perhaps the next Step be beyond all possibility of Retreat He that adjourns the Amendment of his Doings to another Day may within a few Moments be cut off from all further acting in this Life And yet how securely do men defer their Repentance and Reformation from Time to Time as if they were the absolute Lords and Masters of Time to recall it or prolong it as they please Of these Persons we may observe three Sorts Some put off this Work to the very End of their Days walking in the Counsel of the Ungodly all their lives and yet hoping to die the Death of the righteous Others think their old Age will be soon enough to become serious and penitent wise and religious Others design to defer their Repentance only to the next more convenient Opportunity when they hope to have better Leisure for it I wish it were as easie effectually to dissuade these Persons from such Delays as it is to discover the great and present Danger of the least of them As for the first The putting off Repentance to the Time of Sickness and the Approaches of Death this is a most unreasonable Presumption and hardly differs from perfect Madness For a Death-bed Repentance is a Thing so very uncertain whether it will prove Sincere and acceptable to God that there cannot be a more prodigious Folly than to commit an Eternal Concern to such an infinite Hazard What Assurance can there be of any ones Sincerity who delays his Return to God till at the very last he be forced to it by the Exigence of his dying Condition 'T is to be feared he is not a free and ingenious but a necessitated and very like to prove a fatally wretched and eternal Penitent who with much Grief and Sadness forsakes his evil Ways when he can walk in them no longer who begins to amend when the Season of Sinning is over and to cast out his â—…usts when Nature it self doth it whether he will or no For although he love his Sin never so passionately he must now leave them and although he hath hated God and Goodness all his days he must now fly to them or else be dashed upon everlasting Misery When a man is tumbling off from the World and sinking towards the Bottomless Pit it is no wonder he should catch at God Being arrived at the Non Vltra of his Evil Ways at the Chambers of Death and the Suburbs of Hell it is no strange thing that he should stop his carreer and begin to give back When he stands upon the Brink of the deep and devouring Gulph of Tophet sees the Mouth of the Infernal Furnace opened to receive him smells the Brimstone hears the noise of the Damned and begins to be singed with the Flames it cannot be supposed that he should leap in without any Reluctancy No no having so near a Prospect of immediate Ruine the natural Desire of Self-preservation will cause him to try his utmost whether there be any possibility of Escape Now he will cry aloud to God for Mercy make great Acknowledgments of the Evil of his former Ways high Professions of his desires to return from them and strong Resolutions to devote unto God a Thousand Lives if he had them to give But it is a great Question whether there be any thing of Grace or Goodness in all this Repentance which is extorted from the dying Sinner by such a pressing Necessity This Repentance so hastily brought forth in the very last Extremity must needs without a Miracle prove an Abortion and wither before it grows up Most even of its fairest Appearances do undoubtedly miscarry and tho' in regard of their Vehemency they are called Early seekings of God yet being so late in respect of the Time when they commence they are as it were prepared for the Triumphs of the Justice and Indignation of God who laughs at the Calamity of those who in their Health and Prosperity have set at nought all his Counsel and would none of his Reproof And what if there be some Hopes that this late Repentance may sometimes prove to be of the right Kind and Effectual to Salvation Let us suppose it possible that the dying Sinner who hath spent his Days in the broad way to Ruin and just finished his Journey thither may in his last minutes retract all his former Course and draw within the hollow of that little Span the vastness of that Action which is necessary to remove the Sins of a whole Life And let us grant it posâ—ible that the holy and righteous God may so far even prostitute his Grace â—s to receive to Favour one who hath â—tood out in Rebellion against him to â—he very utmost so long as he was able yet seeing this is only possible and no more will any Wise Man exâ—ose himself to such Extremity of Danger because there is not an absolute â—mpossibility of Deliverance Indeed the deferring our Repentance and Amendment of Life until we are â—ust ready to dye is so irrational â—n Act that although very many as â—t sadly falls out through continual Deâ—ays have this great Work to do at that Time yet I suppose there are out few who in their serious Thoughts do really design and forecast a dying Repentance No although men will not yet return from their evil ways they intend not to run on so far until they come to the very Brink of Destruction They resolve to stop in good time as they think and while they may retreat with Safety When the young Man hath rejoyced a little longer in his Youth and walked in the ways of his heart and in the sight of his Eyes he fully intends to return and amend in his old Age soon enough to prevent his being brought to Judgment for these Things But art thou sure O foolish Sinner that thou shalt live to Old Age Alas how suddenly mayst thou be arrested by the cold Hands of Death even in the Heat of thy Youth when thou least thinkest of such a Thing The most flourishing Vigour and Strength is liable to innumerable Dangers and may be consumed in a Moment Somtimes men are taken away without any Warning in the midst of their Pleasures and Enjoyments so that none can be certain of long Life and none are more unlikely to attain it than those who most expect it especially when such Expectation is used as an Encouragement to delay Repentance Such Presumptuous Sinners may very justly provoke God to blast their vain Hopes with a sudden Disappointment When the Rich man in the Gospel having laid up much Goods promised himself many years to enjoy them how sharply and suddenly was he both confuted and confounded with that bitter and surprizing Rebuke Thou Fool this night shall thy Soul be required of thee But suppose men escape the various Accidents of an untimely Death and have their Lives prolonged to many years yet if they run thorow all the Stages of their youth in a Wicked
run the Round of Sinning and Confessing and Sinning again and then Confessing again all the while conceiting themselves to be secure enough in that black Circle As if every sin although never so often repeated were as soon expiated as confessed But do they think to cheat and charm God Almighty thus easily when they come to him with their Hypocritical Acknowledgments and feigned Promises of Amendment made perhaps with much appearance of Affection but not without some kind of mental Reservation or secret Intention of affronting him again Will the great Searcher of Hearts be appeased by such a Mock Devotion as Lewis the eleventh paid to the little Image he wore in his Cap which when he designed the Murder of any whom he feared or hated he would take from his Head and kiss beseeching it to pardon him that one Evil Act more and it should be the last What performance can be more slight what more easie and trivial than to give God a few good words like the Complements we bestow upon Men and to exclaim against our selves in perfunctory Confessions There is no Mortification in all this it exhausts neither Blood nor Spirits it lops off none of our Limbs it breaks none of our Bones And what if our Confessions be made with some pain and sorrow That doth not presently argue the sincerity of our Repentance Every Melancholy Fit at the Remembrance of our sins is not to be accounted Godly Sorrow For no small grief and sadness may arise in the Mind of the most impenitent Criminal not out of any Dislike of his Fault but of the Punishment that follows it not because himself is wicked but because there are good Laws against him and a just Power and Authority to put them in Execution The sinner may be extremely troubled to see that what is so pleasant to him is not safe The Presage of the uneasiness of Hell in which all the Delights of sin are like to conclude may often cut him to the Heart and yet this Grief may little or nothing abate his Affection to it He may still look kindly on his beloved Lusts although he behold them with Tears in his Eyes But when he thus weeps not at the Evil but at the Danger of those ways in which he walks and will not return from the Evil although though he hath so sad a Prospect of the Danger his wilful Guilt defiles his Tears but his Tears will never cleanse his Guilt When all the Terrors of his Mind and all those Anticipations of Hell those gnawings of the Worm which he feels in his Conscience cannot persuade him to amend his doings such a high Fortitude in sin such a resolute Embracing it under so difficult Circumstances plainly shews that he is wedded to it with indissoluble Bonds hath taken it for better and for worse and will keep and maintain it with its Delights and Pleasures and with its Plagues and Torments too never intending to be divorced from it But if the Apprehension of infinite Danger and the formidable Aspect of insupportable Misery have some Influence upon him to cool his Affection to his Sins and produce Resolutions of Amendment this indeed is a good Step towards Repentance but still there may be a considerable Distance betweeen the Purpose and the Thing it self When Men have surfeited with their sins they cast them up with Bitterness make passionate Resolutions against them and wash themselves as they think in penitential Tears but as soon as the Tears are dried up the Resolutions are forgotten and they return to the Vomit and Mire Thus he who was intemperate the last Meal resolves to fast the next but when a few Hours have wrought off the heavy Load of his first Excess he adds a second and his Vow of Abstinence is either not remembred or not regarded But such ineffectual Resolutions so suddenly broken do rather enhance than expiate our Guilt and surely the Aggravations of sin deserve not to be numbred among the Acts of Repentance Thus we see set a man have the clearest Convictions of the Evil of his Ways let him make solemn Confessions and Supplications and do it with some Regret at the sad Consequences of his sins and some Resolutions against them he hath not yet repented with that Repentance which will procure a Pardon from God unless he return and amend Therefore our Church to prevent all mistakes begins her Absolution with these Words Almighty God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who desireth not the Death of a Sinner but rather that he may turn from his Wickedness and live implying that there is no Repentance unto Life without turning from sin no true Penitent but the true Convert And thus much is evident even from the proper and natural signification of those two words in the New Testament by which Repentance is expressed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the one importing a real change of Mind the other better care for the future So that if we be sinners there is an indispensable Necessity of altering the Temper of our Minds and the Course of our Actions Nothing can secure us but a real Reformation nothing less than this can evince the Truth of our Repentance And the Work of Reformation ought to be applied by us to the right Objects to our own evil Ways and Doings and to all of them without Exception This the Text expresly requires Return ye now every man from his his own evil ways amend your your own doings The World is full of Reformers and yet there is but little Reformation The Reason is because most men love to reform without their own Province and beyond their own Jurisdiction to reform every thing besides themselves They are Curiosi in aliena Republica critically censuring and controlling the Actions of others without any Authority intermedling where they have no Commission dictating Counsel before 't is asked and correcting those matters which belong not to them They are very zealous for the Reformation of their Neighbours yea and their Superiours too they will teach their Teachers and direct their Governours As little Friends as some men are to the sacred Episcopal Order they will needs be in St. Peter's Phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the worst sort of Prelates the Visiters and Reformers of anothers Diocess And as great Enemies as they profess themselves to Popery they will needs be little Popes and Universal Bishops where ever they come The very Mechanicks and Peasants of this Age have their new Schemes of Theology and new Models of Government by which they will undertake to regulate and reform the whole Frame of things among us both in Church and State when in the mean time they suffer their most proper Charge their own souls to lye under a Chaos of Disorder and Confusion over-run wasted defiled and almost destroyed by unreasonable Appetites rebellious Lusts and ungovern'd Passions These men can rip up the Vices of the Times without
And if the Fear of God be considered as it is a filial Reverence compounded with Love it will be much more powerful to move and excite Obedience to him Reverence willingly offers readily pays and chearfully performs what was forced and constrained by meer Fear If Awe and Affection be united in a devout Veneration of the God whom we serve his Service which before was a Yoak and a Burden then becomes perfect Freedom so pleasant and so natural to us that to refuse it will be an Extinguishing of our own Joys a Resisting oâ— our own Desires and a Violence to ourselves A man that highly reveres another is as much inclined to please him as he is to please himself and as unwilling to offend him as he is to wound his own Breast Obedience therefore is an Inseparable Effect of filial Fear or Reverence And that which is so is the most certainâ— Mark of the Truth and Reality oâ— our Religion We all profess Religion and the Fear of God we all pretend the highest Awe and Reverence to his divine Majesty But do we sincerely endeavour to serve and please him Are we guilty of no wilful disobedience no chosen and deliberate violations of his holy Laws If we indulge any of these the true Fear of God is not in us For it is fourthly to be noted That these are the Contraries and Opposites unto this Fear All wilful and presumptuous Sins are perfectly repugnant to it These are Affronts and Contempts bold and Impudent Practices which carry the Marks of great Irreverence clearly written upon their Brow When men deliberately chuse to do those things which they plainly see and know to be contrary to the Divine Laws this is a manifest Discovery that there is no Fear of God before their eyes Let us therefore prove the truth of our Religion by the sincerity of our Obedience particularly by our Obedience to those Commands of God which require us to be Loyal to our Prince That we may fully shew what an Awful Sense we have of the Majesty and Soveraignty of the most high God both in our Words and in our Actions let both our Words and Actions declare how much we revere his Power and Authority not onely in himself but in those also whom he hath set over us And so I come to the second part of Solomon's Advice wherein we are admonished unto the Fear of God to subjoyn the Fear of the King who is Gods Vicegerent Of which I shall discourse in the same Method as I have done of the former by considering its Nature Degrees Effects and Contraries First As for the Nature of the Fear which we owe unto the King 't is very much of the same nature with that Fear which is due to God himself onely 't is inferior and subordinate to it For Kings are honoured in holy Scripture with the adorable Name of God And the Laws of England looking upon the King as a God upon Earth do attribute unto him in some Analogy diverse Excellencies that belong properly to God alone such as are a kind of Omnipotency in raising men from Death to life by pardoning whom the Law hath condemned a certain Omnipresency by his numerous Officers who every where represent him and little less than an Infallibility and an absolute Perfection of Wisdom and Righteousness For our Law will have no Error no Injustice no Folly no Imperfection whatsoever to be found in the King The Fear therefore which we owe to our dread Soveraign even like that which we render to the divine Majesty is a most profound Reverence for an high Esteem of and a most humble and dutiful Affection unto his Sacred Person and Authority It is a filial Fear compounded of Dread and Love For the King is the Father of our Country by whose Providence and Protection we are supported and defended by whose vigilant Care and Conduct we quietly enjoy all that we possess Of this as St. Jerom hath observed even the Philistines were so sensible that it was a constant Custom among them to call all their Princes by the name of Abimelech which signifies both Father and King And it was the Promise of God to his Church that in the Times of the Gospel Kings should be her nursing Fathers and Queens her nursing Mothers Which great Blessing hath been and is most visibly enjoyed by us in this Nation as much as by any People under Heaven Since then by being born the Kings Subjects we have the Happiness to be his Children the very law of Nature doth oblige us to pay him all the Awfulness and Affection and Duty of Children If I be a Father saith God where is mine Honour If I be a Master where is my Fear Now the King next and immediately under God is the great and common Father the supreme Lord and Master of us all And therefore secondly The Degrees and Measures of Honour and Fear which are due to the King are the very highest and the greatest next unto those that are due to God himself The supreme Power and Authority under God being lodged in the sacred Person of the Soveraign Prince he may justly demand the supreme Honour Within his own Dominions he is only less and lower than God he is greater and higher than all Ranks and Orders of Men. Yea all the States of the Realm joyned together all the Nobles and Commons and the whole Body of the People have not a Power and Authority equal to his All his Subjects whether Publick Magistrates or private men not only severally and apart but joyntly and together are under his Command For otherwise he would not be the King of a Kingdom or a Political Society united under one Form of Government but only a King of single men separately taken and so he would be a strange kind of Chimerical and imaginary Prince a King of nothing but a Rope of sands In the first Epistle of St. Peter Chap. 2. ver 13 and 14. that great Apostle makes this plain Distinction between our Subjection to the King and to all other Magistrates whether taken collectively or distributively We are to submit to the King as Supreme to all others as his Officers and Delegates Sent and Commissioned by him all of them together as well as each of them apart having received all their Power and Authority from him and he having received his from God alone For the King is no Substitute of the People but the Minister of God and his Power is the Ordinance of God This is the Voice of Scripture and of Reason and this I may with the greatest Confidence because I can with the strongest Evidence affirm it being not only the unanimous Opinion of all the Wisest Politicians and Statesmen in the World but also the Catholick Doctrine of the Christian Church for many hundreds of years together that a Monarch or Soveraign in his own Dominions hath no Superior but God Almighty And indeed it would be