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A49187
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A practical discourse concerning repentance and the nature of the Christian religion. By A. Lortie, rector of Barton, near Nottingham. Imprimatur, Oct. ult. 1692. Guil. Lancaster, R.P.D. Hen. Episc. Lond. à Sacris.
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Lortie, André, d. 1706.
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1693
(1693)
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Wing L3078; ESTC R218635
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34,929
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144
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inherit the kingdom of God And so for all other Crimes and Vices as Lying and Swearing c. If you have contracted the Habit and Custom of Swearing and taking God's Name in vain then and then only you shall have repented when you shall have overcome that evil Habit and accustomed your self never to pronounce that sacred Name but with Adoration and Religion for God's Glory and Service If you have been careless and have neglected Religion then you shall have reason to think you have repented when you are become diligent when you pray frequently and fervently when you humble your self often in mourning for your sins and in fastings to subdue your sensual inclinations to keep your body under and bring it into subjection and when you are grown zealous of Good Works and constant in all Religious Duties For Repentance is a true and real change of Mind and a conversion from sin to God I say Repentance is a true change of Mind not some one bare Act of change but a lasting durable state of new Life Otherwise 't is not sincere it is but a mock Repentance Some Men think when at the Year's end or Quarter's end they go to the Lord's Table cry out against their Sins form a thousand Resolutions and force themselves into a Religious Posture of Mind after a long Habit of Sin and Carelesness These Men I say fancy that they have well repented that they are right Penitents and that after this they may safely begin upon a new Score with an intent to repent again as they call it at the time appointed So that after a day or two the pious fit is over or to speak more properly the hypocrisie ceaseth and they are themselves again They return to their old sins as the dog to his vomit again and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire 2 Pet. 2.22 But do you find a change in you Are you not the same you were five ten or twenty Years ago when you were led by Vanity and you committed those things whereof vertuous Men and true Penitents are ashamed Are you now of another Mind Do you find you self another Man a new Creature Have you now better Dispositions Have you not only ceased to do evil but also learn'd to do good For then and not else are you Penitents Having thus stated the true Notion of Repentance let us next consider II. What we are to understand by the Kingdom of Heaven and what the Nature of it is It was the Precursor of the Messiah exhorted Men to Repentance upon the account of the approach of the Kingdom of Heaven We may be sure therefore that by the Kingdom of Heaven then at hand is meant the Messiah's dispensation or oeeconomy It was an ordinary expression for it among the Jews They then looked for and were in expectation of the Kingdom of Heaven or the Heavenly Kingdom meaning the Coming of the Messiah in great Power and Glory They were us'd to call it so because they thought the Redeemer of Israel the promis'd Saviour was to be sent to them from Heaven and for the most part they little understood the Nature of his Kingdom or the true End and Design of his Coming But certain it is that 't is a most heavenly Kingdom as is manifest to any one that is acquainted with it not only because that Kingdom is not of this World but is seated in the Hearts and Spirits of Men but because it is a real Theocracy God himself is the King the Legislator and Governour and the Members the Citizens or Subjects of it are all heavenly Persons or Men that lead heavenly Lives agâ—eeable to the most holy most wise righteous and everlasting Laws of God That is Christianity 'T is therefore an heavenly Constitution or Heaven upon Earth God reigns in our Hearts and over all our Passions and his Will is the Rule of all our Actions And what is it the Lord requires of us but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God As it is Micah 6.8 Or according to the Gospel-revelation To deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts and live soberly righteously and godly in this present world Tit. 2.12 It is nothing but the state of Repentance continued and perfected that is a state of Holiness But some perhaps will say this is Morality And doth the Kingdom of Heaven consist in this Why are not these express Texts of Scripture And doth not the very Preparative to Christianity teach us wherein the Nature and Essence of it doth consist If Men must repent that is Cease to do evil and learn to do well before they can be fit to become Christians Doth not that teach us that the Christian Religion doth consist in an entire conformity to the Divine Laws And doth not the Apostle declare as much in the definition or description he gives us of it The kingdom of God says he is not meat and drink doth not consist of things in themselves indifferent but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost For doth he add he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men Rom. 14.17 18. And Gal. 6.15 In Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but a new creature Nevertheless Men generally have strange odd Notions of the Christian Faith and of Morality We are apt to fancy that the improvement of our Knowledge and Speculations is the end of our Faith the ultimate end of the Gospel-revelation But St. James tells us the Devils then may be as good Christians as we for they also believe and tremble Jam. 2.19 And at the 26th Verse As the body without the spirit is dead so faith without works is dead also Good Works then are the very Life and Spirit of Christianity So that we are infinitely mistaken if we think that any one Article of the Christian Faith ends meerly in Speculation and has not a necessary influence upon Practice That Belief is good for nothing and that Revelation is not worthy of the God of Heaven which doth not tend to the reformation and perfection of Mens Lives and Manners That 's the only wise and reasonable End of all Religion That 's the only reasonable Service and therein the true Glory of God doth consist Pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this To visit the fatherless and widows in their afflictions and to keep himself unspotted from the world Jam. 1.27 We are indeed to be very zealous of Faith so it be such a Faith as worketh by Love Gal. 5.6 For without that it is impossible to please God for he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him Hebr. 11.6 But to him that hath such a Faith nothing is impossible as we find in that Chapter By Faith Abraham when he was tried offered up Isaac and he that had received the
but omitted at Night Give us Grace to do and undertake nothing but what we are sure is agreeable to thy Will and to thy Glory and the Salvation of our Souls and then let thy Blessing be upon all our Endeavours O may we so live that we may be always prepared for Death * This to be said at Night Grant us a comfortable Rest and Sleep that we may be the better fit for our Duty the next Day And give us Grace O Lord when we lie down in our Beds always to remember that the time will shortly come when we shall lie down in our Graves that by serious thoughts and a holy Life we may timely prepare for our Death So that whenever it comes we may not feel the Horrours and Torments of a guilty Mind but may be fit and content to leave this World and looking upon Death only as a Passage to a far better we may receive it with that Resolution and Constancy as becomes them that hope for Eternal Life Grant this O most merciful Father for the Blessed Jesus his sake who has taught us when we pray thus to say Our Father c. The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Love of God and the Fellowship of the Holy Ghost be with us all evermore Amen THE RECAPITULATION WITH A Prayer and an Exhortation TO ALL Who desire to lead Christian Lives to be constant in PRAYER REpentance is a change of Mind that shews it self to be read by all our Actions which then are contrary to our former Practices Nothing absolutely can be Repentance in religious Matters but an actual forsaking of Sin ceasing to do evil and learning to do well Isa 1.16.17 and contracting all the Habits of Vertue Christianity is a state of Purity and Holiness It is Repentance perfected and an entire Conformity to the Will of God The three general Heads of the Christian Religion are Piety towards God Justice towards all Men And Sobriety in respect of our selves That is the Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of Heaven and that Heavenly Constitution and Government which is agreeable to the Nature of God and is as much unalterable as his Nature It is therefore impossible for a Man to be a Christian that is a faithful Subject of the kingdom of Heaven if he has not repented of all his Sins since to be a Christian is to live soberly righteously and godly Tit. 2.11 12 13 14. from a Principle of Faith in Jesus Christ in Obedience to his Commands and in Expectation of his Promises No Doctrine can be more antichristian more contrary to nor more destructive of the Design of the Gospel than such as encourage Vice or allow Men in a loofe way of living They are infinitely mistaken who fancy the Essence of Religion to consist in Speculation and not in Practice Saving Faith is an operative Faith a faith that worketh by charity Gal. 5.6 The end of Revelation is our Sanctification 1 Thess 4.1 2 3 c. The turning us away from our iniquities Acts 3.26 which otherwise would prove our ruine Ezek. 18.30 It is therefore a gross Error to think there 's any thing revealed that has no Influence upon Practice and is not designed and conducive to the Conversion of the World and the Amendment of our Manners Those then that undervalue and vilifie Morality vilifie and undervalue the Christian Faith and Religion We see plainly in Scripture that the end of Faith is Holiness it is required to no other end than that believing we might have life John 20.31 Which is not to be attained unto without holiness for without it no man shall see the Lord Heb. 11.14 and none but the just shall live by faith Hebr. 10.38 For that which is altogether just we must follow and we must seek good and do God's commandments that we may live Dent. 16.20 Amos 5.14 Matth. 19.17 Luk. 10.28 and true Morality is true Religion For true Morality is an enaxt Conformity of our Lives and Actions of our Thoughts Words and Deeds to the eternal Laws of right Reason naturally that is by God himself imprinted upon our Consciences and as it were reprinted and that more deeply by the Gospel of his Son Our grand Business therefore is to study from our Duty from a Principle of Faith to have it persect and to practise it accordingly As we have any serious Concern for our Souls we must neglect nothing that is necessary and conducive to that end to the purifying that is of our Spirits and making us holy We must prosecute the means of Grace with all the Earnestness and Diligence imaginable For it is but a folly to pretend to the Name of Christians if we do not live according to the Rules of Christianity and do not govern our selves according to the Laws of the kingdom of Heaven Repentance is but the Preparative to Christianity He that intends to live the Devil 's Subject as long as he can enjoy his Life and Health though he is loath to have his Portion with the Devil in the other World and designs to repent upon his Death bed is resolved not to be a Christian whilst he lives The Design of the Christian Religion is to make Men as Good and Holy as it is possible for Men to be And our blessed Saviour has taught us expresly that it is not the crying Lord Lord will serve to enter into the kingdom of Heaven but the doing of the will of God Matth. 7.21 As we desire then to be admitted one Day into Heaven Let us from this Moment conform to its Divine Laws and let us detest and abhor all those Antichristian Traditions which make the commandments of God of none effect Matth. 15.6 God hath not called us unto uncleanness but unto holiness 1 Thess 4.7 In particular let all that shall be willing to strive to enter into the Gates of Righteousness and shall be perswaded of the Obligation and Necessity of a good Life be constant in Prayer Prayer is not only a Duty of Religion which we cannot omit without a defiance of Christ's Precepts and Authority and a profest Contempt of that great salvation which was spoken by the Lord Hebr. 2.3 But it is also the best means in the World to become truly religious A Man is never entirely reformed till a new Principle governs his Thoughts and nothing makes that Principle so strong as frequent Addresses to God and serious and deep Meditations of his Nature and Will of all the Benefits we have received and do still receive daily from him the Engagements and Obligations we are in to serve and obey him the great Neglect we 've bin guilty of in a Business so vastly concerning and how much reason there is to set more earnestly about it than ever The Effects of such Addresses to God and of such Meditations besides the Grace of God we draw upon us thereby which is promised to our Prayers are very sensible they make very evidently