Him his Favour to obey Him these are the truest Freedom and Peace of a Man at all times Great Peace have they which love thy Law and nothing shall offend them Psal 119.165 He lives in the least pain that lives holiest I made haste therefore and delayed not to keep thy Commandments Psal 119.60 I seized upon so great an Enjoyment as soon as I could afraid to be kept off from it too long To fear God and keep his Commandments is the whole duty of Man Eccles 12.13 When a Man considers Life and that he hath but a Moment of it and that therefore he would live that Moment as much as may be he shall find the highest of Life the top of Life to be Godliness which hath all the promises of this life and of that which is to come 1 Tim. 4.8 To pursue this World and the Vanities of it is not only with greatest folly and impertinency to lanch our selves in a great Vessel the Greatness of our Affection and with solemn Preparations our strongest Action into the low water the shallow of Life which because it cannot carry so great a bulk increases the Toyl and Vexation as well as enhanses the Vanity and Folly of doing nothing at so great an expense But worse than this it is the loading our selves with guilt under a delusion of Pleasure that gives us secret disquiet and torment while we are laying it on and cannot be laid down as we please but with more sensible and industrious Anguish than we heap'd it upon us I mean the sense of our misdoings and Contrition for them so necessary to work Repentance To conclude Seeing to die is the end of all Men Eccles 7.2 Repentance is to be chosen while we live that we may die with the greatest quiet without those Agonies of Conscience those cold Sweats those sinking Eyes and fainting Spirits for he dies with most ease that most surveys Death and looks into all the Retirements of it before-hand that knows it perfectly and all its strength such an one governs himself in it as in a most important Action with Decency and Freedom He is not hal'd by Death but received by it Into thy hands I commend my spirit Luke 23.46 he lays himself orderly into the shade of Death Whereas so long adherence to the Pleasures of Sin gives Death a Violence It makes Men both unwilling and afraid to die This night thy Soul shall be required Luke 12.20 Life is exacted of a Sensualist and torn from him that is resigned by a Spiritual and Mortified Man Good Men die in an active Sense they know how to die others die passively they are forced to die This great difference prefers to us Dying daily before that forcible Dying at once The wisdom of Dying was accounted by Heathens one of the worthy Businesses and Imployments of Life and that required much study Christianity gives us the true Rules of it and they lie in waiting till our change come Time is short 1 Cor. 7.29 they therefore that use this World should not use it down to the Bran sensually but only take the advantages of it to a higher Life Else being met on the sudden by Death they are like those that fall off from Life with Violence that is Headlong but they that live in the Sense of God and an Eternal Condition alight with care and ease It is therefore not only greatest Safety but truest Frugality and Improvement of Life to Repent betimes and when we come to die the easiest and sweetest way of dying Not indeed a Dying but a Translation into Immortality and Blessedness Inference 2. Seeing the Wise and their works are all in the hand of God and that he giveth Wisdom to the Wise Man's Heart to discern both Time and Judgment and not to be taken as Fishes in an evil Net
and as Birds in a Snare when it falls suddenly upon them having not known their time Let us most humbly commit our selves to Him by earnest seeking his Grace in the Redeemer in whom all his Grace is Treasur'd up Thus by the Efficacy of his Spirit we shall know in our day the things of our Peace that they may not be for ever hid from our Eyes we shall seek the Lord while he is to be found and call upon him while he is near And so shall be secured from having the Door shut upon us Infer 4. This may be to us a close and determinative Test in this point of Death-Bed Repentance If our Repentance be such and so real that it is not a Lamp of Profession only but Oyl in the Vessel that will bear up the going forth to meet the Bride-Groom and that we are ready and have not our Oyl to Buy but can enter with Him into the Wedding before the Door be shut This how late soever it may seem is Repentance to Salvation and not to be Repented of and shall be with Christ in Paradise Such a Repentance when the Spirit goes out of the Body will be before-hand entred into that within the Veil whether the Fore-runner being for us entred Ministers in the Holy of Holies not made with Hands in that Sanctuary which the Lord hath pitched and not Man in that more perfect Tabernacle that is to say not of this Building a High-Priest for ever after the Order of Melchisedec a Saviour to the utmost or to All Perfection He fills up with the valew of his own Sacrifice and Intercession and by the Power of his Endless Life whatever is wanting in the Repentance He hath given either in regard of its Valew as being so Late and in the Refuse of Life or of the deep Rooting and Habituation or of the abundant Fruits and having Apprehended the Spirit He enables it in a Moment in the twinkling of an Eye every way enables it to Apprehend that state of Holiness which agrees to the Resurrection of the Dead first in the Life of Spirits with Himself then in the Raising the Body Incorruptible For this appertains to his Melchisedecian Priest-hood wherein He is now and wherein He is King of Righteousness King of Peace a Priest set down on the Right Hand of the Majesty on High If therefore the Repentance be such as He as this Great Prince hath given There is in it a Coming to God by Him and then his Salvation is to all Perfection to it For as going into the Heavens in his Spirit He took in his Passage this Prey the Dying Malefactor out of the Mouth of the Lyon So as He pleases out of the same Power the power of the Dog He rescues those Souls that he hath made dear to Himself for He living ever quickens whom He will and He can by his Spirit seal this his Grace in a Moment For this Great High Priest-Hood being the Eternal Priest-Hood of Christ whatever is said of Him as a High-Priest must be said of Him as this High-Priest which He is alway or without least Intermission And as such an High-Priest therefore it is that He succours the Tempted being in All things Tempted as we are yet without Sin now even as his Great Temptation was at Death yet without the Sin of having deferred his strong Cries and Supplications to Death though then He was most Earnest He can therefore Succour and be infinitely Compassionate even to those who are Tempted though with and in this Sin of having delay'd Repentance to the last They therefore whom He graciously moves to it may come even then boldly to the Throne of Grace and obtain Mercy and find Grace even in this just Season and as it were indivisible Point of Time These Things I write that we may not Sin this Great Sin of Delaying our Repentance to the last But if any Man do so Sin we have this Great High-Priest over the House of God an Advocate and a Propitiation and if such a one be under his Charge and given to Him by God He is a Faithful and a Merciful High-Priest He is therefore Faithful because Merciful to make Reconciliation and to Succour in so great a Temptation as even This is This He can do because He is a Fore runner within the Veil and by his Blood appears as he that hath obtained Eternal Redemption a Redemption always ready This is the great Security and Cordial against the Fear of Death in general to the Saints and Servants of Christ and if by its Hyper-Pleonasm its exceeding Abundance and Affluence it may and does over-flow to some upon whom the Grace of Christ Abounds much more where Sin hath so much Abounded How great is this Miracle of Grace But who How few are they who shall thus Live whom God and Christ will please to make thus to Live When it is come to this for if they are Few that are Saved how much Fewer are the Saved at this last Point Strive then to enter betimes at the strait Gate for many shall then seek at last of any Time to enter in and shall not be Able There is too much of especially the Death-Bed Repentance at is Repentance of the Lamp only that makes a shew only that is but only of this World and from beneath which is able for once to give or yield a fair and lightsome Flash at parting with the World But because without a Treasure to Enter into an Eternal Duration That which is but a Lamp fails in the very time of Tryal and becomes a Lamp put out in obscure Darkness Let your Lamps be always Shining and your Lights Burning such as are Able to be always so and so to Shine even into Eternity Infer 5. From what hath been spoken concerning the Great Mourning and Repentance that shall be before the End of this state of the World even before the pouring out of the Vials in that Miraculous state of Things that shall be after the Apostacy ended and the Kingdom of Christ in Succession I conclude there shall be a Death-Bed Repentance of the World if I may so call it but after that viz. in the time of the Vials we read of no Repenting but a Repenting not no more than in the state of Everlasting Punishment in our general Apprehension of that State even as He that is Righteous shall be Righteous still that is for ever Righteous and in no possibility of for ever Falling from it any more than from the Glory and Happiness of Eternity in our General Notion of that State And this strongly Argues to us the Possibilities of a Death-Bed Repentance seeing all the Prejudices that lie upon and against a Death-Bed-Repentance now lie against that late Repentance of the World but yet it limits and guards against the Ordinariness and Easiness of a Death-Bed Repentance in General in as much as this late Repentance is in a miraculous state of things viz.
Evangelical Repentance UNTO SALVATION Not to be Repented of Upon 2 Cor. 7.10 And as most Seasonable Short Considerations on that Great Context Hebr. 12.26 Yet once more I shake not only Earth c. Upon the Solemn Occasion of the Late Dreadful Earthquake in Jamaica and the Later Monitory Motion of the Earth in London and other Parts of the Nation and beyond the Sea Whereunto is Adjoined a DISCOURSE on Death-Bed Repentance On Luc. 22.39 Now God commandeth every one every where to Repent Acts xvii 20. By T. Beverley London Printed by R. Smith for W. Miller at the Gilded Acorn in St. Paul's Church-yard where Gentlemen and others may be furnished with Bound Books of most Sorts Acts of Parliament Speeches and other sorts of Discourses and State-Matters as also Books of Divinity Church-Government Humanity Sermons on most Occasions c. MDCXCIII Licensed and Entred According to ORDER THE Epistle Dedicatory TO THE KING and QVEEN TO Their Majesties is most Humbly presented These Discourses of Repentance extending to National Reformation in order to the Kingdom of Christ Into which are inserted Considerations upon the late Earthquake in Jamaica and the later Motion of the Earth in London and other Parts in the Nation and beyond the Seas And all this on greatest Right and Due For who as Religious Princes are so concerned in Publick Reformation according to all the Precedents of Scripture Who as Protestant Princes are Interested in the Kingdom of Christ of which the Protestation against Papal and Antichristian Abominations and Usurpations was a Preparation even for that Kingdom of Christ tho at the distance of 180 Years styled in Prophecy Half Time near expiring into the Succession of that Kingdom when Reformed Princes truly so shall not lose but highly gain in Glory Who as Good and indeed Gracious Princes are so deeply affected in publick Judgments unhappy Revolutions or general Mercies and happy Revolutions foreboded by Earthquakes or Gentle Moves of the Earth For they are Nursing Fathers and Nursing Mothers of their People And of what Princes can we hope or promise our selves better than of their so Vnited Majesties Two-One in True Religion As therefore the Supream Majesty was pleas'd to give particular Directions to Themselves of those Tremblings of Earth whether for Judgment and Repentance or for Mercy in their Port in Jamaica styl'd Royal and in this their Capital City and not only so but peculiarly in the Camp Royal in Flanders So All these Discourses upon All are most Humbly and with profound Obeysance first laid at their Majesties Feet as having the first National Episcopacy committed to them from God in Succession to Constantine the first Christian Prince in much greater and truer Right than the Popes have their Primacy from Peter or his Hierarchy their Episcopacy from the Apostles And next it is Presented to the National Episcopacy so Constituted by their Majesties even as an Evangelical Ministry is I hope more immediately committed to them by Christ wherein being near to Christ as in their National Episcopacy to their Majesties they can and I doubt not will Represent to them what is according to his Gospel by this Ministration For wherein have we in the History of Scripture found a greater Configuration of the happiness and stability of Times than when David's and Nathan's Jehosaphat's Micaiah's and Jehaziel's Joash's and Iehoiadah's Zerubbabel's and Joshuah's Nehemiah's and Ezra's have been conjoin'd And in Church History than when Constantine's and Athanasius's Theodose's and Ambrose's the Protestant Princes and Luther's c. and in our Nation than when such as K. Edw. VI. and Cranmer c. or Q. Eliz. Jewel c. have been Vnited in Publick Reformation And oh that at such a time as this General Reformation by Both might be tinctur'd with the Knowledge of the Kingdom of Christ when by the Sure Word of Prophecy deeply to be search'd it is so near How great Honour would be return'd from hence All which is most Humbly Prayed by Their Majesties most Humble and Obedient Subject and Servant in the Kingdom of Christ T. BEVERLY TO THE READER BY A Friend of the Authors WE live in an Age wherein Names and Professions are many Thousands and ten Thousands are distinguished thereby every one saying Lo here is Christ and Lo there that thou hast a Name that thou livest may be said to the National Church and to all the Dissenting Churches among us the Temple the Temple saith the one and saith the other yet may it not be said to the most of these Churches But thou art dead be watchful and strengthen the things that remain that are ready to Dye Rev. 3.2 3 4. God hath I am perswaded a few Names in all and every the said Churches who have not defiled their Garments but do indeed repent and turn to the Lord who are born not of Flesh nor of Blood nor of the will of man but of God such to whom the kindness and love of God our Saviour hath appeared not by works of Righteousness which they have done but according to his mercy he hath saved them by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost and for others let them be of the lowest or of the highest form such that have made the first step to Reformation or higher and greater steps thereto they are but the leaves of the Fig Treee that is cursed of Christ and shall soon wither away It is no matter what name you have I would there were not any Name among us but Christian It is the Nature and Power of Christianity What is the Chaff to the Wheat It is said in the Phrophesies of Isaiah and Micah that the Mountain of the Lord's House shall be exalted to the top of the Mountains and all Nations shall flow unto it I do not think by Mountain in these places is meant any one particular Church by what Name soever they be dignified or distinguished But the true Living Mistick and Catholick Church such who having been in the Apostacy with others do Repent and turn to the Lord and that you may the better know them you have these following Discourses to help you in so great a work some Despise this great Grace and stumble at this mighty work of God upon the Heart as too high too hard and too difficult a work but God hath his Fire in Zion and his Furnace in Jerusalem and he will throwly purge his Floor There must be a cutting off a right Hand a plucking out a right Eye and it is better going to Heaven with one Eye and with one Hand maimed and Halt than to go to Hell with both Others say Repentance is a legal work fit only for old Testament Saints There is indeed a sorrow a rapentance that worketh Death but the Repentance here called for and exhorted to is such that is never to be Repented of That which brings the Soul poor and naked trembling and melting to Christ the Prince and Saviour
that gives Repentance to Israel and Forgiveness of Sins And blessed you For ever Blessed are they whose sins are forgiven and whose Iniquities are pardoned here are the Rivers of the Waters of Life the Tree in the midst of the Paradice of God Jesus Christ thus Revealed and thus received and heartily embraced will put an end to all differencies debates and controversies He that hath this Anointing from above this well of Life springing up in him unto Everlasting Life will not Bless himself in an Idol nor be pleased with any pompous Worship knowing the King's Daughter is all glorious within and Circumcision is that of the Heart he knows not nor acknowledges any as Lords over God's Heritage but is assured That the Son of Man came not to be Minister'd to but to Minister The things contained herein are the true sayings of God according to the Holy Scriptures making the man of God perfect throughly furnished to every good work Did all men that have the worthy Name of Christian profess and practise what is herein pressed to and called for we should see Jerusalem a quiet Habitation a sure Dwelling Place for none shall then indeed harm us if we are followers of that which is good Here are plain Gospel Truths that whosoever stumbles thereat it is because Christ is to him a stumbling stone and rock of offence and yet misterious and deep that one can never find the bottom a River that men may swim in O Christian whenever thou art so conversant in these things let thy profiting appear to all men let the Dead bury the Dead but go thou and follow Christ as soon as ever he calls thee Never go to thy Father's House and bid them there farewel go to Christ whensoever in the Gospel he calls thee or speaks to thee by any private whispering Go in all thy rags say with the Prodigal Tho I have spent all upon Harlots and am Starving having fed upon Husks I know in my Father's House there is Bread enough and to spare and here I perish with hunger I will arise and go to my Father and will say unto him Father I have sinned against Heaven and before thee yet Take me into thy Family tho I be but as one of thy Hired Servants To whom the Father will say Don't stand Doubting come in come in to my House bring forth the best Robe and put it on him c. I think nothing too good for thee my Son now thou art returned not a word what thou hast been now thou art returned I will receive thee tho thou hast not a penny in thy Purse nor any good quality in thee but this thy coming back to me Thou must starve if thou keep wandring from thy Father's House If I don't feed thee thou perishest thou hast be-thought thy self at last and art come home stand not at the door any longer starving in the cold and for hunger Away Away with thy provious Dispositions and good qualifications before coming Welcome Welcome come in come in do not stand at the door I am glad thou art come Who ever thought to have seen thee returning again Bring hither the Fatted Calf kill it and eat and be merry How merry sinner canst thou be And they now begin to be merry yea and all the Angels stand by and rejoyce O! here is a Feast indeed But this makes the Elder Brother the proud Pharisee to stand off powting and grumbling And he will never more come into his Father's House For he was never so kindly dealt with yet never Trasgressed at any time he was qualified and deserved Entertainment he had done many a good Work he had bore the Burthen and Heat of the Day and therefore expected to have received more than they that came at the Eleventh Houre to whom God will say Is thine Eye evil because mine is good Let us then all be deligent to lay up for our selves a Treasure in Heaven we see or may see All things here Perish with the using This is a shaking time God is now shaking all Nations and it is that the desire of all Nations may come He that Epistolizes this is a Friend to the Author and well acquainted with his endeavours to press after and Witnessing for him as well skilled in the truth and the inside of Religion That he is a man taught of God and wishing well to all that are gone beyond him and hoping the Lord will not despise the day of small things knowing the humble he will teach his way and the meek he will guide in Judgment I have pressed the Author to permit these things to come to light which at last is condescended to If God bless it to they Edification Conversion Reformation say It is not in him that willeth nor in him that runneth but in God that shews mercy for neither is he that planteth any thing nor he that watereth Any thing but God that giveth the Increase to him be glory and praise for ever and ever Amen To the most Reverend THE EPISCOPACY OF THE Church of ENGLAND I Do not arrogate to my self Most Reverend in our Lord in Presenting to your Hands this following Discourse to offer you any thing but what you have before receiv'd from the most Excellent Master and Teacher the Holy Spirit in the Scriptures and Word of God Given by the Great High Priest and Apostle of our Profession that One Shepherd the Chief Shepherd and Bishop of our Souls Christ Jesus and what you your selves have often I have greatest Reason to hope and believe Discours'd with clearest Evidence to the Understandings and Convictions upon the Consciences of them that heard you This notwithstanding I have very great Reasons for making this Humblest Offerture to you 1. That by discoursing and arguing a point so acknowledgly Great so Fundamental and Essential not only to Christianity but to Natural Religion and all Morality If it shall be acceptable to you as I cannot but trust it will because it is so agreeable to Scripture I may reconcile my self to your more not only Favourable but Deep Consideration in so great Points of the sure Word of Prophecy as I have heretofore presented to you and have made some Reference unto in this very Doctrine of Repentance as most Connatural to it For though I know there is a Difference between such a plain and uncontestable Truth of Scripture as Repentance is and what lies in the darker Folds and Plaits of Scripture in the Hieroglyphick Figures and Prophetical Numbers of it and it may seem therefore impossible or highly improbable that I especially should attain the Certainty of the Words of Truth to answer and apologize the Words of Truth in the great dependencies of Prophecy to them that send to me for them But as it is well urged against the enemies of the Natural Religion as well as Revealed that though there cannot be Mathematical Demonstration of those Great Truths as of Euclid's Propositions yet there may