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
literae in quâ fuit secundum autem legem Spiritus cui nos annectit liberat ab infirmitate carnis Lex enim inquit Spiritus vitae manumisit te à lege delinquentiae mortis Licet enim ex parte ex Judaismo disputare videatur sed in nos dirigit integritatem plenitudinem disciplinarum propter quos laborantes in lege per carnem miserit Deus filium suum in similitudinem carnis delinquentiae propter delinquentiam damnaverit delinquentiam in carne Plainly he expounds this Chapter to be meant of a man under the law according to the law of the letter under which himself had been he denied any good to dwel in his flesh but according to the law of the Spirit under which we are plac'd he frees us from the infirmity of the flesh for he saith the law of the Spirit of life hath freed us from the law of sin and death Origen affirms that when S. Paul says In Cap. 7. ad Rom. I am carnal sold under sin tanquam Doctor Ecclesiae personam in semetipsum suscipit infirmorum he takes upon him the person of the infirm that is of the carnal and says those words which themselves by way of excuse or apology use to speak But yet says he this person which S. Paul puts on although Christ does not dwell in him neither is his body the Temple of the holy Ghost yet he is not wholly a stranger from good but by his will and by his purpose he begins to look after good things But he cannot yet obtain to doe them For there is such an infirmity in those who begin to be converted that is whose minde is convinc'd but their affections are not master'd that when they would presently doe all good yet an effect did not follow their desires S. Chrysostome hath a large Commentary upon this Chapter and his sense is perfectly the same Propterea subnexuit dicens Ego verò carnalis sum hominem describens sub lege ante legem degentem S. Paul describes not himself but a man living under and before the law and of such a one he says but I am carnal Who please to see more authorities to the same purpose may finde them in S. Basil a Lib. 1. de Baptism in moral sum 23. c. 2. quaest 16. quaest expl compend Theodoret b In hunc locum in cap. 8 ad Rom. S. Cyril c Contra Julian lib. 3. de rectâ fide ad Regin lib. 1. in epist prior ad Successum Macarius d Homil. 1. S. Ambrose e In hunc locum S. Hierom f In cap 9. Dan. and Theophylact g In hunc locum The words of the Apostle the very purpose and design the whole Oeconomy and analogy of the 6. 7. and 8th Chapters doe so plainly manifest it that the heaping up more testimonies cannot be useful in so clear a case The results are these 1. The state of men under the law was but a state of carnality and of nature better instructed and foundly threatned and set forward in some instances by the spirit of fear only but not cured but in many men made much worse accidentally 2. That to be pleased in the inner man that is in the Conscience to be convinc'd and to consent to the excellency of vertue and yet by the flesh that is by the passions of the lower man or the members of the body to serve sin is the state of Unregeration 3. To doe the evil that I would not and to omit the good that I fain would do when it is in my hand to doe what is in my heart to think is the property of a carnal unregenerate man And this is the state of men in nature and was the state of men under the law For to be under the law and not to be led by the Spirit Gal. 5.18 are all one in S. Pauls account for if ye be led by the Spirit ye are not under the law saith he And therefore to be under the law being a state of not being under the Spirit must be under the government of the flesh that is they were not then sanctified by the Spirit of grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ they were not yet redeemed from their vain conversation Not that this was the state of all the sons of Israel of them that liv'd before the law or after but that the law could doe no more for them or upon them Gods Spirit did in many of them work his own works but this was by the grace of Jesus Christ who was the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world this was not by the works of the law but by the same instruments and grace by which Abraham and all they who are his children by promise were justified But this is the consequent of the third proposition which I was to consider 3. From this state of evil we are redeemed by Christ and by the Spirit of his grace Wretched man that I am quis liberabit who shall deliver me from the body of this death He answers I thank God through Jesus Christ so S Chrysostome Theodoret Theophylact S. Hierom the Greek Scholiast and the ordinary Greek copies doe commonly reade the words in which words there is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and they are thus to be supplied I thank God through Jesus Christ we are delivered or there is a remedy found out for us But Irenaeus Origen S. Ambrose S. Austin and S. Hierom himself at another time and the vulgar Latin Bibles in stead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reade 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gratia Domini Jesu Christi the grace of God through Jesus Christ That is our remedy he is our deliverer from him comes our redemption For he not onely gave us a better law but also the Spirit of grace he hath pardon'd all our old sins and by his Spirit enables us for the future that we may obey him in all sincerity in heartiness of endevour and real events From hence I draw this argument That state from which we are redeemed by Jesus Christ and freed by the Spirit of his grace is a state of carnality of unregeneration that is of sin and death But by Jesus Christ we are redeemed from that state in which we were in subjection to sin commanded by the law of sin and obeyed it against our reason and against our conscience therefore this state which is indeed the state S. Paul here describes is the state of carnality and unregeneration and therefore not competent to the servants of Christ to the elect people of God to them who are redeemed and sanctified by the Spirit of Christ The parts of this argument are the words of S. Paul and proved in the foregoing periods From hence I shall descend to something that is more immediately practical and cloth'd with circumstances §. 5. How far an Unregenerate man
Scripture concludes all under sin that is declares all the world to be sinners that the promise by the faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that beleeve This S. Bernard expresses in these words Deus nobis hoc fecit ut nostram imperfectionem ostenderet Christi avidiores nos faceret Our imperfection was sufficiently manifest by the severity of the first Covenant that the world might long for salvation by Jesus Christ For since mankinde could not be saved by the Covenant of works that is of exact obedience they must perish for ever or else hope to be sav'd by a Covenant of ease and remission that is such a Covenant as may secure Mans duty to God and Gods mercy to Man and this is the Covenant which God made with mankinde in Christ Jesus the Covenant of Repentance This Covenant began immediately after Adams fall For as soon as the first Covenant the Covenant of works was broken God promised to make it up by an instrument of mercy which himself would finde out The Seed of the woman should make up the breaches of the man But this should be acted and published in its own time not presently In the mean time man was by virtue of that new Covenant or promise admitted to Repentance Adam confessed his sin and repented Three hundred years together did he mourn upon the mountains of India and God promised him a Saviour by whose obedience his repentance should be accepted And when God did threaten the old world with a floud of waters he called upon them to repent but because they did not God brought upon them the floud of waters For 120. years together he called upon them to return before he would strike his final blow Ten times God tried Pharaoh before he destroyed him And in all ages in all periods and with all men God did deal by this measure and excepting that God in some great cases or in the beginning of a Sanction to establish it with the terror of a great example he scarce ever destroyed a single man with temporal death for any nicety of the law but for long and great prevarications of it and when he did otherwise he did it after the man had been highly warned of the particular and could have obeyed easily which was the case of the man that gathered sticks upon the Sabbath and was like the case of Adam who was upon the same account judged by the Covenant of works This then was an emanation both of Gods justice and his mercy Until man had sinned he was not the subject of mercy and if he had not then receiv'd mercy the infliction had been too severe and unjust since the Covenant was beyond the measures of man after it began to multiply into particular laws and man by accident was lessen'd in his strengths From hence the corollaries are plain 1. God was not unjust for beginning his entercourse with mankind by the Covenant of works for these reasons 1. Because Man had strengths enough to doe it until he lessen'd his own abilities 2. The Covenant of works was at first instanc'd but in a small Commandement in abstaining from the fruit of one tree when he had by him very many others for his use and pleasure 3. It was necessary that the Covenant of works should begin for the Covenant of faith and repentance could not be at first there was no need of it no opportunity for it it must suppose a defailance or an infirmity as physick supposes sickness and mortality 4. God never exacted the obedience of Man by strict measures by the severity of the first Covenant after Adams fall but men were sav'd then as now they were admitted to repentance and justified by faith and the works of faith And therefore the Jews say that three things were before the world The Law the name of the Messias and Repentance 1 Cor. 2.7 that is as S. Paul better expresses it This Repentance through faith in the Messias is the hidden wisdome of God ordained before the world unto our glory So that at first it was not impossible and when it was it was not exacted in the impossible measure but it was kept in pretence and overture for ends of piety wisdome and mercy of which I have given account it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a wise dispensation but it was hidden For since it is essentiall to a law that it be in a matter that is possible Plato lib 5. de leg Demosth contra Timocratem Plutar. in Solon Curius Fortunatianus Rhet. Nemo obligatur ad impossibile it cannot be suppos'd that God would judge man by an impossible Commandement A good man would not doe it much lesse the righteous and mercifull Judge of Men and Angels But God by holding over the world the Covenant of works non fecit praevaricatores sed humiles did not make us sinners by not observing the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the minutes and tittles of the law but made us humble needing mercy begging grace longing for a Saviour relying upon a better Covenant waiting for better promises praying for the Spirit of grace repenting of our sins deploring our infirmities and justified by faith in the promises of God 2. This then is the great introduction and necessity of repentance We neither could have liv'd without it nor have understood the way of the Divine Justice nor have felt any thing of his most glorious attribute But the admission of us to repentance is the great verification of his justice and the most excellent expression of his mercy This is the mercy of God in Jesus Christ springing from the fountains of grace purchas'd by the bloud of the Holy Lamb the Eternal sacrifice promised from the beginning always ministred to mans need in the secret Oeconomy of God but proclaim'd to all the world at the revelation of God incarnate the first day of our Lord Jesus But what are we eased now under the Gospel which is a Law of greater holiness and more Commandements and a sublimer purity in which we are tied to more severity then ever man was bound to under any institution and Covenant If the Law was an impossible Commandement who can say he hath strictly and punctually perform'd the injunctions of the Gospel Is not the little finger of the Son heavier then the Fathers loyns Here therefore it is to be inquired Whether the Commandements of Jesus Christ be as impossible to be kept as the Law of Moses If we by Christ be tied to more holiness then the sons of Israel were by Moses Law then because that could not be kept then neither can this But if we be not tied to more then they how is the law of Christ a more perfect institution and how can we now be justified by a law no better then that by which we could not be justified But then if this should be as impossible as ever why is it anew imposed why is it held over us when the
our duty I do not say all that we can naturally or possibly but all that we can morally and probably according to the measures of a man and the rate of our hindrances and infirmities 5. But the last sort and sense of perfection is that which our blessed Saviour intended particularly in the instance and subject matter of this Precept and that is a perfection in the kinde of action that is a choice and prosecution of the most noble and excellent things in the whole Religion Three are especially instanc'd in the holy Gospel 1. The first is a being ready or a making our selves ready to suffer persecution prescrib'd by our blessed Saviour to the rich young man If thou wilt be perfect Mat. 19.21 sell all and give to the poor that is if thou wilt be my disciple make thy self ready and come and follow me For it was at that time necessary to all that would follow Christs person and fortune to quit all they had above their needs For they that followed him were sure of a Cross and therefore to invite them to be disciples was to engage them to the suffering persecution and this was that which our blessed Saviour calls perfection Dulce periculum est O Lenaee sequi Deum Cingentem viridi tempora pampino It is an easie thing to follow God in festivals and dayes of Eucharist but to serve him in hard battels to die for him is the perfection of love of faith and obedience Obedient unto death was the Character of his own perfection for Greater love then this hath no man then to lay down his life Scis quem dicam bonum perfectum absolutum Seneca Quem malum fucere nulla vis nulla necessitas potest He is good absolute and perfect whom no force no necessity can make evil 2. The second instance is being merciful for S. Luke recording this Precept expounds it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Be ye perfect that is Luk. 6.36 Be ye merciful as your heavenly Father is merciful for by mercy onely we can be like him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Scriptor act Diognetum He that bears his neighbours burthen and is willing to do benefit to his inferiors and to minister to the needy of the good things which God hath given him he is as God to them that receive he is an imitator of God himself And Justin Martyr reciting this Precept of our blessed Saviour in stead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 uses the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Be ye good and bountiful as your heavenly Father is And to this purpose the story of Jesus and the young man before mentioned is interpolated in the Gospel according to the Hebrews or the Nazarens The Lord said unto him How sayest thou I have kept the Law and the Prophets when it is written in the Law Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self and behold many of thy brethren the sons of Abraham are covered in filth and die with hunger and thy house is full of good things and nothing goes forth to them from thence If therefore thou wilt be perfect sell all and give to the poor Charity which is the fulfilling the Commandement is also the perfection of a Christian and that a giving of alms should be perfection is not disagreeing with the design of the word it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 say the Grammarians it signifies to spend and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a great spender or a bountiful person 3. The third is the very particular to which our blessed Master did especially relate to in the words of the sanction or institution and we are taught it by the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or therefore For when the holy Jesus had describ'd that glory of Christianity that we should love our enemies bless them that curse us do good to them that hate us and pray for them which despitefully use us and persecute us he propounds the example of our heavenly Father for he maketh his Sun to rise on the evil and on the good But the Publicans love their friends and salute their brethren but more is expected of us Be ye therefore perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect that is do more then the Publicans do as your Father does be perfect as he is that is love your enemies 6. Now concerning this sense of the Precept of perfection which is the choice and pursuance of the noblest actions of Religion we must observe that they are therefore perfection because they suppose a man to have pass'd through the first and beginning graces to have arrived at these excellencies of piety and duty For as no man can on a sudden become the worst man in the world his soul must by degrees be unstript of holiness and then of modesty and then of all care of reputation and then of disuse and by these measures he will proceed to the consummation of the method of Hell and darkness So can no man on a sudden come to the right use of these graces Not every man that dies in a good Cause shall have the reward of Martyrdome but he that having liv'd well seals that doctrine with dying which before he adorn'd with living And therefore it does infinitely concern all them that suffer in a good Cause to take care that they be not prodigal of their sufferings and throw them away upon vice Peevishness or pride lust or intemperance can never be consecrated by dying or by alms But he that after a patient continuance in well doing addes Charity or Martyrdome to the collective body of his other graces he hath made them perfect with this kinde of perfection Martyrdome can supply the place of actual baptisms but not of repentance Because without our fault it may so happen that the first cannot be had but without our fault the second is never left undone Thus perfection and repentance may stand together Perfection does not suppose the highest intention of degrees in every one but in all according to their measures of grace and time Evangelicall perfection is such as supposes a beginning an infant grace progression and variety watchfulness and fear trembling fear And there are many graces required of us whose materiall and formal part is Repentance Such as are Mortification Penitential sorrow Spiritual mourning Patience some parts of Humility all the parts and actions of Humiliation and since in these also perfection is as great a duty as in any thing else it is certain that the perfection of a Christian is not the supreme degree of action or intention But yet perfection cannot be less then an intire piety a holiness perfect in its parts wanting nothing material allowing no vicious habit permitting no vile action but contending towards the greatest excellency a charitable heart a ready hand a confident Religion willing to die when we are called to die patient constant and persevering endevouring 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the measures of a man to
or their ingenuity It is much very much better which we learn from a wise Heathen who gives such an account both of the words and thing as might not misbecome the best instructed Christian so far as concerns the nature and morality of the duty His words are excellent words and therefore I shall transcribe them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We ought principally to take care that we doe not sin but if we be overtaken then to make diligent haste to return to justice or righteousness as the cure of our wickedness that we may amend our evil counsels or wils by the help of a better For when we are fallen from goodness we receive or recover it again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a wise or well principled penitential sorrow admitting a Divine correction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but repentance it self is the beginning of wisdome a flying from foolish words and deeds and the first institution of a life not to be repented of Where besides the definition of repentance and a most perfect description of its nature and intention he with some curiosity differences the two Greek words making 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be but the beginning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sorrow the beginning of repentance and both together the reformation of the old and the institution of a new life But to quit the words from being the subject matter of a Quarrel it is observable that the Latine word poenitentia does really signify by use I mean and custome as much as the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and is expressive of the whole duty of Repentance and although it implies that sorrow and grief which is the natural inlet of reformation of our lives and the consequent of our shame and sin yet it also does signify correction and amendment which is the formality and essence of Repentance and therefore Erasmus more warily and in imitation of the old Latines sayes that poenitere is from pone tenere quod est posterius consilium capere to be wiser the next time to choose again and choose better Noct. Att. lib. 17. c. 1. and so A. Gellius defines it Poenitere tum dicere solemus cum quae ipsi fecimus aut quae de nostrâ voluntate nostróque consilio facta sunt ea nobis pòst incipiunt displicere sententiámque in iis nostram demutamus To repent is when those things which we have done displease us and we change our minds So that here is both a Displeasure and a Change a displeasure and sorrow for the evil and a change to better And there ought to be no scruple in this for by the first sorrow of a penitent man is meant nothing else but the first act of eschewing evil which whether it be by grief alone or by fear or by hope or by all these it is not without some trouble of minde and displeasure for if it were still in all senses a pleasure to go on they would never return back And therefore to suppose repentance without displeasure is to suppose a change of minde without alteration or a taking a new course without disliking the old But then to suppose any other sorrow naturally necessary then this which naturally is included in the change is to affirm that to be true which experience tels us is not true and it is to place self-affliction and punition at the head which is to be look'd for in the retinue of repentance to make the daughter to be before the Mother and the fruit to be kept in the root not to grow upon the branches But the Latine words can no way determine any thing of Question in this article and the Greek words are used promiscuously and when they are distinguished they differ but as the more and less perfect as the beginning of Repentance and the progress of perfection according to that saying Poenitentia erroris magnus gradus est ad resipiscentiam To acknowledge and be sorry for our sin is a great step to repentance and both together signify all that piety that change and holiness which is the duty of the new man of the Returning sinner and we can best learn it by the words of him that revealed and gave this grace to all his servants even of the Holy Jesus speaking to S. Paul at his Conversion from whose blessed words together with those of S. Paul in his narrative of that story we may draw this more perfect description To repent is to turn from darkness to light Acts 26.18 20. from the power of Satan unto God doing works worthy of amendment of life for the forgiveness of sins that we may receive inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith in Christ Jesus Upon this account the parts of Repentance are two 1. leaving our sins which is properly repentance from dead works And 2. doing holy actions in the remaining portion of our dayes actions meet for repentance so the Baptist called them This is in Scripture by way of propriety called Repentance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. 3.8 so the Baptist used it distinguishing Repentance from its fruits that is from such significations exercises and prosecutions of this change as are apt to represent and to effect it more and more such as are confession weeping self-afflictions alms and the like Acts 26 2◠So S. Paul using the same words before King Agrippa But by way of Synedoche not onely the fruits and consequent expressions but the beginning sorrow also is signified by the same word and all are under the same Commandement though with different degrees of necessity and expression of which I shall afterwards give account Here I onely account concerning the essentiall and constituent parts and definition of Repentance All the whole duty of Repentance and every of its parts is sometimes called Conversion Thus godly sorrow is a conversion or change and upon that account S. James cals upon sinners Be afflicted James 4. and mourn and weep let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into weeping This is the first change of our affections which is attended with a change of our judgement when we doe no longer admire the false beauties of sin but judge righteously concerning it And of this the Prophet Jeremy gives testimony Jer. 31.19 Surely after that I was turned I repented And by this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Hebrews express the duty which the LXX indifferently render by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and is best rendred Conversion And then followes the conversion of the whole man body and soul minde and spirit all are set in opposition against sin and apply themselves to the service of God and conformity to Jesus §. 2. Of Repentance in generall or Conversion REpentance and Faith in Scriptures signifie sometimes more generally and in the foederal sense are used for all that state of grace and favour which the holy Jesus revealed and brought into the world They
that there is no ground for it in Scripture nor in Antiquity nor in right Reason but it is infinitely destructive of all that wise conduct of Souls by which God would glorifie himself by the means of a free obedience and it is infinitely confuted by all those Scriptures which require our cooperation with the assistance of Gods holy Spirit For all the helps that the Spirit of Grace ministers to us is farre from doing our work for us that it onely enables us to do it for our selves and makes it reasonable that God should therefore exact it of us because we have no excuse and cannot plead disability To which purpose that discourse of S. Paul is highly convincing and demonstrative Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling Phil. 2.12 13. for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to our desire so it is better read that is fear not at all but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 throughly do your duty †Magis operamini Syrus Augescite in opere Arabs for according as you desire and pray God will be present to you with his grace to bear you through all your labours and temptations And therefore our conversion and the working our salvation is sometimes ascribed to God sometimes to men * 1 Cor. 5. 7 8. 2 Tim. 2.21 Jam. 4.8 Epâ—â— 4.22 23 24. Col. 3 9 10. to God as the prime and indeficient cause to man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as to the fellow-worker with God it is the expression of S. Paul The Scripture mentions no other effect of Gods grace but such as I have now described But that Grace should do all our work alone and in an instant that which costs the Saints so much labour and fierce contentions so much sorrow and trouble so many prayers and tears so much watchfulness and caution so much fear and trembling so much patience and long-suffering so much toleration and contradiction and all this under the conduct of the Spirit in the midst of all the greatest helps of grace and the inhabitation of the holy Spirit of God that all this labour and danger should be spar'd to a vile person who hath griev'd and extinguish'd Gods holy Spirit and a way contriv'd for him that he should enjoy the pleasures of this world and the glories of the next is such a device as if it had any ground or colourable pretence for it would without the miracles of another grace destroy all piety from the face of the earth And in earnest it seems to me a strange thing that the Doctors of the Church of Rome should be so loose and remiss in this Article when they are so sierce in another that takes from such persons all manner of excuse It is I say very strange that it should be so possible and yet withall so unncessary to keep the Commandements Obj. 2. But if a single act of contrition cannot procure pardon of sins that are habitual then a wicked man that returns not till it be too late to root out vicious habits must despair of salvation I answer That such a man should doe well to ask his Physician whether it be possible for him to escape that sickness If his Physician say it is then the man need not despair for if he return to life and health it will not be too late for him by the grace of God to recover in his soul But if his Physician say he cannot recover first let the Physician be reproved for making his patient to despair I am sure he hath less reason to say he cannot live then there is to say such a person hath no promise that he shall be saved without performing the condition But the Physician if he be a wise man will say So farre as he understands by the rules of his art this man cannot recover but some secret causes of things there are or may be by which the event may be better then the most reasonable predictions of his art The same answer I desire may be taken in the Question of his soul Concerning which the Curate is to preach the rules and measures of God but not to give a resolution concerning the secret and final sentence 2. The case of the five foolish Virgins if we may construe it as it is expressed gives a sad account to such persons and unless that part of the Parable be insignificant which expresses their sorrow their diligence their desire their begging of oyle their going out to buy oyle before the Bridegroom came but after it was noised that he was coming and the insufficiency of all this we may too certainly conclude that much more then a single act of contrition and a moral revocation that is a sorrow and a nolition of the past sins may be done upon our death-bed without effect without a being accepted to pardon and salvation 3. When things are come to that sad state let the man hope as much as he can God forbid that I should be Author to him to despair The purpose of this discourse is that men in health should not put things to that desperate condition or make their hopes so little and afflicted that it may be disputed whether they be alive or no. 4. But this objection is nothing but a temptation and a snare a device to make me confess that the former arguments for fear men should despair ought to be answered and are not perfectly convincing I intended them onely for institution and instruction not to confute any person or any thing but to condemne sin and to resoue men from danger But truly I doe think they are rightly concluding as moral propositions are capable and if the consequent of them be that dying persons after a vicious life cannot hope ordinarily for pardon I am truly sorrowful that any man should fall into that sad state of things as I am really afflicted and sorrowful that any man should live vilely or perish miserably but then it ought not to be imputed to this doctrine that it makes men despair for the purpose and proper consequent of it is that men are warned to live so that they may be secur'd in their hopes that is that men give diligence to make their calling and election sure that they may take no desperate courses and fall into no desperate condition And certainly if any man preach the necessity of a good life and of actual obedience he may as well be charged to drive men to despair for the summe of the foregoing doctrine is nothing else but that it is necessary we should walk before God in all holy conversation and godliness But of this I shall give a large account in the fifth § Obj. 3. But if things be thus it is not good or safe to be a criminal Judge and all the Discipline of Warre will be unlawful and highly displeasing to God For if any one be taken in an act
thy sweetest mercy Amen Amen Amen CHAP. VI. Of Concupiscence and Original sin and whether or no or how far we are bound to repent of it §. 1. ORiginal sin is so called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or figuratively meaning the sin of Adam which was committed in the Original of mankinde by our first Parent and which hath influence upon all his posterity Nascuntur non propriè De civit lib. 16. c. 18. sed originalitèr peccatores So S. Austin and therefore S. Ignatius cals it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the old impiety Epist ad Trallian that which was in the original or first Parent of mankinde This sin brought upon Adam all that God threatned but no more A certainty of dying together with the proper effects and affections of mortality was inflicted on him and he was reduced to the condition of his own nature and then begat sons and daughters in his own likeness that is in the proper temper and constitution of mortal men For as God was not bound to give what he never promised viz. an immortal duration and abode in this life so neither does it appear in that angry entercourse that God had with Adam that he took from him or us any of our natural perfections but his graces onely Man being left in this state of pure Naturals could not by his own strength arrive to a supernatural end which was typified in his being cast out of Paradise and the guarding it with the flaming sword of a Cherub For eternal life being an end above our natural proportion cannot be acquir'd by any natural means Neither Adam nor any of his posterity could by any actions or holiness obtain heaven by desert or by any natural efficiency for it is a gift still and it is neque currentis neque operantis neither of him that runneth nor of him that worketh but of God who freely gives it to such persons whom he also by other gifts and graces hath dispos'd toward the reception of it What gifts and graces or supernatural endowments God gave to Adam in his state of Innocence we know not God hath no where told us and of things unrevealed we commonly make wild conjectures But after his fall we finde no sign of any thing but of a common man And therefore as it was with him so it is with us our nature cannot goe to heaven without the helps of the Divine grace so neither could his and whether he had them or no it is certain we have receiving more by the second Adam then we did lose by the first and the sons of God are now spiritual which he never was that we can finde But concerning the sin of Adam tragical things are spoken it destroyed his original righteousness and lost it to us for ever it corrupted his nature and corrupted ours and brought upon him and not him onely but on us also who thought of no such thing an inevitable necessity of sinning making it as natural to us to sin as to be hungry or to be sick and die and the consequent of these things is saddest of all we are born enemies of God sons of wrath and heirs of eternal damnation In the meditation of these sad stories I shall separate the certain from the uncertain that which is reveal'd from that which is presum'd that which is reasonable from that which makes too bold reflexions upon Gods honour and the reputation of his justice and his goodness I shall doe it in the words of the Apostle from whence men commonly dispute in this Question right or wrong according as it happens By one man sin came into the world That sin entred into the world by Adam Rom. 5.12 is therefore certain because he was the first man and unless he had never sinn'd it must needs enter by him for it comes in first by the first and Death by sin that is Death which at first was the condition of nature became a punishment upon that account just as it was to the Serpent to creep upon his belly and to the Woman to be subject to her Husband These things were so before and would have been so for the Apostle pressing the duty of subjection gives two reasons why the woman was to obey One of them onely was derived from this sin the other was the prerogative of creation for Adam was first formed 1 Tim. 2.13 then Eve so that before her fall she was to have been subject to her husband because she was later in being she was a minor and therefore under subjection she was also the weaker vessel But it had not been a curse and if any of them had been hindred by grace and favour by Gods anger they were now left to fall back to the condition of their nature Death passed upon all men That is upon all the old world who were drowned in the floud of the Divine vengeance and who did sin after the similitude of Adam And therefore S. Paul addes that for the reason In as much as all men have sinned If all men have sinned upon their own account as it is certain they have then these words can very well mean that Adam first sinned and all his sons and daughters sinned after him and so died in their own sin by a death which at first and in the whole constitution of affairs is natural and a death which their own sins deserved but yet which was hastned or ascertained upon them the rather for the sin of their progenitor Sin propagated upon that root and vicious example or rather from that beginning not from that cause but dum ita peccant similiter moriuntur If they sin so then so shall they die so S. Hierome But this is not thought sufficient and men doe usually affirm that we are formally and properly made sinners by Adam and in him we all by interpretation sinned and therefore think these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 forasmuch as all men have sinned ought to be expounded thus Death passed upon all men In whom all men have sinned meaning that in Adam we really sinn'd and God does truly and justly impute his sin to us to make us as guilty as he that did it and as much punish'd and liable to eternal damnation And all the great force of this fancy relies upon this exposition of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to signify in him Concerning which there will be the less need of a laborious inquiry if it be observed that the words being read Forasmuch as all men have sinned bear a fair and clear discourse and very intelligible if it be rendred In him it is violent and hard a distinct period by it self without dependence or proper purpose against the faith of all copies who do not make this a distinct period and against the usual manner of speaking 2. This phrase of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used in 2 Cor. 5.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not for that we would be unclothed and so it is
an old lust and are not cured but at the end of a lasting war They abide even after the conquest after their main body is broken and therefore cannot at all be cured by those light velitations and picqueerings of single actions of hostility 6. When a violent temptation assaults thee remember that this violence is not without but within Thou art weak and that makes the burden great Therefore whatever advices thou art pleased to follow in opposition to the temptation without be sure that thou place the strongest guards within and take care of thy self And if thou dost die or fall foully seek not an excuse from the greatness of the temptation for that accuses thee most of all the bigger the temptation is it is true that oftentimes thou art the more too blame but at the best it is a reproof of thy imperfect piety He whose religion is greater then the temptation of a 100. l. and yet fals in the temptation of a 1000. l. sets a price upon God and upon heaven and though he will not sell heaven for a 100. l. yet 1000. l. he thinks is a worthy purchace 7. Never think that a temptation is too strong for thee if thou givest over fighting against it for as long as thou didst continue thy contention so long it prevail'd not but when thou yeeldest basely or threwest away thy arms then it forraged and did mischief and slew thee or wounded thee dangerously No man knows but if he had stood one assault more the temptation would have left him Be not therefore pusillanimous in a great trial It is certain thou canst doe all that which God requires of thee if thou wilt but doe all that thou canst doe 8. Contend every day against that which troubles thee every day For there is no peace in this war and there are not many infirmities or principles of failing greater then weariness of well doing for besides that it proclaims the weakness of thy resolution and the infancy of thy piety and thy undervaluing religion and thy want of love it is also a direct yeelding to the Enemy for since the greatest scene of infirmities lies in the manner of our piety he that is religious onely by uncertain periods and is weary of his duty is not arriv'd so far as to plead the infirmities of willing people for he is in the state of death and enmity 9. He that would master his infirmities must doe it at Gods rate and not at his own he must not start back when the burden pinches him nor refuse his repentances because they smart nor omit his alms because they are expensive for it is vain to propound to our selves any end and yet to decline the use of those means and instruments without which it is not to be obtained He that will buy must take it at the sellers price and if God will not give thee safety or immunity but upon the exchange of labour and contradictions fierce contentions and mortification of our appetites we must goe to the cost or quit the purchace 10. He that will be strong in grace and triumph in good measures over his infirmities must attempt his remedy by an active prayer For prayer without labour is like faith without charity dead and ineffective A working faith and a working prayer are the great instruments and the great exercise and the great demonstration of holiness and Christian perfection Children can sit down in a storm or in a danger and weep and die but men can labour against it and struggle with the danger and labour for that blessing which they beg Thou dost not desire it unless thou wilt labour for it He that sits still and wishes had rather have that thing then be without it but if he will not use the means he had rather lose his desire then lose his ease That is scarce worth having that is not worth labouring 11. In all contentions against sin and infirmity remember that what was done yesterday may be done to day and by the same instruments by which then you were conquerour you may also be so in every day of temptation The Italian General that quitted his vanity and his imployment upon the sight of one that died suddenly might upon the same consideration actually applied and fitted to the fancy at any time resist his lust And therefore Epictetus gives it in rule 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Enchir. c. 28. Let death be always before thy eies and then thou shalt never desire any base or low thing nor desire any thing too much That is the perpetual application of so great a consideration as is death is certainly the greatest endearment of holiness and severity And certain it is that at some time or other the greatest part of Christians have had some horrible apprehensions of hell of death and consequent damnation and it hath put into them holy thoughts and resolutions of piety and if ever they were in a severe sickness and did really fear death they may remember with how great a regret they did then look upon their sins and then they thought heaven a considerable interest and hell a formidable state and would not then have committed a sin for the purchace of the world Now every man hath always the same arguments and endearments of piety and religion Heaven and hell are always the same considerable things and the truth is the same still but then they are considered most and therefore they prevail most and this is a demonstration that the arguments themselves are sufficient and would always doe the work of grace for us if we were not wanting to our selves It is impossible that any man can be mov'd by any argument in the world or any interest any hope or any fear who cannot be moved by the consideration of heaven and hell But that which I observe is this that the argument that wisely and reasonably prevail'd yesterday can prevail to day unless thou thy self beest foolish and unreasonable 12. If a wicked man sins it is never by a pitiable or pardonable infirmity but from a state of death that it proceeds or will be so imputed and it is all one as if it did But if a good man sins he hath the least reason to pretend infirmity for his excuse because he hath the strengths of the Spirit and did master sin in its strengths and in despight of all its vigorousness and habit and therefore certainly can doe so much rather when sin is weak and grace is strong The result of which consideration is this that no man should please himself in his sin because it is a sin of infirmity He that is pleased with it because he thinks it is indulg'd to him sins with pleasure and therefore not of infirmity for that is ever against our will and besides our observation No sin is a sin of infirmity unless we have it and strive against it He that hath gotten some strength may pretend some infirmity But he
be accepted and when I fail of that I may be pitied and pardoned and in all my fights and necessities may be defended and secured prospered and conducted to the regions of victory and triumph of strength and glory through the mercies of God and the grace of our Lord Jesus and the blessed communication of the Spirit of God and our Lord Jesus Amen CHAP. VIII Of the effect of Repentance viz. Remission of sins §. 1. THE law written in the Heart of man is a law of obedience which because we prevaricated we are taught another which S. Austin says is written in the Heart of Angels Lib. 6. cont Julian c. 9. Vt nulla sit iniquitas impunita nisi quam sanguis Mediatoris expiaverit For God the Father spares no sinner but while he looks upon the face of his Son but that in him our sins should be pardon'd and our persons spared is as necessary a consideration as any S. Ambr. de poenit l. 1. c. 2. Nemo enim potest benè agere poenitentiam nisi qui speraverit indulgentiam To what purpose does God call us to Repentance if at the same time he does not invite us to pardon It is the state and misery of the damned to repent without hope and if this also could be the state of the penitent in this life the Sermons of Repentance were useless and comfortless Gods mercies were none at all to sinners the institution and office of preaching and reconciling penitents were impertinent and man should die by the laws of Angels who never was enabled to live by their strength and measures and consequently all mankinde were infinitely and eternally miserable lost irrecoverably perishing without a Saviour tied to a law too hard for him and condemned by unequal and intolerable sentences Tertullian considering that God threatens all impenitent sinners Lib. 2. de poenit argues demonstratively Neque enim comminaretur non poenitenti si non ignosceret delinquenti If men repent not God will be severely angry it will be infinitely the worse for us if we doe not and shall it be so too if we doe repent God forbid Frustra mortuus est Christus si aliquos vivificare non potest S. Hierom. Epist ad Ocean Mentitur Johannes Baptista digito Christum voce demonstrans Ecce agnus Dei ecce qui tollit peccata mundi si sunt adhuc in saeculo quorum Christus peccata non tulerit In vain did Christ die if he cannot give life to all And the Baptist deceiv'd us when he pointed out Christ unto us saying Behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world if there were any in the world whose sins Christ hath not born But God by the old Prophets called upon them who were under the Covenant of Works in open appearance Exod. 34.6 Psa 103. per totum 128. Isa 55.7 8. Jer. 18.7 8. Ezek. 18.21 22. 33.11 Dan. 4.27 Mal. 3.7 Joel 2.13 Jonah 4.2 3.9 that they also should repent and by antedating the mercies of the Gospel promised pardon to the penitent He promised mercy by Moses and the Prophets He proclaimed his Name to be Mercy and Forgiveness He did solemnly swear he did not desire the death of a sinner but that he should repent and live and the holy Spirit of God haâ—â— respersed every book of holy Scripture with great and legible lines of mercy and sermons of Repentance In short it was the summe of all the Sermons which were made by those whom God sent with his word in their mouthes that they should live innocently or when they had sinned they should repent and be sav'd from their calamity But when Christ came into the world he open'd the fountains of mercy and broke down all the banks of restraint he preach'd Repentance offer'd health gave life call'd all wearied and burthen'd persons to come to him for ease and remedy he glorified his Fathers mercies and himself became the great instrument and channel of its emanation He preach'd and commanded mercy by the example of God he made his Religion that he taught to be wholly made up of doing and receiving good this by Faith that by Charity He commanded an indefinite and unlimited forgiveness of our brother repenting after injuries done to us seventy times seven times and though there could be little quostion of that yet he was pleased to signifie to us that as we needed more so we should have and finde more mercy at the hands of God And therefore he hath appointed a whole order of men whom he maintains at his own charges and furnishes with especial commissions Mat. 1â— 15 16. Joh. 20.23 2 Cor. 7.10 Gal. 6.1 Jam. 1.15 16 19 20. 1 Joh. 2.11 1.9 Rev. 2.5 3.1 2 3 19 20. and endues with a lasting power and imployes on his own errand and instructs with his own Spirit whose business is to remit and retain to exhort and to restore sinners by the means of Repentance and the word of their proper Ministery Whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted that 's their Authority and their Office is to pray all men in Christs stead to be reconciled to God And after all this Christ himself labours to bring it to effect not onely assisting his Ministers with the gifts of an excellent Spirit and exacting of them the account of Souls but that it may be prosperous and effectual himself intercedes in Heaven before the Throne of Grace doing for sinners the office of an Advocate and a Reconciler If any man sins 1 Joh. 2.2 3. we have an Advocate with the Father and he is the propitiation for all our sins and for the sins of the whole world and therefore it is not onely the matter of our hopes but an Article of our Creed that we may have forgiveness of our sins by the blood of Jesus Qui nullum excepit in Christo donavit omnia God hath excepted none and therefore in Christ pardons all For there is not in Scripture any Catalogue of sins set down for which Christ died and others excluded from that state of mercy All that believe and repent shall be pardon'd if they go and sin no more Deus distinctionem non facit qui misericordiam suam promisit omnibus relaxandi licentiam sacerdotibus suis sine ullâ exceptione concessit Lib. 1. de poenit c. 2. said S. Ambrose God excepts none but hath given power to his Ministers to release all absolutely all And S. Bernard argues this Article upon the account of those excellent examples which the Spirit of God hath consign'd to us in holy Scripture If Peter after so great a fall did arrive to such an eminence of sanctity In solenni Petri Pauli Ser. 3. hereafter who shall despair provided that he will depart from his sins For that God is ready to forgive the greatest Criminals if they repent appears in the instances of Ahab and
and heart But if thou canst know thy self you need not enquire any further If thy duty be performed you may be secure of all that is on Gods part 5. When ever repentance begins know that from thence-forward the sinner begins to live but then never let that repentance die Doe not at any time say I have repented of such a sin and am at peace for that for a man ought never to be at peace with sin nor think that any thing we can doe is too much Our repentance for sin is never to be at an end till faith it self shall be no more for Faith and Repentance are but the same Covenant and so long as the just does live by faith in the Son of God so long he lives by repentance for by that faith in him our sins are pardoned that is by becoming his Disciples we enter into the Covenant of Repentance And he undervalues his sin and overvalues his sorrow who at any time fears he shall doe too much or make his pardon too secure and therefore sets him down and sayes Now I have repented 6. Let no man ever say he hath committed the sin against the Holy Ghost or the unpardonable sin for there are but few that doe that and he can best confute himself if he can but tell that he is sorrowful for it and begs for pardon and hopes for it and desires to make amends this man hath already obtained some degrees of pardon and S. Pauls argument in this case also is a demonstration If when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son Rom. 5.10 much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life That is if God to enemies gives the first grace much more will he give the second if they make use of the first For from none to a little is an infinite distance but from a little to a great deal is not so much And therefore since God hath given us means of pardon and the grace of Repentance we may certainly expect the fruit of pardon for it is a greater thing to give repentance to a sinner then to give pardon to the penitent Whoever repents hath not committed the great sin the Unpardonable For it is long of the man not of the sin that any sin is unpardonable 7. Let every man be careful of entring into any great states of sin lest he be unawares guilty of the great offence Every resisting of a holy motion calling us from sin every act against a clear reason or revelation every confident progression in sin every resolution to commit a sin in despite of conscience is an access towards the great sin or state of evil Therefore concerning such a man let others fear since he will not and save him with fear plucking him out of the fire but when he begins to return that great fear is over in many degrees for even in Moses law there were expiations appointed not onely for errour but for presumptuous sins The PRAYER I. OEternal God gracious and merciful I adore the immensity and deepest abysse of thy Mercy and Wisdome that thou doest pity our infirmities instruct our ignorances pass by thousands of our follies invitest us to repentance and doest offer pardon because we are miserable and because we need it and because thou art good and delightest in shewing mercy Blessed be thy holy Name and blessed be that infinite Mercy which issues forth from the fountains of our Saviour to refresh our weariness and to water our stony hearts and to cleanse our polluted souls O cause that these thy mercies may not run in vain but may redeem my lost soul and recover thy own inheritance and sanctifie thy portion the heart of thy servant and all my faculties II. BLessed Jesus thou becamest a little lower then the Angels but thou didst make us greater doing that for us which thou didst not doe for them Thou didst not pay for them one drop of bloud nor endure one stripe to recover the fallen stars nor give one groan to snatch the accursed spirits from their fearful prisons but thou didst empty all thy veins for me and gavest thy heart to redeem me from innumerable sins and an intolerable calamity O my God let all this heap of excellencies and glorious mercies be effective upon thy servant and work in me a sorrow for my sins and a perfect hatred of them a watchfulness against temptations severe and holy resolutions active and effective of my duty O let me never fall from sin to sin nor persevere in any nor love any thing which thou hatest but give me thy holy Spirit to conduct and rule me for ever and make me obedient to thy good Spirit never to grieve him never to resist him never to quench him Keep me O Lord with thy mighty power from falling into presumptuous sins lest they get the dominion over me so shall I be innocent from the great offence Let me never despair of thy mercies by reason of my sins nor neglect my repentance by reason of thy insinite loving kindness but let thy goodness bring me and all sinners to repentance and thy mercies give us pardon and thy holy Spirit give us perseverance and thy infinite favour bring us to glory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen CHAP. IX Of Ecclesiasticall Penance or The fruits of Repentance §. 1. THe fruits of Repentance are the actions of spiritual life and signifie properly all that piety and obedience which we pay to God in the dayes of our return after we have begun to follow sober counsels For since all the duty of a Christian is a state of Repentance that is of contention against sin and the parts and proper periods of victory and Repentance which includes the faith of a Christian is but another word to express the same grace or mercies of the Evangelical Covenant it follows that whatsoever is the duty of a Christian and a means to possess that grace is in some sense or other a Repentance or the fruits of Gods mercy and our endevours And in this sense S. John the Baptist means it saying Bring forth therefore fruits meet for Repentance that is since now the great expectation of the world is to be satisfied and the Lords Christ will open the gates of mercy and give Repentance to the world see that ye live accordingly in the faith and obedience of God through Jesus Christ That did in the event of things prove to be the effect of that Sermon But although all the parts of holy life are fruits of Repentance when it is taken for the state of favor published by the Gospel yet when Repentance is a particular duty or vertue the integral parts of holy life are also constituent parts of Repentance and then by the fruits of Repentance must be meant the less necessary but very useful effects and ministeries of Repentance which are significations and exercises of the main duty And these are sorrow for sins