and dependance notwithstanding those Doubts nothing but perfect Faith casts out all Doubts and where is it to be found They that never doubted never believed Then Faith might be lost for Assurance may in that tho some are assur'd but not fully and some fully yet none immutably Then Damnation would be not for want of Faith but of Assurance which is necessary not for our Safety but Comfort only and Salvation would be by the reflex and not by the direct Act of Faith for Assurance consists in a reflex Act contrary to the tenure of the Promise of Salvation made Not to the Act of Assurance but of Faith and not to the Degree but Truth of it They that make Assurance to be Faith do more than is needful for Assurance is but a Fruit of Faith and Faith may be alive without it as a Tree may though for a time without Fruit though Assurance cannot be without Faith for God never sets his Seal where he has not first set his Hand They that make Assent to be Faith do less than is needful For Tho Justifying Faith cannot be without General Faith yet General Faith may be without that for it is not a single but complicated Act not the single Act of the Understanding but of the whole Composition not an Act of the Understanding only to Actus complicatus totius compositi know and believe a Divine Revelation as true but of the Will also to receive it as good a Consent as well as an Assent an Assent of the Understanding as it begins there and a Consent of the Will as it ends in it without which the first will avail but little For It is not Christ as dying but as believ'd on nor as tender'd by a hand of Love but as receiv'd by a Hand of Faith that saves So that it appears that Faith is neither an Act of Assent only nor of Assurance but an Act of Affiance also which is more than the first and less than the second viz. That Grace wrought by the Spirit through the Word whereby sensible Sinners are enabled to receive Christ as offered in the Gospel trusting to and relying upon him for Salvation I. It is the Work of God's Spirit It is not our Work but God's Not our Work For Of our selves we are no more able to perform the Articles of the second Covenant than those of the first nor to believe the Gospel than we are to keep the Law But God's Work It is call'd God's Work not only John 6. 29. in regard of Excellency but Efficiency it is not the Work of Men nor of Angels but of God only the powerful Work of his Spirit preparing us for it and enabling us to it we believe through Grace and come to Christ by Acts 18. 27. 1 Cor. 12. 9. Christ To him by Faith from him II. It is the Work of the Spirit through the Word Faith comes by hearing and hearing by Rom. 10. 17. the Word the hearing of Faith wrought by the Spirit as the Efficient and by the Word as the instrumental Cause of it Through the Word viz. both Law and Gospel by one Occasionally and Indirectly by the other Properly and Directly First By the Law not properly but Occasionally and Indirectly 1. Not Properly for the Law has no Power of its own either to Convert or Comfort Sinners Not to Convert them It shows them the sinfulness of their corrupt Nature and Lives but prescribes no Cure and tells them what their Duty is but gives no strength to the performance of it The Law commands Obedience The Gospel enables to it Not to Comfort them It wounds but pours no healing Lex graves manus habet Balm into those Wounds arraigns and condemns but allows no Psalm of Mercy for the Voice of the Law is He that has sinn'd shall die The Law condemns but the Gospel acquits and saves 2. But Occasionally and Indirectly 1. By discovering Sin Sin is the Burden and that which Rom. 3. 20. 5. 20. Gal. 3. 19. makes it feel heavy is the Law For by the Law is the knowledg of Sin viz. a knowledg of Guilt by it Where there are no Bounds there can be no Trespass nor any Transgression where no Law 2. By discovering Wrath due to Sin Where there is no Law there Rom. 2. 8 9. 4. 15. is no Sin and where there is no Sin there is no Curse but where Sin is there a Curse is due to it and the knowledg of it is necessary not to merit Mercy but to dispose to it The Law is the Ministration of Death 2 Cor. 3 7. The Gospel is the Ministration of Life 3. By afflicting and wounding under a sense of Guilt and Wrath due to it It is a fiery Law that has Heat as Deut. 33. 2. Galat. 3. 20. well as Light in it Light to discover Sin and Heat to afflict and torment for it The Law works by Fear The Gospel works by Love 4. By discovering an impossibility for them to help themselves being under a Guilt they cannot expiate obnoxious to a Wrath they cannot flee from shut up in a Prison they cannot break and surrounded with a misery that they cannot redress The Law shows the Wound The Gospel shows the Cure The Help of Salvation is from God Your Destruction is of your selves Hos 13. 9. Thus as Moses brought the Israelites to the Borders of Canaan so something there is of the Hand of Moses viz. something of the Law though but occasionally and indirectly in the Work of Faith Secondly By the Gospel viz. Properly and Directly The Law shews Misery as an Indictment shews the Offence and works Fear the Gospel as a Remedy shews the Disease and works Faith By discovering 1. A remote possibility of Mercy No absolute necessity they should tho' Sinners be damn'd because Grace is rich and free 2. A tender of Mercy indefinitely Isa 55. 1. John 3. 10 The Voice of the Gospel is All that will come may none are excluded but such as wilfully exclude themselves An Indefinite is equivalent to a Vniversal 3. A Suitableness Fulness and Willigness in Christ 1. A Suitableness As being Wisdom Righteousness 1 Cor. 1. 30. Sanctification Redemption Healing Life and Salvation for the relief of blind guilty polluted captiv'd sick dead lost and undone Sinners No Fountain like this Jordan to wash in for Sin and Vncleanness Zech. 13. 1. 2. A Fulness Meat and Drink are a suitable Good John 1. 16. Col. 2. 9. to the hungry and thirsty because Hunger and Thirst are Appetites determined to those Objects but a Crum or a Drop is not enough in that tho' it is a suitable yet it is not a full Good but in Christ there is a fulness of Merit to justify and of Spirit to sanctify that which is every way commensurate to the Desires and Necessities of distressed Sinners If they have him they are made If not they are
that are terrified by the Law assaulted by the Devil haunted by Sin tempted by the World and through fear of Death subject to Bondage beholding the Conquest over these Enemies may triumph and bid defiance to them all The Curse of the Law is abolish'd by Heb. 2. 15. Rom. 8. 3. 6. 6. the Satisfaction made by Christ to Divine Justice Sin is condemn'd in the Flesh by him the Sacrifice for it and Crucified with him the Devil the Prince of this World is judg'd and cast out by him the World is conquer'd John 12. 31. 16. 11 33. and Death vanquish'd in his Victory over them Let us then triumph in our Victory and give thanks unto God who through Christ has given us Victory The Devil is a captiv'd damned Enemy his Captives are ransom'd redeem'd rescued out of his hands and he himself become Captive rage he may for that is part of his torment but rule he shall not for greater is he that is in 1 John 4. 4. Rom. 12. 10. us than he that is in the World he may accuse and he will but his Charge shall be made void and all his Accusations answered by Christ who ever lives to plead either our Innocency or our Pardon The Law that was Sin 's strength 1 Cor. 15. 56. not as encouraging to Sin but as condemning for it is now become weak for its killing damning Power Rom. 8. 1 3. Gal. 3. 13. is taken away by the Virtue of the Cross Sin that was once a living reigning conquering Enemy is now subdu'd as a routed Enemy it may rally again but shall never conquer Sin shall not have dominion for it is a Body of Death it has receiv'd its death's Wound Rom 6. 14. 7. 24 25. by the Power of the Cross and shall e're long give up the Ghost Death is unstung it is swallowed up in Victory the Power of the Grave is weakned Death that Destroyer is destroy'd we must fall by its hand but shall rise again it will end our 1 Cor. 15. 53 55 56 57. Mortality but not our Life for this Mortal shall put on Immortality We must be Prisoners in the Grave for a time but we shall not be perpetual Prisoners Christ who broke the Bars of that Prison will redeem us from the Power of Grave the time of Psal 49. 15. Isa 16. 19. Ezek. 37. 5 12. Redemption for our Bodies will come our dead Bodies shall rise our dry Bones shall live again the Graves shall be opened the Captives redeem'd and then Destructions shall come to a perpetual End for we shall live and never die more Awake and sing all ye that dwell in the Dust The Devil is captiv'd the Law is silenc'd Sin is condemn'd the World is conquer'd and Death destroy'd Who can hurt us What need we fear they are all conquer'd Enemies and the Conqueror is ours thanks be to God who has given us Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ and always causeth us to triumph in him through Rom. 8. 37. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Over-over-comers whom we are over all these more than Conquerors The Warfare of Faith ends in Victory and the Victory must be crown'd with Triumph Of the Inseparable Evidences of FAITH All have not Faith some have not 2 Thess 3. 2. the Faith of Assent and therefore cannot have the Faith of Adherence some think they have a Faith of Evidence and Assurance who have not attained to a Faith of Adherence and Dependance and some have Faith in the Habit but little or none in the Act or Exercise How is it that ye have no Mark 4. 40. Faith and by reason of it walk as uncomfortably as if they had none it concerns us therefore to examine whether we are in the Faith and the Faith 2 Cor. 13. 5. in us and what that Faith is whether a General or a Particular and an Appropriating Faith a Temporary and Perishing or a Sound and Lasting one Col. 2. 12. a Faith of the Operation of God or of the Devil Holy or Unholy Feigned or Unfeigned Dead or Alive Common and Ordinary or Special and Saving the Faith of Reprobates or of God's Elect that Faith which they Jude â—0 2 Tim. 1. 5. Jam. 2. 26. Titus 1. 1â— and none but they have and which all of them have and never can lose The Acts of Faith for a time may cease but the Habit abides Faith 1. Arises from a sense of misery out of Christ 2. Begets a Superlative Love to Christ 3. Is fruitful in good Works 4. Is accompanied with Holiness 1. It arises from a sense of Misery out of Christ Spiritual Poverty is the nearest capacity of believing for Faith is the Act of a weary heavy-laden distressed undone self-condemned Sinner going out to Christ for Rest Life and Salvation Humiliation is not Faith no more than the preorgination of the Body is the Soul but a disposition to it going to Christ without it is building without a Foundation resting in it without going to Christ is laying a Foundation without building upon it a House without a Foundation will be of little use a Foundation without the superstructure will be of no use Without Humiliation Faith is as a House without a Foundation and without Christ it will as a rotten Foundation break under us there is nothing to warrant or encourage our going to Christ before we are humbled for we go before we are call'd nor any thing to assure Salvation to us if we do not go when we are that without him cannot help us he without that will not for we must be lost sick and damn'd in our own sense and apprehension before he will seek heal or save us A Faith of Education is a Weed of Infidelis fiducia Presumption that grows in common Ground Saving Faith is a Plant of Renown growing upon the brink of the Infernal Pit that like self-grown Corn will wither and come Ps 92 13 14. Mat. 15. 13. Jam. 3. 18. to nothing this will flourish that begins in Presumption and ends in Despair this begins in Despair viz. of our selves and will end in Comfort 2. It begets Superlative Love to Christ Christ as consider'd in the Glory and Comeliness of his Person the Graces and Perfections of his Nature and the great Offices he was anointed to viz. of a King above all Kings in Order Power and Authority of a Priest above all Priests in Nature Compassion Sacrifice Merit of a Prophet above all Prophets in Primacy Infallibility and Efficacy is beyond all compare there is nothing in him but what is lovely nor any thing lovely but is eminently in him he is fairer than the Children of Men yea than all the Angels and Saints in the highest Heavens more full of Beauty than the Sun or Morning-Star the Brightness Heb. 1. 3. of his Father's Glory his first and best-beloved the Joy and Delight of the Saints in Heaven
him neither for all his Followers must be Self-deniers Luke 9. 23. therefore to our Profession of Christ we must join following of him and to both add Self-denial for it is the inseparable Property of his Followers to be Self-deniers This Self-denial is a conscionable neglect of our selves in all those things that stand in opposition to our receiving of Christ and glorifying of him nothing stands more in opposition to these than our sinful and righteous Self and nothing is with more defficulty denied it is no easy matter to get out of this enchanted Circle but yet must be by all that are Christ's Disciples one in respect of Affection and Communion the other in respect of Trust and Dependance 1. Sinful Self Not that we must destroy our selves that thereby we may destroy our Lusts this would be to break one Command that we might keep another to Sin that we might not Sin to commit a greater to avoid a less and as vain and fruitless as to attempt the expulsion of a stronger Poison by a weaker But that we must deny Ungodliness Titus 2. 12. and worldly Lusts suppress all the inward Motions and avoid all the outward Occasions leading to them disapprove them in our Judgments resist them in our Wills hate them in our Affections and depart from them in our Lives and Conversations and this not at sometimes only but for ever and not from some Lusts of the Flesh only but from all for as God hates all and the Law curses all so Christ gave himself for us to redeem us from all and Titus 2. 14. Gal. 5. 24. Rom. 6. 6. they that are his have crucified the Flesh with all the Affections and Lusts thereof None are justified by him but such Gal. 2. 20. as are thus crucified with him 2. Righteous Self Not that we must wholly neglect and omit the Acts of Righteousness for this would be the breach of a positive Law that commands them but not put any trust in them not that we must do them but when done disclaim all confidence in them At the best we do but what we should and therefore deserve no Reward None merit any thing by paying their Luke 17. 7 8 9 10. Debts They are imperfect and as such cannot be meritorious yea impure too Eccles 7. 20. Isa 1. 22. 64. 6. for there is Sin in them Sin enough to damn us without the allowance granted by God in the Covenant of Grace They add nothing to God for as he is perfect nothing can be added to him he is no gainer by them he gets nothing if we go to Heaven nor loses any thing if we go to Hell nor can they merit any thing from him they are nothing to him the Rewarder nor any thing to the Reward given by him for that is infinite and full but these defective and finite They are Gifts to us before wrought by us done not by our strength but Phil. 2. 13. by his who worketh in us both to will and to do and therefore cannot be meritorious For We give him nothing but what is his 1 Chron. 29. 14 own It concerns us then to beware both of Evils Works and Good Ones Of Evil Works so as not to do them of good Works so as not to trust in them both are alike allow'd of by the Devil viz. the doing of one and placing confidence in the other and they that do so are both his Captives only the one are in liberâ the other in arctâ custodiâ 1. We must beware of Evil Works so as not to do them And this To shew forth our Obedience to God who has called us to Holiness to Grace as well as to Glory and to that 1 Thess 4. 7. 2 Pet. 1. 3. as the way to it To testify our Communion with the Spirit and Participation of it it is a Holy Spirit viz. essentially and efficaciously and all that are partakers of Heb. 6. 4. 2 Cor. 7. 1. 1 Thess 5. 23. it are cleansed from all filthiness of the Flesh and Spirit To manifest our Interest in Christ Rom. 8. 1. who came as a Purifier as well as a Redeemer and a Sanctifier as well as a Saviour being sent to bless us in turning us from Sin viz. to bring us out of a state of Sin from under the power of Acts 3. 26. it out of love with it and to keep us from the practice of it That our Hopes of Salvation may appear to be good and well-grounded if true they are purifying A Heavenly Expectation begets a Heavenly 1 John 3. 3. Conversation By thus doing Our drooping Souls may be reviv'd under the glorious Beams of God's Mercy our thirsty Souls satisfied by tasting these pure Streams and when terrified under the guilty Apprehensions of Sin be encouraged to hope in it God being more willing to grant Pardon upon our Repentance than we can be to receive it For He not only delights in Mercy but takes pleasure in them that hope in it 2. We must beware of good Works Micah 7. 18. Psal 147. 11. so as not to trust in them Two Extreams we are apt to run into viz. either into a neglect of them or pride in them but we must neither neglect them nor trust in them but do them and abhor all thoughts of Merit by them 1. Do them And this In obedience to the Command that enjoins them We are bid to renounce Evil Works and to maintain them that are Good viz. Practically as well as Titus 3. 8. Doctrinally As necessary Conditions required on our part in order unto Salvation Free Grace destroys not good Works but promotes them As a testimony of our gratitude to John 8. 36. Christ who has made us free not to Sin but from it and from Sin 's Service that we might be the more ready Luke 1. 75. and free to his To evidence our Faith to be alive for it is dead without them That is as the Root and these as the fruitful Branches growing on it And as our Evidences for Heaven Via ad Regnum non causa regnandi the Way to the Kingdom tho not as the cause of our reign there Christ the Prince of Life being the giver of Eternal Life to none but to whom he is the Author of that which is spiritual 2. Abhor all thoughts of Merit by them To neglect them is Prophaneness to trust in them is Folly and Pride Folly For in effect we say That if God will have patience we will pay him all that we owe him which betrays our Folly in that we are not able to discharge the least Debt it is Christ our Surety that must do it for us To think we can merit is to make our selves rich who are poor and have Rev. 3. 17. nothing of our own Pride In that we totally reject the Priestly Office of Christ tho we pretend to take him as our
our part to make us meet for it and declares That God loves us better than himself and saves us in contradiction to himself in that he loves and saves us in our Sins and that Christ justifies Sinners to his own reproach or rather justifies Sin than Sinners It concerns us therefore in all our Supplications for Mercy to have an eye to the End of Mercy to seek Mercy upon the Terms of Mercy viz. the Terms upon which it is offer'd lest we make Patents of Mercy to our selves that God will never confirm For As his Justice is wrong'd by a distrust of Mercy upon Repentance so his Mercy is abus'd by an expectation of it without it 1. We should then admire the distinguishing love of God to us He passed by the Fallen Angels more excellent Creatures than we and left them to perish in their Sin but has found out an Expedient for us by Repentance to escape the Wrath due to it The Devils cannot repent nor are they assur'd of Pardon if they could but sinful Men are the more happy they and the more astonishing the freeness of Grace to them they are not call'd to Repentance but these are and assur'd of Pardon if they do repent but not unless they do for as Devils and impenitent Sinners are alike in Nature viz. in their sinful not in their created Nature alike as to kind tho' not as to degree both sinful but one more than the other so they shall fare alike as to punishment They are now reserv'd in everlasting Chains unto Jude 6. â—… the Judgment of the great Day and these are upon a Chain that if not broken will lead them captive to Hell they are shut out of Heaven these are not unless their own Wills keep them John 5. 40. out they are without hope of Pardon these are under a possibility yea a certainty of it upon Repentance for God has ratified the Promise of Pardon upon it As a God of Mercy he made the Promise and as a God of Truth he will perform it 2. Since Repentance is the first Lesson that we are to learn under the Gospel it was the first in St. Paul's Catechism Heb. 6. 1. and a Duty that we are daily to perform and never to neglect we should no more dare to live than we would dare to die without it They that look upon Repentance as a Legal Duty and flee from it as that which is more likely to scare them out of their Wits than Sins will at last find more terror in the Neglect than ever they would have found in the practice of it The neglect of it will make two Hells viz. within and without here and hereafter but a serious and daily exercise of it will make two Heavens viz. without and within above and below in Heaven and in our own Souls 1. In Heaven For when Sinners repent Luk. 15. 7 10. God the Father rejoices As a Father in the Birth of an Heir God the Son rejoices He died big with love to Sinners and cannot but rejoice to see of the travel of his Soul in the Conversiof Isa 53. 11. of theirs God the Holy Ghost rejoices He who has so long and so often been grieved by Sinners rejoices and is made glad that now he shall be a Comforter to them Angels rejoice As having one Companion more join'd to their Heavenly Quire It should be our Joy to promote Heaven's 2. In our own Souls The Song of Lamentation must be sung here or hereafter Therefore If we have not mourn'd for Sin or resolve not to do it we would do well to remember that the more is behind and that the time of mourning for Sin will come for it is like Jabez brought 1 Chron. 4. 9. forth with Sorrow its Issue will be sorrow here or hereafter and we must either begin or end in it in Time or Eternity But if we are in Sorrow we may be Dâ—â—o de peccatis poenitens de dolore gaudâ—o glad at our Heaviness there is a Song of Joy that attends the Song of Lamentation Sun-shine with our Rain God will give us joy of our Repentance and the greater our Sorrow is the greater shall our Joy he The deeper the Wound the farther the Balm shall go in Of the Nature of Repentance REpentance Is not a bare suspending the Acts of Sin It is more than that It is not a destroying the Being of Sin It is less than that 1. It is not a bare suspending the Acts of Sin All are alike evil by Nature tho' not by practice and there is ever a proneness in us to sin the more unhappy we but we are not always actually in it yet some Acts may cease not from any inward Principle either of Love to God or hatred to Sin but from a Principle of slavish Fear or through the want of a Supply for Sin or an occasion to it and when so can no more be called Repentance than that can be said to be a Merciful Fire that goes out through want of Fuel The Influence of the Sun may by an Eclipse be suspended and yet its Light not extinguish'd and Sin for a time deprest and yet not destroy'd 2. It is not a destroying the Being Rom. 7. 9. Patitur non facit Bern. of Sin It is true when Penitent Persons commit Sin it is usually contrary to the purpose of their Will but to some particular Acts only and ever attended with shame and grief but yet commit it they both do and may even then when they have truly repented of it for tho' Sin by Repentance receives its Death's Wound yet it has a strong Heart and will be long a dying A Being it will have in them while they have a Being So that Repentance is neither a suspension of the Acts of Sin nor the destruction of its Being it is more than the first and less than the second viz. That Work of the Spirit whereby an humbled Sinner being made sensible of the Evil of Sin in the general and the Misery due to it and of his own Sins in particular and of the Mercy of God in Christ ready to pardon them does most affectionately mourn for them and most effectually turn from them unto God 1. It is the Work of the Spirit Our Times are in God's Hands and Psal 31. 15. Rev. 2. 21. so are our Hearts too one for the Space the other for the Grace of Repentance for it is in his Soveraign Power alone to give both viz. the Time without which we cannot well repent with any comfort to our selves or others and the Grace without which we cannot repent at all neither begin nor proceed in it for it is a supernatural Work and falls not within the Love Desire or Power of Nature Water came not out of the Rock in Horeb until Moses smote it with his Exod. 17. 5 6. Rod Nor will ever the Waters of Repentance flow from our
any more to Hosea 4. 18. do with them One Commodity as well as many makes a Trader and one Sin though the least indulg'd an impenitent Sinner 3. And sincerely turn to God Jer. 4. 1. Acts 26. 20. Sin is a turning from God Repentance is a turning to him and all that exercise a Repentance toward God turn from the Love of Sin to the love Isa 55 7. of Him as their chief Good and from the service of Sin to his Service as their Sovereign-Lord and so to it as 1 Thess 1. 9. never to depart from it All God's Covenant-Servants are his for their Lives 1. Then they are much mistaken that look upon Repentance as an abstracted Notion from a Holy Life Impenitency is a doing of that which Dan. 4.27 Titus 2 1â— Rom. 7.15 1 Cor. 11.31 Isa 30.22 Job 42.6 Psal 97.10 Isa 1.16,17 Rom. 12.9 is Evil and continuing in it Repentance is an undoing of it a facing about a happy Apostacy a turning from it the Work of the whole Man viz. of the Judgment in denying disallowing and condemning of Sin of the Will in declining it and resolving against it of the Affections in loathing hating and abhorring of it Mutatio voluntatis rei and of the Life in forsaking it and turning from it it begins in the Heart but ends in the Life It is abomination to Fools to depart from Evil but none repent truly Prov. 13. 19. unless they do 2. And as much mistaken are they that think it an easy thing to repent as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if it was as Alexandrinus notes rather the turning of a Shell than a Soul To repent is to accuse and condemn our selves to charge upon our selves the desert of Hell to take part with God against our selves and to justify him in all that he does against us to be asham'd and confounded for our Sins to have them ever in our Eyes and at all times upon our Hearts that we may be in daily sorrow for them to part with our right Hands and Eyes those pleasurable and profitable Sins that have been as dear to us as our Lives so as never to have to do with them more and to hate them so as to destroy them things that by Nature we are wholly averse from For We naturally love and think well of our selves hide our Deformities lessen and excuse our Faults indulge our selves in the things that please us are mad upon our Lusts and follow them though to our own destruction but yet though difficult in themselves and things that we of our selves cannot do yet such as God has promised if we are not wanting to our selves to enable us to do for what is a Command in one place is a Promise in another The Command bids us Wash and be clean The Promise says We Isa 1. 16 18. Ezek. 36. 25 26 27. shall be cleansed One bids us put away Evil the other says it shall be taken away One bids us convert our selves the other says We shall be converted One injoins Repentance the other assures it Now we must not be frighted by the Precept but allur'd by the Promise not driven from our Obedience to it because of difficulty but driven by it to the Promise or rather to him that made it with a desire that since by his Command he has made it our Duty he would by fulfilling his Promise enable us to it by giving his Da domine quod jubes da prius poenitentiam postea indulgentiam Spirit to us that only can work it in us The Grace of Repentance goes before the Grace of Indulgence but they are both from God What St. Austin says concerning the Ni nihilo facitius ni nihilo pâ—riculosius erratur plures damnat poenitentia quam ipsum peccatum Trinity may be said here as to Repentance viz. that Mistakes are both easy and dangerous that we may not therefore be mistaken in it it concerns us to enquire What our Repentance is viz. Whether a dead Repentance or a Repentance unto Life toward God or Acts 11. 18. 20. 21. 2 Cor. 7. 10. our selves a Repentance to be repented or not to be repented of and this by considering these four things that are either necessary in order unto it or comprehended in it viz. 1. Confession of Sin 2. Sorrow for Sin 3. Hatred to Sin 4. Departure from Sin 1. Confession of Sin Supplication precedes Remission and Psal 32. 5. Prov. â—8 13. Hos 14. 2. words of Confession take with the words must go before words of Petition and Supplication which Confession is then right When full and without reserve We confess none truly unless fully none unless all for what is partial is hypocritical When free and not forc'd Forc'd Confessions are of little credit on Earth of none in Heaven When with Humiliation and Detestation Job 4. 26. Ezek. 20. 43. viz. of our Sins and of our selves too for them Caligula boasted that he could not be asham'd tho' he could not that he was never afraid but it is the Glory and honour of all penitent Sinners Perit homo cui perit pudor to be so for true Confession is an acknowledgment with dislike and is ever accompanied with shame Silence or saying little in other Cases will do us no hurt but here it will for those Sins only that are condemned Agnoscit reus ignoscit Deus by us on Earth are pardon'd by God in Heaven 2. Sorrow for Sin Sorrow for Sin is not Repentance yet there is no true Repentance without it for as Sorrow worketh Repentance it is not Repentance but 2 Cor. 7. 10. that which worketh to it so Repentance worketh Sorrow which Sorrow is then right When free and without constraint Not as a Water from a Still but from a Fountain that flows freely When Constant This Heavenly Dew must fall upon us Morning and Evening Day and Night When Genuine 2 Cor. 7. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Godly Sorrow as respecting God and so oppos'd to worldly Sorrow which has a respect only to evil The Sorrow not of a Slave but of a Child more out of Love than Fear more because God is offended than Hell deserv'd When proportionable to the Measure of Sin Proportionable to the Nature of Sin it cannot be but to the Measure of it so far as we can it must Great Sorrow like Naaman's seven 2 Kings 5. 14. times washing for great Sins Manasses sorrow for Sin was great 2 Kings 33. 12. He had greatly sinn'd and was greatly humbled David's Sorrow for Sin was great Tears were his Meat and Drink the Night a time appointed for rest as Psal 6. 6. 32. 34. well as the Day was to him a time of Sorrow and the Flood rose so high that it made his Bed to swim And so was Peter's For His Eyes were as Nicephorus says red with Tears died red with daily Sorrow