But then secondly To the keeping a man's Baptism pure and undefiled that which was thought further necessary was that from falling into an habitual practice of any of those smaller and less scandalous sins which carelesness and culpable ignorance would be very apt to betray a man into the Acts of he ought to indeavour to secure himself by great cautiousness and sincere enquiry after the knowledge of his Duty that from sins of omission from growing cool in Religion and remitting of his first Love he ought to indeavour to preserve himself by constant Meditation and hearty Prayer to God for the assistance of his holy Spirit that in order to grow in Grace he ought to be always humble and teachable penitent and devout meek in spirit and pure in mind and that to attain Perfection he ought to be always pressing forward towards the mark of the prize of the high calling with a perfect contempt of the World an entire Love of God and a boundless Charity to all Mankind 3. This was what the Primitive Christians understood by keeping their Baptism pure and undefiled viz. A regular and constant practice of all Holiness and Virtue from the time of their Baptism to their Death And to this they thought themselves most strongly obliged by the very Form of their Baptism They were immersed into the Water and they rise out of it again and this great Solemnity was never after to be repeated in token that as Christ once died for Sin and Rose again never to come under the power of Death any more so they were this once to have their Sins perfectly washt away by his Blood and were bound never to return under the Power of them any more Thus St. Paul himself most expresly and excellently argues Rom. p. 6. v. 9. Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more death hath no more dominion over him For in that he died he died unto Sin once but in that he liveth he liveth unto God Likewise reckon ye also your selves to be dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof The force of which Argument is plainly this When we descended into the Water and rise out of it again we made publick profession that as we hoped for pardon of our past sins through the Merits of the Death of Christ so we our selves would thenceforth die unto sin that is utterly cast it off and forsake it and for the future rise again to walk with Christ in newness and holiness of Life So that unless from the time of our thus putting off sin we continue constantly to live in all holiness and righteousness we have no just reason to expect Remission by virtue of the Death of Christ into which we were baptized For it being the express Condition of the Remission of sin that we continue no longer in it but live from thencefotth unto God the Blood of Christ it self which was shed to be a Propitiation for the Sins of the whole World can avail nothing for one that continues in Sin whom our Saviour himself has particularly excepted from the benefit of the Pardon purchased by his Death and Passion 4. Accordingly Persons after their Baptism were instructed That they must now utterly and for ever renounce all the sinful pleasures and desires of the World They were told that they now received remission of their past sins by vertue of the Death of Christ and therefore they must take great heed that they sinned no more They were told that they now washed their Garments in the Blood of the Lamb for a signal whereof they were accordingly cloathed in white and that they must take care to bring this unspotted Innocence with them before the Tribunal of Christ To which Custom our Saviour himself seems to allude Rev. 3. 4. Thou hast a few Names even in Sardis which have not defiled their Garments and they shall walk with me in white for they are worthy They were told that they were now baptized for the remission of all their past sins and if they kept not this Baptism pure and undefiled they could not be sure they should ever be able to obtain the like full and perfect Remission again They were told that they now started in that great Race which they were to run for the Crown of Immortality and if those who were found tardy in an earthly Race were beaten and disgraced of how much sorer punishment should they be thought worthy who negligently faultred in the race of Immortality They were told that they now entred into that Covenant of God the Seal whereof was Let every one that Names the Name of Christ depart from Iniquity and if they kept not this Seal their punishment would be among Apostates whose Worm shall not die and whose Fire shall not be quenched They were told that they had now escaped the Pollutions of the World through the Knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and if after this they should be again intangled therein and be overcome and turn from the Holy Commandment delivered unto them their Punishment should be double to that of those who had never known the way of Righteousness Finally They were told that they were now enlightned and had tasted of the heavenly Gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and were sealed thereby unto the day of Redemption and if after this they should fall away it would be exceeding difficult to renew them to Repentance That they had now received the perfect knowledge of the Truth and if after this they sinned wilfully there would remain no more Sacrifice for sin but a certain fearful looking for of Judgment and fiery Indignation which should devour the Adversary In a word That they now received a certain Promise and Assurance of Eternal Life but if they would sell this blessing for the momentary gratifications of sense they might perhaps afterwards be rejected when they should desire to inherit it and find no place for Repentance though they might seek it carefully with Tears 5. These were the severe cautions with which the Primitive Church obliged baptized Persons upon their utmost Peril to keep themselves stedfast from the time of their Baptism in all holy and blameless Conversation Those who did continue to walk suitably to this Profession were said to be washed to be sanctified to be justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God And because in those purest times there were hardly any among Christians who did not walk suitably to their Profession it being the same thing then to be a Christian and to be a good Man therefore those Terms Elect Regenerate Sanctified born of God and the like which we now appropriate only to the best and most holy Men are not in Scripture
publick profession of at their Baptism They were fully instructed in the excellent Moral Precepts of that Divine Religion which they were to practise the remaining part of their lives And then they were thought prepared for the washing of Regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost CHAP. III. In what manner persons converted to Christianity were baptized to what Privileges they were admitted and to what Duties they were ingaged by their Baptism 1. WHen the person to be baptized was thus prepared and the time appointed come which was usually at Easter or Whitsontide the Commemorations of our Saviour's Passion and Resurrection and of the great Effusion of the Holy Spirit things principally respected in this Sacrament though it might also upon occasion be celebrated at any other time When the Person I say was thus prepared he was brought by the Priest to a convenient place where there was plenty of Water and being stript of all his cloaths he in the first place with stretched out Arms in a most solemn manner renounced the Devil and all his Works the Pomps and Vanities of this wicked World and all not only the absolutely sinful but also the lawful desires of the flesh so far as to keep them within the most strict bounds and most exact obedience to the Laws of Reason and Religion Then he made Profession of his Faith in One God the Father Almighty c. in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord c. and in the Holy Ghost the Holy Catholick Church c. After which he was baptized in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost being immersed in the Water three times once at the Name of each Person in the ever Blessed Trinity Which being done he came up out of the Water and then according to the Custom of some Churches he was anointed with Oil with the addition of some other Ceremonies which as they were in their own nature indifferent so they were used only in some places and that diversly according to the different usage of particular Churches After all which he was clothed with a white Robe and so admitted among the Faithful to the Communion of the Church which last Ceremony the Greeks as a Learned Writer of our own observes keep up to this day putting upon the Child immediately after Baptism a white Garment with this Form Receive this white and immaculate Cloathing and bring it with thee unspotted before the Tribunal of Christ and thou shalt inherit eternal life 2. This was the Form and Manner in which Persons converted to Christianity were Baptized in the Primitive Church And by all these outward and visible Ceremonies were significantly represented certain inward and invisible things which were either the Privileges to the injoyment of which the Person Baptized was intitled or the Duties to the performance of which he was engaged by his Baptism 3. The first Grace or Privilege which God annexed to the right use of this Ordinance of Baptism and to which the Person Baptised was consequently intitled was Remission of all past sins The design of our Savior's coming into the World was by the Merit of his Death and Suffering to purchase Pardon and Remission for all those who should believe in his Name and obey his Gospel Rom. 3. 25. Whom God hath set forth to be a Propitiation through Faith in his Blood to declare his Righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God Now the Means by which this Pardon is applied and the Seal by which it is secured to all those who Believe and by Repentance begin to Obey the Gospel is Baptism Whosoever therefore was converted to Christianity and was baptized was baptised into the death of Christ i. e. was by Baptism intitled to the benefit of the Pardon purchased by his Death and Passion As his Body was washed with pure Water so his Sins were absolutely done away by the Blood of Christ and his Heart sprinkled from an evil Conscience Heb. 10. 22. Hence Baptism is called the Washing of Regeneration Tit. 3. 5. and they who by the Apostles Preaching or by any other more extraordinary means were convinced of the Truth of the Gospel were exhorted immediately to be baptized and wash away their sins Acts 22. 16. And now why tarriest thou Arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins calling on the Name of the Lord And Acts 2. 38. Repent and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins To which those Places also seem manifestly to allude Rev. 1. 5. Unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own Blood and Rev. 7. 14. These are they which have washed their Robes and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb. The plain meaning of all which passages is this That as a new-born Infant is without Spot Innocent and Sinless so every one that is born of Water i. e. regenerated by Baptism is in the account of God as if he had never sinned cloathed with the white and spotless Garment of Innocence which if he never defile by gross and wilful sins he shall walk in white with Christ for he shall be worthy 4. The next Privilege which Baptism principally and most significantly represented was the Admission of the Convert into the Church or Family of God All that received Baptism were thereby actually admitted into the Society of Christians and to the participation of all the benefits which God bestows upon his Church They were admitted to the Communion of the Saints of God and to the Fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord 1 Cor. 1. 9. They were made Fellow-Citizens with the Saints and of the Houshold of God Eph. 2. 19. being come unto Mount Sion and unto the City of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable Company of Angels to the general Assembly and Church of the First-born which are written in Heaven and to God the Judge of all and to the Spirits of just Men made perfect and to Jesus the Mediatour of the New Covenant c. Heb. 12. 22. More particularly they were made first Members of Christ i. e. they were incorporated into that Body whereof Christ is the Head Secondly They were made Children of God i. e. they were enroll'd in the number of those whom God had chosen to be his Peculiar and Elect People and whom he designed to govern with the same tenderness as an affectionate and merciful Father does his most beloved Children which is what the Apostles express by our being called the Sons of God 1 John 3. 1. by our having received the Adoption of Sons Gal. 4. 5. and by our having power given us to become the Sons of God John 1. 12. Lastly They were made Heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven i. e. they who before were Aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel and
Strangers from the Covenants of Promise having no hope and without God in the World did by Baptism enter into that Covenant wherein God assured the promise of Eternal Life to all those who should believe and repent And this is what the Apostle intends by our having our Citizen-ship in Heaven Phil. 3. 20. and by our being Heirs of God and joint Heirs with Christ that we may be glorified together with him Rom. 8. 17. 5. Another Privilege which was represented and conferred by Baptism was the Influence and Assistance of Gods Holy Spirit All Persons that were baptized as their Bodies were washed and purified with Water so their Minds were sanctified by the Spirit of God But ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the Name of our Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God 1 Cor. 6. 11. At their Baptism they received the Holy Ghost as a Gift constantly annexed to that Ordinance and unless they quenched and grieved it by their sins committed afterwards it always continued with them from thenceforward assisting and enabling them to perform their Duty strengthning and comforting them under Temptations and Afflictions and bearing witness with their Spirit that they were the Children of God At the first Preaching of the Gospel this influence of the Holy Spirit frequently discovered it self in those extraordinary Gifts of Speaking with Tongues Working Miracles c. as appears in the History of the Acts of the Apostles But these by degrees ceasing it afterward continued to evidence it self in the strange and almost miraculous change which it made in the Minds of Men from the most corrupt and vicious to the most virtuous and heavenly Disposition almost in an instant upon their being baptized And when this effect also grew less frequent as the Zeal and Purity of the Christians declined it yet continued always by its secret Power to renew and transform Mens Minds to instruct Men in their Duty and to inable them to perform it Hence Baptism is called the Renewing of the Holy Ghost Tit. 3. 5. and a being born of Water and of the Spirit John 3. 5. and by the Antients frequently Illumination And Persons baptized are said to have been enlightned to have tasted of the heavenly Gift and to have been made Partakers of the Holy Ghost Heb. 6. 4. 6. The last Privilege which Persons Baptized were intitled to by virtue of that Ordinance was an Assurance of a Resurrection to Eternal Life They received as hath been said the Holy Spirit of God and that Spirit so long as it dwelt with them was a Seal and Earnest of their future Resurrection For if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal Bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you Rom. 8. 11. And this was most significantly represented by their descending into the Water and rising out of it again For as Christ descended into the Earth and was raised again from the dead by the Glory of the Father So Persons baptized were buried with him by Baptism into Death and rose again after the similitude of his Resurrection They were planted together in the likeness of his Death and they were by this Sign assured that they should be also in the likeness of his Resurrection Thus the Apostle St. Paul Colos. 2. 12. Ye are buried with him in Baptism wherein also you are risen with him through the Faith of the Operation of God who hath raised him from the dead To which St. Peter seems likewise to allude 1 Pet. 3. 21. The like figure whereunto viz. to the saving of the Ark by the Water of the Flood even Baptism doth also now save us by the Resurrection of Christ. 7. These are the Spiritual Graces or Privileges which were represented by the Outward and Visible Signs in Baptism and conferr'd by their means And These are what God on his part engageth and assures to us in that Great and Holy Covenant There are other things which the Persons Baptized obliged themselves to on their part in that Covenant and These are the Duties which by their Baptism they vow and take upon themselves to perform represented also by the same Outward and Visible Signs The first of these Duties which the Persons baptized promised and obliged themselves to perform was a Constant Confession of the Faith of Christ and Profession of his Religion They were admitted by Baptism into the Church and Family of Christ and they were bound at all times to own themselves his Disciples They were solemnly baptized into his Death and they were oblig'd not to be asham'd of the Cross of Christ and to confess the Faith of him crucified They owned publickly at their Baptism their Belief in God the Father Almighty and in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord and they were bound at all times to make Profession of this Faith They had with the heart believed unto Righteousness and they thought that with the Mouth Confession was necessary to be made unto Salvation They were assured that if they confessed Christ before Men he would also confess them before his Father which is in Heaven and before the Angels of God but if they were ashamed of him and denyed him before Men he would also be ashamed of them when he came in the Glory of his Father with the Holy Angels And so mighty an effect had this consideration upon the primitive Christians that in the times of Persecution when they were tempted to deny their Saviour and renounce the Faith which they had once Embraced they chose rather to endure the most exquisite Torments that the wit of Man could invent than either to renounce or dissemble their Christianity and those who out of Fear denyed or were ashamed to confess their Faith they looked upon to have forfeited and renounced their Baptism as having crucified to themselves the Son of God afresh and put him to an open shame 8. The Second Thing to which Persons baptized solemnly obliged themselves by their Baptism was a Death unto Sin and a New-birth unto Righteousness i. e. they engaged utterly and for ever to forsake all manner of Sin and Wickedness all Idolatrous and Superstitious Worship of false Gods all Injustice Wrong Fraud and Uncharitableness towards Men all the Pride and Vanity the Pomp and Luxury of this present World all the Lusts of the Flesh Adultery Fornication Uncleanness Lasciviousness Gluttony Drunkenness Revellings and such like And for the future they promised to make it the business of their lives to fulfil all Righteousness according to the strictest Rules of the Christian Doctrine and Discipline to Worship the only true God with all Devotion Reverence and Humility to be exactly just in their Dealings with Men and generously charitable upon all occasions in fine to be Temperate and Sober Chast and Pure as the Worshippers of
to act directly contrary to all Reason and Evidence 't is plain unless God should irresistibly compel them they might well continue to act as they do though the Evidence of these things were really greater than it is They are willing to imagine that if they had lived in our Saviour's time if they had heard his Preaching and seen his Miracles if they had had the advantage of beholding those mighty Works which he wrought for the proof of his Divine Commission as the Jews then had they should not like them have rejected the counsel of God against themselves but with all cheerfulness have believed his Doctrine and embraced his Religion They fansie they should immediately have become Disciples of Christ and that the Truths which he taught would have had a most powerful Influence upon the whole course of their Lives And if their Hearts and Affections were not set upon this World more than upon the next if they valued not the present enjoyments of Sense above the expectation of the Glory that shall be revealed most certainly they would do the same now But if their Hearts be set upon earthly things and their Passions be stronger than all the Arguments of Reason if they do indeed so love the Pleasures of Sin now as that they cannot persuade themselves by all the Motives of Religion to live like Christians we need not question to affirm that they might very well have been in the same case though they had lived in our Saviour's time The Jews are a notorious and standing Instance how far Prejudice and Affection are able to prevail over the strongest Convictions When our Saviour began to preach that he was sent from God to instruct them in their Duty they required a Sign of him and they would believe him but when he had wrought so many Miracles that even the World it self could not contain the Books if they should all be written they persisted still in their Infidelity When they saw him hanging upon the Cross and thought themselves secure of him they said Let him now come down from the Cross and we will believe him but when he arose out of the Grave wherein he had lien three Days which was a much greater and more convincing Miracle they grew more hardned and obstinate in their Unbelief 19. Others there are who imagine that if they could but be convinced of the Truth of another World by the appearance of one sent directly from that unknown State they would immediately become new Creatures but if God should satisfie their unreasonable Demands by sending one on purpose from the Dead to convince them I doubt not but as they listened not to Moses and the Prophets so neither would they be persuaded by one rising from the dead They might indeed at first be surprized and terrified at the appearance of so unusual and unexpected a Messenger But as wicked Men upon a Bed of Sickness at the amazing approach of Death and Eternity resolve in the utmost anguish of Horror and Despair to amend their Lives and forsake their Sins but as soon as the Terror is over and the danger of Death past return to their old habits of Sin and Folly so it is more than probable it would be in the present Case Should God send a Messenger from the Dead to assure Men of the certainty of a future state and the danger of their present Wickedness as soon as the Fright were over and their present terrible Apprehensions ceased 't is by no means impossible that their old vicious Habits and beloved Sins should again by degrees prevail over them Many there are in our present Age who pretend to be convinced of the being of Spirits by the powerful demonstration of their own Senses and yet we do not observe that their Lives are more remarkably eminent for exemplary Piety than theirs who being convinced by the less violent but more rational Evidence of the Gospel go on in a sober constant and regular exercise of Virtue and Righteousness 20. In summ therefore Consider that the Evidence of Religion is such as upon the fullest view of things and the exactest and most deliberate Judgment that we can possibly make ought infinitely to determine the Actions of a wise Man Consider that the great Doctrines of Religion are of such a nature that upon the final upshot of things if all our Knowledge be not Deceit if all our Hopes and Fears be not Vain if there be any Good if there be any Evil if there be any Excellency if there be any Happiness these things must be true Consider this I say throughly and then Resolve deliberately and with full persuasion of Mind to act always suitably to this Consideration and to put all upon this one Issue And when Temptation and Melancholy shall succeed when vain Scruples and unreasonable Suspitions shall cloud the Understanding and perplex the Mind be sure to stick immovably to that Resolution which has once been founded upon the wisest Judgment and the fullest Conviction possible and when the present Indisposition of Mind shall be over things will again appear in their true Light and the first Resolution will grow continually stronger 21. Only in the last place and above all be sure to fix these things deeply upon the Mind by frequent and serious Meditation The Passions and Affections of Men are strong and unless these also can by some means be interested the bare Conviction of a Man's Judgment will hardly be able to govern constantly all the Actions of his Life 'T is not enough that we be convinced in our Judgments of the Truth of the great Doctrines of Religion but we must by constant Meditation fix and inculcate them upon the Mind that they may move our Passions and excite our Affections Be not content to believe slightly the Being of God but represent him frequently in your Mind with the most lively Characters of Glory and Majesty consider him as that Supreme Being who hath measured the Waters in the hollow of his hand and meted out Heaven with the span and comprehended the Dust of the Earth in a measure and weighed the Mountains in scales and the Hills in a balance to whom all Nations are as a drop of the bucket and are counted as the small dust of the balance Consider him as that All-powerful Being before whom the Pillars of Heaven tremble and are astonished at his reproof before whom all Nations are as nothing and they are counted to him less than nothing and vanity Be not content to believe in general the Providence of God but think of him always as actually present observing all our Words and Actions and understanding even our Thoughts afar off Be not content to believe in general a Judgment to come but frequently represent to your self the Solemnity and the Terrour of that great Day imagine our Saviour sitting in Judgment as in that Prophetical Allusion with his Throne like the
God and his Relation to Men t is plain all that these things naturally led Men to was only to keep up in themselves such a Holy Temper and Disposition of Mind as might discover it self in a constant endeavour of being Like unto God and of obeying his Laws And though this most simple and absolute Religion did through the corruption of Mens Wills and Affections quickly degenerate into the grossest Idolatry and most ridiculous Superstition tho' instead of real and substantial Virtue the generality of Men soon fell into the Observance of foolish and absurd Rites and the World was overspread with Ignorance and Vice yet the wisest and most considerate Men amongst the Heathens always understood that God did not look so much at the Outward Pomp and Ceremony of Religion as at the Inward Holiness and Purity of the heart that God valued not Sacrifices and Rich Offerings but only the Piety and Devotion of the Mind and that the only way to keep the Favour of God was to imitate his Nature and to obey his Commands 8. Nor is it less evident that the great and ultimate design of the Jewish Religion was to preserve and increase the Moral Virtue of Men. For though God did impose upon the Jews a burdensom System of Rites and Ordinances yet 't is plain he did it not that he took any delight in that External and Ceremonial Service but that by condescending in that manner to the infirmities and prejudices of a stiff-necked People he might keep up the Worship of the True God and restore that Holiness and Inward Religion of Mens Minds which the Light of Nature had not been sufficient to maintain This therefore God perpetually inculcates to them by his Prophets that he did not value their Ceremonious Performances without Holiness and Obedience to the Moral Law I spake not to your Fathers saith he nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the Land of Egypt concerning Burnt-Offerings and Sacrifices but this thing commanded I them saying Obey my Voice Jer. 7. 22. Nay so far was God from Instituting the Jewish Service upon any other design than the making that People more holy than the Heathen about them were that whensoever it failed of having that desired Effect he declares that he even abhorred all their Religious Exercises He that killeth an Ox is as if he slew a Man he that sacrificeth a Lamb as if he cut off a Dogs neck he that offereth an Oblation as if he offered Swines Blood and he that burneth Incense as if he blessed an Idol yea they have chosen their own ways and their Soul delighteth in their Abominations Isa. 65. 3. And though the later Jews grew generally so superstitious in the observance of their Ceremonies as thereby even to neglect the weightier matters of the Law yet those who considered things more throughly always maintain'd taught zealously that it was not slaying a multitude of Sacrifices or bringing splendid Offerings or even building and adorning the Temple of God with all the cost and beauty in the World that could truly denominate a Man religious that it was a great deceit for Men to think that God would be flattered and put off with Outward Ceremonious Services instead of Truth Righteousness and Holiness of Mind and that nothing could be more ridiculous than for Men to be very careful not to enter into the Temple which is built of Wood and Stone without first washing and cleansing their bodies and yet not be afraid to appear before God in Prayer with unclean and polluted Minds 9. Lastly That the only design of God's Instituting the Christian Religion was to make Men yet more Vertuous and more Holy is evident from the whole Tenour of the Gospel The design of our Saviour's Life and Preaching was to give Men a body of more Spiritual and Refined Laws to set them an Example of a more perfect and holy Life and to make a clearer Revelation of the Wrath of God against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of Men The Design of his Death and Passion was to make an Expiation for Sins that are past and to make a fuller discovery of the heinous nature of Sin which God would not pardon even upon true Repentance without so great and sufficient a Satisfaction And the Design of his sending the Holy Spirit was to purifie to himself a peculiar People by teaching and enabling Men that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts they should live soberly righteously and godly in this present World 10. Accordingly we find the Apostles every where in their Epistles plainly declaring and giving Men warning that since they had now received a most full Revelation of the Will of God and a most clear Discovery of the Rewards and Punishments of a future State if their Virtue did not become proportionable to their Knowledge and they purified not themselves from all filthiness both of flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God it would be even worse for them than if they had never known the way of Righteousness Be not deceived saith Saint Paul neither Fornicators nor Idolaters nor Adulterers nor Thieves nor Covetous nor Drunkards c. i. e. no unrighteous person shall inherit the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 6. 9. And again Let no man deceive you with vain words For because of these things cometh the Wrath of God upon the Children of disobedience Eph. 5. 6. And again Of which things I tell you before as I have also told you in times past that they who do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Gal. 5. 21. And all those Metaphorical Expressions such as the New Man the New Creature the New Birth Regeneration Conversion and the like by which the Apostles frequently represent Religion do manifestly tend to this that under the Gospel-dispensation nothing will stand a Man in any stead but an entire Reformation of Life and Manners and that all other things are nothing except only the keeping the Commandments of God 11. How miserably then do those Men abuse this great Salvation and turn the Grace of God into lasciviousness who imagine that because Christ has disannulled the Old Law which was appointed only for a time therefore we may be excused by our Christian Liberty from obeying the Eternal Commands of God that because Christ has established for us a Covenant of Grace therefore we need not be zealous to abound in good Works that because Christ has Redeemed us from the Punishment of Sin by the Sacrifice of himself therefore we need not be zealous to rescue our selves from under the Power and Dominion of it that because the Righteousness of Christ shall be available for us unto Justification therefore there is no necessity we should have any of our own In a word that because Christ has promised Salvation to those who believe the Gospel therefore there is no necessity we should be solicitous to
shall have of things at the conclusion of our Lives when Death and Judgment approach and let us view things now in the same Light as we know certainly we shall be forced to do then We know we shall then lament the loss of every opportunity of doing good which we have omitted and shall grutch every minute of Folly and Vanity which might have been employ'd to the increase of the Portion of our future Happiness We know we shall then look upon all the past pleasures of Life as emptiness and nothing and be convinced that there is no Pleasure but in true Virtue and no Fruit in any thing but in having done much Good And if we do indeed know this what can be more miserably and more inexcusably foolish than not to make the same Judgment of things now as we know assuredly we shall do afterwards The reason why Men die full of Fears and Uncertainties full of dark Suspitions and confused Doubts is because they are conscious to themselves that they have lived carelesly and indifferently without having taken any Pains either for the Service of God or for the Good of Men and without having used any zealous Endeavours to overcome the present World or to obtain the future But if Men would consider things in time if they would pass true Judgments of things and act accordingly with Resolution and Constancy they might then know certainly their own State and might live with Comfort and die with Assurance CHAP. XII Of our Obligation to be particularly careful to avoid those Sins to which we are most in danger to be tempted 1. FIfthly Be particularly careful to resist and avoid those Sins to which either your Constitution Company or Employment make you most in danger to be tempted This is the great Trial of every Man's Sincerity and of his Growth in Virtue He that for the Love of God and the Hopes of Heaven can mortifie and deny his most darling Lusts can quell and keep under his most natural Passions can resist and constantly overcome those Temptations by which he is most in danger to be seduced into Sin such a one has an infallible Assurance of his own Sincerity and is very near to the Perfection of Virtue But if there be any one Instance wherein a Man habitually falls short of his Duty or indulges a Lust a Passion a sinful Desire 't is certain whatever other Virtues he may be indued with that he either acts upon wrong Principles and is not sincere or that his Resolutions are hitherto too weak and ineffectual to intitle him to the Comfort of Religion here or to the Assurance of Happiness hereafter 2. There is no Man whom either the Constitution of his Body or the Temper of his Mind the Nature of his Employment or the Humour of his Company does not make obnoxious to some particular sort of Temptations more than to any other And in this thing it is that those who have something of Sincerity and will not with others run into all excess of Riot do yet make shift to deceive and impose upon themselves They think they are indued with many good and virtuous Qualities they hate Profaneness and professed enormous Impiety they know themselves innocent of many great Sins which they see others continually commit But something to which they are particularly tempted they indulge themselves in and the fatal Mischief is that those Sins which they see others commit and to which themselves are not violently tempted seem most absurd and unreasonable and easie to be avoided but that to which they are themselves addicted they think to be either so small as not to be of any very evil Consequence or so difficult to be resisted as to be allowed for among the unavoidable Infirmities of Nature Thus to many who have little or no Dealings in the World the Sins of Fraud Injustice Deceit Over reaching and the like seem very heinous base and unreasonable while at the same time they allow themselves in habitual Intemperances and Impurities as either harmless Vices or almost insuperable Weaknesses On the other hand there is no less a Number of those who applaud themselves in their own Minds that they are not as other Men Intemperate Debauched Drunkards Revellers and the like while at the same time they look upon Fraud and Deceit Tricking and Over-reaching as the necessary Art and Mystery of Business 3. But this is a very great and a very fatal Cheat. No Man can have any true and solid Peace in himself no Man can have any just Confidence in his Addresses to God no Man can have any Title to the Promises and Comforts of Religion here much less to the Glory and Reward of it hereafter before his Obedience be if not Perfect yet at least Universal God will not share with any Impiety nor ever accept of any Man's Obedience so long as 't is mixed with the accursed thing If there be any Sin that we can hardly part with if there be any Lust that is like a right Hand or a right Eye this is the thing that God hath proposed to us to Conquer this is the good Fight which we must fight through Faith this is the Victory to which Heaven is proposed For this we must gather together all the Forces of Reason and Religion for this we must strengthen our selves by Prayer and Consideration In this Warfare we must resolve strongly persevere obstinately and though we be conquered yet resolve to overcome always remembring that this is the Stake for Life or Death Happiness or Misery Heaven or Hell 4. Here therefore let every Man consider with himself and let him well observe his own Temptations and his own Strength Let him consider not how many Sins he can easily avoid but by what Temptations he may most easily be seduced and let him make it his Business to guard himself there Let those who are young and not yet entred into the hurry and business of the World not value themselves upon their being innocent from the Sins of Fraud and Injustice of Covetousness and Extortion or the like for that perhaps they may be without any Pains and without overcoming any powerful Temptation but let them try themselves whether they be firm against the Temptations of Vanity and Lightness of Heat and Passion of Intemperance and Impurity and let them judge of themselves by their behaviour in these Instances wherein they are most obnoxious Let them consider that their peculiar Task is to overcome the wicked one 1 John 2. 13. to subdue the Flesh to the Spirit to conquer and get above those Pleasures which sensualize the Soul and inslave the Mind to the Body and thereby bring it under the Power of Death and Destruction And in fine to strive continually to cleanse themselves from all Impurity not only of Body but even of Mind and Spirit perfecting Holiness in the Fear of God Let them consider that they are by Baptism dedicated to the
to the Assurance of Pardon They taught that the Holy Word and Church of God always admitted of true Repentance That he that had fallen might yet recover and escape if he repented truly of what was past and for the future amended his Life and made satisfaction to God That God not only gave full Remission of Sins in Baptism but allowed also to those who should afterward sin a further place of Repentance That to every one who heartily and sincerely repents God readily sets open a Door of Pardon and the Holy Spirit returns again into a Mind purified from the pollutions of Sin That all Men who repent even those who by reason of their great Sins did not deserve to have found any more Pardon shall be saved because God out of his great Compassion will be patient towards Men and keep the Invitation which he hath made by his Son That God will judge every Man in the Condition he finds him and that therefore as it will nothing avail a Man to have been formerly Righteous if he at last grows wicked so one who has formerly lived wickedly may afterwards by Repentance and renewed Obedience blot out his past Transgressions and attain to the Crown of Virtue and Immortality 6. Thus that God admits even the greatest of Sinners to Repentance is evident both from the Nature of God and the Design of the Gospel from the Practice of the Apostles and from the constant Doctrine of the Primitive Church But then to make this Repentance such as will be acceptable to God and effectually available to obtain Pardon there are several considerable Circumstances required And these I think may be reduced to these Three First That it must be Early Secondly That it must be Great and Thirdly That it must be constant and persevering in its Effects CHAP. III. That true Repentance must be Early 1. FIrst That Repentance may be true and available to obtain Pardon it is necessary that it be Early that is The Sinner must forsake his Vices so timely as to obtain the Habits of the contrary Virtues and to live in them Otherwise he can have no security that his Repentance is hearty or if it be that it will be accepted by God 2. First We can never have any security that a late Repentance is hearty and sincere A Man may very well at the amazing approach of Death and Judgment be extreamly sorry that he has lived wickedly he may strongly wish that he had lived the Life of the Righteous and resolve if he were to live over again that he would do so and yet all this may be meerly the Passion and not at all the Duty of Repentance The Duty of Repentance is an entire change of Mind and an effectual reformation of Life But the Passion of Sorrow and Remorse is such as accursed Spirits shall be for ever tormented with in vain and such as a dying Penitent can never be secure that this late Repentance will exceed Many upon a Bed of Sickness have made all the holy Vows and pious Resolutions that could be desired nay perhaps there is hardly any wicked Man who when he thinks he is about to die does not desire and design to amend yet how few are there of these who if they recover do ever make good those Vows and Resolutions And no late Penitent can ever be sure that this would not be his own Case When an habitual Sinner is in Time convinced of the evil of his ways and resolves and endeavours in earnest to reform while he has Life and Health and Strength to do it yet seldom does he at the first trial work himself up to such an effectual and prevailing Resolution against his Sin as to change his whole course of Life in an instant and at once deliver himself out of the Bondage of Corruption into the glorious Liberty of the Children of God Usually he proceeds by degrees and after many Relapses and renewed Resolutions arrives at last to a settled and steady course of Piety How much less then can a late Penitent who labours under all the contrary disadvantages ever be secure that his Repentance will be sincere and his Resolutions effectual enough to translate him at one effort from the Power of Darkness into the Kingdom of God 3. For this Reason the Ancients never admitted any to the Peace and Communion of the Church who began not their Repentance before the time of Sickness Those saith St. Cyprian who would not in time repent and by publick Lamentation testifie their hearty Sorrow for their Sins we utterly reject from all hope of Peace and Reconciliation if in the time of Sickness and Danger they begin to intreat because then 't is not true Repentance for their Sin but the fear of approaching Death that drives them to beg for Mercy and no one is worthy to receive any comfort in Death who never considered before hand that he was to die 4. But Secondly Supposing a late Repentance to be hearty and sincere yet have we no positive and absolute Promise that it shall be accepted The plain and express Condition of the Covenant established by Christ is a Holy Life that is a constant and persevering Obedience to all the Commands of God in a Gospel and Merciful Sense allowing for humane Weaknesses and Imperfections from the time of our Baptism or of our coming to the knowledge of the Truth until the end of our Lives And the least that can possibly lay Claim to the Reward promised upon this Condition is such a Repentance as produces the actual Obedience of at least some proportianable part of a Man's Life 5. To say that the Original Condition of the Christian Covenant is such that a Man may safely live wickedly all his Life and satisfie all his Lusts and Appetites to the utmost provided he does but leave off and forsake his Sins at the last is really to take away the necessity of a Holy Life and to undermine the very Foundation of all Virtue For considering on the one hand how prevailing the Custom of the World how deceitful the Temptations of the Devil and how powerful the Assaults of Lust and Passion are and on the other hand how seldom sudden Death happens and how little the Excellency of the Christian Life is understood it will be hard according to this Doctrine to find Arguments sufficiently strong to move Men to repent and to reform immediately If there be no other danger but in sudden Death and no greater malignity in Sin than what may be cured by an easie and short Repentance at last most Men will venture to be wicked at present and trust to the opportunities of growing better afterward Though therefore God may possibly have reserves of Mercy which in event he may exercise towards Men in their last extremity yet Originally 't is certain the Gospel Covenant gives no assurance of Comfort but either to a constant and persevering Holiness
God and the Temples of the Holy Ghost This was indeed a Dying unto Sin and Living unto Righteousness This was properly a being Regenerated or Born again This was truly a being Washed Sanctified and Justified in the Name of Christ and by the Spirit of God And indeed this was the principal thing which was signified in Baptism and the principal end for which the whole Ordinance was designed This was what the Person to be baptized was to profess with his own Mouth when he renounced the Devil and all his Works and this was what was principally represented by that main part of the Ceremony the descending into the Water and rising out of it again For so the Apostle St. Paul most fully explains it Rom. 6. 3. Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his Death Therefore we are buried with him by Baptism into Death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the Glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of Life Knowing this that our old Man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin that is the design of our descending into the Water to be baptized and rising again out of it was to mind us that as we then received remission of our past sins by Vertue of Christ's having died for sin so we our selves were in like manner to die and be buried to sin and rise again to walk for the future with Christ in newness and holiness of Life This therefore was the principal thing respected in Baptism and without this answer of a good Conscience towards God the washing or putting away of the filth of the Flesh could nothing avail in the sight of God Baptism is not the Washing and Cleansing of the Body but the Purifying of the Mind from every evil Work to serve the living God without which Baptism is so far from being available to the remission of sin that on the contrary it makes it far the more grievous and inexcusable But of this more in the next Chapter 9. The third and last thing to which Men were solemnly engaged at their Baptism was Self-denyal and Contempt of the World Our Saviour had told his Disciples That whosoever would come after him must deny himself and take up his Cross and follow him that whosoever was not willing to forsake all that he had Father and Mother and Wife and Children and Brethren and Sisters yea and his own Life also he could not be his Disciple And therefore when any Man came to be baptized he was accordingly obliged to renounce the World and all its Glory the Pomps and Vanities the Splendor and Pleasures of it He professed himself a Candidate for the Glory that should be revealed hereafter and that therefore he would never be ambitious for that Honour which Men so earnestly contend for here He declared that he expected his Portion in those spiritual Joys which eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither hath it entred into the heart of Man to conceive them and therefore he would never set his heart and affections upon any gross and sensual Pleasure He professed that from thenceforward his Treasure should be in Heaven where neither Moth nor Rust doth corrupt and where Thieves do not break through and steal and that therefore he would never be covetous of any Riches or Possessions on Earth In a word he engaged to make it the main business of his Life to prepare and fit himself to be partaker of those things which God had for them that love him laid up in the next World and that therefore he would never be extreamly solicitous after any thing in this This was what the Primitive Christians understood by their Renouncing the World They thought themselves obliged not only to forsake all gross and palpably sinful Lusts but also to be very sparing in their Enjoyments of what was Lawful They looked upon this World and the next as Enemies to each other and that they were to fight as Soldiers under the Banner of Christ against the Pleasures and Temptations of this VVorld for the Glories of the other And for an Emblem of this it was that in some Churches they anointed the baptized Person with Oil He was compared to a Combatant to a Runner just preparing to start in the Christian Race and they minded him that if those who strive for the Mastery only to obtain a corruptible Crown are temperate in all things much more ought he to confirm and strengthen himself to prepare and harden himself to be ready and expedite to be temperate and abstemious and to get perfectly above all those earthly desires which would hinder and clog him in that great race which he was to run for the Crown of Immortality 'T is true the forsaking all worldly Possessions for the Name of Christ was a condition more particularly required in those Primitive times of Persecution But how far it still obliges us as it most certainly does in some Sense shall be considered in its proper place CHAP IV. What was required of Persons after Baptism 1. WHEN the whole Ceremony was finished the Person baptized was cloathed as has been already observed with a white Garment and then he was admitted to the Communion of the Faithful And that which was afterward required of him was this One Great and Necessary thing To keep his Baptism Pure and Undefiled the remaining part of his Life 2 To the keeping a Man's Baptism pure and undefiled through the remaining part of his Life that which was thought absolutely necessary in the Primitive Church was this First That he from that time forward preserved himself from falling not only into the Habit but even so much as into the single Act of any of these gross and palpable Wickednesses Idolatry Perjury Blasphemy Murder Sedition Theft manifest Injustice Cheating Adultery Fornication Uncleanness Drunkenness Revelling and such like of which St. Paul expresly and peremptorily declares and repeats it with great earnestness over and over again that they who do such things shall have no inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God One that was born of God might be surprized into an unheeded sin but into the gross Act of any of these manifest and notorious Impieties they thought he was never to be seduced and if he were that he ceased to be the Servant of God For whosoever abideth in him sinneth not and whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin for his Seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God From the Acts therefore of any of these great and plain Wickednesses which stare Men in the Face and at the first view terrifie Mens Consciences they thought it indispensably necessary that a Man abstained wholly and that these things were not so much as to be once named among Christians
so appropriated but applied promiscuously to all Christians as appears from the Titles of the Apostles Letters in which whole Churches in general are called Elect Sanctified and the like and most evidently from St. John who in his first Epistle chap. 5. ver 1. Whosoever saith he believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ i. e. every Christian there being hardly any one in those times who was not indeed what he professed and pretended to be a Regenerate Sanctified and Elect Person And as Christians who then lived thus suitably to their Profession were stiled Regenerate Sanctified and the like so they who continued to live thus suitably to the end were said to Persevere and of such only was it said that they Persevered in opposition to those who after their Baptism lapsed into any notorious Transgression For one that had thus lapsed they did not think it sufficient that he should repeat his Crime no more which was the condition of Baptismal Remission but he was obliged by a long course of Mortification Prayers Tears and good Works to endeavour to wash out the Stain and Guilt Nay and even this course also they allowed of but Once not that true Repentance would at any time be in vain and unacceptable to God but as an Ancient Writer expresses it that that which was the only remaining remedy might not by being made too easie grow contemptible and ineflectual 6. And now let Us think upon this let Us consider this with shame and confusion of Faces who I do not say after Baptism and the solemn taking upon our selves the Profession of Christianity but after frequent Purposes and Promises of Reformation after repeated Vows and Resolutions of Amendment nay perhaps after confirming all these by the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ do yet continue in sin and defer our Repentance The Primitive Christians thought themselves absolutely obliged to live in the constant Practice of all Holiness and Vertue from the time of their Baptism to their Death and can we hope to be accepted if notwithstanding all our Pretences to Repentance and Reformation we still continue under the weak excuses of Infirmity and Inadvertency to live in any known sin Doth our Baptismal Vow lay no obligation upon us or hath God established a Covenant with us upon slighter Terms and entail'd his Promises to us upon easier Conditions than he did to the first and purest Christians Let no Man deceive you saith St. John He that doth righteousness is righteous 1 John 3. 7. 'T is true the case is not altogether the same with us as it was with them We live in Christian Nations and under Christian Governments where there are no Pagans to be converted to Christianity and to be baptized after their Repentance and with a full conviction of Mind And of those who are born of Christian Parents there are very few so happy as not to be entangled in the Habit of any sin before they come to a perfect understanding and compleat conviction of all the Truths of Religion And in this case it must indeed be confessed that it cannot but require some time perfectly to overcome a vitious disposition and to obtain the Habit of the contrary Vertue But may we therefore spend our whole Lives in little and weak struglings against sin without ever arriving at that pitch of Vertue which was antiently thought necessary to prepare a Man for Baptism May we therefore be excused from ever becoming perfect Christians because we were all along brought up in the Christian Religion and were never converted by any sudden Conviction When a Man is in that state described by St. Paul in the 7th Chap. to the Romans that he is convinced of the evil of great and known sins and sets his Mind to resist and strive against them yet not so but that through the viciousness of his inclination or the force of evil Habits he frequently relapses and is intangled in them again 't is a Sign indeed that such a one is not yet hardened through the deceitfulness of sin there is hopes that through the Grace of God he may at length prevail and overcome his Temptations but he has not yet overcome he has not yet attained to be a good Christian nor can he be said to have done so till he has brought himself into such a state as that he be perfectly gotten above all the Temptations to know sin and assured by the Grace of God that he shall not fall into it any more To such a state as this he must resolve to arrive and he must resolve to arrive at it timely that he may have a certain Title to the reward of Obedience There is hardly any Man so wicked who does not design to repent at one time or other before he dies and our Saviour has indeed in his Gospel made the same Promises to Repentance that he has to innocence and continued Obedience But let no Man deceive himself by a fatal Errour The Repentance to which our Saviour has made such large Promises is not the late Repentance of a Christian but the timely Repentance of a Jew or a Heathen at his Conversion to Christianity and is therefore the very same and no other than Baptism it self Indeed if a Christian by an unhappy Education be brought up in sin and habituated to Wickedness whenever he comes by the Power of God's Word and the Influence of his Holy Spirit to be convinced of the evil of his Ways and of the necessity of Religion he is then in the same state that a Heathen Convert is supposed to be at his Baptism and the same Promises are made to them both But when a Christian who has a clear Knowledge of his Duty does notwitstanding that continue wilfully all his Life in sin our Saviour is so far from assuring him that God and Angels will rejoyce at his Conversion if when he grows old he leaves off sinning because he can sin no more that he has no where promised that such a Repentance shall be accepted at all We must therefore so break off our sins by Repentance as to attain the Habits of the contrary Vertues and to live in them Such a Repentance as this our Saviour will accept and he that after such a Repentance lives constantly Virtuous shall certainly be esteemed in the sight of God as if he had always been innocent but without the evidence of such a Life of Virtue and renewed Obedience how far soever the Mercy of God may possibly extend it self We can never have any assurance that our Repentance will be accepted CHAP. V. Of the Baptism of Infants 1. AS those who by the Preaching of the Apostles and their Successors had been converted from Judaism or Gentilism to Christianity were baptized at riper Years upon their publickly professing their Faith and their Repentance so those who were born of Christian Parents
that convincing Proof of his Resurrection from the Dead did undeniably demonstrate that he had himself been there and was able to give Men a satisfactory Account of the Nature of that State The great Duties of the Christian Religion are things not only most reasonable and most excellent in themselves but they are moreover taught and inculcated by one who has given the most credible and convincing Evidence that could possibly be desired of his being sent immediately from God The Miracles which our Saviour wrought were to his first Disciples who were Eye-witnesses of them a most perfect demonstration of the Truth of his Doctrine And the History of his Life Death and Resurrection delivered down to us upon the Testimony of those Disciples are to Us also a sufficient Evidence of the same Truth Their having conversed from the beginning with our Saviour himself their having heard and having seen with their Eyes their having looked upon and having handled with their Hands of the Word of Life as St. John expresses it 1 John 1. 1. made it impossible that they should be deceived themselves And their whole Life and Conversation their Sufferings and Deaths were invincible proofs against the Adversaries of Christianity that they had no design of imposing upon others They saw all the Prophecies of the Old Testament precisely fulfilled in the Life and Doctrine the Sufferings and Death of our Blessed Saviour they saw him confirm what he taught with such mighty works as his bitterest and most malicious Enemies could not but confess to be above the Power of Nature even while they were blaspheming that Holy Spirit which wrought them they saw the whole course of his Life to be such as to all unprejudiced beholders loudly proclaimed his Divine Commission they saw him so constantly despise all worldly greatness as once when the People would have made him a King even to work a Miracle to avoid that which was the only thing that was possible to be the aim and design of an Impostor In fine they saw him alive after his Passion by many infallible proofs conversing with him for forty days together and at last beholding him ascend visibly into Heaven These were such demonstrations of his being a Teacher sent from Heaven and consequently that his Doctrine was nothing less than an immediate and express Revelation of the Will of God that nothing but the extremest Malice and Obstinacy could withstand them And the same reason that these Disciples of our Saviour had to believe his Doctrine the same reason the rest of the World had to believe theirs They confirmed what they taught by Signs and Miracles they lived according to the Doctrine they Preached though manifestly contrary to all the Interests and Pleasures of this present World and which no Deceiver could ever do they died with all imaginable cheerfulness and joy of mind for the Testimony of their Doctrine and the Confirmation of their Religion So that unless God should work upon Men by such Methods as are wholly inconsistent with the Design of Religion and the Nature of Virtue and Vice which we are sure he will not do nothing can be done more than has already been done to convince Men of Religion and to perswade them to Happiness 'T is true the Resurrection of Christ is not such an ocular demonstration to after Generations as it was to those Men who then lived and saw him and conversed with him But since the matter of fact is as clearly proved to us as 't is possible for any matter of fact at that distance of time to be since the Evidence of this is as great and greater than of most of those things on which Men venture the whole of their Secular Affairs and on which they are willing to spend all their time and pains since I say the Case is thus he that will rather venture all that he can possibly injoy or suffer he that will run the hazard of losing Eternal Happiness and falling into Eternal Misery rather than believe the most credible and rational thing in the World meerly because he does not see it with his Eyes 't is plain that that Man does not dis-believe the thing because he thinks the Evidence of it not sufficiently strong but because 't is contrary to some particular Interest of his that it should be true and for that reason he might also have disbelieved it though he had seen it himself 17. This is in brief the Evidence which we have of the Necessity of Religion in general and of the Truth of the Christian Institution in particular And he that would so lay the Foundation of a Religious Life as to be able to Conquer all the Temptations of the World and persevere in Well-doing to the end must at least so far consider this evidence as before all things to work in his own Mind a Firm Settled and Well-grounded Belief of the great Truths of Religion To produce which Effect this Evidence is most abundantly sufficient For if in other Cases we assent to those things as certain and demonstrated which if our Faculties of Judging and Reasoning do not necessarily deceive us do upon the most impartial view appear clearly and plainly to be true there is the same Reason why in Moral and Religious Matters we should look upon those things likewise to be certain and demonstrated which upon the exactest and most deliberate Judgment that we are capable or making do appear to us to be as clearly and as certainly true as 't is certain that our Faculties do not necessarily and unavoidably deceive us in all our Judgments concerning the Nature of God concerning the proper Happiness of Man and concerning the difference of Good and Evil. And if in other Cases we always act without the least hesitation upon the Credit of good and sufficient Testimony and look upon that Man as foolish and ridiculous who sustains great Losses or le ts slip great Opportunities and Advantages in Business only by distrusting the most credible and well-attested things in the World 't is plain there is the same reason why we should do so also in Matters of Religion So that unless our Actions be determined by some other thing than by Reason and Judgment the Evidence which we have of the great Truths of Religion ought to have the same effect upon our Lives and Actions as if they were proved to us by any other sort of Evidence that could be desired 18. There are indeed some Men who being conscious to themselves that they act contrary to all the reasonable Evidence and Convictions of Religion are yet apt to imagine that if the great Truths of Religion were proved to them by some stronger Evidence they should by that means be wrought upon to act otherwise than they do But if the true reason why these Men act thus foolishly is not because the Doctrines of Religion are not sufficiently evidenced but because they themselves are hurried away by some unruly Passions
fiery flame and his Wheels as burning fire A fiery stream issuing and coming forth from before him Thousand thousands ministring unto him and ten thousand times ten thousand standing before him the Judgment set and the Books opened Lastly be not content to believe slightly and in general a state of Reward or Punishment for Virtue or Vice but meditate frequently on the Happiness of those who shall be admitted to the heavenly Jerusalem to the general Assembly of the first-born to an innumerable company of Angels and to God the Judge of all and to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant Consider the Happiness of those who shall be made Kings and Priests unto God and shall reign with him for ever who shall shine as the brightness of the Firmament and as the Stars for ever and ever And on the other hand meditate seriously on the Misery of those who shall be cast into the Lake of Fire and Brimstone where the Worm dieth not and the Fire is not quenched and where they shall be tormented Day and Night for ever and ever 22. I have been the longer upon this Head because it is the first and most necessary Foundation of all Religion and because that slight careless and only customary Assent to the great Truths of Religion which is the Summ of most Mens Faith seems to be the chief reason why things of the utmost importance have so so small an effect upon the Lives and Actions of Men. There is no need that every Man should proceed just by those steps which I have set down but whoever will indeed make Religion the Business of his Life must by some like Method work in his Mind a firm and well-grounded Belief of all its great Doctrines and a deep and vigorous Sense of them CHAP. III. Of right Notions concerning Religion in general 1. SEcondly Endeavour to attain right Nations concerning Religion in general Next to the Belief of the Truth and of the Necessity of Religion there is nothing of greater Importance than the framing right Notions concerning the Nature of it For when Religion is represented as requiring any thing that is either not possible or not necessary to be practised when 't is represented as consisting in such things as are either not worthy of God or not profitable to Men in a word when Religion is so represented that Men may hope to be religious without being vertuous and to be accepted of God for some outward performances without a holy temper and disposition of Mind this cuts the very Sinews and undermines the Foundation of all Religion 2. Now therefore to attain right Notions concerning the Nature of Religion a Man ought firmly to persuade himself of these following Considerations That the exercise of those great Moral Vertues of Godliness Righteousness and Temperance which are the eternal and unchangeable Law of God is a thing in its own Nature both truly excellent and indispensably necessary to prepare Men for that Happiness which is the Reward of Religion That God truly and sincerely desires to make Men happy by the exercise of these Vertues And that therefore the great and ultimate Design of all true Religion is to recommend these Vertues and to inforce their practice 3. That the exercise of these great Moral Vertues of Godliness Righteousness and Temperance which are the eternal and unchangeable Law of God is a thing in its own Nature truly Noble and Excellent is evidently acknowledged by the common Consent and Verdict of all Mens Consciences These Virtues are the imitation of the Perfections of God and as no Man is so brutish as not to admire the Perfections of Justice and Goodness when he considers them abstractedly in God so he cannot but pay a proportionable respect to whatever he sees carry their resemblance in Men. Hence Vertue is the most lovely and venerable of all things and approves it self to the Reason and Consciences of Men Hence Vice becomes truly odious and however it may insinuate it self into the Practice can never recommend it self to the Judgment of Mankind Hence even those very Persons who by the prevailing Power of some Interest or Lust are themselves drawn aside out of the Paths of Virtue cannot yet forbear to give it its true Character and Commendation in others Thus the Officers who were sent by the Pharisees to apprehend Jesus could not forbear declaring that he spake as never Man spake And the Roman Governour when he gave Sentence that he should be Crucified could not at the same instant forbear openly professing that he found no fault in him Men cannot chuse but think well of that Virtue which the Dominion of their Lusts forces them to desert or the necessity of their Affairs compels them to discourage They cannot but wish they were the Men they are not and pray with Balaam that though they imitate not the Life yet at least they might die the death of the Righteous and that their last end may be like his Though therefore virtuous Men are frequently persecuted in the World and sometimes meerly for their Virtue yet t is not because Virtue can ever be hated but because those from whom they suffer mistake it to be what it is not or else because knowing it to be what it is they are notwithstanding prevailed upon by some private Interest to persecute it contrary to the Judgment of their Conscience which would force them to honour and respect it An Instance of the former Case are all the Persecutions of the Christians in the Primitive Times 'T is certain these Men were Virtuous and Religious and 't is certain they suffered meerly upon that account But then 't is also as certain that those from whom they suffered did not persecute them because they thought them Religious but because they mistook them not to be so they did not persecute them because they thought them to be worshippers of the true God but because they looked on them as despisers of their false ones They were so unhappily blinded by Prejudice and Idolatry that they mistook Religion for Superstition and Superstition for Religion Hence they implacably persecuted that Doctrine whose Evidence and Conviction if they would have opened their Eyes they could not have resisted and endeavoured to root out the true Religion out of Zeal to the honour of a false one An eminent Instance of the latter Case is the Condemnation of our Saviour He was manifestly innocent of the Crimes laid to his Charge and Pilate knew him to be so but then 't is also manifest that he did not condemn him because he was Innocent but because he was willing to do the Jews a pleasure Our Saviour's Innocence was sufficient to convince the Mind of his Judge and 't was only Interest that over-powered the force of that Conviction Virtue therefore is truly Noble and Excellent in it self and wicked Men even while they are persecuting it cannot deny it to
the Time before them and are so happy as not to have been yet seduced through the deceitfulness of Sin consider these things Let them consider what a Prize they have in their Hands and let them be zealous that no Man take their Crown Let them consider that if God and Angels rejoyce at the Conversion of an old and great Sinner much more must they be pleased to see a young Person amidst the alluring Glories and Pleasures of the World bravely resisting all its Temptations Let them consider that That time which a dying Sinner would if it were possible give Millions of Worlds to redeem is now in their Hands and they may make a glorious use of it Let them consider that they are yet cloathed with the white Robe of Innocence and if they be careful never to defile that Garment they may attain to a Portion among those few who shall walk with Christ in white for they are worthy Let them consider that if they zealously continue to maintain their Innocence and their good Works for a few Years they will soon be almost out of the danger of Temptation they will escape the bitter Pangs of Remorse and Repentance they will be wholly above that greatest of human Miseries the dread and horrour of Death and may not only without Fear but even with exceeding Joy expect the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ at the Judgment of the great Day and in the Glory of the World to come Lastly let them consider that if they hold fast the confidence and rejoycing of their Hope firm unto the end they shall be intitled to all those great and inconceivable Promises which our Saviour has made to those who shall overcome To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the Tree of Life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God Rev. 2. 7. He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second Death ver 11. He that overcometh the same shall be clothed in white Raiment and I will not blot his Name out of the Book of Life but I will confess his Name before my Father and before his Angels Rev. 3. 5. Him that overcometh will I make a Pillar in the Temple of my God and he shall go no more out and I will write upon him the Name of my God and the Name of the City of my God which is New Jerusalem ver 12. And To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my Throne even as I also overcame and am sit down with my Father in his Throne V. 21. CHAP. X. Of making Religion the principal Business of our Lives 1. THirdly Resolve to make Religion the main Scope of all your Actions and the principal Business of your Life One great reason why Religion which was the reigning Principle that wholly governed the Lives of the Primitive Christians has now so little influence upon the Actions of Men is because those Holy Men sought first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness and relied upon the Providence of God to have all other things added unto them whereas now Men make Religion not their first but their last care and while their whole Hearts and Affections are set upon the things of this present World they think themselves sufficiently Religious if they spend but some small Portions of their time in the outward and Ceremonious Acts of Religion But if Religion be the same now that it was in the times of the Primitive Christians if the Happiness proposed to us be the same for which they so painfully contended if our Obligations excepting perhaps some few particular Cases be the same with theirs this slight careless and superficial Religion will not serve our turn He that will obtain that Crown of Immortality which God has promised to those who Love and Obey him must be effectually and Substantially Religious in the main Course of his Life and he that will be so truly and sincerely Religious must make that Religion his principal and his first Care 2. By making Religion the Principal Care and Study of our Lives I do not mean that Men should withdraw themselves from their Business and Imployments in the World to spend their time anxiously in Reading Praying Meditating the like I hese things are not the whole nor the principal part of Religion and it is an Antient and Notorious Errour to think that Men can become more truly Religious by the continued Exercises of a private Retirement than by living Soberly Righteously and Godlily in the World The Life and Substance of Religion is to have our Minds habitually possessed with the profoundest Veneration of the Divine Majesty and with a desire of expressing at all proper opportunities our Devotion to him and our Zeal for his Honour To endeavour constantly in the whole Course of our Lives to promote the good and the happiness of all Men and to be Temperate in the use of all earthly Enjoyments as those who expect their Happiness not in this World but in the next This is the Essence of true Religion And These things a Man may make his principal nay even his whole Care without any way neglecting or in the least withdrawing himself from his Secular and Worldly Business There is no Imployment wherein a Man may not be always doing something for the honour of God for the good of Men or for the Improvement of the Virtues of his own Mind There is no Business wherein a Man may not make it his main Care to act always like a good Man and a Christian There is no state of Life wherein a Man may not keep a constant Eye upon a future State and so use the things of this present World as that the great and ultimate Scope of all his Actions may always respect that which is to come 3. And to make Religion thus far the principal Business of our Lives is absolutely and indispensably necessary No Man can overcome the Temptations of the Word No Man can be truly and effectually Religious unless he stedfastly proposes to himself one great Design of his Life and indeavours to Act always regularly upon that Design He must constantly keep an eye upon his main End and in every thing he does must be careful always to have a respect to that Every thing he undertakes must be either directly conducive to that end or at least not contrary to and inconsistent with it In a word he must be True to himself and to his own happiness and be resolute never to be tempted to do any thing which he knows he shall afterwards wish undone For otherwise if a Man acts only uncertainly according to the present Appearances of things and without any fixt design it must needs be that every violent temptation will either surprize or overpower him and his Religion will be as inconstant as his Resolutions His Life will be at best no other than a continued Circle of sinning and repenting and his End will be in
Man's Condition in Opposition to that of the rich Man without taking any notice at all of their Behaviour one to another Though therefore it may justly be supposed that our Saviour designed to hint to us that the poor Man did not meet with that Comfort and Relief which might reasonably be expected in a Place where there was such plenty and abundance of all things and that this did mightily increase the rich Man's Condemnation yet this is not the thing that is now laid to his Charge and therefore is not the main Design of the Parable Parables are certain familiar ways of representing things to the Capacity of the Vulgar by easie and continued Similitudes and the close of the Similitude always shows the principal Scope of the Parable as is evident in most of our Saviour's Discourses to the Jews Had our Saviour therefore in this Parable chiefly designed to shew the evil of Uncharitableness and the Condemnation that attends uncharitable Men he would when he had represented the rich Man crying out to Abraham to have Mercy upon him and begging that he would send Lazarus that he might dip the tip of his Finger in Water and cool his Tongue he would here I say have introduced the Patriarch charging him with his Uncharitableness as the cause of his being cast into that place of torment It would have been told him that since when he lived in Ease and Plenty and in the abundant enjoyment of all the good things of this Life he had had no regard to the then miserable Estate of this poor Man he had no reason to expect now that the Scale was turned and himself fallen into a state of Misery that the poor Man should leave that place of Happiness which is figured to us by Abraham's Bosom to come and quench the violence of the Flame that tormented him He would have been told that 't was but just that since he had shewed no Mercy none should be shewn to him and that he should receive no Relief from the poor Man after Death to whom he had given none when he was alive But instead of all this we find only that short Reply Son remember that thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things therefore now thou art tormented 12. It remains therefore that the reason for which this rich Man is represented as condemned to that place of torment is because he had in his life time received his Portion of good things that is not because he had received the Blessings of this World but because he had received and used them as his Portion and his Happiness He had a large and plentiful Estate and he spent it in Jollity and Splendour He was clothed in Purple and fine Linnen and he fared sumptuously every day He denied himself nothing that tended to the Ease and Pleasure of his own Life or that could make him look splendid in the Eyes of others Hereupon he accounted himself a happy Man and blessed himself in the multitude of his Riches He look'd on them not as Talents committed to him by God to be employed for the doing good in his Generation but as his own Portion that he might live in Ease and Plenty and that his Heart might chear him in the days of his Life His Treasure therefore was upon Earth and his Heart and Affections were there also He set up his Rest here and was so wholly taken up with the splendour and gaiety of this World that he had no time to think upon another till he found by woful Experience that he 〈◊〉 settled his Affections upon a wrong Object and chosen those things for his Portion and his Happiness which were not to be of equal duration with himself Thus the Design of this Parable seems plainly to be this to condemn a soft and easie a delicate and voluptuous Life And to show that for those who have a plentiful share of earthly Blessings to make it their main Design to live in Ease and Pleasure in Gaiety and Splendour with them to set their Hearts and Affections upon them to esteem them as their good things and to place their Happiness in them is inconsistent with that temper and disposition of Mind which the Christian Religion requires in those who expect their Portion in the Spiritual Happiness of the World to come And to this Sense we must understand those Sayings of our Saviour Luke 6. 25. Wo unto you that are full for ye shall hunger wo unto you that laugh now for ye shall mourn and weep And ver 24. Wo unto you that are rich for ye have received your Consolation that is ye have received those things which ye accounted your Portion and wherein ye placed your Happiness 13. In like manner the Parable of that other rich Man Luke 12. whose Ground brought forth plentifully and he thought within himself saying What shall I do because I have no room where to bestow my Fruits and he said This will I do I will pull down my Barns and build greater and there will I bestow all my Fruits and my Goods And I will say to my Soul Soul thou hast much Goods laid up for many Years take thine ease eat drink and be merry This Parable I say seems also plainly designed against the same softness and voluptuousness of Life Our Saviour does not describe this Man to be Covetous and that he would store up all his Goods to no use but that he would take the good of them himself he would eat drink and be merry 'T is the same word that we render elsewhere to fare sumptuously But God said unto him Thou Fool this night shall thy Soul be required of thee and 〈◊〉 whose shall those things be which thou hast provided His Case seems to be the very same with that of the rich Man Luke 16. The one resolved that in his Life time he would eat drink and be merry and in the midst of his Jollity his Soul was required of him The other was clothed in Purple and fine Linnen and fared sumptuously every day and when after Death he complained that he was in a place of torment he was by Abraham reminded that he had in his life time received his good things 14. Lastly the History of the young Man Mark 10. who came running and kneeled to our Saviour and asked him Good Master what shall I do that I may inherit eternal Life is an eminent Instance of the deceitfulness of the Love of the World He had kept all the Commandments from his youth and therefore one would think was well prepared to receive our Saviour's Doctrine Yet when he bad him Go thy way sell whatsoever thou hast and give to the Poor and thou shalt have Treasure in Heaven and come take up thy Cross and follow me 't is said he was sad at that saying and went away grieved for he had great possessions 'T is not said either that he was covetous on the one hand or prodigal on the
particularly and endeavours to amend them will be able to avoid and overcome many of those things which are by others looked upon as the unavoidable Frailties and Infirmities of Nature 7. And in proportion as a Man arrives nearer to this perfect State of Virtue so will that Peace of Conscience which is the peculiar Reward of Religion in this World grow up by degrees to a settled Joy and Assurance of Mind One whose Life is void of great and scandalous Crimes but otherwise not strict and diligent will be free indeed from the Terrour and Amazement of the Wicked but because he has taken no great Pains nor done any thing considerable for the Love of God and for the sake of Religion his Mind will yet be disturbed with many scrupulous Doubts and uncertain Fears But when a Man has been truly diligent to improve himself to the utmost and has with Zeal and Earnestness pressed forward towards Perfection then is it that he attains to that Tranquillity and Assurance which wise Men have compared to a continual Feast The Peace and Satisfaction of Mind which some have found upon the careful and strict examination of one past Days Actions has been very great But that compleat Assurance which arises from the Conscience of a considerable part of a Man's Life having been spent in the Strictness and in the Purity of the Gospel is a Pleasure infinitely surpassing all the Enjoyments of Sense being indeed a fore-taste of the Happiness of Heaven and a Rejoycing before-hand in Christ with Joy unspeakable and full of Glory Such a one as has arrived to this pitch lives in Peace and dies with Assurance and at the appearance of our Lord shall be presented fault less before the Presence of his Glory with exceeding Joy THE END Essay the Third Of Repentance CHAP. I. Of Repentance in General 1. THE plain and express Condition upon which the Gospel promises Salvation to all Men is Obedience or a Holy Life The Time from which this Holy Life is to begin is either Baptism or Confirmation that is the Time when those who are either at riper Years converted to the Christian Religion or have from their Infancy been brought up in the Profession of it come to a clear and distinct knowledge of their Duty That from this Period every Man is obliged to persevere in a constant Course of Holiness that is in a continual and sincere though weak and imperfect Obedience to all the Commands of God the Gospel plainly declares to us And that the glorious Rewards of Heaven should be at all promised to so small a Service as the imperfect Obedience which weak sinful degenerate Man should be able to perform is the Purchase of the Price of the Blood of the Son of God and the Effect of the infinite Riches of the Divine Mercy made known to us by Christ. Had God therefore to those who had once been received to the Mercy of the Gospel and had once been made partakers of the heavenly Gift and had tasted the good Word of God and the Powers of the World to come allowed no more Remission for wilful and presumptuous Sins but accepted those only who having once washed their Garments in the Blood of the Lamb should from thenceforward keep themselves in a Gospel Sense pure and undefiled yet had his Mercy been infinitely greater than sinful Man could have deserved or expected But such is the earnestness of God's Desire to make his Creatures Happy and such the Abundance of the Grace made known by the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ that even to those who having been already admitted to the Mercy and Favour of the Gospel and having received the Promise of a great and glorious Reward upon the Condition of an easie and most reasonable Obedience and having been endued with the Earnest of his Holy Spirit shall notwithstanding relapse after all this into wilful and deliberate Sins even to these I say he has yet further granted that if by a solemn Repentance they shall again unfeignedly renew their Obedience and from that Period persevere in well-doing to the end they shall yet attain to the Reward of the Faithful and shall be saved as Fire-brands plucked out of the Fire or as Men escaping upon a Plank after Shipwreck 2. By Repentance therefore I would all along in this Essay be understood to mean not that Repentance which is the constant Duty of all Christians who are indeed continually bound to repent in general of all those Slips and Infirmities those Defects and Surprizes which by the Condition of the Gospel-Covenant are most readily pardoned For this Repentance is not properly a new Period or Beginning of a Holy Life but a necessary and continued part of that imperfect Obedience which Man in this degenerate State is capable of performing and which God has in his Gospel declared that he will always accept instead of perfect Innocence But by Repentance I here understand that Repentance which is an entire change of Heart and Mind a turning from Darkness to Light and from the power of Satan unto God whereby those who by wilful and deadly Sins have left their first Estate and forfeited their Title to the Crown of Righteousness are to begin anew their Obedience in order to recover the Mercy and Favour of God And that no one may be perplexed with vain Scruples and unreasonable Fears this Repentance is such as plainly no Man is obliged to but those who are guilty of great and deliberate Sins of Blasphemy Perjury open Profaneness or contempt of Religion of Murder Sedition Theft manifest and designed Injustice Hatred Fraud Wrong or Oppression of Adulteries Fornications Uncleannesses or habitual Drunkenness and Intemperance or of some other Sins either maliciously wilful or notoriously habitual CHAP. II. That God allows Repentance even to the greatest of Sinners 1. IN the Primitive Church there was a Sect of Men who upon a mistaken Interpretation of some Passages of the Epistle of St. Paul to the Hebrews contended that there was no more place of Repentance allowed to those who after Baptism should fall into any of these wilful and deliberate Sins They taught that in Baptism indeed all manner of Sin and Blasphemy whatsoever was forgiven Men absolutely and wash'd away by the Blood of Christ but that if after that great Remission they sinned again wilfully and presumptuously they could no more obtain any further Pardon than the Death of Christ that great Sacrifice for Sin could be repeated and that therefore however they should sincerely repent yet there now remained nothing more for them but a certain fearful looking for of Judgment and fiery Indignation which should devour the Adversary But that this was a great mistake and that God does admit even the greatest of Sinners upon their true Repentance to Forgiveness and Pardon is evident both from the Nature of God and the Design of Christianity from the Practice
of the Apostles and from the general Sense of the Primitive Church 2. God is a Being as of infinite Purity and Holiness so also of infinite Goodness and Mercy and as he cannot possibly be reconciled to Men so long as they continue wicked so when ever they cease to be so and return again to the Obedience of Gods Commands and to the imitation of his Nature we cannot suppose but that he will again admit them to his Pardon and Favour Goodness and Mercy are our most natural Notions of God and the Discoveries which he hath made of himself by Revelation are most exactly agreeable thereto At the passing by of his Glory before Moses he proclaimed himself The Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious long-suffering and abundant in Goodness and Truth forgiving Iniquities Transgressions and Sins Exod. 34. 6. By the Prophets he declares and swears by himself As I live saith the Lord I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from his way and live Ezek. 33. 1â— And above all by that stupendous Instance of Mercy the sending his only Son out of his Bosom to give himself a Sacrifice for the Sins of Men he has discovered such an earnest desire of our Reconciliation and Salvation as will be the everlasting subject of the Praises of Men and the Admiration of Angels If therefore God when he had made a Covenant of perfect Obedience and had not promised Pardon at all to great and presumptuous Sins did yet give Pardon and declare also to the Jews by his Prophets that he would do so And if when Men were yet Enemies to him he was so willing that not any should perish but all should come to Repentance yea so desirous to have all Men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the Truth that he not only spared not his own Son to deliver him up for us all but tells us even of Joy in Heaven at a Sinners accepting the gracious Terms of the Gospel and represents himself as a tender Father running to meet his returning Prodigal and falling up-his Neck and kissing him If this I say was the Compassion which God shewed to Man in his first sinful and miserable State 't is very reasonable to conclude and hope that his Mercy is not so entirely exhausted at once but that the same Pity may be yet further extended even to those also who after the knowledge of the Truth having been seduced by the Temptations of the World and the Devil to depart from God and to forsake their Duty shall again return unto him with Sincerity and Perseverance 3. The Design of the Gospel is to teach us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world And certainly whensoever it comes to have this effect upon a Man it gives him a Title to the blessed Hope and a well-grounded Assurance of Mercy at the glorious appearance of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. The Foundation of the Christian Dispensation upon which the whole Summ of Affairs is now established is Faith and Repentance and whensoever a Man so truly repents as to purifie himself effectually from every evil Work and by the Spirit mortifies the deeds of the Body he shall certainly live Our Saviour himself gives express Directions when a Man's Christian Brother trespasses against him to use all possible means to reclaim him both by private and publick Reproof before he rejects him utterly as a Heathen Man and a Publican He commands us though our Brother sins never so often against us yet if he turns again and repents to forgive him and has promised upon this Condition that we also shall in like manner find forgiveness at the Hands of God And in the Epistles sent by the Apostle St. John to the Bishops of the Seven Churches of Asia he exhorts them earnestly to remember from whence they were fallen and to repent and be zealous and do their first works and promises that if upon this Invitation any Man would hear his Voice and open the Door that is would be moved by these Exhortations to repent and amend he would come in to him and sup with him that is would again receive him to his Mercy and Favour 4. Accordingly the Writings of the Apostles though directed to Christians are yet full of earnest Exhortations to Repentance and their History contains many Instances of those who after great falls were thereby restored to their first state St Peter exhorts Simon Magus who thought the Gift of God could be bought with Money to repent of this his wickedness and gives him encouragement to hope that he should thereupon obtain forgiveness Acts 8. 22. St. John tells us That if any Man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Righteous and he is the Propitiation for our Sins 1 John 2. 2. St. James tells us That if any one err from the Truth and one convert him he that converteth the Sinner from the Error of his way shall save a Soul from Death and shall hide a multitude of Sins Jam. 5. 20. St. Jude advises us to have compassion of some making a difference and to save others with fear pulling them out of the fire ver 23. St. Paul exhorts Timothy to instruct in meekness those that oppose themselves if God peradventure will give them Repentance to the acknowledging of the Truth and that they may recover themselves out of the Snare of the Devil who are taken Captive by him at his will 2 Tim. 2. 25. He advises the Galatians that if any Man be overtaken in a fault they which are spiritual should restore such a one in the Spirit of meekness considering themselves lest they also be tempted Gal. 6. 1. He threatens the Corinthians to excommunicate those who had sinned and had not repented of their uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness which they had committed 2 Cor. 12. 21. And even the Incestuous Person who had been guilty of such a Sin as was not so much as named among the Heathens themselves he delivers indeed to Satan for the destruction of the Flesh but it was that the Spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus 1 Cor. 5. 5. For when the punishment which was inflicted of many had been sufficient to reduce him to Repentance he writes to the Church to forgive him and comfort him lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow 2 Cor. 2. 7. 5. And this excepting as I have said one Sect of Men was the constant Doctrine and Practice of the Primitive Church To those who were yet Innocent they thought indeed no Promises too great and no Threatnings too severe whereby they might make them infinitely careful to preserve their Innocence But those who had already sinned they incouraged to repent and upon their Repentance admitted them again to the Peace of the Church and
or to a Repentance evidenced by actually renewed Obedience 6. At Baptism indeed or when ever we first come to the knowledge of the Truth all past sins are so entirely forgiven and wash'd away by the Blood of Christ that Repentance though it has no time to evidence it self in the Fruits of Righteousness is without all Controversie available to Salvation But when Men who have by Baptism Covenanted solemnly with God for a Holy Life and confirmed that Covenant by other repeated Promises and Resolutions shall yet wilfully live in Sin and notwithstanding the express Threatnings of our Saviour and his Apostles that they who do so shall not inherit the Kingdom of God notwithstanding the earnest Exhortations and Warnings of God's Ministers and notwithstanding the perpetual Reproaches of their own Consciences continue obstinately to do so such Persons have no reason in the World to expect that God will at last accept their late unactive and ineffectual Repentance The penitent Thief was received by our Saviour as any other Infidel undoubtedly may be who towards the end of his Life is convinced of the Truth of the Christian Religion and heartily embraces it but there is nothing like a Promise in Scripture that the unactive Repentance of a Christian who has lived all his Life in notorious Wickedness shall be accepted at the Hour of Death The Labourers who were hired into the Vineyard at the eleventh Hour received indeed the same Wages with them that had born the burden and heat of the Day but our Saviour has no where promised that baptized and professed Christians who are hired into the Vineyard in the Morning if they riot away all the Day in Idleness and Wickedness shall at Night be accepted for their professing their Sorrow that they have not wrought 7. Let those Men consider these things who resolve now to enjoy the Pleasures of Sin for a season and hope hereafter by a late Repentance to get a share also in the eternal Rewards of Virtue Let them consider that they may be cut off in the midst of their Hopes or that they may be as unwilling to repent hereafter as they are at present But above all let them consider That though they should live to that time when they shall be willing to leave their Sins because the strength of their Temptations will cease yet they cannot be sure that God will then accept them The express Condition of the Gospel is that we seek first the Kingdom of God that we deny our selves and that we overcome the World How slender therefore must be the hopes of those who spend their Life and Strength in the enjoyments of this World and make Religion not their first but their last Refuge Are the Glories of Heaven so inconsiderable Or is the Duty we owe to God so small that he should accept our coldest and most unwilling Service Offer the Blind for Sacrifice offer the Lame and Sick offer it now unto thy Governour will he be pleased with thee How much less will God accept us when we are least fit to serve him and in those Days wherein we our selves have no Pleasure 8. Terrible are the Threatnings which the Scripture denounceth against those who refuse to hear the Voice of God when he calleth and to seek him whilst he may be found Because I have called and ye refused I have stretched out my hand and no Man regarded but ye have set at nought all my Counsel and would have none of my Reproof I also will laugh at your Calamity I will mock when your Fear cometh When your Fear cometh as Desolation and your Destruction cometh as a Whirlwind when Distress and Anguish cometh upon you Then shall they call upon me but I will not answer they shall seek me early but they shall not find me For that they hated Knowledge and did not chuse the Fear of the Lord Prov. 1. 24 c. When the Jews whom God had saved out of the Land of Egypt and was grieved with them forty Years in the Wilderness and had brought them to the Borders of the promised Canaan despised that good Land and refused to enter therein he sware unto them in his Wrath that they should not enter into his Rest And when afterward they resolved to go up and possess it he suffered them not Esau in like manner for one morsel of Bread sold his birthright And afterward when he would have inherited the Blessing the Scripture tells us that he was rejected for he found no place of Repentance though he sought it carefully with tears All which things the Apostle declares plainly to be written for our Example Lest there be any Fornicator or profane Person among us as Esau was and lest any among us tempt God as the Jews also tempted and fall after the same Example of Unbelief 9. Let those therefore who have yet the Time before them consider what they have to do Let them be careful to hearken unto the Voice of God to Day whilst it is called to Day Let them be zealous to improve that Time and those Talents wherewith God has blessed them that when their Master cometh he may find them so doing and bid them as having been good and faithful Servants to enter into the Joy of their Lord. 10. The Summ of this Point is this When a Christian has lived wickedly all his Life and comes at his last extremity to be convinced of his Folly and to desire to Amend how far the Mercy of God may possibly extend it self we cannot tell and therefore such a one is not to be absolutely swallowed up in compleat Despair But to all those who have yet any space and opportunity left it ought to be strongly and perpetually inculcated that the Gospel Covenant allows not the least hopes to any other Repentance than such as has time to evidence it self in the actual and persevering Obedience of a Holy Life CHAP. IV. That true Repentance must be Great And of Penance 1. SEcondly True Repentance ought to be very Great that is he that repents ought to affect his Mind with such a deep Sorrow and hatred of Sin as will put him upon those afflictive Duties of Fasting Watching Praying Humiliation Liberal Alms and the like 2. And the Reason of this is First Because in many Cases Repentance cannot otherwise be evidenced to be real and sincere True Repentance is an effectual change of Mind and an actual amendment of Life And as a bare change of Mind is not an acceptable Repentance unless it produces an actual amendment of Life so neither is a bare amendment of Life unless it proceeds from a real change of Mind There are many Cases wherein a Man may leave off committing an habitual Sin and yet not truly repent of it Some accidental change of the Circumstances of his Life some present worldly and temporal Interest or some other like Cause may restrain a Man from continuing in a customary Sin and
I shall not now nicely dispute certain it is that nothing is more reasonable than that those who place their Happiness in the Enjoyments of this Life should come short of the Glories of the next We all know how short and transitory the present Life is and the Scripture every where tells us that we are Strangers and Sojourners in the World we are now only in a state of Trial and travelling as it were through a strange Country to our proper Home Whilst we are at home in the Body we are absent from the Lord 2 Cor. 5. 6. And here we have no continuing City but we seek one to come Heb. 13. 14. Now therefore if Men will stop in the midst of their Journey and make their Inn their Home If they will place their Happiness in those things which God has given them only as Conveniences for their present state what can be more reasonable than that God should assign them their Portion in those things Man's Soul is Spiritual and Immortal and by the nobleness of its Nature exalted above the Vanities of this present Life and though by being immersed in Body it be necessitated to converse with sensible and corporeal things yet does it thirst after more pure and refined Objects it can look beyond this World to its native Country and knows that its proper Happiness is by imitating the Life of God to be made partaker of his Glory Now if Men notwithstanding all this will take up with sensual and earthly Enjoyments if they will clog the flight of the Soul and stake it down to these ignoble Objects if they will set their Hearts and Affections on these things which God has given them as matter for the exercise of their Virtue what can be more Just than that God should suffer them to satiate themselves with their beloved Pleasures and deny them those nobler ones which they so little esteemed 'T is certain the Blessings of this World are Talents committed to our Charge which God expects we should lay out to his Glory and the Benefit of the World and to whom he has committed many of them of him he will require the more He expects we should do what good we can with them which is called in Scripture giving out our Money to the Exchangers that when our Lord cometh he may receive his own with Usury Now if instead of this we enjoy these things wholly our selves and employ them only to the serving our own worldly Designs what can be more reasonable than that God should suffer them to be our Portion and Reward The Pharisees in our Saviour's time were notoriously covetous and worldly minded doing even their acts of Charity meerly for the praise of Men and our Saviour repeats it no less than thrice in the Sixth of St. Matthew that They had their Reward The rich Jews also made generally no other Use of their Riches than to live in Ease and Pleasure in Gaiety and Splendour and our Saviour tells them that they had received their Consolation 21. The Happiness of Heaven is a great and glorious Reward and they who will be accounted worthy to obtain that World and the Resurrection from the Dead must be content not to live a soft and easie a sensual and voluptuous Life but to labour diligently and to work out their own Salvation with fear and trembling Our Saviour compares the Kingdom of Heaven to a Pearl of great price which when a Merchant-man found he sold all that he had and bought it and whoever hath worthy Notions of the things that God hath prepared for them that love him can never think any thing hard to purchase so great a Treasure St. Paul compares the Reward of Virtue to a Crown for which they who run in a Race run all but one receiveth the Prize And if they who strive for the Mastery to obtain a corruptible Crown are temperate in all things that is are careful to prepare their Bodies beforehand for the Race that they may run not uncertainly but so that they may obtain how much more ought we to bring the Body into subjection and by Temperance prepare it for the Christian Warfare who are to strive for an incorruptible and never-fading Crown 22. The History of our Saviour is an Example as of a Life not morose and retired from the World so of a Life very far from being sensual and voluptuous He utterly despised all the Grandeur and Pleasures of the World and willingly endured the scorn and contempt of obstinate and malicious Men that he might establish the Worship and true Religion of God He went about doing good making that the whole Business of his Life and cheerfully submitting to undergo any hardship that he might instruct the Ignorant or relieve the Distressed And if we hope at last to be made partakers of his Glory we must resolve now in some measure to imitate his Life who has left us an Example that we should follow his steps The Lives of all the Saints of God who have gone before us are eminent Examples not of Ease and Softness but either of great Sufferings for the Cause of Religion or of great Zeal and Pains in it The Patriarchs who lived before our Saviour and saw the Promises only afar off confessed that they were Strangers and Pilgrims in the Earth and that their Hopes were fixed upon a better Country that is an Heavenly and all the Primitive Christians who first followed our Saviour and saw the Promises fulfilled did either through Persecutions become naked destitute and afflicted or by their boundless Charity and Contempt of the World did almost make themselves so And if we hope to have our Portion among these Servants of the most High in that general Assembly and Church of the First-born in that heavenly Jerusalem the City of the living God we must in some proportion conform our selves to the imitation of their Zeal their Labour and their Patience and not be wholly carried away with the coldness and indifferency of a careless and corrupted Age. They generally parted with all things for the sake of Christ and certainly we are at least bound not to fasten our Affections so strongly upon the things of this World as hardly to be able to deny our selves any thing Their Temperance their Abstinence and their Contempt of the World was almost incredible and excessive and assuredly we cannot with the same Hopes spend our whole Lives in nothing but Softness Gallantry and Pleasure In fine Their Charity was wonderful and boundless extending it self even to such Instances as we can hardly think credible and can we imagine that we are not obliged to do at least something and to take some Pains for the Glory of God and for the Good of Men 23. Lastly If these things seem hard and tend to intrench too much upon the Pleasures of Life consider the conclusion and final upshot of things Consider what Opinion we