suffer our Reason to take place if we willfully shut not our eyes against the Truth and embolden our Minds against the influence of it when discovered we cannot but repent To harden the heart is to Act against the Conviction of a Man 's own Conscience and against the Dictates of Truth clearly and fully manifested Thus Pharaoh is often in Scripture said To have hardned his heart when he refused to let the children of Israel go He was abundantly convinced that the Dismission of them was commanded by God he knew very well that Moses was a true Prophet he experienced the Power of God in the dreadful Plagues inflicted upon his Kingdom and acknowledged him to be the true God by recurring to him and imploring his Mercy and Pardon as often as he desired the Plagues to be removed Yet for all this he perversely refused to obey the Command of God and was therefore made an Example of the terrible Justice of God even in this World We have yet a nearer instance of this kind in the People of the Jews whom the Psalmist in these words particularly reflects on Harden not your hearts as in the provocation in the day of temptation in the wilderness when your Fathers tempted me proved me and saw my works They were a People peculiarly chosen by God and obliged by the most amazing temporal Benefits that ever were conferred on any fed with a constant Miracle led by a Prophet and confirmed by continual Miracles wrought in Favour of them Here was sufficient Conviction of the Truth and Power of that God they worshipped of the Greatness of the Obligation laid upon them and the Reasons they had to yield an intire Obedience to his Commands Yet we find frequent Defections in them contempt of his Precepts vilifying of his Benefits and disbelief of his Promifes which enforced God in Indignation to say of them How long will this people provoke me and how long will it be e're they believe on me for all the signs which I have shewed among them I will smite them with the pestilence and disinherit them c. Numb XIV 11 12. So then To harden the heart is to Act against the Convictions and impulse of our own Consciences a Sin of the highest Enormity against which God expresseth the greatest Indignation and on which he inflicteth the most severe Punishments This we cannot but acknowledge this we willingly confess We wonder at the impudence and obstinacy of Pharaoh we are apt to conceive Indignation and pronounce Sentence against him when we read or hear his History We abhor the ingratitude and baseness of the Jews and are astonished to think that they should after so many signal Miracles wrought in Favour of them rebel against God slight his Favours and endeavour to stone his Prophet and their own Deliverer We condemn the Folly and unreasonable Conduct of both and are prone to conclude with our selves had we then been in the place of Pharaoh or in the number of the Jews far be it from us that we should have imitated his obstinacy or their Perverseness But let us not deceive our selves or flatter our selves with a vain Opinion of behaving our selves better in such Circumstances Let us reflect upon our own Behaviour in relation to the Duty of Repentance and we shall find the Omission of it to be in no less a Degree a hardening of the heart than was the Crime either of Pharaoh or of the Jews For our Conviction is no less than was that of Pharaoh our Obligation greater than was that of the Jews We are without doubt fully satisfied that our God is the true God that he hath a just Right to lay his Commands upon us and to require our Obedience We know very well that he hath commanded us to observe the Rules of Holiness Temperance and Justice and that although he hath reserved Mercy and Pardon for Sinners yet that this is dispensed upon no otherCondition than that of Repentance Without the Practice therefore of this no Obedience to God can consist or be preserved And then may not he justly be said to have hardned his heart and defied the Divine Majesty who acknowledgeth all this and yet cannot be prevailed on to manifest his Obedience by forsaking bewailing and amending his former Disobedience Who confesseth himself to be his Creature and to owe to his Liberality both his Life and all the consequences of it and yet continueth to profess Enmity to him by retaining his sinful Habits Who believeth all his Attributes of Almighty Power Wisdom and Omnipresence and yet neither dreads his Anger nor reveres his All-seeing eye So that if Men considered but the natural Obligations which they have to God they could not disobey him or continue in Disobedience by unrepentance without either the constant Accusation of their Consciences or a studious stifling of them by a profligate hardness of heart But then who can reflect upon the wonderful Benefits of God revealed in the Redemption of Mankind without concluding impenitent Christians to be guilty of unparallel'd Obstinacy When the Dictates of Reason and natural light of Mankind by an universal decay of Piety wanted their effect and failed in promoting among Men obedience to their Sovereign Lord and Maker God contrived such a method to reduce them to their Duty as if an inexcusable ingratitude did not oppose could not miscarry He invited them by the Blood of his only begotten Son proclaimed Pardon to all penitent Sinners proposed infinite Rewards to sincere Repentance and settled a Succession of Pastors in the Church who might renew these Promises and promote Repentance by constant Exhortations After all this it is impossible to corroborate or add to the Obligation of what is required of us And if we inquire what that is we shall find it to be briefly comprehended in Repentance This was the Message of John the Baptist sent to prepare the way to our Saviour this was the subject of theApostles Sermons Repent and be baptized So necessary is it to the Profession of Christianity that it is pre-required to it The main design of that most Holy Religion is to promote the Honour of God by procuring a just Esteem and Adoration of himself an universal Obedience to his Laws and Devotion to his Will None of which can take place until the love of Sin be first renounced and changed into a steady Resolution of Submission to the Divine Precepts If then neither the offers of Pardon can perswade us nor the love of Christ constrain us if the frequent Exhortations of faithful Monitors cannot move us nor the necessity of the thing it self engage us if these Arguments contrived by the most Wise Providence of God become fruitless and ineffectual it must be imputed to an Obduration greater than any other because opposing Reasons stronger than any other If to slight and over-look all these Obligations be so enormous an obduration much more Criminal will it be to despise the glorious
them When ye have lift up the Son of Man then shall ye know that I am He. And this in some measure mitigates and excuseth the present ignorance of the Apostles that they had not yet seen the completion of the last and greatest Acts of Christ particularly his Resurrection Lastly To say no more the extraordinary Gifts and Graces of the Holy Ghost were not yet poured forth Of these Gifts none of the least was a due preparation of Will and penetration of Judgment to conceive rightly the sence and meaning of all Divine Revelations and Mysteries This was afterwards plentifully poured down upon the Apostles as upon this Day but before that time was not conferred on them That the want of this extraordinary assistance of the Holy Ghost was a main cause of their Ignorance is plainly insinuated by all those Texts wherein Christ promiseth to the Apostles the Mission of the Holy Spirit to dispel their Ignorance and enlighten their understandings as in the words of the Text and John XV. 26. But when the Comforter is come whom I will send unto you from the Father even the Spirit of Truth which proceedeth from the Father he shall Testify of me and when He the Spirit of Truth is come He will guide you into all Truth The ordinary assistance of the Divine Spirit had indeed all along accompanyed the Apostles which had been abundantly sufficient when added to the Motives of Faith and advantages of Instruction which they received from Christ to inform them in all things necessary considered as private Persons if they had removed all prejudices and used due attention and reason but the extraordinary Inspiration of the Holy Ghost being not necessary was not yet conferred on them For the Holy Ghost was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified St. John VII 39. These were the principal causes of that Ignorance of the Apostles which we proposed to inquire into of that misapprehension of the Nature of our Saviours Office and Design which so eminently appears in the context as we before explained it which disabled them from considering the consequence of his Miracles For their heart was hardned Mark VI. 52. by reason of which They understood none of these things his Passion and Resurrection and this saying was hid from them neither knew they the things that were spoken Luc. XVIII 34. which caused the words of the women relating to the Resurrection of Christ to seem to them as idle Tales and incredible Fables Luc. XXIV 11. and the indignation of which drew from Christ that sharp Exprobration O ye of little faith Mattâ—… VIII 26. That this Ignorance ought not in the least to surprize us or induce us to entertain any thoughts prejudicial to Christianity it self appears from the Reasons which I have already assigned to it but will more fully be manifested in considering the second Head proposed which was To shew That the permission of this Ignorance till the sending of the Holy Ghost was not in the least repugnant to the Divine Wisdom or the design of the Gospel This will evidently appear from these two Considerations I. That it would be incongruous to the Divine Wisdom to use any extraordinary methods in removing the Ignorance of the Apostles and perfectly informing their Understandings until such Information not being possible to be obtained by the ordinary methods of Instruction should become absolutely necessary to the being of the Church II. That such a perfect and plenary Information was not necessary to the Apostles till after the Ascension of Christ. The first of these Propositions naturally follows from that known truth and received principle that God never worketh Miracles without necessity nor recurreth to extraordinary causes while natural and ordinary will suffice However fully to evince this matter and clear all remaining doubts I will consider all the possible methods of perfectly instructing the Apostles before the Ascension of Christ when the natural and ordinary means failed and demonstrate that God could not use any one of them without being injurious to his Wisdom and Honour These extraordinary methods may be reduced to these three Heads First God by his Almighty power might have over-ruled their understanding and without expecting the assent of the Will violently imprinted a perfect knowledge of his Revelations in it or even forced the Will to assent to it although it had not yet discoverd the truth of it But nothing can be imagined more injurious to the honour of God than a proceeding of this kind to prepare the way for Religion by violating those Priviledges of reasoning and free will which he at first conferred on them which were in truth to make Mankind happy by destroying their Nature Secondly our Saviour having already abundantly convinced the Apostles of the Divinity of his Mission and consequently of his Infallibity might have plainly and openly revealed to them all the Mysteries of his Religion and future Actions to be yet performed and required their immediate Assent to them without taking care to satisfie them at the same time of the truth and reasonableness of such Revelations by their Conformity to all precedent Revelations or the Law of Nature but this also was irrational in it self and consequently unworthy of the Divine Wisdom and might justly have been esteemed unsatisfactory by the Apostles For as they were fully convinced that our Saviour was a Divine Person so were they no less that all the precedent Revelations were delivered by inspired men and consequently deserved the same degree of Assent which his could do So that if the least repugnance between the Doctrine or Life of Christ and the ancient Prophesies could have been difcovered they were not in the least obliged to assent unto them Nay to a full and unexceptionable Proof of the truth of his Revelations it was not only necessary that no repugnance between them and the predictions of the Old Testament were discovered but also that an entire Conformity should appear Since the true Messias was by God designed to the Jews under those two Characters of extraordinary Miracles and perfect agreement of Life Actions and Doctrine to the precedent Predictions and Revelations and consequently could not be evidently distinguished without the concurrence of both those Proofs And indeed such an arbitrary Command of a blind Assent to any Revelations confirmed by Miracles without a previous Examination of the truth of them is so absurd and repugnant to the Laws of reasoning that it could not be used by Christ himself even in respect of Heathens For such a resignation of the Understanding could rationally be made to no other Authority than an Authority founded upon Arguments of greater Credibility than can be found in any other Case But such is not the Authority derived from Miracles for all objects of Sense and necessary Deductions from reason include at least an equal many a greater degree of Credibility I mean not hereby that any truths whatsoever can have a greater certainty than
those which are revealed by God supposing them to have been indeed revealed but only that any such Revelation is really made can appear no otherwise than by Arguments of probability Thirdly a perfect knowledge of all the Mysteries of Religion might have been extraordinarily obtained by the Apostles before the Ascension of our Saviour by conferring on them the same Gifts of the Holy Ghost as were afterwards poured on them on the day of Pentecost But neither was this convenient to the design of the Gospel nor the Wisdom of God Not to the former For the plentiful Effusion and Mission of the Holy Ghost was an Act of the Regal power of Christ which he commenced not till after his Ascension when he first began to exercise that Authority which he had obtained to himself by the obedience of Death And therefore our Saviour tells the Apostles S. Joh. XVI 7. Nevertheless I tell you the truth it is expedient for you that I go away For if I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you but if I depart I will send him unto you And in another place this is assigned as the Reason why the Holy Ghost was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified The Wisdom of God also was no less engaged which might justly have been arraigned if he had used so wonderful and signal a Miracle as was the Mission of the Holy Ghost for the extraordinary instruction of the Apostles before the Ascension of our Lord since no such Instruction was yet necessary which was the second Point I proposed to prove Namely II. That a perfect and infallible Information of the Apostles was not absolutely necessary till after the Ascension of Christ. For this was required in the Apostles for no other cause than that they might thereby be inabled to teach the Doctrines of our Saviour to the whole world and at last deliver them down in writing to succeeding Ages infallibly and without danger of any intermixed Enrour to the suspicion of which the Christian Religion would ever have been subjected if they had not been indued with such clearness of apprehension concerning every Point of it and attended by such an extraordinary assistance as might secure them from all possible danger of mistaking the Sense of that Doctrine which they were to deliver to the rest of Mankind To create this clear apprehension in the Apostles and convey down this assistance to them was the chief intention of sending the Holy Ghost as upon this day and the principal effect of that Mission at least as far as I am at present concerned So that since the sending of the Holy Ghost was designed purely to enable them to the due execution of their Office of preaching and propagating the Doctrine of Christ to the whole world which Office was not to be commenced till after his Ascension it manifestly follows that an exact and infallible knowledge of the Mysteries of the Christian Religion was not absolutely necessary to the Apostles before that time A perfect knowledge would have been useful indeed to them even before that time but useful to them only as private Persons not as bearing the publick Office and Character of Apostles whose Office before the Ascension of our Saviour consisted as we before observed in taking notice of the Actions Sufferings and Miracles of Christ that they might be able afterwards to testifie them to the whole world This Office of observing the Actions of Christ required no exact and perfect knowledge of all the Reasons of his Actions and Mysteries of his Doctrine but might be sufficiently discharged by any Persons who were not devoid of common Sense and Honesty The Mission of the Holy Ghost was necessary upon Reasons of another nature and would have continued necessary although the Apostles had perfectly understood all the Doctrine of our Saviour before his Ascension For however they might then sufficiently understand it nothing less than a perpetual extraordinary assistance of the Holy Ghost could infallibly secure them from all future Errour in delivering it to others or create such a degree of probability as might deserve the Assent and Belief of Mankind in all future Ages Thus I have shewn the Reasons of that Ignorance of the Apostles which is so remarkable through all the History of the Gospels and for which our Saviour promiseth so extraordinary a remedy in the words of my Text and withal demonstrated that there is nothing in all this Conduct of the Apostles continuing under that Ignorance till the Ascension and of our Saviour permitting it till that time disadvantageous to the Truth and Divinity of the Christian Religion It remains that I draw some few Conclusions from what hath been said which was the third and last Proposal First then if as we before shewed our Saviour and the Apostles who were unquestionably infallible never set up themselves for infallible Judges nor required from their Hearers a blind Assent to their Dictates if they submitted their Doctrines to the Examination of Scripture and Judgment of all private men in vain do any at this day pretend in vertue of an Authority derived from them to set up themselves for infallible Judges of Controversie from whom lyeth no Appeal either to Scripture or Reason and thereby exercise a Jurisdiction which they never claimed But I wave that Particular and choose rather to insist on some more practical Considerations Of which The first is That if the knowledge of the Christian Religion was so difficult to the Apostles who enjoyed so many and so great advantages under the Instruction and Government of their Divine Master the Author of this Religion if after the sight of his Miracles the Enjoyment of a triennial Conversation and the constant hearing of his Divine Discourses they continued ignorant of the true Spirit and Nature of Christianity this ought to excite us to great diligence in learning and studying the Mysteries of our Religion and enquiring the true Sense of those Revelations which our Saviour conveyed to the world It is indeed the peculiar Excellency and Glory of the Christian Religion that its admirable simplicity hath fited it to the Understandings and Capacity of all men that it is not such an abstruce Science as surmounts the ordinary reach of Mankind and must intirely be confined to the Discipline of the Schools and knowledge of Learned men the acquisition and understanding of it is possible and even easie to all men But then God in proposing this Religion intended not purely to supercede the Labours of men and consult their ease Some Conditions are also necessary on our side that we diligently search the Truth examine the Scriptures hearken to the instruction of our Pastors carefully weigh the Reasons of things and bring a mind ready disposed to assent to any Truths which shall evidently appear to us how contrary soever they may be to our Passions and Inclinations For although we labour not with those prejudices of a temporal Kingdom
be scandalized at the Dissent and Opposition of the Jews and Greeks Much less ought we to suffer our selves to be led away by the same Prejudices with them Men perhaps professing Christianity may imagine this to be impossible while they continue in the open Profession of it and so take no Care to prevent it But if we examine our selves I fear we shall find our selves obnoxious to the same Prejudices and to have been often seduced by them if not to a Desertion of our Religion yet to a Violation of it Was the Christian Faith a Stumling-block to the Jews because defeating their hopes of a temporal Messias and worldly Happiness And are not we often tempted by the Pleasures of this World to withdraw our Obedience from the Laws of God and thereby in effect to deny him As often as Men preferr their worldly Interest to the least Duty of Religion as often as by too anxious a Diligence about the Affairs of this Life they neglect the care of another they give just Reason to others to suspect them Guilty of the same Errour of placing all their Happiness on this side Heaven and dis-believing the Joys of Paradise Did the Jews often unseasonably and importunately require a Sign And are not we often induced to distrust Providence and murmur against the Divine Goodness as often as God deferrs to rescue us from imminent Dangers and Calamities and immediately ingageth not his miraculous Power in our Assistance Do not Men call in question the Justice of the Divine Dispensation because God refuseth to violate the established Laws of his Government and sometimes permitteth the good to pass unrewarded and the wicked to escape unpunished in this life Was the Christian Religion Foolishness to the Greeks because proposed by mean and unlearned Persons And have not the Effects of spiritual Pride been deplored in all Ages of the Church and continue to this day while Men puffed up with a vain Opinion of their own extraordinary Knowledge in Divine Matters refuse to hear the Voice of their ordinary Pastor Scorn to be instructed by him and rudely turn their backs upon him Did the Greek Philosophers despise Christianity because plain and simple easie to be understood and not difficult to be performed And are not we often betrayed by a like Pre judice to neglect our Duty and lay aside the Study of Divine Things How many Christians are at this day displeased with a sober and rational Form of Worship either because it is not fraught with pompous and unuseful Ceremonies or because it is devoid of Enthusiastick Raptures and unintelligible Impertinencies So that we must acknowledge our selves to be no less concerned in the words and meaning of my Text than were formerly either Jews or Greeks To conclude if the most certain Truths and most Holy Religion be notwithstanding liable to the contradiction of foolish and unreasonable Men if the Prejudices against Christianity be found to be unjust and false let us neither be offended at the Opposition of her Enemies nor drawn into like Mistakes with them either by Passion or Inadvertency Let us give most humble and hearty Thanks to God for sending his Son as at this time into the World to redeem us and reveal to us his Will and Pleasure Let us adore his Wisdom and Goodness who hath contrived such excellent Methods whereby the knowledge of this Mystery and Revelation may with sufficient certainty be transmitted to all Ages improving the Happiness of our Knowledge by securing to our selves the Rewards of it in a careful Practice of our Duty that so we may here with Comfort hold fast and hereafter with Glory obtain the Promises of everlasting Life To which God of his infinite Mercy bring us all for the sake of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The Seventh SERMON PREACH'D January 20th 1689. At LAMBETH CHAPEL Hebr. IX 27. It is appointed unto Men once to die but after this the Judgment I Intend not from these words to prove the Mortality of Mankind or shew that all the Members of it are subject to that fatal Doom The experience of almost Six Thousand Years may abundantly convince us of this And least we should imagin our selves to be particularly exempted from the common calamity of Mankind that decay which we find in our Bodies and those frequent Infirmities to which we are all subject permits us not to entertain any hopes of such an extraordinary priviledge The necessity of ending this Life is so apparent that it would be trifling to endeavour to demonstrate it however the consideration of that necessity is a matter of the greatest Moment and which may justly require the most serious reflections of our Mind But that is not my present purpose nor the design of the Apostle in these words wherein is expressed the divine Determination in relation to the Mortality and future Judgment of Men and the Order of them namely that God hath decreed that all Men shall once Die and that after Death they shall receive either the reward or punishment of their Actions Now however the secret Decrees of God be unsearchable and his ways past finding out however a curious desire of knowing the Nature and Reasons of them may be rash and fruitless yet in these which so immediately and universally concern Mankind and are in effect the great object of our Religion no enquiry can be unnecessary or unuseful the reasons of them are obvious and satisfactory such as may not only be discovered by us but even ought not to be unknown to us and surely not without reason For nothing tends more effectually to secure the Honour of God and induce us to acquiesce in his Decrees than an intire satisfaction of the Justice and Wisdom of them And if this be necessary in relation to all the divine Decrees which respect us how much more will it concern us to have a perfect knowledge of the reasons of those grand Decrees of Death and Judgment which the Apostle hath comprehended in the words of my Text And from whence I shall take occasion to Discourse upon these two Heads I. The Justice of the Divine Decreâ—… of Death to all Men. It is appointed unto Men once to die II. The Justice and Wisdom of the Divine Decree of Judgment to be executed after Death and not in this Life But after this the Judgment First then if we consider only the light of Reason nothing can appear more just than the Divine Decree which imposeth a necessity of Dying upon all Men. God being the Author of our existence and the Lord of Life and Death might justly dispose of or dispense either according to his Good Pleasure It was a sufficient obligation to Man to have received the benefit of Existence without expecting a perpetual and invariable conservation of that Existence The very Nature and Constitution of Man declares him to be Mortal and then surely it could neither be unjust or unreasonable in God to permit
present Joy and in this will consist our future reward to be admitted to perform continual Acts of Honour and Glory to God in Heaven To be urged to the Practice of the same Actions in this Life ought rather to be esteemed an Anticipation of those future Joys than an Imposition If it be indeed a Happiness in Angels to be employed in continual Acts of this Nature if it shall be hereafter an infinite Favour to us to be admitted to the same Office it is now at least some Degree of Happiness to perform that imperfectly which we shall then compleatly and so much the greater Degree by how much the more we are intent on it But then That we may not deceive our selves with a false Opinion of giving Honour and Glory to God when we fall short of it that we may not be ranked among those of whom God complains That they Honour him with their lips but their heart is far from him we must take especial Care that the Honour and Glory we pay to God be real and unfeigned The Apostle teacheth us to be sincere in this Duty by affixing an Amen to the end of these words which is as much as to say indeed or may it be so may Men sincerely and in earnest give Honour and Glory unto God may their Hearts agree with their Mouths and their Actions with their Declarations Otherwise instead of honouring we shall but vilifie and affront God and deny his Attribute of Omniscience vainly imagining that our Hypocrisie is concealed from him and undiscerned by him And indeed no deliberate Sin can be committed without overthrowing our Belief of all the Divine Attributes and effacing or at least for a while clouding all Notions of Religion arising from them By the Commission of any such Sin we disown him to be our King withdraw our selves from his Government and refuse to be directed by his Laws We set up to our selves and pursue a different end from that appointed by the Laws of our Creation we wrest our selves out of the Possession of Christ by the price of whose Blood we were redeemed and deliver our selves to his and our professed Enemy the Devil We deny him thereby to be a King eternal who continueth his Government even after Death and exerciseth severe Judgment upon Sinners for things done in the Body We dis-believe the immutability of his Will and fondly imagine that he will in our Favour reverse his Sentence of Condemnation pronounced against obstinate and deliberate Sinners We perswade our selves that we escape his Knowledge and are hid from his All-seeing Eye So fatal and erroneous is every deliberate Sin that it either destroyeth or debaseth for a time all Principles of true Religion and Notions of a Deity and thereby becomes a temporary Apostacy That we therefore may escape the Danger of that unhappiness let us constantly keep in Mind the infinite Perfections of God and our Obligations arising from them let us always remember that he is our Creator our King and our Redeemer that he will after Death take an exact and impartial account of our Actions that he hath decreed Damnation to all obstinate and impenitent Sinners and will not recall his Sentence that he knoweth all our Thoughts and seeth our most private Motions Let us frequently call these things to Mind and Act as if we had them continually before our Eyes so shall we give Honour and Glory to God in our Lives so may we without the Check of our own Consciences confess his Glorious Attributes with our Mouths and so shall we be admitted to sing Glory and Honour to him eternally in Heaven Which God grant for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. The Ninth SERMON PREACH'D March 17th 1688 9. At LAMBETH CHAPEL Psal. XCV 7 8. To day if ye will hear his Voice Harden not your hearts THERE is no greater Argument of the miserable Condition of Mankind since the Fall of Adam no fuller demonstration of the Dominion of the Flesh over the Spirit of which the Scripture so often complains than the willful Omission of those means which are at the same time allowed to be the only way to Happiness This Happiness all Men earnestly desire and none are ignorant that the Conditions of it are Repentance and Obedience all acknowledge this to be highly reasonable and absolutely necessary yet all find and deplore in themselves a continual aversion to set immediately upon the serious Practice of these Conditions They flatter themselves indeed with some hopes at least of attaining the proposed Happiness and by the hopes of this support themselves whensoever they give their Souls leave to entertain any serious Reflections The Scripture and their own Conscience tells them That these hopes are vain while they continue in unrepentance yet they deferr their Repentance from day to day and fondly imagine that it will never be too late to set upon it they are loth to fix the time of this necessary Duty and say to their Souls hitherto thou hast served the Lusts of the Flesh and Temptations of the World henceforward from this very moment abandon them and devote thy self to God Wisely therefore hath the Church in all Ages ever since the Apostles time set apart a solemn time in every year which we call Lent wherein all Christians should be taught and obliged to attend more diligently upon the Execution of their Duty to enter into a more serious Consideration of their eternal interest and be exhorted to begin a resolute Opposition of their Lusts and Passions by inuring themselves to a severe Exercise of Holiness and Vertue by denying to gratifie the Lust of the Flesh in its inordinate Desires and if it be otherwise untameable to reduce it by Maceration or other sober Austerities By this means Sinners are induced to bethink themselves in earnest of their forlorn State and Condition and what they were always unwilling to fix themselves the time of their Repentance is appointed for them and the performance of it is assisted by this excellent Discipline of thâ—… Church And then that we may not neglect it that we may not imagine immediate Repentance to be unnecessary that we may not omit either to fix a time to it our selves or to embrace the time appointed by the Church wherein all the Faithful do in a more particular manner apply themselves to exercise Acts of Repentance we are assured by the Holy Ghost That if we will not yet at least God hath set a time wherein he expects our Repentance and beyond which he will not await To day if ye will hear his voice harden not your hearts From which words I shall take occasion to Discourse upon these two Heads I. The Duty of Repentance enjoyned in those words Harden not your hearts II. The term prefixed to it that it be done immediately To day if ye will hear c. I. The Duty of Repentance enjoyned which is fitly expressed by these words Harden not your hearts For if we