Selected quad for the lemma: fire_n
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A35149
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Two sermons preach'd before the condemn'd criminals at Newgate, 1695 by B. Crooke.
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Crooke, B. (Banks), b. 1658.
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1695
(1695)
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Wing C7229; ESTC R24803
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18,708
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62
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motive we go at the very moment we resolve and the strength or weakness of our Resolutions but 't is Time only can shew us to our selves Hence the Promises that are made when the fear of the Grave is upon us and the Righteous Tribunal almost in our view are justly liable to suspicion and seldom last longer than the Occasion of them and nothing is more ordinary than to see the most Profligate Sinner when under the apprehension of Death very sorrowful for his past Sins and making the highest Protestations That if God would but spare him he would become a new Creature and yet to think that all who do this go to Heaven is certainly an Opinion the most destructive to Practical Christianity that can possibly be invented I doubt not but you who have been so very sollicitous to urge your Friends to mediate for your Pardons have sometimes applied your selves to God though I 'm afraid not with the same fervour and concern and I believe you have made many Vows of a better life if life had been lengthen'd to you but the date of that is almost run out and therefore here you may behold the imminent danger of your Condition in the impossibility that lies on you to know or try the sincerity of your hearts in the performance of this part of Repentance for a part of Repentance I allow it to be You may indeed make Resolutions but you have not time to prove your selves as to the keeping of them without which all Resolution is nothing but Fallacy and Deceit nay without question your own Hearts can dictate terrible things to you on this account Have not many of you made former Resolutions as strongly to appearance as you can do now and yet you have broke them and 't was the breach of them that brought you hither Believe not then your own selves too much trust not your Hearts too apt to be deceived and which have actually deceiv'd you heretofore in this very matter but do every thing that shall be advis'd you to take of all suspicion Freely give God the Glory and ascribe your Detection and Punishment to the Eye of his Justice Sincerely take shame to your selves and candidly lay the cause of your Ruin at your own door make no trivial Excuses alledge no Pretences and leave not the least sting on your Consciences discharge them to the utmost and without any reserve do all the whole little you can toward making your peace with Heaven and then you may the better believe your selves and in your Circumstances have the best reason to believe your God in his abundant Mercy may accept of those Resolutions you unfeignedly make instead of those Actions you have not time to perform And you will immediately and without any artifice or disguise close with this Advice if attentive to the Second General now to be discours'd on which is in plain and express terms to shew you what the Duty of Repentance is to which so valuable a Blessing as Forgiveness of Sins is annext and an infinite unvaluable Blessing it would be to you because without it you must in a very short time become everlastingly miserable And here not to raise false Schemes the product of Presumption and deceitful Hopes let us go to the Law and the Prophets to Christ and his Apostles and there we shall be sure to find what true Repentance is When the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness that he hath committed and does that which is lawful and right he shall save his soul alive says the Prophet Ezek. 18. 27. He that covereth his sins shall not prosper but he that confesses and forsakes them shall have mercy says the Wiseman Prov. 28. 13. Bring forth fruits meet for repentance says the Fore-runner of Christ Matth. 3. 8. And Christ himself Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire Matth. 7. 19. To all which agrees his Apostle in the Text Repent and be converted that your sins may be blotted out So that to turn away from sin to forsake it to bring forth fruits meet for repentance to repent and be converted are equivalent Terms and mean the same thing in the style of the Holy Scriptures And the reason that God himself Ezek. 18. 28. gives for his pardoning a Sinner is not because he grieves or resolves but because he considers that is upon mature deliberation turns away from the transgressions that he has committed From all which places and a multitude of others to the same purpose it will inevitably follow That Repentance is the solid change of our Life not a Recantation in words or Tears only but a practical retracting our former evil ways a leaving and forsaking our trade and course of sinning and living righteously soberly and godly in this present world Repentance is properly an habit not a few doleful wishes of amendment forc'd from us by the imminent danger our Sins have meritoriously plung'd us in For when our Iniquities by a firm custom are become familiar to us and adopted into our very Temper when we have for a long time given up our selves into the full and intire possession of them and acted them with all manner of greediness t is unreasonable to suppose they can be conquer'd by a few single Acts or fearful Resolutions of the mind we may as well believe our selves capable of apprehending the most intricate of doing the most difficult things at first sight we may on as good grounds expect to remove a Chronical Distemper and tear up all the Seeds of it with one Dose of Physick or at once to change the frame and turn of our Bodies grown up with us to move swiftly and regularly backward or on a sudden to alter any other setled state or posture we have been accustom'd to from our Infancy as to think our selves with careless speed and ease able to break down the strong-holds of Sin or loose those perplext cords of Wickedness so often thrown about us No this must be the effect of much concern and thoughtfulness of great strugling and contending of fervent Prayers and repeated Petitions to the Throne of Grace and we must exert the whole force and power of our Souls before we can any way hope to accomplish it And therefore no mistake has drawn a longer train of Evils with it or produc'd more unhappy consequences to the Souls of men than the common Opinion that possesses most Christians and persuades them that Repentance is a sudden and momentary Act which begins and is perfected on the Mind in an instant 't is this weakens every Argument for a Good life and makes people leave all things of the other World to the last periods of their abodein this and then they usually call for help and ask What they shall do to be saved When in their own Consciences they know they can do scarce any thing at all and then must One come and as they call