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
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
Service of God that they are by Confirmation assured of the Assistance of the Holy Spirit and that their Bodies are the Temples of the Holy Ghost which if they keep here in Temperance and Purity in Sanctification and Honour they shall hereafter appear with them in Glory but if they abuse them by any Intimperance or defile them with any Lust they drive away the Spirit whereby they are sealed unto the Day of Redemption and shall forfeit their Life Again on the other hand Those whose Age or Temper or Company or Business places them beyond the Follies and Extravagancies of Youth and out of the way of those Temptations with which others are hurried away continually must not esteem of themselves by their not running into those excesses of Riot to which perhaps they have little or no Temptation but must examine whether they be exactly Just in the Business they are employ'd in whether they be truly Useful and Charitable according to their Ability and whether they be sincerely Careful to resist those Temptations to which their particular Circumstances whatever they be do more especially expose them This is the true Trial of every Man's Sincerity and the most certain Rule by which every one may judge of his own State CHAP. XIII Of Growth in Grace and of Perfection 1. LAstly Strive continually to grow in Grace and press forward towards Perfection So long as we continue in these Houses of Clay encompassed perpetually with the Infirmities of the Flesh the Allurements of the World and the Temptations of the Devil we shall all offend indeed in many things and can never arrive at the Perfection of Virtue Yet unless we strive and press forward towards Perfection we shall never make any tolerable progress He that has no more Zeal for Religion than to desire just to keep within the Borders of Virtue and to escape the Punishment of Vice will in all probability be deceived in his Expectations and find when it is too late that those who are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot are but wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked and shall have no Portion among them that are arraied in fine Linnen which is the Righteousness and the good Works of the Saints He whose Heart is inflamed with an ardent Love of God and a truly zealous desire of the Happiness of Heaven will with St. Paul never think he has already attained or is already perfect enough but forgetting those ihings which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before will always press forward towards the Mark for the price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus He will never think himself good and holy enough but getting continually a more compleat Victory over his Frailties and Infirmities will go from strength to strength in the Improvements of Virtue here till he appear before God in the Perfection of Holiness and of Glory hereafter 2. Think not when you have once attained a clear knowledge of your Duty and framed hearty Resolutions to perform it and begun to live according to that Knowledge and those Resolutions that you are presently in a perfect and confirmed State of Virtue You must frequently review and meditate upon the Particulars of your Duty You must frequently renew and strengthen your good Resolutions and you must always be correcting and amending your Practice Till that which was well resolved upon and bravely begun arrive by the degrees of a diligent and perpetual Improvement to a confirmed Habit and settled Temper of Mind 3. Think not when you have performed your Duty according to the common Measures of Obedience and the vulgarly reputed Bounds of the Obligation of the Christian Laws and when you are by others looked upon as a good and just and holy Person that you are now arrived at the Perfection of Virtue For the Judgment of God is very different from the Opinion of Men and such a Life as is now look'd upon as very good and creditable would in the Times of the Apostles or Primitive Christians have been thought if not scandalous yet at best very cold and indifferent He that will be perfect must be above all Laws and Customs and Opinions and must not limit his Purity of Mind his Contempt of the World and his Desire of doing Good to any Degrees or Rules but must exalt them in proportion to his love of God and his hopes of Happiness 4. Further Think not when upon a loose and general view of your Life your Conscience does not accuse you of any scandalous and deliberate Sins that therefore you have attained to the highest pitch of Virtue There are many Sins with which Men easily impose upon their own Minds much indifferency in Religion and coldness of Devotion many omissions of Duties and neglects of opportunities of doing Good many faults of surprize and indecencies of Passion much sensuality and over-fond Love of the things of this present World many excesses and small degrees of Intemperance which are not to be discovered and overcome without entring into a more strict particular and impartial examination of our Actions and making repeated Resolutions and using constant unwearied Endeavours to correct whatever upon such strict search shall appear to be amiss 5. Many there have been and some even among the Heathens themselves who have every Night strictly examined into the Actions of the past Day that if they had done any thing for which they could reprove themselves they might resolve to be more careful in that Particular for the future and if they found they had in all Points performed their Duty they might confirm and incourage themselves to continue to perform it Others have done this yet more frequently and habitually never going about any thing without a short Thought how they might best act for the Honour of God for the Good of Men or for the Improvement of the Virtues of their own Mind and never having done any thing without a short Reflection whether they had acted so as was most agreeable to these great Ends. 6. These indeed are things not to be imposed upon any Man by any particular Rules but such as must be wholly left to the Discretion of every Man to be used according to each ones Prudence or Zeal Only in general 't is certain That by how much the more frequently a Man examines the Actions of his Life and by how much the more strictly he observes his smaller Failures and by how much the more particularly he resolves and endeavours to correct them by so much the more will his Religion be Uniform and his Obedience Perfect He that uses himself often to consider and to recollect the Particulars of his Duty will perform many things which others know indeed and understand in general but through habitual careless and inconsiderateness omit And he that often searches strictly into the smallest Errors of his Life and prays against them and resolves
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
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