the Story but for the Moral of it I will namely that Consideration is one of the best and most likely means in the World to bring a bad Man to a better Mind I now come to the IV. And last particular namely that the want of this Consideration is one of the greatest Causes of mens Ruin And this likewise is implyed in the Text and the Reason why God does so vehemently desire that men would be wise and consider is because so many are ruin'd and undone for want of it This is the desperate folly of Mankind that they seldom think seriously of the Consequence of their Actions and least of all of such as are of greatest Concernment to them and have the chief influence upon their eternal Condition They do not consider what Mischief and Inconvenience a wicked Life may plunge them into in this World what Trouble and Disturbance it may give them when they come to die what Horror and Confusion it may fill them withal when they are leaving this World and passing into Eternity and what intolerable Misery and Torment it may bring upon them to all Eternity Did men ponder and lay to heart Death and Judgment Heaven and Hell and would they but let their thoughts dwell upon these things it is not credible that the generality of men could lead such profane and impious such lewd and dissolute such secure and careless Lives as they do Would but a Man frequently entertain his Mind with such thoughts as these I must shortly die and leave this World and then all the Pleasures and Enjoyments of it will be to me as if they had never been only that the remembrance of them and the ill use I have made of them will be very bitter and grievous to me after all Death will transmit me out of this World into a quite different State and Scene of things into the presence of that great and terrible that inflexible and impartial Judge who will render to every Man according to his works and then all the evils which I have done in this Life will rise up in Judgment against me and fill me with everlasting Confusion in that great assembly of Men and Angels will banish me from the presence of God and all the Happiness which flows from it and procure a dreadful sentence of unspeakable Misery and Torment to be past upon me which I can never get reverst nor yet ever be able to stand under the weight of it if men would but enter into the serious Consideration of these things and pursue these thoughts to some Issue and Conclusion they would take up other Resolutions and I verily believe that the want of this hath ruin'd more than even infidelity it self And this I take to be the meaning of that question in the Psalmist Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge that is no Consideration intimating that if they had they would do better All that now remains is to perswade men to apply their hearts to this piece of wisdom to look before them and to think seriously of the Consequence of their Actions what will be the final Issue of that Course of Life they are engaged in and if they continue in it what will become of them hereafter what will become of them for ever And here I might apply this Text as God here does to the People of Israel to the publick Condition of this Nation which is not so very unlike to that of the People of Israel for God seems to have chosen this Nation for his more peculiar People and hath exercised a very particular Providence towards us in conducting us through that Wilderness of Confusion in which we have been wandring for the space of above forty years and when things were come to the last extremity and we seemed to stand upon the very brink of Ruin Then as it is said of the People of Israel ver 36. of this Chapter God repented himself for his servants when he saw that their Power was gone that is that they were utterly unable to help themselves and to work their own deliverance And it may be said of us as Moses does of that People Chap. 33.29 Happy art thou O Israel O people saved by the Lord the shield of thy help and who is the Sword of thy excellency Never did any Nation struggle with and get through so many and so great difficulties as we have several times done And I fear we have behaved our selves toward God not much better than the People of Israel did but like Jesurun after many deliverances and great mercies have waxed fat and kicked have forsaken the God that made us and little esteemed the Rock of our Salvation by which we have provoked the Lord to jealousie and have as it were forc'd him to multiply his Judgments and to spend his arrows upon us and to hide his face from us to see what our end will be so that we have Reason to fear that God would have brought utter Ruin and Destruction upon us and scatter'd us into corners and made the remembrance of us to have ceased from among men had he not feared the wrath of the enemy and lest the adversaries should have behaved themselves strangely and lest they should say Our hand is high and the Lord hath not done all this that is lest they should ascribe this just vengeance of God upon a sinful and unthankful Nation to the goodness and righteousness of their own Cause and to the favour and assistance of the Idols and false Gods whom they worship'd to the Patronage and Aid of the Virgin Mary and the Saints to whom contrary to the Will and Command of the true God they had offer'd up so many Prayers and Vows and paid the greatest part of their Religious worship but the Lord hath shewn himself greater than all Gods and in the things wherein they dealt proudly that he is above them for our Rock is not as their Rock even our enemies themselves being Judges And we have been too like the People of Israel in other respects also so sickle and inconstant that after great deliverances we are apt presently to murmur and be discontented to grow sick of our own Happiness and to turn back in our hearts into Egypt so that God may complain of us as he does of his People Israel that nothing that he could do would bring them to Consideration and make them better neither his mercies nor his Judgments Isa 1.2 3. Hear O Heavens and give ear O Earth For the Lord hath spoken I have nourished and brought up Children but they have rebelled against me The Ox knoweth his owner and the Ass his Masters Crib but Israel doth not know my People doth not consider And so likewise he complains that his Judgments had no effect upon them ver 5. Why should ye be smitten any more Ye will revolt more and more Well therefore may it be said of us as it was of them in the Verse before
use such Persuasions and Arguments as were sufficient to convince and to mention no more Acts 28.23 He expounded and testified the Kingdom of God perswading them concerning Jesus St Paul in his Epistle to Timothy useth this word in a most vehement sense for giving a solemn charge 1 Tim. 5.21 I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so 2 Tim. 2.14 charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words and so 2 Tim. 4.1 I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and here in the Text the word seems to be of a very high and intense signification because of the circumstances mentioned before and after he tells us before that he taught them at all seasons v. 18. publickly and from house to house v. 20. and afterwards at the 31. v. that he warned them day and night with tears so that testifying to the Jews Repentance and Faith must signifie his pressing and perswading of them with the greatest vehemency to turn from their sins and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ his charging on them these things as their duty his pleading with them the necessity of Faith and Repentance and earnestly endeavouring to convince them thereof Repentance toward God and Faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ What is the Reason of this appropriation of Repentance and Faith the one as properly respecting God and the other our Lord Jesus Christ I answer Repentance doth properly respect God because he is the party offended and to whom we are to be reconciled the Faith of the Gospel doth properly refer to the Lord Jesus Christ as the chief and principal Object of it so that by testifying to them repentance towards God c. we are to understand that the Apostle did earnestly press and perswade them to repent of their sins whereby they had offended God and to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as the Messias the person that was ordained of God and sent to be the Saviour of the world From the Words thus explained this is the Observation that doth naturally arise That Repentance and Faith are the sum and substance of the Gospel and that Ministers ought with all earnestness and vehemency to press people to repent and believe to charge them with these as their duty and by all means to endeavour to convince them of the necessity of them In the handling of this I shall do these Two things First Shew you what is included in Repentance and Faith that you may see that they are the sum of the Gospel And Secondly Shew you the necessity of them First What is included in these I. Repentance this properly signifies a change of mind a conviction that we have done amiss so as to be truly sorry for what we have done and heartily to wish that we had not done it To repent is to alter our mind to have other apprehensions of things than we had to look upon that now as evil which we did not before from whence follows sorrow for what we have done and a resolution of mind for the future not to do again that which appears now to us to be so evil that we are ashamed of it and troubled for it and wish we had never done it So that repentance implies a conviction that we have done something that is evil and sinful contrary to the Law we are under and those Obligations of duty and gratitude that lie upon us whereby God is highly provoked and incensed against us and we in danger of his wrath and the sad effects of his displeasure upon which we are troubled and grieved and ashamed for what we have done and wish we had been wiser and had done otherwise hereupon we resolve never to do any thing that is sinful that is contrary to our duty and obligations to God and by which we may provoke him against us These two things are contained in a true repentance a deep sense of and sorrow for the evils that are past and the sins that we have committed and a firm purpose and resolution of obedience for the future of abstaining from all sin and doing what ever is our duty the true effect of which Resolution is the breaking off the practice of sin and the course of a wicked life and a constant course of obedience II. Faith in Christ is an effectual believing the Revelation of the Gospel the History and the Doctrine of it the History of it that there was such a person as Jesus Christ that he was the true Messias prophesied of and promised in the Old Testament that he was born and lived and preached and wrought the Miracles that are recorded that he was crucified and rose again and ascended into Heaven that he was the Son of God and sent by him into the world by his Doctrine to instruct and by the Example of his life to go before us in the way to happiness and by the Merit and Satisfaction of his death and sufferings to appease and reconcile God to us and to purchase for us the pardon of our sins and eternal life upon the Conditions of Faith and Repentance and sincere Obedience and that to enable us to the performance of these Conditions he promised and afterward sent his holy Spirit to accompany the preaching of his Gospel and to assist all Christians to the doing of that which God requires of them this is the History of the Gospel Now the Doctrine of it contains the Precepts and Promises and Threatnings of it and Faith in Christ includes a firm belief of all these of the Precepts of the Gospel as the matter of our duty and the Rule of our life and of the Promises and Threatnings of the Gospel as arguments to our duty to encourage our Obedience and deter us from sin So that he that believes the Lord Jesus believes him to be the great Guide and Teacher sent from God to bring and conduct men to eternal happiness and that therefore we ought to hearken to him and follow him this is to believe his Prophetical Office He believes that he is the Author of salvation and hath purchased for us forgiveness of sins ransom from hell and eternal life and blessedness upon the Conditions before mentioned and therefore that we ought to rely upon him only for salvation to own him for our Saviour and to beg of him his holy Spirit which he hath promised to us to enable us to perform the Conditions required on our part this is to believe his Priestly Office And lastly He believes that the Precepts of the Gospel being delivered to us by the Son of God ought to have the authority of Laws upon us and that we are bound to be obedient to them and for our encouragement if we be so that there is a glorious and eternal Reward promised to us and for our terror if we be not there are terrible and eternal Punishments threatned to us to which Rewards the
Lord Jesus Christ at the day of Judgment will sentence men as the great Judge of the world and this is to believe the Kingly Office of Christ And this is the sum of that which is meant by Faith towards the Lord Jesus Christ which the Apostle saith was one Subject of his preaching And the proper and genuine effect of this Faith is to live as we believe to conform our lives to the Doctrine to the truth whereof we assent Hence it is that true Christians that is those who fashioned their lives according to the Gospel are call'd believers and the whole of Christianity is many times contained in this word believing which is the great Principle of a Christian life As in the Old Testament all Religion is express'd by the fear of God so in the New by Faith in Christ And now you see what is included in Repentance and Faith you may easily judge whether these be not the sum of the Gospel that men would forsake their sins and turn to God and believe the revelation of the Gospel concerning Jesus Christ that is heartily entertain it and submit to it What did Christ preach to the Jews but that they would repent of their sins and believe on him as the Messias And what did the Apostles preach but to the same purpose When St. Peter preached to the Jews Acts 2. the effect of his Sermon and the scope of it was to perswade them to repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus that is to profess their belief in him v. 38. And so Acts 3.19 This is the conclusion of his discourse repent therefore and be converted and then he propounded Christ to them as the Object of their Faith being the great Prophet that was Prophesied of by Moses who should be raised up among them v. 22. So likewise St. Paul when he preached to the Jews and Gentiles these were his great Subjects Acts 17.30 This is the conclusion of his Sermon to the Athenians to perswade them to repent by the consideration of a future Judgment and to perswade them to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ who was to be the Judge of the world from the Miracle of his Resurrection But now he commands all men every where to repent because he hath appointed a day c. whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead So that you see that these are the great Doctrines of the Gospel and were the sum of the Apostles preaching all their Sermons were perswasives to these two Duties of Repentance and Faith Secondly For the Necessity of these Doctrines They are necessary for the escaping of eternal misery and attaining of everlasting happiness And this will appear by considering the Nature of them and the Relation they have to both these For the avoiding of eternal punishment 't is necessary that guilt should be removed which is an obligation to punishment and that cannot be but by pardon and sure we cannot imagine that God will ever pardon us without repentance he will never remit to us the punishment of sin so long as we tell him we are not at all troubled for what we have done and we are of the same mind still and will do the same again and till we repent we tell God this and we may be sure God will not cast away his Pardons upon those that despise them so that Repentance is necessary to the escaping of Hell And Faith in Christ is necessary to it for if this be the method of God's grace not to pardon sin without Satisfaction and Jesus Christ hath made Satisfaction for sin by the merit of his Sufferings and if it be necessary that we should believe this that the benefit hereof may redound to us then Faith in Christ is necessary to the obtaining of the pardon of sin by which the guilt of sin is removed that is our obligation to eternal punishment And then for attaining Salvation Christ having in the Gospel revealed to us the way and means to eternal happiness it is necessary that we should believe this Revelation of the Gospel by Jesus Christ in order to this end So that you see the necessity of Faith and Repentance because without these we can neither escape Misery nor attain to Happiness I should now come to draw some Inferences from this Discourse but I will first give satisfaction to a Query or two to which this Discourse seems to have given occasion 1. Query You will say why do I call Repentance a Doctrine of the Gospel It is a Doctrine of Nature Natural Religion tells us that when we have offended God we ought to be sorry for it and resolve to amend and reform Ans I do not make the Doctrine of Repentance proper to the Gospel as if it had not been revealed to the world before but because it is a Doctrine which the Gospel very much presseth and perswadeth men to and because the great Motives and Enforcements of it are peculiar to the Gospel So that the Doctrine of Repentance considered with those powerful Reasons and Arguments to it which the Gospel furnisheth us withal is in this sense proper to the Gospel and not known to the world before There are two Motives and Enforcements to Repentance which the Gospel furnisheth us with 1. Assurance of Pardon and Remission of sins in case of repentance which is a great encouragement to repentance and which before the Gospel the world had never any firm and clear assurance of 2. Assurance of eternal Rewards and Punishments after this life which is a strong Argument to perswade men to change their lives that they may avoid the misery that is threatned to impenitent sinners and be qualified for the Happiness which it promiseth to Repentance and Obedience And this the Apostle tells us in the forementioned place Acts 17.30 31. is that which doth as it were make Repentance to be a new Doctrine that did come with the Gospel into the world because it was never before enforced with this powerful Argument the time 's of that ignorance God winked at but now he calls upon all men every where to repent because c. When the world was in ignorance and had not such assurance of a future state of eternal Rewards and Punishments after this life the Arguments to Repentance were weak and feeble in comparison of what they now are the necessity of this Duty was not so evident But now God hath assur'd us of a future Judgment now Exhortations to Repentance have a commanding power and influence upon men so that Repentance both as it is that which is very much prest and inculcated in the Gospel and as it hath its chief Motives and Enforcements from the Gospel may be said to be one of the great Doctrines of the Gospel Query 2. Whether the preaching of Faith in Christ among those who are already Christians be at all necessary Because it seems very improper to press those
which this Blessing is promised and they are two the Confessing and Forsaking of our sins whoso confesseth and forsaketh his sin shall have mercy and these two do contain and constitute the whole nature of Repentance without which a sinner can have no reasonable hopes to find mercy with God I begin with the First the Confession of our sins by which is meant a penitent acknowledgment of our faults to God to God I say because the Confession of our sins to men is not generally speaking a Condition of the forgiveness of them but only in some particular cases when our sins against God are accompanied and complicated with scandal and injury to men In other cases the Confession of our sins to men is not necessary to the pardon of them as I shall more fully shew in the progress of this Discourse All the difficulty in this matter is that the Confession of our sins is opposed to the covering and concealing of them he that covereth his sin shall not prosper but whoso confesseth them shall have mercy but no man can hope to hide his sin from God and therefore confession of them to God cannot be here meant But this Objection if it be of any force quite excludeth Confession to God as no part of Solomon's meaning when yet Confession of our sins to God is granted on all hands to be a necessary Condition of the forgiveness of them And to take away the whole ground of this Objection men are said in Scripture when they do not confess their sins and repent of them to hide and conceal them from God Not to acknowledge them is as if a man went about to cover them And thus David opposeth confession of sins to God to the hiding of them Psal 32.5 I acknowledged my sin unto thee and mine iniquity have I not hid I said I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord so that this is no reason why the Text should not be understood of the Confession of our sins to God But because the necessity of confessing our sins to men that is to the Priest in order to the forgiveness of them is a great point of difference between us and the Church of Rome it being by them esteemed a necessary Article of Faith but by us so far from being necessary to be believed that we do not believe it to be true therefore for the clear stating of this matter I shall briefly enquire into these Two things I. Whether Confession of our sins to the Priest as taught and practised in the Church of Rome be necessary to the forgiveness of them II. How far the disclosing and revealing of our sins to the Ministers of God is convenient upon other accounts and for other purposes of Religion I. Whether Confession of our sins to the Priest and the manner in which it is taught and practised in the Church of Rome be necessary to the forgiveness of them What manner of Confession this is the Council of Trent hath most precisely determined viz. Secret Confession to the Priest alone of all and every mortal sin which upon the most diligent search and examination of our Consciences we can remember our selves to be guilty of since our Baptism together with all the Circumstances of those sins which may change the nature of them because without the perfect knowledge of these the Priest cannot make a judgment of the nature and quality of mens sins nor impose fitting Penance for them This is the Confession of sins required in the Church of Rome which the same Council of Trent without any real ground from Scripture or Ecclesiastical Antiquity doth most confidently affirm to have been instituted by our Lord and by the Law of God to be necessary to salvation and to have been always practised in the Catholick Church I shall as briefly as I can examine both these Pretences of the Divine Institution and Constant Practice of this kind of Confession First For the Divine Institution of it they mainly rely upon three Texts in the first of which there is no mention at all of Confession much less of a particular Confession of all our sins with the Circumstances of them in the other two there is no mention of Confession to the Priest and yet all this ought clearly to appear in these Texts before they can ground a Divine Institution upon them for a Divine Institution is not to be founded upon obscure Consequences but upon plain words The First Text and the only one upon which the Council of Trent grounds the Necessity of Confession is John 20.23 Whosesoever sins ye remit they are remitted and whosesoever sins ye retain they are retained It is a sign they were at a great loss for a Text to prove it when they are glad to bring one that hath not one word in it concerning Confession nor the least intimation of the necessity of it But let us see how they manage it to their purpose The Apostles and their Successors saith Bellarmine by this power of remitting and retaining sins are constituted Judges of the case of Penitents but they cannot judge without hearing the Cause and this infers particular Confession of sins to the Priest from whence he concludes it necessary to the forgiveness of sins But do not the Ministers of the Gospel exercise this power of remitting sins in Baptism And yet particular Confession of all sins to the Priest is not required no not in the Church of Rome in the Baptism of adult Persons And therefore according to them particular Confession of sin to the Priest is not necessary to his exercising the power of remitting sins and consequently the necessity of Confession cannot be concluded from this Text. And to shew how they are puzled in this matter Vasquez by a strange device concludes the necessity of Confession from the power of retaining sins for says he if the Priest have a power of retaining sins that is of denying Pardon and Absolution to the Penitent then he may impose Confession as a Condition of forgiveness and not absolve the Penitent upon other terms But supposing the Priest to have this unreasonable power this makes Confession no otherwise necessary by Divine Institution than going to Jerusalem or China is in order to the forgiveness of our sins or submitting to any other foolish condition that the Priest thinks fit to require for according to this way of reasoning this power of retaining sins makes every foolish thing that the Priest shall impose upon the Penitent to be necessary by Divine Command and Institution But the truth is this power of remitting and retaining sins is exercised by the Ministers of the Gospel in the administration of the Sacraments and the preaching of the Gospel which is call'd the word of reconciliation the ministry whereof is committed to them And thus the ancient Fathers understood it and as a great Divine told them in the Council of Trent it was perhaps never expounded by any one Father concerning the
Mens sins upon such easie and unfit Terms gives boldness and encouragement to sin and must necessarily in the opinion of men lessen the Honour and Esteem of God's Laws And thus I have Considered and Explained both the Blessing and Benefit which is here promised and declared viz. the Mercy and Favour of God which comprehends both the present Forgiveness of our Sins and Power against them and Grace to Persevere in Goodness to the end and our final Absolution at the great day and the Glorious and Merciful Reward of Eternal Life and likewise the Conditions upon which this Blessing is promised viz. the Penitent acknowledgment of our sins to God with such Shame and Sorrow for them as produceth a sincere Resolution of leaving them and returning to a better course and the actual forsaking of them which involves in it our actual return to our Duty and a Constant and Sincere obedience to the Laws of God in the future course of our lives I shall now make some Application of this Discourse to our selves I am sure we are all nearly concerned in it The best of us have many sins to confess and forsake some of us very probably have need to change the whole course of our Lives to put us into a capacity of the Mercy of God This work can never be unseasonable but there cannot be a more proper time for it than when we are solemnly preparing our selves to receive the Holy Sacrament in which as we do Commemorate the great Mercy of God to Mankind so we do likewise renew and confirm our Covenant with him that Holy Covenant wherein we engage our selves to forsake our sins as ever we expect the forgiveness of them at God's hand To perswade us hereto be pleased to consider the Reasonableness of the Thing the infinite Benefit and Advantage of it and which is beyond all other Arguments the absolute Necessity of it to make us capable of the Mercy and Forgiveness of God in this World and the other and to deliver us from the wrath which is to come and from those terrible storms of vengeance which will infallibly fall upon impenitent sinners So that we have all the Reason and all the Encouragement in the World to resolve upon a better course Upon this Condition the Mercy of God is ready to meet and embrace us God will Pardon our greatest provocations and be perfectly reconciled to us So he hath declared by the Prophet Isaiah 1.16 Wash ye make you clean put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes cease to do evil learn to do well Come now and let us reason together saith the Lord tho' your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow tho' they be red as crimson they shall be as wool And what greater Encouragement can we desire than that upon so easie and advantageous Terms God should be so ready to have an end put to all Controversies and Quarrels between him and us I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God to take up a serious Resolution to break off your sins by repentance and to reform whatever upon due search and tryal of your ways you shall find to be amiss in your lives I beseech you by the Mercies of God that Mercy which naturally leads to repentance and which is long-suffering to us-ward on purpose that we may not perish but come to repentance which hath spared us so often and is not yet exhausted and tired out by our intolerable obstinacy and innumerable provocations that mercy which moved the Son of God to become man to live among us and to die for us who now as it were speaks to us from the Cross extending his pierced Hands and painful Arms to embrace us and through the gasping wounds of his side lets us see the tender and bleeding Compassion of his Heart that mercy which if we now despise it we shall in vain one day implore and catch hold of and hang upon to save us from sinking into Eternal Perdition that mercy which how much soever we now presume upon will then be so far from interposing between us and the wrath of God that it will highly inflame and exasperate it For whatever impenitent sinners may now think they will then certainly find that the Divine Justice when it is throughly provoked and whetted by his abused Mercy and Goodness will be most terribly severe and like a Rasor set with Oyl will cut the keener for its smoothness Consider this all ye that forget God lest he tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver Consider and shew your selves men O ye transgressours We do consider all this may some perhaps say but we have been great sinners so great that we doubt whether our case be not already desperate This if it be sensibly said with deep Sorrow and Contrition with that Shame and Confusion of face which becomes great offenders is a good Confession and the best Reason in the World why ye should now break off your sins For if what you have already done do really make your case so doubtful and difficult do not by sinning yet more and more against the Lord make it quite Desperate and past Remedy do but you Repent and God will yet return and have Mercy upon you And do not say you cannot do it when it must be done or you are undone Power and necessity go together when men are hard prest they find a power which they thought they had not and when it comes to the push men can do that which they plainly see they either must do or be ruined for ever But after all this I am very sensible how great a need there is of God's powerful Assistance in this case and that it is not an ordinary resolution and common measure of God's Grace that will reclaim those who have been long habituated to an evil course Let us therefore earnestly beg of him that he would make these Counsels effectual that he would grant us repentance unto life that he would make us all sensible of our faults sorry for them and resolved to amend them and let us every one put up David's prayer to God for our selves Deal with thy Servant according to thy mercy and teach me thy statutes order my steps in thy word and let not any iniquity have dominion over me teach me O Lord the way of thy statutes that I may keep them unto the end I have now done I am only to mind you of another Duty which is to accompany our Repentance and Fasting and Prayer as a Testimony of the Sincerity of our Repentance and one of the best means to make our Fasting and Prayer acceptable to God and to turn away his Judgments from us and that is Charity and Alms to the Poor whose number is very great among us and their necessities very pressing and clamorous and therefore do call for a bountiful Supply And to convince men of the Necessity of this Duty and
of it Such is the unspotted Purity and Perfection of the Divine Nature that it is not possible that God should give the least countenance to any thing that is Evil. Psal 5.4 5. Thou art not a God says David there to him that hast Pleasure in iniquity neither shall evil dwell with thee The wicked shall not stand in thy sight thou hatest all the workers of iniquity 5. We are ashamed likewise to do any thing that is Evil and unseemly before those who we are afraid will publish our faults to others and will make known and expose the folly of them Now whenever we Sin it is before him who will most certainly one day bring all our works of darkness into the open light and expose all our secret deeds of dishonesty upon the publick Stage of the World and make all the vilest of our actions known and lay them open with all the shameful Circumstances of them before men and Angels to our everlasting Shame and Confusion This is the meaning of that Proverbial Speech so often used by our Saviour There is nothing cover'd that shall not be revealed neither hid that shall not be made manifest All the Sins which we now commit with so much caution in secret and dark retirements shall in that great day of Revelation when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed be set in open view and in so full and strong a light that all the World shall see them and that which was plotted and contrived in so much secrecy and hardly whisper'd in this World shall then be proclaimed aloud and as it were upon the House-tops 6. and Lastly We are ashamed and afraid to commit a fault before those who we believe will call us to an account for it and Punish us severely A Man may suffer innocently and for a good Cause but all suffering in that case is by wise and good men esteemed honourable and glorious and tho' we are Condemned by men we are acquitted in our own Consciences But that which is properly called Punishment is always attended with Infamy and Reproach because it always supposeth some fault and crime as the ground and reason of it Hence it is that in this World men are not only afraid but ashamed to commit any fault before those who they think have Authority and Power to punish it He is an impudent Villain indeed that will venture to cut a Purse in the presence of the Judge Now when ever we commit any Wickedness we do it under the Eye of the great Judge of the World who stedfastly beholds us and whose Omnipotent Justice stands by us ready armed and charged for our Destruction and can in a moment cut us off Every sin that we are guilty of in thought word or deed is all in the presence of the Holy and Just and Powerful God whose Power enables him and whose Holiness and Justice will effectually engage him one time or other if a timely Repentance doth not prevent it to inflict a terrible Punishment upon all the Workers of iniquity You see then by all that hath been said upon this Argument how shameful a thing sin is and what Confusion of face the reflection upon our wicked Lives ought to cause in all of us What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed If ever we be brought to true Repentance for our sins it cannot but be matter of great Shame to us We find in Scripture that shame doth continually accompany Repentance and is inseparable from it This is one Mark and Character of a true Penitent that he is ashamed of what he hath done Thus Ezra when he makes Confession of the sins of the People he testifies and declares his Shame for what they had done I said O my God! I am ashamed and blush to lift up mine Eyes to thee my God for our iniquities are increased over our Heads and our trespasses are grown up to the Heavens Ezra 9.6 And may not we of this Nation at this day take these words unto our selves considering to what a strange height our sins are grown and how iniquity abounds among us So likewise the Prophet Jeremiah when he would express the Repentance of the People of Israel Jer. 3.25 We lye down says he in our shame and our Confusion covereth us because we have sinned against the Lord our God In like manner the Prophet Daniel after he had in the Name of the People made an humble acknowledgment of their manifold and great Sins he takes shame to himself and them for them Dan. 9.5 We have sinned says he and have committed iniquity and have done wickedly and have rebelled in departing from thy Precepts and from thy Judgments O Lord righteousness belongeth to thee but unto us confusion of face as at this day to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and unto all Israel that are near and that are far off through all the Countries whither thou hast driven them because of their trespass which they have trespassed against thee O Lord To us belongeth confusion of face to our Kings to our Princes and to our Fathers because we have sinned against thee By which we may judge how considerable and essential a part of Repentance this Holy Man esteemed shame for the sins they had been guilty of to be And indeed upon all occasions of solemn Repentance and Humiliation for sin this taking shame for their sins is hardly ever omitted as if there could be no sincere Confession of sin and Repentance for it without testifying their shame and Confusion of face upon the remembrance of their sins Now to stir up this affection of shame in us let me offer to you these three Considerations I. Consider what great reason we have to be heartily ashamed of all the sins and offences which we have been guilty of against God It was a good old Precept of Philosophy that we should reverence our selves i. e. that we should never do any thing that should be matter of Shame and Reproach to us afterwards nothing that misbecomes us and is unworthy of us I have shewn at large that all Sin and Vice is a dishonour to our Nature and beneath the Dignity of it that it is a great reproach to our Reason and directly contrary to our true and best Interest that it hath all the aggravating circumstances of Infamy and Shame that every sin that was at any time committed by us was done in the presence of one whom of all Persons in the World we have most Reason to reverence and against him to whom of all others we stand most obliged for the greatest Favours for innumerable Benefits for infinite Mercy and Patience and Forbearance towards us in the presence of the Holy and Just God who is at the farthest distance from sin and the greatest and most implacable Enemy to it in the whole World and who will one day punish all our faults and expose us to open shame
Son into the World that we might live through him So that under this Term or Notion of Life the Scripture is wont to express all happiness to us and more especially that eternal Life which is the great Promise of the Gospel And this is Life by waâ— of Eminency as if this frail and mortal and miserable Life which we live here in this World did not deserve that Name And on the other Hand all the Evils which are consequent upon sin especially the dreadful and lasting Misery of another World are called by the Name of Death The end of these things is Death So the Apostle here in the Text and 23. v. The wages of sin is Death not only a Temporal Death but such a Death as is opposed to Eternal Life The wages of sin is Death but the gift of God is Eternal Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. So that Death here in the Text is plainly intended to comprehend in it all those fearful and astonishing Miseries wherewith the wrath of God will pursue and afflict sinners in another World But what and how great this Misery is I am not able to declare to you it hath no more enter'd into the heart of man than those great and glorious things which God hath laid up for them that love him and as I would fain hope that none of us here shall ever have the sad experience of it so none but those who have felt it are able to give a tolerable description of the intolerableness of it But by what the Scripture hath said of it in general and in such Metaphors as are most level to our present Capacity it appears so full of Terror that I am loth to attempt the Representation of it There are so many other Arguments that are more Humane and Natural and more proper to work upon the Reason and Ingenuity of Men as the great Love and Kindness of God to us the grievous Sufferings of his Son for us the Unreasonableness and Shamefulness of sin the present Benefit and Advantage the Peace and Pleasure of an Holy and Virtuous Life and the mighty Rewards promised to it in another World that one would think these should be abundantly sufficient to prevail with men to gain them to goodness and that they need not be frighted into it and to have the Law laid to them as it was once given to the People of Israel in thunder and lightning in blackness in darkness and tempest so as to make them exceedinly to fear and tremble And it seems a very hard Case that when we have to deal with men sensible enough of their Interest in other Cases and diligent enough to mind it we cannot perswade them to accept of Happiness without setting before them the Terrors of Eternal Darkness and those amazing and endless Miseries which will certainly be the Portion of those who refuse so great an Happiness this I say seems very hard that men must be carried to the Gate of Hell before they can be brought to set their faces towards Heaven and to think in good earnest of getting thither And yet it cannot be dissembled that the Nature of men is so degenerate as to stand in need of this Argument and that men are so far engaged in an Evil Course that they are not to be reclaimed from it by any other Consideration but of the endless and unspeakable Misery of impenitent sinners in another World And therefore God knowing how necessary this is doth frequently make use of it and our Blessed Saviour than whom none was ever more mild and gentle doth often set this Consideration before men to take them off from sin and to bring them to do better And this St. Paul tells us Rom. 1.18 is one principal thing which renders the Gospel so powerful an Instrument for the reforming and saving of Mankind because therein the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men So that how harsh and unpleasant soever this Argument may be the great stupidity and folly of some men and their inveterate obstinacy in an Evil Course makes it necessary for us to press it home that those who will not be moved and made sensible of the danger and inconvenience of sin by gentler Arguments may be rous'd and awakened by the Terrors of Eternal Misery That the last Issue and Consequence of a wicked Life will be very Miserable the general Apprehension of Mankind concerning the fate of bad men in another World and the socret misgivings of mens Consciences gives men too much ground to fear Besides that the Justice of Divine Providence which is not many times in this World so clear and manifest does seem to require that there should be a time of Recompence when the Virtue and Patience of good men should be Rewarded and the Insolence and Obstinacy of bad men should be Punish'd This cannot but appear very reasonable to any Man that considers the Nature of God and is perswaded that he governs the World and hath given Laws to Mankind by the observance whereof they may be Happy and by the neglect and contempt whereof they must be Miserable But that there might remain no doubts upon the Minds of men concerning these matters God hath been pleas'd to reveal this from Heaven by a Person sent by him on purpose to declare it to the World and to the truth of these Doctrines concerning a future state and a day of Judgment and Recompences God hath given Testimony by unquestionable Miracles wrought for the Confirmation of them and particularly by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the Dead whereby he hath given an assurance unto all men that he is the Person ordained by God to Judge the World in righteousness and to render to every Man according to his deeds to them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality eternal Life but to them who obey not the truth but obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish upon every soul of Man that doth evil So that how quietly soever wicked Men may pass through this World or out of it which they seldom do Misery will certainly overtake their Sins at last unspeakable and intolerable Misery arising from the anguish of a guilty Conscience from a lively Apprehension of their sad Loss and from a quick sense of the sharp Pain which they labour under and all this aggravated and set off with the Consideration of past Pleasure and the Despair of future Ease Each of these is Misery enough and all of them together do constitute and make up that dismal and forlorn State which the Scripture calls Hell and Damnation I shall therefore briefly represent for it is by no means desirable to dwell long upon so melancholy and frightful an Argument First The principal Ingredients which constitute this miserable State And Secondly The Aggravations of it First The principal Ingredients which constitute this miserale State and
now we are acquainted withal for who knows the power of God's anger and the utmost of what Almighty Justice can do to Sinners Who can Comprehend the vast significancy of those Expressions Fear him who after he hath killed can destroy both body and soul in Hell and again It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God One would think this were Misery enough and needed no farther Aggravation and yet it hath Two terrible ones from the Consideration of past Pleasures which Sinners have enjoyed in this World and from an utter Despair of future Ease and Remedy 1. From the Consideration of the past Pleasures which Sinners have enjoy'd in this Life This will make their Sufferings much more sharp and sensible for as nothing commends Pleasure more and gives Happiness a quicker taste and relish than precedent Sufferings and Pain there is not perhaps a greater Pleasure in the World than the strange and sudden Ease which a Man finds after a sharp fit of the Stone or Cholick or after a Man is taken off the Rack and Nature which was in an Agony before is all at once set at perfect Ease So on the other Hand nothing exasperates Suffering more and sets a keener Edge upon Misery than to step into Afflictions and Pain immediately out of a state of great Ease and Pleasure This we find in the Parable was the great Aggravation of the rich Man's Torment that he had first received his good things and was afterwards Tormented We may do well to consider this that those Pleasures of Sin which have now so much of Temptation in them will in the next World be one of the chief Aggravations of our Torment 2. The greatest Aggravation of this Misery will be that it is attended with the Despair of any future Ease and when Misery and Despair meet together they make a Man compleatly miserable The duration of this Misery is exprest to us in Scripture by such words as are us'd to signifie the longest and most interminable duration Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire Matt. 25.41 Where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched Mark 9.43 and 2 Thess 1.7 It is there said that those who know not God and obey not the Gospel of his Son shall be punisht with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power And in Rev. 20.10 That the wicked shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever And what can be imagined beyond this This is the perfection of Misery to lie under the greatest Torment and yet be in despair of ever finding the least Ease And thus I have done with the First thing I propounded to speak to from this Text viz. The manifest Inconveniences of a sinful and vicious Course of Life that it brings no present Benefit or Advantage to us that the reflection upon it causeth Shame and that it is fearful and miserable in the last Issue and Consequence of it What fruit had you c. I should now have proceeded to the Second Part of the Text which represents to us the manifold Advantages of an Holy and Virtuous Course of Life 22 v But now being made free from sin and become the servants of righteousness ye have your fruit unto holiness there 's the present Advantage of it and the end everlasting life there 's the future Reward of it But this is a large Argument which will require a Discourse by it self and therefore I shall not now enter upon it but shall only make some reflections upon what hath been said concerning the miserable Issue and Consequence of a wicked Life impenitently persisted in And surely if we firmly believe and seriously consider these things we have no reason to be fond of any Vice we can take no great Comfort or Contentment in a sinful Course If we could for the seeming Advantage and short Pleasure of some sins dispense with the Temporal Mischiefs and Inconveniences of them which yet I cannot see how any Prudent and Considerate Man could do if we could conquer Shame and bear the Infamy and Reproach which attends most sins and could digest the upbraidings of our own Consciences so often as we call them to remembrance and reflect seriously upon them tho' for the gratifying an importunate Inclination and an impetuous Appetite all the Inconveniences of them might be born withal yet methinks the very thought of the End and Issue of a wicked Life that the end of these things is Death that indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish far greater than we can now describe or imagine shall be to every soul of Man that doth evil should over-rule us Tho' the violence of an irregular lust and desire are able to bear down all other Arguments yet methinks the Eternal Interest of our precious and immortal Souls should still lie near our Hearts and affect us very sensibly Methinks the Consideration of another World and of all Eternity and of that dismal fate which attends Impenitent Sinners after this Life and the dreadful hazard of being miserable for ever should be more than enough to dishearten any Man from a wicked life and to bring him to a better Mind and Course And if the plain Representations of these things do not prevail with men to this purpose it is a sign that either they do not believe these things or else that they do not consider them one of these two must be the reason why any Man notwithstanding these terrible threatnings of God's Word does venture to continue in an Evil Course 'T is vehemently to be suspected that men do not really believe these things that they are not fully perswaded that there is another state after this Life in which the righteous God will render to every Man according to his deeds and therefore so much Wickedness as we see in the lives of men so much Infidelity may reasonably be suspected to lie lurking in their Hearts They may indeed seemingly profess to believe these things but he that would know what a Man inwardly and firmly believes should attend rather to his Actions than to his Verbal Professions For if any Man lives so as no Man that believes the Principles of the Christian Religion in reason can live there is too much reason to question whether that Man doth believe his Religion he may say he does but there is a far greater Evidence in the Case than Words the Actions of the Man are by far the most credible Declarations of the inward Sense and Perswasion of his Mind Did men firmly and heartily believe that there is a God that governs the World and regards the Actions of men and that he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the World in righteousness and that all Mankind shall appear before him in that day and every Action that they have done in their whole lives shall be brought upon the Stage and pass a strict Examination and Censure and
ROM VI. 21 22. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed For the end of those things is death But now being made free from sin and become Servants to God ye have your fruit unto Holiness and the end Everlasting Life I Have several times told you that the Apostle in these words makes a Comparison between an Holy and Virtuous and a Sinful and Vicious Course of Life Vol. 8. and sets before us the manifest Inconveniences of the one and the manifold Advantages of the other I have finish'd my Discourse upon the First Part of the Comparison the manifest Inconveniences of a sinful and vicious Course I proceed now to the other Part of the Comparison which was the Second Thing I propounded to speak to from these words viz. the manifold Benefits and Advantages of an Holy and Virtuous Course and that upon these Two accounts First Of the present Benefit and Advantage of it which the Apostle here calls Fruit Ye have your fruit unto holiness Secondly In respect of the future reward of it and the end everlasting life So that here is a considerable Earnest in hand besides a mighty Recompence afterwards infinitely beyond the proportion of our best Actions and Services both in regard of the greatness and duration of it everlasting life that is for a few transient acts of Obedience a perfect and immutable and endless state of Happiness And these Two the Apostle mentions in Opposition to the Inconveniences and Evil Consequences of a wicked and vicious Course What fruit had you then in those things c. But before I come to speak to these Two particulars I shall take notice of the description which the Apostle here makes of the change from a state of Sin and Vice to a state of Holiness and Virtue But now being made free from sin and become the servants of God intimating that the state of sin is a state of Servitude and Slavery from which Repentance and the change which is thereby made does set us free but now being made free from sin And so our Saviour tells us that whosoever committeth sin is the Servant of sin and this is the vilest and hardest Slavery in the World because it is the Servitude of the Soul the best and noblest part of our selves 't is the subjection of our Reason which ought to rule and bear Sway over the inferior Faculties to our sensual Appetites and brutish Passions which is as uncomely a sight as to see Beggars ride on Horse back and Princes walk on foot and as Inferiour Persons when they are advanced to Power are strangely Insolent and Tyrannical towards those that are subject to them so the Lusts and Passions of men when they once get the Command of them are the most domineering Tyrants in the World and there is no such Slave as a Man that is subject to his Appetite and Lust that is under the Power of irregular Passions and vicious Inclinations which transport and hurry him to the vilest and most unreasonable things For a wicked Man is a Slave to as many Masters as he hath Passions and Vices and they are very imperious and exacting and the more he yields to them the more they grow upon him and exercise the greater Tyranny over him and being subject to so many Masters the poor Slave is continually divided and distracted between their contrary Commands and Impositions one Passion hurries him one way and another as violently drives him another one Lust commands him upon such a Service and another it may be at the same time calls him to another Work His Pride and Ambition bids him spend and lay it out whilst his Covetousness holds his Hand fast closed so that he knows not many times how to dispose of himself or what to do he must displease some of his Masters and what Inclination soever he contradicts he certainly displeaseth himself And that which aggravates the Misery of his Condition is that he voluntarily submits to this Servitude In other Cases men are made Slaves against their wills and are brought under the Force and Power of others whom they are not able to resist but the sinner chuseth this Servitude and willingly puts his neck under this yoke There are few men in the World so sick of their Liberty and so weary of their own Happiness as to chuse this Condition but the Sinner sells himself and voluntarily parts with that Liberty which he might keep and which none could take from him And which makes this Condition yet more intolerable he makes himself a Slave to his own Servants to those who are born to be subject to him to his own Appetites and Passions and this certainly is the worst kind of Slavery so much worse than that of Mines and Gallies as the Soul is more Noble and Excellent than the Body Men are not usually so sensible of the Misery of this kind of Servitude because they are govern'd by Sense more than Reason But according to a true Judgment and Estimation of things a Vicious Course Life is the saddest Slavery of all others And therefore the Gospel represents it as a design every way worthy of the Son of God to come down from Heaven and to debase himself so far as to assume our Nature and to submit to the Death of the Cross on purpose to rescue us from this Slavery and to assert us into the liberty of the Sons of God And this is the great design of the Doctrine of the Gospel to free men from the Bondage of their Lusts and to bring them to the Service of God whose service is perfect freedom And therefore our Saviour tells us John 8.31 32. That if we continue in his word i. e. if we obey his Doctrine and frame our lives according to it it will make us free Ye shall know says he the truth and the truth shall make you free And if we observe it the Scripture delights very much to set forth to us the Benefits and Advantages of the Christian Religion by the Metaphor of Liberty and Redemption from Captivity and Slavery Hence our Saviour is so often call'd the Redeemer and Deliverer and is said to have obtained eternal Redemption for us And the publishing of the Gospel is compared to the Proclaming of the year of Jubile among the Jews when all Persons that would were set at Liberty Isa 61.1 2. The spirit of the Lord is upon me saith the Prophet speaking in the Person of the Messiah because he hath anointed me to Proclaim liberty to the Captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. And it is probable that upon this account likewise the Christian Doctrine or Law is by St. James call'd the Royal law of liberty This is the great design of Christianity to set men free from the Slavery of their Lusts and to this end the Apostle tells us Tit. 2.13 that Christ gave
the Text They are a Nation void of knowledge neither is there any understanding in them And the wish that follows in the Text is as seasonable for us as it was for them O that they were wise that they uaderstood this that they would consider their latter end And by parity of Reason this may likewise be applyed to particular Persons and to perswade every one of us to a serious Consideration of the final Issue and Consequence of our Actions I will only offer these two Arguments I. That Consideration is the proper Act of reasonable Creatures and that whereby we shew our selves men So the Prophet intimates Isa 46.8 Remember this and shew your selves men bring it again to mind O ye transgressors that is consider it well think of it again and again ye that run on so furiously in a sinful Course what the end and issue of these things will be If ye do not do this you do not shew your selves men you do not act like reasonable Creatures to whom it is peculiar to propose to themselves some end and design of their Actions but rather like Brute Creatures which have no understanding and act only by a natural instinct without any Consideration of the end of their Actions or of the means conducing to it II. Whether we consider it or not our latter end will come and all those dismal Consequences of a sinful Course which God hath so plainly threatned and our own Consciences do so much dread will certainly overtake us at last and we cannot by not thinking of these things ever prevent or avoid them Death will come and after that the Judgment and an irreversible Doom will pass upon us according to all the evil that we have done and all the good that we have neglected to do in this Life under the heavy weight and pressure whereof we must lie groaning and bewailing our selves to everlasting Ages God now exerciseth his Mercy and Patience and Long-suffering toward us in expectation of our amendment he reprieves us on purpose that we may repent and in hopes that we will at last consider and grow wiser for he is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to Repentance but if we will trifle away this day of God's Grace and Patience if we will not consider and bethink our selves there is another day that will certainly come That great and terrible Day of the Lord in which the Heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat the Earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up Seeing then all these things shall be let us consider seriously what manner of Persons we ought to be in all holy Conversation and Godliness waiting for and hastning unto the coming of the Day of God To whom be glory now and for ever SERMON XV. Ser. 15. The Danger of Impenitence where the Gospel is preach'd MATTH XI 21 22. Woe unto thee Chorazin woe unto thee Bethsaida for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes But I say unto you It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of Judgment than for you AFter our Blessed Saviour had instructed and sent forth his Disciples he himself went abroad to preach unto the Cities of Israel particularly he spent much time in the Cities of Galilee Chorazin and Bethsaida Vol. 8. and Capernaum Preaching the Gospel to them and working many and great Miracles among them but with little or no success which was the cause of his denouncing this terrible woe against them ver 20. Then began he to upbraid the Cities wherein most of his mighty works were done because they repented not Woe unto thee Chorazin c. In which words our Saviour declares the sad and miserable Condition of those two Cities Chorazin and Bethsaida which had neglected such an opportunity and resisted and withstood such means of Repentance as would have effectually reclaimed the most wicked Cities and People that can be instanced in in any Age Tyre and Sidon and Sodom and therefore he tells them that their Condition was much worse and that they should fall under a heavier Sentence at the day of Judgment than the People of those Cities whom they had always lookt upon as the greatest sinners that ever were in the World This is the plain meaning of the words in general but yet there are some difficulties in them which I shall endeavour to clear and then proceed to raise such Observations from them as may be instructive and useful to us The Difficulties are these I. What Repentance is here spoken of whether an external Repentance in shew and appearance only or an inward and real and sincere Repentance II. In what Sense it is said that Tyre and Sidon would have repented III. What is meant by their would have repented long ago IV. How this assertion of our Saviour's that Miracles would have converted Tyre and Sidon is reconcileable with that other saying of his Luke 16.31 in the Parable of the rich Man and Lazarus that those who believed not Moses and the Prophets neither would they be persuaded tho' one rose from the dead I. What Repentance is here spoken of whether a meer external and Hypocritical Repentance in shew and appearance only or an inward and real and sincere Repentance The Reason of this doubt depends upon the different Theories of Divines about the sufficiency of Grace accompanying the outward Means of Repentance and whether an irresistible degree of God's Grace be necessary to Repentance for they who deny sufficient Grace to accompany the outward Means of Repentance and assert an irresistible degree of God's Grace necessary to Repentance are forced to say that our Saviour here speaks of a meer External Repentance because if he spake of an inward and sincere Repentance then it must be granted that sufficient inward grace did accompany the Miracles that were wrought in Chorazin and Bethsaida to bring men to Repentance because what was afforded to them would have brought Tyre and Sidon to Repentance And that which would have effected a thing cannot be denyed to be sufficient so that unless our Saviour here speaks of a meer External Repentance either the outward Means of Repentance as Preaching and Miracles must be granted to be sufficient to bring men to Repentance without the inward Operation of God's Grace upon the Minds of Men or else a sufficient degree of God's Grace must be acknowledged to accompany the outward Means of Repentance Again if an irresistible degree of Grace be necessary to true Repentance it is plain Chorazin and Bethsaida had it not because they did not repent and yet without this Tyre and Sidon could not have sincerely repented therefore our Saviour here must speak of a meer External Repentance Thus some argue as they do likewise concerning the Repentance of