strongest demonstration of Christianity and it is beyond all controversie that a great many who were not brought to believe in Christ for his Miracles which they saw him do or had as much reason to believe as if they saw him yet were afterwards convinced and believed upon his Resurrection and yet besides this sign which our Saviour sayes was to be given them after they had charged him to do his Miracles by an unclean Spirit Matth. 16.4 for that was meant by the sign of the Prophet Jonas there yet remained another means to cure the Infidelity of these People and bring them off from their unreasonable unbelief and that was the sending the Holy Ghost in so visible a manner upon the Apostles on the day of Pentecost whereby the Jews saw and heard those poor unlearned Men who were Fishermen and Publicans and Persons of ordinary Rank and little Education speak all sorts of Tongues and Languages more than the Learnedest of their own Rabbies were able to do and work all sorts of Miracles as great as ever Moses or any of their Prophets were recorded to perform This also without doubt made a great many Proselytes to Christ and his Religion that were not so before and brought in vast numbers of Believers into the Church as we read in the Acts of the Apostles Now when so many means were appointed and used by God and those such strong and powerful ones even after the Jews had been guilty of that vile reproach of many of our Saviours Miracles who can say that this Sin was not curable by any remedies when they were not all used but there were still many others to be applyed and who can say that the Scribes and Pharisees had resisted the last means of Conviction when our Saviour and his Apostles had after that so many others to offer to them and which might probably prevail upon them it feemeth more likely from this which is so plain and undeniable that the Sin against the Holy Ghost was the resisting all the means whatever that were or could be used by the Spirit of God both in Christ and the Apostles too for the bringing Men to Christianity and so it became unpardonable because it baffled the last means that could be used against it and as to the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or reproach which ought to be taken notice of as the very specifick form and essential difference of this Sin none seem to be more literally guilty of that no not the Scribes and Pharisees who said Christ did his miracles and cast out Devils by Beelzebub or an evil Spirit than they who in the time of the Apostles when they saw them filled with the Holy Ghost and speaking with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance Acts 2.4 yet mocking and vilely reproaching all this said These men are full of new wine ver 13. The ascribing this visible Power of the Holy Ghost on the Apostles to Drunkenness and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mocking at all this as if they had been inspired with the Spirit of Wine or of Bacchus rather than the Spirit of God seems as great a reproach and calumny to him as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 against the Miracles of Christ and the ascribing them to an unclean Spirit And this was more especially the time of the Spirits oeconomy and dispensation when he was so plentifully poured out upon the Apostles and other Christians and was sent into the World to be Christs Advocate and the publick Patron of Christianity whereas before when Christ was not glorified it is expesly said that the Holy Ghost was not yet given John 7.39 For all these Reasons I should be inclined to be of their Mind who think this to be the true Sin against the Holy Ghost which is therefore unpardonable because uncurable by all the means which the Spirit of God could use were not the words of St. Matthew and St. Mark especially so plain that our Saviour spoke of this Sin because the Scribes and Pharisees said He hath an unclean Spirit Mark 3.30 and because there is no other thing mentioned by our Saviour as the reason of his discourse about it but because when he had healed the Blind and the Dumb and him that was possessed with a Devil the Pharisees said This fellow doth not cast out Devils but by Beelzebub the prince of the Devils Matth. 12.22 24. Our Saviour did not only forewarn the Pharisees and tell them that this calumny of theirs came very near and was a preparation to the Sin against the Holy Ghost and that this would be likely to bring them to commit that afterwards if they took not great care of themselves but he seems plainly to charge them as already guilty and not meerly in danger of it and that which they had already said was no doubt a most horrid Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost and nothing could be worse than to reproach the Spirit that was in Christ himself to whom he was given not by measure but in a more full and extraordinary manner than he was to others afterwards For though the Holy Ghost was not before given to the Apostles nor other Christians till Christ was ascended into Heaven yet he was given to him and to reproach him in him was like the reproaching the Authority of a Prince not only in his Envoys and Embassadors but in his own Son So that allowing the Sin against the Holy Ghost to be the ascribing the Miracles of Christ to the Power of the Devil which seems to be the plainest and simplest account of it and most agreeable to the words of our Saviour and to the only places of Scripture where it is ever mentioned and in such a difficult matter we must be careful not to venture further than we have clear Authority from the Scripture it self then from what has been largely said on this Head it does not seem that this Sin was therefore unpardonable because it had resisted and been too hard for all even the last means of Conviction which was to be used to recover Men from it since there were many others that God had appointed after that 3. In the Third place Can we say it is unpardonable upon another account because God was thereby provoked to withdraw his Grace and Spirit from those who were guilty of it and to give them up to hardness of Heart and an uncurable state of Mind This we must not say of any but where God himself has expresly declared it and it would be great rashness as well as uncharitableness to pronounce this of any but where God has first pronounced it which he has not that I know of of the Scribes and Pharisees upon the account of this Sin against the Holy Ghost Our Saviour indeed charges this in some measure upon the whole Jewish Nation who believed not in him notwithstanding the mighty works which they saw him do and this was a partial but not a total nor an
of Repentance and all that relates to it and have wondered that among all our Excellent Practical Treatises we should hardly have one such sitted for common use among other Reasons of which I believe this may not be the least That 't is one of the most difficult things to write on an easie Subject as t is the hardest to paint Light When I drew the Model of this and had some of the Materials lying by me and ready framed I thought the perfecting and finishing it would not have cost me half the charge and pains and expence that I found it has and most Writers I believe like Builders find this and even afterwards when they have done they see many things they could mend and alter though they care not for being at the cost of pulling down again and building up anew It was only the Strength and Vsefulness and Conveniency I had regard to and it may have those tho' like a House built by parts and not altogether it want all that regular Order and Beauty that should set it off It is to be looked on only as a Popular Discourse to teach an useful Truth in Religion and raise the Affections and Imaginations up to it without that care and exactness that is to be served in closer Writings It will fully answer its end if it can but corvey a cleare and lively an understanding and warm sence of Religion into Mens Minds and free their Thoughts from such Mistakes and their Lives from such Sins as are too prevailing in the World and which like the Sea and its Rivers proceed from and maintain and run into one another For Men's Lusts and Pices make them willing to take up with false and loose Principles in Religion and those Principles feed and promote their Vice and Looseness The Sincerity and Zeal of serving so good an end as I have had my Eye all along upon or at least of endeavouring heartily to do it hath sufficiently armed me against all manner of Censures whatsoever and hath given me more satisfaction then if I had either had the ability or could have vainly promised my self the Applause of writing the Wittiest or Learnedest Book in the World This however mean and imperfect it is as I here put into your Hands So I presume to Dedicate to the Great God and my Blessed Redeemer the best Patrons who will certainly reward those that serve them heartily praying that it it may be Serviceable to their Honour and Glory to the promoting Vertue and Religion the bringing Men off from Sin and Wickedness the Conversion and Salvation of Souls and the Turning of Sinners from the Errors of their ways unto Righteousness that so both they and I may have the Rewards promised to all such THE CONTENTS THE Introduction wherein the Mistakes about Repentance are Noted and a Distribution made of the whole Discourse Page 1 to 11. CHAP. I. Giving a full Account of the Nature of Repentance Sect. 1. Scripture Words for Repentance p. 12. Sect. 2. Kinds and Degrees of Repentance p. 15. Sect. 3. True Notion of Repentance p. 21. Sect. 4. Mental epentance imperfect without Actual p. 34. CHAP. II. The Motives to Repentance Sect. 1. Of the Enticements to Sin p. 48. Sect. 2. Motives to Repentance from Reason and the Nature of the thing p. 62. Sect. 3. Motives to Repentance from the Gospel or pecaliar to Christranity p. 80. Sect. 4. Motives to Repentance from the Consideration of Hell p. 103. Sect. 5. Other Gospel Motives to Repentance p. 122. Sect. 6. Exhortation to Repentance in order to fit and prepare us to dye p. 145. Sect. 7. Of the Fear of Death and how we are delivered from it by Repentance and Religion p. 172. CHAP. III. Whether all Sins are Pardonable and may have the benefit of Repentance p. 193. Sect. 1. Of Apostacy Sins after Baptism Vpon Relapse p. 199. Sect. 2. Of the Sin against the Holy Ghost its Nature and whether Fardonable or no p. 212. Sect. 3. Of Concupiscence the Lustings of the Flesh or struggle between that and the Spirit p. 255. Sect. 4. Of Trouble of Mind or a Wounded Spirit p. 277. CHAP. IV. The ill Consequences drawn from the Priviledge of Repentance Obviated and Prevented p. 294. CHAP. V. Of a Death-Bed Repentance Sect. 1. The Case of the Thief upon the Cross Examined p. 315. Sect. 2. The Pleas and Pretences on behalf of a Death-Bed Repentance Answered p. 336. Sect. 3. The Invalidity of a Death-Bed Repentance shown from the Parable of the wise and foolish Virgins p. 358. Sect. 4. More Positive Proofs against the validity and sufficiency of a Death-Bed Repentance p. 392. CHAP. VI. Rules and Directions concerning the Particular Exercise of this Duty of Repentance p. 442. CHAP. VII How we may know we have repented and are in a Pardoned State p. 471. Sect. 1. Not committing Sin the only sure Mark of a good State p. 478. Sect. 2. The Differences of Sins what are and what are not consistent with a good State p. 508. Sect. 3. The Benefits of Repentance or the happiness of being in such a good State p. 535. The Conclusion p. 553. A Practical Discourse OF Repentance INTRODUCTION REpentance is the great Gospel duty which John the Baptist came Preaching as a Preparation to Christianity Matth. 3.2 Our Saviour also himself began with the same Matth. 4.17 The Disciples chose the same subject to preach on Mark 6.12 They went out and preacht that men should repent St. Peter in his Sermon to the Jews whereby he converted three thousand Souls preaches to them this Duty Acts 2.38 And this was what St. Paul testified to the Jews and to the Greeks repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ Acts 20.21 as if the whole summe of the Gospel lay in those two Nay our Saviour himself makes this the very end and design both of his Sufferings and of his Resurrection that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name Luke 24.46 47. It is a Duty therefore of the greatest moment and importance in Christianity and ought above all to be considered practiced and understood The only Question is Whether it be so proper and necessary to preach it to Christians now as it was at first to Jews and Gentiles The whole World then lay in wickedness and God had concluded all under sin and in a state of great corruption both as to Manners and Worship so that Christ came then as a Physitian to cure the sick and prescribed this Medicine of Repentance as proper to their case and condition at that time and tells us himself that he came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance Matth. 9.13 But 't is to be hoped that the World is well amended under Christianity that they who have been brought up in the knowledge of that excellent Religion and been devoted to it all their lives and had all the opportunities and advantages as well as obligations
greatest motive to Repentance that can possibly be given for nothing is so strong and powerful upon most Men as their fears which is the quickest and strongest Passion in Humane Nature and is apt to make a very great impression where nothing else will and nothing can be so much an object of our fear as Hell and Eternal Misery which is the utmost and most dreadful Evil that can be either felt or imagined I shall particularly and largely offer and represent it to the Sinners thoughts both as to its Nature consisting in the greatest pains and torments of Body and Mind and in the most wretched and miserable state and condition and as all this is Eternal and shall never have end Both which if heartily believ'd and seriously consider'd would have a mighty power and almost irresistible force to bring Men off from their greatest Sins I. Then let us consider its Nature as consisting of the greatest pains and torments both of Body and Mind and in the most wretched and miserable state and condition I shall not attempt fully to describe or draw a picture of this place of Torments our imagination is to be help'd out with all the known instances of Misery and so to form an Idea of that future and unknown and invisible one It is certain it must be adapted to those two parts of which we consist our Bodies and our Minds and what are the proper Evils to either of those we very well know sensible Pain and great Anguish and Sorrow and other tormenting Passions and these we must suppose in the highest degree to belong to Hellish Misery for as Heaven is the utmost good our Natures can possibly receive and are capable of so Hell is the greatest evil and as such is represented to us by that Revelation which assures us of it attended with the most sad and woful circumstances that can be imagined I shall offer the thoughts of it to the Sinner under such Ideas and Representations as are given of it by the Holy Ghost in Scripture And 1. We must conceive a horrid dark and dismal dungeon in some deep cavern of the Earth designed for horrour and fill'd with the blackness of darkness and inhabited only by cursed Fiends and frightful Ghosts and Devils into which the wretched Caitiff is to be thrown bound hand and foot and so cast into outer darkness Matth. 22.13 and delivered into chains of darkness 2 Pet. 2.4 Darkness is the Natural image and symbol of horrour and disconsolateness as Light is of comfort and pleasantness so that the Scripture expresses Happiness by the dwelling in light as it does Misery by being cast into outer darkness where there is not any beam of light nor any the least glimpse of joy and comfort And thus to be shut up for ever in a place of darkness and horrour and confined to this dismal and infernal Prison to all Eternity would be a dreadful Misery were there nothing else but they are to be tormented there as well as imprisoned and that with the most exquisite pains and tortures as they are described to us in the second place 2. By Fire and Burning which is the most terrible the most keen and painful of Bodily punishments which enters the tender parts with pointed and piercing fury and dissolves and distorts them with its rapid motion and has nothing to abate its extreme cruelty but that it quickly consumes and dispatches and spends it self with its own rage and violence as well as destroyes its subject But this is the dreadful Nature of that infernal Fire that it never goes out but is as the Scripture calls it unquenchable and that the miserable wretches that are condemned to it shall endure the pain and the rage of it for ever and shall never be consumed or destroyed by it but shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy Angels and in the presence of the Lamb and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever and they have no rest day nor night Rev. 14.10 11. Let us then set before us a burning Lake of liquid Fire and melted Brimstone like Nebuchadnezzars fiery Furnace heat seven times hotter than any thing we here know and the damned wretches cast into it and like Dives sadly tormented in those flames over all their parts so that the Tongue is swelled with heat as in a raging Feaver and nothing would be so comfortable to it as a drop of Water to cool it and to slake and abate the scorching Calenture Some are inclined to think all this but Allegory and Metaphor and painted Fire but the Scripture speaks so often of it that I cannot but think it may be literally true and that Fire is made the instrument of those Bodily pains that are there to be suffered and inflicted after the general Judgment and Resurrection Or however that as great pains of Body are thereby signified and exprest and shall really be endured some way or other as by burning in Fire For if the Holy Spirit to help our weak thoughts and assist our imaginations has made use of those known things only as emblems and pictures of some real pains yet they are certainly as great or greater than any of those by which they are shadowed out and represented as the pleasure of Heaven is much greater no doubt and does far exceed that of a Feast a Wedding a Crown or any such Earthly resemblance As to the proper pain and torment of the Mind which is the other and the greatest part of Hellish Misery for the Mind has a more quick and keen and immediate sense than the Body that is represented in Scripture by the worm which never dyes Matth. 9.46 i. e. by a Passion that bites and gnaws and corrodes and pains us within as the Fire or something else torments the Body from without and this includes in it all those dismal and reflecting thoughts and apprehensions which the Mind has upon its dreadful state and condition As 1. A direful perception of the Divine Anger Wrath and Displeasure which when it lyes heavy upon the Mind in the highest degree will press it into the deepest gulph of Misery and fill it with the most terrible Ideas and most dreadful apprehensions Even in this World when a Sinner tasts but a little of the Cup of Gods Fury 't is a cup of trembling and a cup of astonishment as the Scripture calls it Isa 51.17 Ezek. 23.32 and what will it then be when all the dregs of it must be drunk up When God hides his Face but a little there is all trouble and horrour and what must it then be when he hides it for ever The sense and apprehension of lying under the displeasure of Almighty Power and provoked Justice and abused Goodness and all these highly incensed against a Man and never to be appeased must be very dreadful and make sad impressions upon the Mind The Presence and the Favour of God giveth
deter Men from Disobedience and to restrain them from Wickedness Now we easily see to how little purpose a less Punishment would ferve then that of Hell to those ends since there are so few awed even by that tho' God has so severely threatned it If then for the ends of Government and for publick good such a Punishment as this be necessary it is consistent both with Justice and Goodness however fevere it be for this is the only just measure and proportion of Punishments that they be able to attain their end and the Rule of Justice is to be taken not from any private but publick Reasons 2. God has given us free choice and proposed both Eternal Happiness and Eternal Misery to us He hath set before us life and death Deut. 30.15 so that if we obey him and live wisely and vertuously we shall enjoy the one but if we choose Sin we choose Death with it and our destruction is of our selves and we judge our selves unworthy of everlasting life Acts 13.46 as Paul and Barnabas told the Jews Gods proposing such vast Rewards and Punishments as 't is perhaps a necessary sanction of his Laws so 't is perfectly our own fault and madness if we refuse the one and incur the other Secondly I shall show how this Eternity is clearly and undeniably proved from Scripture which it seems to be because the word Eternal and Everlasting and what amounts to that is alwayes used upon this account as everlasting fire Matth. 25.41 and everlasting burnings Isa 33.14 and the fire that is unquenchable and that never goes out Mark 9.46 Luke 3.17 But to this they say that the word Eternal is often used in Scripture in a limited sense according to the nature of the thing to which it belongs as the Jewish Priesthood is called an everlasting Priesthood Exod. 40.15 and their Law of Atonement is called an everlasting statute Lev. 16.34 tho' neither were to be so strictly nor to last longer than the Jewish oeconomy So Sodom and Gomorrha and the Cities about them are said to suffer the vengeance of eternal fire in ver 7. of St. Judes Epistle because it brought eternal destruction to them though there be now none of that fire remaining so shall the fire of Hell say they destroy and annihilate the wicked and so as the Scripture speaks bring everlasting death and destruction upon them though if that shall last Eternally yet they shall not be Eternally tormented in it Now in reply to this I own that the word Eternal and for ever is often used in a limited sense but that it cannot be so when it is spoken here of Hellish Torments there is this evidence that the same word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is spoken of Eternal Punishment is spoken also of Eternal Life so that if it be understood of a limited Eternity in the one it must be so in the other which no body ever held or supposed and yet there is as much Reason from hence to deny the absolute Eternity of Heaven as the absolute Eternity of Hell 2. That they suffer Eternal Death and are Eternally destroyed is not to be understood in a strict and literal sense so that they lose all Being but yet are not Eternally tormented is plain from those places where it is said They have no rest day nor night Rev. 14.11 which supposes them not to be in a state of non-existence but of actual pain 'T is said there also that they shall be tormented with fire and brimstone and that the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever ver 10.11 which can never without violence be understood of the Fire which still lasts and which they suppose to be Eternal whilst they are not tormented in it but destroyed by it though it remains still as a monument of Gods Justice and Vengeance upon Sinners for the smoke of their torment ascending for ever supposes them to be for ever tormented and their having no rest night nor day necessarily implyes this Besides as it is said The fire is not quenched nor never goes out so it is said also that their worm never dyes Now though the Fire might possibly continue without its proper subject yet the Worm there meant never can for that is only that anguish and remorse and vexatious reflection of Mind which if it never dye the subject of it must last and continue and suffer it for ever So that though our Socinian Adversaries avoid the other places of Everlasting Punishment and Everlasting and Unquenchable Fire with some Art and Sophistry yet they can never evade those of the worms never dying and of the smoke of their torments going up for ever and their having no rest day nor night Rev. 14.11 But not to dispute further of these matters let the Sinner seriously conssder and meditate of these infinitely great and infinitely lasting and never ending Torments If there be such a thing as Hell it concerns him highly to Repent and so take care to avoid it If he do not think this to be true but secretly disbelieve it he must disbelieve all Religion and all Revelation and run into the utmost madness of Scepticism and Atheism and then let him consider that 't is not his belief makes things to be true or false but whatever he thinks of them they are and will be what they are in themselves and 't is certain he can never know them to be false however he is inclined to believe them so and therefore were they never so uncertain and were it but merely probable or indeed possible that there should be any such thing yet no Man in his wits should run the venture and lye open to so prodigious and dreadful an hazard as an Eternity of Misery But to such Christians that firmly believe them and have all Reason so to do both from Revelation and Reason too for all Mankind had ever some belief and expectations of sad Punishments in another World for Wickedness to them 't is unaccountable folly and madness to live in such Sins and in such courses as will throw them into this unquenchable Fire and consign them to this dreadful and everlasting state of Misery Is there any Sin whose charms are so great whose gains are so tempting that for the enjoyment of all these for a little season 't is worth enduring the Torments of Hell for ever If these Terrors of the Lord will not perswade Men to Repent and Leave their Sins nothing will Yet there is one or two other Motives or Arguments to Repentance from Christianity which I must propose after this of Hell and all the rest namely SECT V. Other Gospel Motives to Repentance 6. ANother Motive which may be said to be peculiar to the Gospel and which should encourage to Repentance above all others is the Promise of the Divine Grace and Holy Spirit to enable us to peform it to assist us to overcome all our evil Habits and to master
all the Corruptions and Imperfections of Humane Nature to conquer all those Sins that are thought never so difficult or even insuperable to Flesh and Blood and to practice all those Vertues that are most contrary to our Natural Temper or Sensual Inclinations Be there never so many Arguments to the doing of a thing and never so much danger in not doing it be it never so great and important or never so necessary yet if after all a Man be without power and without ability to do it they will be all in vain and to no more purpose than to perswade a blind Man to see by the conveniency of that Sense or a lame Man to run by the danger he may otherwise be in or a Man tumbling from a precipice to stop before he falls to the bottom 't is only to mock and deride us with Motives and Arguments to a thing if it be wholly out of our power to effect it and therefore there is no such Motive to the doing a thing that we are otherwise perswaded is of great moment and importance as to be assured of sufficient power to enable us to go through with it without which all our Vigour will be dampt and all the sinews of Industry cut and all our Endeavours blasted by which we should set about it and we shall run the Censure of those foolish undertakers our Saviour speaks of Luke 14. who would make War or build a Tower without power to go on with it God has therefore given us the greatest Encouragement by the Gospel that can be to set upon the practice as of all other Duties so especially of this hard one of Repentance when he thereby assures us that his Grace shall be sufficient for us that he worketh in us both to will and to do that his Spirit shall be given us and abide with us for ever and that we shall be mightily strengthened by it in the inner man so that a new and strong and vital Principle shall be added to Humane Nature to strengthen its weakness repair its decayes recruit its forces support its feeble powers raise its sunk state and restore it to the Vertue and Perfection it had lost by its Sins How weak and decayed how corrupted and degenerated Humane Nature was of its self both Scripture and our own Experience do sufficiently teach us how strong and violent our Passions are and how weak our Reason to master and govern them how prone the Will is to consent to what is evil be it but a little grateful to Flesh and Blood and what strong proclivities and inclinations are in us to many Sins The Heathens were very sensible of this corruption and decay of Humane Nature and into what a low and degenerate state it was sunk and therefore they complained very often of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Souls being sunk into Matter and a Terrestrial State its wings being molted and its powers being drooping and sickly and what should raise and restore it and be a Cure to this Disease they could not find out they felt how strong were the propensions to Vice and how the Mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Hierocles speaks was carried by its Passions like so many weights hanging upon it and inclining it to Sin and what should ballance these what should turn and counterpoize those propensities and inclinations what should bear up against all the Corruptions from within and the Temptations from without and relieve and succour the weak forces of decayed Nature that was so strongly besieged and so little able to hold out of it self this they could not know for 't is only by the Gospel and Christianity that we have the Promise of Gods Grace and Holy Spirit to be given to us when we ask it and to belong as a right to all Christians by vertue of the New Covenant and be a standing Principle to prevent and restrain us from Sin and work Holiness and Vertue in our Minds And now by vertue of this we have the greatest incouragement to Repent and Leave our Sins which is a Power to do so We have a new Principle of Life conveyed into our Souls and a fresh and Heavenly and almost a miraculous Power given to us by which the Lame may walk and the Lepers be cleansed i. e. by which those who are Naturally Impotent may be enabled to do their Duty and the greatest Sinners may be cured of their foulest Sins All the Excuses which were more reasonable and plausible heretofore of the weakness and impotency of our Nature of the strength and power of our Corruptions of the necessity and unavoidableness of our sinful Actions are now quite taken away by this Divine Grace and Assistance of the Holy Ghost which the Gospel promises and bestowes upon us By this the greatest Sin may be conquered the strongest Lust and Temptation overcome and the longest Habit and Custom changed and broken so that no Sinner should be discouraged from breaking off his Sins by Repentance by reason of the difficulty or impossibility of it since no Sin is too strong for the Grace of God but we can in every thing be more than conquerours through him which strengtheneth us and greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world than the Devil or any Sin that we shall be in danger of which can never take such possession of any Soul as not to be cast out by the Power and Spirit of Christ However hard it is to overcome a long Custom and root out an ill Disposition and to restrain and check an unbridled Lust and Appetite that has too long had the reins thrown upon its neck yet a firm Resolution strengthened with the Divine Grace and Assistance of Heaven will be able even to quicken and raise those who are dead in trespasses and sins to create them again in Christ Jesus unto good works and to renew them again unto Repentance Heb. 6.6 That Lust which we thought was so violent that all the force of Reason could not stand against it that Temptation which we called irresistible that Custom and Habit which we imagined incurable that Vice which we counted too hard for Flesh and Blood to deny these may all be certainly not to say easily overcome by the Divine Grace if we will make use of it Let the greatest Sinner therefore with the Power of Christ and the auxillary forces of Heaven set upon his strongest Sins let him but boldly and resolutely fall upon them and he shall find they will give ground and in a little time their power will abate and he will by the help of God and his own constant endeavours obtain a full and a perfect victory over them God will not indeed without our own endeavours and cooperation do the whole work for us nor will his Spirit work upon us as if we were Machines and had not internal powers and principles of action within our selves by
he goes to a Glorious and Blessed Immortality and this will take away if not all Fear of Death yet such a troublesome and tormenting one as fills us with perplexity and confusion whenever we think of it and makes us all our life time subject to bondage as Scripture speaks And this will help to resolve that Question I proposed in the second place namely 2. Whether a true Penitent or good Christian ought to have no Fear of Death I Answer He ought to have no such Fear as makes him all his life time subject to bondage such a base slavish immoderate Fear as makes him not enjoy himself but sinks down his Spirit and depresses his Mind to that degree that he is alwayes uneasie and perplexed and disturbed at the thoughts of it Such as has been storied of some that they would not have the word Death named in their hearing for the very naming and thinking of it made such an impression upon them and struck them with such a panick Fear that like the Hand-writing upon the Wall to Belshazzar Dan. 5.6 in the midst of their jollity it would make their countenance change and their thoughts trouble them so that the joynts of their loins were loosed and their knees smote one against another But above all such a Fear of Death as makes a Man think it a greater Evil than Sin and so to avoid that will deny his Saviour and renounce his Religion or do any thing whatever is necessary to escape a present Fear of Death This makes him a slave to every one that has power to kill him and to save his Life he will deliver up his Conscience his Soul his Saviour his Religion and all those things which ought to be a thousand times more dear to us and which we should be much more unwilling to part with than our lives These are unreasonable and unlawful Fears of Death but there is still a Natural Fear of Death which may belong to a penitent good Christian and which it is not necessary he should wholly overcome as it is a Natural Evil as it is a Punishment of Sin as it is a going to our last great and terrible Tryal before the Bar of Heaven a Tryal upon which our Souls and their Eternal Fate of Happiness or Damnation does depend This may cause some Fear in a true Penitent or a very good Christian and I do not know that God has any where forbid it or that he has promised such a full assurance to every true Penitent and good Man as wholly to take away all kind of Fear of Death or that this is any want of saving Faith in him In some extraordinary cases God may give it as in cases of Suffering and Persecution when an extraordinary assistance of Gods Spirit and an extraordinary assurance of their Salvation took away all Fears of Death and made them go to the Flames and to the Gibbet rejoycing and triumphing but that this is ordinary and constant I see no Reason nor no Scripture to believe The Fear of Death is a Natural and Invincible Infirmity to many a true Penitent and good and humble and timorous Christian who though his Conscience accuse him not of any great and ill things yet may magnifie every little fault and imperfection and not forgive it himself tho' God does nor be at peace in his own Mind though he be with God 'T is a great perfection to conquer the Fears of Death if it be done upon good grounds for some have no Fear of Death out of a sensless stupidness because they have no sense of what follows after Death And we find the greatest part of Men who have most reason to be afraid of it to be the least so out of meer Natural courage and hardiness and for want of thinking or believing or considering the things of Religion and another World others from false Principles and Mistakes by thinking a Pardon or Absolution sets them right in the Court of Heaven and that they may boldly appear there with some such security or those that have low thoughts of Religion and think a little Sorrow for their Sins and a few Sighs and some Prayers when they come to dye will carry them to Heaven as well as if they had lived never so Holily and Righteously and Godly Now if Mens Confidence and Fearlesness arises from such Mistakes as these 't is like the hope of the Hypocrite that shall perish Job 8.13 and such presumptuous persons only rush into Hell with their eyes shut and see not their danger before they are in it On the contrary a modest and humble penitent Christian may be afraid where no Fear is may judge too hardly of himself and may be though quite out of danger yet not out of all Fear for after all God will not judge us by our own Fears or Hopes or Opinion of our selves which may be all groundless and mistaken but he will judge Righteous Judgment and correct the Errors by which we may pass Judgment of our selves and the Terms of the Gospel and not our own Thoughts shall be the Rule by which we shall be judged at the last day But to take off the Fear of Death as much as we can and to free our selves from a slavish and immoderate degree of it the best Directions that can be are these two 1. What hath been already given duly to prepare and fit our selves for it by a timely and thorough Repentance 2. To joyn the liveliest Act of Faith with this our Habitual Repentance and exert that at the time when Death is near us 1. To perfect our Repentance and so to live in the habit of that and of all goodness that we may be the best prepared to dye that we can be Dye we know we must Death if it be not now near us and yet we do not know but it may be dogging us at the heels yet will certainly in a little time come up to us and fright and startle us when it does if we do not take great care to be ready and prepared for it Since we must therefore necessarily encounter this great Monster this terrible Enemy which there is no escaping but we must certainly grapple with him let us all our lives prepare for the battle let us arm our selves with the whole armour of God and Religion with a careful and pious and good life with a timely and thorough Repentance of all our evil ways with a sincere and upright and good Conscience and with avoiding every thing that we know is sinful and unlawful and which will make Death terrible to us whenever it comes Let us not be such desperate Bravoes in Sin as to venture upon that with a false Courage which will make us the worst of Cowards when we come to dye but let us be so wisely afraid of Death now as to live with that care and exactness that we may not be afraid of it when we come to it It were well
would never receive them again into their Communion thereby to fright all persons from all false and cowardly compliances in those times of danger and persecution but afterwards the Church was forced to abate of this rigour which had made such Disturbances and occasioned those great Schisms of the Novatians and Donatists There were other Sins also for which the guilty Penitents were excluded from all Communion to the last in those purer and severer Ages as Murder Adultery and those Unnatural Lusts which they call'd Monstra these were never admitted to Pardon and Absolution of the Church as appears by the Canons of those antient Councils of Eliberis Arle and Ancyra and by the Writings of Tertullian and others and the opposition made in Africa to the Decree of Pope Zephyrine and by the milder Canons of the Council of Nice afterwards but all this was only prudential and an external Discipline in foro humano which the Church altered according to its Discretion but they did not deny all Pardon with God for those Sins upon Repentance nor utterly cut them off from all hopes in another World but allowed God could pardon them tho' not the Church that they might be forgiven though not in this World yet in the World to come according to that Jewish Notion that though there were no Sacrifices nor ordinary means of Expiation for some Sins yet that God would forgive them hereafter Secondly That Sins are Pardoned after Baptism as well as before is plain from the Incestuous Corinthian who though he had committed such a Sin as was not usual among the Gentiles and was to be put out of the Church and to be delivered unto Satan for it yet this was not to cut him off from Pardon and Salvation but as a better means to bring him to both it was only for the destruction of the flesh that the Spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord 1 Cor. 5.5 And this sure was the design of those severe and long Penances in the Primitive Church whereby tho' they excluded Sinners from the benefits of Communion and means of Grace yet it was not to bereave them of all hopes of Pardon and consign them irreversibly to Damnation but to beget a greater terrour and dread of Sin and to make their Repentance for it more compleat and perfect and so by those present Judgments and Severities here to prevent their Eternal Condemnation hereafter for this ought to be the Rule and Measure of all Church Power and Discipline it ought to be for Edification not for Destruction and they could not miss of this The Spirit of God writes to the Church of Ephesus which were a company of Baptized Christians to Remember from whence they were fallen and Repent and do their first works Rev. 2.5 And St. Paul threatens the Christians at Corinth to bewail and correct those which had sinned and not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness they had committed 2 Cor. 12.21 but does not denounce that they were unpardonable Sad would it be if all wilful Sins were so after Baptism this would make Christianity a more terrible and severe dispensation than the Law and put us in a worse condition than we were without it and no Man would then be Baptized till he was a Clinic and near dying and going out of the World but Baptism puts us into a state of Pardon and the Grace and the Vertue of it continues all our lives and if we sin we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous 1 John 2.1 and his Mediation will upon our Repentance procure Pardon at Gods hands at all times for us Thirdly I shall next consider Sins of Relapse when a Person after Sorrow and Repentance for a Sin yet falls into it again and repeats it after he has resolved against it and been convicted of the heinousness of it now this is a sad case and shows the power of his Lusts and the weakness of Religion upon a Mans Mind and no Man who is in this state can be said to Repent He is no more got rid of his Sins than a Man is of a Feaver because it intermits sometimes and he is well by intervals but his Fits return again upon him which shows that the Disease is still in his Blood as the other's Relapses do that sin still reigns in him because he obeys it in the Lusts thereof A Man in the beginning of his Repentance from some habitual Sins may not get rid immediately of all his Evil Customs and Sinful Inclinations but they may sometimes draw him back again and sometimes master and overcome him and he may rally again and recover himself and at last vanquish them Now whilst this Conflict lasts and 't is uncertain which side will get the better and have the final victory no judgment can be made of a Mans state because the issue is doubtful and uncertain He is fighting and striving for his Life for his Soul and for Heaven and he may by his own care and endeavours and by the assistance of Heaven conquer and overcome his Sins and to him that overcometh God will give of the tree of life Rev. 2.7 but if he is overcome by them he is a slave of Sin and a captive of the Devil and a child of Hell and heir of Damnation but what shall a Man do who has often thus relapsed into Sin after his most serious Vows and Resolutions against it are his Sins against those unpardonable and is there no hopes for him I Answer by no means if he can but recover himself from them and after all attempts at last get rid of them and bring forth the contrary fruits of Repentance and Obedience I confess such an one ought to suspect himself and to suspect his Repentance till by many tryals he has made it good and confirmed it and he ought to be doubly watchful over himself and to take heed least Sin enter again at any of those weak places at which it used to have admittance and to fortifie himself against all those temptations and opportunities that used to betray him to it and therefore to keep his Mind to a close sense of Religion and to a careful use of all the Means and Instruments of it and to beg earnestly of Heaven Grace proportionable to his needs and then if it be not his own fault it will certainly be sufficient for him But such Relapses though they are not quite hopeless nor put a Man into a condition that is desperate yet they are very dangerous they grieve Gods Holy Spirit they give a new Wound to our Consciences they make the old Wound that was healed bleed afresh and render it more difficult to be cured again and more ready to mortifie and become incurable they bring the Mind to a weakness and unsteadiness and irresolution and to have no power or command over it self but let its good Purposes and Principles be bore down by a weak Lust or
of God as when ye called me wine-bibber and glutton and a friend of Publicans and Sinners but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost if ye use any reproachful sayings against the Spirit of God by which I do my Miracles this shall not be forgiven neither in this world nor in the world to come Neither here nor as some of you vainly expect hereafter but shall be certainly and severely punish'd in both Now here is no mention at all nor the least intimation of those other Sins in which some have placed this Sin against the Holy Ghost as in final Impenitence which the Pharisees could not then be charged with not Apostacy from Christianity which they had not at all professed nor were by this very likely to do nor denying the Truth for fear of Suffering as in the instance of Francis Spira which is often said to be his Sin nor any of the six Sins in which the Schoolmen have placed it as Envying our Brothers Graces Impugning the known Truth Obstinacy Impenitency Desperation and Presumption which two latter are unluckily put together to make this one Sin when they are so contrary to themselves Whatever mixture there might be of these or any of these or the like Sins in the Minds of the Pharisees who committed this Sin against the Holy Ghost yet those are no more this particular Sin here meant by our Saviour than Pride and Covetousness and other Sins that might go a great way and be no small causes to bring them to this Sin and dispose their Minds for it but St. Mark sets the thing beyond all dispute in chap. 3. ver 28.29 30. where he relates these words of our Saviour thus Verily I say unto you all sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost shall never have forgiveness but is in danger of eternal damnation And then he gives the reason of our Saviours saying all this to them namely because they said he hath an unclean Spirit i. e. a Diabolical and impure one which makes it as manifest as can be desired that this their Sin was their blaspheming and speaking so reproachfully of the Holy Ghost which was in Christ as if that were not the Holy Spirit of God but an unclean and a Devilish Spirit How great and horrid a Sin this was will appear from these four Considerations 1. It tended to destroy the whole Truth of Christianity and consequently to rob the World of all the benefit it has by it There could nothing so malicious be contrived to undermine the Foundation of the Gospel as this assertion of the Pharisees that our Saviour wrought his Miracles by the help of an evil or unclean Spirit for this was to make him a Magician a confederate with the Devil and so to represent his Religion as a work and contrivance of Hell that could tend only to the mischief and destruction of the World For if no good thing could come out of Galilee as in a Proverbial derision they gave out to the People to be sure no good thing could come from Hell and from evil Spirits The Devil would never lend his Power had he been able to promote or establish any thing but a false Religion that should withdraw the World from the Worship of the true God The greatest demonstration for the Truth of Christianity were the Miracles of Christ as he often appeals to them John 10.37 38. John 14.11 Mat. 11.4 and if these were done not by a Divine but a Diabolical Power and by a compact with the Devil they are then the greatest Arguments against it for then it may be only a mystery of iniquity brought into the World by him whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness 2 Thes 2.9 20. as Antichristianism is described 2. It tends not only to undermine the Truth of Christianity but of all Revelation whatever from God The greatest proof and demonstration that can be given to any Prophet that comes from God to reveal his Will to Men is his working of Miracles and satisfying those he is sent to that he has a Divine Authority and Commission by his showing his Credentials from God who would never suffer a Cheat and Impostor to do such mighty works as must necessarily cheat and deceive those that see them Now if notwithstanding that he teach nothing contrary to the Nature of God nor of Good and Evil and yet perform such wonderful Miracles as can be done only by the Finger of God and by a Divine Power if we will still suspect this then we can never be satisfied of the truth of any revelation from Heaven and so the Pharisees did not only undermine Christianity but even their own Law for it might with as much reason be said that Moses and the Prophets who pretended to come from God and wrought Miracles to show they did so yet were only the Prophets and Embassadors of the Devil and did all their Miracles by his Power as of Christ 3. This must proceed from a very spightful temper and malicious humour that made them speak this against their Consciences and the sense of their own Minds Sure they who were eye-witnesses of his Miracles and so had the best and fullest evidence of the truth of them and who heard the excellency of his Discourses and Sermons in which was nothing contrary to the Worship of the true God or the Moral Duties of Religion they must as our Saviour once told them know both him and also whence he was John 7.28 When they must be convinced that he was both an innocent and good Man himself and that his Doctrine commanded the highest Vertue and Goodness and tended to destroy the whole Power and Interest of the Devil in the World they could not surely believe themselves or think this their black charge was true but when they saw the People amazed at his healing a Demoniack and saying Is not this the Son of David Matth. 12.23 And so they feared that they should have lost their Power and Authority together with their Law and that the People should have left them and followed him then they gave out this vile and abominable reflection upon him that he did all this by the Power of the Devil which was the utmost shift that Malice could invent to blind the eyes of others against a Truth which they could hardly be supposed not to see themselves 4. It was the most taunting reproachful Slander against God and his Holy Spirit that could possibly be and therefore is alwayes called Blasphemy which is the most daring provoking and transcendent Crime against God that can be and proceeds from the most contemptuous and scornful most wretched and depraved temper of Mind To slander and calumniate the Son of Man was a great Sin to call a sober and temperate Person a
Glutton and Wine-bibber a friend of Publicans and Sinners and to raise slanderous and false stories against any Mans Credit is one of the greatest though the commonest Sins but to proceed so far as to slander and reproach God this was accounted by one of the Heathens as bad or worse than to deny him but to represent the Holy and Blessed Spirit of God as an Apostate Angel as a Hellish Fiend and to reproach and scoff and calumniate whatever he does for the good and salvation of Mankind as the work and intrigue of the Devil This is such an horrid Sin that our Saviour says it should not be forgiven but bring certain Judgment upon them I come now to inquire how and upon what account it is Unpardonable which is the greatest difficulty about it Now though no Sin in its own Nature be unpardonable because none so great but that the infinite Mercy and Goodness of God does still exceed it and none is exempted from that General and Gracious Promise of Pardon which he hath made to Mankind and none has so much Guilt in it but that the Blood of Christ and Merit of his Sacrifice is able to atone and expiate for it and none does so far corrupt and deprave the Mind but that the Grace of God can restore and amend it yet a Sin may however be unpardonable by reason of some circumstances attending it and chiefly upon these three accounts 1. As not being Repented of for so every wilful Sin is unpardonable For though the Gospel proposes Mercy and Pardon to every Sin and Sinner without exception yet 't is upon this never failing condition of Repentance and Amendment without which we shall as certainly perish as if there had been no place for Mercy at all but we had stood under an irreversible decree of Condemnation for the first Sin we had committed The Covenant of Grace is made upon that Condition on our part which if we fail of we shall as certainly lose the benefit of it as if there had been no such Covenant made 2. That Sin is also unpardonable by the standing terms of the Divine Mercy which is not curable by all the ordinary means of the Divine Grace but resists and baffles all those remedies which can be used to that purpose As a Disease is uncurable when it is too strong for all the remedies that can be used against it so is a Sin unpardonable when it is too hard for all the means whatsoever that are proper to amend it As when a Man will be an Infidel and disobedient to God when he sees plain Miracles before his face and will not be convinced by all these which are the best and only means to that purpose when he will still be obstinate and harden himself against the highest evidence that is possible as Pharaoh did when he could not but confess that the Miracles were done by the Finger of God and yet would not hearken unto him or as the Pharisees and some of the Jews who would not be perswaded to Christianity by all the visible Wonders and extraordinary Miracles wrought by Christ and his Apostles What was there more to be done to satisfie those Men and how could any thing that God and the Divine Power was able to do convince them of their Infidelity if this would not And so now when all the considerations and all the credible evidences of Religion will not work upon a Man nor perswade him to a good Life when he resists all the means of Grace that God has appointed he then resists the last and utmost remedy that should do him good and so is necessarily in a hopeless uncurable state and condition 3. That Sin is unpardonable which provokes God to withdraw his Spirit and all the influences of the Divine Grace and to give them up to a spirit of slumber and a reprobate sense and hardness of Heart as he is sometimes said to do if not for one Sin yet for a great many obstinately and irreclaimably continued in And now let us examine the Sin against the Holy Ghost by these 3 ways 1. Can it be said to be unpardonable because unrepented of It seemeth not upon this account because it is probable that many of those who were guilty of it did afterwards Repent and turn Christians Among the many numerous Proselytes to Christianity in the time of our Saviour and especially of the Apostles it cannot be proved or thought that there were not some of those made Converts that had fall'n into it and Christ when he prayed for his Enemies and for his Crucifiers most earnestly entreated his Father to forgive them all without any exception Luke 23.24 by which he had plainly some hopes of their Repentance and Amendment and if he had not it would have been in vain to have used so many means as he did afterwards to that purpose besides that he intimates not the least word to them of their Impenitence nor was that to be said of them till the last this would not sufficiently distinguish this Sin from any other great and wilful one for any such unrepented of and that by a particular Repentance is unpardonable as well as this against the Holy Ghost unless we will venture to say what we have no sufficient warrant for and therefore is very bold and especially when 't is a kind of limiting the Grace and Mercy of God that Men could never Repent of this as they can of all others but that God who hath opened a door of Mercy and Repentance in all other cases hath absolutely shut it in this so that they shall never be able nor willing to enter in 2. Is it unpardonable upon the second account as it was not curable by any means that God had appointed and thought fit to use to that purpose This it seems not to be neither because God had not yet made use of all the means that he intended for the Conversion of the Jews and the Scribes and Pharisees Our Saviour indeed had done a great many Miracles to testifie his Divine Power but still there were a great many more which remained behind and which he had not yet performed If we look into the Gospel of St. Matthew and St. Mark and observe the time when our Saviour had his discourse of this Sin we shall find he wrought many very considerable Miracles after that and what was the design of all them but to perswade those to believe in him and to embrace Christianity who were not perswaded so to do by his former ones And there remained another Motive behind which was an evidence even beyond all and which was such an Argument to convince the Jewish Infidelity as did outdo almost all the other Miracles of our Saviour and that was his Resurrection from the Dead This was the great and irresistible proof for the Truth of Christ and his Religion and of this especially the Apostles were to be witnesses to all the World as being the
but it is without all Controversie to be supposed and the same allowances that are to be made to all these and the like expressions of Scripture without which if they are strained over-rigorously they would not be true these they think reasonable to apply to our Saviours expression concerning this Sin and that where it is said not to be forgiven that is not without a very particular and full Repentance of it And to strengthen this a little further they observe that there is another Phrase and Expression concerning this Sin used by our Saviour where the sense must not be forced so far as the words would seem to carry it and that is this That it shall not be forgiven neither in this world nor in the world to come Matth. 12.32 As if our Saviour did thereby intimate that any Sins should be pardoned in another World which are not in this Some Interpreters think that some of the Jews had this opinion as the Papists now have and that our Saviour therefore used the expression to take off all hopes from them that had such a vain belief and levelled his words against that but I rather think this to be the plain sense that it was only a common Phrase among the Jews that the thing should not be or never be without regard to any such opinion which we have not sufficient authority to prove the Jews had but only that Death they thought was a kind of Expiation for some Sins in their Life However this Phrase must have some allowance made for the words of it and so they would have the other 3. Another Reason for the abating the severity of the Expression concerning this is that there are other Sins which seem equal to this in guilt and heinousness which are yet all declared to be pardonable and those not only the most wilful Sins against Natural Light as well as Revealed Religion but against Christianity and even the Holy Ghost such as were those of the Heathen World described Rom. 2. and yet they were received into the Christian Religion and made partakers of the Christian Covenant as 't is plain many of the Corinthians also were whose Names were put in the List of the vilest Sinners 1 Cor. 6.11 And the Apostle expresly tells them That such were some of them to wit Fornicators idolaters adulterers effeminate abusers of themselves with mankind thieves covetous drunkards revilers extortioners ver 9.10 and yet these very Men were washed were sanctified were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God ver 11. And St. Peters denyal of his Master after he had seen all his Miracles and been so fully convinced by them that he was as he had confest the Son of God was a very great Sin yet upon his repenting and weeping bitterly for it it was forgiven Nay they who treated our Saviour with the basest and the cruelest usage and at last barbarously murdered him our Saviour prayed his Father even to forgive these and therefore that greatest of Sins the putting an innocent Man to death and Crucifying the very Son of God this was not excluded from Pardon but the very Blood that they thus villanously shed was an Expiation for the very Sin of shedding of it And if it be said that these however great and horrid Sins yet were not so immediately Sins against the Holy Ghost against whom peculiarly this unpardonable Sin is committed if we carefully examine the Bible we shall find a great many Sins and Provocations chiefly if not directly against him wherein he was particularly affronted if not blasphemed and reproached and yet not unpardonable St. Paul owns himself a Blasphemer as well as a Persecutor 1 Tim. 1.13 and wherein can we think his Blasphemy consisted not in blaspheming God the God of Israel for he was a very strict and Religious Worshipper of him according to the Law and the strictest Sect of the Jews but it must be in blaspheming Christianity and such things as were done to the spreading and confirmation of that And nothing seems to be so likely a subject of his Blasphemy as the Miracles of Christ and the Apostles because nothing was so strong an Argument for the Christian Religion which could not well be reproached unless those were evil spoken of and yet he obtained Mercy and became the great instance of an hearty Penitent and a zealous Convert But we have more particular Instances of some Sins against the Holy Ghost himself that tended to reproach and dishonour him in a high measure and yet are no where declared to be unpardonable Ananias is said to lye to the Holy Ghost Acts 5.3 and to tempt the Spirit of the Lord ver 9. and vertually to deny his Knowledge and Omniscience by denying part of the Money for which he had sold his Estate that was devoted by him to the Church and Simon Magus who offered Money that he might purchase the Holy Ghost and thought a few pieces of Silver a just Price and valuable Consideration for him and that the Power of God might be bought and sold for a little Money He did reproach the Holy Ghost by which the Apostles did their Miracles in the highest manner Acts 8.19 and therefore St. Peter very severely reproves him ver 20. Thy money perish with thee because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money And that expression might have been thought to have put him into an irreversible state of Ruine and Perdition had not St. Peter added what shows it to be otherwise ver 22. Repent therefore of this thy wickedness and pray God if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee And there is another Instance that seems as great and immediate a reproach to the Holy Ghost as what the Pharisees were guilty of in charging the Miracles which Christ wrought by the Power of the Holy Ghost to an Evil Spirit and that was the mocking at the Disciples upon whom the Holy Ghost was poured out on the day of Pentecost as if they had been inspired with new Wine Acts 2.13 and yet this has no Mark set upon it by the Apostles whereby it can be certainly known to be either the Sin against the Holy Ghost meant by our Saviour or a Sin that was unpardonable 4. As there are other Sins that seem equal to this yet certainly Pardonable so there are expressions concerning some other Sins which seem as much to exclude them from all hopes of remission and to pass as severe and desperate a Sentence upon them as Christ does here upon this and yet the best Interpreters think they admit of an abatement and mitigation as in Heb. 6.4.5 6. For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come If they shall fall away to renew them
is and hinder Men from ever becoming better 2 Let us take care to avoid all manner of wilful Sin and especially all those great ones that come near and any way approach to this Sin against the Holy Ghost A very wilful Sin in a Christian especially is in some fense a Sin against the Holy Ghost 't is a grieving a quenching and a resisting the Spirit in the language of Holy Scripture That Blessed Spirit is concerned as the great promoter of Vertue and Goodness in the World and as the great Principle of it in the Hearts of Men and whenever we do any wicked thing we offer violence to that and by our rude and vicious carriage we affront and grieve and at last banish and drive away that Blessed Guest out of our Souls Whatever is Wicked and Sinful is so contrary to his Pure and Excellent Nature that it is highly offensive to him and if we go on in a course of long and customary Wickedness we sin the more against him and come the nearer to that sad and wretched state that is unpardonable I do not think indeed that any one Sin or particular Act of any Sin whatever puts us into that condition but as every Sickness and Indisposition of Body is a tendency to Death and Mortality so every wilful Sin is a corruption of the Mind and an approach to a state of Spiritual Death And there are some Sins that bring this sooner upon us as the acting against our Consciences and the sense of our own Minds an opposing the Truth that is evident to us a scoffing at Religion and making a mock of Sin an abusing the Scriptures and ridiculing the Holy Word of God an obstinate resistance of all the motions of Gods Holy Spirit upon our Minds These and such like gross and obstinate impieties though I do not think they are any of them the very Sin against the Holy Ghost for that ought not to be extended further than we have a warrant from Scripture yet they are so many approaches as it were to it and have more of the ill symptoms of that upon them and therefore we ought especially to avoid them lest they bring us by degrees into that sad state which is unpardonable for though one Sin I believe do not do this yet a great many may and especially such as those which do so waste the Conscience and corrupt the Mind as to make it uncurable And this is the saddest State and Condition in the World next to the State of Hell and Damnation tho' it be not the immediate Sin against the Holy Ghost Having endeavoured to give the plainest and fullest Satisfaction I can to the most doubtful and scrupulous Minds about this Sin of the Holy Ghost I shall now Discourse of some other things of a Lesser Nature which many Penitents and good Men are apt to be greatly dissatisfied with and have dark and wrong thoughts about As I. Concupiscence the Lustings of the Flesh or struggle between that and the Spirit which they find in themselves II. Trouble of Mind and a wounded Spirit which many lye under by reason of their Sins or by reason of Melancholly or both together SECT III. Of Concupiscence the Lustings of the Flesh or struggle between that and the Spirit THE right understanding of our selves is very necessary to the right understanding of Religion Religion is fitted and adapted to Humane Nature in its present state and capacity in this World and is designed not to destroy it but to perfect and improve it and raise it to its true Happiness and Perfection We cannot be like the Angels in Heaven nor like pure and glorious Spirits whilst we live here upon Earth and have Bodies of Flesh and Blood united to our Souls God who made us and knows our Frame did not intend to destroy and undo his own Creation by the Precepts of Religion nor make us cease to be Men by becoming Christians We find indeed in our selves a great many weaknesses and corruptions strong passions and sensual inclinations which if we did not wisely govern would be great occasions of Sin to us and if we let them loose would carry us into a thousand Mischiefs as well as Sins and Wickednesses They who give the reins to those and the full swinge to their Natural Lusts and Passions run into all Vice and Debauchery and commit all uncleanness with greediness And the best of Men cannot be wholly free from that Original Concupiscence and those Sensual Motions and Desires that are not alwayes agreeable to Reason and Religion but they complain of this bondage of corruption and this body of death which they cannot be delivered from Rom. 8.21 and 7.24 Grace and Religion though it gives us another Principle and conveys new powers of a Divine and Spiritual Life into our Souls yet whilst the Animal and Sensual Life remains and whilst we are compounded of Flesh and Blood as well as Spirit and Reason and have a Carnal as well as Spiritual Principle in us there will be a mighty struggle and a great contest between those two and a kind of civil war in our breasts between those different Parties and which of those shall be uppermost and have the chief Power and gain the Victory is the great point and the great concern of all Vertue and Religion since in all of us as the Apostle sayes The Flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the Flesh and these are contrary one to the other so that we cannot do the things that we would Gal. 5.17 And this we know by Experience as well as by Revelation Now this Concupiscence that remaineth in good Men is often matter of great trouble to them and they know not what to judge of it or how far it is a Sin and ought to be Repented of and what way they may best overcome it I shall therefore to clear and satisfie their thoughts about this matter of the struggle or Lusting between the Flesh and Spirit show these three things First That mere Lusting on either side is not what makes either Sin or Vertue or denominates a bad or a good Man Secondly That these are the proper matter of Vice or Vertue in which the tryal and exercise of them lye Thirdly That we ought to lessen the Power of the Fleshly Lusting and increase that of the Spirit and what are the proper means to do this I shall briefly consider First That meer Lusting on either side is not what makes either Sin or Vertue nor what constitutes or denominates a bad or a good Man For this Lusting is in both good and bad though according to several degrees and measures in the one the Lusting of the Flesh prevails and in the other that of the Spirit and 't is from this the prevalency of either of these and not the meer contention of them that we are counted good or bad before God The best of Men may have the same Passions Appetites and
Mercy and judges himself as incapable of it as the damned in Hell when Gods Spirit has left him so that he can neither pray nor do any thing to relieve himself but lyes as a condemned Caitiff a Malefactor sentenced past all hopes of Pardon and only expecting Punishment and the last stroke of Vengeance this is a sad a deplorable condition which I have known many a Sinner in under a Wounded Spirit and had one great instance before me when I was writing this These Wounds are not felt indeed by many a Sinner in the heat of Blood in the career of his Lusts and the hot persuit of his Sins when in his high frolicks and jovial diversions he drowns the noise of his Conscience or lulls it asleep with charming Pleasures or full Cups or some unthinking madness but it will awake one time or other and like a sleeping Lyon when 't is roused up by some Judgment by some Sickness or Affliction it will fall terribly upon him with rage and fury and tear and consume him then all the wounds which sin gave it will bleed afresh and it will feel them afterwards unless they have been cured by a timely repentance if they have festered and gangrened and mortified the Soul for a time yet when it comes to it self it will feel them with unexpressible pain and anguish which nothing can asswage I mean when a Man has sin'd away his Life and Death and his Sins are set together before him and 't is hard to know which is the more terrible When the Sting of Death swelled up with Sin and Guilt strikes as deep into a Man's Conscience and wounds his Spirit as Death it self strikes into his Body with its fatal dart so that he suffers a double death at the same time and the Spiritual far more painful than the Bodily I take a Wounded Spirit here in the highest and most common sense and though when a Mans Spirit is dejected and sunk with any thing 't is very hard to bear it which may be the sense of the Wise Mans words in the forequoted place when the strength of a Mans Mind is lost which should support him under all his infirmities that he is subject to from without yet nothing does so sink it so wound and destroy it as Sin and Guilt especially when it is come to such a degree and to such a sad condition as we commonly mean by a Wounded Spirit i. e. a Mind deeply pierced with the sense of its own Guilt and of Gods Anger upon it This likewise admits of degrees and in some cases 't is a very happy thing for a Sinner and 't is to be sure alwayes a just Punishment I shall therefore in the Third place briefly consider what is the proper Cure and Remedy of such a wounded Spirit or troubled Mind for there is no Spiritual Illness but what is curable if we take it in time by Religion no Wound of Soul but what there is Balm for in Gilead in Christianity there is no Disease too great for our Heavenly Physician but what the Gospel has a proper and certain Remedy for if we duely and timely apply it A Man may tarry too long indeed and not use the Physick till it be too late till Death comes and puts an end to the time of Tryal and the time of Repentance and then a Wounded Spirit i. e. the extremest Sorrow for a Mans Sins the deepest Contrition of Soul for them cannot come up to true Gospel Repentance to which there is a certain promise of Pardon and Forgiveness for that is only upon turning to God and leaving all our Sins and leading a new Life and bringing forth the Fruits of Repentance by Obedience to the Gospel for the future which is a necessary condition by the terms of the Gospel which he cannot perform whom God cuts off before he can do it and therefore such an one must be left to the Infinite Mercy and Righteous Judgment of God to be dealt with by such measures as are not within the Covenant of Grace or the Terms of the Gospel for by those I cannot see any title he has to Pardon But in other Cases a Wounded Spirit may be the greatest Mercy and even the very beginning of Health or of a Cure to a Soul when God does not suffer a Man to go on senslesly in his Sins till he come to a seered Conscience and a reprobate Sense and to hardness of Heart and blindness of Mind but by some methods of his Grace and Providence alarums his Conscience and awakens his stupid Mind and brings his almost sensless and stupified Soul to some Spiritual sense of his condition Then his Soul will be wounded as Davids was when he reflects upon those Sins which he committed without consideration and he will be sore struck and smitten as every Penitent must at the remembrance of his evil wayes All Repentance is such a wounding of the Soul as makes its Heart bleed within it and its Blood and Spirits melt into Tears and Sorrow for what it has done 't is not such an easie thing as most men think it to be 't is such a Pain such a Wound to the Soul that the Pleasure of the greatest Sin is but a poor trifle to it and no man that rightly understood it would venture upon any Sin from the reserved hopes of it Repentance is a bitter Remedy made up of very strong and unpleasant ingredients and we must go through a long course to purge out the old Disease and take away the root of it so that before a wicked mind can be cured by it it must be cut and lanced and wounded and have very severe applications made to it The work of Regeneration or the New Birth cannot be wrought without many pangs or throwes nor does God ever almost bring a bad man to become a good one without some trouble and disorder of Mind There is a trouble of Mind indeed which is excessive and unreasonable for every Sinner ought in some measure to be troubled in Mind and he has not a due sense of his Sins if he is not but there is a trouble of Mind which takes away the hopes of Mercy and throwes Men into despair which is commonly called a Wounded Spirit and 't is so in the highest degree and whether there is any Remedy for that and what it is and what advice is to be given in such a case and what judgment to be made of it I shall briefly consider 1. Then this is often joyned with Melancholly of Body which is very hard to be cured and till it be so it is apt to darken the Mind and bring a cloud over the Spirits and to fill the Soul with very black Idea's and Imaginations and to hinder it from making true judgment of it self or its own actions and this is as pityable and ought as much to be remedied by Physick and Care as other Diseases of Body for I have known
out the fierceness of his anger upon them and they drink of the cup of his fury and feel his wrath and indignation many a sinner has done this and cryed out in the Anguish of his Soul Thy wrath lyeth hard upon me Psal 88.7 Thy fierce wrath goeth over me thy terrors have cut me off ver 16. Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me and horror hath overwhelmed me Psal 55.5 Thine arrows stick fast in me and thy hand presseth me sore Psal 38.2 Who knoweth the power of thine anger even according to thy fear so is thy wrath Psal 90.11 For we are consumed by thine anger and by thy wrath are we troubled ver 7. God who is a Spirit as he can convey secret and unspeakable comfort into our Souls so he can impress intolerable and unspeakable horrors upon them and who is able to bear the weight of his Anger or endure the sense of his Wrath and Indignation In his Pleasure and Favour is Life and in his Anger is a double Death to the Soul The inward Sensation and Perception of Gods Love is the ohiefest joy and happyness to a Soul either in this World or the other and the Sense and Perception of his Anger is the greatest Misery God the fountain of all Happiness doth diffuse and communicate such a Peace Joy Comfort to good Souls such an inward Taste and Relish of Spiritual Pleasure and Delight as is unspeakable past understanding called joy in the holy Ghost and is no doubt the sweetest and most affecting pleasure a Soul is capable of this the Angels and blessed Spirits above enjoy and are transported with the most ravishing Sense and Rapturous Impressions of it and 't is what makes Heaven to them and a little foretaste of it when God lifts up the light of his countenance upon us when a pious Soul tasts and sees how good and gracious God is this puts more gladness in the heart than Corn and wine and oyl and all worldly enjoyments now on the contrary when God hides his face and withdraws his loving-kindness and imprints a strong sense of his Wrath and Anger upon the Mind this is the utmost and the deepest Misery this gives the bitterest sense of Evil fills it with the greatest horrors sinks it into the deepest gulph the bottomless Pit of Misery and is the very Punishment and Hell of the damned How happy is it then to be Reconciled to God by Repentance whom we had angred and provoked by our sins before we feel any of this and before his Wrath and Anger is poured out upon us it will certainly fall upon every Sinner some time or other unless he Repents for God though he defers his Anger for some time that his Goodness and long-suffering may lead us to Repentance yet his abused Love Patience and Mercy will turn to greater Wrath and Fury if we persist in our sins and in a course of impenitency As 't is a very terrible thing to have the great God our Enemy and he certainly is so whilst we are in a state of Sin so 't is the comfortablest thought in the World and what will alone make us happy to be Assured that he is our Friend and that we are in a State of Favour with him upon our Repentance THE CONCLVSION To Conclude As all general Christian Duties are meant by Repentance so all general Christian-Priviledges and Benefits belong to it and are the Rewards of it for as Repentance is the same thing in Scripture with Conversion Regeneration the New Birth the New Creature the New Man and the like those different words and figurative expressions denoting only the same duty importing the great Change and Alteration made upon the Mind and Life of a Sinner by the power of Grace and Religion So all the benefits and priviledges of Christianity such as Election Adoption Pardon Justification at present and Glorification afterwards which are free and gratuitous acts in God granting and bestowing those Favours upon us for Christs sake upon our being duely qualified and fitted to receive them These all belong to those who have truly Repented and become good Men and to none else For God hath only Chosen Adopted Pardoned Justified and will Glorifie such and no other and till we have Repented we have no good claim or title to any of those Our being in a good State towards God which is the thing meant by all those Phrases under some different considerations is on our side wholly owing to our true Repentance and Obedience and it is all lost and forfeited by our Impenitency and Disobedience which on the contrary make us the Children of Wrath the Children of the Devil and Heirs of Damnation put us into the worst Spiritual State of Reprobation Obduration and Excecation according to the degrees of our Sins and Impenitence and into that of Condemnation it self which is the word that directly answers to that of Justification All those Scriptural Phrases and Expressions of a good State belong to Repentance and to the true Christian Penitent and all those which signifie a bad one belong as truly to Wickedness and Impenitence for though without the Free-Grace and Mercy of God in and thorough Christ we could not be put into any such good State nor have a title to any such Priviledges meerly by vertue of our Repentance or any thing we could do yet to suppose that God will put us into those states without any regard to our own Actions or not upon the account of them is to destroy all Religion all Divine Government all Future Judgment and all Rewards and Punishments in another World I might clear and illustrate and enlarge upon these had not this Discourse already swelled upon my hands into too great a bulk and did they not run into something of Controversie which I would carefully avoid I shall therefore only give this last Advice to the Penitent who hath brought himself by the Grace of God into this Good and Happy State that when he is thus got out of the Paths of Death and of Sin into those of Life and Vertue that he would go on and proceed in the new and right way he is in and make a speedy and further progress in all Piety and Goodness that like St. Paul forgetting those things which are behind and reaching unto those which are before he may follow and apprehend them and so press forward towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus Phil. 3.13 14. that now he is become a Christian in good earnest he would more zealously promote that Religion which he opposed and was an enemy to before and show he is a true Convert by his zeal and earnestness against Vice and Irreligion that he would make all amends he can for his past miscarriages by doing the greatest good he is able by serving God and his Glory more heartily and thus loving much because much is forgiven him so that where sin abounded grace