very imperfect Contrition but from a just sense of the evil nature of Sin and the Fault and Offence of it against God that we have done contrary to Right and our Duty If any say I have sinned and perverted that which was right Here you see that true and perfect Contrition for our Sins is made a necessary Condition of the Blessing and Benefit here promised viz. Deliverance from the Punishment due to them III. Here is a description of the evil nature of Sin it is a perverting of that which is right Sin is a perverting of the Constitution and Appointment of God and of the Nature and Order of Things God hath given Man a Law and Rule to walk by but the foolishness of man perverteth his way The great Lines of our Duty are plain and visible to all Men and if we would attend to the direction of our own Minds concerning Good and Evil every Man would be a law to himself He hath shewed thee O man what is good That which is right and just and good is plain and obvious and offers it self first to us and when ever we sin we go out of the right way that lies plain before us and turn aside into crooked paths But when we do that which is right we act agreeably to the Design and Frame of our Beings and comply with the true Nature and Order of Things we do what becomes us and are what we ought to be but sin perverts the Nature of Things and puts them out of course I have sinned and perverted that which was right IV. You have here an acknowledgment of the Mischievous and Pernicious Consequences of Sin I have sinned and perverted that which was right and it profited me not Which last words are a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in which much less is said than is meant and intended it profited me not that is it was so far from being of advantage that the Effects and Consequences of it were very Pernicious and Destructive And this is not only true as to the final issue and event of an Evil course in the other World but I shall endeavour to shew that even in respect of this World and the present Life the Practice of some sins is plainly Mischievous to the temporal Interests of men that others are wholly unprofitable and that those which pretend to bring some benefit and advantage will when all accounts are cast up and all circumstances duly weighed and considered be found to do far otherwise First I shall shew that the Practice of some Vices is Evidently Mischievous and Prejudicial to us as to this World as all those Vices which fall under the cognizance of Human Laws and are punished by them Murther Theft Perjury Sedition Rebellion and the like these cannot be denyed to be of pernicious consequence to men and therefore the great Patrons of Vice seldom plead for these the inconvenience of them is so palpable that some feel it and all may see it every day But besides these there are many other sorts of sin which human Laws either take no notice of or do not so severely Punish which yet in their Natural Consequences are very pernicious to our present interest either they are a disturbance to our minds or dangerous to our health or ruinous to our Estate or hurtful to our Reputation or it may be at once prejudicial to us in all or most of these respects and these are the greatest temporal inconveniences that men are liable to All irregular Passions as Wrath Malice Envy Impatience and Revenge are not only a disturbance to our selves but they naturally draw upon us hatred and contempt from others Any one of these passions is enough to render a Man uneasie to himself and to make his Conversation disgustful and troublesome to all that are about him for all men naturally hate all those who are of an envious or malicious or revengeful temper and are apt to rise up and stand upon their guard against them Anger and impatience are great deformities of the mind and make a Man look as ugly as if he had a wry and distorted Countenance and these passions are apt to breed in others a secret contempt of us and to bring our prudence into question because they are signs of a weak and impotent mind that either hath lost or never had the Government of it self There are other Vices which are plainly pernicious to our health and do naturally bring Pains and Diseases upon men such are Intemperance and Lust and tho' some may pretend to govern themselves in the Practice of these with so much moderation and discretion as to prevent the notorious bad consequences of them yet there are very few or none that do so this is seldom more than a Speculation and men that allow themselves in any lewd or intemperate course will find it very hard to govern themselves in it for after men have forfeited their innocence and broke in upon their natural Modesty they are apt by degrees to grow profligate and desperate if a Man gives way but a little to his own vicious inclinations they will soon get head of him and no Man knows how far they will hurry him at last Besides that the Vices I am speaking of Intemperance and Lust have other great inconveniences attending them they expose men more frequently than most other Vices to occasions of quarrel in which men often lose their own lives or take away other mens by which they fall under the danger of the Law and the stroke of publick Justice or if they escape that as too often they do they cannot fly from their own Consciences which do commonly fill them with the horror and torment of such an action all their days so pernicious are the usual Consequences of these Vices of which we see sad instances every day Nor are these Vices less hurtful to mens Estates for they are extreamly expensive and wasteful and usually make men careless of all their business and concernments liable to be cheated by those whom they are forced to trust with their affairs because they will not mind them themselves and to be abused by crafty men who watch the oportunities of their folly and weakness to draw them into foolish bargains It is an old Observation that more men perish by Intemperance than by the Sword and I believe it is as true that more Estates states are dissipated and wasted by these two riotous Vices than by all other Accidents whatsoever And there is scarce any notorious Vice by which men do not greatly suffer in their Reputation and good Name even when the times are worst and most degenerate any wicked course whether of debauchery or injustice is a blemish to a Man's credit not only in the esteem of the Sober and Virtuous but even of those who are loose and extravagant for men are sooner brought to Practise what is bad than to approve of it and do generally think all sin and wickedness to
to believe in Christ who are already perswaded that he is the Messias and do entertain the History and Doctrine of the Gospel Ans The Faith which the Apostle here means and which he would perswade men to is an effectual belief of the Gospel such a Faith as hath real effects upon men and makes them to live as they believe such a Faith as perswades them of the need of these Blessings that the Gospel offers and makes them to desire to be partakers of them and in order thereto to be willing to submit to those Terms and Conditions of Holiness and Obedience which the Gospel requires This is the Faith we would perswade men to and there is nothing more necessary to be prest upon the greatest part of Christians than this for how few are there among those who profess to believe the Gospel who believe it in this effectual manner so as to conform themselves to it The Faith which most Christians pretend to is meerly negative they do not disbelieve the Gospel they do not consider it nor trouble themselves about it they do not care nor are concerned whether it be true or not but they have not a positive belief of it they are not possest with a firm perswasion of the truth of those matters which are contained in it if they were such a perswasion would produce real and positive effects Every man naturally desires Happiness and 't is impossible that any man that is possest with this belief that in order to Happiness it is necessary for him to do such and such things and that if he omit or neglect them he is unavoidably miserable that he should not do them Men say they believe this or that but you may see in their lives what it is they believe So that the preaching of this Faith in Christ which is the only true Faith is still necessary I. Inference If Repentance towards God and Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ be the sum and substance of the Gospel then from hence we may infer the Excellency of the Christian Religion which insists only upon these things which do tend to our Perfection and our Happiness Repentance tends to our recovery and the bringing of us back as near as may be to innocence Primus innocentiae graedus est non peccasse secundus penitentia and then Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ tho it be very comprehensive and contains many things in it yet nothing but what is eminently for our advantage and doth very much conduce to our happiness The Historical part of the Gospel acquaints us with the Person and Actions of our Saviour which conduceth very much to our understanding of the Author and Means of our Salvation The Doctrinal part of the Gospel contains what God requires on our part and the Encouragements and Arguments to our Duty from the consideration of the Recompence and Rewards of the next life The Precepts of Christs Doctrine are such as tend exceedingly to the Perfection of our nature being all founded in Reason in the nature of God and of a Reasonable Creature I except only those positive Institutions of the Christian Religion the two Sacraments which are not burthensome and are of excellent use This is the first II. we may learn from hence what is to be the sum and end of our Preaching to bring men to Repentance and a firm belief of the Gospel but then it is to be considered that we preach Repentance so often as we preach either against sin in general or any particular sin or vice and so often as we perswade to holiness in general or to the performance of any particular Duty of Religion or to the exercise of any particular Grace for Repentance includes the forsaking of sin and a sincere resolution and endeavour of reformation and obedience And we preach Repentance so often as we insist upon such Considerations and Arguments as may be powerful to deter men from sin and to engage them to holiness And we preach Faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ so often as we declare the grounds of the Christian Religion and insist upon such Arguments as tend to make it credible and are proper to convince men of the Truth and Reasonableness of it so often as we explain the Mystery of Christ's incarnation the History of his Life Death Resurrection Ascension and Intercession and the proper Ends and Use of these so often as we open the Method of God's Grace for the salvation of sinners the Nature of the Covenant between God and us and the Conditions of it and the way how a sinner is justified and hath his sins pardoned the Nature and Necessity of Regeneration and Sanctification so often as we explain the Precepts of the Gospel and the Promises and Threatnings of it and endeavour to convince men of the Equity of Christ's Commands and to assure them of the Certainty of the Eternal Happiness which the Gospel promises to them that obey it and of the Eternal Misery which the Gospel threatens to those that are disobedient all this is preaching Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ III. This may correct the irregular humor and itch in many people who are not contented with this plain and wholsom food but must be gratified with sublime Notions and unintelligible Mysteries with pleasant passages of Wit and artificial strains of Rhetorick with nice and unprofitable Disputes with bold interpretations of dark Prophecies and peremptory Determinations of what will happen next year and a punctual stating of the time when Anti-Christ shall be thrown down and Babylon shall fall and who shall be employed in this Work Or if their humor lies another way you must apply your self to it by making sharp Reflections upon matters in present controversie and debate you must dip your stile in Gall and Vinegar and be all Satyr and Invective against those that differ from you and teach people to hate one another and to fall together by the ears and this men call Gospel preaching and speaking of Seasonable Truths Surely St. Paul was a Gospel Preacher and such an one as may be a Patern to all others and yet he did none of these he preached what men might understand and what they ought to believe and practice in a plain and unaffected and convincing manner he taught such things as made for peace and whereby he might edifie and build up men in their holy Faith The Doctrines that he preached will never be unseasonable that men should leave their sins and believe the Gospel and live accordingly And if men must needs be gratified with Disputes and Controversies there are these great Controversies between God and the sinner to be stated and determined Whether this be Religion to follow our own lusts and inclinations or to endeavour to be like God and to be conformed to him in Goodness and Mercy and Righteousness and Truth and Faithfulness Whether Jesus Christ be not the Messias and Saviour of the world Whether Faith and
Repentance and Sincere Obedience be not the Terms of Salvation and the necessary Conditions of Happiness Whether there shall be a future Judgment when all men shall be sentenced according to their works Whether there be a Heaven and Hell Whether good men shall be eternally and unspeakably happy and wicked men extreamly and everlastingly miserable These are the great Controversies of Religion upon which we are to dispute on God's behalf against sinners God asserts and sinners deny these things not in Words but which is more emphatical and significant in their Lives and Actions These are practical Controversies of Faith and it concerns every man to be resolved and determined about them that he may frame his life accordingly And so for Repentance God says Repentance is a forsaking of sin and a through change and amendment of life the sinner says that it is only a formal Confession and a slight asking of God forgiveness God calls upon us speedily and forthwith to repent the sinner saith 't is time enough and it may safely be defer'd to sickness or death these are important Controversies and matters of moment But men do not affect common Truths whereas these are most necessary And indeed whatever is generally useful and beneficial ought to be common and not to be the less valued but the more esteemed for being so And as these Doctrines of Faith and Repentance are never unseasonable so are they more peculiarly proper when we celebrate the Holy Sacrament which was instituted for a solemn and standing Memorial of the Christian Religion and is one of the most powerful Arguments and Perswasives to repentance and a good life The Faith of the Gospel doth more particularly respect the death of Christ and therefore it is call'd Faith in his Blood because that is more especially the Object of our Faith the Blood of Christ as it was a Seal of the truth of his Doctrine so it is also a Confirmation of all the Blessings and Benefits of the New Covenant And it is one of the greatest Arguments in the world to repentance In the Blood of Christ we may see our own guilt and in the dreadful Sufferings of the Son of God the just desert of our sins for he hath born our griefs and carried our sorrows he was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities therefore the Commemoration of his Sufferings should call our sins to remembrance the Representation of his Body broken should melt our hearts and so often as we remember that his blood was shed for us our eyes should run down with rivers of tears so often as we look upon him whom we have pierced we should mourn over him When the Son of God suffered the rocks were rent in sunder and shall not the consideration of those sufferings be effectual to break the most stony and obdurate heart What can be more proper when we come to this Sacrament than the renewing of our Repentance When we partake of this Passover we should eat it with bitter herbs The most solemn Expressions of our Repentance fall short of those Sufferings which our blessed Saviour underwent for our sins if our head were waters and our eyes fountains of tears we could never sufficiently lament the cursed Effects and Consequences of those provocations which were so fatal to the Son of God And that our Repentance may be real it must be accompanied with the Resolution of a better life for if we return to our sins again we trample under foot the Son of God and profane the Blood of the Covenant and out of the Cup of Salvation we drink our own damnation and turn that which should save us into an instrument and Seal of our own ruin SERMON II. Serm. 2. Preach'd on Ash-Wednesday Of confessing and forsaking Sin in Order to Pardon PROV XXVIII 13 He that covereth his sins shall not prosper but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy SInce we are all sinners and liable to the Justice of God it is a matter of great moment to our comfort and happiness to be rightly informed by what Means and upon what Terms we may be reconciled to God and find mercy with him And to this purpose the Text gives us this advice and direction whoso confesseth and forsaketh his sin shall have mercy Vol. 8. In which words there is a great Blessing and Benefit declared and promised to sinners upon certain Conditions The Blessing and Benefit promised is the mercy and favour of God which comprehends all the happy Effects of God's mercy and goodness to sinners And the Conditions upon which this Blessing is promised are two Confession of our sins and forsaking of them and these two contain in them the whole nature of that great and necessary Duty of Repentance without which a sinner can have no reasonable hopes of the mercy of God I. Here is a Blessing or Benefit promised which is the mercy and favour of God And this in the full extent of it comprehends all the Effects of the mercy and goodness of God to sinners and doth primarily import the pardon and forgiveness of our sins And this probably Solomon did chiefly intend in this expression for so the mercy of God doth most frequently signifie in the Old Testament viz. the forgiveness of our sins And thus the Prophet explains it Isa 55.7 Let the wicked forsake his ways and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy and to our God for he will abundantly pardon But now since the clear revelation of the Gospel the mercy of God doth not only extend to the pardon of sin but to power against it because this also is an Effect of God's free grace and mercy to sinners to enable them by the grace of his holy Spirit to master and mortifie their lusts and to persevere in Goodness to the end And it comprehends also our final pardon and absolution at the great day together with the glorious Reward of eternal life which the Apostle expresseth by finding mercy with the Lord in that day And this likewise is promised to Repentance Acts 3.19 Repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord and he shall send Jesus Christ who before was preached unto you that is that when Jesus Christ who is now preached unto you shall come you may receive the final sentence of absolution and forgiveness And thus much shall suffice to have spoken of the Blessing and Benefit here promised the mercy of God which comprehends all the blessed Effects of the divine grace and goodness to sinners the present pardon of sin and power to mortifie sin and to persevere in a good course and our final absolulution by the sentence of the great day together with the merciful and glorious Reward of eternal life II. We will consider in the next place the Conditions upon
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
the Efficacy of it in Conjunction with our Repentance and Fasting and Prayers I shall only offer to your consideration a few plain Texts of Scripture which need no comment upon them Dan. 4.27 it is the Prophets advice to Nebuchadnezzar Break off thy sins by righteousness and thine iniquity by shewing mercy to the poor if so be it may be a lengthning of thy tranquillity Acts 10.4 the Angel there tells Cornelius Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God Isa 58.5 Is not this the fast which I have chosen to loose the bands of wickedness to undo the heavy burthens and to let the oppressed go free and that ye break every yoke Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house when thou seest the naked that thou cover him and that thou hide not thy self from thine own flesh Then shall thy light break forth as the morning and thine health shall spring forth speedily and thy righteousness shall go before thee and the Glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward then shalt thou call and the Lord shall answer thee thou shalt cry and he shall say here I am To which I will only add that Gracious promise of our Saviour Blessed are the merciful for they shall find mercy and that terrible sentence in St. James He shall have Judgment without mercy that hath shewed no mercy SERMON III. Serm. 3. Of Confession and Sorrow for Sin PSAL. XXXVIII 18 I will declare mine iniquity and be sorry for my Sin IN this Psalm David does earnestly beg Mercy and Forgiveness of God and in order to the obtaining of it he declares both his Sins and his Repentance for them in these Words which contain in them two of the Necessary Ingredients or at least Concomitants of a true Repentance viz. Confession of Sin and Sorrow for it Vol. 8. I shall speak something of the first of these viz. Confession of Sin but the Second viz. Sorrow for Sin shall be the main Subject of my Discourse I. Confession of Sin I will declare mine iniquity or as it is in the Old Translation I will Confess my wickedness Of which I shall speak under these three Heads I. What Confession of Sin is II. How far 't is necessary III. What are the Reasons and grounds of this necessity I. What Confession of Sin is It is a Declaration or Acknowledgment of some moral evil or fault to another which we are conscious to our selves we have been Guilty of And this Acknowledgment may be made by us either to God or Man The Scripture mentions both Confession of our Sins to God is very frequently mentioned in Scripture as the first and necessary part of Repentance and sometimes and in some cases Confession to men is not only recommended but enjoyned II. How far Confession of our Sins is Necessary That it is necessary to confess our Sins to God the Scripture plainly declares and is I think a matter out of all dispute For it is a Necessary part of Repentance that we should confess our Sins to God with a due sense of the evil of them and therefore the Scripture maketh this a Necessary qualification and Condition of Pardon and Forgiveness Prov. 28.13 Whoso confesseth and forsaketh his sins shall have mercy 1 John 1.9 If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness implying that if we do not confess our sins to God the guilt of them will still remain to God I say for of Confession to him St. John plainly speaks when he says He is faithful and just Who God surely who tho' he be not named before yet is necessarily understood in the words before If we confess our sins i. e. to God he is faithful and just A general Confession of our sins is absolutely necessary and in some cases a particular acknowledgment of them and repentance for them especially if the sins have been great and deliberate and presumptuous in this Case a particular Confession of them and Repentance for them is necessary so far as we can particularly recollect them and call them to Remembrance Whereas for sins of ignorance and infirmity of surprize and daily incursion for lesser Omissions and the Defects and Imperfections of our best Actions and Services we have all the Reason that can be to believe that God will accept of a general Confession of them and Repentance for them And if any Man ask me where I find this distinction in Scripture between a general and particular Repentance I answer that it is not necessary it should be any where exprest in Scripture being so clearly founded in the Nature and Reason of the thing because in many cases it is not possible that we should have a particular Knowledge and Remembrance of all our particular Sins as is plain in Sins of ignorance since our very calling them by that Name does necessarily suppose that we do not know them It is impossible we should remember those Sins afterwards which we did not know when they were committed And therefore either a general Repentance for these and the other Sins I mentioned of the like Nature must be sufficient in order to the Pardon of them or we must say that they are unpardonable which would be very unreasonable because this would be to make lesser Sins more unpardonable than those which are far greater And yet tho' this difference between a general and particular Repentance be no where expresly mention'd in Scripture there does not want foundation for it there Psal 19.12 Who can understand his errours Cleanse thou me from secret Sins i. e. Such as we do not discern and take notice of when they are committed And yet David supposeth that upon a general Acknowledgment of them and Repentance for them we may be cleansed from them tho' we cannot make a particular Acknowledgment of them and exercise a particular Repentance for them because they are secret and we do not particularly understand what they are As for our confessing our Sins to Men both Scripture and Reason do in some cases recommend and enjoyn it As 1. In order to the obtaining of the Prayers of good men for us James 5.16 Confess your Sins one to another he said before The prayer of faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise him up This in all probability is meant of the Miraculous Power of Prayer which St. Chrysostom reckons among the Miraculous Gifts of the Spirit bestowed upon Christians in the first Ages of the Church and this is very much countenanc'd and confirm'd by what presently follows after this command of Confessing our Sins one to another and praying one for another and given as the Reason of it for the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous Man availeth much the Original is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the inspir'd prayer which in the verse
the right which the injured Person had to Reparation is reasonably presumed to be quitted and forsaken then the Obligation to Satisfaction ceaseth and expires The Reason is plain because every Man may recede from his own Right and give it up to another and where a Man may reasonably be presumed to have parted with his right to another the Obligation to Restitution ceaseth and the right of claiming it Now when a thing begins haberi pro derelicto that is when a right may reasonably be presumed to be quitted and forsaken cannot in general be determined but this must be estimated according to the importance of the right and thing in Controversie as whether it be more or less considerable and according to the Reason and Determination of Laws about things of this Nature To illustrate this Rule by instances The Saxons Danes and Normans did at several times invade and conquer this Nation and conquer'd it we will suppose unjustly and consequently did hold and possess that which truly belonged to others contrary to right and several of the Posterity of each of these do probably to this day hold what was then injuriously gotten I say in this Case the Obligation to Satisfaction and Restitution is long since expired and the Original Title which those who were dispossest had is reasonably presumed to be long since quitted and forsaken and that for very wise Reasons in Law and Government because it would confound and unsettle all Estates if every thing the Original Title whereof is naught were to be restored and it is but equal to presume that all Mankind are so reasonable as to quit their right in such Cases rather than to cause endless disturbances and to have the guilt of Injustice everlastingly perpetuated And tho' it be a rule in Civil Law that Vitiosum initio tractu temporis non convalescit A Title originally bad can never by time be made just it is only true thus far that time in it self doth not alter the Nature of things but considering the necessities of the World and the infinite difficulties of retrieving an ancient Right and the inconveniences and disturbances that would thereby redound to Humane Society it is better that an injury should be perpetuated than that a great inconvenience should come by endeavouring to redress it so that altho' considering a thing simply in it self an injury is so far from being lessened or null'd by tract of time that it is increased and the longer it continues the greater it is yet by accident and in compliance with the necessity of things length of time may give a right to that which was at first injuriously possest Judg. 11.26 Thus Jephthah reasons with the King of Ammon who had made War for recovery of an ancient Right as he suppos'd And tho' the instances I have given of the unjust Conquest of a Nation be great and publick yet the same is to be determined proportionably in less and particular Cases And thus I have done with the sixth thing VII And lastly As to the order of Restitution When we have injur'd a great many and are not able to make Restitution to all at once our best Prudence and Discretion must govern us herein Because no certain Rule can be given which will reach all Cases I will only say this in general that it is reasonable first to make Reparation for the oldest and greatest injuries and ceteris paribus if all other Considerations be equal to consider those first who are most necessitous and if there be any other special Reason and Obligation arising from the Nature of the injury or the Circumstances of the Person injur'd to have regard to them I come now in the Second place To confirm the truth of the Proposition That to make Restitution and Satisfaction to those whom we have injured is a proper and necessary Fruit of a true Repentance And this will appear if we consider these two things I. Our Obligation to this Duty II. The Nature of Repentance I. Our Obligation to this Duty Upon the same account that we are obliged to Repentance we are obliged to Restitution and both these Obligations arise from natural Equity and Justice All Sin is an injury done and tho' Repentance be not strictly Satisfaction yet it is the best we can make and he is unjust who having done an injury does not make the best Reparation he can But now there are some Sins in which besides the injury that is done to God by them upon the general account as they are Sins and Violations of his Laws there is likewise a particular injury done to men and such are all those the effect whereof redounds to the prejudice of other men such are fraud and oppression and all other Sins whereby others are injured So that in these kinds of Sins there are two things considerable the irregularity and viciousness of the Act and the evil Effects of it upon other men the former respects the Law and calls for Sorrow and Repentance for our Violation of it the latter respects the Person that is injured and calls for Satisfaction and Restitution So that our Obligation to Restitution is founded in the immutable and indispensable Law of Nature which is To do that to another which we would have another do to us We would have no Man be injurious to us or if he have been so we would have him make Satisfaction and Reparation to us of the injury he hath done and we take it grievously from him if he do not Now nothing is more just and equitable than that we should do that to others which we in the like Case would expect from them for the very same obligation that lies upon others towards us does lie upon us in regard to others II. This will yet further appear if we consider the Nature of Repentance which is to be sorry for what we have done and not to do the like for the future Now if thou be sorry for what thou hast done thou wishest with all thy heart thou hadst not done it and if thou dost so thou wilt undo as much as in thee lieth what thou hast done Now the best way to undo an injury is to make Reparation for it and till we do this we continue in the Sin For if it was a Sin to do the injury at first it is the same continued not to make Satisfaction and we do not cease to commit the Sin so long as we detain that which is another's Right Nothing but Restitution can stop the progress of Sin for if it be a Sin to take that which is another Man 's from him by fraud or violence it is the same continued and virtually repeated to detain and keep it from him and nothing more contrary to Repentance than to continue in the Sin thou pretendest to repent of For how art thou sorry for doing of it if thou continuest to do it if thou wilt go on to do it and do it again How