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A95515 Vnum necessarium. Or, The doctrine and practice of repentance. Describing the necessities and measures of a strict, a holy, and a Christian life. And rescued from popular errors. / By Jer. Taylor D.D. Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667.; Lombart, Pierre, 1612-1682, engraver. 1655 (1655) Wing T415; Thomason E1554_1; ESTC R203751 477,444 750

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earth fornication uncleanness inordinate affection evil concupiscence and covetousness which is idolatry * But now you also put off all these anger wrath malice blasphemy filthy communication out of your mouth * Lie not one to another seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds * And have put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him For the grace of God that bringeth salvation Tit. 2.11 12 13 14. hath appeared to all men * Teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world * Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ * Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses Heb. 12.1 2 14 15. let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us * Looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God * Follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord * Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you and thereby many be defiled Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth Jam. 1.18 21 22. that we should be a kinde of first fruits of his creatures * Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness and receive with meekness the ingraffed word which is able to save your souls * But be ye doers of the word and not hearers onely deceiving your own selves Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises 2 Pet. 1.4 5 6 7 8 9. that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust * And besides this giving all diligence adde to your faith vertue and to vertue knowledge * And to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godliness * And to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness charity * For if these things be in you and abound they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ * But he that lacketh these things is blinde and cannot see farre off and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins Wherefore gird up the loins of your minde 1 Pet. 1.13 14 15 16. be sober and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ * As obedient children not fashioning your selves according to the former lusts in your ignorance * But as he which hath called you is holy so be ye holy in all manner of conversation * Because it is written Be ye holy for I am holy Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree that we being dead to sins 1 Pet. 2.24 should live unto righteousness by whose stripes ye were healed The indispensable necessity of a good life represented in the following Scriptures WHosoever breaketh one of these least Commandements Mat. 5.19 and shall teach men so he shall be called the least in the Kingdome of heaven but whosoever shall do and teach them the same shall be called great in the Kingdome of heaven And why call ye me Lord Luk. 6.46 Lord and do not the things which I say Ye are my friends Joh. 15.14 if ye do whatsoever I command you I beseech you therefore Rom. 12.1 2. brethren by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service * And be not conformed to this world but be ye transformed by the renewing of your minde that ye may prove what is that good that acceptable and perfect will of God Who will render to every man according to his deeds Rom. 2.6 7 8 9 10. * To them who by patient continuance in well doing seck for glory and honour and immortality eternal life * But unto them that are contentious and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath * Tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doth evil of the Jew first and also of the Gentile * But glory honour and peace to every man that worketh good to the Jew first and also to the Gentile Circumcision is nothing 1 Cor. 7.19 and uncircumcision is nothing but the keeping of the Commandements of God Therefore my beloved brethren 1 Cor. 18.58 be ye stedfast unmoveable alwayes abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as you know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. For in Christ Jesus Gal. 6.15 neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but a new creature For in Jesus Christ Gal. 5.6 neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but faith which worketh by love For we are his workmanship Eph. 2.10 created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them And this I pray Phil. 1.9 10 11. that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgement * That ye may approve things that are excellent that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ * Being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God Furthermore then we beseech you brethren 1 Thess 4.1 2 3. and exhort you by the Lord Jesus that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God so ye would abound more and more * For ye know what Commandements we gave by the Lord Jesus * For this is the will of God even your sanctification As you know how we exhorted and comforted 1 Thess 2.11 12 13. and charged every one of you as a Father doth his children * That ye should walk worthy of God who hath called you unto his Kingdome and glory * For this cause also thank we God without ceasing because when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us ye received it not as the word of men but as it is in truth the word of God which effectually worketh also in you that believe How much more shall the blood of Christ Heb. 9.4 5 9. who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God And having an High Priest over the house of God Heb. 10.21 22 23
it then this For every one that breaks a Commandement let the instance be what it will is a transgressor of the same bond by which he was bound to all Non quòd omnia legis praecepta violârit sed quòd legis Authorem contempserit eóque proemio meritò careat quod legis cultoribus propositum est saith venerable Bede He did not violate all the Commandements but he offended him who is the giver of all the Commandements It is like letting one Bead fall from a Rosary or Coronet of Bugles This or that or a third makes no difference the string is as much broken if he lets one to slide as if he dropp'd twenty It was not an ill conceit of Menedemus the Eretrian that there was but one vertue which had divers names Aristo Chius express'd the same conceit with a little difference affirming all vertues to be the same in reality and nature but to have a certain diversification or rational difference by relation to their objects As if one should call the sight when it looks upon a Crow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if upon a Swan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so is vertue When it moderates the affections it is Temperance when it ballances contracts it is Justice when it considers what is and what is not to be done it is Prudence That which they call Vertue if we call it the Grace of God or Obedience it is very true which they say For the same spirit the same grace of obedience is Chastity or Temperance or Justice according as is the subject matter The love of God if it be in us is productive of all worthiness and this is it which S. John said This is love that we keep his Commandements The love of God constraineth us It worketh all the works of God in us It is the fulfilling of the Commandements For this is a Catholicon an Universal Grace Charity gives being to all vertues it is the life and spirit of all holy actions Abstinence from feasts and inordination mingled with Charity is Temperance And Justice is Charity and Chastity is Charity and Humility is still but an instance of Charity This is that Transcendent that gives life and vertue to Alms to Preaching to Faith to Miracles it does all obedience to God all good offices to our Neighbours which in effect is nothing but the sentence of Menedemus and Aristo that there is an Universal Vertue that is there is one soul and essence of all vertue They call it Vertue S. Paul calls it Charity and this is that one thing which is necessary that one thing which every man that sins does violate He that is guilty of all is but guilty of that one and therefore he that is guilty of that one of the breach of Charity is guilty of all And upon this account it is that no one sin can stand with the state of grace because he that sins in one instance sins against all goodness not against all instances of duty but against that which is the life of all against Charity and Obedience A Prayer to be said in the dayes of Repentance for the commission of any great Crime O Most glorious God I tremble to come into thy presence so polluted and dishonoured as I am by my foul stain of sin which I have contracted but I must come or I perish O my God I cannot help it now Miserable man that I am to reduce my self to so sad a state of things that I neither am worthy to come unto thee nor dare I stay from thee Miserable man that I am who lost that portion of innocence which if I should pay my life in price I cannot now recover O dear God I have offended thee my gracious Father my Lord my Patron my Judge my Advocate and my Redeemer Shame and sorrow is upon me for so offending thee my gracious Saviour But glory be to thee O Lord who art such to me who have offended thee It aggravates my sin that I have sinned against thee who art so excellent in thy self who art so good to me But if thou wert not so good to me though my sin would be less yet my misery would be greater The greatness of my Crime brings me to my Remedy and now I humbly pray thee to be merciful to my sin for it is very great II. O My God pity me and relieve my sad condition which is so extremely evil that I have no comfort but from that which is indeed my misery My baseness is increased by my hopes for it is thy grace and thy goodness which I have so provoked Thou O God didst give me thy grace and assist me by thy holy Spirit and call by thy Word and instruct me by thy Wisdome and didst work in me to will and to do according to thy good pleasure I knew my sin and I saw my danger and I was not ignorant and I was not surpris'd but wilfully knowingly basely and sensually I gave thee away for the pleasure of a minute for the purchase of vanity nay I exchanged thee for shame and sorrow and having justly forfeited thy love am plac'd I know not where nor in what degree of thy anger nor in what neighbourhood of damnation III. O God my God what have I done whither am I fallen I was well and blessed circled with thy Graces conducted by thy Spirit sealed up to the day of Redemption in a hopefull way towards thee and now I have listned to the whispers of a tempting Spirit and for that which hath in it no good no reason no satisfaction for that which is not I have forfeited those excellencies for the recovery of which my life is too cheap a price I am ashamed O God I am ashamed I put my mouth in the dust and my face in darkness and hate my self for my sin which I am sure thou hatest But give thy servant leave to hope that I shall feel the gracious effluxes of thy love I know thou art angry with me I have deserved it But if thou hadst not lov'd me and pitied me thou mightest have stricken me in the act of my shame I know the design of thy mercy and loving kindness is to bring me to repentance and pardon to life and grace I obey thee O God I humbly obey thy gracious purposes Receive O Lord a returning sinner a poor wounded person smitten by my enemies broken by my sin weary and heavy laden ease me of my burthen and strengthen me by a mighty grace that hereafter I may watch more carefully resist more pertinaciously walk more circumspectly and serve thee without the interruptions of duty by the intervening of a sin O let me rather die then choose to sin against thee any more Onely try me this once and bear me in thy arms and fortifie my holy purposes and conduct me with thy grace that thou mayest delight to pardon me and to save me through Jesus Christ my Lord and dearest Saviour Amen I
a sin it follows that the habit is a particular state of sin distinct from the act because it is a state of vicious desires And as a body may be said to be lustful though it be asleep or eatting without the sense of actual urtications and violence by reason of its constitution so may the soul by the reason of its habit that is its vicious principle and base effect of sin be hated by God and condemn'd upon that account So that a habit is not onely distinct from its acts in the manner of being as Rhetorick from Logick in Zeno as a fist from a palm as a bird from the egge and the flower from the gemme but a habit differs from its acts as an effect from the cause as a distinct principle from another as a pregnant Daughter from a teeming Mother as a Conclusion from its Premises as a state of aversation from God from a single act of provocation 9. If the habit had not an irregularity in it distinct from the sin then it were not necessary to persevere in holiness by a constant regular course but we were to be judg'd by the number of single actions and he onely who did more bad then good actions should perish which was affirmed by the Pharisees of old and then we were to live or die by chance and opportunity by actions and not by the will by the outward and not by the inward man then there could be no such thing necessary as the Kingdome of Grace Christs Empire and Dominion in the soul then we can belong to God without belonging to his Kingdome and we might be in God though the Kingdome of God were not in us For without this we might do many single actions of vertue and it might happen that these might be more then the single actions of sin even though the habit and affection and state of sin remain Now if the case may be so as in the particular instance that the mans final condition shal not be determin'd by single actions it must be by habits and states and principles of actions and therefore these must have in them a proper good and bad respectively by which the man shall be judg'd distinct from the actions by which he shall not in the present case be judg'd All which considerations being put together do unanswerably put us upon this conclusion That a habit of sin is that state of evil by which we are enemies to God and slaves of Satan by which we are strangers from the Covenant of Grace and consign'd to the portion of Devils and therefore as a Corollary of all we are bound under pain of a new sin to rise up instantly after every fall to repent speedily for every sin not to let the Sun go down upon our wrath nor rise upon our lust nor run his course upon our covetousness or ambition For not onely every period of impenitence is a period of danger and eternal death may enter but it is an aggravation of our folly a continuing to provoke God a further aberration from the rule a departure from life it is a growing in sin a progression towards final impenitence to obduration and Apostasie it is a tempting God and a despising of his grace it is all the way presumption and a dwelling in sin by delight and obedience that is it is a conjugation of new evils and new degrees of evil As pertinacy makes error to be heresie and impenitence makes little sins unite and become deadly and perseverance causes good to be crowned and evil to be unpardonable So is the habit of viciousness the confirmation of our danger and solennities of death the investiture and security of our horrible inheritance The summe is this Every single sin is a high calamity it is a shame and it is a danger in one instant it makes us liable to Gods severe anger But a vicious habit is a conjugation of many actions every one of which is highly damnable and besides that union which is formally an aggravation of the evils there is superinduc'd upon the will and all its ministring faculties a viciousness and pravity which makes evil to be belov'd and chosen and God to be hated and despis'd A vicious habit hath in it all the Physical Metaphysical and Moral degrees of which it can be capable For there is not onely a not repenting a not rescinding of the past act by a contrary nolition but there is a continuance in it and a repetition of the same cause of death as if a man should marry death the same death so many times over it is an approving of our shame a taking it upon us an owning and a securing our destruction and before a man can arrive thither he must have broken all the instruments of his restitution in pieces and for his recovery nothing is left unless a Palladium fall from heaven the man cannot live again unless God shall do more for him then he did for Lazarus when he raised him from the dead §. 4. Sinful habits do require a distinct manner of Repentance and have no promise to be pardon'd but by the introduction of the contrary THis is the most material and practical difficulty of the Question for upon this depends the most mysterious article of Repentance and the interest of dying penitents For if a habit is not to be pardoned without the extirpation of that which is vicious and the superinducing its contrary this being a work of time requires a particular grace of God and much industry caution watchfulness frequent prayers many advices and consultations constancy severe application and is of so great difficulty and such slow progression that all men who have had experience of this imployment and have heartily gone about to cure a vicious habit know it is not a thing to be done upon our death-bed That therefore which I intend to prove I express in this Proposition A vicious habit is not to be pardon'd without the introduction of the contrary either in kinde or in perfect affection and in all those instances in which the man hath opportunities to work The Church of Rome whose Chairs and Pulpits are dangerous guides in the article of Repentance affirms that any sin or any habit of sin may be pardon'd by any single act of contrition the continued sin of fourty years may be wash'd off in less then fourty minutes nay by an act of attrition with the Priestly absolution which proposition if it be false does destroy the interest of souls and it cannot be true because it destroys the interest of piety and the necessities of a good life The reproof of this depends upon many propositions of which I shall give as plain accounts as the thing will bear 1. Every habit of vice may be expelled by a habit of vertue naturally as injustice by justice gluttony by temperance lust by chastity but by these it is not meritoriously remitted and forgiven because nothing in nature can remit sins or