even by one Affection because all are joyn'd and united with it For where Sorrow goes Love goes because sorrow is for the want of some good the Souls desires If then sorrow be after God and for Holiness It assures the Soul hath a springing Love for God and Holiness and in the distance it apprehends it self from these it laments Where sorrow goes there hatred also goes For sorrow arises from some evil that the Soul hates and abhors that presses in upon it In sorrow after God sin and the wrath and displeasure of God is what the Soul hates and it finding these near and closing upon it it sorrows and laments that they may be cast out and removed And how do these the Love of God and hatred of sin work to Repentance And thus also it might be shewn How Fear Hope Joy Delight move as sorrow moves The Apostle knowing with what a strength and force and presence the Affections move writes to the Colossians c. 2. To set their Affections on things above For if the Affections are so set the Spirit and Soul will be so set and therefore the whole man will be so set Oâ— the contrary the sorrow of the World carries the strength of the Soul the Affections on the World which not able to sustain and bear up an Immortal Spirit it often destroys the Body by Violence and leaves the Soul to sink also the Spirit to fall down from God which is the Death of it 2. The Affection of sorrow is the Affection that is most properly conversant about sin and the consequences of it the wrath and displeasure of God the curse and evil Now then as sin is a departure from God the fountain of Life and happiness the supreme good and so ushers in and introduces all unhappiness so sorrow that is after God begins in the apprehension of God and of his Law and so descends on all the evil consequential or following on the loss of God But the sorrow of the World not beginning with God fetters it self with the Evils which press upon it with relation to the present World which can never be well removed without removing the principal cause sin and the displeasure of God for it But to this the sorrow of this World hath no regard and so is never cured but becomes of a peice with the sorrows of the second Death For so all sorrow here not Healed by the repentance to Salvation not to be repented of which Heals the sorrow after God becomes one with the sorrows of Hell and everlasting wailing By godly sorrow therefore sorrow is made to be its own Death and Plagues For working repentance to Salvation never to be repented of When it is sorrow after God it is the Destruction of all sorrow For it can be no longer but as Scripture speaks forrow and sighing shall flee away and there shall be no more sorrow As it came in by sin so by sin Repented of and Pardoned it for ever ceases and vanishes away So sorrow is conversant about its proper object and cause and it hath the great effect of removing it self and of it self loosing it self in that Joy that follows upon the Salvation of that Repentance it self hath wrought which must needs make an end of Sorrow or Perfects it into it self never to be Repented of 3. The serviceableness of godly sorrow to Repentance is that this Affection of all the Affections or Passions of the human Soul is that which makes it wise and considerative seeing Repentance then that is to Salvation is a most Wise and prudent grace This Affection of sorrow is most preparatory and contributary to it The sorrow after God is no Ignorant or unreasonable Passion or Affection call'd Attrition no superstitious Pennance or ceremony of Sorrow not a mere softness and dissolving into Tears not any desultory Passion that falls into some morning Dew or as it were heat Drops but a deep inward trouble that we have offended God and sinn'd against him and endangered our selves to Eternity by our sins And however there may be at first some sudden stroke or Impression and a Passion upon it that may go off yet it is indeed a spring that dis-embogues it self through the whole course of a Christians Life There is a sorrow and a relenting of Soul that is a soft Dew or Distillation from the Soul upon it self that makes it very tender humble and Apprehensive of the Evil of Sin of the Ingratitude and unthankfulness of having sinned against God and given Offence to the Eyes of his Holiness and of his Glory And as this arises from understanding so it begets understanding and close Consideration It is observ'd in Nature that sorrow and sadness encline to Wisdom and attentness of Mind Vexation gives understanding is a saying And hereunto the wise King Solomon agrees Eccles 7.3 c. sorrow is better than laughter It is better to go to the house of Mourning than to the house of Feasting for the Living will lay it to Heart And by the sadness of the Countenance the Heart is made better In the day of Adversity consider that is the proper season of it Generally our Mirth and Rejoycing is too lighr and flashy it scatters and sets the Spirits in wandring I said of Laughter it is Mad and of Mirth what does it As the cracking of Thorns under a Pot so the Laughter of Fools is Vanity Sorrow is like a shade that congregates and gathers up the Spirits to think and weigh and poize things Sorrow loves solitude and so the Repenting Person is described he sitteth alone and keepeth silence because he hath born it upon him Lam. 3.28 Vanity and folly the pleasures of sin that are but for a season cannot endure the tediousness and melancholly of an Hour alone And this is the unhappiness of mankind they cannot endure to be alone and to speak with themselves I hearken'd and heard but no man spake aright Jerem. 8.6 or said What have I done We are so naturally for Diversion They that are not so mad as to to be for the roar and madness of Company yet they cannot be content without what we call Divertisement and Merryment and cannot endure sorrow and sadness Let us now but ask our selves whether we think Solomon was a Wise Man or not and whether he was not in circumstances of greatest advantages to rejoyce in all the Pleasure Mirth and Enjoyment of this World which he calls Laying hold on folly Eccles 2.1 c. while yet he acquainted his Heart with Wisdom to understand what was the utmost amount or to be had from all the Entertainments of that kind And when he assures us as he does that Mirth is but Madness and the Laughter of this World so unreasonable that no Man can tell what it serves for or to what purpose it is and that he so much commends sorrow to us let us then take Counsel with our selves whether he spake wisely or not
to Salvation It is a great and certain security against Ruin Damnation Perishing for ever 2. It shall not only be a security from Damnation but an assurance of a state of Life Glory Blessedness 3. There shall never be the least cause to Repent to look back with Sorrow or Regret that we have Repented For we shall find we have lost no good we have run upon no evil in having Repented 4. It shall give us Reason of everlasting Joy Rejoycing Triumph Blessing and Adoring God in Christ we have so by his grace Repented to Salvation 5. I will Reduce to the Doctrin of Repentance the sâ—ruples and Cases of Conscience that may arise concerning either the true Doctrinal State of it or the grace of or practise it self of repentance These are the heads I Propose by Divine Grace and Assistance to Discourse the Doctrin and grace of Repentance upon but I find it is in the first place necessary to give some short descriptions of the thing Repentance according to the very importance of the word and of the General Importance and Nature of the Notion or the thing it self The words us'd by the Spirit of God in the Old Testament are either that strict word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word that also signifies Consolating a mans self shewing after sin and offense reflected upon viz. with Gâ—ief and Trouble supposed the greatest consolation is recovery of a mans self by Repentance Or else it is a word that signifies Turning from what a man has bâ—en Turn'd and Posited and set himself â—o before On this Account we meet so often with the words of Turning in the Old Testament and being Converted and Turning in the New The most proper and strict words in the New Testament are either an After Care a Reflection with sorrow and sollicitousness upon what a man hath done with Trouble He did so and a care a caution not to do so any more for the time to come or an after-mind an after-wit an after understanding a transmentation a new Mind a new Heart and Spirit To speak of it therefore in the general Repentance is given by God as a mighty Spiritual Instrument or Engine in the hand of his Grace in the Arm of God made Bare by which the sinful Nature in every true Penitent is unhing'd uncenter'd from sin and corruption It is a return of the Soul home to it self after a Spiritual Phrensy and Madness The Prodigal is said to come to himself It is a return to its Fathers House after a long bewildred State This my Son was lost and is found But beyond all this it is a Spiritual Resurrection a return from Death to Life This my Son was Dead and is A Live Luke 15. And indeed as there is no notion of Scripure that is more suited to express the corrupt Nature of Man than Death so the first Threat Ran In the day thou eatest thereof Gen. 2.17 thou shalt dye the Deatb Death hy sin passed upon all Dead in Trespasses Rom. 5.12 Ephes 2.1 and sins Vniversal Death And so in the Levitical Law there was no greater uncleanness than the Touch of a Dead Body Accordingly when the Apostle Heb. 6. names Repentance among the grand Fundamentals or Principles of the Doctrin of Christ He calls it Repentance from Dead Works or Re-enstating the Soul in Life after sin or Works as Unclean and Loaâ—hsome as a Dead Body removed from the sight of the Living Or as a Dead Body was in the Eye of God under the Levitical Law This is the general Notion of Repentance but it may be further Explain'd in these three Particulars and yet in a general way 1. Repentance is an inward sincere habitual Change of the Heart and of the design and purpose and so of the outward Action and Course of Life and Conduct of a mans ways arising from an utter dislike of his former Counsel Purpose and Design and the course of Conversation Life and Action proceeding from it so that it becomes wholly New This is the generel Nature of Repentance as it looks to the government of a mans self and of his Actions Now this in Scripture and Evangelical Repentance is the change from sin to Holiness from a worldly state and conversation to an Heavenly and from the Creature to God and to Christ an utter dislike of and trouble at the former Regiment and steerage of a mans course so as utterly to forsake it and with sorrow shame and astonishment to say to his sinful ways so contrary to the Rules of Holiness Righteousness and Purity Get ye hence and what have I to do any more with you I will now guide my self by the word of my God and hate every false way Psal 119. This is that oâ— which Scripture is full every where the through amending she ways and doings which were not good the wicked man forsaketh his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and returns to the Lord Jerem. 7.3 Esay 55.7 Acts 3.26 James 4 8. Rom. 6.21 Christ blesses in Turning us every one from our Iniquities Cleanse your Hands you sinners and Purify your Hearts you double minded What profit had you in these things whereof you are now ashamed For the end of those things is Death 1 Cor. 6.11 such were some of you But now ye are washed c. 2. Repentance as it looks to an offended Person is full of sorrow that it hath offended moves earnestly to Pardon and Reconciliation and is ready to make use of any powerful Mediator in order to Reconciliation and desires ever after to please and to offend no more and herein the Affections are all mov'd according to the degrees of obligation Now in Scripture and Gospel Repentance the offending person the sinner hath â—o do with God the offended person in â—â—d through Christ and so bewails offence and moves earnestly to Pardon and Reconciliation with Gâ—d by the Mediation of Christ and with Christ â—or his own Names sake I beseech thee O Lord Take away the Iniquity of thy Servant Hos 14.3 â—ake away all Iniquities Receive us gâ—aciously And here also â—â—ises an ingenuous sorrow shame and confusion â—hat we have offended a God so Good so Holy so Wise so Tender and Compassionate a Father and despis'd so gracious and obliging a Redeemer David's Heart smâ—te him and he said to the Lord I have sinned in that I have done I have done very foolishly 2 Sam. 24.10 I was ashamed yea even confounded I smote on my thigh Jerem. 31.19 Ezra 9.6 becausâ— I did bear the Reproach of my youth We are ashamed and blush to lift up our Faces They shall under a spirit of Grace and melting sense of God Zach. 12.10 Job 34.31 Deuteron 31 6. 1 Tim. 1 15. look upon him whom they have peirced and mourn It is meet to be said to God If I have offended I will do so no more Oh foolish people and unwise do you ihus requite the
And what shall we think of the words of our Lord Luke 6.21 Blessed are you that Weep and you that Mourn and woe to you that Laugh Now it is not to be supposed that so Good and so Merciful and so Gracious a Saviour as our Lord Jesus Christ is should envy to man any thing that could be to the Good and Welfare of his Nature But he knew how much the Carnal Joy and Mirth that is so common and so much valued among Men lavishes out those Thoughts and Spirits and that Time that should be laid out upon so serious and great things as Reconciliation to God Pardon of Sin Newness of Heart and Life and that Sorrow and Mourning and Weeping are prepared by God as fitted in their Nature to make us more Grave and Pondering of Things and that being Sanctified and in the Hand of his Grace are made use of to bring us home to himself For when men are under sadness finding the prints of the Wrath Justice and Displeasure of God upon them they enquire after the Reason Their sins as to Joseph's Brethren come to their Remembrance They are provoked to move to God by Humiliation Confession of Sin Prayer for Pardon Desire of his Grace and Spirit to enable them to Reform they enquire into his word how they may cleanse their way order their Conversation aright to please him they are moved to consider by these drops and Touches of Sorrow what that state of sorrow without Banks or Bounds or Bottom is where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of Teeth They are taken off from that Pride and Self-Conceit they find so little in all things here below and in this present State that they enquire for those better and greater Things that are Above and in Eternity When sorrow that disposes to strong and serious enquiries becomes sorrow after and according to God Oh! how excellently does it work How do men search Lam. 3.40 and try their ways that they may turn to God Now because of the Order that God hath plac'd sorrow in to all these great Effects therefore our Lord pronounc'd a Blessing upon Weeping and Mourning For else he loves our Joy when it is Spiritual he commands to Rejoyce in the Lord all way and again he says Rejoyce He spoke many great things John 15.11 that our Joy might be full that he might fill our Mouths with Laughter and our Tongues with Singing But our carnal our sensual Joys he knows are our Death and Destruction he knows we are in no better case in our prophane foolish sinful Laughter than they who are stung with the Tarantula and Dye Laughing Thus we have greatest reason in the midst of such Laughter to be Sorrowful and the end of that Mirth will be heaviness Thus it will be bitterness in the latter end therefore he warns us of it before and in greatest Love to us declares a Woe on such Laughter But now to conclude this particular The sorrow of the World How different a thing is it For tho it causes Thoughts and Enquiries yet it is only how to be rid of the Worldly Causes of Sorrow and it turns only to Worldly Remedies And it is very often in a rage at the causes it finds and when either the Remedies are not to be found or fail in their Success it is in a Rage and flies out too often against God and Providence and so it works Death It begins that Hatred of God that Blasphemy and Rage that is in Hell or if it does not thus it is a sullen despondent unactive state of Mind that shuts and seals up all Activity like the Night wherein no Man can Work John 9.4 and so goes down into utter Darkness It either sayâ— This evil is of the Lord 1 Kings 6.33 why should I wait any longer Or like Cain My Iniquities are greater than can be Forgiven and so hastens out from the Presence of God or it recoyls upon it self as Saul Achilophel Judas or the Heart under the Power of it Dies as a stone within it self as Nabals Heart died within him 1 Sam. 25.27 Thus it every way works Death because it hath nothing to do with him who is the Fountain of Life For the Being of God is infinitely happy and blessed and all light and lustre and in him is no Darkness at all of sorrow as not of Sin he therefore when sorrow is after him springs a Light into it that whereas the Dark and Black part arises from sin and the sinful Creature yet because it is after him it shall never set in the darkness of Death and Hâ—ll It receives from him as a Tincture of Holiness so a Tincture of Life a Ray and Beam of it It works Repentance unto Life and to Salvation and so it springs up aftâ—r into Joâ— in his Favour in the Light of his Countenance in the assurance of his Love But the Sorrow of the World is like a Night that no kind of Light at all Enlightens Like the Night Job Cursed it does not turn to the Light because it is not turn'd to God and so is a shade of Hell â—efore Hell it self a valley of the shaddow of Death and the horrors of it are the beginnings of the horrors of Hell As therefore Carnal Joys are sparks of our own kindling Esay 50. notwithstanding which we shall lye down in sorrow even so is sorrow not after God as a black shade of our own 4. The service of sorrow after God to Repentance unto Salvation is that it breaks and forces asunder that sinful Frame in our Hearts of sin and contrariety to God and to Holyness The very Natural Affection of sorrow loosens and Divides the Heart from that which is the Cause and occasion of such sorrow Because that great Self-love the force of that Law of Self-preservation is so strong upon us that seeing sorrow is an Affection that stands in an enmity to our Peace Comfort and Enjoyment and to our Life it self if it be extreme or too long continuing we therefore come off from what is the occasion or that gives reason to our sorrow though we had exceedingly lov'd it before This we find in all Cases and through the whole Nature of Things when therefore sin and loss of the favour of God because of it is made by the grace of God the just Reason and most sensible and prevailing reason of our sorrow It dissolves the Frame of sin in our Heart that had been before compact as the Adamant and as the neither Mill-stone Now this sorrow dividing and separating between sin and the Soul it brings forth that broken and contrite Heart that God will not despise Again This sorrow is a spiritual melting softning and dissolving Thing It separates the Soul every particle as it were from other so that it is supple soft and ready to tâ—ke any figure thaâ— God would have it take It brings the Soul to quick and lively sense which
Christ It is true the new Creation compared with the old is so far as it is new All Miracle Such is Righteousness without Works Regeneration Rom. 4.6 Such is the Incarnation the Resurrection Even as the first Creation and daily Preservation are Miracles compared with that nothing out of which all things were drawn and are still upheld Yet this very miraculous Frame of the Gospel is bounded with certain Laws and Rules and when these are transcended it is a Miracle in this miraculous state of things Now all Instances of miraculous Power are rare and extraordinary and the Reasons of them when they have been have always been great and solemn and when they have been more plentiful in any Age the Reasons have been great for that also And in Miracle it self there hath been always regard to the natural state of things Miracle hath for the most part lifted up Nature only wherein it was either decayed or not planted so high as the very effect to be wrought and just then designed not minding the flourish of it self but the main Intention only We read of no other Circumstances but those of ordinary Mortality into which they that were raised from the Dead in Scripture were exalted only that they were raised to Life In the new Creation so much of the old as would serve in it is generally taken in and the Constitutions that will agree with the design of Grace are upheld for the most part as were easie to manifest Divine Inspiration did not disannul the natural Temper of the Prophets or Apostles but they are easily observable in their Writings Conversion doth not destroy but sanctifie and renew Nature For what doth all this serve but to shew God does as little as may be decline from the first Model of things His Wisdom so deeply contrived Further the new Creation in all things excelling the old as the whole State of it is never antiquated by a higher Revelation so the Laws of it are seldom exceeded by any thing extraordinary yet I acknowledge Instances there are of Extraordinaries even here also The Apostleship was in a manner wholly miraculous yet the calling of the Apostle Paul was something higher than that for whereas the Twelve were trained and educated in the Discipline and Conversation of Christ and express care in the Surrogation of one into the place of Judas Acts 1.21 22. was had of such a Preparation yet the Apostle Paul was suddenly born into that high Function and Authority into which they were gradually admitted But the reason also was very high That there might be so great a Proof of the Power of the Gospel as a Persecutor and Blasphemer Preaching that Faith Acts 9.20 21 22.31 Gal. 1.23 24. he had so notoriously persecuted and on the sudden that it might be without the Suspicion of a Confederacy His very Conversion was a Superabundance of Abundant Grace 1 Tim. 1.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He was not only in a deep Humility of Expression but in the thing it self one of the chiefest of Sinners saved by Christ 1 Tim. 1.15 vers 13. His Sin had been the unpardonable Sin had not Ignorance abated it But upon that solemn account he obtained mercy That in Him Jesus Christ might shew forth a Pattern of all long-suffering 1 Tim. 1. vers 16. This of the Dying Malefactor I Esteem of the same kind and the Reason was extraordinary as I have before observed I have now thus fully discoursed this Particular because it brings me to the ultimate Resolution I can make of this Case that is A Death-Bed Repentance whenever it is true is a Grace and Favour vouchsafed to the Soul in which it is found above the ordinary and general Grace that gives Repentance For it is above these four great Rules of the Gospel wherein also the fundamental Nature of things much conspires 1. That God is jealous of the Glory of his Grace and gives it by the same rule he prescribes to us To day while it is called to day hear his Voice 2. God attempers his Grace to the state of Man's Soul so as not to permit to such a long hardning and accustomedness in Sin those whom he intends to Convert 3. The Ingenuity and Freedom of the Soul necessary to Repentance is not ordinarily possible amidst the Fears and Necessity of Death 4. Fruits meet for Repentance and amendment Life and the glorifying God upon Earth by a holy Conversation are universally required Such a Repentance then must be proportionable to a Miracle a Miracle in Grace Now Miracles are seldom and not but upon such Reasons as exceed the value of those Rules at least in that Case wherein they are over-ruled Reasons of greater Eminency than what daily fall out but it is a daily Reason that Men must either Repent or Perish Such Repentances therefore are very rare and doubtless when they are God gives a lustre to the Reasons why they are In such a measure that Men may say Here is the finger of God ingraving his Wisdom upon his Work And with such a Freedom as our Saviour expresses Luke 4.25 26 27. The practical Conclusion then from hence is this It is as presumptuous a Boast for a Man to think He shall Repent when he comes to die Prov. 27.1 because the Mercy and Power of God are infinite as for him upon the same accounts to leap into Seas or roll himself in Flames without fear of danger Nay It is such a kind of prophane Insolency as some Interpreters give that of Lamech to be Though I should slay a Man in my anger or a Young-man in my Sense of an Injury Gen. 4.23 Paraeus in locum Yet if Cain notwithstanding his Murther was secured by a sevenfold Vengeance from God upon him that should slay him I shall be secured in mine by a Vengeance seventy sevenfold Thus Men say if ever any one for all an irreligious Life was preserved from Hell by a Repentance at last I need not fear but I shall Both agree in a bold claim of the Sovereign actings of God for their own safety in Sin 4. Below all these Impossibilities as in Nature there are great difficulties that are not usually overcome and yet in things possible without a Miracle so there are also in Grace Our Saviour tells us It is easier for a Camel to go through the eye of a needle Mat. 19.23 c. than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven His prejudices and prepossessions are so many his temptations and intanglements are so great The Prophet says Can a Blackamore change his skin Jer. 13.23 or a Leopard his spots then ye that are accustomed to do evil may learn to do well All delay'd Repentances are very uneasie some Divines observing few Conversions after the fortieth Year of Life But of these though all Men ought to apprehend the danger I should say that no Man might be insnared as
in a clear light and full leisure 3. For the severity of God in denying his Grace though I acknowledge his Indignation condemns many who have dallied with him and their own Souls to be suck'd in again by the whir-pool of their Lusts when they would have risen out of them yet this Indignation is never so certainly at the height as when Men have provoked it as long as they could It is most miserable therefore to make our last motions within the command of such a horrible Pit lest they prove only the struggles of sinking Men yet this we must do if we are not before got out of it There is much greater hope how bad soever their Condition may be to them who are yet in the hand of patience lifting and leading them to Repentance Rom. 2.4 2 Pet. 3.9 and do not despise it but account it Salvation Objection 6. This Doctrin does not savor enough of the Grace of the Gospel that would have all Men come to Repentance Answ To discourse the Severities of the Gospel to the ends of the Gospel is most Evangelical Discourse For as the Gospel doth with all clearness declare its own Rigors that Men might not mistake it for a loose and careless Doctrin and so miss the Salvation of it so have I discovered the great hazard of a Dying Repentance that Living Men might be perswaded not to cast themselves upon it and Dying Men excited to an Action suitable to the extremity of their Case And this is indeed preaching the Gospel and to be moved upon it with fear to prepare an Ark to the saving our Souls before the flood come Heb. 11.7 is as true an effect of Faith as to be constrained by love to live to him 2 Cor. 5.14 that hath died for us I say as true and gives us a Title to the Inheritance of the Righteousness which is by Faith together with the other For the Prudence of Faith makes us apprehensive of the Reasons of Danger and so to Fear even as the Gratitude of it ties us with the Obligations of Love This is not that Fear that Love casts out but that it self quickens and is also both quickned and guarded by it nor is it the bondage but the wisdom of Fear Rom. 8.15 Job 28.28 Objection 7. But is the general Judgment of Divines thus Answer All judicious Divines are very tender of binding the Prerogative of Grace or clipping off the Action of Men towards God even at this time See besides the concurring Judgment of the Ancients Bishop Andrews Sermons on Repentance Dr. Hammond and Dr. Taylor in their Treatises of this Point Bolton Dyke c. in Observation whereof I have desired to be cautious herein also But in their cautions against Presumption their Expressions amount to the utmost I have spoken Infer 1. But setting aside the whole danger of a Death-Bed Repentance Let me now lastly thus reason and thus expostulate Why should we desire to Repent so late It is good to be betimes doing that which is most comporting with our truest Happiness Reconciliation with God return to Him his Favour to obey Him these are the truest Freedom and Peace of a Man at all times Great Peace have they which love thy Law and nothing shall offend them Psal 119.165 He lives in the least pain that lives holiest I made haste therefore and delayed not to keep thy Commandments Psal 119.60 I seized upon so great an Enjoyment as soon as I could afraid to be kept off from it too long To fear God and keep his Commandments is the whole duty of Man Eccles 12.13 When a Man considers Life and that he hath but a Moment of it and that therefore he would live that Moment as much as may be he shall find the highest of Life the top of Life to be Godliness which hath all the promises of this life and of that which is to come 1 Tim. 4.8 To pursue this World and the Vanities of it is not only with greatest folly and impertinency to lanch our selves in a great Vessel the Greatness of our Affection and with solemn Preparations our strongest Action into the low water the shallow of Life which because it cannot carry so great a bulk increases the Toyl and Vexation as well as enhanses the Vanity and Folly of doing nothing at so great an expense But worse than this it is the loading our selves with guilt under a delusion of Pleasure that gives us secret disquiet and torment while we are laying it on and cannot be laid down as we please but with more sensible and industrious Anguish than we heap'd it upon us I mean the sense of our misdoings and Contrition for them so necessary to work Repentance To conclude Seeing to die is the end of all Men Eccles 7.2 Repentance is to be chosen while we live that we may die with the greatest quiet without those Agonies of Conscience those cold Sweats those sinking Eyes and fainting Spirits for he dies with most ease that most surveys Death and looks into all the Retirements of it before-hand that knows it perfectly and all its strength such an one governs himself in it as in a most important Action with Decency and Freedom He is not hal'd by Death but received by it Into thy hands I commend my spirit Luke 23.46 he lays himself orderly into the shade of Death Whereas so long adherence to the Pleasures of Sin gives Death a Violence It makes Men both unwilling and afraid to die This night thy Soul shall be required Luke 12.20 Life is exacted of a Sensualist and torn from him that is resigned by a Spiritual and Mortified Man Good Men die in an active Sense they know how to die others die passively they are forced to die This great difference prefers to us Dying daily before that forcible Dying at once The wisdom of Dying was accounted by Heathens one of the worthy Businesses and Imployments of Life and that required much study Christianity gives us the true Rules of it and they lie in waiting till our change come Time is short 1 Cor. 7.29 they therefore that use this World should not use it down to the Bran sensually but only take the advantages of it to a higher Life Else being met on the sudden by Death they are like those that fall off from Life with Violence that is Headlong but they that live in the Sense of God and an Eternal Condition alight with care and ease It is therefore not only greatest Safety but truest Frugality and Improvement of Life to Repent betimes and when we come to die the easiest and sweetest way of dying Not indeed a Dying but a Translation into Immortality and Blessedness Inference 2. Seeing the Wise and their works are all in the hand of God and that he giveth Wisdom to the Wise Man's Heart to discern both Time and Judgment and not to be taken as Fishes in an evil Net
Mediator written even as all natural Religion and Morality in the very Heart of Man and discernable by that Light For when the first Commands and Emotions of Natural Conscience are to do the things that are Holy and Righteous and Good and we find that tho we have violated and perverted the thing that is right yet we retain a love to those Laws of Eternal Righteousness and Goodness we have not lost all sense of them of desire of likeness to and agreement with them thus we find a sorrow in and trouble within us that we have offended and that the wrath and justice of the supreme Ruler and Governor and Judg of all the World is not so sudden and immediate in his Revenges upon us but that we have space and time for return to God and to Holiness There is by the very same Authority of natural Conscience that requir'd Holiness in our first Acts and thereby to please God a close obligation to return to him by Repentance and to amend what we have done of evil against him and to beseech Pardon and Reconciliation with offended Justice Now when on the other side the Patience and long-suffering of God gives encouragement and even Assurance he will accept Repentance by his giving scope space and opportunity for it Here is great ground for Repentance For the Soul and Mind of Man finding still in it self that Primitive Love to reverential sense of Righteousness and that it cannot bid defiance to it as lost Spirits do there immediately rises in it an earnest endeavour to Self-restitution to restore and recover ones self by Repentance thus that Light given to a Man in his first Creation and the state of Innocency the grace of Christ sustaining it by an Universal Grace to human nature does not loose it self by sin but as it points and directs it self first to Hâ—liness without sinning or falling from it so it now points and directs it self to Repentance when it hath fallen by Iniquity and as first it mooves it self to the Favour of God by not offending or sinning against him so after sin finding him not presently executing wrath and taking vengeance it beseeches him to Receive it Graciously Hosea 14.1 c. and to take away its Iniquities that may not Die For that God is a most good and gracious and merciful Being in himself is a clear principle in the Law of Natural Religion even where ever God hath not awaken'd that Natural Conscience to find it self in the Chains of everlasting Displeasure as the Devils and Damned are against whom he hath in Anger shut up for ever his Tender Mercies when therefore a man finds notwithstanding the so great degeneracy and boldness in sin that every where Testify to our very Faces and that we so well know yet that God leaves not himself without so great Witness of his goodness Acts 14.6 giving fruitful Times and seasons filling mens Hearts with Food and Gladness and that in Relation to himself in particular he hath spared and forborn it draws out Natural Conscience to return to him by Repentance For the riches of Goodness the long Suffering and Forbearance of God lead to Repentance Rom. 2.4 Thus the King of Nineveh by Natural Light reason'd even when God had positively declared Yet forty Dayr and Nineveh shall be destroyed Surely in that there are forty Days allowed they are allowed as a Quarantine as a time of Trial and Probation whether they would Repent or not else why not presently Destroyed Why forty Days delay if there were not Hope of Pardon in such a Repentance so they humbled themselves in that extraordinary manner and turned to God by Repentance and God saw it and Repented of the evil â—e bad said he would do unto them and he did it not Jonah 3.5 c. How much more have the generality of Mankind against whom no such positive Denounciation hath gone forth from God and to whom the time of Patience is not so limitted and defin'd How great reason have they to look upon the time of God's forbearance as a most gracious Call and Opportunity and space for Repentance Thus we see Repentance in some light and sense concerning it runs through the whole World so that the very Heathen who have not had nor so much as heard many of them of Scripture yet have great sense of some way of expiating sin and turning from evil and the very seeing God hath made Repentance and Forgiveness a most necessary and useful expedient of mutual Conversation of Men one with another without which Human Society could not support it self it shews very plainly there is a Mediator between God and Man a Redemer of lost Man that hath for the great purposes of his Redemption inlay'd the Soul of Man with the intimate and inward notices of Repentance and that men shew the work of it written in theiâ— Hearts and that their Consciences accordingly either Accuse or Excuse to allude to Rom. c. 2.14 15. and hath given assurance from Providence and the manner of God's Government of the World That Repentance shall be accepted and therefore hath given the same motions of Natural Conscience to Repentance when a man hath sinned as to Holiness and Righteousness before sin and hath manifested them both alike within man and hath shewed it to them and by the visible things of Human Preservation hath made clearly known the eternal Goodness and Mercy that pardons sin through the Redeemer to allude again to Rom. 1.20 Thus we read in the Book of Joh a Book treating much of Natural Religion assisted by such measures of Divine Revelation concerning Christ as God had vouchsafed to Job and to his Friends very high expressions on this great point c. 33.27 God looketh upon man and if any say I have sinned and perverted that which is right and it profited me not he will deliver his Soul from going down into the Pit for he will say I have found a ransom for him and his life shall see the Light A man any of mankind have just reason to say thus have great occasion to say so I have sinned and perverted that which is right and do find it hath not Profited It is very near to any man to say so and if this take place in them and they do from their Hearts say so and ratify it by Action God looks upon them he beholds them with Acceptance he Delivers through the great Ransom Jesus Christ c. It is repentance to Salvation so c. 34.31 32. surely it is meet to be said to God I have born Chastisement I will not offend any more That which I see not teach thou me If I have done Iniquity I will do no more Even according to the sense of Natural Religion and natural Cnnscience It is meet to be so said to God All this is meet to be done This is even the Discipline of Natural Conscience as God is said to open the Ear to Discipline and to seal
and Zeal not only ought but must be reduc'd and redress'd in Towns and Cities and in all our Villages and most particularly in our Camps and Navies where they more than any where else if possible abound and where there ought to be greater Guard and Watch against them than any where else according to that Great Precept Deut. 23.14 2. If this be not done It cannot be except God hath left the Earth more than ever yet he hath done and forsaken it and walks in the Galleries of Heaven without Regarding but that there must be a Visiting for these things and that his Soul must be avenged of such a Nation as this Jer. 5.9 whether by Plague or Famine or War or evil and noisome Beasts or by a Complication of these Four yea though it be by a Fire yet unblown that is ready to flame out or by an Army of Wounded Men that our Destruction must come and much the more because the Light of his Truth is so open and clear among us because his Mercies and Deliverances have been so-Great and the Methods of his Providence so unusual in his unhinging for us the General Laws of Nature in Dethroning and setting on the Throne for our preservation Now if These his Great Acts and Wonderful Doings do not work to Reformation They certainly shall justifie God in our Destruction And yet we daily see our sins and Transgressions Growing up to the very Heavens so that that our Destruction cannot but be speedy 3. Except the Kingdom of Christ be as I have declared very near us And that we are not yet under some most dreadful Judgments it is an argument to me it is certainly so that the Kingdom of Christ is very near us when he will take to himself his own great Power and Reign and Reform by a through Purging his Floor either by pouring out his Spirit and perswading by his everlasting Gospel Malach. 4.1 and sitting as by a Refiners Fire and Fullers Soap throughly to purifie that Baptism with Fire or by the Day that shall burn as an Oven and consume the Wicked Root and Branch and because of this notwithstanding our great Transgressions and mighty provocations even though he hath lifted up his hand that he would destroy us yet he hath wrought for his Great Names sake that is his Kingdom 's sake and hath done nothing yet so remarkable against us Let us then that fear the Lord speak often one to another that a Book of Remembrance may be writ for us as for them that have feared the Lord and thought on his Name and that we may be spared in the day when he makes up his Jewels and gather'd as Wheat into his Garner when he shall burn up the Chaff with fire unquenchable Mal. 3.16 Matth. 3.12 Infer 9. Seeing Nations and Persons are under so strict Commands to Repent with that Repentance to Salvation the contrary whereof is expressed by Death There is therefore in the Kingdom of Christ a City of Life and under it a City of Death a City of Salvation whose Walls and Bullwarks are Salvation and a City of Destruction distinct from it and opposite to it Esay 19.18 c. 26.1 The one is the Residence of those who have Repented with that Repentance to Salvation not to be Repented of The other is the dark and dismal Receptacle of those who have either been wholly dissolved into the worldly Laughter and Mirth or been Sorrowers only after the worldly Sorrow that worketh Death The New Jerusalem is the City of Life and Salvation the City that hath the Tree of Life and the River of the Water of Life and the Nations of the Saved walk in the Light of it and are healed from any possibility of Dying by the Leaves of the Tree of Life and the Living are written in it Whatever liveth in it shall live even for perpetuity The Second Death hath no power over them Esay 4.3 Revel c. 20.6 c. 21.24 c. 22.1 2. On the other side there is the City of Destruction Esay 19.18 when Five Cities shall speak the Language of Canaan being of the Nations of the Saved There is one City that shall be called the City of Destruction the contrary to Salvation being of those appointed to Death This is the Congregation of the Dead Prov. 21.16 This is the City of Gog that is of the dead slain with the sword of Christ's mouth who hath a place of Graves the Valley of Hamon Gog of the Multitude of Gog. Ezek. 39.11 c. These though they are the dead that is slain with the sword of Christ's mouth yet they are as in a Community in a Polity for though they are condemn'd by the Word and Sentence of Christ they are yet the Wicked rais'd to Condemnation and so are in the State of Living but of a Living Death Therefore these dead have a City and the Name of it is Hammonah as the Name of the New Jerusalem is Jehovah-Shammah the Lord is there so the Name of this City is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 its multitude or a multitude is there For broad is the way and wide is the Gate that leadeth to this City of Heres to destruction and many there be which go in thereat Matth. 7.13 These are the multitudes that are gathered together to the Battel of Armageddon the Day of God Almighty shaded by a Battel the multitudes in the Valley of Jehoshaphat the Valley of the Judgment of Jehovah the Valley of Decision of the Doom and Sentence of Christ as the Sword of his Mouth and the Valley of Excision of Destruction Joel 3.74 Revel c. 16.14 16. Now these dead in their City of the dead lye dead during the Thousand Years bound Hand and Foot for that space The Rest of the Dead slain with the Sword of Christ's mouth But when the Thousand Years are expired they are let loose into the Appearance of Life Motion and Action They whose multitude are as the Sand of the Sea under their Name Gog Magog come up against the Beloved City and the Camp or Tower and Castle of the Saints and cover the breadth of it shewing themselves the same Impenitents they were and had been before the Thousand Years began the Never-Repenting Enemies of God and of Christ and of his Kingdom So they are finally judg'd Ezek. 39.11 c. Rev. 19.21 c. 20.5 to the end cast with Sathan who had alway deceived them with Death and Hell into the Lake This is the second Death Thus in the opening this dark Scripture Behold in these two Cities the Repentance to Life and Salvation never to be repented of the Impenitency to Death and Destruction never also to be repented of that we may chuse the first perswaded by Eternal Grace and Love and abhor the other as the Black Mark of being the Esau hated by God who found no place for Repentance as the Vessels of his Wrath the Border of Wickedness against whom he hath Indignation for ever
his own Immensity the whole latitude of our Nature without contracting it into the narrowness of a human Person by the great care he took That this Nature should not be dishonoured abused and torn by it self through that bitter Censoriousness Revenge and Contempt Men exercise upon one another even there where Christ is professed So would our Christianity that is now evil spoken of appear as it is in it self Acceptable to God and approved of Men if we could unite in those comprehensive Interests of Righteousness Peace Joy in the Holy-Ghost that substantial Christianity Those healing Wings of the Sun of Righteousness in the Rays of which our little differences about Meat and Drink would play up and down as smallest Motes of Human Frailty easily obtaining a mutual Pardon and that black and most abhorred Vapor of Irreligion be forced to dislodge at so Illustrious a Presence If there be any Interest to keep afoot these Divisions it is an Interest of Dishonour that dares not name it self it is not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is not barely to serve an Opinion much less the Lord Jesus but the Belly 3. But to return from whence I have digressed upon so great a Cause Lastly we may find in the very Notion of a Death-Bed Repentance enough to defend the seasonableness of this Discourse notwithstanding spreading Irreligion For it imports a design to Dye well and we see very Few and those Few deprived of the common Modesty and Sobriety of Mankind and who thereupon become an horrid Story but dye at least in a fair and calm Temper towards Religion Now if we join to this that of many Millions for one every one dies as he lives not only as the Tree falls so it lies but as it hath inclined along its growth so it falls How great is the necessity then of living well that we may dye well For this Death-Bed Repentance that rises and sets at the same time generally proves but a falling Star That Repentance only wheels orderly into a higher Orb that hath given proof it was a true Light by shining here for some considerable space A good Death receives Being from a holy Life else there is not such a thing in Nature no not in Grace except by Miracle of Grace Thus far I have made Apology for the Seasonableness of this Discourse In the Discourse it self I am not conscious of having wandred from the Vniversal Doctrin of Divines in this Point except it should seem too high a strain to place this Repentance when true among Miracles To justifie that I have the warrant of Sacred Story the Dying Convert which being the only Example of such a one in Holy Writ was in the days of the Messias that great Period of Miracles singled out upon that greatest occasion viz. To display the power of the dying Mediator to forgive Sins not only upon Earth but in his lowest Humiliation his very descent into Hell which argues it a very great Miracle Yet I have not trusted the weight of the Discourse to any thing that looks like a private Opinion but to most avowed Principles and have therefore reserved my particular Sense as the Conclusion of the whole I have only to add there is a National late Repentance as appears by the Vnsuccesfulness of that unparallell'd †2 Kings 23.26 and 24.3 4. Reformation of Josiah sincere indeed in him and of full Effect but not in the Body of the Jewish Nation as appeared by their Relapses under the following Kings and therefore notwithstanding that seeming Return the Lord turned not from the Fierceness of his Wrath wherewith his Anger was kindled against Judah for its guilt in the Sins of Manasseh which the Lord would not Pardon and therefore would not give a true Repentance of those Evils they had so long continued in against all the early Admonitions of the Prophets This is the just Parallel of a Death-Bed Repentance The due Application of all these Considerations to every one into whose hands they may fall is the earnest and affectionate Prayer of T. B. THE GENERAL INEFFICACY AND INSINCERITY OF A Death-bed Repentance c. Luk. 23.39 40 41 42 43. And one of the Malefactors that were hanged with him railed on him saying if thou be the Christ save thy self and us But the other answering said dost thou not fear God Seeing that thou art in the same condemnation And we indeed justly for we receive the due reward of our deeds but this Man hath done nothing amiss And he said unto Jesus Lord remember me when thou comest into thy Kingdom And Jesus said unto him verily I say unto thee this day shalt thou be with me in Paradise THE generality of Men that have been at all acquainted with the name of Repentance and understood in any Measure the importance and signification of the thing acknowledge it beyond all dispute necessary Yet they allow themselves a leisure for the Performance of it and such a leisure as swallows the whole time of Life and leaves only the last and lowest part of it for the discharge of so great a Business so that their Repentance if any at all falls out to be a Death-bed Repentance The inconveniencies of which are unexpressibly great because the lives of Men are left naked of that Holiness and Purity that should adorn them and all over blotted with Sin and Vanity Their Conversation wants that light of good Works that should shine before Men and glorifie God in Heaven Their Life is without form and void and darkness is upon the face of it And in the end they are cast upon the great Sea of Eternity as in a Vessel of Paper a thin and superficial Repentance It is therefore most necessary to use all means to shew the Insufficiency of this Refuge which most of those that live in common under the Profession of Christianity design while they live to fly to when betimes they dye To demolish this House upon the Sand that Men may not by hopes of shelter at it conceived long before hand be kept off from laying their Foundation upon a Rock which possibly they would do if these hopes were cut off And because this piece of Sacred Story hath been generally taken as an Instance of great Favour to a late Conversion not that it is indeed so but that it seems to be so let it be the Ground of the present Discourse For I observe Divines in their Doctrin concerning the danger of a Dying Repentance are careful to wrest out of the hand of presuming Imagination this Example and to allay the vain Confidence built upon it Indeed the Mistake of it is very fatal seeing if it be duly considered there is nothing more forcible against what it is pretended for than it It is true it is a Relation of a dying Man returning from great Sins to God but so circumstantiated so defended on all hands against Boldness upon it that
Psal 39.6 yet looks like the whole Heaven It stands as a Firmament over their heads It looks like an Eternity to Men. In this time Repentance finds as little place with them as it is like to do with God in the Evening of Life In this occasion the wild Asses of the Wilderness snuff up the wind at their pleasure and none can turn them Jer. 2.24 The lust of the Flesh the lust of the Eye and the pride of Life swallow all and can spare nothing Yet in the midst of all this the Soul promises it self it will ere long take a Season of recollecting it self and that it will do it time enough so timely as to leave space sufficient for a large Exercise of Repentance for although it is but upon the edges and skirts of Time yet it seems to it self to be upon the Center and in its Imagination commands the future as if it were in its own hand so that through the endless returns of Pleasure and Business through Indisposedness to holy and serious Action through Intentions and Purposes of being better hereafter it slips down e're ever it is aware into the lowest of Life and hath the business of Repentance lying whole and undiminished upon its hand Yet a little sleep a little slumber a little folding of the hands to sleep deceives men till their last end comes as an armed man Prov. 24.12 The hopes that to morrow will be as to day and much more abundant Isa 56.12 so as to leave enough for sadder Thoughts befools Men till the very Course of Time rows them before they think of it upon Eternity Of great moment therefore it is to number our days rightly that we may know how frail we are Psal 39.4 And to apply our Hearts to Wisdom Psal 90.12 For this time of Life though it be but little yet it boasts great things Jam. 3.5 This Vapor stretches out it self as far as it can It rejoices in its own boastings which are evil Jam. 4.16 In the mean while the Moments of it are winged and fly from us they glide away and we cannot except we bring them to strict Account take hold of them to graft any thing upon them How does to day like an Egale or Poast or swift Ship or Arrow get from us leaving no path Wisd 5.9 c. And if we offer to take the Account how many things snatch it from us as an impertinent Disturber from him that is catching slippery numbers Here is Wisdom let him that hath it count the number of Life for it is the number of a Man Rev. 13.18 A short number It is all but Dying Man Eccl. 6.10 And yet it requires great Ingenuity The Ingenuity of a Man that is indeed a Man to find it But he that misses it is found at the end of his days a Fool and finds that dreadful reward of a Fool Jer. 17.11 That the great God that formed all things gives to the Fool as well as to the Transgressor Prov. 26.10 But those that are wise shine as the Sun in the Firmament Dan. 12.3 Thus far I have insisted upon the Accounts how this Baptism of Repentance for the Dead 1 Cor. 15.29 came in upon Christianity that is How it comes to pass that Men will not be baptised with this Baptism till they are given over for dead Men like those Clinici of the first Times that delay'd their Baptism to their last Bed of whom some Expound that place 1 Cor. 15.29 Vid. Estium in locum But the Mistake in this Case though that passed not without some note of Disgrace is in a point of much higher Consequence and so far more dangerous and hath also less of reasonable Pretence for while they thought Baptism washed away all past Sins and was but once to be done it seemed a necessary Providence to take the full Benefit of it at the last upon which account Tertullian even Expostulates Quorsum festinat innocens aetas ad remissionem peccatorum while he Discourses of Infant-Baptism Whereas the Water of Repentance is never forbidden Acts 10.47 but may be both evenly drawn through the whole course of Life and often renewed to supply the Defects of it self which is one Signification of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 7.10 that Repentance which is always promoted but never retracted Nor do I indeed doubt but the Water of Baptism wherever it hath effect as a Spring that from the first Moment wherein it is truly received runs down with a free Current upon the whole Course of Life and is therefore universally * Operatur in Baptismo poenitentia tanquam in fundamento August Expos Ep. ad Roman to be applyed And whenever Converting Grace works it leads back the Soul though through many Years past to the Virtue of that Sacramental Fountain But to return Although these Accounts I have now given of a Death-bed Repentance obtaining among us infold the whole Multitude of dying Penitents yet according to the former state given I do not deny but that some very rare Example there may be giving a better Sense to this sort of Repentance Examples of the Grace of God acting in a way of Prerogative as hath been said and working effectually the truth of Repentance in some upon whom he lays the hand of his Salvation and Rescue while they stand upon the very last minutes of the Season of Grace and are just dropping down into Hell and guides them to take their Latest steps in the ways of Life wherein they had hitherto been strangers upon whom a great Miracle is wrought that they should in their almost perfected motion to endless Ruin be stopt and when they had just finished their Course thither they should yet be transplanted into the way Everlasting But I proceed to the Third Head To examine the most hopeful appearances of this kind of Repentance and to shew there are plain Causes of them much below the nature of true Repentance And first in the general It is no wonderful thing to find Men in a Paroxysm in a high Passion of seeking after God when they are a Dying It is indeed more strange to find any so sotted so sear'd That their spirits seem only to go downward They are Beasts while they live and as such they go down to the dead Eccles 3.18 c. There are no bands in their Death Psal 73.4 They go down in a Moment Job 21.13 There is not a Moment between the first and second Death of the Soul not a Moment of Life between not so much as of the Life of natural Conscience They are twice dead Jude 12. dead in the common Corruption of Nature wherein they are born Dead in the loss of Natural Principles pulled up by the roots there 's nothing to quicken or move in them This is amazing Stupor They die like a stone Exod. 15.5 1 Sam. 25.37 they plunge down with the whole weight and force of Impenitency This way of Dying hath certainly
these Clouds and Vapours than a Dying Hour When every thing is ready to contribute them and nothing to scatter them If then Natural Conscience and implanted Sense of God together with the Notions given us from Scripture pass through these they become very impressive and affecting for the time and yet he much mistakes Repentance who thinks it no more than a fit of Religious Melancholly But let us enquire after some more setled and constant Causes of these Penitential Motions near Death and we shall find many very likely to be so that are not yet worthy of true Repentance and therefore what springs from them is not accepted before God 1. When Men find all their Being in the World at an end and feel themselves falling they know not whither It is no strange thing they should catch at God and that they may take hold of him at Holiness also Seeing ingraffed Principles together with general Discourse teach every one how dear Holiness is to God If God and Goodness were no more than Imaginary things It would be no wonder if they who are tossed off the World and thrown over-board from it should snatch at them if there were no more in the Case than this that every one hath heard so much speech and talk of them among Men. For to him that hath nothing in reality even a Shadow a Phancy are valuable Men that are dropping through the Air or sinking under Water without Consultation offer at every thing they meet with In great Extremities short of Death they that are bereft of all worldly Assistance fly to the Divine Succours though as Jonah's Marriners they pray to an Idol instead of the true God and their Devotion is no better than Superstition which is but a Phancy in Religion What strange thing then is it for nature to cry out for God and Christ for Pardon of Sin to be delivered from Hell and to have Heaven for an everlasting Rest when all things else evidently fail as they do in Death and when not only Phancy and general Opinion but most substantial Reason inlightned by the Scripture provoke up a Man to it even for Self-preservation Yet this differs but little from howling upon our Beds for Corn and Wine and Oyl Hos 7.14 for though the things differ much in their Nature yet the Esteem Men have of them and the desire they have after them is much upon the same ground for these Spiritual things appear to that natural Sense of Self-preservation as necessary in Death as the other do in Life and Health But if the approaches of Death happen to be again drawn off the value of Spiritual things removes with them and the things of this World with all the sensual and sinful Delights of it return to their former price which argues the ineffectualness of this cause of Repentance and the Unacceptableness of the Repentance it self to God that flows from it God disclaims Men that have never come to him before their Extremity and come then only because of it In the time of their trouble they will say Arise and save us But where are thy Gods that thou madest Let them arise if they can save thee Jer. 2.27 28. Thus to such Dying Men crying out to him God says Let your former Lusts and Pleasures now be your Happiness Fools and scorners that would not be warned call upon God in their calamity and seek him early when the whirlwind of their destructions hurries them but cannot make him hear cannot find him Prov. 1.14 2. Suppose the desires after God and Eternal Happiness with all the Retinue of those Desires rise not so much from the Necessities of remove from this Life and sensible Supports but immediately from the sight of Eternal things themselves yet will not this conclude the Repentance sincere For we may easily pitch upon several so plain reasons of these quick Apprehensions of another World that it is much more strange if any Man be not struck with them and they that are are not in greater Extasies of these Considerations than that most die in some fair inclinable Temper towards them and others are extraordinarily surprized with them yet without true Repentance For First If it were no more but the leisure and uninterestedness of the Mind in all worldly things that Death brings It is no wonder that the Action of it should immediately and necessarily flow upon God for it being always in action and motion from its very Nature and God having made it for himself and the manner of its living here in the World being a slavery willingly undertaken for the Service of the Body and the Enjoyment of this present Life in its being fallen from God It is nothing strange that that Drudgery being now at an end and the chains wherein it was held just a breaking it should fall upon God and Spiritual Objects whither the stream of it was prepared to run and which are most truly its own business For the distance being so wide and irreconcilable between Man and this Earth in Death the very having nothing else to do must carry him upon the Future State seeing his Soul is such a Being as cannot naturally lie still and that State is all that it hath to work upon and further than that it is so nearly allied to it Secondly The very loosening and uncementing the Soul from the Body wherein it dwelt and wherein the Motions of it were restrained Multi enim quum remissi liberi sunt futura prospiciunt ex quo intelligitur quales futuri sint quum se plane corporis vinculis relaxaverint Cic. de Senectut hath been thought very probably to give Men lesser degrees of those Advantages near their Death which naked and free Spirits not inclosed and pent up in Bodies have whereby they have been able to make Conjectures of future things and to speak prophetically The less the Soul is bound to work by the Body the higher are its Operations All extraordinary Motions of the Soul are a kind of Ravishment from Sense Those great Prophetick Blessings of Jacob and Moses were near their Dying Gen. 49. Deut. 32. c. 33. It is therefore very easie to be thought that when the Soul and Body are ready to cleave asunder and the Spirit to be separated from Flesh that it should make an higher flight towards Eternal Things The nearer every thing is to its own Residence the more vehement is its motion said to be thither So there may very well be quick sallies of the Soul towards Eternity before it enters into it when it is so near that everlasting Receptacle of it self Thirdly We may observe in the Experience of all times every appearance of the other World hath strange effects of Fear and affrightment upon Mens Minds When any one is entring then into that whole World it may well put him upon purifying himself more than they that fall upon Leviathan Job 41.25 When Men are just upon that Region
of Spirits what appalements of Mind and strong working of Thoughts must there needs be Much more if the Soul have any sense of its approach to the infinite Holiness of God at whose rebuke the Pillars of Heaven tremble whose presence astonishes the purer Spirits of Angels and beats down the Souls of good Men to the Dust as of Moses Heb. 12.21 Isai 6.5 Job 42.6 Dan. 10.8 Job Isaiah c. in his interviews with them How much more of those that have never thought of God and now must come near his Seat Nothing so composes the Soul to this amazing change of Condition and Converse as long continued Treaties with God through Christ when though Men change their place they do not change their company Job 24.17 Job 38.15 Others when this great light strikes them are in the very terrors of the shadow of death and shaken out of their place out of all the Security and quiet Sensuality they lived in Let us now take the estimate or avail of these things to true Repentance and we shall find when the Soul lies thus uncovered to the things of Eternity it hath natural Reasons for all it may seem to do like return to God and so that all argue nothing of the true Grace of God but if a Man were again in his former State he would be the very same he was For first as one thing strikes upon another with a natural Effect Light upon the Eye Sound upon the Ear so Eternal Things upon the Immortal Spirit when there is nothing between to intercept the stroke Further 1 John 2.16 when the lust of the flesh the lust of the eye and the pride of life are as a Scene removed and a Play at an end and instead of them another World drawing near just as Men defeated in all their attempts for Riches and Honours and beaten off from them to a private Life call all these things Cheats not out of true Reason but because they cannot reach them on the other side they praise Retirement and a Cloyster not that they like it but because they must live so which begets some kind of Contentedness so to live Thus and no otherwise do many Dying Men call all this World Vanity and profess an high Esteem for all things pertaining to that to come Cause 3. There is yet a more pressing Account of the most notable motions that were ever found in any of their Repentances viz. The awakenings of Conscience usual at this time because of the Sense of a Judgment while common Experience tells Men It is appointed to all Men once to die Heb. 9.27 and sinking Nature gives notice This is the time Conscience lifts up to the next thing After that the Judgment Now no Man sees Judgment a Judgment Omniscient Omnipresent Eternal without great shakes of Soul especially that hath done nothing seriously to agree with the adversary in the way Luk. 12.18 Conscience then rising up with the Awe of a Tribunal upon it stirs up all the Powers to fly from the Wrath that is to come by desires of Pardon and Resolutions of Amendment The very hearing of Judgment made such a one as Foelix tremble Acts 24.25 When Judgment seems to us at the other end of Heaven all is quiet but when Death brings us to the very seat of it how loud may be the cries for Mercy The bewailing the former evils of Life Now Men pour out their Complaints for the want of God the misimprovement of former time Now they make large offers of a strict and severe Mortification and Devotion to Religion Now they would give the thousand Rams the ten thousand Rivers of Oyl their first born for their Trasgression the fruit of their Body for the sin of their Soul Mic. 6.6 7. And yet all but the Eye opened to see the flaming Sword of Justice that makes even a Balaam wish to die the death of the Righteous Num. 22.32 cap. 23.10 and to have a latter End Sober Just Religious The very Suspition of a Judgment inclines Men thus far universally almost that hardly any choose to die in a Rant in a Madness but had rather by virtue and Religion be consigned over to another World and have their Eyes closed by Mercy and Grace in Christ They would see the Salvation of God and so depart in Peace Object 1. But it may be objected Seeing these granted to rise from true Conviction and not to be Dissimulation or counterfeit Pretence Why may not they have the worth of true Repentance Answ 1. To answer this Let me consider pure Conviction and enlightned Apprehension and the Affections begotten of them are no Argument of true Goodness where the Light hath not a benign and free Operation upon the Judgment an Allurement upon the Will an Indearment upon the Affections to turn them to a full Delight and Satisfaction in God and Holiness and to a dislike and abhorrence of Sin For else the Devils who believe and tremble Jam. 2.19 must be thought Converts For who have clearer sight of things than they Balaam whose Eyes were opened and spoke so great things of God and his People must be concluded a good Man Esau and Judas who had so sad apprehensions of Sin Matth. 27.4 Heb. 12.7 Dan. 4.17 and 6.26 Luk. 6.20 Acts 24.25 and their loss by it must be affirmed to be Penitents Nebucadnezar's and Darius his acknowledgments of God must be taken for true Grace Herod his hearing John Baptist gladly Felix his trembling at Paul's Discourse may be thought Evidences of true Repentance Object 2. But Secondly it may be supposed because these very Convictions and Affections are not universal but we see multitudes go out of the World without them carrying little better than a decent and civil Respect to Religion that therefore there is something of God something Heroick in them that have them Answ 2. This indeed may be no other than the wise and good Government of God over the World whereby he takes care there should be Testimonies of himself and the Goodness of his ways that Atheism and Wickedness may not carry it as if all were their own as if there were an unexceptionable Concurrence on their side against God and Holiness For as he receives witness from the constant gracious and religious Lives of good Men so he constrains some of them that have lived contrary to him all their lives to give him glory at last for the good of others though without saving benefit to themselves Which he may justly do and without any injury to them Seeing all the Service every Creature can do to him is infinitely due he may make use of that which is his own so far as he pleases And because what the word God puts in their mouths Num. 23.5 Matth. 12.35 is not their own not arising out of the good treasure of their hearts as appears in Balaam therefore their everlasting Condition is not determined by it but
Wickedness and Sensuality The thirty pieces are nothing worth Mat. 27.3 and the innocent blood above all value when Men suffer in the Agonies of Conscience and Fears of the approaching Judge A House full of Silver and Gold will not buy a Man to resist God when indeed he appears to him when the terrible Majesty opens it self Numb 22.18 what is so precious that Men will not fling to the Bats and Moles Isai 2.20 When the Breath is going out of the Nostrils how precious is Repentance Faith a Pardon in Christ a happy Eternity to those who have heretofore slighted them as the off-scouring of all things But these things are always so rich Wisdom is always so precious that it disdains to borrow Esteem from a minute of Extremity and therefore it most often falls out that those who would none of its counsel but despised all its Reproof when they come to seek it early cannot find it but it laughs at their Calamity as Men laugh at the unhappiness of Fools that would not be corrected in their Folly till their Misery confute their Confidence 3. From hence it follows That this Repentance is a Choice when there is no other Choice If a Man loved his Sins or the World never so passionately he must leave them if he disliked God and his Holiness and an everlasting Abode with him to the utmost yet he is even forced upon them or dashed upon an Eternal Misery and Unhappiness which it is impossible to choose And therefore though he would not choose the holy ways of God if he might still enjoy former Vanity yet that being out of his reach and way he must take what is to be had The Sense therefore is no more than this All these things are good when a Man is just a Dying but while he lives and can have the World they are troublesom and unprofitable Death makes them good upon this account only because else there would be something worse and there can no longer be any thing better A Man is now willing to offer a Life he hath not to give but Eternal Life is not worth any part of that Life he thinks in his power to do any thing else with Let us then observe at what rate it is set for to use Tertullian's words in another Case we may thus Reason * Quale bonum hoc est quod melius est poena quod non potest videri bonum nisi pessimo comparatum ut ideo bonum sit resipiscere quia deterius est ardere Caeterum si per mali collationem cogitur bonum dici non tam bonum est quam genus mali inferioris quod altiori malo obscuratum ad nomen boni impellitur Tertul. De Monogamia Chap. 3. What a mean sort of good is this that only excels Punishment which needs the worst of States for a Foil to it self that it may be thought Good It is good to repent and be saved because who can dwell with everlasting Burnings But if it must purchase the Reputation of being Good from Evil it is not so much a Good as a lower degree of Evil which while the greater Evil Eclipses it is compelled as it were to accept the name of a good being driven upon the confines of Goodness by the Violence of greater Evil. 4. This Repentance is not the Free but inslaved Judgment and Choice of the Soul as Men cast out Goods in a Storm and receive a Power to Rule over them that they cannot endure but that it is too strong for them Men are afraid what God will do to them therefore they submit His Enemies in Heart are found Lyers to him they flatter him with their Mouth as Julian oppressed by the Almightiness of Christ is storied to have cried out Vicisti Galilaee Thou hast overcome me Galilean Thus they are overcome by Death and the apprehension of Judgment In the sight and view of the Danger Men resolve to part with their Sins Let but that remove they call for their Sins again as Mariners wish for their Goods after the Storm They throw up their Lusts in their sickness but drink them in when their trouble is past as the Dog returns to his vomit 2 Pet. 2.22 In all this there is nothing of the love of God 5. In this Repentance the Soul of it is generally a pitiful mean Self-love even the meanest kind imaginable wherein a Man considers himself as a Creature in being and likely or at least possible to be for ever without any apprehension of himself as a rational Creature made for God and the Enjoyment of him in conforming with whom his Happiness consists and in the resting for ever in his love Of this part he hath no distinct apprehension only he would be happy though he knows not what it is or rather he would not be miserable yet even that he truly understands not But as the Jews said to Christ when he spake to them of the Bread of Life Lord ever more give us this bread and yet were scandalized at his Explanation of himself to be that Bread so far as to leave him John 6.34 And the Pharisees hearing of the Vineyard to be let out to other Husband-men and the Judgment upon themselves to be executed Luk. 20.16 Cried out God forbid yet run on in the Sin that brought it upon them This little point of Self-love into which all is crowded is ennobled with no sight of the Excellency of the things themselves or a due Estimation of them as the true pleasure and joy of an Immortal Spirit This is not that allowable love of a Man's self which incircles it self within the love of God as the lesser Circle is comprehended by the greater but this either leaves out that love wholly or debases it to basest self Let us now compare both sides together and see how much true Repentance differs from that which is always to be feared lest it should be the height of the Death-Bed And of that which hath been spoken this is the Sum True Repentance is the most free Election of the Soul inabled by the Grace of God upon a clear and just Dictate of the Judgment attended with sincerest Affection to give up it self to God through Jesus Christ and when it is most it self not under any irregular fear or constraint and at least would be the same in a time when it hath all the probability that can be to lay hold upon things present The other Repentance arises from a Soul all troubled and discomposed with the throws of Death the fears of Hell the Doubts what will become of it in another World the Uproars of a guilty Conscience when it supposes it self necessarily at the full stop of its former Courses by being cut off from longer Life in the midst of all which arise vehement Resolutions to turn from Sin to God and possibly with many fair Apparences but without opportunity to give proof of themselves Let
any one Judge between these two Repentances and accordingly even counsel himself concerning them Yet I must acknowledge this Discourse subject to these following Limitations 1. That the Arguments I have insisted upon prevail not only against a Death-Bed Repentance but against all Repentances that have no higher Spirit to move them than what I have now represented from hence therefore we may take the trial of our Repentance in general for though a Death-Bed is most subject to these mistakes yet whatever Repentance falls under them is by reason of them invalid and the later any Repentance is or the more it is occasioned by any Extremity which it doth not out-live the more subject it is to them 2. What I have said is not at all to be understood of the perfecting and consummating Repentance by higher and fuller Acts towards God at Death though enforced by the present Circumstances of the Case For true Repentance running through the whole life takes advantage of every thing much more of so considerable an Opportunity to unite all our strength for God as a Death-bed brings with it All that hath been spoken is designed against trusting to the Extreme Vnction of a dying Repentance just then begun 3. I have before resolved upon that tenderest Doctrin that it is possible among all the unhappy Circumstances of a Dying-Bed there yet may be this true Act of the Understanding Will and Affections turning to God and if there be this it would be the same and alike however these Circumstances alter and then it excels those temporary Amendments undertaken in the freest times of Life But because it is but possible and so almost impossible so unhappy a Case as not to have repented till just we die should fall out so happily the Intention of this Discourse stands good notwithstanding 4. I acknowledge the choice of the Soul can never be so free but it must be subject to infinitely the most worthy and preponderating considerations of the love and goodness of God the Redemption of Christ the greatness of eternal Happiness most indearing on one side of the fear and terror of the Lord the loss of a Soul everlasting perdition most perswasive on the other side so that if a Man cannot be free in his choice of Religion except he choose it without the force of any such consideration he can never be at all free for these are on all sides of him And further there is always the supream motion of the Grace of God which does not lessen but steer and exalt the freedom of the Will towards God The difference then between true and false Repentance in this particular is the same that is between just and rational consideration of all the motives of Hope and Fear and the hurry of them moving us not intellectually but as a Tempest or with the force of a meer Engine 2. Between the highest reasons carrying the chiefest force and leading along with them the lower ones and the lower doing all without the higher for want of which they are Sensual or Hellish 3. Between the government of meer Providence and of the Spirit of God 4. Between the Repentance of Cain Esau Saul Judas and the Repentance of David Manasseh Peter and Paul 5. I acknowledge the first Preparations of the Soul by God for himself may be with a great deal of noise and confusion Clouds and Darkness are the Dust of his Feet Storms go before him to prepare his way while these last there cannot be a serene calm Act of the Soul and he that doth not live till he hear that still Voice in which God is is in great danger of being lost in the Storm But if out of this Darkness and Confusion a holy and gracious Settlement proceed it is not the worse for being so introduced but is agreeable with the usual method of God The fourth Head I proposed is to weigh the Repentance of the Crucified Malefactor against our common Death-Bed Repentances which duly performed will be of great force against Presumption rather than minister it any Confidence For we shall find so much gathered together and pressed down into it that as Jewels have their Riches in a little room so his short Life of Penitency had an Age of Repentance in it It is so composed of Extraordinaries that it can give very little encouragement in ordinary Cases except just thus much that Repentance at Death is no absolute impossibility 1. Let us observe how his Repentance look'd to the several parts of Repentance for though it had but little time in this World to breath in yet with extraordinary diligence it was busie in all the great and most concerning Points Yet I account this of the least Remark in the History of his Repentance because it is easily imitable That in which it Excelled was the Evidences of Sincerity it carried 1. Yet take notice of his Sense and Acknowledgment of Sin which was not only a Confession of Words but of his very Soul for deliberating things in a Moment he pronounced himself self worthy of the Condemnation and Punishment he endured Magnum est poenitentiae signum in poena sua acquiescere Grot. in locum I confess this is not so infrequent in those who forfeited their Lives to Justice but how oft is it rather a Formality than the inward sense of the Mind condecently affected and possibly if we look upon the out-side of things we can find no great difference between him and others Yet it is a necessary part of Repentance The sacrifice of God is a broken and contrite heart Psal 51.17 2. In his Repentance lay a lively Faith in Christ first resting upon the principle And truth of the thing That Christ was a just Person that he had a Kingdom and then a particular Application to him for Mercy Lord remember me when thou comest in thy Kingdom 3. A quick sense of Eternity supplied Vigor to his Repentance an evident sight of something beyond this world For what more excites the Soul and shews it the necessity of a gracious Change than an everlasting Condition appearing to it To this end hath Jesus Christ brought life and immortality to light 2 Tim. 1.10 of which this Penitent made a very full Confession Lord remember me when thou comest in thy Kingdom He saw a Kingdom beyond the Cross and Death 4. An earnest desire to promote and propagate a sense of God into the Hearts of others was the immediate fruit of this Malefactors Repentance He admonishes the Impenitent Thief on the other side Dost thou not fear God He had such a Reverence of God that he expostulates the want of it in the other as monstrous and horrid His design was also exceeding Compassionate as well as Pious For it was an Endeavour full of Charity desirous his guilty Fellow-sufferer should be brought into the same Condition with himself We want much of the Compassion due to the Souls of others because we are so insensible of
the misery of our own and taste but little of the sweetness of Reconciliation and Grace But when we drink largely out of these Fountains we derive the Streams upon others that have flowed upon our selves All these things were evidently much to the purpose if we look upon themselves Yet were there nothing more extraordinary in them we might doubt whether they were any more than the good Mood into which Principles of Conscience excited by the unhappiness his Condition might put him Let us then consider the Evidence that all this was truly Supernatural for I account it no Injury to so memorable a Repentance to suppose that as great and fair an out-side may have fail'd of Paradise into which he entred But 2. The acknowledgment he made of Christ gives testimony to him in two things 1. That it was made when Christ was under all the Infamy and Misery of a shameful and painful Death and nothing to make such a Greatness as he ascribed to him probable Among us that in general Language speak honourably of Christ Professions of him are cheap and prove nothing But if one bred in Turcism or Judaism should confess him it would argue much more yet not so much as in this Malefactor who saw him in so despicable a State Whereas now so great a part of the World acknowledging him Acts 1.9 hath carried him up to Heaven as it were in that Cloud wherein he ascended long ago and hid the reproach of his Cross in so high a Glory especially among us To confess him in his worst estate and before any thing of the Consequence was known was very great * Extrema fides sed non minima Aug. Serm. 122. de Temp. Christ was revealed to him Mat. 16.17 not by Flesh and Blood but by God himself Such an Heroickness is indeed necessary to assure a Death-Bed Repentance which had need be as great as it is late when Men do not live to see the ordinary fruits of it He that could see Christ and his Glory through so dark a Vail had his Eyes anointed with that Eye-Salve Christ speaks of †Ad rem credendam a sensibus remotissimam excitatus est Grot. We find the Apostles who had seen his Miracles heard his Divine Discourses made long Acknowledgments of him were fearfully shaken by this Assault of the power of Darkness upon him Rev. 3.18 even to a Despair that he was the Christ But while they were in a swoon of Faith Quando passus est omnes discipuli desperaverunt quod ipse esset Christus A latrone victi sunt Apostoli qui tunc credidit quando illi defecerunt Aug. in Psal 68. this Faith with Christ triumphed over Principalities and Powers even on the Cross We looking upon the things of Christianity in the common Profession of the Nation It is a hard thing for us to see them otherwise than that casts them as it would be for those that have known nothing but the Religion of Mahomet Paganism or the Jewish Synagogue to take up upon the sudden the Doctrin of Christianity against their own We believing not with our own Faith but Vulgar Opinion easily make a Confession of Christ yet oftentimes the Power and saving Effect of it is far from us as from those that are Strangers to him sometimes they that come from the East and from the West sit down in the Kingdom of God when the Children of the Kingdom are thrust out The Acknowledgment of Christ in those Times was a much fairer Evidence than it can be now yet without inward Grace was nothing then much less must it needs be to us who have it made ready to our hands by Education and common Consent in it we must therefore the more narrowly observe what Characters the Truth of Christ imprints upon our Hearts 2. This Acknowledgment was made without any manner of Inducement or Temptation to it Tanto namque pondere appensum est tantumque valuit apud eum qui novit haec appendere quod confessus est Dominum Crucifixum quantum si fuisset pro Domino Crucifixus Aug. De Anima ejus Origine from outward advantages it could possibly afford but rather an increase of Shame and Scorn was to be expected from it and that if it were possible he should suffer the second time for such a Confession and become of a Malefactor a Martyr Nay further there was no Dictate of Natural Conscience that could incline him to it for that runs not into the Confession of Christ nor is any way quieted concerning former Sins through such a Confession but eyes God only and Moral Righteousness Lastly no general Tradition prompted him to it the Jews at that time condemning him But in us all Applications to Christ are securing our selves in the common Barque and keep us from being censured as prophane and irreligious Persons For to die without any address to Christ is accounted very ungodly and sensless of a Future State but to deny him monstrous and desperate Further Christianity is incorporated with our natural Principles so that they never move or heave themselves in us but that also rises with them Now it is of great Importance in the tryal of Sincerity upon what Grounds and Motives we do what do and the more we can clear it from inferiour Springs the more certainly it is Grace descending from above and resting upon us Jam. 1.17 Every one therefore that would justifie a Death-Bed Repentance must exceed all common sorts of Repentance else he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Nâ—y he must do something that in the little space of time he hath to do it in must equal a Course of amendment of Life must be as great in him as this Repentance of the Thief And do but think if our Faith were to cut those waves his was to pass to row against such a Stream to remove such mountains among how many thousands there would be found a Faith to do it we should immediately be stopp'd or sunk and cast away and lost Yet such are they we are to pass through into Eternal Life though of different Circumstances from his But after all I will allow it possible there might be a secret flaw in this whole Penitent's Deportment we now insist upon and that it far'd with him as with some among us who after a wicked and debauched Life fly to the Sanctuary of the Romish Religion as Joab to the horns of the Altar 1 King 2.28 To Reconciliation wherewith Hopelesness of any good from that they have so long sinned against and natural Superstition hurry them So this Person hearing a great Fame of Christ and observing his pretence high might lay hold upon him in a desperate Case if peradventure any thing of good might follow on it It being very incidental to the Nature of Man to cast himself upon Religion when all else fails and upon one new to him when he hath offended
Scourge approaches them and the storm of Hail rends their refuge of lies Isa 28.18 c. If we were provided against all but one single Accident even that may fall upon us with the ruin that all the rest could bring Let a Man examine whether he can choose his Death and design the Circumstances of it and place every thing just as he would have it and thereby afford himself the Season he thinks necessary for such a purpose But who is so foolish as to undertake this He that builds upon Ground that is none of his own is like to have all his Frame overturned at the pleasure of another God derides this Folly who hath all things in his own hand and disposes them without our knowledge Go too ye that say Jam. 4.13 To day or to morrow we will go to such a place and buy Psal 1â—4 3 and sell and get gain But oh miserable is he that thinks as God to lay the Beams of his Chambers that he builds for Eternal Rest in the Waters the flowing incertainty of future Time where he hath nothing to do and oversees the proper Rest appointed him by God seeing both his Presumption and his prophane Neâ—ligence are likely to be punished togâ—â—â—er For indeed 〈◊〉 that is wickedly prodigal of â—â—â—t Goâ— affâ—â—ds him as his and is bold to eâ—tâ—â—â—câ—â—pâ—â— the future which is Gods when he coâ—â—s to â—t â—inds it full and possessed already wâ—â—â— whaâ— God â—â—th provided for iâ— so there is no rooâ— for his Project but he perishes for ever in the Disappointment 2. It is against our Duty and all the Obligations that lie on us For it is as if a Man should say to God I know it is my Duty and the end of my Life Odibile est apud Deum quando homo sub fiducia poenitentiae in senectutem reservatae liberius peceat August Serm. 120. and the Providence thou exercisest towards me that I should now serve thee and give up my self to thee But I beg of thee that while I live I may live in my Lusts and Sensualities and when I am to die and go out of the World and shall have no more time and leisure for any thing else I shall then have nothing to do but to look towards thee and beseech thy Favour and leave my Sins I desire thee therefore to stay for my Repentance till then and when I can no longer enjoy the World then to grant me a Kingdom with thy self and the Fruition of thy own Happiness For though I shall dishonour thee in the tract of my Life yet I will retract it all in a Breath How horribly contemptuous of God doth this appear how Affronting and Blasphemous and yet this is the very sense of Deferring Repentance till Death This is the greatest Immorality and Irreligion for it destroys the reason of our Being on Earth which is to serve our Generation or the course of our Life according to the Will of God Acts 13.36 to glorifie him here on Earth John 17.4 It destroys the Service yet flies upon the Reward as if God were bound to make Men happy because he had made them and that he had made them first to take the Delights he most abhors to dishonour him by deforming his Workmanship and violating his Laws and the good order he hath set in the World and yet after all because he had made them to give them a Blessedness so insuperably great that he could find no greater and by no means to hurt or punish them for Sin though all the Justice that ever was known to Man requires Punishment of Offenders as much as the reward of Desert else all Government would be lost Thus therefore to imagine of God is to bring down in our own Thoughts those great Attributes of Justice and Wisdom into a foolish and unreasonable Pity and only for this end that there may be a Licentiousness in Wickedness and Impiety And seeing upon the same account all the Men in the World may adjourn their Love and Obedience to God to their going out of it it might come to pass that this State should have been prepared only as a Stage for the Vices and Exorbitancies of Men to have acted themselves upon and then they to have removed to Heaven when as though these have large scope indeed now as things are yet their Licentiousness is daily rebuked by the threats of the Gospel by the holy Conversations of those that have left their Sins by Repentance and punished by an Eternal Judgment hereafter But who that considers the infinite Goodness and Greatness of God that in his hand is our life and breath and all our ways can think it equal that God should have only the faint and feeble Services of a Death-Bed for all the Preservation and Mercy vouchsafed through the course of our lives Or who can think it consistent with his Honour to give Men Laws that point upon the Government of themselves here and that he should at so general a rate as the necessity of Mens manner of living requires accept of such a Commutation or exchange for the Obedience due to them as a Death-Bed Repentance Or least of all who can believe that Jesus Christ should come a Redeemer into the World a Redeemer from all Iniquity a purchaser from a vain Conversation that he might have a peculiar People zealous of good works Tit. 2.14 who should look for the great day Rom. 2.7 and his glorious appearance by a patient expectation and continuance in well-doing to which he hath also tied them by the most strict Obligations that created Nature is capable of and yet that this in a manner should be wholly frustrated even in those supposed to be redeemed by him How shall such a Man then be able to look God or Jesus Christ the Saviour in the face that hath but just begun to acknowledge him by some weak Devotions to him extorted even of necessity and given the bulk of his time to Sin that hath sacrified the Male of his Flock to Lust Mal. 1.14 and even with impious design kept the corrupt thing for God 3. If we truly understand the nature of Repentance and that it is the Gift and Grace of God It is 1. A great Presumption upon that Grace to think we can call it down from Heaven at our own need who have offered so much Injury to the motions of it vouchsafed in the time of our Life we do not consider that this Grace designs its own Glory and teaches to live Godly righteously soberly now in this present World and therein to wait for the Manifestation of everlasting Glory Tit. 2.13 and thus we are seek for honour Rom. 2.7 glory and immortality Now that they that have bidden defiance to this Grace so long should bring it down from the Clouds in their Dying Moments to convey them to Happiness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. in Alâ—ego is
by and by it is offended and it was therefore truly no better at first than at last Mat. 7.26 The House that is not founded upon the Rock is as ill founded in the Calm as in the Storm only the Storm discovers what it was Morality it self requires a better rooting of virtuous Habits than that they should be set only in loose Ground thrown up by Extremity of Condition and not in the Soil it self That Repentance which will not bear the trial of time will much less sustain the Test of Eternity wherein every thing that stands must be solid and substantial Things that suffer the loss of themselves when they are tried by mans day will suddenly be consumed by the hotter Beams of God 1 Cor. 4.3 That hath need of good Founding that must undergo an Eternity and have all advantage of Concoction that must be laid up for ever which the short Moments of a Death-Bed without a miraculous Assistance will not allow The Fruit of it generally like that Hasty-ripe perishes while it is in the Hand Isai 28.4 This Repentance gives up the Ghost as soon as it is born Now as for that place in Ezekiel so much vexed with Controversie I do not think it convenient for me to intangle a Discourse intended wholly for practice with the Perplexities of it Only I am concerned to shew that it doth not afford the favour supposed to this kind of Repentance For first We must not mistake the day it speaks of as if it signified so strait a compass of Time as a Day but that Season wherein either the righteous Man wasts and destroys his Righteousness or a Sinner over comes his Vitious Customs and Inclinations neither of which are usually done on the sudden Secondly The turning from Wickedness intended is certainly a sincere and impartial one and not such as we have rendred this Dying Repentance suspicious to be Thirdly It must be justified by a walking in the Statutes and Judgments of God and doing that is right that is by a continued Reformation which will least agree to this Repentance and therefore this place of Scripture will not protect this Supposition but rather damns it Having now in the foregoing Discourse in a practical and perswasive way endeavoured to engage Men to a timely Repentance by setting out the hazard of a late one I have thought it necessary to make the state of the whole Doctrin as exact as I can by considering whatever might with fair appearance of Scripture-Reason call into question and scruple what I have grounded my Perswasions upon I will therefore as a Supplement to all I have said First recollect what I have intended all along And then cast all I can possibly suppose against it into Objections and Answers that by closer atention to the Case it self every one that will be at the cost to consider it may be convinced to the main End viz. A present Religious Life 1. First then I make it not the question Whether a true Repentance how late soever be a Repentance to Salvation 2. Nor Secondly Whether God hath reserved it to the Prerogative of his Grace to give a true Repentance at last 3. Nor Thirdly Whether a Repentance that is true and sincere though but in the Seeds being surprized with a Death-Bed may not then break out and shew it self more fully 4. Nor Lastly Whether a Man that hath the light of the Gospel brought to him but just before his Dying Condition may not expect the Grace of God working with it then even as in the freer times of Life All these I do with great Confidence acknowledge The Substance of what I have said against a Death-Bed Repentance will be comprised in these following Assertions which I restrain wholly to Men that have lived under the Light and Exhortations and Applications of the Word of God with all usual Freedom and yet have not begun sincerely to Repent till they come to die The First is That a Death-Bed Repentance how fair soever it may appear hath yet the greatest Doubt imaginable upon it whether it be true The Second There is greatest Reason of Fear God will not give his Grace to such a Dying Man to Repent The Third That a Repentance at Death is not that general Repentance the Scripture Discourses of makes promises of Pardon upon offers the Assistances of the Spirit to enjoins the Duty of with so many pressing commands For that Repentance immediately to be begun is supposed to govern a following Life It must therefore be an extraordinary and miraculous Repentance if true Lastly That it is therefore against all rules of Piety and Prudence by mispending Life to cast our selves upon the necessity of Repentance at Death This I say is the Substance of what I have designed all along and which I would now further clear and vindicate from these following Objections Objection 1. Doth not the Parable of calling some Labourers into the Vineyard at the Eleventh Hour imply That God doth in ordinary Convert some at the last Hour as well as sooner Mat. 20. v. 1. c. Answer The main scope of Parables is only argumentative and so far as the scope of that Parable relates to this Case It is no more than what I acknowledge That God gives Eternal Life to true Repentance if true at last even as to the first and earliest Repentance The reward being to all of Grace and not of Debt It is also to be considered there remained an Hour of working representing rather old Age than a Death-Bed if the colours of a Parable prove any thing and so are rather against this Repentance than for it In the Second Objection I suppose Men taking Sanctuary at infinite Mercy and Power in this manner Although no thought of Man can reach the Mercy that accepts or gives Repentance at the last yet Mercy being as much above our Thoughts as the Heaven above the Earth what can we define concerning it And though there are so many Circumstances of Impossibility according to our measure of things Yet the things that are impossible with Men with God are possible for with God all things are possible How can we then determine in this Case Can we by searching find out the Almighty in his Mercy and Power Can we find him out to perfection It is high as Heaven what can we do It is deeper than Hell what can we know The measure thereof is longer than the Earth and broader than the Sea Answer Now because in this Objection the sinews of all Hope and Expectation from this late Repentance meet I will endeavour to give the most punctual Answer to it And though I know after all that is or can be said Men will not quit it Yet I shall rest upon this Answer as my last Resolution of this Case and by it raise the disswasions from a trust in such a Repentance to the height the greatness of the hazard appearing most fully from it In general
our Saviour speaks in these Cases The things impossible with Men with God are possible Objection 3. But according to this state of the Case What should a Dying Man do that hath not yet repented Should he expect a Miracle or do nothing through despair Answer Have ye not read what David did when he was an hungry and had need He adventured over Laws and was blameless If any Man feel the necessities of a Soul perishing let him lay hold upon Mercy and Grace to help There is a Faith in this Case like the Faith of Miracles that removes Mountains and divides Seas He that can receive it let him receive it Mat. 19.12 But let every Man take heed how he falls into these Necessities For multitudes not having the right Faith like the Egyptians Essay this and are drowned Heb. 11.29 It is a very hard thing to distinguish between mirum and miraculum a Wonder and a Miracle so is it between a saving Faith and Repentance that may have wonderful effects through the Conviction of a Death-Bed and this true saving Faith this Faith of Miracles and for any thing I know Eternity only can make a Man safe concerning it and sure that he had it Doubtless many like Joab perish catching hold of the Horns of the Altar Objection 4. But what If Men having made a Profession of Religion have done many things religiously and soberly and yet through the prevalency of some Lusts it appears they have not truly repented May not the Conversation they have had with Religion so prepare things that their Repentance may be dispatched in the Instants of Death Answer 1. It is dreadful to consider how the unhappy pleas of some upon such kind of accounts recited by Christ are also rejected by him Many shall say in that day Lord Lord have we not eaten and drunk in thy presence and thou hast taught in our streets Luk. 13.26 c. In thy Name have we cast out Devils and in thy Name done many wonderful Works Mat. 7.22 Yet he shall profess unto them I never knew you Depart from me ye workers of iniquity Besides all the Doubts already insisted upon such Men have made a Custom of deluding Religion and have great cause to fear they should do so at last God also is so provoked by such as have long tempted him proved him and seen his works and yet err from him in their hearts and do not know his ways that he comes to his oath against them Heb. 3.9 10. Answ 2. But lest this should discourage and suffocate all motions after God either in Life or at Death and they seem in as good condition that never mind Religion as those that do I add Any good thing found in Men either in their Life or Death though it have not the worthiness of Repentance to Salvation yet shall certainly have its reward in mitigations of Punishment which Consideration fully explained at the Day of Judgment will assoyl many of this sort of Doubts concerning the ways of God I believe those very early seekings of God notwithstanding which he is said to laugh at the Destruction of those from whom they come when they have first served the gloryings of Justice obtain lessenings of Pain as conquered Enemies after they have been led in Triumph to wait on the Conqueror's Glory may have even that Service recompensed with a more compassionate Captivity Answer 3. If there have been solidity and sincerity in any religious Exercises in the time of Life whereby the Heart by the Grace of God is prepared for further Grace as very often Conversion is by degrees It is hopeful God may use Death as a Season of compleating his Work yet this is to be registred among the seldomer disposes of God and both those Preparations and the Complement of them is under the caution of our Saviour Strive to enter in at the strait gate for many I say unto you shall seek to enter and shall not be able Luke 13.24 Objection 5. Is it not at all times a great Folly to promise a to morrow to Repentance how long soever we may live after that to morrow because we daily harden through the deceitfulness of sin Is it not also always a curious Point and that requires a great jealousie over it whether our Hearts are at any time sincere in returns to God Is it not lastly always to be feared lest our to day the time of Grace slip from us Why then are the dangers placed so industriously upon this Repentance at Death Answer 1. First as concerning the time of Repentance It is to be acknowledged Every Man that is come to the strength and fixedness of his Understanding to the poize and inclination of his Will and Affections to the habit and custom of his Life and Actions and hath not determined for God hath great reason to fear lest as there is a deep print of the high hand of Nature upon his unconverted state so there should be a Seal of Justice also and this Doubt increases every day Notwithstanding this All Doubts and Scruples that have an appearance of insnaring and intangling the minds of Men with fears they begin too late are to be avoided if it be not so late that it is just now dark and their feet stumbling upon the dark mountains Jer. 13.16 And these things being written especially for the living Isa 38.19 who have in ordinary probability time to lose the danger is best placed here where it takes them every way By the way of Encouragement that the time is not yet past while they have the spaces of Life and of the Patience of God which is not a slackness of Justice but a designed Salvation By the way of Caution because they know not how soon they may be cast upon a Death-Bed and this Patience be at an end With Dying Men the case is otherwise who are already in the thickest of the Danger and must work themselves out in that moment or perish for ever without any Injury therefore to them the living are thus to be warned Isa 38.19 Further It is evident all delays of Repentance roll down hither however Men propose a stop yet hither the generality come at last So that in effect it is all one whether Men are disswaded from trusting to a Dying Repentance or from delaying their Repentance For if they are given to delay It comes to this They repent and die together But if a Man be afraid to venture Eternity upon his last Breath he will repent presently 2. For the difficulty of being sincere in Repentance I place it here because though every Man should by drawing the parallel lines of Delusion and mistake upon himself try his Repentance when ever it is yet these Errors fall in greatest numbers upon that point of Extremity and with least possibility of rectifying them But seeing there are at all times such deceits in this Case there is nothing so necessary as to repent