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
and bruises and putrifying sores i. e. They have been wicked in the general tenor and habit of their Lives and these must be wholly changed the whole mass being corrupted it must be quite altered The whole frame of their Minds and whole course of their Actions must be made quite otherwise like a defiled Body they must be wash'd all over or rather like a dead Carcass they must be raised to life again and restored wholly from their state of Death and Corruption which they were in before There are others who are not so diseased all over but yet have some mortal illness growing in some part upon them who are guilty of some particular Sins some known and wilful Faults that destroy their good state and put them into the rank though not of the greatest Sinners yet of such Sinners as shall not enter into Heaven nor escape Eternal Wrath and Vengeance unless they particularly repent of them and wholly forsake and leave them And thus every one who is conscious to himself that he is or has been ever guilty of any known and great Sin whatever it be though it should be but one such Sin must amend that and must get off that particular illness or else it will prove deadly and mortal if it continue upon him for one such disease or one such wound whilst 't is uncured upon the Soul will kill and destroy it as well as more Though a Man may not be universally depraved nor be wholly prostituted to debauchery and irreligion yet if he will indulge himself in any known Sin or in any particular Lust and Wickedness he is in a lost and undone state till he repents and wholly leaves that Sin And if a Man is in a good state and fall into a wilful and great Sin as we know David did that surely cuts him off for a time from his good state and renders him lyable to Gods Anger here and to Misery hereafter till by a serious and hearty Repentance he recovers himself and is so perfectly recovered from the Sin that he will never commit it again whatever Temptation is offered to him There are other Sins which are of a lower and less heinous Nature which do not destroy our good state nor put us out of the Favour of God nor exclude us out of Heaven and these are such as very good Men are subject to and may not be free from whist they are in this body of Sin and Corruption As the most healthful and best Constitutions may be subject to some smaller illnesses and indispositions of Body though not to great and mortal diseases so some frailties failures and imperfections will stick to the best of Men though not any mortal and wilful Sins and these frailties and infirmities are Sins in a strict sense as coming short of perfect Obedience to the Divine Law and these are in some sense also to be repented of i. e. we are to be sensible of them and sorry for them and we are every day to pray to God to forgive us these our Trespasses and we are to endeavour to overcome them as much as is possible and never let them grow as they may by neglect into wilful Sins but these are all pardonable by the Mercy of God and by vertue of the gracious Covenant which he hath made with us in Christ Jesus upon a general Repentance without a perfect and particular amendment of all of them which is utterly impossible and inconsistent with Humane frailty and infirmity There is therefore a great difference to be made in respect of several kinds of Sins and several sorts of Sinners of this great Duty of Repentance There are some of whom the Scripture sayes that they need no repentance Luke 15.7 i. e. who need not such a Repentance as shall change and alter their Spiritual state who never were in a bad state being early Baptized nor never were guilty in their whole lives of any one such great and wilful and heinous Sin as put them into a damnable state I hope there are not a few who are in this blessed condition and therefore who need not this greater Repentance as I think I may call it who by the blessing of God and by means of a very Vertuous and Religious Education have been early trained up in the wayes of goodness and never departed from them who were set right at first and never wandered or strayed out of the paths of Vertue whose Feet never slipt so far as to take hold of the paths of Death or be caught in the snares of the Devil who never defiled themselves with any great Sin but have preserved their virgin-purity and have had no foul spot to sully the whiteness and beauty of their whole unblemisht Conversation but were alwayes innocent and alwayes safe like Zacharias and Elizabeth were alwayes righteous before God walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless Luke 1.6 I cannot say these are wholly sinless and altogether perfect for so none of the Race of Adam or the Children of Men are except our Blessed Saviour for there are some infirmities and weaknesses and imperfections that belong to these and so they stand in need of that lesser Repentance I before spake of but they never were guilty of the great offence and so need not that greater Repentance which others do And 't is of that I now speak a repentance from dead works as the Apostle calls it Heb. 6.1 A Repentance from wilful and mortal Sins such as put us into an ill state and such as we shall certainly perish except we repent of them Luke 13.3 SECT III. True Notion of Repentance NOw this Repentance I would thus describe answerable to those three words by which it is exprest in Scripture A sorrow for our Sins joyned with change and alteration of Mind and amendment or reformation of Life or such a sense of Mind as makes us leave and forsake or turn away from every Sin or all the Sins we have been guilty of and practice the contrary Vertues or perform those other Duties we have broken or been wanting in Thus where we have been bad Men in any instance and violated our Duty and offended God and broken or transgrest his Laws it will make us become good Men afterwards and perform our Duty and return to God and keep or obey his Commandments in all those cases wherein we have done otherwise before This this alone is such a Repentance as avails to Pardon and Salvation as it takes away every Sin which would damn us and brings us to that Obedience and practice of all Vertue and Holiness without which no man can see God or be saved Repentance I own is a word of an equivocal meaning that signifies several things and has several senses belonging to it as sorrow and trouble of Mind change of Thoughts and the like which are meant by the Latin Paenitentia and Resipiscentia and by the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
not comfort himself with that for so long as he doth it he is a slave to it and he is led captive by it so strongly that it over powers even his Conscience and his Reason and till he can break loose from it so as not to commit it again he is a servant of sin and under the greatest bondage and servitude Let a Man have never so much dislike of his Sins and pretend never so much to abominate and abhor them in his thoughts yet if he commits them in his practice 't is but protestatio as we say contra factum but a fruitless Repentance that still brings forth the unfruitful works of darkness for 't is not what Men think of their Sins but their not doing of them that is the true fruit of Repentance II. As we must leave the Sin so we must practice the contrary Vertue And this will be more easily and readily done for if the Habit of Vice and Wickedness be destroyed that of Vertue will follow of course as if the Disease be removed Health is restored Virtus est Vitium fugere The very leaving of Vice is the coming to Vertue For the Mind cannot stand still but is a moving and an active Principle and if it be not Vicious it will be Vertuous it cannot stand neuter and indifferent to those two but will necessarily take either one side or the other He that leaves off Drunkenness by so doing becomes sober He that will no longer defraud must necessarily become just The contrary Vertue does in most cases succeed the forsaken Vice as Light does succeed Darkness and Day Night It does not I confess do it alwayes for it does not necessarily follow that he who does not swear should be devout nor that he who does not cheat should be charitable nor that he who will not blaspheme God should worship him and yet those are very meet and worthy fruits of Repentance that he who has prophaned the Sacred Name of God by customary Swearing should not only leave off that upon his Repentance but with a Religious dread and awful veneration should ever after adore and worship him and he that has been unjust and unrighteous should not only break off his sin by righteousness but by shewing mercy to the poor Dan. 4.27 That as sin did before abound so now the contrary Grace and Vertue may much more abound as the Apostle speaks in another case and as he sayes in the like case to the Roman Christians who were once impure Gentiles As ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness Rom. 6.19 That now being made free from sin and become servants to God ye may have your fruit unto holiness ver 22. and that this fruit may be the greater because of the former barrenness and unfruitfulness which we were guilty of He that has neglected any necessary Duty and so is guilty of a Sin of Omission is bound to amend and repent of that as much as of any other Sin and so Repentance will oblige him to the practice of all manner of Vertue as well as the quitting and abandoning of all manner of Sin The true Penitent must not only pluck up all the Habits of Sin in his Soul and weed out all those venemous seeds of Wickedness that have grown up into sinful practices but he must have all manner of Vertue planted in his Heart and he must bring forth the fruits of his Repentance in an universal Goodness and Holiness of Life and unless it does so it is not as I shall show you true and perfect Repentance because nothing else can restore the Mind to a soundness and a good state And Repentance is like a recovery of Health after Sickness The disease must be thoroughly got off the sickly matter must be discharged the illness must be cured and removed and when that is done the Patient must get his former strength and be able to perform all the proper and vital operations and till he does this we cannot say he is well So till a Sinner has wholly got rid of his past Sins and has utterly relinquish'd and forsaken them till he has purged them all out by Repentance and has brought himself by the Grace of God to such a Spiritual strength and soundness as to perform the proper duties and operations of the new life and to practice those Vertues which were contrary to his former Vices he cannot be said to be recovered to a state of Health and Soundness and true Repentance He may be under a method of Cure indeed as a sick Man is under a course of Physick and in some fair hopes and a likely way of recovery before this and this is often called Repentance and 't is a part of it but not the whole But the great work is not done nor is his Repentance finish'd and perfected till he is come to this to forsake every former Sin and practice the contrary Vertue How long he is to do this I shall not determine as I cannot tell how long a Man must be free from a Disease before he is well and how much time exactly there must be between a state of Sickness and that of Health 'T is hard to fix the indivisible point between those two states and so it is between a state of Sin and a perfect Repentance of it but all Men can still know pretty easily when they are well and so they may by this sure mark when they have truly and fully Repented namely when they have thus brought forth the fruits of repentance Matth. 3.8 Repentance is not to be known neither is it to be counted true or at least perfect without those Those Fruits of it indeed are not different from the thing it self they are not only signs and outward marks and indications of it as the Fruit of a Tree is a sign that the Tree is alive for here the Tree would not be alive at all if it were without that Fruit. These are not then only a sign that his Repentance is true but they are like our Breath which is not only a sign that we are alive but that very thing by which we live True and perfect Repentance consists in those and is never without them as I shall shew by considering what an imperfect thing all the Repentance is which is done in a Mans Mind without any effect upon his Life and Actions SECT IV. Mental Repentance imperfect without Actual ALL that Sorrow and Trouble for Sin which a Sinner feels in his own Soul all that Conviction and Condemnation of his ill state and sad condition by reason of his past Sins when he reflects upon them and all those Vows and Purposes and Resolutions of leaving his Sins and living better hereafter though they are good symptoms and good beginnings of Repentance yet if they go no further and do not bring forth the meet fruits of
an irresistible force and impulse which shall do all this in an instant and convert a Sinner in a moment No this must be done gradually and successively by the bringing in of other thoughts dispositions inclinations and practices by a kindly and gentle influence upon our Minds the Spirit descending like rain or shedding its Vertue like dew upon our Hearts and so bringing forth the fruits of Repentance in us not like a violent stream or a mighty torrent bearing down all immediately before it The Spirit of God which is compared in Scripture to the winds blowing where we see the effects though we discern not the cause does not by a sudden gust like a hurricane convert a Sinner and turn him from his Sins in such a manner as a tree is torn up by the roots with a violent tempest but by a fresh and gentle gale it carries the Sinner from Vice to Vertue by filling his Mind with new thoughts and strongly moving and determining him the right way and secretly inclining his Mind to choose and his Understanding to see and consider what is his true Interest and Happiness and by an inward energy and vertue as a principle of Life acts secretly and undiscernably upon all our Faculties changing our thoughts desires and affections and working upon our Minds though in a way agreeable to our Rational Faculties yet by a Power superiour and superadded to them And now let every Sinner consider what great Motives and Encouragements and so what Obligations he hath to Repent by the Gospel how powerfully and how endearingly by Motives both of Love and Fear Christ doth there call Sinners to Repentance It was his great work and for this purpose he came into the World to recover lost and undone Mankind and to rescue them from that state of Sin and Misery they were in and to restore them to a state of Vertue and Happiness This was a design worthy Christs coming into the World and all the mysterious dispensation of Christianity 7. And this is of such absolute necessity and importance to us that 't is impossible we can otherwise escape Misery and not perish inevitably God when he would show the greatest Mercy and Kindness to us in the World and demonstrate his Love to us in the highest manner as he hath done by the Gospel yet hath there told us that except we repent we shall all certainly perish Luke 13.5 This is the perpetual and indispensable condition upon which alone we must expect any benefit by Christ and the Gospel this is as low as God can go with us Perfect and uninterrupted Obedience all our lives is his due and when we have broken that and he compounds with us and accepts of Partial and Renewed Obedience instead of Entire i. e. of Repentance and returning to our Duty instead of keeping alwayes to it this is the utmost favour can be expected from him or that he can grant to us and Repentance is the only way by which it is possible for a Sinner to escape Wrath and Damnation This I shall a little clear and make out and then perswade to this Duty of Repentance from the absolute necessity of it 1. Then 't is this alone can consist with the Wisdom and Honour of God as he is Governour of the World God as he is a Being of Infinite Goodness and Compassion to his Creatures so he is a very Wise and Prudent Governour of the World and therefore though like a merciful Prince out of the Goodness of his Nature and the tender Inclinations he has for all his Subjects he is ready to shew all Mercy and Clemency to those that have offended him yet if he should do this too easily without any security of their good behaviour for the future or any care and provision for their better Obedience it would not a little reflect upon the Wisdom of his Government and represent him as too soft and easie a Being and render his Authority in time cheap and contemptible It would not only loosen the reins of Government but be a letting them go out of his hands and throwing them upon the necks of his insolent and rebellious Vassals if without any tyes or obligations for the future or letting them know upon what conditions they should be capable of his favour and continue in it he should take off all the Punishment their past Crimes had deserved this would be to encourage them to commit new ones and give them just grounds to hope for an absolute and perpetual impunity Should God have granted by the Gospel or any other way such an Unconditional Charter of Mercy and Pardon this would have certainly destroyed that very Power by which he granted it and such a Privilege or Concession as it would greatly have reflected upon his Honour so it would have quite undermined his Authority it would have been a resigning up his Throne and a laying his Crown at the feet of his own insolent Rebels For what would have remain'd to him of Power to Govern or to Punish if he had done this If he had set out a standing Act of Grace and Mercy to all Sinners without any Condition or Proviso that they turn from their Wickedness which they had committed that they should come in and lay down all their Hostile Weapons and be Faithful and Loyal hereafter or else be utterly uncapable of any benefit of it Without this it had been rather a Dispensation or Indulgence to be Wicked than a wise Proclamation of Mercy to serve the true Ends and Interest of Government God indeed has with great Wisdom and Goodness found out such a temper in his Government and contrived such an expedient as shews the most admirable Wisdom and the most wonderful Mercy both together and that is for the sake and by the mediation of a Sacrifice to pardon and yet to punish the Sinner by the same way to give an instance of his Mercy and a remonstrance of his Justice and the design of all that is to show that though he is the most inclined to Mercy and Clemency yet he will never show it but in such a way as is consistent with the Honour and Wisdom of his Government He is willing to abate of his extream Right over his Creatures and to take off the edge and severity of his Laws so far as Prudence and the Wise Ends of Government will give leave but not so far as shall give any manner of encouragement to Disobedience and Wickedness and that would be unavoidable if he should ever grant a Pardon to wicked Men upon any other condition than turning away from their Wickedness 2. As 't is this alone can consist with the Honour and Wisdom of God as he is a wise Governour so nothing but this can render us acceptable to him as he is a truly Righteous and Holy Being If we consider God as such as a Being essentially holy so that this is not only his Perfection but his very Nature then
of to those who only resolve to do so though never so sincerely And therefore should a Mans Purposes be never so sincere at that time which I doubt not but they may be as to the present sense of his Mind that is he may really intend at that time what otherwise could not be properly called a Purpose or Resolution in him yet this may not be afterwards effectual but may go off as most of the Vows of Sick Men and Ship-wrecked Mariners do when the Sickness and the Storm is over and they are just as they were before when they are well and upon dry Land for nothing is more easie and more sudden than to wish and purpose and resolve well especially when Men are under any great fear or great danger which wholly takes up their Minds and they consider not so much the difficulty of performing what they resolve upon as the necessity they see of avoiding the danger that is before them but when they are got free from that their Minds and their Purposes change as well as their Circumstances But let us allow all that can be supposed that these Purposes of the dying Sinner are not only sincere but would be effectual too if he lived which neither he nor any other but only God can know yet I see no reason to think that God will deal with him for what he might or would hereafter be and not for what he was or is at present or that the Rule of the Divine Judgment at the last day shall be this to reward Sinners because they might have been good Men if they had lived longer or to punish good Men because they might have been bad perhaps if they had lived longer too though God had seen either of these in his Infinite Prescience but thinks fit to prevent them by cutting a Man off and taking him out of the World he will not acquit or condemn him for foreseen futurities which might or would have happened but for past and certain Actions which he hath done and which God himself cannot make to be undone though he may hinder these to be done which are not and so to become nothing 'T is the present Habit and Temper and Frame of a Mans Mind and the present Moral state of Vertue or Vice which a Man is in when he dyes shall dispose him to Happiness or Misery so that 't is not he that was formerly or might hereafter be a good Man if he had lived but only he that is so at present in the disposition of his Mind and habit of his Life is fit for the Kingdom of Heaven and meet for the inheritance of the Saints in light And 't is not he that was a wicked Man heretofore or might be such afterwards if he had lived in such tryals and circumstances which it pleased God to take him away from and so in this sense take him from the evil to come but he that is a wicked Man at present in the habit of his Mind and course of his Life shall go to Hell Repentance is not a resolution to forsake Sin and become a good Man but the becoming so after we have been otherwise in any instance And he that has lived very carelesly and wickedly all his life and only resolves to live otherwise when he comes to dye can no more be called a good Man than he a good Schollar that has spent all his time idly in the University but when he is to be expelled from thence resolves to study hard Or he a Rich Man who has prodigally wasted all his Estate but when it is gone almost to the last Farthing resolves to save and become Rich. Good resolutions are good spurs to quicken and are necessary to carry on and put us upon any great or excellent design but if the design were attained as soon as it is purposed and resolved upon no Man would miss of his end nor ever fail of being Wise and Learned and rich and Great if a sudden resolution of being so would do the business Nor would any Sinner be either miserable or wicked when he comes to dye if it were sufficient to purpose and resolve at that time to become good and happy 'T is a loose and a false Notion of Repentance which places it in meer Purposes and in good Wishes and Resolutions and in a short transient passion and compunction of mind and inward working of thoughts rather than in a settled and permanent change both of Mind and Actions in a new Heart and a new Life in turning from Sin and doing that which is lawful and right in being renewed in our minds and amending and reforming our wayes in which the Scripture places it that has given occasion to this dangerous mistake of the sufficiency of a Death-Bed Repentance but Repentance as I have all along showed is a greater thing than most imagine 'T is not a slight Remedy but a Medicine made up indeed of a great many parts and ingredients such as Sorrow and Trouble and Fasting and Confession and good purposing and resolving and the like but till these work the Cure and make the Mind better purge out all the sickly matter free the Soul from all its Sins and restore it to a state of Vertue and Religion of Grace and Goodness they all signifie nothing for true and perfect Repentance must be like Health or a recovery after Sickness and till the Mind is brought off from its sick and weak state from all its Spiritual Maladies and Sinful Habits to a good degree of soundness and a Vertuous Crasis and Constitution so as to be free from Sin work Righteousness and perform the proper acts of the Divine Life so as the drunkard is made sober the unclean chast the unrighteous not only just but charitable the profane and irreligious devout and pious and the like it has not Repented as the Scripture requires nor is it qualified for Pardon or for future Happiness for no wicked Man in any kind shall enter into Heaven 1 Cor. 6.9 till he be made good after he has been otherwise in any instance for one wilful and habitual Sin continued in will certainly damn him and nothing but Obedience which if it be after Disobedience is called Repentance is the Gospel Condition of our Salvation and without this faith and trust in Christ and hopes in Gods Mercy and Free Grace which are the true supports and comforts to a good Man are deceitful comforts and meer delusions to a bad one for without holiness and habits of Grace and Goodness no man shall see the Lord and if we will enter into life we must keep the Commandments And God surely did not give us such Commands that we should either keep them while we live or else Repent of not doing it when we come to dye then a Man might break them all while he lives and only Repent that he had not kept them when he is a dying and this should be instead of keeping
of Religion and now he denyes those and his Life both alike because he cannot keep them Is he now to begin to practice the Vertues of Chastity and Temperance and Sobriety which he never did before then he hath put them off to a very convenient season when his Vices have quite left him and so if Vertues will come of themselves like guests uninvited there is no other company to hinder them but he was as vertuous and sober almost half his Life I mean when he was asleep as he can be now when he is as incapable of the contrary acts as he was then and is only like the Enthusiast cured of seeing vanity when he lost his Eyes but perhaps not of being vain for the ghosts and spirits of his departed Sins may still haunt and possess him If these Christian Vertues are necessary to be practiced in order to our Eternal Salvation a dying Repentance cannot be sufficient without them if it be then those particular Precepts and Commands must be set aside by it as well as the other general ones I mentioned for 't is certain he can no more practice these Vertues now than he could in his Mothers Womb and they might be as well infused into him then as they can be now without any practice and something better because there were then no contrary Habits to hinder them But the Doctrine of infused Habits is like the Hypothesis of Transfusion of Blood contrary to Nature and Experience and the dying Man may as well depend upon one for his Body as the other for his Soul 3. The salvability and sufficiency of a meer dying Repentance as it sets by and discharges us from all those general and particular Commands of Christianity so also from the whole Christian engagement and Baptismal Covenant For can that then be any way made good or performed in any measure when a Man has violated it all his Life and notoriously broken it in all the parts that belong to it Can he then sufficiently renounce the Devil and all his works when he hath hitherto complyed with them the pomps and vanities of this wicked World when he has minded nothing else and the sinful Lufts of the Flesh when he has followed them and been led by them all his dayes Can he then keep Gods Commandments who hath broken most of them and walk in the same all the dayes of his Life who hath walked all his days in the ways of Sin and the paths of Unrighteousness and never left them till just now he is at his journeys end and can live no longer Surely this Baptismal Covenant is made only pro formâ and is but a modish and mannerly Ceremony at our entring into Christianity if we are not more obliged to stand to it and make it good and expect the benefits of Christianity upon our so doing in some further and better manner of performance than a wicked Christian can do when he comes to dye If his meer Sorrows and Purposes and Resolutions will serve instead of all that is expresly or implicitely meant by it it is void and null in all the other parts of it and the Church has unfaithfully and unsincerely drawn it up in other words of a different sense and meaning that signifie nothing and the Scripture hath exprest it as odly and unfitly when it speaks of our dying to Sin and rising unto Righteousness by our Baptism That we are symbolically buried with Christ by baptism unto death that like as Christ was raised up by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life Rom. 6.4 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death we shall be also in the likness of his resurrection Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin for he that is dead is free from sin ver 5 6 7. Likewise reckon ye also your selves to be dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord ver 11. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin but yield your selves unto God as those that are alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God ver 12.13 Here is enough to give us the plain meaning of Baptism and the great obligation of it to renounce Sin and live a good and holy Life And we are then said to put on Christ and to put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness Eph. 4.24 and to put off concerning the former conversation the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts ver 22. and to be regenerated and born again and have a Spiritual Principle of Life and Holiness communicated to our Souls and we then voluntarily consent to the terms of Christianity and solemnly engage and undertake to live according to them now all this which is very great and very obliging one would think is made very little and very easily took off and abated and dispensed with if when it has been utterly neglected and disregarded violated and broken all our lives a mere short and Dying Repentance will make it up and supply all the failures and the whole non-performance of it I own that true and timely Repentance will relieve us against the many failures and breaches of it by bringing us to performe it better afterwards sincerely endeavouring to make it good when we have broken it by any wilful sin and upon our performance of it though not with perfect exactness yet with sincere integrity depends our Title to all the Priviledges of Christianity But now to have no regard to it or take any care to observe it nor make it any way good in our lives but to live loosely and wickedly as if we had no such strict Engagement and Obligation upon us and to allow our selves in notorious Sins and unlawful Liberties expresly contrary to our Baptismal Covenant and yet think to salve all and have the whole benefit of it by a short Sorrow and Repentance when we come to dye this is either to make it have no meaning at all or that we are not obliged to the performance of it but let us not deceive our selves whosoever doth not make good his Baptismal Covenant in his Life which a wicked Man cannot at his Death as he is false to Christ and breaks his own most solemn and voluntary engagements so he forfeits all the benefits of his Christianity all that Pardon and Salvation which Christ hath purchased and proposed to him Thus all the Obligations to Christian Holiness and Obedience layd upon us either by our own Baptismal Vows and Promises or by the particular or general Commands of God and our Saviour are all taken away and dissolved by this loose Doctrine of
down his eyes Psal 119.136 And the Scripture describes Repentance by a broken and a contrite heart Psal 51.17 in opposition to a hard and impenitent one All Penitents are drawn with a sad and mournful look with tears in their eyes and sorrow in their hearts smiting their breasts and wringing their hands and all the figures of Grief and Lamentation and covered with a veil of sadness and disconsolateness For Grief and Sorrow are Passions of Soul upon the presence of any evil that is afflicting and uneasie to us and Sin being the greatest of those evils should cause the highest of those passions and we have more reason to be sorry and lament for it than a Widow over her lost Husband or a Mother over her first-born that is dead or a Friend over another that is murthered ruined and undone for our Souls ought to be dearer to us than any thing else and Sin kills ruins and murthers them But here I must interpose a Caution Sin is a Spiritual Evil and works not upon our Bodily Passions so strongly and deeply as those other objects may which are more suited to them and more fit to excite such animal sensations and impressions as Naturally rise from them Thus sensible Beauty may charm our Animal Spirits more than the Intellectual Pulchritude of Vertue and Musick may more ravish us than the harmony of Reason or then the thoughts of the Heavenly singing and Hallelujah and these and the tasts of some sensible dainties may more affect us with a sensible pleasure than the very joyes and pleasures of Heaven as we can now conceive them for they are more suited to our Animal Nature and more agreeable to the mixt Faculties arising from the union of our Souls and Bodies and so there may be more pain and sorrow felt for a Wound in a Mans Body than for a Sin in his Soul and more tears shed for the misfortune of a Friend or the loss of a Child or a near Relation than for the miscarriage of our Lives or the commission of a Sin for the one is a sorrow of another nature and another kind raised not by Sense but by Reason not Natural but Religious not from Mechanism of Body but Consideration of Mind and therefore the greatness or the sincerity of our Repentance is not to be measured by the quantity of our Tears or the number of our Sighs or the degrees alwayes of Animal Sorrow but rather by the sincerity of our Wills and the actual performance of our good Purposes of forsaking and amending our Sins which are the only sure marks of our disliking them and being sorry for them and having a true hatred and aversion to them for those secret and inward Passions of Mind are not to be known often either by our selves or others but by the effects and we can only know we love Vertue and hate Sin by following the one and forsaking the other for no Man loves a thing heartily but if it be in his power he will attain it and no Man otherwise loves Vertue or Heaven No Man hates any thing or is heartily sorry for any evil but if it be in his power he will remove it if present and avoid it if absent No Man can know he has the love of God but by this in which the Scripture places it by keeping his Commandments 1 John 5.3 and therefore I am afraid that School distinction between Contrition and Attrition that the one is a Sorrow from the Love of God and the other from the Fear of Hell and so the one is sufficient and the other is not has little or nothing in it but words by which Men may easily cheat and deceive themselves for the secret springs and principles of Mens Passions lye too deep to be discerned and they run into one another and are so mixt and confounded that they cannot be distinguished neither is there any great difference between them and only the effects of them are taken notice of in the account of God and the concerns of Religion It is a meer Nicety to distinguish such Principles in the first forming of Repentance like looking for the colours of Flowers or taste of Fruit in the several Seeds of them whereas he that from true Religious Principles be they either Love Hope or Fear and they generally are mixt and combined together and we cannot divide the force or weight of each of them severally upon the Mind whoever I say from these or any or all of these is so concerned for his past Sins that he leaves them and forsakes them and becomes a good Man he has undoubtedly true Repentance and whatever the Principle of it was whether Love or Fear and whatever degree there was in the sorrow and trouble and concern for it it is that fruit and effect and permanent issue and result of it that constitutes and denominates it true and perfect Repentance Let not therefore any Man doubt his Repentance who has this evidence and demonstration of it and let no Man deceive himself without this and think that the Keys of the Church any thing the Minister can do for him or any thing that Christ has done for him or the Merit of his Blood or any Free-Grace or any Faith in him or any thing that a deluded and impenitent Sinner is willing to catch hold off can turn his Sorrow be it never so great and be it from what Principle soever either of Love or Fear into perfect and sufficient Repentance without the effect of Reformation and a good Life and performing the Conditions of the Gospel necessary to Salvation Godly Sorrow is an excellent means and a good beginning of Repentance 't is sowing in tears those seeds of Religion which may grow up to maturity of goodness and amendment of Life and if those penitential tears wash away the filth of our Sins and cleanse the hands and purifie the heart of a Sinner they are then true Repentance If the Salt that is in them eat out our Corruption and preserve us from all impurities afterwards and the bitterness of the Sorrow makes us disrelish and dislike our Sins ever after and wean and turn away our Affections from them and like the Waters of Siloam work upon us and perform the Cure when they are thus stirred and impregnated with a Divine Vertue by the moving of Heaven upon them then they are of great Vertue and ought to be frequently used and cherish'd and indulged as they were of old for this purpose by the devout and tender Penitents But all Constitutions can no more weep and shed tears alike than they can make the Hairs of their Head white or black and tho' all should be sorry for their Sins as being convinced in their Minds of the evil of them yet the passionate degrees and the outward expressions of this Sorrow fall not under any rules or measures but are best judged and known by the effect which is leaving them as what we do not
took in order to it or by the Ragimen and Rules we observed in taking it though they might be necessary and of good use nor by its manner of working upon us but by the effect of it which is its Curing us when that is done by whatever wayes it was so the work is done and the end attained and till it be nothing is done to any purpose which brings me to the last head of Discourse Namely the Marks and Signs of True Repentance CHAP. VII How we may know we have Repented and are in a Pardoned and Good State NOthing is of greater importance to us than to make a right judgment of our selves as to our Spiritual State to know whether we are in a State of Grace and Pardon with God whether our Condition be such that we may reasonably hope we are in his Favour at present and have a Title to Heaven and Happiness hereafter No Man that believes Religion and is not perfectly thoughtless and stupid but must upon the account of these things have the greatest Peace and Comfort of Mind or the greatest uneasiness and disturbance For nothing is so great an object of our Hopes and Fears and does so highly affect us as these will or ought to do No Man should one would think enjoy himself one moment or be at quiet in his thoughts who is in a state of enmity with the great God and lives under his anger and displeasure and however he may escape here yet lyes under the dread and terrour and amazing danger of another World To know and examine and be able to judge of this should one would think be very plain because the Rule is so by which we are to judge our selves and by which God will judge us The Terms and Conditions of our Salvation are laid down very clearly in Scripture sincere and constant Obedience to Gods Laws or where we fail of performing that true Repentance which is to be in the place and will be accepted instead of Perfect Obedience But many are willing to cheat themselves and be deluded with false hopes and mistaken grounds of Comfort and to say Peace Peace where there is no Peace and to deceive themselves with false marks and signs of Grace and without any good reason to believe themselves to have an Interest in Christ and be the Favourites of Heaven There were some in the Apostles time as well as ours who had this Opinion of themselves and made great pretences to the most mysterious knowledge calling themselves Gnosticks and to the most intimate Communion with Heaven and to be Christians of the highest form and order who yet wallowed in all manner of Wickedness and lived in very great Sins and unlawful Liberties expresly forbidden by the Gospel They abused some of the Doctrines of Christianity and perverted the very Design and Constitution of it and by making a false Scheme of it to themselves altered its Nature turning it like our latter Antinomians into a mere Notional Superstition instead of an Institution of Vertue and Holiness and judged of themselves not by its Rules and standing Terms and Conditions but by some ungrounded and imaginary Priviledges that no way belonged to them St. John in his first Epistle layes down several Cautions against such as these and warns the Christians to beware of their loose and pernicious though pretendedly Christian Doctrines such as St. James also speaks very openly against when he corrects their mistakes who would be justified by faith without works i. e. put into a Righteous and Good State by Christianity without Obedience and Vertue Little Children sayes St. John let no man deceive you he that doth righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous 1 John 3.7 He that committeth sin is of the Devil ver 8. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin ver 9. In this the children of God are manifest and the children of the Devil ver 10. Where in opposition to all the false Opinions by which those wicked Men believed themselves in a good State notwithstanding their Wickedness or their not being Righteous and made false marks and signs of Grace to themselves and accounted themselves the special Favourites of God and of Christ by some conceited and peculiar Priviledges though they were wicked and impenitent and lived in a state of plain and notorious Sin he layes down a clear and certain a plain and obvious Mark and Criterion by which we may judge of our selves and by which alone we can judge aright of our Spiritual Condition and know whether we are in a Pardoned and Good State and that is this that we do not commit sin or live in the practice of any known and wilful Sin whatsoever till we bring our selves to this we can never by any means whatever by any priviledge of Christianity or by all that Christ has or could do for us be free from a state of guilt and danger till we get rid of every Sin and break off every evil way then we shall recover our good State however dangerous and deplorable it was before and shall be as sure of Gods Favour and a Title to Heaven as if we had been alwayes innocent and never had sinned Many are inclined to judge of themselves by some other and kinder measures and are willing to believe well of themselves and hope they have an Interest in Christ and a Title to Gods Favour and hopes of Heaven without leaving every Sin and living such a strict and holy Life as the Gospel requires they have some Reserves and some false Notions and Principles in Religion whereby they comfort themselves against this severe Doctrine and think by some way or other to reconcile their Sins with the hopes of Heaven and their Eternal Salvation There have been other Schemes of Religion laid down and such Whimsical Hypotheses made of it by some Men from the unwary stating and misunderstanding the Scripture Notions of Election Justification Faith Free-Grace and the like that they at last come to assert these comfortable Doctrines as they call them to a Sinner and so they were if they were true that their Sins can do them no harm nor endanger their Salvation and that Sanctification and Holiness is not necessary as the way or means to Heaven and that a Sinner may come to Christ and be Justified by him and put in a good State before he Repents even with all his Sins and Filth about him which are so far from being Saving and Gospel Truths as they are lewdly and ignorantly called that they are certainly the most damnable Heresies and the most contrary and destructive to Christianity that ever were in the World I am not to enter into any Controversies here nor show the Mistakes too many run into about those matters all those false and abominable Principles will be removed and all false Judgments and wrong Opinions of our selves and our Spiritual State taken away and prevented by this undoubted Mark and Criterion of our