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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50555	A sermon preached before the Queen, at White-Hall, March 11th, 1691/2 by R. Meggott ...	Meggott, Richard, d. 1692.	1692 (1692)	Wing M1632; ESTC R851	10,711	33

A SERMON Preached before the QUEEN AT WHITE-HALL MARCH 11 th 1691 2. By R. Meggott D. D. Dean of Winchester And Chaplain to Their Majesties Published by Her Majesties Special Command LONDON Printed for Tho. Bennet at the Half-Moon in St. Paul's Church-yard MDCXCII Dr. MEGGOTT's SERMON Before the QUEEN AT WHITE-HALL March 11 th 1691 2. St. Matth. III. viii Bring forth therefore fruits meet for Repentance WHEN one Preacher of Repentance could work so far upon Jews that there went out to him Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region round about Jordan and were baptized of him confessing their sins as we read Ver. 5th and 6th of this Chapter I am not willing to suppose that so many as from time to time have come to you upon the same Errand should have prevailed nothing God forbid that so many earnest Exhortations should have been in vain to you God forbid that any here should have so much to answer for By your presence in this place it is meet for me to think this of you all That at least you do not come short of these My Design is to inform you that these came short of their Duty and that every sinner who would make his Peace with God must exceed them As there is Science falsly so called so there is Repentance too and it is not to be doubted but that more perish by Repenting amiss than do by not Repenting at all Few so seared but after one sort or another do something that they call so and yet tho' the number of such Penitents be as the sand upon the Sea-shore but a remnant of them shall be saved no more than those of them who to their Repentance add Amendment If any thing less would have served these spoken to in the Text would not have been found fault with They had the looks of Penitents they spake the Language of Penitents they wore the Garments of Penitents they used the Diet of Penitents But when there was nothing more all this commended them not to God but is censured by the Baptist as the Ceremonious Sacrifice of Fools as the Vain-glorious neglect of the Body and they warned as they would fly from the wrath to come not to abuse themselves with such deceitful Fancies given to understand that Repentance strictly taken if it be true hath no promise but as it is productive of a change of Life And upon that account with a Conscientious plainness vehemence and sharpness he here presseth them That they would bring forth fruits meet for Repentance That the reason of this Exhortation may appear the clearer I would desire your Attention to the opening these three things First That a bare Repentance without Fruits is not all that is required of us in order to our Pardon 2dly That we may bring forth several fruits of Repentance and yet not those that are meet neither 3dly That as we would have our Repentance accepted we must not content our selves with any fruits but such as properly manifest the Sincerity and Ingenuity of it The first of these Particulars I would speak to is That a bare Repentance without fruits is not all that is required of us in order to our Pardon So the Baptist plainly implieth here But is this like a fore-runner of Christ This seemeth not so much to prepare as contradict the way of the Lord. His Command is that Repentance and Remission of sins should be preached in his Name And is not this to put asunder that which he hath joyned together Seemingly it doth so But if we consider the different acceptations of this word in Scripture we shall find no cause to be offended One doth not destroy what the other buildeth they both mean the same thing For the most part Repentance is used in so comprehensive a sense as to note both the Tree and the Fruit too Accordingly St. Paul when he summeth up the whole Duty of a Christian reduceth it to these two Heads Acts 10.21 Repentance toward God and Faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ Where Faith being only a believing the Articles of our Religion Repentance must include in it all the rest our conformity to all its Precepts And if we will understand it thus too much cannot be said of it So it is the Evangelical City of Refuge the undoubted Heir of the Promise But if we take Repentance for no more than sometimes is meant by it for that particular Grace singly so it is no otherwise the Condition of the New Covenant than a hopeful Spring is Harvest To Cure those dangerous Conceits of this kind that are so rife and have been imbibed so deep we will take a view of the several parts of which Repentance doth consist and shew you that there is not any of them but what may be in them that perish Repentance being such an inward sense of our sins as bringeth us to an acknowledgment of them with grief for what is past and purpose to reform for the future hath but these four things in it Conviction Confession Humiliation and Good Resolutions Now there are not any of these but what have been in the Children of Perdition First As to Conviction Tho' a sort of Men have thought fit to set it out under the affected Title of the Pangs of the New Birth and taught their followers to date their Conversion from the terrors of it when it is only an apprehension of our Guilt and Danger it cannot in it self be any Vertue at all being but that we are meerly passive in They who use studied Arts to elude it can no more prevent it than they can the Cholick in their Bowels or the Lighting flashing in their faces When St. Paul reasoned of Righteousness and Temperance Acts 24.25 John 8.9 and Judgment to come Felix could not help trembling nor the Pharisees when the case was put home to them being convicted of their own Consciences So that this may be and we no more in a state of Grace than either of these were The next part of it is Confession the humble acknowledgment of our sins unto God This is a piece of Ingenuity that we are much encouraged to He looketh upon men saith Elihu and if any say Job 37.27 I have sinned and perverted that which is right and it profited me not he will deliver his soul from going into the pit Only acknowledge thine iniquity that thou hast transgressed against the Lord saith God in Jeremy and I will not cause mine anger to rest upon thee Jer. 3.13 If we confess our sins saith St. John he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins 1 John 9. c. But can any imagine that it is a bare Confession that all these Promises belong to No by a Figure familiar to the Holy as well as other Writings it is only a part put for the whole when such glorious thing are spoken of it The Event sheweth there is more than so expected from the Sinner If

Confession alone had been enough Saul would have fared as well as David his Confession was altogether as ample When Nathan reproved David his Answer was I have sinned against the Lord 2 Sam. 12.13 When Samuel reproved Saul he said as much Saul said unto Samuel I have sinned for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord 1 Sam. 15.24 And yet tho' David's sin was done away Saul you know was rejected So little is this part also of Repentance to be relyed on The Third is Humdiation under and Sorrow for the sins we have committed This is a thing People have such Opinion of as generally to fancy Repentance to be nothing else so that if they find but something of this in themselves they conclude they are safe and all is well with them But this is much to over-reckon also 2 Cor. 7.10 the Apostle informeth us that godly sorrow worketh repentance unto life c. It is a good beginning and well managed may bring us to repentance unto life but if self is not to be accounted so If it were then Ahab repented unto life 1 Kings 21 29. for he humbled himself and put on sackcloth If it were the Hypocrites complained of in Isaiah Isal 58.5 repented unto life for they afflicted their souls and spread ashes under them If it were Judas himself repented unto life for he was so overwhelmed with sorrow for what he had done that he burst asunder in the midst Acts 1.18 So ineffectual may this part of Repentance be also sorrow for our sins The last is Resolution of Amendment This looketh best of any and if Men could be sure they should keep them when they make them they might have grounds to hope that he who calleth the things that are not as if they were would graciously accept them But alas what are most Mens Resolutions of this kind like the hasty Blossoms produced by some unexpected warmth of Weather they adorn the Tree with their inviting Colours and are promising to the Eye but not one in a hundred of them cometh to good but drop to the ground before they knit and frustrate Expectation Such are most of our Resolutions but casual Embryo's of incomplete velleities that frequently before they are any thing more miscarry and prove Abortive dye before they could well be said to live Experience sadly convinceth us we can no more depend on them than on the Morning-Cloud for Rain It is a mistake that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth a change of Mind doth always import a Saving Repentance The word is used by the Septuagint Prov. 14.15 in the same sense with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is allowed to note but the fruitless one of Reprobates There may be too often is a present Change of Mind that proveth no better and therefore the Holy Ghost joyneth other words with it to explain and adjust it So St. Peter Acts 3.19 Repent and be converted that your sins may be blotted out And St. Paul Acts 26.20 Repent and turn unto God to shew that it is not enough to have better Resolutions unless as God giveth space and Opportunity we put them into Practice This is sufficient to be spoken to the first Proposition That bare Repentance without Fruits is not all that is required of us in order to our Pardon I proceed to the Second That we may bring forth several Fruits of Repentance and yet not those that are meet neither That was the case of these here spoken to in the Text the Pharisees and Sadducees The latter of these the Sadducees tho' they denyed that great Article of Faith and motive to Repentance the Immortality of the Soul and consequently its Rewards or Punishments in another Life yet they were not direct Atheists but had some belief and fear of God with them notwithstanding They received the Law of Moses and were so perswaded of the certainty of the Temporal Blessings and Curses written in it as made them regular Observers of the letter of it Some of the High Priests themselves Hircanus Aristobulus Alexander c. were of this Sect and many of them are said ver 7. to be so wrought on by the Preaching of John as to come to his Baptism confessing their sins The other the Pharisees St. Paul who understood them well having himself been one of them Acts 26.5 calleth the straitest Sect of our Religion They were more precise than any of the rest Josephus saith they did nearly resemble the Stoicks among the Greeks who had the highest Esteem of any of their Philosophers for the Severity of their way of Living The Common People had such an Opinion of their Sanctity that it was Proverbially said among them That if but two Men in the World went to Heaven one of them must be a Pharesee And yet for all this though others thought them so very Righteous though they trusted in themselves that they were righteous they are here called a Generation of Vipers That which was so highly esteemed with men was but an abomination in the sight of God and if we consider it we shall find Reason for it I will not insist upon what our blessed Lord so oft ubraideth them with the vile and selfish the poultry and hypocritical ends they had in all their Religious Performances namely to make themselves Popular and serve their Secular Interests tho' this alone must render the best things we can do odious and loathsome to him who seeth not as man seeth but requireth truth in the inward parts Yet because it is not so much their aims and intentions in doing them as the things themselves which they did that seem here reflected on I shall confine my Discourse to them and mark out two considerable defects in them First Tho' they brought forth some Fruits they were but some not all that were required of them Secondly Tho' they brought forth some Fruits they were but coarse and mean such as were of least value First Tho' they brought forth some Fruits they were but some not all that were required of them One part of their Duty was taken and another left one regarded and another rejected according as it was in vogue or suited with their inclinations Instead of an universal they yielded unto God a partial Obedience flattering themselves that their extraordinary niceness about some particular Precepts should excuse their neglect and make amends for their violation of others They presumed that their Devotion should commute for their Injustice and that because they were temperate in eating and drinking they should not be condemned for being covetous or malicious Being truly zealous against Idolatry they were not concerned for their Lying Pride or Envy and as long as they kept themselves free from gross carnal sins there was no convincing them but that they were the Children of God though they abounded in all sorts of Spiritual But if ye offer the lame for Sacrifice is it not evil St. James informeth us Chap. 2.10