her solemn engagements she played fast and loose with God and ran after her Idols We see by experience when a person is on his sick-bed what protestations will he make if God recover him again yet he is as bad as ever He shews his old heart in a new temptation Resolution against sin may arise 1. From present extremity not because sin is sinful but because it is painful This Resolution will vanish 2. Resolution against sin may arise from fear of future evil an apprehension of death and Hell Rev. 6. 8. I looked and behold a pale horse and his name that sate on him was death and Hell followed after him What will not a sinner do what vows will he not make when he knows he must die and stand before the Judgement seat self-Self-love raiseth a sick-bed vow and love of sin will prevail against it Trust not to a passionate resolution it is raised in a storm and will die in a calm 3. The third Deceit about Repentance is the leaving many sinful courses 'T is a great matter I confess to leave sin So dear is sin to a man that he will rather part with a child than a lust Micah 6. 7. Shall I give the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul But sin may be parted with yet no Repentance 1. A man may part with some sins and keep other As Herod reformed many things amiss but could not leave his incest 2. An old sin may be left to entertain a new As you put off an old servant to take another This is to exchange a sin Sin may be exchanged and the heart not changed He who was a Prodigal in his youth turns an Usurer in his old age A slave is sold to a Jew the Jew sells him to a Turk here is the Master changed but he is a slave still So a man removes from one vice to another but he is a sinner still 3. A sin may be left not so much from strength of grace as from moral grounds A man sees that though such a sin be for his Tooth yet it is not for his interest It will ecclipse his credit prejudice his health impair his estate therefore upon prudential reasons he gives it a dismiss The true leaving of sin is when the acts of sin cease from the infusion of a principle of grace As the air ceaseth to be dark from the infusion of light CHAP. IV. Opening the Nature of True Repentance I Shall next come to shew what Gospel-Repentance is Repentance is a grace of Gods Spirit whereby a sinner is inwardly humbled and visibly reformed For a further amplification of Repentance know that Repentance is a spiritual medicine made up of six special Ingredients if any one be left out it loseth its vertue 1. Sight of Sin 2. Sorrow for Sin 3. Confession of Sin 4. Shame for Sin 5. Hatred for Sin 6. Turning from Sin SECTION I. 1. THE first Ingredient in Repentance is Sight of Sin The first part of Christs Physick is Eye-salve Act. 26. 18. 'T is the great thing noted in the Prodigals Repentance Luk. 15. 17. He came to himself He saw himself a sinner and nothing but a sinner Before a man can come to Christ he must come to himself Solomon in his description of Repentance puts this in as the first Ingredient 1 King 8. 47. If they shall bethink themselves A man must first recognize and consider what his sin is and know the plague of his heart ere he can be duly humbled for it The first creature God made was Light So the first thing in a penitent is illumination Ephes. 5. 8. Now ye are light in the Lord. The eye is made both for seeing and weeping Sin must first be seen before it can be wept for Hence I infer where there is no sight of sin there can be no Repentance Many who can spy faults in others see none in themselves They cry they have good hearts Were it not strange that two should live together and eat and drink together yet not know one another Such is the case of a sinner his body and soul live together walk together yet he is unacquainted with himself He knows not his own heart nor what an Hell he carries about him Under a vail a deformed face is hid Persons are vailed over with ignorance and self-love therefore see not what deformed souls they have The Devil doth with them as the Faulkner with the Hawk blinds them and carries them hooded to Hell Zach. 11. 17. The sword shall be upon his right eye Men have insight enough into worldly matters but the eye of their mind is smitten they see not any evil in sin The sword is upon their right eye SECT II. 2. THE second Ingredient into Repentance is Sorrow for Sin Psal. 38. 18. I will be sorry for my sin Ambrose calls sorrow the imbittering of the soul. The Hebrew word to be sorrowful signifies to have the soul as it were crucified* This must be in true Repentance Zach. 12. 10. They shall look upon me whom they have pierced and â—…ourn As if they did feel the nails of the Cross sticking in their sides A woman may as well expect to have a child without pangs as one can have Repentance without sorrow He that can believe without doubting suspect his faith and he that can repent without sorrowing suspect his Repentance Martyrs shed blood for Christ and penitents shed tears for sin Luk. 7. 38. She stood at Iesus feet weeping See how this limbeck dropped the sorrow of her heart ran out at her eye The brazen lavor for the Priests to wash in Exod. 30. 18. did tipifie a double lavor The lavor of Christs blood we must wash in by Faith and the lavor of tears we must wash in by Repentance A true Penitentiary labours to work his heart into a sorrowing frame he blesseth God when he can weep he is glad of a rainy-day He knows 't is a Repentance he shall have no cause to repent of Though the bread of sorrow be bitter to the taste yet it strengthens the heart This sorrow for sin is not facil It is an holy Agony 'T is called in Scripture a breaking of the heart Psal. 51. 17. The Sacrifices of God are a broken heart And a rending of the heart Ioel 2. 13. Rend your hearts* The expressions of smiting of the thigh Ier. 31. 19. knocking on the breast Lâ—…k 18. 13. putting on of sackcloth Isa. 22. 12. plucking off the hair Ezra 9. 3. What are all these but outward signs of inward sorrow This sorrow must be 1. To make Christ precious O how desirable is a Saviour to a troubled soul Now Christ is Christ indeed and mercy is mercy indeed Till the heart be full of compunction it is not fit for Christ How welcome is a Chyrurgion to
from hearing slanders the tongue must fast from oaths the hands must fast from bribes the feet must fast from the path of the harlot and the soul must fast from the love of wickedness This turning from sin implies a notable change There is a change wrought in the heart The flinty heart is become fleshly Satan would have Christ prove his Deity by making stones become bread Christ hath wrought a far greater miracle in making stones become flesh In Repentance Christ turns an heart of stone into flesh There is a change wrought in the life Turning from sin is so visible that others may discern it therefore it is called a change from darkness to light Ephes. 5. 8. Paul after he had seen the heavenly vision was so turned that all men wondred at the change Act. 9. 21. Repentance turned the Jaylor into a Nurse and Physician Act. 16. 33. He took the Apostles and washed their wounds and set meat before them A ship that is going Eastward there comes a wind and turns it Westward So that a man before was sailing Hell-ward the contrary wind of the Spirit blows and turns his course and causeth him to sail Heaven-ward Chrysostom speaking of the Ninivites Repentance saith that had a stranger who had seen Ninevehs excess gone after they repented into the City it was so metamorphosed and reformed that he would scarce have believed it was the same City Such a visible change doth Repentance make in a person as if another soâ—…l did lodge in the same body Now that the turning from sin be rightly qualified these few things are requisite 1. It must be a turning from sin with the heart the heart is the primum vivens the first thing that lives and it must be the primum vertens the first thing that turns The heart is that the Devil doth most strive for Never did he so strive for the body of Moses as he doth for the heart of man in Religion the heart is all if the heart be not turned from sin it is no better than a lye Ier. 3. 10. Her treacherous Sister Iudah hath not turned to me with the whole heart but feignedly or as the Hebrew in a lye * Iudah did make a shew of Reformation she was not so grosly idolatrous as the ten Tribes yet Iudah was worse than Israel she is called treacherous Iudah she pretended to a reformation but it was not in truth her heart was not for God she turned not with the whole heart 'T is odious to make a shew of turning from sin yet the heart is in league with it I have read of one of our Saxon Kings who was baptized that in the same Church he had one Altar for the Christian Religion another for the Heathen God will have the whole heart turned fâ—…om sin True Repentance must have no reserves or inmates 2. It must be a turning from all sin Isa. 55. 7. Let the wicked forsake his way A real penitent turns out of the road of sin every sin is abandoned As Iehu would have all the Priests of Baal slain not one must escape 2 King 10. 24. So a true convert seeks the destruction of every lust he knows how dangerous it is to entertain any one sin He that hides one rebel in his house is a traitor to the Crown and he that indulgeth one sin is a traiterous Hypocrite 3. It must be a turning from sin upon a spiritual ground A man may restrain the acts of sin yet not turn from sin in a right manner Acts of sin may be restrained out of fear or design but a right penitentiary turns from sin out of a religious principle and that is love to God If sin did not bear such bitter fruit if death did not grow on this tree yet a gracious soul would forsake it out of love to God This is the most kindly turning from sin When things are frozen and congealed the best way to separate them is by fire When men and their sins are congealed together the best way to separate them is the fire of love Three asking one another what made them leave sin saith one I think of the joys of Heaven saith another I think of the torments of Hell but saith the third I think of the love of God and that makes me forsake it How shall I offend the God of love 4. It must be such a turning from sin as turns unto God This is in the text That they should repent and turn unto God Turning from sin is like the pulling the Arrow out of the wound turning to God is like the pouring in of the Balsom We read in Scripture of a Repentance from dead works Heb. 6. 1. and a Repentance towards God Act. 20. 21. Unsound hearts pretend to leave old sins but they do not turn to God or embrace his service 'T is not enough to forsake the Devils quarters but we must get under Christs banner and wear his colours The repenting Prodigal did not only leave his Harlots but did arise and go to his Father It was Gods complaint Hos. 7. 16. They return but not to the most High In true Repentance the heart points directly to God as the Needle to the North-pole 5. The true turning from sin is such a turn as hath no return Hos. 14. 8. Ephraim shall say what have I to do any more with Idols The forsaking sin must be like the forsaking ones native soil never to return more to it Some have seemed to be converts and to have turned from sin but they have returned to their sins again This is a returning â—…o folly It is A fearful sin For 1. It is against clear light He who did once leave his sin it is to be supposed he felt it bitter in the pangs of conscience yet he returned to it again he must needs sin against the illuminations of the Spirit 2. It reproacheth God Ier. 2. 5. What iniquity have your Fathers found in me that they are gone from me He that returns to sin doth interpretatively charge God with some evil If a man put away his wife it implies he knows some fault by her To leave God and return to sin is tacitly to asperse the Deity God who hates putting away Mal. 2. 16. hates that he himself should be put away To return to sin gives the Devil more power over a man than ever Mat. 12. 43. When a man turns from sin the Devil seems to be cast out of him but when he returns to sin here is the Devil entring into his house again and taking possession and the last state of that man is worse than the first When a prisoner hath broken prison and the Jaylour gets him again he will lay stronger Irons upon him He who leaves off a course of sinning doth as it were break the Devils prison but if Satan takes him returning to sin he
may leave sin for fear as in a storm the Plate and Jewels are cast over-board but the nauseating and loathing of sin argues a detestation of it Christ is never loved till sin be loathed Heaven is never longed for till sin be loathed When the soul sees an issue of blood runing he cries out Lord when shall I be freed from this body of death When shall I put off these filthy garments of sin and have the fair mitre of glory set upon my head Let all our self-self-love be turned into self-loathing We are never more precious in Gods eyes than when we are lepers in our own 2. There is an hatred of Enmity There is no better way to discover life than by motion The eye moves the pulse beats So to discover Repentance there is no better sign than by an holy antipathy against sin Hatred saith Cicero is anger boiled up to an inveteracy Sound Repentance begins in the love of God and ends in the hatred of sin But how may true hatred of sin be known 1. When a mans spirit is set against sin The tongue doth not only inveigh against sin but the heart abhors it So that let sin be never so curiously painted it is odious As we abhor the picture of one whom we mortally hate though it be exactly drawn Non amo te Sabidi Suppose a dish be finely cooked and the sauce good yet if a man hath an antipathy against the meat he will not taste it So let the Devil cook and dress sin with pleasure and profit yet a true penitent having a secret abhorrency of it doth disgust it and will not meddle with it 2. True hatred of sin is universal and that two waies In respect 1. Of the Faculties 2. Of the Object 1. Hatred is universal in respect of the Faculties That is there is a dislike of sin not only in the judgement but in the will and affections For many an one is convinced that sin is a vile thing and in his judgement hath an aversation from it but yet he tasts sweetness and hath a secret complacency in it Here is a disliking sin in the judgement and an embracing it in the affections Whereas in true Repentance the hatred of sin is in all the faculties not only in the intellectual part but chiefly in the will Rom. 7. 15. What I hate that do I. Paul was not free from sin yet his will was against it 2. Hatred is universal in respect of the Object He that hates one sin hates all Aristotle saith hatred is against the whole kind He that hates a Serpent hates all Serpents Psal. 119. 104. I hate every false way Hypocrites will hate some sins which do ecclipse their credit but a true convert hates all sins gainful sins complexion-sins the very stirrings of corruption Paul hated the motions of sin Rom. 7. 23. 3. True hatred is against sin quatenus sin An holy heart detests sin for its intâ—…nsick pollution Sin leaves aâ—…ain upon the soul. A regenerate person abhors sin not only for the curse but the contagion He hates this Serpent not only for its sâ—…ing but its poison He hates sin not only for Hell but as Hell 4. True hatred is implacable it will never be reconciled to sin any more Anger may be reconciled hatred cannot Sin is that Amalek which is never to be taken into favour again The war between a child of God and sin is like the war between those two Princes 1 King 14. 30. There was war between Rehoboam and Ieroboam all their daies 5. Where there is a real hatred we do not only oppose sin in our selves but in others The Church of Ephesus could not bear with them that were evil Rev. 2. 2. Paul sharply censured Peter for his dissimulation though he were an Apostle Christ in an holy displacency whipt the money-changers out of the Temple Ioh. 2. 15. He would not suffer the Temple to be made an Exchange Nehemiah rebuked the Nobles for their Usury Neh. 5. 7. And their Sabbath-prophanation Neh. 13. 7. A sin-hater will not endure wickedness in his family Psal. 101. 7. He that worketh deceit shall not dwell in my house What a shame is it when Magistrates can shew height of spirit in their passions but no heroick spirit in suppressing vice Such as have no antipathy against sin are strangers to Repentance Sin is in them as poison in a Serpent which being natural is delightful 1. How far are they from Repentance who instead of hating sin love sin To the godly sin is as a thorn in the eye to the wicked it is as a crown on the head Ier. 11. 15. When thou dost evil then thou rejoycest Loving of sin is worse than committing it A good man may run into a sinful action unawares but to love sin is desperate What is it makes a Swine but loving to tumble in the mire What is it makes a Devil but loving that which opposeth God To love sin shews that the will is in sin and the more of the will in a sin the greater the sin Wilfulness makes it a sin not to be purged by sacrifice Heb. 10. 26. O how many are there that love the forbidden fruit They love their oaths and adulteries they love the sin and hate the reproof Solomon speaks of a generation of men Eccles. 9. 3. Madness is in their heart while they live So for men to love sin to hug that which will be their death to sport with damnation Madness is in their heart It perswades us to shew our Repentance by a bitter hatred of sin There is 〈◊〉 deadly antipathy between the Scorpion and the Crocodile such should there â—…e between the heart and sin What is there in sin that may make a peâ—…itent hate it Sin is the cursed thing* the most mis-shapen Monster The Apostle useth a very emphatical word to express it Rom. 7. 13. That sin might become exceeding sinful or as it is in the Greek hyperbolically sinful Now that sin is an hyperbolical mischief and deserves hatred will appear if we look upon sin in a fourfold notion 1. Look upon sin in the original of it whence it comes it fetcheth its pedigree from Hell 1 Ioh. 3. 8. He that commiteth sin is of the Devil for the Devil sinneth from the beginning Sin is the Devils proper work 'T is true God hath a hand in ordering sin but Satan hath an hand in acting it Now how hateful is it to be doing that which is the peculiar work of the Devil nay which makes men Devils Ioh. 6. 7. 2. Look upon sin in its nature and it will appear very hateful See how the Scripture hath pensiled it out 1. Sin is a dishonouring of God Rom. 2. 23. 2. Sin is a despising of God 1 Sam. 2. 30. 3. It is a fretting of God Ezek. 16. 43. 4. It is a wearying of God Isa.
more that we have fetched no more vertue from him and brought no more glory to him It should be our grief on our death-bed that our lives have had so many blanks and blots in them that our duties have been so fly-blown with sin that our obedience hath been so imperfect and we have gone so lame in the waies of God When the soul is going out of the body it should swim to Heaven in a Sea of tears CHAP. XIV The removing the Impediments of Repentance BEfore I lay down the Expedients and Means conducing to Repentance I shall first remove the Impediments In this great City when you want water you search the cause whether the Pipes are broken or stopped that the current of water is hindered So when no water of Repentance comes though we have the Conduit-pipes of Ordinances see what the cause is where is the stop that these penitential waters do not run There are ten Impediments of Repentance 1. Men do not apprehend that they need Repentance they thank God all is well with them and they know nothing they should repent of Rev. 3. 17. Thou sayest I am rich and have need of nothing He who apprehends not any distemper in his body will not take the Physick prescribed This is the mischief sin hath done it hath not only made us sick but senseless When the Lord bade the people return to him they answered stubbornly Wherein should we return Mal. 3. 7. So when God bids men repent they say wherefore should they repent they know nothing they have done amiss Surely no disease worse than that which is Apoplectical 2. People conceit it an easie thing to repent It is but saying a few prayers a sigh or a Lord have mercy and the work is done This conceit of the easiness of Repentance is a great hinderance to it That which makes a person bold and adventrous in sin must needs obstruct Repentance but this opinion doth make a person bold in sin The Angler can let out his line as far as he will and then pull it in again So when a man thinks he can lash out in sin as far as he will and then pull in by Repentance when he list this must needs imbolden him in wickedness But to take away this false conceit of the easiness of Repentance consider 1. A wicked man hath a mountain of guilt upon him and is it easie to rise up under such a weight Is salvation per saltum Can a man jump out of sin into Heaven Can he leap out of the Devils arms into Abrahams bosom 2. If all the power in a sinner be employed against Repentance then it is not easie All the faculties of a natural man joyn issue with sin Ier. 2. 25. I have loved strangers and after them will I go A sinner will rather lose Christ and Heaven than his lusts death which parts man and wife will not part a wicked man and his sins and is it so easie to repent The Angel rolled away the stone from the Sepulchre but no Angel only God himself can roll away the stone from the the heart 3. Presuming thoughts of Gods mercy Many suck poison from this sweet flower Christ who came into the world to save sinners 1 Tim. 1. 15. is accidentally the occasion of many a mans perishing Though to the Elect he is the bread of life yet to the wicked he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a stone of stumbling 1 Pet. 2. 7. * To some his blood is sweet wine to others the water of Marah Some are softned by this Sun of Righteousness others are hardned Oh saith one Christ hath died he hath done all for me therefore I may sit still and do nothing Thus they suck death from the Tree of Life and perish by a Saviour So I may say of Gods mercy it is accidentally the cause of many a ones ruine Because of mercy men presume and think they may go on in sin But should a Kings clemency make his subjects rebel The Psalmist saith there is mercy with God that he may be feared Psal. 130. 4. but not that we may sin Can men expect mercy by provoking justice God will hardly shew them mercy who sin because mercy abounds 4. A supine sluggish temper Repentance is looked upon as a tedious thing and such as requires much industry and men are settled upon their lees and care not to stir They had rather go sleeping to Hell than weeping to Heaven Prov. 19. 24. A slothful man hideth his hands in his bosom he will not be at the labour of smiting on his breast Many will rather lose Heaven than ply the oar and row thither upon the waters of Repentance We cannot have the world citra pulverem without labour and diligence and would we have that which is more excellent Sloth is the canker of the soul Prov. 19. 15. Slothfulness casts into a deep sleep It was a witty fiction of the Poets when Mercury had cast Argus into a sleep and with an inchanted Rod closed his eyes then he killed him When Satan hath by his witcheries lull'd men asleep in sloth then he destroyes them Some report while the Crockadil sleeps with his mouth open the Indian Rat gets into his belly and eats up his entrails So while men sleep in security they are devoured 5. Another obstruction of Repentance is the tickling pleasure of sin â—… Thes. 2. 12. Who take pleasure in unrighteousness Sin is a sugred draught but mixed with poison The sinner thinks there is danger in sin but there is delight and the danger doth not so terrifie him as the delight bewitcheth him Plato calls love of sin a great Devil Delighting in sin hardens the heart In true Repentance there must be a grieving for sin but how can one grieve for that which he loves He who delights in sin can hardly pray against it his heart is so inveagled with sin that he is afraid of leaving it too soon Sampson doted on Dalilahs beauty and her lap proved his grave When a man rolls iniquity as a Sugared lump under his tongue it infatuates him and is his death at last Delight in sin is a silken halter 2 Sam. 2. 26. Will it not be bitterness in the latter end 6. An opinion that Repentance will take away our joy but that is a mistake it doth not crucifie but clarifie our joy and take it off from the fulsom lees of sin What is all earthly joy it is but Hilaris insania a pleasant phrensy Falsa inter gaudia noctem 〈◊〉 Worldly mirth is but like a feigned laugh it hath sorrow following at the heels As the Magitians Rod it is instantly turned into a Serpent But divine Repentance like Sampsons Lion hath an hony-comb in it Gods Kingdom consists as well in joy as in righteousness Rom. 4. 17. None are so truly chearful as penitent ones Est quaedam flere