we being weake dyed for the ungodly to note the universal benefit of his death for such weak ones and such sinnes as these to which meer weaknesse betrayes them The very doctrine which from that text at the beginning of our reformation our Reverend Bishop Martyr did assert in his excellent Preface to his explication of the commandements 41 To which purpose I shall onely adde one proofe more taken from the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or rationall importance of Saint Pauls exhortation Rom. 15. 1. We that are strong saith he mus beare the weaknesses {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} of them which are not strong {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and not please our selves for v. 3. Christ did not so but c. which reason sure must come home to both parts the affirmative as well as the negative or else the Logick will not be good and so the affirmative be that Christ bare the infirmities of the weake and so again v. 7. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} applyed to the same matter he took us up when we were thus fallen I might adde more but I hope rather that I have said too much in so plaine a point and abundantly evinced the irreconcileablenesse of such frailties with a good conscience 42 A third thing is that The lusting of the flesh against the spirit is reconcileable with a good conscience so it be in him that walketh in the spirit obeys the desires and dictates of that and fulfilleth not the lusts of the flesh Gal. 5. 16 17. There is no spiritually good thing that a man ever doth in his life but the flesh hath some mutinyings lustings and objections against it there being such a contrariety betwixt the commands of Christ and the desires of the flesh that no man which hath those two within him doth the things that he would For so t is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} that you doe not not that you cannot doe The things that he would i. e. the things which either he resolves to doe or takes delight in those he doth not i. e. either purely without some mixture or still without some opposition of the contrary or as againe the place may be rendred this opposition of these two one against another tendeth to this that we may not doe or to hinder us from doing every thing that we would as indeed we should doe were there not that opposition within our owne brests This is the meaning of that 17 verse which notwithstanding it followes verse 18. that if we be led by the spirit if that be victorious over the contrary pretender as it may though tother lust against it if the production be not works of the flesh adultery c. v. 19. but the fruit of the spirit love peace c. v. 22. against such there is no law no condemnation no accusation of conscience here or hereafter 43 For it must be observed that there is great difference betwixt this lusting of the flesh against the spirit in them that are led by the spirit Gal. 5. and the warring of the law in the members against the law in the mind which bringeth into captivity to the law of sin i. e. to it selfe Rom. 7. For those in whom that latter is to be found are there said to be carnall sold under sinne as a slave was wont sub hasta to be sold and so {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to be led by the flesh and fulfill the lusts of the flesh which is of all things most unreconcileable with that mans state against whom there is no condemnation in Christ Rom. 8. 1. and so with a good Conscience 44 And if the resistance of the minde or the law morall of the spirit or the law Christian be sufficient to excuse that action or habituall course which is committed and lived in in opposition to both of these or while both of these check and contradict then sure are sins against conscience become if not the most excusable sinnes yet the more excusable for this that they are against conscience that woulding or contending of the mind or the law of the mind being no other but the dictate of the instructed conscience in them which know the law Rom. 7. 1. which he that obeyes not but followes the law or command of sin against it hath not sure a good conscience in our second sence as that signifies a Conscience of well-doing or doing nothing against rule of Conscience for that this man in terminis is supposed to doe 45 Having now proceeded thus farre in the affirmative part in shewing what sinnes are reconcileable with a good Conscience I should now proceed to the negative part and shew what are not reconcileable therewith But before I advance to that there is one classis or head of sinnes about which there is some question and difficulty of resolving to which of the extreames it should be reduced i. e. whether it be reconcileable or unreconcileable with a good Conscience And that is the single Commission of some act of knowne sinne which hath not the Apology of weaknesse to excuse it and yet is not indulged or persisted or continued in for of those that are so you shall hear anon in the 8 Proposition but without delay retracted by humiliation and reformation For the stating and fatisfying of which it will be necessary first to observe that 46 Any such act of wilfull sinne First hath in it selfe a being and so is capable of a notion abstracted from the retraction of it Yea secondly is a work of some time and though it be never so suddenly retracted by repentance yet some space there is before that retraction and if we speak of that time or space there is no doubt but that act first is contrary to good conscience and contracts a guilt and consequent to that the displeasure of God and obligation to punishment which nothing but repentance can do away yea and secondly is a naturall means of weakning that habit of good of sauciating and wounding the soule and for that time putting it in a bloody direfull condition and should God before repentance strike for ought we know there would be no remission and so fearfull would be the end of that soule 47 But then secondly if before God thus visit in justice repentance interpose as in this present case we suppose it doth if this plank be caught hold on instantly upon the shipwrack if he that hath committed this act of carnality c. lye not down after the manner of the Grecian horses in Saint Ambroses expression qui cum ceciderint quandam tenent quietis patientiae disciplinam are taught when they fall in the race not to strive or endeavour to get up again lye still on the ground with great stilnesse and patience walk not after the flesh Ro. 8. 1. Then presently is he set right again in Gods favour upon performance
{non-Roman} is not reconcileable with a good Conscience Omissions being destructive such they may be as well as commissions whether it be omission of the performance of morall or Christian precepts Christs improvements of the Law in the Sermon on the Mount being not onely as Counsells but Precepts obligatory to Christians or whether it be onely the wilfull supine slothfull neglecting the meanes of knowledge such as are agreeable to my course of life Or the neglecting to make use of those meanes which are necessary to enable me to get out of any sinne One act of which nature was by Christ noted and censured in his Disciples Their not fasting and praying to cast out that Devill that would not otherwise be cast out Or the not avoyding such occasions which are apt to betray me to it Such acts as these are as Christ saith to those Disciples acts of faithlesnesse and perversenesse Mat. 17. 17. and cosequently the continued course of them contrary to the sincerity of endeavour and so unreconcileable with a good conscience 79 The seventh Proposition is that all habituall customary obdurate sinning is unreconcileable utterly with a good Conscience I adde the word Obdurate which signifies the hardning of the heart against the knowledge of the truth against exhortations against threats of Gods word against checks of naturall Conscience or illuminations of grace against resolutions and vowes to the contrary for this will make any habit certainly unreconcileable with a good Conscience Whereas it is possible that some Customary sinning may be through ignorance of the duty and that ignorance if it be not contracted by some wilfulnesse of mine may be matter of excuse to me and so reconcileable with a good conscience by force of the second Proposition But the obdurate holding out against Gods spirit either knocking for admittance but not opened to or checking and restraining from sin after conversion and not harkned to resisting all Gods methods of working on us and still resolutely walking after the flesh this is by no means reconcileable with a good conscience nay nor any habit of sin simply taken for that is exclusive of the habit of piety necessary to the good coscience unlesse it have that authentique plea of faultlesse ignorance to excuse it 80 The eighth proposit on is that any deliberate presumptuous act or commission of any sin against which damnation or not inheriting the Kingdome of heaven is pronounced in the New Testament being not immediately retracted by repentance humiliation and all the effects of godly sorrow 2 Cor. 7. 11. is wholly unreconcileable with a good conscience Such are Gal. 5. 19. Adultery fornication uncleannesse lasciviousnesse foure distinct degrees of incontinence Idolatry witchcraft two degrees of impiety hatred variance emulation wrath strife sedition heresies envyings murthers nine degrees of the pride of life or that other branch of carnality flowing from {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or the irascible faculty drunkennesse revelling the species of intemperance and such like and the same with some variation and addition 1 Cor. 6. 9 10. and Eph 5. 5. Every one of these at the very commission have the nature of peccata sauciantia wounding the Sinner to the heart letting out a great deale of good blood and vitall spirits and weakning the habit of Christian vertue of peccata clamantia crying sins the voice of conscience so wronged by them calling to heaven for judgement against such oppressours or perhaps Satan carrying an accusation thither against such offenders and if upon this they be not straight retracted by an earnest contrition humiliation and repentance they then proceed farther to be any one act of them peccata vastantia conscientiam Sins wasting despoiling the conscience betraying to some sadder punishment even desertion and withdrawing of grace and delivering up to our own hearts lusts a consequent of which are all vile affections Rom. 1. and that {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} cursing Heb. 6. 8. 81 Just as it was the manner of the Jewes Judicatures He that was punished by their {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} separation or {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} not permirted to come neare any man within foure cubits if he did not thereupon shew and approve his repentance within the space of two moneths on that contumacy was then smitten with their {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the anathemation or execration and sometimes cast into prison So is Gods dealing with the sinner remaining imperitent for such a space substraction of Gods grace and spirit the curse of the Gospel is his portion 82 For the clearing of which truth yet faâ—therr t will be observable that the danger that arises from one sinne of the first magnitude against which the sentence is pronounced that they who are guilty of such shall never inherit eternall life is or may be to him that after the knowledge of the truth relapses into it as great as that which is incurred by many lesser sinnes or by a relapsing into a generality of impure life and therefore the remaining in that one sinne will be as unreconcileable with a regenerate estate as the remaining in many other and proportionably one act of it as noxious and wasting to conscience as apt to provoke God to withdraw his spirit as many acts of those lesser sins and though neither any single act either of lesser or greater sinne in a sincere lover of Christ presently retracted as it will be if he continue so doth so grieve as to quench Gods spirit utterly so provoke God as to make him wholly withdraw his grace and totally desert him yet if that one sin be continued in favoured and indulged to either by multiplying more acts of it or by no expressing repentance for it by all those means which the Apostle requires of his incestuous Corinthian or which are named as effects of godly sorrow 2 Cor. 7. 11. this direfull punishment of desertion is then to be expected as the reward of any one such sinne and from thence will follow any impossibility for that man so diserted ever to return to repentance again Gods speciallayde which is now withdrawne being absolutely necessary to that 83 Where yet of those that thus remain in any such sin there is some difference For some that so remain in sinne doe so remain that they desire not to get out of it hate to be reformed others thoughensnared so in sin that they cannot get out yet are very earnest and sollicitous to find out some means to break through and escape out of those snares and then this latter state of soul though it be not sufficient to give claime or right to mercy the victory over the world the actuall forsaking of all such sins being necessary to that and not only our wishes that we were victorious yet is it a nearer and more hopefull capacity of the grace of repentance more likely to be blessed by the returning of
holding out against and resisting the whole office of the Holy Ghost and all those gracious methods consequent to it 38 To which I shall only adde in reference to my present purpose that there may be no place of doubting even to him which will not receive my interpretation of this place that even by those which conceive it to be some speciall kind of finne yet the unpardonablenesse of it is acknowledged to arise from thence that it is impossible for any such to repent yet not for any that repents to find pardon and mercy which is sufficient for the confirmation of my present proposition 'T is true indeed that he that is sold a slave of sinne the unregenerate carnall man is whilst he is so in a most hopelesse comfortlesse estate and if he have any naturall conscience left him it must needs be a kind of seind and fury with him No peace to such wicked saith my God and it is as true that the recovery of such a man out of the grave of rottennesse that Lazarstate in sinne is a miracle of the first magnitude a work of greatest difficulty Christ groanes at the raising of him that was 4 dayes dead and putrified in the grave and costs the sinner much dearer to be raised out of it Saul is strucke down in his march towards Damascus blind and trembling before his conversion but yet still when this conversion is wrought he may have a good Conscience what ever his foregoing sins were 39 And although the Apostles Censure Heb. 6. 6. and 10. 26. light yet heavier upon those who after the knowledge of the truth and gust of the life to come and participation of the holy spirit relapse to their former sinnes it being there affirmed that there is no possibility to renew them or as the Greeks read it for them to renew or recover to repentance and consequently the sacrifice for sinne {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} no longer belonging to or remaining for them yet doth not this hinder the truth of the present proposition for I those places to the Hebrews belong not to the sins of the unregenerate life which only now we speak of but of the relapse after the knowledge of the truth 2. even in those places speaking of those sinnes the doctrine is not that there shall be any difficulty of obtaining pardon for them upon repentance for the Subject of the Apostles Propositions is the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} men considered exclusively to repentance as abiding in sinne unreformed impenitent and to such we designe not to allow mercy but that this is so great a grieving and quenching of the spirit of God that it becometh very difficult and in ordinary course impossible for them that are guilty of it to repent {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} again to recover to repentance It being just and ordinary with God upon such sinnes of those to whom he hath given grace to withdraw that grace againe according to his method and oeconomy of providence exprest in the parable of the talents from him that hath not made use of the grace or talent given shall be taken away even that which he hath and Wisd. 1. 5. the holy spirit of discipline will not abide where unrighteousnesse cometh in and so being thus deprived of that grace it is consequently impossible that those should {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in a neutrall sense renew and recover or in an active reciprocall renew or recover themselves to repentance though yet for God to give a new stock of grace it is not impossible but only a thing which he hath not by revealed promise obliged himselfe to do and therefore whether he will doe it or no is meerly in his own hand and dispositive power and that which no man hath ground to hope and title to challenge from him All which notwithstanding our present proposition stands firm that where there is repentance or true thorow change those former retracted acts or habits are reconcileable with good Conscience 40 The second this that Sinnes of weaknesse of all kinds whether first of ignorance or secondly of naturall infirmity the one for want of light the other for want of grace or thirdly of suddaine surreption such as both by the law of Si quis praecipiti calore in the Code of Iustinian and by the municipal laws of most nations are matter of extenuation to some crimes to discharge them from capitall punishment at least to make them capable of pardon or fourthly of dayly continuall incursion either for want of space to deliberate at all or because it is morally impossible to be upon the guard to be deliberate always opere in longo fas est obrepere somnum or fiftly which through levity of the matter passes by undiscerned and the like are irreconcileable with a good conscience because againe be a man never so sincerely resolute and industrious in endeavour to abstaine from all sinne yet as long as he carries flesh about him which is such a principle of weaknesse that ordinarily in the New Testament the word flesh is set to signifie weaknesse such weaknesses he will be subject to such frailties will be sure to drop from him This I remember Parisiensis illustrates handsomely first by the similitude of an armed man provided with strength and prowesse and wrestling with another in lubrico on a slippery ground who though neither weapons nor strength nor courage faile him yet may be very probably fall the slipperinesse of the footing will betray him to that or secondly by an horseman mounted on an unmanaged or tender-mouth'd horse who cannot with all his skill and caution secure himself from all misadventures the beast may upon a check come over with him or getting the bit into the mouth runne into the enemies quarters or thirdly by a City that is provided for a siege with workes and men and victuals and ammunition and yet by a treacherous party within may be betrayed into the enemies hands there is a principle of weaknesse within like that slippery pavement that tender-mouthed beast that insidious party which will make us still lyable to such miscarriages and nothing in this contrary either to courage or diligence to resolution or endeavour And for such as these frailties ignorances infirmities c. So they be laboured against and the meanes of preventing or overcomming them sincerely used which if it be done you shall find them dayly wain in you and if they doe not so in some measure you have reason to suspect and to double your diligence there is sure mercy in Christ to be had obtaineable by dayly confession and sorrow and prayer for forgivenesse of trespasses without any compleat conquest atchieved over them in this life It being Saint Pauls affirmation very exactly and critically set downe Rom. 5. 6. that Christ {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}
proportion that any such act of sinne doth unjustifie it doth unsanctifie also i. e. shake and waste though not utttrly destroy that sanctified state that before the man was in by the gift and grace of God 61 For as there were three degrees of provocation in the matter of justification so are there also in this of sanctification the first grieving the Spirit of God Eph. 4. 30. resisting it trashing of God in his course of grace and bounty towards us putting our selves under niddui as it were in respect of Gods grace as well as his favour and so weakning our stock of sanctity and this the deliberate act of sinne may be thought to doe The second is quenching of the Spirit 1 Thes. 5. 19. putting it quite out rebelling and vexing his holy Spirit Is 63. 10. a totall extinction of grace the Cherem that brings the present curse or anathema along with it and this is not done by one sin not persisted in but onely by a habit or indulgent course of sin and the third is the despighting or doing despight to the spirit of grace Heb. 10. 29. that which is proportioned to Schammatha that makes the finall irreversible separation betweene us and Gods sanctifying grace the first did not wholly deprive the sinner of all grace no nor of sufficient to enable to repent the second did so for the present the third did so finally also 62 If you will now demand what are the effects and consequents of that displeasure of God which this single act of sin brings upon the offender I answer that I have in some measure answered that already shewed you at the beginning many lugubrious effects of it and if that be not sufficient to satisfie you or to shew the non-remission of such sinne till it be recracted by repentance I shall then proceed one degree farther yet to tell you 63 That the method of Gods dealing in this case of such single acts of commission seemeth by the Scripture to be after this manner Upon any such commission Satan is wont to accuse that man before God such or such a regenerate child of thine is falne into such a sin and so into my hands as the lictor then to desire or require solemnly to have him to winnow by inflicting punishments upon him and God yeelds many times to this demand of Satans delivers the offender up to him in some limited manner 64 To which delivering though temptations or afflictions which ordinarily are signified by temptations in Scripture are constantly consequent yet not utter desertion or withdrawing of grace but allowing of strength sufficient to victory {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} ability to beare 1. Cor. 10. 13. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} passage out of those difficulties in that same place {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} sufficient grace 2. Cor. 12. 9. and assistance of his faith that it faile not totally which is the importance of Christs having prayed for Peter Luk. 22. 32. his intercession being a powerfull intercession as may appeare by his Father I knew that thou hearest me alwayes Iob. 11. 24 and so in effect the obtaining from his Father and actuall conferring on his Disciples the grace which he prays for And therefore it is observable that as those which are thus accused and demanded by Satan are generally such as were it not for this present particular commission would passe both with God and him for faithfull Disciples and good Christians and therfore do stil retain that title as appears by the word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} when Satan is called the accuser of them Rev. 12. 10. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the accuser of the bretheren or the faithfull it seems they are faithfull still though they have been guilty of some act for which he thus accuseth them and so he is called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} 1 Pet. 5. 8. the plaintiffe or enemy {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} of you i. e. the elect to whom he writes c. 1. â— so the end of yeelding to Satans request in delivering them up to him is also fatherly and gracious {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} that they may be disciplined or taught not to blaspheme 1 Tim. 1. 20. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} that he may be ashamed 2. Thes. 3. 14. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} that the spirit may be saved 1. Cor. 5. 5. Whereupon it is that the Fathers so clearly resolve it far better and more eligible to be delivered up to Satan then to be delivered up to ones selfe or ones owne affections or desires the first of them being the ordinary punishment of some act or acts of sinne on purpose to recall to repentance the second being the great plague of spirituall desertion inflicted on indulgent continuers in fin the first of them a mark of their not-yet-totall abdication their continuance in sonne-ship whom God thus chastens here that he may not condemne them with the world the second of their being cut off from that prerogative whom God thus forsakes 65 To which purpose of Gods dealing mercifully with his servants in case of single trespasses presently retracted by repentance so farre as not to inflict any grand spirituall punishment upon them such as absolute desertion or utter disinherizon I conceive an Image represented to us in Christs command to his Disciples how oft they should forgive the trespassing brother Luk. 17. 4. If he trespasse against thee seven times a day and seven times a day returne againe to thee saying I repent thou shalt forgive where trespassing seven times is a phrase for how oft soever he trespasse the word forgive notes the obligation to punishment without forgivenesse and the interposing the word Repent proportioned to every trespasse shewes the necessity of that condition to wash off that guilt and the word Turne prefixt to that argues the Repentance unavailable if it containe not turning in it upon which forgivenesse being there commanded if we shall now adde that other place Mat. 6. 36. where Gods mercy to us is made the measure of our mercy to our brethren the argument will come home to prove that God doth so deale with us and consequently that every such act of sinne contracts a guilt which is never pardoned but upon repentance that upon the speedy performance of that duty the patient is preserved from any heavy spirituall punishment which would otherwise attend that sin 66 What we have hitherto said on this particular will shew the danger of every act of deliberate sinne and yet withall the difference betwixt such single acts presently retracted by repentance and the like persisted or continued in To which purpose it will be worth the while to behold what we finde recorded of David He we know had been guilty of severall acts of sinne markt and censured in the Word of God and some of them such
Gods spirit enabling to repent then that former state of contemptuous continuers in the same sin appeares to be 84 For though in both these states there is no repenting without Gods new gift of grace and no absolute promise that God will be so gracious to such sinners yet there is a place 1 Iohn 5. 16. which makes a difference betweene sinne unto death and sinne not unto death both of them states of impenitence and persisting in sin but differing as the two latter degrees of excommunication did among the Iewes Cherem and Scammatha both noting a totall separation but the latter a finall also and by the composition of the word intimating death or desolation giving up the sinner to divine vengeance as hopelesse or contumacious in reference to which the phrase is here used a sinne unto death whereas the other of impenitence not arrived to that desperate contumacy is a state of curse under cherem and anathema but not unto death yet and allowes this priviledge to the prayers of faithfull men for others that they shall obtain life for those that have sinned not unto death where that the not being to death of a sinne is to be taken not from the matter of the sinne but from the disposition of the sinner and so from this desiring to get out though he remain in it or somewhat answerable to that might if any doubt were made of it be proved as by other arguments so by putting together the peculiar use of the word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in that Authour for abiding and continuing in sinne and the no extenuation that such abiding is capable of so farre as to make one such abiding so much lesse then another such abiding as that one should be called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the other not save only this of wishing and heaving and labouring to get out which supposes some remainder of exciting though not of Sanctifying or assisting grace while the other goes on without any care or love or desire of reformation 85 And though still there be no promise that such a relapst unreformed sinners prayers shall be heard for himselfe upon that bare desire to get out which his praying for grace will suppose there being no such promise of grace to the relapst person upon his prayer as there is to any else yet it is cleare from that place of Saint Iohn that this priviledge belongs to the prayers of other faithfull penitents for such a more moderate degree of unfaithfull impenitents upon their request God will give life to such i. e. such a degree of grace as shall be sufficient to enable them to recover back to repentance of which being given them upon the others prayers if they make use as infallibly they will if they were and continue to be really sollicitous to get out of that state they shall undoubtedly live eternally 86 The practice of which doctrine of Saint Iohns thus explayned you shall see every where in the stories of or canons for the paenitents where they that for any sinne of Ecclesiasticall cognizance were excommunicated did return to the peace of the Church an image of the peace of God by severall degrees of which the first was to stay and oft lye without the Church doores and in the portch at houres of prayer and desire those that retained the honour of being accounted faithfull and so had liberty to go into the Church to pray to God for them Which as the secure supine negligent impaenitent was not likely to doe so was he not to expect the benefit of it nor the Christian brother obliged to pray for him though yet by Saint Iohns {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} I say not of that or concerning that state of sinne that he shall pray I am not convinced that it were unlawfull so to doe 87 By all this thus set and bounded with its due limitations the truth of my eight Proposition will appeare of the unreconcileablenesse of such presumptuous acts of such branded sinnes unretracted with a regenerate estate or good Conscience as being indeed quite contrary to every part and branch of the premised ground of a good Conscience 88 To which all that I shall adde is onely this that he that tenders but the comforts of this life i. e. of a Good Conscience will be sure never to commâ—â— deliberately and presumptuously or having by surreption fallen never to lye downe or continue one minuit unhumbled unreformed in any such sinne on which that direfull fate is by Christ or his Apostles inscribed shall not inherit the Kingdome of heaven where yet as I shall not affirme that nonâ— shall subject us to that danger but those which are there specified for there is added and such like and other sins there may be committed with the like deliberation and presumption and so as contrary to Conscience so shall I not say that all that commit any one act of any of these without that deliberation and presumption or that are presenâ—ly by their own heart smitten and brought to repentance for them shall incur that danger for the words {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the doers and committers of them signifie the deliberate committing and indulgent yeelding to them contrary to which the use of surreption at the time and the instant subsequent retractation of them by contrition confession forsaking and reinforcement of greater care and vigilance for the future will be sure meanes to deliver from that danger 89 Whereto yet this caution must be annext which may passe for 90 A ninth Proposition That the frequency or repetition of any such acts after such contrition and resolution is an argument of the unsincerity of that contrition of the deceavablenesse of that pretended greater care and so a symptome of an ill conscience as the spreading of the skall or leprosie after the Priests inspection is sufficient to pronounce the patient uncleane Levit. 13. and as that disease in the relapse may be mortall which at first was not 91 Other more particular niceties I confesse there are the distinguishing of which might be usefull for some mens states and help disabuse them both out of an erroneous and a secure yea and an over trembling conscience But because that which would be thus proper to one being laid down in common or cast into the lottery might have the ill hap to be drawn by him to whom it is not proper as that physick which would purge out a distemper from one wil breed a weaknesse in another and because no wise man ever thought fit to take lawes out of generalities I shall resolve rather to obey such reasons and to be directed by such examples not to descend to particulars then to be in danger first of tempting the Readers patience then of interrupting his peace Pray for us for we trust we have a good Conscience in all things willing to live honestly Hob. 13. 18. FINIS {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Tatian {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Tr. of Wil worship {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Hooper Vid. Coch. exe Gem. Sanh p. 148. Buxtorf Instit. Ep. p. 75.