is as it were taking the stone out of the Flesh and giving a Heart of Flesh It is that Spirit of Grace of Ingenuous sense of our Ingratitude and unworthy carriage towards God mentioned before out of Zech. 12. and Ezek. 36. Hereupon the Apostle James presses to a great Mourning after God or exercise of Godly sorrow James 4.8 Draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you cleanse your hands you sinners purify your hearts you double minded How should this great Self-Purification be Effected By being Afflicted by mourning and weeping by having the Laughter turned to Mourning and the Joy to Heaviness This Godly Sorrow like washing and rubbing the Hands with Water and the close Application of it softens and loosens the Filth that cleaves so close adheres and sticks so fast to the Hands And it arises from that Love and Compassion that is seated towards our selves in our own Natures which when it is by the Hand of Grace pointed aright It is made a mighty Instrument a mighty Efficacy for Conversion and Repentance because when our great Disgust our Sorrow and Self-Affliction is pitch'd upon sin we cast it off as that which is the reason of our sorrow and that stands in our Eye as hateful loathsome filth and impurity that we can by no means endure and therefore we say to it get ye hence Oh! you Foul and abominable Lusts what have I any more to do with you But more particularly two ways this Godly sorrow works to Conversion Repentance Self-Purification 1. By being so prevailing upon the Soul as to drink up all the impure and unholy Affections in our Hearts God giving it therefore by that his Spirit of Grace and ingenuous sense an ascendency a superiority over all other Affections in the Heart at this time he is working Repentance it drinks up all the pleasurable sensual Affections in a Man when a man is in bitterness as one is in bitterness for his first Born and for an only Begotten Child He hath no more Appetite nor Emotion of his Spirits to Lust and Sensuality and sinful Pleasures than such a one hath to do the usual Entertainments and Pleasures of Life when God therefore calls for this sorrow he looks upon it as a great Offence when there is slaying of Oxen and drinking of Wine Esay 22.13 Amos 6.3 c. lying upon beds of Ivory Chaunting to the sound of Viols Inventing Instruments of Musick like David when there is putting on Apparel and the Furniture of Pride For then he commands us as he did the Children of Israel after the sin of the Golden Calf to put off their Ornaments Exod. 33.5 that he might know what to do to them whether theâ— should as true Penitents be spar'd or destroyed in their Impenitency And indeed when any are under the power of this Godly Sorrow in such a posture to Repentance all such Ornaments are nothing All such pleasures are quite out of Tast The Soul hath no relish of them 2 Godly sorrow thus made an Instrument in the Hâ—nd of Grace for working Repentance hath by that its ascendency and superiority an engagement upon all the other Affections with it self to the working Repentance also this the Apostle shews in the very next words to these we are Discoursing upon 2 Cor. 7.11 For this very self same thing that ye sorrowed after a Godly sort what carefulness it wrought in you how great is the care and sollicitude it works in all that so sorrow to get out of their Sins and to return home to God What Apology for Holyness for God and against Sin what Judgment against sin What Fear and Awe of God striking to the very Heart of sin what vehement desire after God after true Grace and perfect Reformation and this boyling up to Zeal or the heigth of Desire that Powerful Religious Affection under the Operation of which a Man cannot bear Evil no not for a moment And lastly there is an holy Revenge upon sin Sathan lust even a man's sinful self by which the Irreconcilable Hatred to every sin is Discovered and a Monument of that Hatred set up in the Soul Thus works godly sorrow to Repentance but the forrow of the World having nothing to do with God with sense of his Displeasure for sin with sin as so great a reason of sorrow and trouble the Spirit remains in all its former Frame of union to the world and to sin and so with the whole state of sin and of the World and of sorrow it sinks down to the center to the place of sorrow for ever For when sorrow that is the Instrument of God in working Repentance does not prevail to that God's end it more certainly sinks down to its Center and that with great Violence as we see in those fore-nam'd Examples of Cain Esau Saul Akitophel Judas who not sorrowing to Repentance went down with greater violence to the Chambers of Death and Sorrow even everlasting sorrow 5. The efficacy of godly sorrow to Repnntance is that it makes the Soul very humble before God the natural effect of sorrow is to meeken and bow the Spirit heaviness in the Heart of Man makes it stoop Prov. 12.25 the guise and mein or Posture of sorrow is to bow down the head like a Bull-rush The Hipocritical mourner does so to imitate true sorrow Esay 58.5 Now this indeed except it turn to God and have Relation to him is the meanness and pusilanimity of a Man but it is the true greatness of Mind to lye down before God and Tremble in his Presence as the melted Metal trembles and quivers before the Founder This dissolving melting Efficacy of godly sorrow is that which turning to God makes the Heart submit it self as the Apostle James speaks in the same Context c. 4.10 Vnder the mighty hand of God Acts c. 9.6 c. 16.30 that he may lift it up it says to God Lord what wilt thou have me to do It says what shall I do to be sav'd What shall I do what shall I do in obedience to God It treads softly before God as if it said to him Lord which way wilt thou have me to go Which Ahab doing tho not with a perfect Heart receiv'd some degree of Favour by 1 Kings 21.27 29. Now this Humility how acceptable is it to God! How yeilding to his Command God gives grace to it Esay 66.2 c. 57.15 God looks off from Heaven and Earth to look to that man that is of a contrite Spirit and trembles at his word He that is the high and lofty one that dwells in the high and holy Place and Inhabits Eternity will Dwell also with the humble spirit to revive the Spirit of the Humble Job 33.17 This sorrow hides Pride from man as the expression is in Job and so fits it to all holy returns to God by Repentance It withdraws man from his purpose It changes the purpose of Man Acts 11.13 that which was
dependences together with earnestest Application to the Grace of God These unclean Spirits therefore that dissemble a retreat return immediately and make a Prey of the deluded Soul Acts 19.14 c. 3. Although Heaven and Hell Happiness and Misery take up the thoughts of a true Penitent yet not separated from God and Christ but as it were compounded into the Sense of God angry and the desire of Attonement with him in Jesus Christ. Happiness and Misery considered apart are not the object of the gracious Soul But God and Christ considered apart are an infinitely sufficient Reason of Repentance The clear love of God upwards the Soul as a Father in Christ without Reflections upon Happiness is though not the single yet the paramount Consideration in Repentance unfeigned But Men a Dying are generally so over-possessed with the Terrors of an Eternal Suffering and meer desires of Freedom from pain and of well-being and so in haste that they generally miss these higher Considerations which being further off not only from corrupt Nature but even from natural Conscience are not commonly espied but therefore argue greater Sincerity and truth of Heart 4. The truest Repentance lies in the bosom of Faith the apprehensions of the Love and Goodness of God in Christ melt the Soul and give it most perfect Separation from Sin the most effectual Purification of the Heart all which express the height of Repentance Upon the soft Fire of the pardoning Goodness of God the Soul most kindly distils into repentant Tears Here flows that Spirit of Grace and ingenuous Goodness which bringeth forth the clearest and holiest Affection towards God But at the time we are now speaking of It is very seldom that either Horror or Presumption do not swallow all Presumption where there is little Sense or Judgment of the Case Horror where the Judgment is clearer and the Sense quicker for evey thing disposes now rather to Fear and to the Spirit of Bondage Rom. 8.15 and a Man naturally does all he does under a servile dread of God and his Eternal Justice And though there may be much mention of Christ and desire of Mercy through him yet it is but as a Malefactor convicted beseeches the Mercy of the Judge no otherwise than as of a Judge So such call out for the Mercy of God to pardon them but still as a Judge not with the Spirit of the Son sent into the Heart the Spirit of Adoption crying Abba Father Nor with that love that casteth out unworthy Fear Gal. 4.6 And indeed how can it be otherwise there having been no acquaintance with God in the way Job 22.21 but a long Enmity and the time now too strait for a free and full Consideration of the riches of Grace such as may still an awakened Conscience Fear presses in every way and shuts out Faith What can now redeem the Soul from this hellish Terror but a light from Heaven immediately darting into it a Grace above that Grace that ordinarily saves Men For a well setled Trust and Confidence in Mercy according to the general Rule is not but after some sad debates and experimental Consultations that have passed between the sense of Sin and the affiancing Acts of the Soul upon Christ This Repentance then is in great danger of missing the Spirit of the Gospel and falling into the Rank of those Repentances of Cain Esau Judas This I have endeavoured to shew that though we suppose a Dying Man to spread his Soul and Thoughts every way and to all the parts of Repentance yet it is extremely to be suspected there will want the true and right quality of them in regard of the very disadvantageous Circumstances wherein such an one is found and the great unfitness of the Soul at that time to begin to do anything worthy to which it hath not been before inured or if it did begin it would be much more unlikely to bring forth fruit as our Saviour speaks to perfection Luke 8.14 I add nothing of the Exercises of a full and well grown Repentance whereby it is daily espying the risings of Sin and suppressing them and filling up the Defects of Holiness and Obedience because they are not to be thought possible in the point I am now speaking of and I have already given a Resolution in that Case I shall now set my self to find out the low Causes that are alway to be suspected to have the great Influence upon such a Latter-end Penitency In general therefore we must take notice that there are several vapors of misapprehension rising upon the Soul when we are a Dying that do so disguise it to it self and disfigure the true face of it that from thence arise dangerous Mistakes concerning a Mans Condition towards God We see into how many shapes upon ordinary Occurrences we change and how easily we exchange them for quite different without any good Cause what continual Ebbs and Flows there are of the Humours and how do these cast the Ballance of the Superiour Soul One Man is every hour some several sorts of Men. How much more do great Accidents and removes out of one Condition into another alter us Which yet are but the sudden and just now state of our Minds upon such Alterations which not continuing we return to our former Figure Vnstable and weak as water Gen. 49.3 we take the form of every Vessel we are put into Who knows then whether his Dying Repentance be any more than the Mould not of his Mind but of his Dying Condition approaching him big with so great a Change We know many things befal us in our Lives which put a greater sense of Religion upon us than we find at other times and yet how variable are we our goodness at such times is as the Morning Dew and as the early Dew it goeth away Hose 6.4 How often are we from the occasions of Mercies Afflictions Fears Hopes good Discourses carried into high Apprehensions of God And we lose them again we know not how Now out of doubt a Dying Condition of any thing we meet with in the World is most apt to move us upon God and a Sense of him But can we think Those fleeting Shoots of the Soul that have no certainty are accepted for Repentance How strangely doth Melancholly and Oppressions of that transform Men which when it falls upon the Motions of Conscience gives us strong Imaginations of Eternal Things which yet being nothing but the cast of that Melancholly upon the Thoughts when that is removed they are quite of another hue It is evident the Mind sees much through the Body and the Representations are coloured by its Temper As the Eye sees through yellow or green Glass differently from the things themselves So the Serenity or Cloudiness of the Humours makes a different Reflection of things upon the Mind and the liveliness or heaviness of the Spirits incline us to very varying Apprehensions Now what time is more like to be so incumber'd with
these Clouds and Vapours than a Dying Hour When every thing is ready to contribute them and nothing to scatter them If then Natural Conscience and implanted Sense of God together with the Notions given us from Scripture pass through these they become very impressive and affecting for the time and yet he much mistakes Repentance who thinks it no more than a fit of Religious Melancholly But let us enquire after some more setled and constant Causes of these Penitential Motions near Death and we shall find many very likely to be so that are not yet worthy of true Repentance and therefore what springs from them is not accepted before God 1. When Men find all their Being in the World at an end and feel themselves falling they know not whither It is no strange thing they should catch at God and that they may take hold of him at Holiness also Seeing ingraffed Principles together with general Discourse teach every one how dear Holiness is to God If God and Goodness were no more than Imaginary things It would be no wonder if they who are tossed off the World and thrown over-board from it should snatch at them if there were no more in the Case than this that every one hath heard so much speech and talk of them among Men. For to him that hath nothing in reality even a Shadow a Phancy are valuable Men that are dropping through the Air or sinking under Water without Consultation offer at every thing they meet with In great Extremities short of Death they that are bereft of all worldly Assistance fly to the Divine Succours though as Jonah's Marriners they pray to an Idol instead of the true God and their Devotion is no better than Superstition which is but a Phancy in Religion What strange thing then is it for nature to cry out for God and Christ for Pardon of Sin to be delivered from Hell and to have Heaven for an everlasting Rest when all things else evidently fail as they do in Death and when not only Phancy and general Opinion but most substantial Reason inlightned by the Scripture provoke up a Man to it even for Self-preservation Yet this differs but little from howling upon our Beds for Corn and Wine and Oyl Hos 7.14 for though the things differ much in their Nature yet the Esteem Men have of them and the desire they have after them is much upon the same ground for these Spiritual things appear to that natural Sense of Self-preservation as necessary in Death as the other do in Life and Health But if the approaches of Death happen to be again drawn off the value of Spiritual things removes with them and the things of this World with all the sensual and sinful Delights of it return to their former price which argues the ineffectualness of this cause of Repentance and the Unacceptableness of the Repentance it self to God that flows from it God disclaims Men that have never come to him before their Extremity and come then only because of it In the time of their trouble they will say Arise and save us But where are thy Gods that thou madest Let them arise if they can save thee Jer. 2.27 28. Thus to such Dying Men crying out to him God says Let your former Lusts and Pleasures now be your Happiness Fools and scorners that would not be warned call upon God in their calamity and seek him early when the whirlwind of their destructions hurries them but cannot make him hear cannot find him Prov. 1.14 2. Suppose the desires after God and Eternal Happiness with all the Retinue of those Desires rise not so much from the Necessities of remove from this Life and sensible Supports but immediately from the sight of Eternal things themselves yet will not this conclude the Repentance sincere For we may easily pitch upon several so plain reasons of these quick Apprehensions of another World that it is much more strange if any Man be not struck with them and they that are are not in greater Extasies of these Considerations than that most die in some fair inclinable Temper towards them and others are extraordinarily surprized with them yet without true Repentance For First If it were no more but the leisure and uninterestedness of the Mind in all worldly things that Death brings It is no wonder that the Action of it should immediately and necessarily flow upon God for it being always in action and motion from its very Nature and God having made it for himself and the manner of its living here in the World being a slavery willingly undertaken for the Service of the Body and the Enjoyment of this present Life in its being fallen from God It is nothing strange that that Drudgery being now at an end and the chains wherein it was held just a breaking it should fall upon God and Spiritual Objects whither the stream of it was prepared to run and which are most truly its own business For the distance being so wide and irreconcilable between Man and this Earth in Death the very having nothing else to do must carry him upon the Future State seeing his Soul is such a Being as cannot naturally lie still and that State is all that it hath to work upon and further than that it is so nearly allied to it Secondly The very loosening and uncementing the Soul from the Body wherein it dwelt and wherein the Motions of it were restrained Multi enim quum remissi liberi sunt futura prospiciunt ex quo intelligitur quales futuri sint quum se plane corporis vinculis relaxaverint Cic. de Senectut hath been thought very probably to give Men lesser degrees of those Advantages near their Death which naked and free Spirits not inclosed and pent up in Bodies have whereby they have been able to make Conjectures of future things and to speak prophetically The less the Soul is bound to work by the Body the higher are its Operations All extraordinary Motions of the Soul are a kind of Ravishment from Sense Those great Prophetick Blessings of Jacob and Moses were near their Dying Gen. 49. Deut. 32. c. 33. It is therefore very easie to be thought that when the Soul and Body are ready to cleave asunder and the Spirit to be separated from Flesh that it should make an higher flight towards Eternal Things The nearer every thing is to its own Residence the more vehement is its motion said to be thither So there may very well be quick sallies of the Soul towards Eternity before it enters into it when it is so near that everlasting Receptacle of it self Thirdly We may observe in the Experience of all times every appearance of the other World hath strange effects of Fear and affrightment upon Mens Minds When any one is entring then into that whole World it may well put him upon purifying himself more than they that fall upon Leviathan Job 41.25 When Men are just upon that Region
of Spirits what appalements of Mind and strong working of Thoughts must there needs be Much more if the Soul have any sense of its approach to the infinite Holiness of God at whose rebuke the Pillars of Heaven tremble whose presence astonishes the purer Spirits of Angels and beats down the Souls of good Men to the Dust as of Moses Heb. 12.21 Isai 6.5 Job 42.6 Dan. 10.8 Job Isaiah c. in his interviews with them How much more of those that have never thought of God and now must come near his Seat Nothing so composes the Soul to this amazing change of Condition and Converse as long continued Treaties with God through Christ when though Men change their place they do not change their company Job 24.17 Job 38.15 Others when this great light strikes them are in the very terrors of the shadow of death and shaken out of their place out of all the Security and quiet Sensuality they lived in Let us now take the estimate or avail of these things to true Repentance and we shall find when the Soul lies thus uncovered to the things of Eternity it hath natural Reasons for all it may seem to do like return to God and so that all argue nothing of the true Grace of God but if a Man were again in his former State he would be the very same he was For first as one thing strikes upon another with a natural Effect Light upon the Eye Sound upon the Ear so Eternal Things upon the Immortal Spirit when there is nothing between to intercept the stroke Further 1 John 2.16 when the lust of the flesh the lust of the eye and the pride of life are as a Scene removed and a Play at an end and instead of them another World drawing near just as Men defeated in all their attempts for Riches and Honours and beaten off from them to a private Life call all these things Cheats not out of true Reason but because they cannot reach them on the other side they praise Retirement and a Cloyster not that they like it but because they must live so which begets some kind of Contentedness so to live Thus and no otherwise do many Dying Men call all this World Vanity and profess an high Esteem for all things pertaining to that to come Cause 3. There is yet a more pressing Account of the most notable motions that were ever found in any of their Repentances viz. The awakenings of Conscience usual at this time because of the Sense of a Judgment while common Experience tells Men It is appointed to all Men once to die Heb. 9.27 and sinking Nature gives notice This is the time Conscience lifts up to the next thing After that the Judgment Now no Man sees Judgment a Judgment Omniscient Omnipresent Eternal without great shakes of Soul especially that hath done nothing seriously to agree with the adversary in the way Luk. 12.18 Conscience then rising up with the Awe of a Tribunal upon it stirs up all the Powers to fly from the Wrath that is to come by desires of Pardon and Resolutions of Amendment The very hearing of Judgment made such a one as Foelix tremble Acts 24.25 When Judgment seems to us at the other end of Heaven all is quiet but when Death brings us to the very seat of it how loud may be the cries for Mercy The bewailing the former evils of Life Now Men pour out their Complaints for the want of God the misimprovement of former time Now they make large offers of a strict and severe Mortification and Devotion to Religion Now they would give the thousand Rams the ten thousand Rivers of Oyl their first born for their Trasgression the fruit of their Body for the sin of their Soul Mic. 6.6 7. And yet all but the Eye opened to see the flaming Sword of Justice that makes even a Balaam wish to die the death of the Righteous Num. 22.32 cap. 23.10 and to have a latter End Sober Just Religious The very Suspition of a Judgment inclines Men thus far universally almost that hardly any choose to die in a Rant in a Madness but had rather by virtue and Religion be consigned over to another World and have their Eyes closed by Mercy and Grace in Christ They would see the Salvation of God and so depart in Peace Object 1. But it may be objected Seeing these granted to rise from true Conviction and not to be Dissimulation or counterfeit Pretence Why may not they have the worth of true Repentance Answ 1. To answer this Let me consider pure Conviction and enlightned Apprehension and the Affections begotten of them are no Argument of true Goodness where the Light hath not a benign and free Operation upon the Judgment an Allurement upon the Will an Indearment upon the Affections to turn them to a full Delight and Satisfaction in God and Holiness and to a dislike and abhorrence of Sin For else the Devils who believe and tremble Jam. 2.19 must be thought Converts For who have clearer sight of things than they Balaam whose Eyes were opened and spoke so great things of God and his People must be concluded a good Man Esau and Judas who had so sad apprehensions of Sin Matth. 27.4 Heb. 12.7 Dan. 4.17 and 6.26 Luk. 6.20 Acts 24.25 and their loss by it must be affirmed to be Penitents Nebucadnezar's and Darius his acknowledgments of God must be taken for true Grace Herod his hearing John Baptist gladly Felix his trembling at Paul's Discourse may be thought Evidences of true Repentance Object 2. But Secondly it may be supposed because these very Convictions and Affections are not universal but we see multitudes go out of the World without them carrying little better than a decent and civil Respect to Religion that therefore there is something of God something Heroick in them that have them Answ 2. This indeed may be no other than the wise and good Government of God over the World whereby he takes care there should be Testimonies of himself and the Goodness of his ways that Atheism and Wickedness may not carry it as if all were their own as if there were an unexceptionable Concurrence on their side against God and Holiness For as he receives witness from the constant gracious and religious Lives of good Men so he constrains some of them that have lived contrary to him all their lives to give him glory at last for the good of others though without saving benefit to themselves Which he may justly do and without any injury to them Seeing all the Service every Creature can do to him is infinitely due he may make use of that which is his own so far as he pleases And because what the word God puts in their mouths Num. 23.5 Matth. 12.35 is not their own not arising out of the good treasure of their hearts as appears in Balaam therefore their everlasting Condition is not determined by it but
by their constant Course of the former Life the true Image of their Hearts as we see in the same Balaam who after died by the Israelites hand Num. 31.8 whose greatness he had prophesied Yet I will not deny but they may have their reward in mitigation of Punishment for any Service done to God If God did not interpose thus sometimes he might seem wanting in something that concerned him at least as a gracious Ruler of the World He therefore over-rules some who have lived so as to make a constant Argument against him and a future State so far as Wickedness could do it to retract the whole Course of their Life and give their Vote for what they had so long withstood I will yet further add another Cause of a Death-Bed Repentance that sometimes falls out to have a most powerful Influence and yet the Repentance that springs from it is very unsafe to confide in Cause 4. Dying Men are oft under the play and force of other Mens Reason and Religion For it is a general and necessary Charity of Men affected to Religion themselves to offer the sense of it to others in a time when they think it likely to be accepted and so infinitely necessary which Practice however needful and most commendable in it self yet by accident may have raised higher the opinion of a Death-Bed Repentance and is often the occasion of great Error in the thing it self For suppose a Man followed with sound and affectionate Perswasions to do all that may be done for his Soul in this exigent how conceiveable is it that Man may be so far wrought upon as to entertain a present sense of Religion and yet have no true Life no Life that arises from a true intimate Principle But as those Bodies of Air taken and moved by Angels seem to perform the Functions of living Bodies yet do but seem to do so for they have no Principle of Life natural to them but as soon as they are forsaken by the Spirits that made use of them they fly abroad and disperse themselves Thus that general sense of Conscience that lies scattered through the Soul and unable for action being gathered together and united by good and holy Applications and acted thereby may have force so long as that Union continues but that Discourse that holds it together ceasing it immediately falls asunder and loses its Efficacy The Stone that receives motion from the Hand that throws it goes on whilst that motion lasts when that is spent it falls to the ground so the force of Exhortation ceases too often when he that gives it leaves those to whom it was given The Instrument to which the Musician's Hand gives tune and voice lies dead when he deserts it Mans Soul is made by God capable of religious tune and motion and while a skillful hand plays upon it it may give that sound very distinctly and yet have no Life in it self The striking of Conscience makes the Sparks fly out yea and sometime kindle in a flame and yet it presently dies because not supplied with a continual Oyl to feed it The Mind of one Man is very apt to receive Impressions from another we see what Passions and Motions are raised by an Eloquent Speaker how the Understanding is carried captive while the Orator works upon it and yet all the Affection thus blown up falls flat again when the Breath that swell'd it lies still and is apt to be carried the contrary way by cross Perswasions equally insinuated How much more may this be in religious things Conscience being so easily stirred by such Applications as we see in Felix though it is as easily becalmed when sinful Lusts through the Efficacy of Temptation are loud and high And all this is certainly much easilier done near Death when Men are so soft that they are apt to take any stamp so melting as to be gathered into any mould It is possible for one Man's Spirit to carry another for some considerable space of time as we see in Jehoiadas influence upon Joash who was not yet all that time possessed with the things themselves 2 King 12.1 whereunto he was directed But true Repentance is a Frame set up by the Spirit of God in the Heart subsisting by that Spirit upon it self and makes use only of all Helps subordinated to it by the Wisdom of that Spirit but doth not live from that Help but from it self through that Spirit its supreme Life To draw these things therefore to a Sum It will appear after all these Causes have done what they can these great Errors following are generally found and always to be suspected in a Death-Bed Repentance 1. In a Death-Bed Repentance There is only a Judgment made of the Case of Eternity considered by it self and without a Conterpoise The Excellency of God and Eternal Things are minded as they stand out of the Air of Temptation Now though this be a good Opportunity for the first consideration yet that Consideration must grow so strong as to retain the same sense in the midst of all Pretences from the World and Sathan Else in the time of Temptation this Repentance falls away * Dr. Jackson Book 10. Chap. 23. Sect. 3. For there may be many true Apprehensions which may make deep Impression not only in the Brain and Phancy and upon our Affections whilest these are calm and unprovok'd and yet both the Apprehension and Impression quickly vanish upon the starting or provocation of contrary Fancies or Affections When the Blood cools in the Veins and the Spirits are ready to stand still when a Man is no longer to live in the World the season of the pleasures of Sin is over then to cast out his Lusts What excellent thing does he does not even nature Matth. 5.46 whether he will or no the same True Repentance encounters Temptation and resists unto Blood when those Pleasures of Sin are at the height and the tide of Corruption from within swells most As Moses chose to suffer affliction with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season Heb. 11.25 although they were in their growing and ascending Morning Repentance will not worship that Sun in the East It is a very small thing to despise it in the West and just a setting to choose Religion when there is nothing to vie with it 2. It is not a Consideration of heavenly Things in their true worth but only as recommended by the present Necessity For who would not die the Death of the Righteous and have his latter end like his Every Man at that time would be glad to find he hath lived well and he that hath lived worst except he be outrageous in Prophaneness will wish he had lived better Eternity at hand gives value to all Holiness and sense of God in spight of the World and lessens all things else to a nothing and less than nothing imprints a Ghastliness and Horror upon all
Mediator written even as all natural Religion and Morality in the very Heart of Man and discernable by that Light For when the first Commands and Emotions of Natural Conscience are to do the things that are Holy and Righteous and Good and we find that tho we have violated and perverted the thing that is right yet we retain a love to those Laws of Eternal Righteousness and Goodness we have not lost all sense of them of desire of likeness to and agreement with them thus we find a sorrow in and trouble within us that we have offended and that the wrath and justice of the supreme Ruler and Governor and Judg of all the World is not so sudden and immediate in his Revenges upon us but that we have space and time for return to God and to Holiness There is by the very same Authority of natural Conscience that requir'd Holiness in our first Acts and thereby to please God a close obligation to return to him by Repentance and to amend what we have done of evil against him and to beseech Pardon and Reconciliation with offended Justice Now when on the other side the Patience and long-suffering of God gives encouragement and even Assurance he will accept Repentance by his giving scope space and opportunity for it Here is great ground for Repentance For the Soul and Mind of Man finding still in it self that Primitive Love to reverential sense of Righteousness and that it cannot bid defiance to it as lost Spirits do there immediately rises in it an earnest endeavour to Self-restitution to restore and recover ones self by Repentance thus that Light given to a Man in his first Creation and the state of Innocency the grace of Christ sustaining it by an Universal Grace to human nature does not loose it self by sin but as it points and directs it self first to Hâ—liness without sinning or falling from it so it now points and directs it self to Repentance when it hath fallen by Iniquity and as first it mooves it self to the Favour of God by not offending or sinning against him so after sin finding him not presently executing wrath and taking vengeance it beseeches him to Receive it Graciously Hosea 14.1 c. and to take away its Iniquities that may not Die For that God is a most good and gracious and merciful Being in himself is a clear principle in the Law of Natural Religion even where ever God hath not awaken'd that Natural Conscience to find it self in the Chains of everlasting Displeasure as the Devils and Damned are against whom he hath in Anger shut up for ever his Tender Mercies when therefore a man finds notwithstanding the so great degeneracy and boldness in sin that every where Testify to our very Faces and that we so well know yet that God leaves not himself without so great Witness of his goodness Acts 14.6 giving fruitful Times and seasons filling mens Hearts with Food and Gladness and that in Relation to himself in particular he hath spared and forborn it draws out Natural Conscience to return to him by Repentance For the riches of Goodness the long Suffering and Forbearance of God lead to Repentance Rom. 2.4 Thus the King of Nineveh by Natural Light reason'd even when God had positively declared Yet forty Dayr and Nineveh shall be destroyed Surely in that there are forty Days allowed they are allowed as a Quarantine as a time of Trial and Probation whether they would Repent or not else why not presently Destroyed Why forty Days delay if there were not Hope of Pardon in such a Repentance so they humbled themselves in that extraordinary manner and turned to God by Repentance and God saw it and Repented of the evil â—e bad said he would do unto them and he did it not Jonah 3.5 c. How much more have the generality of Mankind against whom no such positive Denounciation hath gone forth from God and to whom the time of Patience is not so limitted and defin'd How great reason have they to look upon the time of God's forbearance as a most gracious Call and Opportunity and space for Repentance Thus we see Repentance in some light and sense concerning it runs through the whole World so that the very Heathen who have not had nor so much as heard many of them of Scripture yet have great sense of some way of expiating sin and turning from evil and the very seeing God hath made Repentance and Forgiveness a most necessary and useful expedient of mutual Conversation of Men one with another without which Human Society could not support it self it shews very plainly there is a Mediator between God and Man a Redemer of lost Man that hath for the great purposes of his Redemption inlay'd the Soul of Man with the intimate and inward notices of Repentance and that men shew the work of it written in theiâ— Hearts and that their Consciences accordingly either Accuse or Excuse to allude to Rom. c. 2.14 15. and hath given assurance from Providence and the manner of God's Government of the World That Repentance shall be accepted and therefore hath given the same motions of Natural Conscience to Repentance when a man hath sinned as to Holiness and Righteousness before sin and hath manifested them both alike within man and hath shewed it to them and by the visible things of Human Preservation hath made clearly known the eternal Goodness and Mercy that pardons sin through the Redeemer to allude again to Rom. 1.20 Thus we read in the Book of Joh a Book treating much of Natural Religion assisted by such measures of Divine Revelation concerning Christ as God had vouchsafed to Job and to his Friends very high expressions on this great point c. 33.27 God looketh upon man and if any say I have sinned and perverted that which is right and it profited me not he will deliver his Soul from going down into the Pit for he will say I have found a ransom for him and his life shall see the Light A man any of mankind have just reason to say thus have great occasion to say so I have sinned and perverted that which is right and do find it hath not Profited It is very near to any man to say so and if this take place in them and they do from their Hearts say so and ratify it by Action God looks upon them he beholds them with Acceptance he Delivers through the great Ransom Jesus Christ c. It is repentance to Salvation so c. 34.31 32. surely it is meet to be said to God I have born Chastisement I will not offend any more That which I see not teach thou me If I have done Iniquity I will do no more Even according to the sense of Natural Religion and natural Cnnscience It is meet to be so said to God All this is meet to be done This is even the Discipline of Natural Conscience as God is said to open the Ear to Discipline and to seal
And what shall we think of the words of our Lord Luke 6.21 Blessed are you that Weep and you that Mourn and woe to you that Laugh Now it is not to be supposed that so Good and so Merciful and so Gracious a Saviour as our Lord Jesus Christ is should envy to man any thing that could be to the Good and Welfare of his Nature But he knew how much the Carnal Joy and Mirth that is so common and so much valued among Men lavishes out those Thoughts and Spirits and that Time that should be laid out upon so serious and great things as Reconciliation to God Pardon of Sin Newness of Heart and Life and that Sorrow and Mourning and Weeping are prepared by God as fitted in their Nature to make us more Grave and Pondering of Things and that being Sanctified and in the Hand of his Grace are made use of to bring us home to himself For when men are under sadness finding the prints of the Wrath Justice and Displeasure of God upon them they enquire after the Reason Their sins as to Joseph's Brethren come to their Remembrance They are provoked to move to God by Humiliation Confession of Sin Prayer for Pardon Desire of his Grace and Spirit to enable them to Reform they enquire into his word how they may cleanse their way order their Conversation aright to please him they are moved to consider by these drops and Touches of Sorrow what that state of sorrow without Banks or Bounds or Bottom is where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of Teeth They are taken off from that Pride and Self-Conceit they find so little in all things here below and in this present State that they enquire for those better and greater Things that are Above and in Eternity When sorrow that disposes to strong and serious enquiries becomes sorrow after and according to God Oh! how excellently does it work How do men search Lam. 3.40 and try their ways that they may turn to God Now because of the Order that God hath plac'd sorrow in to all these great Effects therefore our Lord pronounc'd a Blessing upon Weeping and Mourning For else he loves our Joy when it is Spiritual he commands to Rejoyce in the Lord all way and again he says Rejoyce He spoke many great things John 15.11 that our Joy might be full that he might fill our Mouths with Laughter and our Tongues with Singing But our carnal our sensual Joys he knows are our Death and Destruction he knows we are in no better case in our prophane foolish sinful Laughter than they who are stung with the Tarantula and Dye Laughing Thus we have greatest reason in the midst of such Laughter to be Sorrowful and the end of that Mirth will be heaviness Thus it will be bitterness in the latter end therefore he warns us of it before and in greatest Love to us declares a Woe on such Laughter But now to conclude this particular The sorrow of the World How different a thing is it For tho it causes Thoughts and Enquiries yet it is only how to be rid of the Worldly Causes of Sorrow and it turns only to Worldly Remedies And it is very often in a rage at the causes it finds and when either the Remedies are not to be found or fail in their Success it is in a Rage and flies out too often against God and Providence and so it works Death It begins that Hatred of God that Blasphemy and Rage that is in Hell or if it does not thus it is a sullen despondent unactive state of Mind that shuts and seals up all Activity like the Night wherein no Man can Work John 9.4 and so goes down into utter Darkness It either sayâ— This evil is of the Lord 1 Kings 6.33 why should I wait any longer Or like Cain My Iniquities are greater than can be Forgiven and so hastens out from the Presence of God or it recoyls upon it self as Saul Achilophel Judas or the Heart under the Power of it Dies as a stone within it self as Nabals Heart died within him 1 Sam. 25.27 Thus it every way works Death because it hath nothing to do with him who is the Fountain of Life For the Being of God is infinitely happy and blessed and all light and lustre and in him is no Darkness at all of sorrow as not of Sin he therefore when sorrow is after him springs a Light into it that whereas the Dark and Black part arises from sin and the sinful Creature yet because it is after him it shall never set in the darkness of Death and Hâ—ll It receives from him as a Tincture of Holiness so a Tincture of Life a Ray and Beam of it It works Repentance unto Life and to Salvation and so it springs up aftâ—r into Joâ— in his Favour in the Light of his Countenance in the assurance of his Love But the Sorrow of the World is like a Night that no kind of Light at all Enlightens Like the Night Job Cursed it does not turn to the Light because it is not turn'd to God and so is a shade of Hell â—efore Hell it self a valley of the shaddow of Death and the horrors of it are the beginnings of the horrors of Hell As therefore Carnal Joys are sparks of our own kindling Esay 50. notwithstanding which we shall lye down in sorrow even so is sorrow not after God as a black shade of our own 4. The service of sorrow after God to Repentance unto Salvation is that it breaks and forces asunder that sinful Frame in our Hearts of sin and contrariety to God and to Holyness The very Natural Affection of sorrow loosens and Divides the Heart from that which is the Cause and occasion of such sorrow Because that great Self-love the force of that Law of Self-preservation is so strong upon us that seeing sorrow is an Affection that stands in an enmity to our Peace Comfort and Enjoyment and to our Life it self if it be extreme or too long continuing we therefore come off from what is the occasion or that gives reason to our sorrow though we had exceedingly lov'd it before This we find in all Cases and through the whole Nature of Things when therefore sin and loss of the favour of God because of it is made by the grace of God the just Reason and most sensible and prevailing reason of our sorrow It dissolves the Frame of sin in our Heart that had been before compact as the Adamant and as the neither Mill-stone Now this sorrow dividing and separating between sin and the Soul it brings forth that broken and contrite Heart that God will not despise Again This sorrow is a spiritual melting softning and dissolving Thing It separates the Soul every particle as it were from other so that it is supple soft and ready to tâ—ke any figure thaâ— God would have it take It brings the Soul to quick and lively sense which
greater Punishment and heavier Condemnation and though it seem more chooseable than a fruitless Repentance yet doubtless Eternity makes a difference though not such an one as should give any one Confidence to imbarque into it in a Coffin-Repentance But whether it be rather to be chosen or not this is past question It is unavoidable to some whether they will or no they are surprized with Thoughts what will become of them for ever and few Men but have thoughts this way at such a time above ordinary But I intend to speak of the fairest and best spread Repentance that is found upon a Death-bed That which gives the liveliest Hopes of it self that it is true and sincere not such an one that to a serious Observer betrays it self not either that forced composure to the Expectation of the World which looks for a solemn Profession of God from every one that dies nor an ignorant and formal Repentance but a Repentance that hath much of Vigor and inward Affection and is driven on by great knowledge and light that is accompanied with much Sorrow and very considerate Apprehensions of Eternal Things And if such an one be so questionable what can become of others There is no reason any Repentance should be the better esteemed because Men are Dying but much the less Now while Men are living a thousand of these seeming Changes for the better are evidently confuted without more ado by after returns to Wickedness and they that have to do with such shews of Reformation have no regard of them nor of the Persons for them Apud illum Cordis Interpretem Ars non admittitur ad salutem August Serm. 120. Now God who is the exact Searcher of Hearts can much less be imposed upon by the fairest appearances nor can Men wise according to the Rules of Scripture be easily well perswaded of them and when they are best perswaded there must needs be a very trembling Consideration of so great a hazard But to come more particularly to what I have proposed viz. To shew that Repentance is a Height to which these general Motives of this late Repentance can never mount the Soul In which I will begin with the Descriptions of true Repentance in that wherein it is most difficult not to say impossible to rise to it upon a Dying Bed Repentance in all the parts of it is the fullest clearest act of the Soul and Judgment wherein it is most perfectly it self Remove a Man never so far from all kind of Fears from the Appearances of Death if he were to live Ages he would be of the same Sense He that truly Repents doth not snatch up Repentance as an Expedient for a present Extremity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hieroc Carm. Pyth Pura voluptatum mutatio Cypr. but chooses it as an entrance into the best state of Life and lives always and rests himself in this choice For however this may be introduced by very troublesom and tumultuous Motions yet it is it self the easie sitting down of the Soul with abundant Pleasure and Satisfaction in the abhorrence of Sin and love of Holiness in the dislike of Vanity and Sensuality in the Approbation of heavenly Purity of Heart and Life It is not a Trance wherein Sin lies dead and a Man is in a Rapture of Goodness for a time but a most setled State Godly sorrow that worketh Repentance worketh Carefulness Fear Revenge Desire 2 Cor. 7.11 and by these accomplisheth a Repentance to Salvation that hath no after-pain or trouble no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vers 10. These Affections are Preparations Repentance enters as a Soul into these which is a still solid clear Act of Reason renewed and a Mind which gives an uniform Vote at all times A Change that is never changed back again no more than things can put off themselves or evil it self become good It is therefore upon fullest Deliberation to choose with Joshuah I and my house those whom I can govern will serve the Lord Josh 24.15 It is Engaging the Heart to approach to God the joining our selves to him by an everlasting Covenant never to be forgotten Jer. 30.21 and 50.5 The cleaving to him with full purpose of Heart Acts 11.23 When all forerunning Affections are laid and quiet or worn out this Judgment still remains and raiseth other Affections like it self that ever remain with it into which the Spirits of the former are extracted and wherein they exercise all the true power they had But now on a Death-bed there is often a great Commotion raised a loud blustre of Passion never arriving at this point at this Settlement But if a Man should live after it would go off as Clouds and Storms that when they have spent themselves vanish and lie down And when a Man dies it is to be fear'd that as they were raised by approach to the unappeasable Tempests of Darkness so they are hurried with their Violence 2. It is carefully to be observed that there is in true Repentance a due Proportion betwixt the contrite Indignation of the Soul against past Sin and the love and zeal it hath for Holiness whereas in Death-bed Repentances it is oftenest found that there is either a terrifying Presence only of former Sins appearing to the affrighted Conscience without a more hopeful Indication of the Soul truly composed to Righteousness or else some high flying Resolutions of better Life afterward offered as a kind of Bribe to the Patience and Mercy of God in hopes of present Deliverance or at best as a Ransom from Hell and Eternal Damnation but without a deep sense of the guilt and evil of past Sins or the just apprehension of that continually running issue of Corruption that is still defiling anew Either of these is a main Error and pernicious For if on the one side the Heart in a Rage be forced to cast out some Sins for the turbulency of them if it be not immediately filled with better Guests Seven other Spirits are ready to enter and make the last state of that Man worse than the first Mat. 12.43 For Repentance is no void space no silent or unactive state but when it hath dislodged Lusts furnishes and fills the Soul with the best things and carries the vigor of a Man's Action to the best effect When by repentance a Man ceases to do evil he learns to do Well Isai 1.16 17. And brings forth fruits meet for repentance and amendment of life Mat. 3.8 On the other side he that seems to make a hasty motion to Holiness without due sense of Sin first thinks to overrule the method God hath set who requires Humiliation godly Sorrow Anger Revenge Fear as preparing to Repentance And further he conceits a freedom to himself when he is fetter'd and bound without a power given him from God he offers to cast out Devils with ease that cannot be cast out but by fasting and prayer Mark 9.29 that is severe courses of Self-abasement and lowliest
in a clear light and full leisure 3. For the severity of God in denying his Grace though I acknowledge his Indignation condemns many who have dallied with him and their own Souls to be suck'd in again by the whir-pool of their Lusts when they would have risen out of them yet this Indignation is never so certainly at the height as when Men have provoked it as long as they could It is most miserable therefore to make our last motions within the command of such a horrible Pit lest they prove only the struggles of sinking Men yet this we must do if we are not before got out of it There is much greater hope how bad soever their Condition may be to them who are yet in the hand of patience lifting and leading them to Repentance Rom. 2.4 2 Pet. 3.9 and do not despise it but account it Salvation Objection 6. This Doctrin does not savor enough of the Grace of the Gospel that would have all Men come to Repentance Answ To discourse the Severities of the Gospel to the ends of the Gospel is most Evangelical Discourse For as the Gospel doth with all clearness declare its own Rigors that Men might not mistake it for a loose and careless Doctrin and so miss the Salvation of it so have I discovered the great hazard of a Dying Repentance that Living Men might be perswaded not to cast themselves upon it and Dying Men excited to an Action suitable to the extremity of their Case And this is indeed preaching the Gospel and to be moved upon it with fear to prepare an Ark to the saving our Souls before the flood come Heb. 11.7 is as true an effect of Faith as to be constrained by love to live to him 2 Cor. 5.14 that hath died for us I say as true and gives us a Title to the Inheritance of the Righteousness which is by Faith together with the other For the Prudence of Faith makes us apprehensive of the Reasons of Danger and so to Fear even as the Gratitude of it ties us with the Obligations of Love This is not that Fear that Love casts out but that it self quickens and is also both quickned and guarded by it nor is it the bondage but the wisdom of Fear Rom. 8.15 Job 28.28 Objection 7. But is the general Judgment of Divines thus Answer All judicious Divines are very tender of binding the Prerogative of Grace or clipping off the Action of Men towards God even at this time See besides the concurring Judgment of the Ancients Bishop Andrews Sermons on Repentance Dr. Hammond and Dr. Taylor in their Treatises of this Point Bolton Dyke c. in Observation whereof I have desired to be cautious herein also But in their cautions against Presumption their Expressions amount to the utmost I have spoken Infer 1. But setting aside the whole danger of a Death-Bed Repentance Let me now lastly thus reason and thus expostulate Why should we desire to Repent so late It is good to be betimes doing that which is most comporting with our truest Happiness Reconciliation with God return to Him his Favour to obey Him these are the truest Freedom and Peace of a Man at all times Great Peace have they which love thy Law and nothing shall offend them Psal 119.165 He lives in the least pain that lives holiest I made haste therefore and delayed not to keep thy Commandments Psal 119.60 I seized upon so great an Enjoyment as soon as I could afraid to be kept off from it too long To fear God and keep his Commandments is the whole duty of Man Eccles 12.13 When a Man considers Life and that he hath but a Moment of it and that therefore he would live that Moment as much as may be he shall find the highest of Life the top of Life to be Godliness which hath all the promises of this life and of that which is to come 1 Tim. 4.8 To pursue this World and the Vanities of it is not only with greatest folly and impertinency to lanch our selves in a great Vessel the Greatness of our Affection and with solemn Preparations our strongest Action into the low water the shallow of Life which because it cannot carry so great a bulk increases the Toyl and Vexation as well as enhanses the Vanity and Folly of doing nothing at so great an expense But worse than this it is the loading our selves with guilt under a delusion of Pleasure that gives us secret disquiet and torment while we are laying it on and cannot be laid down as we please but with more sensible and industrious Anguish than we heap'd it upon us I mean the sense of our misdoings and Contrition for them so necessary to work Repentance To conclude Seeing to die is the end of all Men Eccles 7.2 Repentance is to be chosen while we live that we may die with the greatest quiet without those Agonies of Conscience those cold Sweats those sinking Eyes and fainting Spirits for he dies with most ease that most surveys Death and looks into all the Retirements of it before-hand that knows it perfectly and all its strength such an one governs himself in it as in a most important Action with Decency and Freedom He is not hal'd by Death but received by it Into thy hands I commend my spirit Luke 23.46 he lays himself orderly into the shade of Death Whereas so long adherence to the Pleasures of Sin gives Death a Violence It makes Men both unwilling and afraid to die This night thy Soul shall be required Luke 12.20 Life is exacted of a Sensualist and torn from him that is resigned by a Spiritual and Mortified Man Good Men die in an active Sense they know how to die others die passively they are forced to die This great difference prefers to us Dying daily before that forcible Dying at once The wisdom of Dying was accounted by Heathens one of the worthy Businesses and Imployments of Life and that required much study Christianity gives us the true Rules of it and they lie in waiting till our change come Time is short 1 Cor. 7.29 they therefore that use this World should not use it down to the Bran sensually but only take the advantages of it to a higher Life Else being met on the sudden by Death they are like those that fall off from Life with Violence that is Headlong but they that live in the Sense of God and an Eternal Condition alight with care and ease It is therefore not only greatest Safety but truest Frugality and Improvement of Life to Repent betimes and when we come to die the easiest and sweetest way of dying Not indeed a Dying but a Translation into Immortality and Blessedness Inference 2. Seeing the Wise and their works are all in the hand of God and that he giveth Wisdom to the Wise Man's Heart to discern both Time and Judgment and not to be taken as Fishes in an evil Net