Sinner is then in when Hell and Eternity are just presented before him then he parts with his Sins as a Man does with his Money when he has a Sword or a Pistol held to his Breast out of mere fear not out of free choice No Man but must be afraid of Hell who believes it and has any sense of it and all this dying sorrow and Repentance arises only from hence some I know make a mighty difference both as to the Cause and the Vertue and Efficacy of this sorrow if it arise only from the fear of Hell it is Attrition if from the Love of God joyned with it is Contrition and so will be more effectual Now I am afraid the first is the chief spring if not only cause of it in dying Sinners and that there is no real difference between these two sorts of sorrows in the Nature of the thing but only an over nice distinction in words and thoughts and in considering the same thing by several mental conceptions when the passion is the same in it self and the causes of it are not to be so nicely distinguisht but whatever be the principle of this sorrow and however strong and sincere it be and whatever purposes and resolutions it may be joyned with yet that this mere Mental Repentance is not true and Perfect Repentance such as the Gospel promises pardon to I have shown before in giving the Notion and describing the Nature of Repentance and particularly proved how short and imperfect this is in the fourth Section of the first Chapter so that a Dying Sinner cannot then perform such a full Repentance as hath a certain title to Pardon and Salvation by the promises of the Gospel But to show further that a foolish unprepared Dying Sinner can have no hopes of entering into Heaven by all he can then do and that his most earnest Prayers and Entreaties his Cryes and Sorrows his Wishes and Purposes and Resolutions and all the parts of his dying Repentance put together are not sufficient to do this as the Parable here supposes I shall produce some more Positive and Express Proofs and as I think convincing Arguments against this Efficacy and Validity of a Death-Bed Repentance SECT IV. More Positive Proofs and Arguments against the validity of a Death-Bed Repentance FIrst It does no way come up to the plain and indispensable Conditions of Salvation required by the Gospel for those are no other than Faith and Obedience believing the Gospel and living according to it which are the plain and only pathway to Heaven by Christianity and he that thinks of Christs bringing him thither any other way abuses his Saviour and his Religion and puts a wretched cheat upon himself I know Faith and Repentance and Faith alone are often set down as the only Terms and Conditions of Salvation by the Gospel but then they are to be taken not in a strict and narrow sense but in a large one as they include all that belongs and is consequent to them all that Obedience and new Christian Life which is made as plain a Condition of Salvation by the Gospel as Faith it self and Repentance I have shown plainly takes those in so that the whole Practical Condition of the Gospel is meant by them Faith is the first Principle and Foundation of Repentance Obedience and all Christian Vertues and therefore as including and containing those is made the Condition of our being saved by a Metonymy whereby the Cause comprehends also the Effect Faith does so plainly in Scripture mean not only an assent to anothers words or a trust and affiance in them but that which worketh by love Gal. 5.5 and that which produces good Works and is dead without them that 't is a strange mistake to make that the Condition of our being justified and saved without Obedience 'T is to be observed and I think it may help to clear this matter that when Faith and Believing is made the only Condition of being saved and nothing else is mentioned this is alwayes spoken to those Jews or Heathens who were not yet Christians and Believers and the only way for them to be saved was to believe and embrace Christianity and become Disciples of Christ As when Christ sayes John 3.15 Whosoever believeth on the Son of Man shall not perish but have everlasting life This is spoken to Nicodemus who then exprest his disbelief of Christs words and was not brought fully to believe in him though he was disposed to it So John 6.40 when Christ saith This is the will of him that sent me that every one which seeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life This is spoken to the Jews who murmured at Christ and were far from believing in him And so Christ bid the Apostles preach this to the unbelieving World Whosoever believeth and is baptized shall be saved Matth. 16.16 i.e. believing and professing Christianity puts them into a salvable state and if they live according to this Faith they shall certainly be saved As if we should say to a Person who desires to know how he may be a Schollar Go to School or to the University This would put him into a certain way to Learning but he must not only be enter'd and enroll'd and matriculated there but must study and read and do such things as belong to a Schollar When St. Peter advised the Jews who were pricked to the heart Acts 2.37 and St. Paul the Jaylor when he ask'd what must I do to be saved that they should believe in Christ and repent They meant thereby turn Christians which would put them into a salvable state but then they must perform all the other things which belong to Christians as well as have this Faith or else they would lose and forfeit this their good state When Christ therefore speaks to his Disciples who already believed in him and St. Paul writes to those who were Christians and Believers they tell them not only of Faith which is the first Christian Vertue and the root of all the rest but of Obedience and of all good Works of living as becometh the Gospel and adorning their Profession with all manner of Vertues which they make as necessary to Salvation as Faith it self Thus if ye keep my commandments saith Christ ye shall abide in my love John 15.20 And ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you ver 14. And not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven Mat. 7.21 If ye know these things happy are ye if ye do them John 13.17 So St. Paul to the Corinthians Circumcision is nothing nor uncircumcision but keeping the Commandments of God 1 Cor. 7.19 and to the Galatians In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but a new creature Gal. 6.15 For by the gospel the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all
he feels an inward strength and vigour in himself and the constant springs of joy and comfort rising up in his own breast and overflowing his Soul But Vice sneaks and is cowardly and fills a Man with fear and confusion and all the mean and little and uneasie and tormenting Passions that belong to Humane Nature Vertue approves it self to our Reason and agrees with the native sense of our own Minds and has a Natural beauty and loveliness that commends it to our first sight and apprehension and makes it amiable and desirable esteemed and honoured and admired by every one even by those who forsake it who cannot but be so just to it as to commend and approve it very often in others But Vice has a Natural ugliness and deformity that makes Men ashamed of it after they have committed it and commit it in darkness and obscurity and after to deny and extenuate it as being presently sensible of the folly and undecency and unreasonableness of it as having done what they cannot justifie and what presently flyes in their faces if they have not a brow of Brass and a forehead of Steel It is contrary and awry to our own Nature and against the first sense and tenderness of our own Minds so that great violence must be used to commit it at first and great pain follows upon it 'T is a force a Rape upon the Virgin-modesty and the Natural sense of Good and Evil that we are born with Vertue has alwayes very good and desirable effects upon us in this Life as well as great Rewards in another 'T is in the Wise Mans Phrase and in a true literal sense Health to our navel and marrow to our bones Prov. 3.8 It keeps our Bodies in good plight neither drains or exhausts them with forced Pleasures or unruly Passions nor choaks or suffocates them with immoderate loads nor drowns and washes them away with floods of drink and cups of intemperance It brings a Blessing of God upon our Estates and often makes us Rich by the help of Industry and Frugality whilst nothing is so expensive and so impoverishing as Vice which spends many times all upon its Lusts and the hungry Wolf comes often to the door where the Swine and the Goat have been used to dwell Though Vertue may not alwayes bring abundance neither is it desirable alwayes to a wise Man though Solomon puts Riches as the common Blessing in the left hand of Wisdom Prov. 3.16 yet it makes a little that the righteous hath better than great riches of the ungodly Ps 37.16 Honour and a good Name do more certainly belong to Vertue than Riches and whilst Vice brings a blot and a reproach upon a Mans Credit Vertue makes him loved and honoured and esteemed by all that know him while he lives and embalms his Name when he is dead and makes his Memory to be precious But above all it makes a Man truly easie and happy within himself it secures him the peace and tranquillity of his own Mind which is the greatest happiness in the World So that all Natural Good and all that is desirable to Humane Nature growes as a proper Fruit out of Vertue which is the true Root that Naturally brings forth all Good as Sin does all Evil and these are so annexed to them by the nature and constitution of things as effects to their proper causes that nothing can cut them off or precide them and these besides all the super-added Motives of revealed Religion are by plain Reason and observation of things very strong Arguments to bring Men off from Vice to Vertue i. e. to true Repentance 4. Therefore Fourthly A wise Man when he comes to reflect and consider finds that that which hindered him from seeing all this before was only his foolish Lusts and his corrupt senfual Inclinations and his strong Passions and violent and unreasonable Appetites which blinded his Reason and clouded his Judgment and darkened his Understanding and besotted intoxicated and bewitched him i. e. by some unaccountable wayes hindered him from discerning and considering these things which are so plain and evident and therefore the reason why he before chose Vice and forsook Vertue was because he did not see and consider this nor was so truly convinced of the Evil of Sin and the Good of Vertue but now he has quite other thoughts and apprehensions about them and therefore he is changed in his Will and his Affections by this change wrought in his Mind and his Understanding and this being a lasting and effectual change upon all the inward principles of action has a necessary influence upon his outward actions that are alwayes moved and turned by those inward springs and wheels within us for though a Man is still at liberty and is under no force and compulsion from without but acts freely from within himself yet his Will will follow the last dictate of his Understanding and he will not choose Evil as Evil when he apprehends it to be so and he must some way have his Reason corrupted and judge falsly and erroneously before he will practice so Omnis peccans ignorat If he has a true and lively sense of the Good of Vertue abiding upon his Mind he will not choose Vice again 'T is this sense I doubt not confirms the blessed Spirits above and will do the Souls of all good Men in Heaven when they see and know this so perfectly that 't will be impossible for them to fall but now we see things darkly and judge weakly and often change and alter our Minds as not having such a clear view of things nor attending so closely to the dictates of impartial Reason but our thoughts are often lured off by the temptations of the Flesh and our Minds hearken but to one side to the false reasonings and suggestions of the Devil and our own Lusts or are surprized with the sudden importunity of a temptation before they can recollect themselves Else no Man could say Video meliora proboque deteriora sequor for we cannot but love and choose Good when we apprehend it and hate and abhor Evil when it is visible and naked to us We must therefore strip Vice of its disguise and its false colours and wash off its paint and meretricious charmes and see it as it is in its deformity and ugliness and in the miserable and sad consequences of it and then we shall hate that which we once loved and throw away the gilded poyson and shake the smooth and shining Viper off of our hands and cast the rotten curtizan from our armes and embraces We shall be ashamed that we were so cheated and imposed upon so deluded by the deceitfulness of sin that we were so weak as to be governed by our mean passions and low inclinations which are the imperfection and the soft side of our Nature and that we should not live up to that Reason which is proper to us and distinguishes us from brutes that we
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
two such Receptacles for the Souls of all Men and Angels to spend an Eternity in for the fixt continuance and Eternal Duration of their state is more plainly revealed then their particular State and Condition so that all Rational Souls must be consigned to one of those States and Places for they who have made a Third or Fourth have made it only out of their own brains and imaginations not out of any Scriptural foundation or Authority there must be allowed to be very great differences and unequal degrees of happiness or misery in those two places or else neither the Justice of God nor the different Cases of Men can be accounted for with any tolerable ease and satisfaction to our thoughts or be any way reconciled to the principles either of Reason or Religion God the Just and All-knowing Judge will give all allowances to the hard circumstances the invincible ignorance the unavoidable failures the powerful temptations the particular cases and several disadvantages that any of Mankind have been under and with the fairest and most impartial equity will adjudge all their Conditions and proportion their future Rewards and Punishments according to what is due to them all things considered according to the right or wrong use of that freedom and liberty which he gave them and the faults or vertues under that light and knowledge they had of their own wills and choices by which alone they can either be or be denominated good or bad Men Some of Mankind seem not to have either vertues enough to qualifie them for Heaven or to be so wilfully vitious as to deserve Hell but to be in a kind of middle state here between Vertue and Vice whatever they shall be in hereafter and many who are guilty of some Vices which the Scripture declares damnable and exclusive of Heaven yet are not of such downright Irreligion and General Profligacy and Debauchery as others Thus also many have some real sense of Religion but yet are but weakly moved and influenced by it and do but just live in a very low way of Grace and Vertue and are not so Rich in good works nor do so abound in Acts of Piety Zeal Usefulness and Charity as others Therefore one Equal Complete Perfect Entire State either of Happiness or Misery cannot belong to all these alike but Heaven or Hell are proportionable unequal different conditions of both exactly suited and fitted to the Moral and Religious Deserts Capacities and Qualifications of all Rational Beings in which they shall be fixt to all Eternity without alteration though perhaps not without further improvements and gradual risings and fallings according to the Nature of either of those States These Thoughts have been a great ease and satisfaction to my self in the Conception of the great and amazing things of another World and I therefore communicate them not only on the fore-mentioned account but because they may be so to others who consider those greatest Objects of Meditation with any penetration of thought according to the best helps we have of Philosophy and Scripture and I am perswaded it would be good Service to Religion if it were thus fairly reconciled in all the revealed Truths and Articles of it to the thoughts of inquisitive Men as I doubt not but it may be but this is a subject of another Nature which I am not now to meddle withal CHAP. VI. Practical Rules and Directions concerning the Particular Exercise of Repentance I Shall now consider the Particular Exercise of Repentance taken as a single Duty distinct from all others of Obedience which are in the largest sense involved in it and without which it is not effectual to Pardon and Salvation as I have all along shown but Repentance taken singly for a particular act of a Sinner just struck and affected with a sense of his Sins and exercising at set times Penitential Reflections and proper Actions upon the thoughts and remembrance of them this which is often called Repentance and is so in some sense but not sufficient to compleat this Duty and to entitle us to all the effects of Repentance as they are promised to it in Scripture in a more large and comprehensive Notion as including a good Life and all manner of Obedience after we have failed and come short in any point This which I would call Penitence or Penance as being a Penal Exercise or Penitential Course and Discipline fit for a Sinner to go through after he has committed any great Sin or whenever he seriously remembers and considers and recollects as he ought often to do with himself the most considerable miscarriages of his Life This consists in these following things 1. In confessing of his Sin 2. In inward and outward Sorrow for it 3. In Humiliations Bodily Austerities and Mortifications and especially Fasting as the chief of them In these the Scripture and the Church and the custom of good Men in all Ages have placed this Exercise of Repentance as consisting of such Penitential Acts not as a permanent Habit of renewed Obedience and recovered Vertue nor as if the Essence or the formal Vertue and proper fruits of it lay in these but in Reformation of Heart and Life Conversion and Obedience to God but these are the buds and blossoms of those fruits of Repentance the seeds and the signs of it or at least the outward concomitants and attendants of it and such a retinue as are proper to go along with it for the solemnity at least and decent performance of it if not as absolutely necessary to the thing it self Necessary generally in private but alwayes in publick Acts or Expressions of Repentance wherein a publick reparation and satisfaction is to be given to Gods Honour and Authority his Judgments to be averted and his Anger deprecated and a common sense and apprehension of all this to be promoted and inculcated among others as in publick Penances and National Repentances and therefore we read chiefly of these upon such occasions both in Scripture and Ecclesiastical Writers Open Sins are a dishonouring of God an affronting and despising his Power and Authority a setting up our Wills against his a gratifying and indulging our selves in undue liberties and unlawful inclinations of Body Now 't is fit therefore in our Repentance for them wherein we make what amends we can to God and repair the injury we have done him and undo the Sin as far as we are able and show our utmost displeasure against it that we should fall down before him and confess it and be sorry for it and humble our selves to him and own our vileness and wretchedness and unworthiness and express the deepest resentments of it and show our anger against our selves and revenge it very severely and afflict our Souls and our Bodies with something that shall not be very grateful to them nor pleasant and acceptable to our Senses The design of all this is to beget in our Mind such thoughts of our Sins and such passions and
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
may much more abound and he may make up the failures as far as he can of his former Life and give the best satisfaction and reparation he is able to God and Religion whom he had so highly injured and affronted that he may not be contented only to get out of an ill State and be just safe and out of danger but may endeavour to rise higher and grow in Grace and all manner of Goodness and attain to higher improvements and perfections of Vertue and Holiness This should be his aim and design and the business of his whole Life and this will certainly be so if he has the true love of Vertue of God or of Heaven in his Soul he will then be doing more good growing more vertuous more rich towards God and continually thriving and increasing in his good Condition and his Heavenly Treasure as Worldly Men are in their Earthly Trades and Riches he will be dayly adding to his store and knowing the worth of Vertue the more the more he hath of it he will by a laudable Covetousness be every day raising his Stock improving his Talents and abounding more and more in all useful Vertues and Christian good Works which should be the great business and design of every Christian all his Life This will give unspeakable comfort peace and satisfaction to his Mind and set him not only out of danger and free him from an ill state but out of all doubts fears and uncertainties in his thoughts about it for the more perfect we grow in Vertue the more chearful and well-grounded hopes and assurance we shall have in our selves and the more confidence towards God 'T is hard to know and distinguish exactly between the first lines and parting 's of Vice and Vertue of a bad and good State where the lowest degree of one begins and the other ends as 't is difficult to know the first conception and beginning of Life in an Embrio and the first day-break of the morning but when Life appears by sensible motions and visible acts and operations there is no doubt about it nor when the Sun is up and come to the Meridian that it is perfect day so what is the beginning of the Spiritual Life in a Christian Penitent or when he first is delivered from the Power of Darkness into Light and a Christian good State is not so easily known but 't is plain and clear when he performs the proper acts and operations of the Divine Life and walks as a child of light and his goodness shines more and more unto perfect day i. e. when he becomes more thoroughly vertuous and more perfectly a good Man it will be more out of doubt to himself and he will have all the chearful and comfortable evidence of it to his unspeakable satisfaction 'T is generally very low and imperfect degrees of Religion and Vertue that make us fearful and doubtful the more perfect we grow the more assured we shall have reason to be of our good State and though the Penitents tears at first bring clouds and darkness fear and melancholly over him yet perfect Vertue when he is restored to it will make a perfect day and bring in the clearest comfort peace and satisfaction to his Mind and thus though he sowed in Tears he shall reap in Joy FINIS A Catalogue of Books Printed for Samuel Smith at the Princes Armes in St. Pauls Church-Yard 1693. THE Wisdom of God manifested in the Worls of the Creation in two Parts viz. The Heavenly Bodies Elements Meteors Fossils Vegetables Animals Beasts Birds Fishes and Insects more particularly in the Body of the Earth its Figure Motion and Consistency 〈◊〉 the admirable Structure of the Bodies of Man and other Animals as also in their Generation c. By John Ray Fellow of the Royal Society The Second Edition very much enlarged In 8vo Three Discourses concerning the Changes and Dissolution of the World The First of the Creation and Chaos The Second of the General Deluge Fountains formed Stones Subterraneous Beds of Shells Earthquakes and other Changes in our Terraqueous Globe The Third of the General Conflagration Dissolution and means of bringing them to pass Of the Future State c. In 8vo Dr. Rich. Luck 's Practical Christianity Or An Account of the Holiness which the Gospel enjoyns with Motives to it and the Remedies it proposes against Temptations with a Prayer concluding each distinct Duty In 8vo Enquiry after Happiness in several Parts c. The Second Edition enlarged In 8vo The Duty of Apprentices and Servants 1. The Parents Duty how to Educate their Children that they may be fit to be employed and trusted 2. What Preparation is needful for such as enter into Service with some Rules to be observed by them how to make a wise and happy Choice of a Service 3. Their Duty in Service towards God their Master and themselves with suitable Prayers to each Duty and some Directions peculiarly to Servants for the Worthy Receiving the Holy Sacrament Published for the Benefit of Families In 8vo The Spiritual Year Or Devout Contemplations digested into distinct Arguments for every Month in the Year and for every Week in that Month Containing most of the Principal and Fundamental Doctrines of Christianity being very plain and useful for the Instruction of Families in all Christian Duties and for the disposing of them to a Religious and Spiritual Conversation In 8vo A Treatise of Church-Government or a Vindication of Dioocesan Episcopacy against the Objections of the Dissenters in Answer to some Letters lately Printed concerning the same Subject By R. Burscough M.A. In 8vo