law and then predetermines the act of transgressing the disobedience the doing contrary to that law that first forbids eating of the tree of knowledge and then predetermins Adam's will to choose and eat what was forbidden is by his decree guilty of the commission of the act and by his law the cause of its being an obliquitie And indeed if the obliquitie which renders the act a sinful act be it self any thing it must necessarily follow that either God doth not predetermine all things or that he predetermines the obliquitie And regularity bearing the same proportion of relation to any act of duty as obliquitie doth to sin it cannot be imagined that the author of the sinful act should not be the author of the obliquitie as well as the author of the pious act is by the disputers acknowledged to be the author of the regularity of it § 33. The complaint of the Gods in Homer will best shut up this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O how unjustly mortal men accuse and charge the Gods saying that their evils are from them when the truth is that they by their own wretchless courses bring mischiefs upon themselves above which their fate or decree of the Gods can be deem'd to have brought upon them And accordingly it is one of the excellent lessons of the Pythagoreans in their golden verses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This thou must know that the evils that men fall under are brought upon them by their own choises On which even Chrysippus the Stoick and great asserter of fate hath thus commented 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Evils or mischiefs come to every man from himself it being certain that by their own incitation they both sin and suffer and that according to their own minde and purpose This being so farre distant from the doctrine of fatality it may well be wondred how Chrysippus that asserted that under the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the chain and the decree and defined it saith Gellius sempiterna quaedam indeclinabilis series rerum catena volvens semetipsa sese implicans per aeternos consequentiae ordines ex quibus apta connexáque est an eternal and unavoidable series and chain of things folding and involving it self within it self by eternal courses of consequence by which it is framed and connected Or in his own dialect that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a natural complication of all things from all eternal one thing following another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that complication being such as cannot be changed could believe himself or reconcile this comment or that verse with his great principles And indeed Cicero hath past a right sentence of it Chrysippus astuans laboránsque quonam pacto explicet fato fieri omnia esse aliquid in nobis intricatur Chrysippus contending and labouring how to reconcile these two propositions that all things are done by fate and yet that something is in our own power is intangled and cannot extricate himself This Master of the Stoicks was prest saith Gellius with these inconvenient consequences of his doctrine of decrees that then the sins of men were not to be charged on their wills but to be imputed to a necessity and pressing which arose from fate that it must be unjust to make laws for the punishing of offenders To which he had nothing to say but this that though if you look upon the first cause all is thus fatally decreed and chain'd yet the dispositions of each man's minde are only so farre subject to fate as is agreeable to their own properties and qualities as saith he when a man tumbles a cylindre or roller down an hill 't is certain that the man is the violent enforcer of the first motion of it but when it is once a tumbling the quality and propriety of the thing it self continues and consummates it In this witty resemblance of that Stoick these three things must be consider'd First that the Cylindre the instance that he thought fit to pitch on is an inanimate livelesse trunk which hath nothing of choise or will in it Secondly that neither the weight of the matter of which 't is made nor the round voluble form of it which two meeting with a precipice or steep declivity doe necessarily continue the motion of it are any more imputable to that dead choisless creature then the first motion of it was supposed to be and therefore thirdly that this cannot be a fit resemblance to shew the reconcileableness of fate with choise or the reasonableness of charging on mens wills what was inevitably produced by their fate or of punishing them for those acts which they are necessarily driven to commit To which purpose it may be remembred that neither is the Cylindre charged with sin whether by God or men nor any punitive law enacted by either against its rolling down the hill nor indeed are such charges or such laws ever brought in or enacted against any actions of any other creature plant or beast till you ascend to man who is supposed to have a will and not to be under such inevitable fatal laws but to be as that excellent man Pomponius Atticus was wont to say the forger of his own fate the framer of his fortune which yet should be as improper to be applied to or affirm'd of a man as of any other creature if all his actions were as irreversibly predetermined as the descent of heavy bodies or the ascending of light i. e. if Chrysippus's Cylindre and the motion thereof were a commodious instance or resemblance of this matter But the truth is the man was acute and dextrous could say as much for the reconciling of contradictions as another and though this last age hath considered this question very diligently and had the advantages of the writings of the former ages to assist them yet he that shall impartially make the comparison will finde that the antient Philosophers have written more subtilely in this matter and are more worth out reading then any of our modern Schools he that shall survey Hierocles on the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ammonius on Aristotles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in shewing the nature of contingent and necessary propositions the Christian Philosopher Boethius lib. 2. de consolatione philosophiae will I believe be convinced of the truth of what I say and when the Master of them Chrysippus was so unable to speak intelligible sense or extricate himself in this business 't will be lesse matter of wonder to us that they which have espoused this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should endevour as improsperously to reconcile this with other notions of piety and to extricate themselves out of a Labyrinth not of fewer but more difficulties God having most clearly revealed to Christian that as he rewardeth every man according to his works so he requireth of him according to what he hath in
warring against the law of the minde v. 23. and upon the same account even to be carnal and sold under sin v. 14. all which must equally belong to the person which is there represented of whom equally in the first person they are all affirm'd § 4. That that chapter is really a representation of one which hath only the knowledge not practise of his duty and consequently to the sinnes which he commits hath the aggravation superadded of committing them against knowledge against conscience against sight of the contrary law is manifest from the context and hath elsewhere more seasonably been evidenced And of this I need not many words to declare how farr it is from being so much as any part of Repentance any one of the ingredients in it being indeed no more then either the work of natural conscience or farther of the minde instructed by the Law of Moses but that not of force to work the least obedience in the man but supposed in that text to be joyn'd with all customary disobedience and captivity to sin and consequently that if this be mistaken for that which it is so farre removed from being natural or legal knowledge of duty despised and transgrest for sincere obedience to all the commandments of God and the former of these by so absurd irrational a concession be deemed sufficient to render his estate safe whosoever hath arrived to this this must needs annull and cassate all the force of all the Articles of the Creed although never so firmly and explicitly believed toward bringing forth good life i. e. Repentance truly understood this supposititious no-repentance being once contentedly received and espoused in exchange for it § 5. For who will ever take the pains to maintain a painful ungrateful perhaps bloody fight against the Law of sin that is in his members 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which are the works of the penitentiary on neglect of which the valiantest combatant may prove a reprobate 1 Cor. 9.27 if so much lesse then a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or beating the aire v. 26. a bare dislike or displeasure of the law of the minde without ever coming into the field will serve the turn to secure him of the crown § 6. So again they that like the popular Prince are unwilling to dismisse any man without his request and therefore when they finde not a man penitent if they can but obtain of him to wish that he were penitent or to grieve that he cannot ascend so high as that wish are content to accept that wish or that grief for that Repentance which alone is the condition required by Christ to rescue from perishing What doe these again but wilfully mistake that for Repentance nay is by them that affirm it is presumed and supposed not to be For if there had been any thing that could have approved it self to be Repentance they had never descended to those low enquiries after the wish and the grief Nay the wish they had Repentance is founded in the presumption they have it not and the grief that they have not the wish is again a concession that they have not so much as that And if they may be capable of comfort who are so farre from being true penitents reform'd new livers that the utmost they are arrived to toward it is but an empty ineffectual wish that they were such without considering the price that must be payd the pleasant espoused sins that must be parted with if their wish were granted then what need all that Christian life those many years of severe devotion and profitable service that the Apostles meant and all Ministers endevour to superstruct on this foundation § 7. So that frequent practise though not doctrine of the many of secure spending in sin the youth and riper age and even all the remainder till the forerunners of death and hell make their close approaches to them and never doubt but the whole condition required by Christ the Repentance he came to preach will in that last scene of their last act immediatly before the exit be as opportunely and acceptably performed as at any other point of their lives What doe these but evacuate the whole force of the Christian faith and absolutely resolve against building of Christian life upon it § 8. The unreasonableness and presumption the danger and desperate insecurity of those that thus project and in stead of that whole age of vital actions which are all little enough be they never so liberally dispensed and never so duly perform'd vastly disproportionable to that eternal Crown which we know is adjudged a reward to every man according to his works have not so much as a thought or designe all their lives long nor till those last fearful summons extort it from them to advance so farre as attrition and contrition sorrow and resolution of amendment and then have no means to secure them of the truth and sincerity of these The unreasonableness I say and danger of these is elsewhere largely insisted on but never sufficiently lamented being that which is the debauching all parts of the world a presumption that ingages in all sin and ruine ascertains the life to be wholly unprofitable and hath the luck among all professions of Christians to have aides and officers diligent to offer it some encouragements The Romanists have many formerly named and their extreme Vnction administred as the dying mans viaticum which S. James mention'd as the ceremony of his recovery may be added to the Catalogue And others of severall perswasions have made them other tenders of kindnesse and being unwilling to discourage such cunctators alwaies keep them up in good hope that if they are not yet called for that is the style to expresse any impenitent obdurate sinner they may yet with the thief be brought in at the last hour and so to omit the desperate gulf they are by these vain hopes if God shew not miracle most sadly plunged in are ascertain'd never to superstruct any vital action on that Divine foundation so fitly prepared for it § 9. If there be any that mistake sorrow for sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which it is very ordinary to finde in those who carry it to hell with them and which continues in that state of woe as Charity doth in heaven and confound it with repentance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is never lesse then a conversion and change of minde these by obtruding an unsufficient part for the whole the beginning of a change for the entire work of new life will fall under the former guilt of obstructing this superstructure and so in a word will all they that either through indulgence to others or fondness to any sinne in themselves substitute for Repentance any thing that is lesse then a sincere uniform Resolution of New obedience attended with faithful endevour and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 meet proportionable worthy fruits of
instances is intimated and must be supplied by parity of reason all the contradictions to the several branches and degrees of those branches of the divine or moral law § 9. Secondly that to impose on our selves or others by this fallacie to believe or pretend that whatever our own hearts incite us to doe what they suggest or dictate is the Spirit or word or revelation of the will of God within us is the principle of all villanie the same that hath alwaies acted in the children of disobedience inhaunsed and improved with circumstances of greater boldness and impudence then ever the most abominable heathens were guilty of either in their Oracles or in their mysteries § 10. In their Oracles though their Idol-priests who had the inclosure of this cheat gave responses out of the Caverns of the earth and set up the devil by the advantage of his foreseeing some things in their causes and conjecturing at others above the omniscient God of heaven yet they affixed not the answers of their devils to the true God They worshipped Idols and disclaimed any portion in the true God turned all knowledge or profession of him out of their hearts according to that reasonable proposition of S. Paul 2 Cor. 6.14 15. that there is no possible agreement to be had betwixt light and darkness But these by their refined pretension doe in effect and by way of necessary consequence and direct interpretation turn the God of heaven into that accursed Spirit affix on him receive and deliver as the effata and oracles of God whatsoever the devil or their own lust or revenge or pride or ambition or covetousness so many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spontaneous devils can infuse into them and out of their black hearts as out of the most noysome caverns and dens of the earth holding intercourse with hell breath out and deliver to the world § 8. So again in their mysteries and most secret recesses and adyta of their religion their heathen Priests were wont to betray and lead their silly votaries into all the most horrid unnatural sins as into a special part of the devotions and worships required of them by the Gods whom they had undertaken to serve But yet never thought fit to let them out of the dark out of the retirement but by banishing the eyes of men gave witness against themselves accused those facts which were not able to bear the light to which the Apostle seems to referre Ephes 5.13 and so had the excuse of some bashfulness and self-accusation and care not to scandalize other men whilst these that make their own lust their own malice and revenge the voice of the true God the Spirit within them are thereby qualified to act the horrid'st sins avowedly shamelesly and have no checks left no coldness but where they have no temptations no dislikes no shame no objections to any thing but to tenderness to scrupulosity to fear of offending to the doing what they doe in bondage as they call it i. e. to all the reliques or embers of conscience remaining in them and if they can but utterly and finally cast out this fear they are hereby delivered up really to the evil spirit while they most pretend to the guidance of the good The pretended Spirit of God within them by suggesting sins gives a full confidence and security to commit them and then Scripture and conscience and temper and a tolerable degree of good nature any thing lower then the utmost evil is the thing only to be mortified the one piece of criminous carnality to be burnt up § 12. Thus by turning one pin in the machine the whole scene is shifted and this voice as if an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that comes out of our own bellies being mistaken for the still language in which God was once heard a congregation of Christians may be soon inspired into a legion of Demoniacks and onely one but that a teeming fruitful error be committed all this while the mistaking our own motions for the incitation of the Spirit of God which till it be reformed or retracted it must be a shortness of discourse to think strange and an injustice to charge of any new crime the infallible consequences of it and such are all the barefaced villanies in the world § 13. For as he that is so sure and confident of his particular election as to resolve he can never fall if he commit those acts or live in those habits against which the words of Scripture are plain that they that doe them shall not inherit eternal life must necessarily resolve that what were drunkenness or adultery in another is not so in him and nothing but the removing his Fundamental error can rescue him from the superstructive be it never so grosse So to this one grand mistake the judging of God's will by the bent of our own spirits all vicious enormous practises even to the taking away of all differences between good and evil are regularly consequent and cannot seem strange to attend daily where the other hath taken up the lodging CHAP. XVIII Of the Mistakes concerning Repentance § 1. ONE sort of doctrines more I cannot but annex here though I have elsewhere already insisted on them and those are the mistakes in the Doctrine of Repentance § 2. Repentance whatever that word signifies and that is certainly a sincere change and renovation of minde a conversion of the sinner to God in a new life repentance from dead works Heb. 6.1 is questionless it to which on purpose Christ came to call sinners His whole Embassie from his Fathers bosome was projected and designed for this grand work and so certainly all the preachings of all the Apostles were of the same making that the Gospel tells us the first-fruits were Repent c. And therefore it will concern us neerly not to be mislead in this matter For should we content our selves with somewhat else under the title or disguise of Repentance which is either not-repentance at all or but an imperfect unsufficient part of repentance and by consequence perswade our selves that by performing of this we shall have fully answered Christ's call done all that he came from heaven to require of us 't is visible what an obstacle this is to the rearing that superstructure which was designed to be erected on this foundation § 3. Now to this head will be referred those that from the misunderstanding of Rom. 7. not observing the custome of that Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 figuratively to transferre to himself in the first person what belongs to others have made it reconcileable with regeneration or repentance for those two words certainly signifie one and the same thing in Scripture to be in that state which is there described i. e. to doe what a man allows not but hates v. 15. the evil which he would not v. 19. to be brought into capeivity to the law of sin the law in the members