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A81856 Angels rejoicing for sinners repenting. / Delivered in a sermon by the Right Reverend Father in God, Brian Duppa, now Bishop of Salisbury. Duppa, Brian, 1588-1662. 1648 (1648) Wing D2658; Thomason E475_1; ESTC R204193 13,434 25

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her and S. Austine gives the reason of it For their joy extends no further saith he then the works of God but Peccator non est inter opera Dei a Sinner is no work of God Look in the first Chapter of Genesis you shall not find him in the whole Catalogue of his Creatures as he is Man he is Gods work true but as he is sinfull man he is his own work see him in the pure Robe of originall Righteousnesse he is Gods work but look on him in the dressings of his owne vanity he is his owne worke or if not his owne I am sure the Devils no argument then of joy here no Ditty for such an Antheme For doe but consider with thy self ô sinner think of it seriously the Angels that were by when God stampt his Image on thee when he wash'd thee in Baptisme as clean as the untouch'd snow when he married thee to his son Christ Jesus made thee a temple of his holy Spirit how can they either know or joy in thee when that image is rased out that innocence polluted that contract violated that temple turn'd into a sink of filth into a den of Serpents How wil they look think you when God the Father turnes away his face God the Son cries out thou hast crucified him again thou hast pierced him with thy oaths spit on him with thy lust wounded him with thy malice when God the Holy Ghost shall leave thee either to a fluctuating unquiet or which is worse to a sear'd a stupified conscience which of those blessed Spirits can then take joy in thee shall not the ill Angels rather give thee their Plaudite Come say those damned Spirits let us see this Creature that was made to fill up our seats in Heaven this Creature that was the Angels joy and his Gods delight see where he is fallen how deep how dangerously fallen how still he lies in his foule sins without any motion left any sense of grace Ecce say they factus est tanquam unus è nobis behold he is become like one of us But Mentimini mali Daemones a devout Father answers them ye were liers all from the beginning so are ye now For though a Sinner be fallen though fallen into the depth of sinne he is not become like one of you For you fell nullo tentante without a Tempter damn'd are you therefore nullo reparante without a Saviour But this fall'n sinner you thus tread upon alterius militiâ cecidit alterius meritis resurget he fell by anothers malice and shall rise by anothers merit They were some of the black crue that helped to throw him downe the Son of God shall help him up again For though sinne hath been his poyson yet repentance may be his antidote though his sins have made the Devil sport yet his repentance may breed his Angels joy A sinner is no good prospect but at the sight of a repentant sinner Heaven opens all her windows the Text is warrant enough for such a Doctrine for there is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth Not for a sinner then but for a repentant sinner not for him that hardens himself in sinne but for the sensible melting bleeding sinner but he that would draw repentance to the life that would make such a resemblance of her as the Angels might delight in let him look that he fit her with two faces on the one side a mourning dejected countenance looking sadly back on the sinnes she hath committed on the other side a more cheerfull lively aspect looking forwards on new resolutions for there is beauty in both in the sad as in the cheerfull God too will look on both or not at all As for the sadder look though Andreas Vega a Spanish Writer doted so much upon it that he is censured by his owne friend Bellarmine for maintaining that the sorrow of the heart for sinne was of so high a value that he that conceived that sorrow as he ought needed no formall explicite purpose of amendment though I confesse this melancholy Frier went too farre yet let not any therefore deceive himself or incline so far to the other side as to think the way to Heaven is strew'd with Roses that he can leap out of the state of sinne into the favour of his God without so much as a single teare or sigh No as it cost thy Saviour more to redeem thy soule so it must cost thee more to apply that redemption to thee Saint Ambrose therefore calls Repentance Laboriosum Baptismum a laborious a painfull Baptisme a Baptisme in Marah in the waters of Bitterness For we must as wel Flere commissa as Flenda non committere as well deplore the ill we have done as not doe againe the ill we have deplored It is true indeed what Saint Bernard saith non si te excories potes satisfacere should we weep our selves blind kneele our selves cripples should we flea the skinne from this wretched body of ours all could not satisfie for sinne But our joy is that Christ hath already done it his bloud hath fully satisfied for the whole world yet withall there lies a Condition on every Sinner vel hic flere vel in futur● a condition that cannot be avoided either to mourne here or in the world to come either to indure now a sorrow that shall have end or to endure then a sorrow that shall have none But mistake me not I doe not counsell you to a sullen continued unintermitted melancholy but yet pardon me if I would have you throughly sensible of your sinnes when you have done them for without sorrow on the earth I am confident there is no joy in Heaven There is no Sinner that repenteth But Saint Austine makes the Question Which were more bound to God he that should be preserved ever innocent or he that were converted to be truly penitent and he resolves it thus Innocens majora poenitens magis debet extensively the innocent owes more intensively the Penitent Innocence a Jewell of higher price in the substance but Repentance of greater value in the workmanship so much of greater value that in the 7 verse of this Chapter it is proclaimed that there is more joy for one repentant Sinner then for ninety nine that needed no repentance but Saint Paul gives a reason for it when he saith that where sinne hath abounded there grace hath much more abounded So that I dare say that God looks neither on the heaven of heavens nor on the purest Seraphin with such content such joy as on a heart well wrought a heart either carved or cut or inlaid with sorrows where grief hath been as witty in punishing as pleasure was before in sinning a heart still under the Hammer and broken into a thousand pieces O how busie is thy Saviour at such a sight watching thy sighs and numbring thy teares gathering up the severall pieces of thy broken heart as if they were so many scattered Diamonds how gently