innocent from the great transgression And the Apostle himself who in the exercise of his Apostleship finds himself exempt of fault yet forgets not to sigh and demand deliverance from this law of his members which makes him carnal and sold under sin Rom. 7.24 And this excellent Organ of the Spirit of God knew very well that to obtain justification by works it was necessary that works should be perfect and innocency and sanctification should be entire as well in their parts as their degrees because that he that fails in one point of the Law makes himself guilty of the transgression of all and that no single action though perfect in it self can make a perfection of justice whereas one sin alone is able to slay the soul to ternish the lustre and corrupt the value of all precedent justices and therefore he abandons this feeble prop whereon whosoever thinks to rely remains alwaies in uncertainty And therefore not to testifie any incertitude of his salvation but to affirm the assurance of it upon a foundation invariable he reputes all things even his own innocency as dung that he may gain Christ and be found in him having not his own justice which is of the Law but the justice of God which is by faith in Jesus Christ This is then to beat the air and fight with his own shadow to go about to shew the weakness and infirmity of man to sound the depth of the malice of his heart and to open the dark corners and retraicts of his hypocrisie we confesse more then they can accuse us of being only sorry that it is out of an envy to do ill in troubling the consciences and not the love of the truth which pulls this confession from our mouth that no man living can say My heart is clean and I am pure from sin and yet at other times they contest with this confession when they fall upon the strength of their free will and to establish their works of supererogation Yes it is true that there is no just man on earth that doth well and sins not Eccl. 7.21 In many things we offend all James 3.2 If we say we have no sin we are lyars 1 Joh. All the most holy among men have confest their sins before God Job 15.15 and why not since the Heavens themselves are not pure before him He put no trust in his servants and his Angels he charged with folly Job 4.18 But so little doth this confession shake the assurance of the faith that contrarywise it settles it so much the more because hereby a man is led to go forth of himself to go and put his whole affiance in the only mercy of God and to withdraw all his hopes from the merit of his own works to rely entirely upon the infinite merits of him who of God is made unto us wisdome and righteousness and sanctification and redemption 1 Cor. 1.30 Of our selves we have not so much as a good thought but all our sufficiency cometh from God but yet able to do all things in him that strengthens us Philip 4.13 we are combated by him but we are in all things more then Conquerors through him that loved us Rom. 8.36 And very well said St. Bernard in the fifth Homily of the dedication of the Temple entring into consideration of the soul I seem to have found two things contrary to each other for if I behold it such as it is in it self and of it self I cannot speak better then in saying that it is reduced to nothing for what need is it for me to recount all her miseries how it is charged with sins envelopt in darkness environ'd with temptations boyling with lusts subject to passions fill'd with illusions inclined to vice full of shame and confusions If all the righteousness of man be before God nothing but pollution what shall be his unrighteousness If there be nothing but darkness in his light how obscure then shall be the darkness it self What shall I then say For certain man is nothing but vanity he is reduc'd to nothing man is nothing But how is he thus nothing whom God so magnifies How is he nothing since Godsets his heart upon him Let us have courage although we be nothing in our hearts yet we shall find in Gods heart something hidden of us O Father of mercies O Father of miserable how is it that thou setst thy heart upon us for thy treasure is where is thy heart and how are we thy treasure if we be nothing Certainly in the judgment of thy verity we are nothing but not so in the affection of thy piety and goodness But why say they if we have absolute assurance of our Salvation are there so many advertisements given us in holy Scripture to take heed to our selves to watch to pray and that he that stands take heed he do not fall and if these be truly profitable as it is to be presum'd then this is a testimony that a man may fall and consequently that he cannot stand firm in his assurance To this we answer That the exhortations and threatnings in Scripture which are commonly made ought to be applied according to the quality and necessity of every one The visible Church to which the Word of God is announced is composed of divers sorts of people some have need of a bridle others of a spur some to be held back by threatnings from their abandoned vices others to be waken'd from a natural lethargy by lively exhortations to some consolation to others correction is necessary There are that abuse themselves who under pretext of exterior piety wherein they seem very zealous thinking themselves to be high-flown upon the wings of a holy devotion while avarice and luxury and other vanities have tyed them fast to earth and drag them through the dirt To these men the saying of the Apostle addresses properly 1 Cor. 10.12 that he that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall and those that stand truly ought not to slight this advice but rather to take it not as a presage of their misfortune but as a testimony that although of our selves we are subject to fall yet nevertheless God would not have us fall because he directs his word to us who putting us in mind of our condition conducts us more and more to seek the confirmation of his grace And then to fall is not to make a total loss of our salvation but only a stumbling or a fall in a spiritual course a thing that may happen to the most righteous and yet not that they should fall from the hope of their salvation because they are soon again restored by repentance For if the just man fall yet he can fall no farther because the Lord holds him by the hand Psal 37.24 And so these exhortations tend only to make us distrust our selves but not to ravish us of the confidence we ought to have in God They fight with the carnal security of profane ones but not
Repentance is our Physick We may soon with the tears of sincere Contrition wash our selves in the bloud of Christ from all putrefaction and filthiness that sin hath polluted us withal Therefore we ought all of us to begin and take a Lesson of Repentance in the School of Christ we ought to begin ab incunabulis in our very youth and not dare florem diabolo foecem Deo not waste away the flower and vigour of our youthful years in the devils vassalage and when our heads are hoary and Periwig'd with the Snow of Age then to consecrate our selves to the service of God and to offer up our selves to the Altar of his Acceptance and that he would for the merits of our most blessed Saviour his most blessed Son who suffered that cursed and ignominious death the death of the Cross for our sins have mercy upon us and pardon all our enormities past present and to come Begin in May not in December for assure your selves God will never accept of the devils leavings You must not stream out your Youth in Wine and live a Lapling to the Silk and Dainties wear all your Mannors on your back at once and like the rich man in the Gospel go attired in purple and fare deliciously every day and then think when you are come to the Spectacle and bearingstaff to turn to God and steer the Vessel of your soul toward heaven Sera poenitentia raro vera Repentance in the declining of a mans age when the Sun of his life is posting to the West is seldom true The Thief upon the Cross of whom we may truly say Periisset nisi periisset was sav'd There was one sav'd that none might despair and but one that none might presume Use not the common Shift of the world to say that you are not guilty of any Crying sins they are but petty offences For I must tell you Beloved these are but diabolical suggestions infused into you by the spirit of Darkness you must first finde out a small God before you can commit a small sin Nay all sins of what sort soever they be are great sins sins of a high stature because committed against the Law of the sin-detesting God For were it not for the Law of God that strictly and severely prohibits all manner of sin and commands uprightness there would be no such thing in the world as Sin for what is sin but the transgression of Gods Law And therefore holy David acknowledged his sins to be committed against God because he had transgressed violated his Law and Commandment which made him to break forth into that penitent and holy Rapture Against thee against thee onely have I sinned Psal 51.4 We are all naturally sinful there is no difference by Nature between the Elect and Reprobate neither in external nor internal disposition until it be made by Grace St. Paul was a Persecutor of as deep a Scarlet-dye as ever Domitian or Julian was Zacheus as unconscionable and miserable a Worldling as the rich Glutton in the Gospel Luke 16.19 All persons are alike by Nature till Grace comes in and makes a difference for we are all by Nature children of wrath heirs of perdition and in danger of damnation 'T is Regeneration that procures us our passage to heaven Except a man be re-born or born anew he cannot see the kingdom of God Joh. 3. and Luk. 13.5 Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish So that so long as we remain in the state of Nature being conceived in sin and brought forth in iniquity we are still remaining in a most desperate and damnable condition For the poyson of our Nature is as virulent in us as in the wicked and by Nature we are as much addicted to all manner of sins And though by the special mercy of the Father of mercies we have escaped many damnable and detestable crimes which we finde the wicked have been often implunged into 't is not because we are of a more pure and undefiled nature then they for 't is the same as theirs but because the envenom'd virulencie thereof hath not as yet manifested it self in us which we have just cause every day to fear for in truth we have taken so much of the devils Opium that without Repentance we shall never be awakened out of the dead sleep of sin Therefore let us strive with a holy resolution to shake off these rags of Natural Corruption and clothe out selves with the precious garment of Christ Jesus Let us get into a state of grace and by a real sincere Repentance turn over a new leaf become converts disciples of our Saviour Adam you know did not fall as a private man but as the Root of all Mankinde and we all partake of that Fall since we are the issue of his loyns and the vessels of our bodies still keep a smack of the old relish For according to the Poet Quo semel est imbuta recens servabit odorem Testa diu The sweetest Stream that flows will relish of the soyl that it hath saluted Inficitur terrae sordibus unda fluens Sheep never come neer a hedge but they leave some Wool behinde them One man infected with the Plague will corrupt ten men sooner then ten men can cure one infected person You know what the Satyrist saith Grex totus in agris Unius scabie cadit porrigine porci Which our English Proverb renders exactly One scabbed sheep will spoil the whole flock Well might that sweet-mouth'd Romane call this The Iron Age for Iniquity is an epidemical distemper or a Chronical Disease that admits of no Cure but Repentance and that sincere too And I fear that the Poet writ in Prophetick measures when his Muse warbled this so suitable an expression to our Times Nil erit ulterius quod nostris moribus addat Posteritas Our Age is grown to such a height of Impiety that Posterity will not be able to adde any thing to it Pride swaggers in the streets Luxury is housed and Drunkenness reels to and fro notwithstanding the heavie Judgements of God denounced against those that exercise such abominations and all the Armour of the mightiest Potentates in the world is not able to resist the Prophets of God when their Commission is seal'd with God's Ipse dixit cujus verbum ab intentione quia veritas factum a verbo quia virtus non differt Gods word is a word with a deed and what he saith shall be done without doubt or demur And all good men will obey his Law and Commandment but where are these good men now adays A good man is hard to be found he is rara avis in terris sprung from the ashes of some dead Phoenix whose abode is scarce known he is like the Berries of the Prophet Isaiah's tree here and there one to be found nay 't is a thousand to one if you finde one in a thousand The jerking Satyrist the Lash of his time could say so long
since much more then may we now Rari quippe boni numero vix sunt totidem quot Thebarum portae vel divitis ostia Nili There are but seven good men at most saith he A small number indeed What the Philosopher saith of Good I 'm sure is in these our Times verified of Evil Malum est sui diffusivum Evil is diffusive 't is of a spreading nature a disease that is catching therefore we should never go abroad without an Antidote against it and that is the Word of God for Antidotum verbi serpentis venenum expugnat The Word of God is a soveraign Antidote against the poyson of the Serpent We live now in the sink of Time wherein Vertue is accounted a Prodigie and Piety a Crime or at the best a Simplicity And our Aarons are taken away and put aside as useless and the people die of the Plague I wonder who shall stand between the living and the dead holding the Censers and making Atonement for them They are cast aside Beloved and none but a Spurious Issue admitted of that have no Authority nor Commission Quicquid libet licet nunc dierum and yet 't is strange non licet esse bonus And take this by the way That he that will be a godly Christian must like the Antipodes run a contrary course to the men of the world 'T is sin and the Fall of our parents that hath brought us into this condition here we lie but thanks to the Almighty here is comfort enough for the most hainous sinner so he have not committed the sin against the holy Ghost if he will but repent Sacrae paginae scatent hujusmodi consolationibus The Scripture abounds with Lectures of Comfort to all penitent sinners Isai 55.7 Let the wicked forsake his ways and the unrighteous his own imaginations and turn unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he is ready to forgive And so likewise in Ezek. 18.21 22. If the wicked will return from all his sins that he hath committed and keep all my statutes and do that which is lawful and right he shall surely live and not die all his transgressions that he hath committed they shall not be mentioned unto him but in his righteousness that he hath done shall he live The Scripture is an Ocean that flows with such comfortable streams and that both the Old and New Testament as it appears in 1 Joh. 1.9 If we acknowledge our sins God is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from all injustice And so in the 2. Chap. of the same Epistle vers the 1. and 2. If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the just And he is the reconciliation for our sins and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now what need we care what suit we commence at the Upper-bench in Heaven so long as we have Christ for our Lawyer our Counsellor Si Deus nobiscum quis contra nos if God be for us who shall be against us 1 Use This then should serve for a Use of Consolation to stir up all persons to a real and true repentance Since Christ is for them since he calls himself their Advocate their Pleader their Counsellor and hath promised so often that whosoever repenteth shall not perish but have everlasting life And though every man be an enemy to his own salvation the flesh resist the same work the divel doth endeavour by his wicked machinations to stir up in the heart of a man an aversion to conversion this should create in us more firm and setled resolutions after the work since we have the promise of our blessed Saviour for success in our undertaking but this cannot be performed without a holy indefatigable industry on our part for 't is called in holy writ a Birth a Death a Circumcision and you know no Birth no Death no cutting off of the flesh can be without care pain and labour The Embryo is not delivered out of the womb of the mother without pain nay many times the womb proves the tomb and therefore you cannot imagine it is a thing possible to be delivered of sin which is in you was conceived with you and which you since your nativity unto this moment have cherished with such delight and not to have a relish or gust of pain and travail in the new birth in your regeneration Assure your self that it will cost you many a salt tear many a bitter groan many a heavy sigh before you have this work of regeneration perfectly wrought in you Nemo repente fit optimus No man can arrive to the height of a vertue in a moment since 't is res tam ardua tantae molis opus so difficult and so necessary a work you ought all to labour more fervently then hitherto you have done and use all holy means that God hath constituted and appointed in sacred writ as subservient thereunto viz. The Word read and preached by the faithful Orthodox Pastors of the Church the Sacraments reverently and duly administred in the most decent and devout manner Prayer and holy ejaculations that dart up the desire of the soul to God and meditation on the Law of God crying unto him noctes atque dies night and day for his blessed assistance in a work of so great moment and consequence as the regeneration of man add hereunto an unfeigned repentance of all sins committed and let it not be a little lip-labour only but it must proceed from a real and contrite heart free from hypocrisie and dissimulation 2 Use Secondly this serves as Use of Terror to all careless and impenitent sinners that will follow the swinge of their own pleasure and the lusts of the flesh though they shipwrack their souls inevitably How should this pull down and totally demolish the Pyramide of pride mans heart and devest them of their gawdy attire and change it for sackcloth and ashes which is far more sutable to their spiritual condition Yet how do they ruffle in velvet a la mode and boast and vaunt in the spoils of a poor silk-worm yet in the interim they consider not that the sores of Lazarus will make as good dust as the paint of Jezabel and that their poor souls languish and are very near starved for want of heavenly Manna Gods Sacred word whilest they pamper their bodies and plump them with delicacies which serves onely to make them more fat and gorgious nourishment for worms Learn to wash your selves by the tears of repentance from the filth of sin your whole life should be a continued Lent the Spring-time of your sanctified resolutions and the hour-glass of your remaining dayes should be fill'd with the dust of mortified concupiscence you should read nothing but lectures of penitency and so like a good and solid Christian verifie
will be grains of allowance to thee without question therefore be converted and turn from the broad way of sin and death to the narrow path of life and eternal glory for such a soul will be acceptable unto the Lord the blessed Quire of Angels will rejoyce at the conversion of such a sinner For according to my Text joy shall be in Heaven over one sinner that repententh more then over ninety and nine just persons that need no repentance So much for this time Repentance Conversion THE Fabrick of Salvation In the Gospel according to St. Luke Chap. 15. vers 7. it is thus written I say unto you that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth more then over ninety and nine just persons that need no repentance WE have already discoursed upon these words SERM. II. and demonstrated unto you both by Scripture and other authority the necessity and excellency of Repentance We have largely discoursed of the nature of repentance and defined it unto you Now not to detain you with any farther repetition we shall immediately fall upon the second observation that we raised from the words of the Text and that was this viz. How to become true poenitents And really beloved hic labor hoc opus est or at least should be this should be the white at which every true Christian should level his thoughts This ought to be the Asylum unto which every godly man should have recourse when he is prosecuted and persecuted both by sin and Satan This should be the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or sum of every mans actions and the chiefest and first of his intentions the cream and top of his holy ambition But where shall we traffick for true penitent souls what climate affords them all Nations are more or less given to some hainous crime To be sober among the Germans setled among the French chaste among the Italians and loyal among the English is rare and worthy admiration you need not make any strict inquisition after impiety there is enough daily presented upon the stage of the world there is too too much God knows Truth the pure innocent undefiled Truth like the Dove of Noah flies about and scarce gets any room for her footing she is mounted to heaven with Astraea but if you desire to finde out a whorish Achan a covetous Ahab a hard-hearted Pharaoh a Nebuchadonozor quaffing in the bowls of the Sanctuary a sacrilegious fellow buying Bishops Lands you may meet with him in every corner Scatent plateae hujusmodi viris nequam for truth is expelled nunc dierum To be true and loyal marcheth in the rank of impossibilities as the world is now but let us operum dare labour tooth and nail as we say proverbially to avoid the accursed punishment of impenitent persons seek after the remission of sins by the bloody death and passion of our Saviour and lay hold with the hand of faith on all Gospel-promises applicable to a conscience-wounded sinner that so after we have lived a life of grace here in this vale of misery we may enjoy a life of glory in perpetuum hereafter Now the main point intended in this discourse is to discover unto you some wayes or means how to apprehend when you are truly penitent that I shall demonstrate unto you 1. Negatively and 2. Affirmatively 1. Negatively and here I will declare unto you beloved auspiciis Divinis by the help of the Deity what it is not viz. being true penitents and that in 5. particulars 5 Discoveries of true penitency which shall be as so many brands on their foreheads to inform the world of their impenitency 1. He is no true penitent that is not so perplexed as to be gnawen at the very heart by that viper Sorrow for his many enormous offences and sensible of the need that he stands in of Gods mercy an Ocean of mercy nay unless he think the burthen of his sin so ponderous and weighty so filthy and impure as to require every drop of the blood of our Saviour to satisfie for them King David if it be not a crime to allow him his Title having implunged himself into a gulf and multitude of sins begs a multitude of mercies as it appears in the 51. Psal vers the 1. Have mercy upon me O God according to thy loving kindness according to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions We stand in need of a Sea of mercies for the innumerable number of our hainous crimes that we are guilty of Now he that is so hardned with the yoke of sin that he is become brawny and insensible of the weight and hainousness of it this man hath no penitent frame of spirit and we may safely say without any prejudice to our charity or incurring the evil of censure that such a man is no true penitent 2. They are not become true penitents no nor in the way to repentance that are so far from being grieved at sin as to make no bones of great sins nay to dally and toy with sin and impiety but 't is bad handling such edged tools for the sword of Gods indignation will soon cut them off swearing with such persons is but a grace and lustre to their speech a splendor but I fear such a one as will light them to hell lying but wit's craft or policy drunkenness jovialness or good fellowship whoring a trick of youth covetousness thriftiness thus do they baptize vice by the name of vertue see how bestial fowl and deformed a thing vice is that it dare not appear in its own native deformity and hue but it must borrow the Mask of vertue they think that they can shift well enough without mercy and imagine that three words at the last gasp is sufficient to save their soul but I pray God they may not share with that Gentleman in fortune that was very debauched and had streamed out his youth in wine and venery who being desired by his Confessor to acknowledge his misdemeanors towards God and man and to beseech God to vouchsafe him pardon of his sins put him off with a pish Three words at last are of sufficient power to save my soul meaning Miserere mei Deus but it hapned that this Gentleman not long after as he was riding over a bridge his horse slipt and down fell horse and man into the river and in falling instead of Miserere mei Deus he was heard to say Capiat omnia Daemon The devil take both horse and man sad words to be the vehiculo animae suae to waft his soul over into the other world a sweet Epilogue to the Tragedy of his life His Catastrophe was as damnable as his whole life abominable and odious This will be a caveat to all serious and solid Christians to avoid procrastination in repentance and endeavour after it with all possible speed 3. They are not true penitens that are meerly earal verbal and worded
men now adaies like the Pellaean Hero Alexander the Great do Aestuare angusto limite mundi Sweat for want of room in the world there is not space enough for the flight of their soaring thoughts that are wing'd with ambition but this is according to the Wiseman nothing but vanity vanitas vanitatum omnia vanitas They fish after impossibilities and grant they could subdue the whole world and reduce it into their own possession 't would not it could not satisfie their heart or give them any real solid content for the world is a Circle the heart of man a Triangle now we all know that a Circle cannot fill a Triangle Cease then all you that aim at the hilling up of fatal gold and employ your hours in a more noble traffick in procuring the riches and treasures of Jesus Christ that may serve you and be of use to you in the day of wrath to get your Sins pardoned all your crimes expunged with the Spunge of Oblivion that the Lord may nevermore lay them to your charge and this must be by an unfeigned repentance though none of the five forementioned ways Now that you may know how to gain the salvation of your souls how to be eternally blessed and sing Hallelujahs to God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost world without end which felicity will undoubtedly be attained unto by all true penitent souls And that you may know affirmatively what it is to be true penitents take it in these following Considerations The five steps of ascention by Repentance To this felicity we must ascend by 5 degrees or steps of true and unfeigned repentance 1. The first step whereof that leads and conducts to heaven is for a man to have an internal regret for sin to be grieved and perplexed for it to be wounded in conscience for it for till a man see his Sins in the glass of repentance and weigh them and meditate upon the curse of God that hangs over his head in a judgment for them he will never repent This is the godly sorrow that leadeth unto repentance never to be repented of This compunction or pricking of the heart is a clear demonstration of repentance sincere and sound and is the first step to heaven and so per consequens to the salvation of the never dying soul And if it be so that this is the first step to heaven Use 1 how sad a thing is it to see men in such a miserable estate as many are in these distracted times how many are there that have not set one foot forward in the way to heaven and you know the old saying Non progredi est regredi Not to go forward is to go backward How many are there that never have been humbled never touched never wounded in conscience for their Sins Wilful impenitency or a careless neglect of Repentance very dangerous O what a miserable condition what a deplorable estate do they lye in Now apply this to your selves Beloved did the sacrificing Knife of Gods Word never wound your conscience nor extract one tear from your eyes for the deluge of your Sins that will overwhelm your soul eternally without Gods infinite mercy if you have not been thus and thus grieved for your trespasses and transgressions you are in a desperate condition and there is very little hope or probability of your salvation Vse 2 This serves then for a Use of Consolation to all the Children all the Sons and Daughters of God for if you feel your hearts wounded for your Sins and you bath your soul in true penitent tears for the many hainous crimes that you are conscious of it is a true indicium or sign of being in the state of grace and that Gods spirit hath met with us and his Word hath cut the throat of Sin which otherwise would have ruinated you nay aims at God himself for peccatum saith Parisiensis est Deicidium Sin is the Cut-throat of God with holy reverence be it spoken Sin strives to dethrone God therefore let us endeavour to cast Sin down the precipice of our hearts and nevermore afford it house-room since it offends so merciful so gracious and so kind a God as ours for Sin is an abomination unto the Lord and so are all Sinners and evil-doers 2. The second sign of or way to true penitency is this when a man fears to Sin not because of the punishment but because he offends so great a God in so doing like holy Joseph who when he was tempted by the sweet caresses of his Mistris cried out How can I do this great evil and sin against God! Therefore from him we may learn what is most to be desired here on earth viz. the love and favour of God so that if any one should put the question to you and demand what your desire most hunted after and what your affections were most fixed on You ought to answer The love and favour of God in Christ Jesus 'T is not your embroidered apparel your manners and mannors your parts and arts that are able to appease the trouble and perplexity of a distressed conscience nothing but the mercy of God in Christ Jesus will afford it This is the onely refuge for a troubled conscience in the greatest extreamity Men may in their extremities go to drink away sorrow as they term it in their profane gibbrish and betake themselves to their merry company but alas this is no comfort this no remedy for their disease an old sore gangren'd or putrified if it be not very skilfully handled will hardly admit of cure but if it be superficially healed at top and not throughly at the bottom as soon as 't is skin'd at the top it will break out at the bottom so when men seek to smother the accusation of their own consciences and strive to blunt the edge of it it will rebound again and give a deadly wound even to desperation Beg of God therefore power and ability through his strengthning grace that you may be buoy'd up thereby in the midst of an Ocean of troubles and that the burden of an afflicted wounded conscience may be minorated and lessened that so you may not fall into despair To prevent despair all godly persons ought like Heraclitus to weep away their daies and indeed they are a sea of tears a meer vapour melted into tears his voice is painted with tears which have such an airy power and faculty as that they are able to mount up to Heaven and there to insinuate themselves into the ear of the Almighty begging and craving pardon for sin and a preservation from despair by the mighty power of God Lachrymae preces are the only weapons in a Christian battel let us so fight with these weapons as to get the peace of conscience and joy of the Holy Ghost that passeth all understanding and that speedily too for our journey is long and our time short therefore we had need to husband
it well Can there be a longer journey then from earth to heaven and a shorter time than a moment Yet such is our journey such is our time Repent therefore now while it is called to day harden not your hearts for procrastination is dangerous doubt not of the power of God for he is Omnipotent and this attribute of his is manifested in every petty piece of the Hexameron Fabrick There is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 something that may challenge our admiration even in the borders of a gaudy Butterfly saith Aristotle which do afford an evident smack or view of the Omnipotency of God Rely upon him therefore fear sin and avoid it because it offends so gracious a God 3. The third step to true repentance is a constant and setled resolution never to sin or displease God to do his will walk in the way of his Commandments I do not say that a truly sanctified person never sins at all but he never sins with an intent and purpose to sin he takes no delight or complacency in sin 't is the sole object of his hatred and resolveth to please God as far as possibly he may by the grace of God that strengthens him When he can say with holy David Psalm the 18. and the 23. I have refrained my feet from every evil way Again 1 John 3.9 He that is born of God sinneth not i. e. not with a full purpose of heart or with a delight in it or affection to it but they constantly strive against it shun and avoid the occasions of sin suspect themselves upon every occasion and are continually arm'd to give battel to the devil and his temptations In may things we sin all saith St. James But if we can but say really and experimentally that it is against our intention that we hate abhor detest sin with an unutterable hatred and that we condemn the very sins we commit then we may be comforted receive joy and assure our selves that we are true penitents for this takes away the dominion of sin in our mortal bodies doth not quite thrust it out it doth devest it of its authority so that it hath no power to prejudice or injure us in our salvation 4. The fourth sign of or way unto true repentance is an aggravation of our sins when we render them hainous in the sight of God acknowledging we have sinned so much that we deserve eternal damnation we deserve that the Vials of Gods wrath should be poured down upon our heads You would fare the better not the worse for aggravating your transgressions For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believed in him might not perish but have everlasting life This is a sic without sicut Such a so as never man loved so and all this for the salvation of mankind 5. The fifth and last sign of or step unto repentance is a frank and free confession of sins not extorted and wrung out of you but flowing from you liberally chearfully and really in hope of the pardon and remission of them We must so confess our sins as to beg pardon for them and to entreat the Lord to have pity on us out of the bowels of his tender compassion Do not abscond and conceal your sins manifest them publickly both to God and man be cordially penitent for them and no doubt but the merciful God will save your souls Confession of sins is the forerunner of remission and this must not be flashy and for a time but so long as are our years upon the earth measured out for he that will serve the primus motor must not write his ne ultra till he come to the Terminus ad quem He must proceed with a courage we must confess them openly and not like the worldly wise whose wisdom Lactantius saith abscondit non abscindit peccata conceals and not cuts asunder or separates sin Now we must confesse our sins 1. To God and 2. To Man 1. To God as holy David teacheth us in his own example Psalm the 51. vers 4. Against thee against thee only have I sinned and again in the 32 Psam vers the 6. I said I will confess my sins unto the Lord and so thou forgavest the wickedness of my sin 'T is true we may injure men by our sin as David did Uriah but being sin the chiefest wrong and injury falleth upon God 2. We must confess to men and that both privately and publickly according to the quality of the sin for though we condemn auricular confession as a trick of State-policy yet we allow and not only so but exhort all Christians to a true voluntary and sincere confession of their sins to the Bishop and Superintendents of the Church confession must be made to men in respect of the Church that the Congregation that hath been offended may be satisfied and that others may be deterred from falling into the same sins as it is in the 2 Epistle to St. Timothy 4 ch and the 26 vers Them that sin rebuke openly that the rest may fear And last of all in respect of the Sinner himself that he may be humbled for it for were it a pecuniary mulct onely and his purse were to do penance he would not probably value that but now it may bring him to an humiliation and a sincere repentance accompanied with a godly life hereafter Now this serves to condemn all those that are so far from acknowledging and confessing their sins as to justifie themselves in them and plead for them with all the Rhetorick they have so that if any one in a Christian way reprove them with meekness 't is verba ventis dare to prattle to the wind they will probably reply with some such kind of cross answer What need you busie your self about the state of my soul I shall be responsible not to you for it look to your self first if they carouse follow strange attire they will say they do but as others do 't is the fashion what care they and this slye trick of dissimulation we suckt from our first Parents Genesis the 3. and the 12. where when Adam was examined he posted off the matter from himself to his wife The woman that thou gavest me she gave me of the fruit and I did eat We are unwilling to confess and acknowledg our sins when as we have encouragement enough for it from our Text since there is such an excessive joy in Heaven at the conversion of one Sinner God himself rejoyceth the blessed quire of Angels rejoyce and all the Host of Heaven How then should we labour after true repentance since we have so many sacred invitations to it in holy writ Since God himself doth vouchsafe to come and invite us unto him and promiseth us acceptance from him he will bid us welcom be confident beloved whenever we approach his presence with a real and a contrite heart Overcome your selves though it be very difficult for
of God that we understand not what it is to love him This Tree of Knowledge grows not in our Eden This flower springs not up in our Garden 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a gift dropt out of Heaven proceeding from the Father who is Love and Charity as St. John saith This is a divine liquor the true Nectar that God poures into our souls guttatim drop by drop as in narrow-neckt vessels Wherefore to accommodate our selves to our native slowness we 'll endeavour to infuse into our spirits by little and little so by degrees to arrive at the highest degree and Apex of Love There are five degrees of this our Love to God 1. The first is to love God for the good he doth us and we expect to receive from him still 2. Secondly To love him propter seipsum or sui ipsius gratia for his own sake because he is most excellent and most amiable 3. Thirdly To love God above all things nay your own selves but to love nothing in the World but for his sake 4. Fourthly To detest and abhor himself for the Love of God 5. Fifthly to love him as we shall in the life to come when we shall be in glory with this love the Saints are extasied and assist at the Throne of God in secula seculorum We call these Degrees of Love and not species or kinds because the superior contain the inferior as the chiefest white differs from the other parcels of the same colour that are less clear and transparent not in specie but in gradu we must remount up these degrees or stairs and rest our selves a little upon every one of them 1. The first degree and lowest is Five degrees by which we are brought to love God To love God for the good he doth us upon this step of Love was King David when in the 116 Psalm and in the 1 verse I love the Lord because he hath heard my voice and my supplication and so in the 18 Psalm for God will have respect and love from us because he extends his bounty so liberally to us 'T is God that created us 't is God that preserves and keeps us being created that nourisheth our bodies that cherisheth our souls that redeemeth us by his Son that governs us by his holy Spirit that instructeth us by his word that hath vouchsafed to admit us as his servants nay his friends and children and which is more the same with himself Plato playing the Philosopher with the grace of God Plato blessed God for three things thanked him for three things 1. That he was created a man and not a beast 2. That he was born a Graecian and not a Barbarian and 3. That he was a Philosopher Now we that are instructed in the School of Christ a School of more strict discipline So ought we for these especially make another kind of distribution of the grace of God and return him thanks for these three things 1. That of all Creatures we were created men 2. That of all men Christians And 3. That among those that are Christians he hath made us in the number of the true elect And if you please you may add a fourth That he hath adopted us by his Son Jesus Christ before the foundation of the World having been carefull of us not onely before we had any existence but even before the world had its creation Now if God did manifest his love to us before we were how liberally will he extend it to us how bountifully will it flow from him when we invocate and call upon his Sacred Name and affect him with a filial and reverential love Now the smaller our number is the larger is our priviledge the more extensive and diffusive is his bounty and goodness to us to endow us with sight among so many blind persons as the portion of Jacob in Aegypt solely enlightned in the midst of obscurity Cimmerian darkness like the fleece of Gideon that was only bedewed with the grace of God when the rest of the earth was dry and destitute of it God hath encircled us with abundance of examples of stupendious caecity or blindness that he might raise our estimation of light and that we might make a farther progress in the way of salvation that so whilest it is called to day we may steer the ship of our souls by the Lanthorn of his Word All these vertues the constellation of all these graces depend upon one Soveraign and Prime one viz. reconciliation with God by the passion of our blessed Jesus This is the Chanel through which the graces of God stream unto us 'T is Jacobs Ladder that joyns Heaven and Earth together that rejoyns God and Man The Angels ascending this Ladder represent our prayers that we piously dart up to Heaven the Angels descending signifie the blessings of God that are distilled in answer to our prayers Jacob sleeping at the foot of the Ladder intimates unto us the quiet and tranquillity of conscience that we enjoy under the cool and comfortable shade of his intercession Before man was environed with horror and astonishment he could not cast his eye aside but he met with an object of fear If he look't upon God he discerned a consuming fire a supream Justice armed with revenge against sinners If he cast his eye upon the Law he immediately perceived the arrest of condemnation If he viewed the Heaven he concluded himself excluded thence by reason of sin If the World he saw his irreparable loss of dominion over the Creatures if himself a thousand spiritual and corporal infirmities At the signes of Heaven and the Earth-quake he was ague-struck with fear Then Satan Death Hell were his inveterate foes that either drew him to perdition or did behel and wrack him with the expectation of them But now every person that hath confidence in Christ Jesus changes his language and speaks in a more pleasing dialect If he look upon God he 'll say 'T is my Father that hath adopted me If his thoughts pitch upon the day of Judgement he 'll bespeak himself thus My Elder Brother sits there and he that is my Judge is also my Counsellor If he think on the Angels he cries out They are my guardians Psalm the 34. If he view the Heaven he terms it his habitation If he hear it thunder he 'll reply 'T is the voice of my Father If he consider the Law The Son of God saith he hath accomplisht it for me If he swim with the flowing tide of prosperity he 'll say God hath reserved better things for me If in the low ebb of adversity Jesus Christ hath endured far more for me God exerciseth or proves corrects or afflicts me making me therein conformable to his Son If he thinks on Hell the Devil or Death then he will triumph over all with the holy Apostle in the 1 to the Corinth the 15 Ch. and the 55 56 and 57 vers O Death where is thy
sting O grave where is thy victory The sting of Death is sin and the strength of sin is the Law But thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ Though these things buz about his ears like bees provoked or irritated yet they have lost their sting If the old serpent bruise his heel yet his head is broken if the Devil give us a false alarm by persecutions yet we are souldiers fighting under Christs Banner listed and registred into the Book of Life at our Baptism he hath bought and redeemed us by his most precious blood and no one can ravish us from him What soul can be so sordid as to fear the arm of flesh when he is guarded by the spirit of Christ that doth not only intercede for sinners but of sinners makes them become just That is not only Advocate of a bad cause but also renders it good That doth both pray and pay for us so that his pardoning of us is not onely a work of his mercy but also an effect of his justice Besides these obligations we have an infinite number of incitations to the love of Christ if we will but recollect our selves and seriously consider how often he hath delivered us from imminent danger caused inexpected overtures of evil intended to us that we might avoid them for according to the old Proverb Praemoniti praemuniti forewarned forearmed and afflicted us here that he might save us hereafter Now 't was the wish of that famous pillar of the Latin Church St. Augustin Hic ure hic tunde hic seca modo in aeternum parcas Cut saw burn my body here so thou savest my soul hereafter Now for shame let it not be said that God hath showred down his blessings on the sand Let us not be so bestial as to drink of the stream and ne'er think of the fountain without elevating our thoughts unto God the source of all benedictions But when we say God doth good unto us to the end that we may love him not that he stands in need of our Love but he will have us love him in regard that we cannot be saved if we hate him Nay farther that we love him proceeds from him as a gift for 't is he that kindles in us his love He doth not only bestow and confer his bona upon us but he gives us a hand to receive them grace to use them and vertue to glorifie for them so that Deus primo dat quod jubet and then jubet quod vult first he gives what he commands viz. Love Love is the gift of God and then he commands what is most agreable to his will and pleasure This first degree or step of Love though it be holy and useful yet 't is but principium amoris divini 't is but the prologue to the Love of God for he that loves God only for profit is like an infant or child that prays only for his break-fast and to speak properly such persons love not God but themselves Such love is but mercenary and injurious to God a palpable affront put upon the Deity Therefore he must know that hath gained this first degree he must proceed for non progredi est regredi to be at a stand is to be retrograde he must therefore I say ascend the second step The second degree of our Love toward God is to Love him 2 Degree not only for our profit but also for himself i. e. laying aside all consideration of his benefits that he is daily pleased to confer on us and though we expected no profit from him yet to love him supra omnia Holy David spake of this Love in the 69 Psalm Let all those that love thee rejoyce in thy name He counsels us to love God for his name because he is the supream Wise in his counsel just in his actions true in his promises whose habitation is in glory inaccessible enjoying a Soveraign perfection God whose life was without beginning and his duration without end his eternity without alteration his greatness without measure and his power irresistible That created the World by his Word governs it by his vertue and will reduce it to a Chaos of ruine when it is his pleasure Who in one sole vertue and perfection which is his Essence encompasseth all other vertues that are infused into all other creatures All other vertues do concentre in this punctum and the more they deviate from him the more eccentrique they are God therefore is to be loved for these preceding considerations more then for the good that he is pleased to confer upon us Our Saviour instructeth us the same in that most absolute pattern that he himself hath set before us in which he commands to beg the sanctification of his Holy Name and the advancement of his Kingdom before we put up a petition for our daily bread We naturally are enamoured with beauty now Light is the first of beauties without which there is no distinction between beauty and deformity God therefore being the primum lumen it follows necessarily that he be also the prime beauty He is the Father of Lights Pater Luminum saith St. James and holy David the Psalmist in the 36 Psalm 9. For with thee is the Fountain of Life in thy light shall we see light Wherefore in laying his hand to the stately Fabrick of the World when he reduced the Chaos of confusion into a beautiful and harmonious order he began first with the light as that by which his nature is best represented He is the Sun of Righteousness a Sun that never comes to the West never sets nor casts a shadow all things are naked unto him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all things are bare-neckt unto him 't is in the Original being a metaphor taken from the mode in the Eastern Countreys where they go bare-neckt such a Sun as doth not only clarifie the sight but gives it also And judge you what a splendid sight-offending lustre this is that the Seraphims assisting at his Throne cover their faces with their wings as Isaiah saith 6 Chap. 2 vers not being able to endure so glorious a splendor And if at the coming and appearance of the humanity of Christ the Sun shall be benegroed in darkness as a petty light at the coming of a greater how if you cast an eye upon the life of God! The life of God ours is but a shadow if compared to it nay a nihil for our life is a flux or succession of parts But God possesseth and hath full and entire fruition of his eadem instanti and all together And his only begotten Son was willing to lay down his life for the redemption of us miserable and wretched sinners That Son that Isaiah calls Chap. the 9. Father of eternity was content to assume this frail flesh of ours He became Son of Man that we might become the sons of God He was born in a stable that we might
the certainty of faith For it is a thing to be observed that in the Holy tongue many times love and hatred are taken for the things which one loves or hates and that which is translated to know signifies as often to dispose or to make use of a thing at our pleasure as where it is said in Job 38.33 Dost thou know the Ordinances of the Heavens or dost thou dispose of the government of each of them upon Earth And in this sense they are not altogether without reason that turn this verse thus But all things are so in the hand of God that none of men can use or dispose at his pleasure of what he either hates or loves Others as Arias Montanus think that by that which is before them the wise man meant those that were before them as friends Parents or Domestickes who many times under a veil of friendship conceal their hatreds and mortal envies which are very hardly discovered while they can be concealed under a feigned appearance Others understand this uncertainty of events of our love and hatred which are so hidden from us that they fall out often contrary to our desires and sometimes so cross that to day we hate what we must love hereafter and love that which we must ere long detest But without straying as much as may be from the literal sense 't is clear enough especially if we consider what immediately follows which serves both as a light and interpretation to this passage that is That all happens alike to all and the same accidents to the good and the bad for the wiseman would have us know that by exterior things by the ordinary course of the world and the good or evil that can be discern'd by the eyes of flesh it is very hard to distinguish who are lov'd or hated of God as 't is also dangerous to go about to judge of Gods curse or grace by th' adversity or prosperity of men And here the friends of Job were deceived when upon the evils that fell upon him they would conclude against him both the hatred of God and the impurity of his own life And here the Jews likewise abused themselves when they said We esteem the proud to be blessed and they that have tempted God were delivered And to this purpose the Psalmist tells us 37.7 9. Fret not thy self because of him who prospereth in his way and who bringeth wicked devices to pass for evil doers shall be cut off but those that wait upon the Lord they shall inherit the earth Sometimes the righteous man mourns under the oppression and he that walks upright is subject to a thousand evils the wicked are terrible and flourishing like a green bay-tree and they have more then their heart could wish Psal 73.7 And sometimes also joy and the voice of singing and triumph is heard in the tabernacles of the righteous and the wicked man is ensnar'd and overthrown by his own iniquities And so it is a hard matter to judge of this immutable will of God by accidents so divers and changeable But it goes far otherwise with the inward sense of conscience for the most righteous among men setting their life and works before the clearness of Gods justice do know well and profess openly that they find themselves worthy of hatred and so Moses said We are consumed by thee we are troubled by thy wrath thou hast set our iniquities before thee our secret sins in the light of thy countenance Psal 90.7 8. For this the Psalmist cryes out Enter not into judgement with thy servant for no flesh is righteous in thy sight And Daniel avowing the verity and justice of Gods judgements said Dan. 9.7 Lord with thee there is justice but shame and confusion of face unto us So the Centurion said Matth. 8.8 I am not worthy that thou shouldst enter under my roof and the Apostle St. Paul esteemed himself unworthy to be an Apostle 1 Cor. 23.9 But these men returning toward the compassions of God and relying upon the merits of the Redeemer of the World have not ceased to esteem themselves in him and for his sake worthy of eternal life And upon this assurance David saith Psal 16.11 Thou shalt make me to know the way of life Daniel besought the Eternal that according to all his righteousness his anger and fury might be turn'd away from Jerusalem Saint Paul assures himself that the Crown of Justice is reserved for him 2 Tim. 4.8 And in the Apocalypse 't is said of those that have not defiled their garments in the corruptions of the world that they shall walk with the Lamb in white cloathing for they are WORTHY Apoc. 3.4 And this consideration furnishes an answer to another passage which they alleadge to as little purpose as they have maliciously falsified this which we have now answered This is the saying of the Apostle 1 Cor. 4.4 I find my self guilty in nothing but for this I am not justified A passage that cuts their throats For without doubt they dare not say that St. Paul was not assured of his salvation since to some other passages we have already produced that had no other subterfuge but that he was assured of it by particular revelation What is it then the Apostle would say but that this inward conscience whereof his conscience bears him witness is not sufficient to justifie him before God And of this he does not speak doubting but as in the Epistle to the Galatians he had said Gal. 3.10 That all they that are of the Law are under malediction and all they that seek to be justified by the Law are fallen from grace Gal. 5.4 Thus he pronounces openly and without any sort of uncertainty that by this he is not justified And yet it must be observed that this interior sentiment of his innocency is not extended over all the actions of his life for by that which followes may easily be comprehended that he speaks only of the execution of his charge wherein being conducted by the Spirit of God he knows he hath gone right As he said in another place 2 Cor. 1.12 This is now the testimony of our conscience that in simplicity and sincerity and not in carnal wisdome but according to the grace of God we have convers'd with the world and chiefly toward you Now he that in some one of the actions and occupations of his life finds himself innocent will yet not stick to acknowledge himself in consideration of other things culpable And thus we see that David sometimes speaking of some action and particular cause wherein he implores the justice of God against his enemies does yet glorifie himself in his integrity to God Psal 18. to have kept the wayes of the Lord and not wickedly to have departed but elswhere he confesses his faults and in the 19 Psal he prayes the Lord saying Keep back thy servant from presumptuous sins let them not have dominion over me then shall I be upright and