of the sad Condition in which Adam was after he had eaten the forbidden Fruit and upon the sense of his Fault had hidden himself from God hoping at least wishing he had done so when God enquiring after him though knowing well enough where he was asked him this Question Adam where art thou He makes this Answer for him proper enough 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I am where they are who are not able to look upon God where they are who obey not God I am where they are who hide themselves from their Maker where they are who are fled from vertue and are destitute of wisdom I am where they are who tremble by reason of guilt and cowardise This being the melancholick condition of wretched sinners after they come to consider how things are with them in the cool of the day when the heats of their Wine and Lust are over their ranting mirth ended their Passions becalm'd and they begin to bethink themselves and to reflect upon their Extravagancies and are made to hear that still voice which call'd to Adam after his prevarication Wise men having compared the sprightly erect chearful temper of good men with this Law justly pronounced that vertuous persons do not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Not only exceed a vitious man in that which is honest but also overcome him in pleasure for which only the sinner seems to betake himself to wickedness And this pleasure is so considerable that Aristotle could say that it did exceed that of the wicked those Fugitives from Vertue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that it is more pure and more solid and so is as another calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such a pleasure as one shall never have cause to repent of But those pains which I forementioned are more considerable because they are both more pungent and more lasting than those of the Body which made Simplicius say of them That they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. that they are more grievous stay longer and are harder to be cured A bodily Distemper is more easily relieved than an evil Conscience take away the present pain and the Body returns to its health but the soul is pain'd with the remembrance of what is past and the sear of what is to come which is so great an affliction that many times it makes the present state intolerable Therefore Holy Scripture and Ancient Philosophers called the state of Sin the Death of the Soul So our Saviour said of the vitious Prodigal that he was dead and the Apostle of the wicked world that they were dead in sins and trespasses and the Heathen Philosopher the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. i. e. The death of the soul is the deprivation of God and Reason which are accompanied with a turbulent conflict of inordinate passions And that none might think that he dully supposed that an Immortal Being can dy he adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Not that they cease to be but that they fall from the happiness of life And in another place he says that wickedness is the corruption of an Immortal Being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it corrupts it as much as is possible For this reason when any of Pythagoras's Sholars abandoned the practise of Vertue and lest his Society they hung up a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an empty Coffin for him looking upon him as one dead And they might very well do so for is it not the destruction of a reasonable Being to be corrupted in those Principles which are essential to it to be spoiled in its best Faculties to be hindred from the free exercise of its Natural Powers to be bereav'd of that joy which a man hath when he acts according to that which is best in him to be deadned to a vital sense of his chief good and to be deprived of the love of God which is the very life of good men Whatsoever intercepts the favourable Influences of God's Benignity doth as much contribute to the death of the soul as he would promote the bodie 's life who by some fatal obstruction of the inward passages should hinder the communication of vital Spirits to all the parts of the body What joy can a man have when the indwelling God is grieved and the Fool lives in contradiction to the connate Principles of his soul 2. This brings me to the second Demonstration of the Reasonableness of Repentance because sin is an insolent contempt of that excellent order which God hath planted in Humane Nature which is his Law upon it and is the ornament and preservation of it There are few who have so little use of their soul bestoweds upon them but that they know they are better than their Bodies and that the Faculties of it do transcend those of the sensual Part and that the mind doth not only understand what is best but hath Authority bestowed upon it to govern the bodily Appetites which being inferiour in Nature and needing a Guide ought to receive Law from it The soul doth discover being it self taught of God by its natural light and super-added Revelation what is the happiness to which it was made the best good of which it is capable and shows the means by which it may be attained directs assists in the use of them propounds rational Arguments to persuade to use and persist in the use of them can baffle such Objections as are raised either by the homebred Enemy or Forreign Tentations to hinder the soul in its chearful progress towards its Felicity The soul tells us what satisfaction is allowable to the bodily appetites disting uisheth between lawful and unlawful utterly forbids the latter and commands that there be no excess in the former shows what Moderation is and the benefit of it and represents the mischief as well as the sin of excess threatens death upon the eating of all forbidden Fruit. Order is then observed as it ought to be when all the Faculties do obey this Superior upon whom God hath bestow'd power to discern Freedom of choice and authority to command For which reason ancient Philosophers have call'd it by very agreable Names as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it is the part to which is committed the guidance of all the rest It was called also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which rides and governs the lower Faculties as the Charioteer doth his Horses with Rains because it was placed in man to guide the Affections and conduct the Faculties of soul and body in what way they should go and what pace and to teach them when to rest and when they went astray to curb their Extravagancies and to reduce them into the right Path. It is worthy of all reasonable Beings to maintain this Dignity and it is their Duty to see that it be not trampled upon This made a great Philosopher say that when a man is assaulted by any
A Discourse CONCERNING REPENTANCE By N. INGELO D. D. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LONDON Printed by T. R. for Richard Marriott and sold by William Bromwich at the Sign of the Three Bibles in Ludgate-Street 1677. A DISCOURSE CONCERNING REPENTANCE PART I. LUKE 24. 47. That Repentance and Remission of Sins should be preached in his Name among all Nations WHen man came out of his Creators hands he was happy and so long as he kept the state of his Nature he continued such for he enjoyed his Makers favour he walked with God had a friendly Converse with him and as he continually made a thankful acknowledgment of his dependance upon his Goodness and perform'd due Obedience to his Will so he was always under the care of his Providence and the Influences of his Grace which was so great a felicity that his condition might well be signified by the name of the place in which he dwelt The Paradise of Eden i. e. The Garden of Delight But see the frailty of created Beings when they are a little trusted with themselves Man soon fell from his happiness He was not content with his Makers allowance he would provide better for himself some other way But so disregarding his Creators Laws he threw himself out of the Divine favour and with himself his Posterity treading in the same steps of Disobedience though they knew how dear it cost their Forefather by the miserable Inheritance which he left them The unhappiness of the Estate so bequeathed being so heavy that men when they considered it would rather never have been born than thrown under the weight of it The merciful Son of God with an unspeakable compassion interposed himself between them and the dreaded Ruin and interceded for their pardon The eternal Father was highly pleased with his Mediation and as for his sake he did not lock the door of Hope against the first Runagate so neither did he afterward shut up his disobedient Children in the irrecoverable misery of their Sin For though they have cast themselves out of the Mercies of the ancient Covenant by breaking the Conditions of it yet the Son of God was pleased to be the Angel of a new Covenant and brought it from Heaven and sent his Celestial Messengers at his Birth to proclaim the Good-will which was contained in it and seal'd it with his Blood which when he was going to die he said he would shed for the remission of Sins And having performed that Promise full of unspeakable kindness when he was raised from the dead he commanded his Servants whom he had made intimate with the design of his Mercy that they should publish it to all the World and in his Name preach Repentance and upon that promise forgiveness of sin and declare that God would now accept of Return to Duty instead of Obedience which had never fail'd and that all such of sinful Mankind as would run away from their disobedient Party acknowledge their Fault lament their Rebellion throw down their Arms yield to Mercy and return to their Allegiance should come to be as they were at first by Gods allowance be put into the way of Happiness again For by the forgiveness of their sins God restores them to his Favour a Grace denied to a higher sort of Creatures than we are Angels when by sin they flung themselves out of Heaven I have designed this Discourse to treat of the way which God hath been pleased to accept and our Saviour to declare for our escaping the misery of sin which is Repentance And of this I shall speak as I find it described in the New Testament where two words are chiefly used to express the nature of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. Change of mind as to what is past 2. Better care for the future And these I shall explain as Holy Writ and the practise of Gods Church do direct 1. A change of mind as to what is past So Tertull. In Graeco sono Poenitentiae nomen ab animi demutatione compositum est which he said respecting the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He which repents must begin with a severe condemnation of his former course So Isidor Pelusiota l. 4. c. 60. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 How can he repent of what he hath done who doth not condemn it as wicked This part of Repentance expresseth it self in two things 1. Humble Confession of Sin 2. Earnest Prayer for Pardon 1. Humble confession of sin which is both required in many places of Scripture and appears to have been the practise of Penitents He which confesseth and forsaketh finds mercy If we confess our sins he is faithful It is meet to be said unto God I have sinned He can never hope for pardon who will not confess his sin As Confession belongs to Repentance so if it be right it must have these two things joyned with it 1. Sorrow and 2. Shame 1. We must make our Confessions having in our souls a great sorrow for having offended God a great displeasure against our selves for our disobedience When the Apostle perceived the Corinthians to have fallen into a great sin he wrote a sharp Letter to them and the consideration of that and what they had done wrought in them the beginning of Repentance a godly sorrow or sorrow according to God which he doth require and will accept if it be sincere according to the nature of the sin committed It is fit that he who hath sinned should be grieved when he considers what he hath done and say as he did Eheuquà m ego totus displiceo mihi Poenitentia denot at paenam animi de re perper am gestâ sibi displicentis St. Peters Penitents were said to be pricked in their Hearts and the Scripture calls true Repentance a broken heart a contrite spirit And true Penitents usually expressed their sorrow in tears with which David is said to water his Couch and St. Peter upon consideration of his grand sin is said to have gone forth of the Company and to have wept bitterly He which truly considers what it is to have sinned would if he could wash away the stain with tears of blood When the weight of the sins of others began to sit close and heavy upon our Saviours shoulders it put him into such an Agony that it made clammy drops of thick sweat like viscous blood trickle from his Body to the ground Therefore Penitents of old to express their due grief used to gird themselves with Sackcloth and fit in Ashes For anciently in great mournings it was the custom to put on Sackcloth to cover their heads with Ashes and sit in the Dust. As we see in the Story of the King of Niniveh in that great affliction of soul which surprised him upon Ionas's denunciation of wrath against him and his people and in the case of Thamar in the astonishing grief which seized her upon the loss of her Honour So Iob when he
humbled himself for speaking too boldly of the mystery of Gods Providence is said to have repented in Sackcloth and Ashes To this also they joyned Fasting acknowledging that by reason of their sins they were not worthy to eat and so not to live and when they did so were said to afflict their souls For true Penitents have as the Apostle observed in the Corinthians Indignation against their sins and Revenge upon themselves for committing them To these also in their Penance they added Expiatory Offerings confessing when they kill'd the Sacrifice they themselves deserved to die more than the Lamb or Goat did Quae me non dignior hostia vitâ est There is nothing so bad but it deserves to live rather than I the sinner who offer it They saw the vileness and danger of sin and therefore cried out Men and Brethren what shall we do to be saved Or as they in Micah O that I had any 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 any thing to give in exchange for my soul to my offended God thousands of Rams or ten thousand Rivers of Oyl By these Expressions we may perceive what a deep sense they had of the baseness of sin and how truly they were grieved that by it they had offended God To this I need add no more but the practise of the Primitive Church to show what a mighty sorrow the Penitents of those days thought necessary to their Repentance It is enough to amaze careless Souls to read it as it is described by Tertullian and St. Gregory Nazianzen Penitents lay prostrate at the Church doors in Sackcloth and Ashes and Horrour intreating the whole Fraternity begging the prayers of Presbyters and Widows taking hold of the Garments and Knees of such as entred into the Church kissing their footsteps as well as the Chains of Martyrs in Prisons with bare knees and wet eyes beseeching their Prayers for their pardon And though the bad sinners of our times possibly think them foolish in so great expressions of sorrow yet I doubt when things come to be determined before the Great Tribunal of Christ that they will be judged sottish for their vain Censure and that want of great grief for their sins will not then be esteemed courage but searedness of Conscience He is most miserable who sins and repents not and his sorrow will do him little good which doth not wound sin to the heart which doth not smite through and cut in pieces the roots of Disobedience which are deep planted in a hard heart 2. We are also to joyn shame with our sorrow Shame is the proper attendant of sin as we may see in our first Parents who were so ashamed of themselves after they had sinned that they sought as well as they could to hide themselves from the Face of God not only for fear of being punished by him but being ashamed of themselves that for doing unworthily they had deserved it There is great reason we should entertain this passion of soul. The penitent sinner will find things enough to be ashamed of if he consider What are they Five 1. His Impudence that he durst sin against God therefore Ezra in his penitent Confession of the great sins which he then lamented says O my God I am ashamed to look up and blush to lift up my face to thee for our iniquities are increased and our sins are grown up to Heaven We are in our trespasses and cannot stand before thee because of them He was so ashamed that he says And now O our God what shall we say for we have forsaken thy Commandments So the Penitent in Ieremiah When I repented I was ashamed And the Converts whom St. Paul mentions were ashamed to think of their former practise What fruit had you in those things whereof you are now ashamed There is great Reason for this For men are ashamed when they do any thing that is unbecoming them It is a base thing for a man to do that which is unworthy of what he is or professeth himself to be Sin is the most unbecoming thing in the World contrary to our Nature unworthy of a reasonable Creature absurd in regard of our state in Being doth debase and degrade the person that commits it Therefore when Aaron had consented to Idolatry with the people it is said They made him naked to his shame What a High Priest and worship a Calf A Creature and disobedient to him that made it It is said of the Jews when converted that they should loath themselves for all their abominations Nothing can make us so vile as sinning against God He which consents to sin disrobes himself of the dignity of his Nature Innocence And when men come to that impudence that they are not ashamed of sin it is noted in Scripture as the height of all Villany and is a state near to utter Ruin Men may grow so base as to glory in their shame i. e. in such things of which they ought to be ashamed as the Apostle tells us and make no matter of it So the Prophet Ieremiah of those in his time Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination no they were not ashamed neither could they blush No but as in another place they had a Whores forehead made their faces harder than a Rock But their ruin followed at their heels and overtook them all except some few who repenting shar'd another temper and said We lie down in shame and our confusion covereth us for we have sinned against the Lord our God and have disobeyed his voice So the repenting Prodigal O Father I have sinned against Heaven and against Thee and am no more worthy to be called thy Son He had done things unworthy of a Son and being ashamed of himself would be glad to creep out of that base self the Son so he might be become a good Servant He was ashamed to think he had been a Son because he had carried himself so vilely in that state 2. Shame is due to the folly which those who sin are guilty of He which sins reveals his folly sufficiently in this that either he understands not his Interest or slights those things which are of greatest import to him and therefore Fool is the proper name of a sinner in Holy Language For what good reason that Title is bestowed upon him you may see in these four particulars 1. He which sins thinks to be happy in a better way than that which God hath directed him to and is so silly as not to understand the meanness of these things for which he forsakes his God and the sad Consequences of his Disobedience How great is the disproportion which is between the pure joy which flows into the soul from the sense of Gods favour and the muddy pleasure which in any Channel whatsoever can be deriv'd from sin It is but little and very impure mixed with dreadful Allays This is so great a stupidity that
baseness of sin that the Prophet Isaiah astonished at it cries out in Gods behalf Hear O Heavens give ear O Earth why what 's the matter I have nourished and brought up Children and they have rebelled against me Why is that such a matter that God should resent it on that fashion Yes For as it follows it is a vileness so low that Beasts are not capable of it The Ox knows his owner and the Ass his Masters Crib and as they come for meat to their Masters so they serve in grateful return for what they receive But Israel doth not know my people doth not consider They neither have a sense of me their God nor of the Favours they have received from me nor consider the Obligation which is upon them to obey me nor how ungrateful they are in not obeying nor the baseness of their Ingratitude whilst they disobey So Ieremiah Have I been a wilderness to Israel or a land of darkness that they say we are Lords we will come no more at thee I thought I had been to them that Fountain of goodness at which they drank all their days I thought that by the constant Irrigations of Mercy I had made their souls like a watered garden But it was true of them which was said of Hezekiah He returned not as he received neither for his recovery from a deadly Sickness nor deliverance from the potent Army of the Assyrians Therefore the Penitent hath good reason to say I am ashamed O Lord I blush to think how many mercies I slight how many obligations I trample upon how basely unthankful I have been Doth Iesurun kick and forget it was undeserved mercy which made him fat Because thou art full dost thou sin and not remember that thou rebellest against him who fed thee O foolish people and unwise do you thus requite the Lord Or as the Prophet Dost thou not know that I gave thee thy Corn and Wine saith God and that I multiplyed thy silver and thy gold I will return and take away my corn wine and wooll and make thee know with what ingratitude thou hast forgot thy Benefactor and chief Patron The Penitent may do well to increase this shame in his soul by the consideration of some of the chief mercies by which God hath laid Obligations of Obedience upon him and that will make him say with Ezra Have I sinned having received such deliverance as this Was I delivered to do abominations O my God I am ashamed to look up to Heaven I blush and hide my face And to all considerations of Ingratitude add always this never to be forgotten the Love of thy Saviour in dying for thy sins and then thou wilt say Do I please my self with committing sin when my Saviour in pure love suffered so much pain with infinite amazements upon the Cross for it What am I so base as to trample under my feet the Blood of the Son of God and to scorn the prayers and tears of my Saviour Those whom this consideration doth not make ashamed now will be confounded with it for ever hereafter and beg Rocks to fall upon them that they may not come into the presence of that Friend whom they have so vilely abused not only because they see him now so great that he can take vengeance upon them but because they perceive themselves so base by Ingratitude that they highly deserve it 5. Lastly The Penitent hath great reason to be ashamed of sin as for the aforementioned Considerations so for this that he hath made them out of measure sinful by a horrid Perfidiousness He which sins at first breaks the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Oath which is interwoven with our being of which the Philosopher spoke God making no Creature but of which he takes an Oath by the Law of its Nature that it shall be obedient to him But he is perfidious also because he breaks those voluntary Promises which the sense of Obligations laid upon him engaged him to make to God Sure this will make the Penitent blush when he finds reason to say to his soul O my soul Art not thou only so vile as to consent to sin against God but also to do it when thou hast vowed not to do so and when those Vows were made upon most serious deliberation and for those Reasons which thou dost still acknowledge to be most weighty This is enough to have said to shew not only how necessary Confession of sin is to Repentance but also how fit it is that sorrow and shame for sin committed should be joyned to the Confession of it Yet this must not be understood so as if they were only applicable to some penitential solemn acts of Confession for they are to be continued through our whole life For a good man will always be sorry and ever ashamed that he had once sinned Though God forgive a true Penitent will hardly forgive himself A Heathen could say That if we believe there is a Providence he which hath sinned shall not be despised if he grow good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet he shall carry some marks of old displeasure For as another said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there remains in the souls of Penitents the marks of old sins as skars do in the flesh though the wounds be healed 2. To Confession the Penitent must add earnest Prayer for pardon This we learn from our blessed Saviour who hath taught us to put this into our Prayers as a chief petition Forgive us our Trespasses Shall God forgive such as do not entreat him to do so It is fit the sinner should fall upon his knees before the Eternal Father and beg pardon When Daniel understood by reading the Prophecy of Ieremiah that the time was at hand in which God had promised so to pardon the sins of the Jews as to return their captivity then he set himself to seek it of God by supplication and prayer Why so Because the promise was made upon condition that they should repent of their sins which carried them captive and pray for pardon and return For so we read I will plant that which was desolate and build the ruinous places I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them i. e. I will grant it to them when they pray for it Hereupon this holy man began in prayer to do his part and directed them to do theirs But as Prayer for Pardon is a Duty unquestionable so Fervency is a qualification so requisite that without it Prayer will not be accepted as it appears by what our Saviour hath taught us in his Sermons the Apostles in their Epistles sincere Penitents in their praetise and of which we are assured because it hath ever been made a condition of the Forgiveness promised It is usually expressed thus They shall find me if they seek me with their whole heart Accordingly they are said to have sought God with their