Malice as Ananias his lye Acts 5. 9. Not repented of but sin unrepented of as the two Theeves are Examples 10. Not sin confessed but covered and smothered Prov. 28. 13. Lastly Sin forsaken never damns sin not forsaken ever damns Prov. 28. 13. Ezek. 18. 21. Manasseh an example of the one Pharaoh of the other 1. We must distinguish of Righteousness 1. There is a Legal and Evangelical Righteousness 2. A Righteousness before God and before men Before God there is none Righteous according to the strictness of the Law But Zachary Elizabeth Abel and Lot and all truly godly are called and counted righteous by an Evangelical righteousness while they endeavour to fulfil all righteousness though in many things fall short But though they dare not plead their righteousness before God in whose Eyes the Heavens are not pure yet can they before men say Ye are witnesses and God also how holily and justly and unblamably 1 Thess 3. Po. we have had our Conversation among you Whose Oxe or Asse have I taken or whom have I defrauded There are sins Quotidianae Incursionis as Tertullian calls them some over-sights which the best are not free from but bewail and they consist with Grace But there are other gross sins Vastantia Conscientiam which make foul work with Conscience and denominate a man unrighteous in a high measure these shut out of Heaven 1 Cor. 6. 9 10. A third Doctrine much abused to strengthen Doct. 3. Christ died for Sinners men in sin is That Christ dyed to save Sinners which is the most comfortable Doctrine in all the Bible a saying worthy of all acceptation and due consideration But what use doth the presumptuous Sinner make of it Then saith he shall I do well enough though I live in sin for I can't out-sin the Merits of Christ's Blood which is said to cleanse from all sin And thus would he make Christ the Minister and Maintainer of sin as if he came not to destroy the Works of the Devil but to Patronize 1 John 3. 8. them But if thou wilt understand know That Jesus Christ came not to save us in and with but from our sins Matth. 1. 21. that is from the practice love and dominion of sin He gave himself for us to redeem us from all Iniquity and to Tit. 2. 14. purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good Works Every word of which Text speaks life to the Sinner but death to his sin Christ came indeed to reconcile God and the Sinner not the Sinner and Sin He pulls down the partition-wall between God and the Believer but sets up a partition-wall between the Believer and his Sin But many deal with Christ said a worthy Dr. Hall Bishop as some do with their Prince or some great noble man they care not how much they take up and how far they run in debt and when payment should be made they get a Protection to elude the course of Justice So do many fly to Christ for his Protection saith he and this is a common cheat 4. There is no Doctrine more abused then Doct. 4. We are saved by grace that of free grace That we are saved by Grace not Merit The Scripture ascribeth all to Grace we are justified by Grace Rom. 3. 28. Saved by Grace not Works Ephes 2. 8. Where Sin aboundeth Grace superaboundeth Rom. 4. 20. Hence the Libertine assumeth I will rely on the Grace of God and not doubt of Salvation though I am such a Sinner The Apostle easily foresaw that such an Antinomian and Antievangelian Inference would be made by some ungodly ones as Jude calls them who would turn grace into wantonness therefore doth twice obviate and refute it in one Chapter Rom. 6. 1. Shall we continue in Sin that Grace may abound And verse 15. Shall we sin because we are not under the Law but under Grace And knocks down both with the same short answer of defiance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God forbid Shall Grace act against it self and destroy Grace shall gratia gratis data become Ingratum faciens 1. These do quite and clean corrupt the Doctrine of Grace which teacheth to deny Vngodliness and worldly Lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present World Tit. 2. 11. 2. These do pervert the use of Grace set down Rom. 6. 14. Sin shall not have dominion over you because ye are not under the Law but under Grace 3. These frustrate the main end of Grace which is set down Rom. 5. ult That as Sin hath reigned unto Death Grace might reign by Righteousness to eternal life To abuse Grace is the greatest Sin imaginable and to despight the Spirit of Grace is the Sin unpardonable Heb. 10. 29. And if any are ungodly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in God's Black-Book as destined to condemnation Jude verse 4. they are such as turn the Grace of God into wantonness A fifth Doctrine much abused is That Doct. 5. That we are saved by Faith we are justified and saved by Faith alone which is most true and consonant to Scripture Rom. 3. 28. Gal. 2. 16. Ephes 2. 8. I will therefore believe saith the careless Christian and then hope I shall do well enough though I have no good works which I hear are excluded in those fore-cited Scriptures in the matter of Justification But know O vain man That Faith and Works are only opposed in the matter of Justification but are never separated and parted As the Eye and Ear are opposed in the matter of seeing the Eye only sees not the Ear but where God gives Eyes he gives Ears also So to whom Grace is given to believe it is given to obey Faith is not an idle but active and operative Grace It works by love Gal. 5. 6. Is of a heart purifying nature Acts 15. 9. It unites the Soul to Christ so that Christ is said to dwell in the Soul by Faith Ephes 3. 16. And to live in the Soul Gal. 2. 20. The right Epithete of true Faith is most holy Faith Jude verse 20. His right property is sanctifying Acts 26. 28. True Faith is never solitary but attended and known by her good many Companions Vertue 2 Pet. 1. 5. Love Ephes 1. 15. Fear Heb. 11. 7. Repentance Mark 1. 15. Righteousness 2 Tim. 2. 22. Obedience Heb. 11. 8. Patience Heb. 6. 12. Sanctification 2 Thess 2. 13. Good Works Tit. 3. 8. Her Exercises are holy Duties Therefore we read of the Prayer of Faith James 5. 15. Living by Faith Heb. 11. 28. Walking by Faith 2 Cor. 5. 7. And as to our spiritual warfare it is of singular use we read of the fight of Faith 1 Tim. 6. 22. Resisting the Devil quenching his fiery Darts overcoming the World and all by Faith So that such know little of the nature of Faith who dream that Faith hath nothing to do but to look on a Promise and sit still Faith hath Promises Conditions Precepts Threats
his gains are Pardon of Sin Interest in Christ the Favour of God the Comforts of the Holy Ghost Riches of Grace Peace of Conscience a Title to and Assurance of a heavenly Crown These are with him the true and great Gain and the matter of his Contentment which is no where to be found but in the Courts of Godliness not in the Courts of Princes or Palaces of Prelates You may have one King say Vtinam nunquam Regnassem so did Philip the Second say Would I had never been a King yet had he many Kingdoms came tumbling in upon him he had received 564 millions he said But had no Contentment but Cordolium hearts grief from all You may hear another a Pope say Would I had never been Pope so did Adrian the Sixth who said His exaltation to the Papacy was the greatest unhappiness that ever befel him And another of them said The higher he rose in Greatness and Preferments the farther off he was from Contentment and hopes of Salvation when I was an inferiour Church-man said he I had good hopes of my Salvation when raised to a Bishoprick I was full of doubts and fears but when made Pope I did utterly despair 4. Another Objecteth and hereby excuseth The Divisions among Christians himself while he is of no Religion or Conscience at all himself that we have so many Divisions that he knows not with what Party to joyn An old Cavil and Reproach cast upon the ways of God The Heathens would hit the Christians in the Teeth with this You Christians worship but one God and can't agree we worship many and yet agree It is to be confessed and sadly bewailed that there are too many Divisions in these our dayes yet not to be so much wondered at if we consider how it is Satan's grand Policy as not to be divided against himself so it is his greatest Artifice to disseminate and foment as many Divisions among others as he can 2. What a learned Divine said in this case viz. It is Dr. Potter a great vanity to hope or expect that all learned men in this life should absolutely consent in all the pieces and particles of Divine Truth The light whereby we see in this state of mortality is feeble and very different in regard of the good spirits illumination the capacities of men their diligence in Study Prayer and other means of Knowledge There were differences in the Apostles times In the Church of Corinth one saying I am of 1 Cor. 3. Rom. 16. Paul another I of Apollo Divisions in the Church of Rome which the Apostle warns them of and to avoid And in the present Church of Rome howsoever she Vaunts and Vapors of her Unity and upbraids us with our Divisions which she and her Emissaries have occasioned procured and seek to perpetuate are as many and far more momentous differences then among all Protestants whatsoever and have been managed with as much bitterness of Spirit and Invectives one side against another the Jesuits against the Dominicans the Seculars against the Jesuits c. as ever they have written against Protestants There is not a Controversie between them and us but the same is controverted by some of theirs as Bellarmine See Dr. Potter's Answer to Char. mistaken c. 7. doth plainly confess Besides there is a German Doctor who hath collected out of Bellarmine himself Two hundred thirty seven Contradictions and set them down in his own words as my Authour tells me There are differences among us but not about the great and weighty Points of Religion which are in Scripture laid down plainly and clearly but Circumstantials and matters of more Intricacy and Speculation where yet an unity of Faith and Love may be maintained under a diversity of Opinion yet are all agreed against Popery on the one hand and Prophaneness on the other There is difference of Opinion among Physicians yet all agree an Hectick is no good Constitution a Plurisie Feavor Consumption are dangerous Diseases and not to be slighted Difference among Lawyers yet all agree Treason Felony Murder are Capital Crimes So difference among this and that Party but all agree in condemning Popery as Idolatrous and prophane Ignorance and contempt of God and godliness to be destructive of Salvation 5. But one thing more say some I am The bad lives of some Ministers troubled at and it much confirms me in my way I see many Ministers that can Preach well who live but badly and sure if there were such need of strictness they who know so much and speak so well would be careful to practice it Answer Woe to the World because of Offences but woe and woe again to them by whom the Offence cometh If Elie's Sons be Sons of Belial they make the Lord's People to 1 Sam. 2. 12 17. transgress and some to abhor the Sacrifices of the Lord. And who seriously reflecting on this can chuse but cry out with the Prophet Jer. 23. 9. My heart within me bleeds is broken because of the Prophets Jer. 23. 9. 11. 14 15. all my Bones shake verse 11. For both Prophet and Priest are prophane They commit Adultery and walk in Lies They strengthen the hands of evil Doers that none doth return from his wickedness And after from the Prophets of Jerusalem is prophaneness gone into all the Land But our blessed Saviour hath directed what to do in such a case Mat. 23. 2. what they bid you observe that observe and do But do not after their works for they say and do not But though some are so blessed be God all are not There are many that are like their Master Acts 1. 1. Sayers and Doers who teach by Life as well as Doctrine And can say with the Apostle Thou hast fully known my Doctrine manner of Life Purpose Faith Long-suffering Charity Patience 2 Tim. 3. 10. Yea who can appeal higher ye are witnesses and God also how holily justly and unblamably we have had our Conversation amongst you Thus Reader have we done with those Excuses of the first sort viz. as to Sin I shall more briefly dispatch the other two remaining and now come to speak of Excuses as to Duty CHAP. VII Excuses as to Duty HAving spoken of those Excuses as to Excuses as to Duty Sin taken from our selves and others I come to speak of those which relate to Duty whereof the first is Parvulus 1. Childhood sum I am a Child It was Jeremy's excuse when called to Prophesie and Preach Jer. 1. 6. Ah Lord saith he I cannot speak for I am a Child It is true he might with more shew of reason plead this in relation to such an extraordinary Service then our Children or we in their behalf to be excused from ordinary Duties belonging to them We are apt to say Would you have me teach a Child Catechise a Child teach a Child to pray and make him a Hypocrite They have day and time before
Eccles 11. 8. His Silence Psal 50. 21. His Mercifulnes Deut. 29 19. Riches of Goodness Rom. 2. 5. His Grace Rom. 6. 1. His Preservations Jer. 7. 10. We are delivered to do all these abominations His Denyals or dipleasure 1 Sam. 28. 15. The Lord doth not answer me I hold my self disobliged from seeking farther after him The Lord doth not remove this Plague I am therefore disobliged from further waiting on him 2 Kings 6. ult May we not therefore seeing it is of such a poysonous nature that it sucks poyson out of every thing say that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Out of measure sinful And I may add one thing more Nothing doth more harden men in sin keeping them from Repentance keeping them that have once sallen from arising and causing them that once turn back to slide back by perpetual back-slidings to hold fast Deceit and Jerem 8. 4 5. 8. refuse to return no man once saying what have I done but spurred on by these Excuses rushing into Sin as the Horse into the Battel 3. Some Uses of Information 3. Uses for infoâ—mation 1. This may inform us what a shifting Creature Man is full of Shifts and Excuses you know not Proteus like where to have and how to hold him It is so hard a matter to fasten a Conviction upon him harder to take him off from his false bottoms so many Mazes Muses and Meanders windings and turnings that it is hard driving them out of them all See it in Pharaoh when God first sent to let Israel go his answer was I know not that it is the Lord then requires a Miracle to Ex. 5. 2. prove it Exod. 7. 9. Aaron throws down his Rod it becomes a Serpent then is he half perswaded But when he saw the Magicians do the like he is off again v. 13. So was he coming and going again about the Waters turned into Bloud v. 22. But when the Frogs were in his Chamber and croaking in his Bed you would have thought you had him fast Intreat the Lord to take away the Frogs and ye shall go Exod. 8. 8. The Frogs are no sooner gone but he is gone too When the Plague of Flyes came then Israel should go again Verse 25. When they were gone Israel must not stir Verse 32. Thus he dealt fast and loose with God Sometimes you hear him relenting after repenting of his Repentance sometimes praying anon saying his Prayers backwards One while he sends for Moses and intreats his Prayers and seems stricken Exod. 9. 27. At another time sends for him in all haste and prayes and promiseth fair and asks God and them forgiveness Exod. 10. 16. 17. Yet though this great Fool was ten times in the Mortar of Affliction his Folly departed not from him At first he would not yield at all Exod. 5. 3. After a little Chap. 8. 28. they should go but not so far Chap. 10. 11. They might go now as far as they would so their Wives Children and Cattle staid At last when he could no longer will nor chuse then go serve the Lord as ye have said and take all with you Herds and Families and bâ—ess me also Exod. 12. 32. How many shifts had Saul ere he would come to say I have sinned 1 Sam. 15. The world is more full of shifts than any thing else So that to those three things which posed the wise Man that he said he could not find them out The way of a Ship in the Sea of an Eagle in the Ayr of a Serpent on a Rock Prov. 30. 19. We may add a fourth hardest of all to be found out The way of a Man with his Excuses From hence it is that the work of Conversion is so difficult hence that the work of the Minister is never at an end This made the wise Man say He Prov. 11. 30. that winneth Souls is wise is the man of a thousand and hath learned the Art of Arts. Man is so sly and subtle a Creature and so full of shifts and put-offs that as it is an endless Task to reason Children out of their Will when they are ill of Worms perswade them to take any thing to do them good they had as lieve dye almost as take it shew him the Aloes oh it is bitter now his Worms gnaw not he is well now or give him any thing else then if ill again he will but not yet to morrow or anon but not yet then not so much half that quantity then he looks many a sad look upon it and takes a little when he sees there is no remedy and when he hath it down is ready to cast it up again So is it with many men as to their Souls to take any thing that may do them good to purge out Sin by Repentance how many Put-offs How many Pleas How many Delayes How many four Faces which shews they had as lieve dye almost as repent and live Or they will only take a little as one saith upon a Knives point or at the point of Bp. Andrews Death 2. This gives us an account why there is so little true Grace and so few real Converts in the world so little Repentance Faith Obedience and Sincerity the Reason is there are so many Excuses As he said once To will is present to perform is another thing out of my power so may most say To Excuse is present but to perform is out of my Endeavour and Desire they never go about it Hence the misery of man is great upon him And Issachar-like for Laziness and present Ease he chuseth rather to lye under the two heaviest burthens of Sin and Wrath then to be eased of both by using a strenuous endeavour in right use of Means An Excuse costs little but any course of Piety asketh Cost E. g. Repentance requireth Confession Contrition Humiliation Mortification Reformation Prayer calleth for Watchfulness Sobriety Faith Reverence Fervency Frequency Holiness Obedience Charity uprightness of Conversation Obedience that again calls for the Heart Spirit Faith Fear Love Diligence Care Conscience Patience Constancy Proficiency Perseverance As for Faith that is to be grounded on the Promises and maintained by studying them eying Precepts Conditions Threats frequent Prayers and by a constant course of obedience and sincerity of Heart Sincerity likewise calls for much Inspection of our Hearts Examination of our Wayes and State much eying of God searching the Scriptures observing our selves avoiding of sins and occasions of Sin performing Duties close and strict walking with God and according to his word Now all these require cost and pains which the lazie person thinks may be well spared by this commodious and easie way of Excuses 3. See the folly and falshood of that common Proverb A bad Excuse is better than none at all We may invert it and say Better no Excuse than the best of them all which make men double guilty by adding sin to sin and sinful Evasions and Excuses to
thy Excuse is our Reproach and leaves us without Excuse Here is a Pattern for you Youths that are all for Play and Sports remember your Saviour in the morning of his Youth before he was yet entred into the Teens when but twelve Years old was found not in the streets among Play-fellows but in the Temple among the grave Doctors nor as a spectator of them or Gazer on the Structure and Ornaments of the Temple but an attentive Auditor and as a great Proficient was able both to propound and answer with so much understanding as was admirable about matters of Religion Learn thou the way to the Temple and the place where the Teachers meet to reverence and attend to them that thy profiting may appear by thy understanding and answers and enable thy self for holy Conference Here is an Example also for Gentlemen and those of highest Birth your High born Lord was not found among his Kinsfolks and Friends as if his Business was to pay Civilities to friends and acquaintance to give and receive Visits and Treatments which is all the account some can give of their time spending nor was he ever found in the Tavern or Theater but now and after constantly in the Temple But alas how many are there whom you may seek long enough ere you find them in the Temple in the Tavern every day at the Temple seldom at the Theater they never miss among they Players among the Doctors or Teachers seldom specially expressing any reverence or devotion but as if they came rather to scoff than learn But let such consider seriously can they say if asked what makest thou here I am about my Fathers Business Yea this may be an Example to all men to attend their Callings and to mind the Business which God sets them to do Minister Verbi es hoc age was famous Perkins's Motto that wheresoever thou art found thou mayst be found so doing And this will be thy best discharge I must be about my Fathers Business 2. We must obey God rather than men is a just Excuse when God commands one thing and man another as was the case of the Apostles Peter and John when Acts 5. 28 29. they returned that answer to the High Priests Charge of Preaching no more in the Name of Christ But be sure the thing thou stickest at be so indeed and not in thy Imagination lest whilst thou sufferest for not obeying man thou mayst also sin in disobeying God too whose Command is Superiours should be obeyed in all Lawfull things 3. That was an excellent Excuse which Saint Paul made being in Bonds pursued by many enraged Enemies and charged with heavy Crimes Men and Brethren Act. â—3 1. I have lived in all good Conscience and that before God to this day The only Excuse in the world Saint Bernard calls it Perfecta absoluta cuique Testimonium Conscientiae suae Saint Peter calls it the answer of a 1 Pet. 3. 21. good Conscience Saint Paul had as many heavy Adversaries as ever man had had as many grievous Crimes laid to his charge as the great Incendiary and Pest in the State and an Haeresiarcha Arch Heretick in the Church a mover of Sedition and a Ring-leader of the new Sect of the Nazarens alias Christians or true Believers as Tertullus laid to his charge yet stands he like a Brazen Wall and as easily acquits himself of all their Accusations as he did once his Hand of the Viper which he shook off with this I have lived in all good Conscience before God An accusing Conscience is the worst Accuser and the Excusing Conscience the best Excuser Exercise thy self therefore in this Art of Christianity to have alway a Conscience void of offence towards God and towards man Act. 24. 16. If thou hast God and a good Conscience on thy side thou needest not care who is against thee thou hast Compurgators enough it will be with thee as it was with that famous Cato who had many Accusers and many Tryals but quoties accusatus toties absolutus it was said of him he had as many Judicial Absolutions as he had unjust Accusations and so came off ever with honour 4. See if thou canst make the same Apostles Excuse or Excuses Rom. 7. from verse 14. to the end When in the Review of thy spiritual state thou seest so much for which to condemn or abhor thy self as that thou fallest short of the Law that spiritual thou carnal short in thy performances the good I would I do not that thou art pestered with such a depraved nature that when thou wouldst do good evil is still present c. see if thou canst find the same temper of a gracious Spirit under these conflicts in three respects which was in him 1. As to Evil. 2. As to Good 3. As to the Law prescribing good forbidding Evil. 1. As to Evil canst thou say That there is no Evil thou dost allow thy self in v. 15. 2. No beloved Sin The Evil which I hate v. 15. 3. No voluntary wilful Sin That which I would not v. 16. and. 19. 2. As to good 1. though I fail in doing I fail not in desiring in indeavouring My will is good though performance poor to will is present with me though how to perform what is good in such a manner as I would I find not 2. Of all good he saith It is that he loves it is the good he would v. 19. 3. As to the Law prescribing Good and forbidding Evil canst thou say as he did 1. That the Law is holy and the Commandement holy just and good v. 12. A wicked man will say the Commandement is holy and just it may be too holy and too just but how to call it good he can hardly tell it doth so meet with him and cross his Lusts 2. Canst thou say thou consentest and subscribest to the Equity and Purity of the Law v. 16. I consent to the Law that it is good I tell you it is a gracious Heart that can say so I like not the Law the worse for its strictness and purity I find no fault with Gods holy Law all the fault I find is with my own unholy Heart I wish not for a better Law but a better Heart 3. And canst thou say further Thou delightest in the Law of God and in thy Inner Man v. 22. That thou dost heartily close with that though it make against thee and command more and better obedience then thou dost perform and reprove and threaten Sin I say this is a fair conflicting man's Excuse and doth clear thee from being a Hypocrite The fift and last Excuse and that which is simply and absolutely the best and fittest for us in our frail and imperfect estate to fly unto with which I shall conclude this Discourse and with which I heartily wish thou and I may conclude our Lives is to fly to Christ This is our ultimum refugium our last refuge when all
Idolatrous Service without scruple But observe what follows and you need no other Answer Hold fast that which is good abstain from all appearance of Evil Therefore it is no more but this Try all Doctrines believe not every Spirit but try all by the Word So prove all things that are probable or dubious but lawful and likely to be good not such as have an appearance of Evil. So that this universal Particle All as in many other places is to be taken with a limitation 1. As to Piety All things consistent with it but such are not the Doctrines of the Arrians Socinians the Worship of the Mahumetans Papists Quakers c. The Ephesine Church was commended for Rev. 2. 2. trying such as said they were Apostles but found them to be Lyers but then could not bear them or give allowance to hear them And further is commended that she did not try but perfectly hate and detest the Doctrine of the Nicolaitans a Verse 6. Pestilent and Licentious Sect. 2. To Morality All things consistent with Morality and good Manners not such as are apparently Evil by the light of Nature as the way of Cain the courses of the Ranter Adulterer Libertine c. 3. As to thy outward good civil or natural otherwise thou mightest try all Poysons to see what is the force and operation of them or try all Callings and Professions and so be to day a Tradesman to morrow a Divine next day a Lawyer or Physician to day a Tayler to morrow a Carpenter and so in infinitum as well as take that liberty to tast and make tryal of all Sects and different modes of Religion and Worship And in the last place to name no more 9. Repent and be saved It is but repenting if all fail and all is safe for Christ hath joyned Repentance and Remission of Sins together Luke 24. 47. So that if Repentance go before Pardon follows of course The Lord hath promised if we repent of the Evil we have done he will repent of the Evil he hath threatned Jer. 18. 8. And I purpose to repent at last and then God will pardon Oh that men should so dally with God's Promises and Threats and Play with the Cockatrice adventuring so near the brink of Hell and think to come off safe Such as these do presumptuously promise themselves two things which God doth no where promise 1. The one is that they will repent as if it were in 2 Tim. 2. 26. their own power which is the pure and peculiar gift of God Repentance is not Acts 11. 18. the work of nature or free-will not in the power of all Purposes Vows Resolutions not in the power of Pain Sickness Death or Hell to work not in the power of Creatures Men or Angels to give not in the power of all Ordinances Fasting Praying Sermons or Sacraments to work 2. The other is they promise themselves to repent at Death and that shall serve their turn as well as if they had repented all their life But God hath made no such promise to late Repentance but threatned the contrary Prov. 1. 26 27 28. Hos 5. 6. There is a memorable Story of St. Austin Lib. 3. De poenitentia quae putatur esse ipsius to this purpose which I have read being once asked What he thought of a man that had lived wickedly but at his Death penitent confessing and bewayling his sins absolved c. What would you have me say said he That he is saved No I will not because I would not deceive thee What then That he is damned No neither because I dare not Judge him What then shall I say O Brother if thou wilt be free from doubting repent whiles thou art in health If thou wilt repent when thou canst not sin thy sins have left thee and not thou thy Sins In another place again it is not to be said how many this vain hope of late Repentance hath deceived and undone Again saith he I have read the Scripture over and over and I find not so much as one in the space of two thousand years saved by his Repentance at his end except the Thief on the Cross To St. Austin I shall joyn a remarkable passage or two of the learned Bishop Andrews who Preaching at Court of Repentance fell to discourse of late Repentance and seeking God and hath these words That that may be said about this is this and it is nothing some one or two of a thousand or ten thousands have how then shall not we therefore seek God before Again this time is the time when all Hypocrites Atheists Tag and Rag come in to seek him in a sort and shall not we be confounded to see our selves in their number Again what is our seeking then Is it not to lie still in our Beds and suffer a few words to be spoken in our Ears and have a little Opiate Divinity ministred to our Souls and so sent away and much more to this purpose To these two so eminent Persons I may add a third of Mr. Greenham St. Greenham Bishop Hall somewhere calls him my Sentence is saith that judicious Divine that a man now lying at the point of death having the fears and terrors of death now upon him in that state of fear and pain may have a sorrow for his life past but because the weakness of the Flesh and the bitterness of Death doth most commonly procure it we ought to suspect c. There is no Promise I said that such Repentance shall be accepted But I know what will be Replyed Though I have no Promise I have an Example The Thief on the Cross And why may not I as well as he Answer This Example as some other passages of Scripture concerning the falls and miscarriage of the Saints is set for the fall and rising again of many and is like some of those Scriptures which the unlearned and inconsiderate persons do wrest to their own destruction But 1. Consider there is but one such Example in all the Bible and this related but once and by one only of the Evangelists all four mentioning the dying of Christ between two Theeves only St. Luke sets Luke 23. 40. down this passage the rest being silent The Holy Ghost easily foresaw how apt we are to surfeit even of a little of this Honey One we say that none might depair But one least any should presume 2. Consider at the same time you have an Example of another that died without Repentance therefore I may with much more reason retort this Argument The one Thief did not nay could not repent for God gave him not Repentance but as he cast off God in his life God cast him off at death As he lived he dyed reviling cursing deriding desparing thou hast therefore more cause to fear to be left with the one then to hope to be taken with the other There was then a Concurrence of a many the most
stupendious Prodigies that the World ever beheld the Sun at Noon-day loosing his light the Air darkened the Earth quaking the Rocks rent the Sun of God crying out Eloi Eloi c. his fellow Thief now recanting of an old Malefactor and late scoffing Blasphemer while upon the Cross of a sudden a Penitent a Convert a Believer a Confessor a Preacher a Prayer preaching to him Repentance praying to his Saviour for forgiveness yet all this wrought not upon him The hard Rocks rent and cleft but his more then rocky heart rent not His Bones Arms and Legs were broken his heart unbroken We may as well almost expect a second Crucifying of Christ said one as a second Thief Mr. Dike nay I may say if there could be a second Crucifying there might also be found a second Impenitent Thief Some man said that great Andrews going a Journey hath found a Purse of money by the way were it not madness in hope of like hap to us to leave our money behind us hear Mr. Greenbam again Besides this one there is not one more in all the Bible and for this one that sped a thousand thousands have missed and what folly is it to put our selves in a way where so many have miscarried It is as if one should spur his Asse till he spake because Balaam's Asse did once speak so grosly doth Satan abuse us and our own folly blind us The remaining part of this Chapter is to speak of sundry Observations that many 2. Sundry Observations have made whence they have gathered Excuses to confirm themselves in their evil wayes As in the first place The quiet â— The quiet end of some wicked men and peaceable end of some wicked men I have observed saith one how good an end they have made died like Lambs I wish I may make such an end my self Answer Like Lambs indeed like Jeremy's Lambs Jer. 51. 39 40. They rejoyce and sleep a perpetual sleep like Lambs led to the Slaughter Like Lambs indeed as having neither apprehension of Death the second Death nor hope of eternal life But when did you see a wicked or worldly man die like that Lamb of God lifting up his Eyes to Heaven praying with a Heart full of hope joy peace assurance saying John 17. 4. I have glorified thee on Earth have finished the Work thou gavest me to do Into thy Hands I commend my Spirit Or singing like that Swan 2 Tim. 4. 6 7 8. I have fought a good Fight finished my course kept the Faith there is now a Crown of Righteousness laid up for me c. I am not secure Si securus hinc exit ego non sum securus about his eternal state said St. Austin that died secure of his own Such may rather be said to lie like Stocks and Stones and to die like Nabal whose heart was dead within him ten dayes before he died and became 1 Sam. 25. like a stone It matters not much said a godly Divine Whether a godly man Dr. Harris be in Heaven the day before his death his Understanding being clouded his Faith assaulted so he be there ever after nor whether a wicked man be secure at and before his death and descend from a Heaven of security into a Hell of misery There is no conclusion to be made from the Epilogue and last act of ones life Qualis vita finis ita From the former course of his life we may more rationally argue according to that of the Father He cannot Aug. l. de Disc Chris c. 2. dye ill that lived well nor well that have lived ill You may possibly see some eminently godly person encountring the last Enemy with dread and horror yet goes to Heaven as they Rev. 11. 12. In a Cloud or as Elias in a Whirlewind and Storm 2 Kings 2. 11. while the wicked steal into Hell without noise For my part said that famous Greenham speaking to one in distress in Sickness As I look for no great matters in my death for my self so I would not think the more hardly of you if you should die in this discomfort nor would I wish any to judge otherwise of God's Child in that state of death for we shall not be judged according to that particular instant at our death but the general course of our life You may see much more to this purpose in our famous Perkins His right way to dying well Another is stumbled and takes offence 2. The low parts of the Religious as he pretends at the mean Condition and weak parts of those that are Religious looking upon them as so many shallow heads And it was not for nothing therefore when our Saviour had related That the Poor receive the Gospel that he added Blessed is he that is not offended in me In respect of Math. 11. 6. his Followers But shall we say That Lucian Porphiry and Julian and such atheistical Scoffers are the onely wits of the World Tell me if thou art able to Judge and hast any Candor If St. Paul's Rhetorick in his Answers and in his many ex tempore Apologies doth not equal or exceed his who was Sir-named the Orator Tertullus And not to mention his other Epistles read and weigh that short one to Philemon and tell me If thou findest any where better Oratory such Flowers and Flouds of Eloquence Were not those great Worthyes of their times Justin Martyr Clemens Tertullian Origen Basil Nazianzen Chrysostom Austin Jerom able to cope with match and over-match all the learned Opposers of Religion in their times And will not any one that hath any savour of piey or fancy confess our Herbert to have as good a vain in Poetry and to have as lofty strains as any of our frothy and wanton Poets And hath not our Nation had as choice wits and profound Schollars in all kind of Polite Literature as were to be found in the World again Such our Jewell Perkins Abbot Andrews Reynolds Whitaker Davenant and those two great Luminaries Vsher and Gataker whom their very Adversaries admired for their Learning yet all not onely Champions for the Truth but Exemplary for a strict and holy Life 3. Another takes the like distaste when Religion doth not raise men to Riches c. he sees Religion not accompanyed with Riches and outward Prosperity but the most Religious often in Straits Wants Trouble Persecution whereas our Preachers say That godliness is so profitable to all things having the Promise of this Life as well as that to come yet they see whatever the godly may meet with in another World in this they fare not better often worse then others Is godliness the great gain and contentment say they we can find neither the one nor the other True if we call Riches Honour Preferments the great gain and contentment to consist in a bruitish Epicurean satisfying the Flesh These the godly count but petty gains and little contentment in them But