Mens sins upon such easie and unfit Terms gives boldness and encouragement to sin and must necessarily in the opinion of men lessen the Honour and Esteem of God's Laws And thus I have Considered and Explained both the Blessing and Benefit which is here promised and declared viz. the Mercy and Favour of God which comprehends both the present Forgiveness of our Sins and Power against them and Grace to Persevere in Goodness to the end and our final Absolution at the great day and the Glorious and Merciful Reward of Eternal Life and likewise the Conditions upon which this Blessing is promised viz. the Penitent acknowledgment of our sins to God with such Shame and Sorrow for them as produceth a sincere Resolution of leaving them and returning to a better course and the actual forsaking of them which involves in it our actual return to our Duty and a Constant and Sincere obedience to the Laws of God in the future course of our lives I shall now make some Application of this Discourse to our selves I am sure we are all nearly concerned in it The best of us have many sins to confess and forsake some of us very probably have need to change the whole course of our Lives to put us into a capacity of the Mercy of God This work can never be unseasonable but there cannot be a more proper time for it than when we are solemnly preparing our selves to receive the Holy Sacrament in which as we do Commemorate the great Mercy of God to Mankind so we do likewise renew and confirm our Covenant with him that Holy Covenant wherein we engage our selves to forsake our sins as ever we expect the forgiveness of them at God's hand To perswade us hereto be pleased to consider the Reasonableness of the Thing the infinite Benefit and Advantage of it and which is beyond all other Arguments the absolute Necessity of it to make us capable of the Mercy and Forgiveness of God in this World and the other and to deliver us from the wrath which is to come and from those terrible storms of vengeance which will infallibly fall upon impenitent sinners So that we have all the Reason and all the Encouragement in the World to resolve upon a better course Upon this Condition the Mercy of God is ready to meet and embrace us God will Pardon our greatest provocations and be perfectly reconciled to us So he hath declared by the Prophet Isaiah 1.16 Wash ye make you clean put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes cease to do evil learn to do well Come now and let us reason together saith the Lord tho' your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow tho' they be red as crimson they shall be as wool And what greater Encouragement can we desire than that upon so easie and advantageous Terms God should be so ready to have an end put to all Controversies and Quarrels between him and us I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God to take up a serious Resolution to break off your sins by repentance and to reform whatever upon due search and tryal of your ways you shall find to be amiss in your lives I beseech you by the Mercies of God that Mercy which naturally leads to repentance and which is long-suffering to us-ward on purpose that we may not perish but come to repentance which hath spared us so often and is not yet exhausted and tired out by our intolerable obstinacy and innumerable provocations that mercy which moved the Son of God to become man to live among us and to die for us who now as it were speaks to us from the Cross extending his pierced Hands and painful Arms to embrace us and through the gasping wounds of his side lets us see the tender and bleeding Compassion of his Heart that mercy which if we now despise it we shall in vain one day implore and catch hold of and hang upon to save us from sinking into Eternal Perdition that mercy which how much soever we now presume upon will then be so far from interposing between us and the wrath of God that it will highly inflame and exasperate it For whatever impenitent sinners may now think they will then certainly find that the Divine Justice when it is throughly provoked and whetted by his abused Mercy and Goodness will be most terribly severe and like a Rasor set with Oyl will cut the keener for its smoothness Consider this all ye that forget God lest he tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver Consider and shew your selves men O ye transgressours We do consider all this may some perhaps say but we have been great sinners so great that we doubt whether our case be not already desperate This if it be sensibly said with deep Sorrow and Contrition with that Shame and Confusion of face which becomes great offenders is a good Confession and the best Reason in the World why ye should now break off your sins For if what you have already done do really make your case so doubtful and difficult do not by sinning yet more and more against the Lord make it quite Desperate and past Remedy do but you Repent and God will yet return and have Mercy upon you And do not say you cannot do it when it must be done or you are undone Power and necessity go together when men are hard prest they find a power which they thought they had not and when it comes to the push men can do that which they plainly see they either must do or be ruined for ever But after all this I am very sensible how great a need there is of God's powerful Assistance in this case and that it is not an ordinary resolution and common measure of God's Grace that will reclaim those who have been long habituated to an evil course Let us therefore earnestly beg of him that he would make these Counsels effectual that he would grant us repentance unto life that he would make us all sensible of our faults sorry for them and resolved to amend them and let us every one put up David's prayer to God for our selves Deal with thy Servant according to thy mercy and teach me thy statutes order my steps in thy word and let not any iniquity have dominion over me teach me O Lord the way of thy statutes that I may keep them unto the end I have now done I am only to mind you of another Duty which is to accompany our Repentance and Fasting and Prayer as a Testimony of the Sincerity of our Repentance and one of the best means to make our Fasting and Prayer acceptable to God and to turn away his Judgments from us and that is Charity and Alms to the Poor whose number is very great among us and their necessities very pressing and clamorous and therefore do call for a bountiful Supply And to convince men of the Necessity of this Duty and
now we are acquainted withal for who knows the power of God's anger and the utmost of what Almighty Justice can do to Sinners Who can Comprehend the vast significancy of those Expressions Fear him who after he hath killed can destroy both body and soul in Hell and again It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God One would think this were Misery enough and needed no farther Aggravation and yet it hath Two terrible ones from the Consideration of past Pleasures which Sinners have enjoyed in this World and from an utter Despair of future Ease and Remedy 1. From the Consideration of the past Pleasures which Sinners have enjoy'd in this Life This will make their Sufferings much more sharp and sensible for as nothing commends Pleasure more and gives Happiness a quicker taste and relish than precedent Sufferings and Pain there is not perhaps a greater Pleasure in the World than the strange and sudden Ease which a Man finds after a sharp fit of the Stone or Cholick or after a Man is taken off the Rack and Nature which was in an Agony before is all at once set at perfect Ease So on the other Hand nothing exasperates Suffering more and sets a keener Edge upon Misery than to step into Afflictions and Pain immediately out of a state of great Ease and Pleasure This we find in the Parable was the great Aggravation of the rich Man's Torment that he had first received his good things and was afterwards Tormented We may do well to consider this that those Pleasures of Sin which have now so much of Temptation in them will in the next World be one of the chief Aggravations of our Torment 2. The greatest Aggravation of this Misery will be that it is attended with the Despair of any future Ease and when Misery and Despair meet together they make a Man compleatly miserable The duration of this Misery is exprest to us in Scripture by such words as are us'd to signifie the longest and most interminable duration Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire Matt. 25.41 Where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched Mark 9.43 and 2 Thess 1.7 It is there said that those who know not God and obey not the Gospel of his Son shall be punisht with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power And in Rev. 20.10 That the wicked shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever And what can be imagined beyond this This is the perfection of Misery to lie under the greatest Torment and yet be in despair of ever finding the least Ease And thus I have done with the First thing I propounded to speak to from this Text viz. The manifest Inconveniences of a sinful and vicious Course of Life that it brings no present Benefit or Advantage to us that the reflection upon it causeth Shame and that it is fearful and miserable in the last Issue and Consequence of it What fruit had you c. I should now have proceeded to the Second Part of the Text which represents to us the manifold Advantages of an Holy and Virtuous Course of Life 22 v But now being made free from sin and become the servants of righteousness ye have your fruit unto holiness there 's the present Advantage of it and the end everlasting life there 's the future Reward of it But this is a large Argument which will require a Discourse by it self and therefore I shall not now enter upon it but shall only make some reflections upon what hath been said concerning the miserable Issue and Consequence of a wicked Life impenitently persisted in And surely if we firmly believe and seriously consider these things we have no reason to be fond of any Vice we can take no great Comfort or Contentment in a sinful Course If we could for the seeming Advantage and short Pleasure of some sins dispense with the Temporal Mischiefs and Inconveniences of them which yet I cannot see how any Prudent and Considerate Man could do if we could conquer Shame and bear the Infamy and Reproach which attends most sins and could digest the upbraidings of our own Consciences so often as we call them to remembrance and reflect seriously upon them tho' for the gratifying an importunate Inclination and an impetuous Appetite all the Inconveniences of them might be born withal yet methinks the very thought of the End and Issue of a wicked Life that the end of these things is Death that indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish far greater than we can now describe or imagine shall be to every soul of Man that doth evil should over-rule us Tho' the violence of an irregular lust and desire are able to bear down all other Arguments yet methinks the Eternal Interest of our precious and immortal Souls should still lie near our Hearts and affect us very sensibly Methinks the Consideration of another World and of all Eternity and of that dismal fate which attends Impenitent Sinners after this Life and the dreadful hazard of being miserable for ever should be more than enough to dishearten any Man from a wicked life and to bring him to a better Mind and Course And if the plain Representations of these things do not prevail with men to this purpose it is a sign that either they do not believe these things or else that they do not consider them one of these two must be the reason why any Man notwithstanding these terrible threatnings of God's Word does venture to continue in an Evil Course 'T is vehemently to be suspected that men do not really believe these things that they are not fully perswaded that there is another state after this Life in which the righteous God will render to every Man according to his deeds and therefore so much Wickedness as we see in the lives of men so much Infidelity may reasonably be suspected to lie lurking in their Hearts They may indeed seemingly profess to believe these things but he that would know what a Man inwardly and firmly believes should attend rather to his Actions than to his Verbal Professions For if any Man lives so as no Man that believes the Principles of the Christian Religion in reason can live there is too much reason to question whether that Man doth believe his Religion he may say he does but there is a far greater Evidence in the Case than Words the Actions of the Man are by far the most credible Declarations of the inward Sense and Perswasion of his Mind Did men firmly and heartily believe that there is a God that governs the World and regards the Actions of men and that he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the World in righteousness and that all Mankind shall appear before him in that day and every Action that they have done in their whole lives shall be brought upon the Stage and pass a strict Examination and Censure and
that those who have made Conscience of their Duty to God and men and have lived soberly righteously and godly in this present World shall be unspeakably and eternally Happy in the next but those who have lived lewd and licentious lives and persisted in an Impenitent Course shall be extreamly and everlastingly miserable without Pity and without Comfort and without Remedy and without Hope of ever being otherwise I say if men were fully and firmly perswaded of these things it is not Credible it is hardly Possible that they should live such Prophane and Impious such Careless and Dissolute Lives as we daily see a great part of Mankind do That Man that can be aw'd from his Duty or tempted to Sin by any of the Pleasures or Terrors of this World that for the present enjoyment of his Lusts can be contented to venture his Soul what greater Evidence than this can there be that this Man does not believe the threatnings of the Gospel and how fearful a thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God That Man that can be willing to undergo an hard Service for several years that he may be in a way to get an Estate and be rich in this World and yet will not be perswaded to restrain himself of his Liberty or to deny his Pleasure or to check his Appetite or Lust for the greatest Reward that God can promise or the severest Punishment that he can threaten can any Man reasonably think that this Man is perswaded of any such Happiness or Misery after this Life as is plainly revealed in the Gospel that verily there is a reward for the righteous and verily there is a God that judgeth the Earth For what can he that believes not one syllable of the Bible do worse than this comes to A strong and vigorous Faith even in Temporal Cases is a powerful Principle of Action especially if it be back'd and enforc'd with Arguments of fear He that believes the reality of a thing and that it is good for him and that it may be attained and that if he do attain it it will make him very happy and that without it he shall be extreamly miserable such a Belief and Perswasion will put a Man upon difficult things and make him to put forth a vigorous endeavour and to use a mighty industry for the obtaining of that concerning which he is thus perswaded And the Faith of the Gospel ought to be so much the more powerful by how much the Objects of hope and fear which it presents to us are greater and more considerable Did men fully believe the Happiness of Heaven and the Torments of Hell and were they as verily perswaded of the truth of them as if they were before their Eyes how insignificant would all the Terrors and Temptations of Sense be to draw them into Sin and seduce them from their Duty But altho' it seems very strange and almost incredible that men should believe these things and yet live wicked and impious lives yet because I have no Mind and God knows there 's no need to increase the number of Infidels in this Age I shall chuse rather to impute a great deal of the wickedness that is in the World to the Inconsiderateness of men than to their Unbelief I will grant that they do in some sort believe these things or at least that they do not disbelieve them and then the great cause of mens ruin must be that they do not attend to the Consequence of this Belief and how men ought to live that are thus perswaded Men stifle their Reason and suffer themselves to be hurried away by Sense into the embraces of sensual Objects and things present but do not consider what the end of these things will be and what is like to become of them hereafter for it is not to be imagined but that that Man who shall calmly consider with himself what Sin is the shortness of its Pleasure and the Eternity of its Punishment should seriously resolve upon a better Course of life And why do we not Consider these things which are of so infinite Concernment to us What have we our Reason for but to reflect upon our selves and to mind what we do and wisely to compare things together and upon the whole matter to judge what makes most for our true and lasting Interest to Consider our whole selves our Souls as well as our Bodies and our whole duration not only in this World but in the other not only with regard to Time but to Eternity to look before us to the last Issue and Event of our Actions and to the farthest Consequence of them and to reckon upon what will be hereafter as well as what is present and if we suspect or hope or fear especially if we have good reason to believe a future state after Death in which we shall be happy or miserable to all Eternity according as we manage and behave our selves in this World to resolve to make it our greatest Design and Concernment while we are in this World so to live and demean our selves that we may be of the number of those that shall be accounted worthy to escape that Misery and to obtain that happiness which will last and continue for ever And if men would but apply their Minds seriously to the Consideration of these things they could not act so imprudently as they do they would not live so by chance and without design taking the Pleasure that comes next and avoiding the present Evils which press upon them without any regard to those that are future and at a distance tho' they be infinitely greater and more considerable If men could have the Patience to debate and argue these matters with themselves they could not live so preposterously as they do preferring their Bodies before their Souls and the World before God and the things which are Temporal before the things that are Eternal Did men verily and in good earnest believe but half of that to be true which hath now been declared to you concerning the miserable state of impenitent Sinners in another World and I am very sure that the one half of that which is true concerning that state hath not been told you I say did we in any measure believe what hath been so imperfectly represented What manner of persons should we all be in all holy conversation and godliness waiting for and hastening unto that is making haste to make the best preparation we could for the coming of the day of God! I will conclude all with our Saviour's Exhortation to his Disciples and to all others Watch ye therefore and pray always that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things and to stand before the Son of Man To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all honour and glory world without end Amen SERMON VIII Serm. 8. The present and future Advantage of an Holy and Virtuous Life The Fourth Sermon on this Text.
Lord Jesus Christ at the day of Judgment will sentence men as the great Judge of the world and this is to believe the Kingly Office of Christ And this is the sum of that which is meant by Faith towards the Lord Jesus Christ which the Apostle saith was one Subject of his preaching And the proper and genuine effect of this Faith is to live as we believe to conform our lives to the Doctrine to the truth whereof we assent Hence it is that true Christians that is those who fashioned their lives according to the Gospel are call'd believers and the whole of Christianity is many times contained in this word believing which is the great Principle of a Christian life As in the Old Testament all Religion is express'd by the fear of God so in the New by Faith in Christ And now you see what is included in Repentance and Faith you may easily judge whether these be not the sum of the Gospel that men would forsake their sins and turn to God and believe the revelation of the Gospel concerning Jesus Christ that is heartily entertain it and submit to it What did Christ preach to the Jews but that they would repent of their sins and believe on him as the Messias And what did the Apostles preach but to the same purpose When St. Peter preached to the Jews Acts 2. the effect of his Sermon and the scope of it was to perswade them to repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus that is to profess their belief in him v. 38. And so Acts 3.19 This is the conclusion of his discourse repent therefore and be converted and then he propounded Christ to them as the Object of their Faith being the great Prophet that was Prophesied of by Moses who should be raised up among them v. 22. So likewise St. Paul when he preached to the Jews and Gentiles these were his great Subjects Acts 17.30 This is the conclusion of his Sermon to the Athenians to perswade them to repent by the consideration of a future Judgment and to perswade them to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ who was to be the Judge of the world from the Miracle of his Resurrection But now he commands all men every where to repent because he hath appointed a day c. whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead So that you see that these are the great Doctrines of the Gospel and were the sum of the Apostles preaching all their Sermons were perswasives to these two Duties of Repentance and Faith Secondly For the Necessity of these Doctrines They are necessary for the escaping of eternal misery and attaining of everlasting happiness And this will appear by considering the Nature of them and the Relation they have to both these For the avoiding of eternal punishment 't is necessary that guilt should be removed which is an obligation to punishment and that cannot be but by pardon and sure we cannot imagine that God will ever pardon us without repentance he will never remit to us the punishment of sin so long as we tell him we are not at all troubled for what we have done and we are of the same mind still and will do the same again and till we repent we tell God this and we may be sure God will not cast away his Pardons upon those that despise them so that Repentance is necessary to the escaping of Hell And Faith in Christ is necessary to it for if this be the method of God's grace not to pardon sin without Satisfaction and Jesus Christ hath made Satisfaction for sin by the merit of his Sufferings and if it be necessary that we should believe this that the benefit hereof may redound to us then Faith in Christ is necessary to the obtaining of the pardon of sin by which the guilt of sin is removed that is our obligation to eternal punishment And then for attaining Salvation Christ having in the Gospel revealed to us the way and means to eternal happiness it is necessary that we should believe this Revelation of the Gospel by Jesus Christ in order to this end So that you see the necessity of Faith and Repentance because without these we can neither escape Misery nor attain to Happiness I should now come to draw some Inferences from this Discourse but I will first give satisfaction to a Query or two to which this Discourse seems to have given occasion 1. Query You will say why do I call Repentance a Doctrine of the Gospel It is a Doctrine of Nature Natural Religion tells us that when we have offended God we ought to be sorry for it and resolve to amend and reform Ans I do not make the Doctrine of Repentance proper to the Gospel as if it had not been revealed to the world before but because it is a Doctrine which the Gospel very much presseth and perswadeth men to and because the great Motives and Enforcements of it are peculiar to the Gospel So that the Doctrine of Repentance considered with those powerful Reasons and Arguments to it which the Gospel furnisheth us withal is in this sense proper to the Gospel and not known to the world before There are two Motives and Enforcements to Repentance which the Gospel furnisheth us with 1. Assurance of Pardon and Remission of sins in case of repentance which is a great encouragement to repentance and which before the Gospel the world had never any firm and clear assurance of 2. Assurance of eternal Rewards and Punishments after this life which is a strong Argument to perswade men to change their lives that they may avoid the misery that is threatned to impenitent sinners and be qualified for the Happiness which it promiseth to Repentance and Obedience And this the Apostle tells us in the forementioned place Acts 17.30 31. is that which doth as it were make Repentance to be a new Doctrine that did come with the Gospel into the world because it was never before enforced with this powerful Argument the time 's of that ignorance God winked at but now he calls upon all men every where to repent because c. When the world was in ignorance and had not such assurance of a future state of eternal Rewards and Punishments after this life the Arguments to Repentance were weak and feeble in comparison of what they now are the necessity of this Duty was not so evident But now God hath assur'd us of a future Judgment now Exhortations to Repentance have a commanding power and influence upon men so that Repentance both as it is that which is very much prest and inculcated in the Gospel and as it hath its chief Motives and Enforcements from the Gospel may be said to be one of the great Doctrines of the Gospel Query 2. Whether the preaching of Faith in Christ among those who are already Christians be at all necessary Because it seems very improper to press those
to believe in Christ who are already perswaded that he is the Messias and do entertain the History and Doctrine of the Gospel Ans The Faith which the Apostle here means and which he would perswade men to is an effectual belief of the Gospel such a Faith as hath real effects upon men and makes them to live as they believe such a Faith as perswades them of the need of these Blessings that the Gospel offers and makes them to desire to be partakers of them and in order thereto to be willing to submit to those Terms and Conditions of Holiness and Obedience which the Gospel requires This is the Faith we would perswade men to and there is nothing more necessary to be prest upon the greatest part of Christians than this for how few are there among those who profess to believe the Gospel who believe it in this effectual manner so as to conform themselves to it The Faith which most Christians pretend to is meerly negative they do not disbelieve the Gospel they do not consider it nor trouble themselves about it they do not care nor are concerned whether it be true or not but they have not a positive belief of it they are not possest with a firm perswasion of the truth of those matters which are contained in it if they were such a perswasion would produce real and positive effects Every man naturally desires Happiness and 't is impossible that any man that is possest with this belief that in order to Happiness it is necessary for him to do such and such things and that if he omit or neglect them he is unavoidably miserable that he should not do them Men say they believe this or that but you may see in their lives what it is they believe So that the preaching of this Faith in Christ which is the only true Faith is still necessary I. Inference If Repentance towards God and Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ be the sum and substance of the Gospel then from hence we may infer the Excellency of the Christian Religion which insists only upon these things which do tend to our Perfection and our Happiness Repentance tends to our recovery and the bringing of us back as near as may be to innocence Primus innocentiae graedus est non peccasse secundus penitentia and then Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ tho it be very comprehensive and contains many things in it yet nothing but what is eminently for our advantage and doth very much conduce to our happiness The Historical part of the Gospel acquaints us with the Person and Actions of our Saviour which conduceth very much to our understanding of the Author and Means of our Salvation The Doctrinal part of the Gospel contains what God requires on our part and the Encouragements and Arguments to our Duty from the consideration of the Recompence and Rewards of the next life The Precepts of Christs Doctrine are such as tend exceedingly to the Perfection of our nature being all founded in Reason in the nature of God and of a Reasonable Creature I except only those positive Institutions of the Christian Religion the two Sacraments which are not burthensome and are of excellent use This is the first II. we may learn from hence what is to be the sum and end of our Preaching to bring men to Repentance and a firm belief of the Gospel but then it is to be considered that we preach Repentance so often as we preach either against sin in general or any particular sin or vice and so often as we perswade to holiness in general or to the performance of any particular Duty of Religion or to the exercise of any particular Grace for Repentance includes the forsaking of sin and a sincere resolution and endeavour of reformation and obedience And we preach Repentance so often as we insist upon such Considerations and Arguments as may be powerful to deter men from sin and to engage them to holiness And we preach Faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ so often as we declare the grounds of the Christian Religion and insist upon such Arguments as tend to make it credible and are proper to convince men of the Truth and Reasonableness of it so often as we explain the Mystery of Christ's incarnation the History of his Life Death Resurrection Ascension and Intercession and the proper Ends and Use of these so often as we open the Method of God's Grace for the salvation of sinners the Nature of the Covenant between God and us and the Conditions of it and the way how a sinner is justified and hath his sins pardoned the Nature and Necessity of Regeneration and Sanctification so often as we explain the Precepts of the Gospel and the Promises and Threatnings of it and endeavour to convince men of the Equity of Christ's Commands and to assure them of the Certainty of the Eternal Happiness which the Gospel promises to them that obey it and of the Eternal Misery which the Gospel threatens to those that are disobedient all this is preaching Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ III. This may correct the irregular humor and itch in many people who are not contented with this plain and wholsom food but must be gratified with sublime Notions and unintelligible Mysteries with pleasant passages of Wit and artificial strains of Rhetorick with nice and unprofitable Disputes with bold interpretations of dark Prophecies and peremptory Determinations of what will happen next year and a punctual stating of the time when Anti-Christ shall be thrown down and Babylon shall fall and who shall be employed in this Work Or if their humor lies another way you must apply your self to it by making sharp Reflections upon matters in present controversie and debate you must dip your stile in Gall and Vinegar and be all Satyr and Invective against those that differ from you and teach people to hate one another and to fall together by the ears and this men call Gospel preaching and speaking of Seasonable Truths Surely St. Paul was a Gospel Preacher and such an one as may be a Patern to all others and yet he did none of these he preached what men might understand and what they ought to believe and practice in a plain and unaffected and convincing manner he taught such things as made for peace and whereby he might edifie and build up men in their holy Faith The Doctrines that he preached will never be unseasonable that men should leave their sins and believe the Gospel and live accordingly And if men must needs be gratified with Disputes and Controversies there are these great Controversies between God and the sinner to be stated and determined Whether this be Religion to follow our own lusts and inclinations or to endeavour to be like God and to be conformed to him in Goodness and Mercy and Righteousness and Truth and Faithfulness Whether Jesus Christ be not the Messias and Saviour of the world Whether Faith and
Repentance and Sincere Obedience be not the Terms of Salvation and the necessary Conditions of Happiness Whether there shall be a future Judgment when all men shall be sentenced according to their works Whether there be a Heaven and Hell Whether good men shall be eternally and unspeakably happy and wicked men extreamly and everlastingly miserable These are the great Controversies of Religion upon which we are to dispute on God's behalf against sinners God asserts and sinners deny these things not in Words but which is more emphatical and significant in their Lives and Actions These are practical Controversies of Faith and it concerns every man to be resolved and determined about them that he may frame his life accordingly And so for Repentance God says Repentance is a forsaking of sin and a through change and amendment of life the sinner says that it is only a formal Confession and a slight asking of God forgiveness God calls upon us speedily and forthwith to repent the sinner saith 't is time enough and it may safely be defer'd to sickness or death these are important Controversies and matters of moment But men do not affect common Truths whereas these are most necessary And indeed whatever is generally useful and beneficial ought to be common and not to be the less valued but the more esteemed for being so And as these Doctrines of Faith and Repentance are never unseasonable so are they more peculiarly proper when we celebrate the Holy Sacrament which was instituted for a solemn and standing Memorial of the Christian Religion and is one of the most powerful Arguments and Perswasives to repentance and a good life The Faith of the Gospel doth more particularly respect the death of Christ and therefore it is call'd Faith in his Blood because that is more especially the Object of our Faith the Blood of Christ as it was a Seal of the truth of his Doctrine so it is also a Confirmation of all the Blessings and Benefits of the New Covenant And it is one of the greatest Arguments in the world to repentance In the Blood of Christ we may see our own guilt and in the dreadful Sufferings of the Son of God the just desert of our sins for he hath born our griefs and carried our sorrows he was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities therefore the Commemoration of his Sufferings should call our sins to remembrance the Representation of his Body broken should melt our hearts and so often as we remember that his blood was shed for us our eyes should run down with rivers of tears so often as we look upon him whom we have pierced we should mourn over him When the Son of God suffered the rocks were rent in sunder and shall not the consideration of those sufferings be effectual to break the most stony and obdurate heart What can be more proper when we come to this Sacrament than the renewing of our Repentance When we partake of this Passover we should eat it with bitter herbs The most solemn Expressions of our Repentance fall short of those Sufferings which our blessed Saviour underwent for our sins if our head were waters and our eyes fountains of tears we could never sufficiently lament the cursed Effects and Consequences of those provocations which were so fatal to the Son of God And that our Repentance may be real it must be accompanied with the Resolution of a better life for if we return to our sins again we trample under foot the Son of God and profane the Blood of the Covenant and out of the Cup of Salvation we drink our own damnation and turn that which should save us into an instrument and Seal of our own ruin SERMON II. Serm. 2. Preach'd on Ash-Wednesday Of confessing and forsaking Sin in Order to Pardon PROV XXVIII 13 He that covereth his sins shall not prosper but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy SInce we are all sinners and liable to the Justice of God it is a matter of great moment to our comfort and happiness to be rightly informed by what Means and upon what Terms we may be reconciled to God and find mercy with him And to this purpose the Text gives us this advice and direction whoso confesseth and forsaketh his sin shall have mercy Vol. 8. In which words there is a great Blessing and Benefit declared and promised to sinners upon certain Conditions The Blessing and Benefit promised is the mercy and favour of God which comprehends all the happy Effects of God's mercy and goodness to sinners And the Conditions upon which this Blessing is promised are two Confession of our sins and forsaking of them and these two contain in them the whole nature of that great and necessary Duty of Repentance without which a sinner can have no reasonable hopes of the mercy of God I. Here is a Blessing or Benefit promised which is the mercy and favour of God And this in the full extent of it comprehends all the Effects of the mercy and goodness of God to sinners and doth primarily import the pardon and forgiveness of our sins And this probably Solomon did chiefly intend in this expression for so the mercy of God doth most frequently signifie in the Old Testament viz. the forgiveness of our sins And thus the Prophet explains it Isa 55.7 Let the wicked forsake his ways and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy and to our God for he will abundantly pardon But now since the clear revelation of the Gospel the mercy of God doth not only extend to the pardon of sin but to power against it because this also is an Effect of God's free grace and mercy to sinners to enable them by the grace of his holy Spirit to master and mortifie their lusts and to persevere in Goodness to the end And it comprehends also our final pardon and absolution at the great day together with the glorious Reward of eternal life which the Apostle expresseth by finding mercy with the Lord in that day And this likewise is promised to Repentance Acts 3.19 Repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord and he shall send Jesus Christ who before was preached unto you that is that when Jesus Christ who is now preached unto you shall come you may receive the final sentence of absolution and forgiveness And thus much shall suffice to have spoken of the Blessing and Benefit here promised the mercy of God which comprehends all the blessed Effects of the divine grace and goodness to sinners the present pardon of sin and power to mortifie sin and to persevere in a good course and our final absolulution by the sentence of the great day together with the merciful and glorious Reward of eternal life II. We will consider in the next place the Conditions upon
Confession Contrition and Satisfaction and the Form of it which is the Absolution of the Priest in which they make the main virtue and force of Repentance to consist in quâ proecipuè ipsius vis sita est are the very words of the Council of Trent And here is a wide difference betwixt us for tho' the comfort of the Penitent may in some case consist in the Absolution of the Priest yet the Virtue and Efficacy of Repentance does not at all consist in it but wholly in the Contrition and sincere Resolution of the Penitent as the Scripture every where declares and to think otherwise is of dangerous Consequence because it encourageth Men to hope for the benefit of Repentance that is the Pardon and forgiveness of their sins without having truly repented And indeed the Council of Trent have so framed their Doctrines in this point that any one may see that they did not matter how much they abated on the part of the Penitent provided the Power of the Priest be but advanced and kept up in its full height 2. The other Mistake is of those who make Repentance to consist in the bare Resolution of Amendment tho' it never have its effect that is tho' the sinner either do not what he resolved or do it only for a fit and during his present Trouble and Conviction There is one case indeed and but one wherein a Resolution not brought to effect is available and that is when nothing hinders the performance and execution of it but only want of time and oportunity for it when the Repentance is sincere and the Resolution real but the Man is cut off between the actual Reformation which he intended and which God who sees things certainly in their Causes knows would have followed if the Man had lived to give Demonstration of it but this is nothing to those who have the oportunity to make good their Resolution and do not for because the resolution which would have been perform'd had there been time and oportunity is reckoned for a true Repentance and accepted of God as if it had been done therefore the Resolution which was not brought to effect when there was time and oportunity for it hath not the Nature of true Repentance nor will it be accepted of God I will add but one thing more upon this Head because I doubt it is not always sufficiently considered and that is this that a sincere Resolution of a better course does imply a Resolution of the means as well as of the end he that is truly resolved against any sin is likewise resolved against the occasions and temptations that would lead and draw him to it otherwise he hath taken up a rash and foolish Resolution which he is not like to keep because he did not resolve upon that which was necessary to the keeping of it So he that resolves upon any part of his Duty must likewise resolve upon the means which are necessary to the discharge and performance of it he that is resolved to be just in his dealing and to pay his debts must be diligent in his Calling and mind his business because without this he cannot do the other for nothing can be more vain and fond than for a Man to pretend that he is resolved upon doing his Duty when he neglects any thing that is necessary to put him into a capacity and to further him in the discharge of it This is as if a Man should resolve to be well and yet never take Physick or be careless in observing his rules which are prescribed in order to his health So for a Man to resolve against Drunkenness and yet to run himself upon the temptations which naturally lead to it by frequenting the Company of Lewd and Intemperate persons this is as if a Man should resolve against the Plague and run into the Pest-house Whatever can reasonably move a Man to be resolved upon any End will if his Resolution be wise and honest determine him as strongly to use the Means which are proper and necessary to that End These are the common Mistakes about this matter which Men are the more willing to run into because they are loth to be brought to a true Repentance the Nature whereof is not difficult to be understood for nothing in the world is plainer only men are always slow to understand what they have no mind to put in practice But II. Besides these Mistakes about Repentance there is another great Miscarriage in this matter and that is the delay of Repentance men are loth to set about it and therefore they put it upon the last hazard and resolve then to huddle it up as well as they can but this certainly is great folly to be still making more work for Repentance because it is to create so much needless trouble and vexation to our selves 't is to go on still in playing a foolish part in hopes to retrieve all by an after-game this is extreamly dangerous because we may certainly sin but it is not certain we shall repent our Repentance may be prevented and we may be cut off in our sins but if we should have space for it Repentance may in process of time grow an hundred times more difficult than it is at present But if it were much more certain and more easie than it is if it were nothing but a hearty Sorrow and Shame for our sins and an asking God forgiveness for them without being put to the trouble of reforming our wicked lives yet this were great folly to do those things which will certainly grieve us after we have done them and put us to shame and to ask forgiveness for them It was well said of Old Cato nae tu stultus es homuncio qui malis veniam precari quam non peccare thou art a foolish man indeed who chusest rather to ask forgiveness than not to offend At the best Repentance implies a fault it is an after-Wisdom which supposeth a Man first to have plaid the fool it is but the best end of a bad business a hard shift and a desperate hazard which a Man that had acted prudently would never have been put to it is a Plaster after we have dangerously wounded our selves but certainly it had been much wiser to have prevented the danger of the wound and the pain of curing it A wise Man would not make himself sick if he could or if he were already so would not make himself sicker tho' he had the most Effectual and Infallible Remedy in the world in his power But this is not the case of a sinner for Repentance as well as Faith is the gift of God Above all let me caution you not to put off this great and necessary work to the most unseasonable time of all other the time of sickness and death upon a fond presumption that you can be reconciled to God when you please and exercise such a Repentance as will make your peace with him at any
of it Such is the unspotted Purity and Perfection of the Divine Nature that it is not possible that God should give the least countenance to any thing that is Evil. Psal 5.4 5. Thou art not a God says David there to him that hast Pleasure in iniquity neither shall evil dwell with thee The wicked shall not stand in thy sight thou hatest all the workers of iniquity 5. We are ashamed likewise to do any thing that is Evil and unseemly before those who we are afraid will publish our faults to others and will make known and expose the folly of them Now whenever we Sin it is before him who will most certainly one day bring all our works of darkness into the open light and expose all our secret deeds of dishonesty upon the publick Stage of the World and make all the vilest of our actions known and lay them open with all the shameful Circumstances of them before men and Angels to our everlasting Shame and Confusion This is the meaning of that Proverbial Speech so often used by our Saviour There is nothing cover'd that shall not be revealed neither hid that shall not be made manifest All the Sins which we now commit with so much caution in secret and dark retirements shall in that great day of Revelation when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed be set in open view and in so full and strong a light that all the World shall see them and that which was plotted and contrived in so much secrecy and hardly whisper'd in this World shall then be proclaimed aloud and as it were upon the House-tops 6. and Lastly We are ashamed and afraid to commit a fault before those who we believe will call us to an account for it and Punish us severely A Man may suffer innocently and for a good Cause but all suffering in that case is by wise and good men esteemed honourable and glorious and tho' we are Condemned by men we are acquitted in our own Consciences But that which is properly called Punishment is always attended with Infamy and Reproach because it always supposeth some fault and crime as the ground and reason of it Hence it is that in this World men are not only afraid but ashamed to commit any fault before those who they think have Authority and Power to punish it He is an impudent Villain indeed that will venture to cut a Purse in the presence of the Judge Now when ever we commit any Wickedness we do it under the Eye of the great Judge of the World who stedfastly beholds us and whose Omnipotent Justice stands by us ready armed and charged for our Destruction and can in a moment cut us off Every sin that we are guilty of in thought word or deed is all in the presence of the Holy and Just and Powerful God whose Power enables him and whose Holiness and Justice will effectually engage him one time or other if a timely Repentance doth not prevent it to inflict a terrible Punishment upon all the Workers of iniquity You see then by all that hath been said upon this Argument how shameful a thing sin is and what Confusion of face the reflection upon our wicked Lives ought to cause in all of us What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed If ever we be brought to true Repentance for our sins it cannot but be matter of great Shame to us We find in Scripture that shame doth continually accompany Repentance and is inseparable from it This is one Mark and Character of a true Penitent that he is ashamed of what he hath done Thus Ezra when he makes Confession of the sins of the People he testifies and declares his Shame for what they had done I said O my God! I am ashamed and blush to lift up mine Eyes to thee my God for our iniquities are increased over our Heads and our trespasses are grown up to the Heavens Ezra 9.6 And may not we of this Nation at this day take these words unto our selves considering to what a strange height our sins are grown and how iniquity abounds among us So likewise the Prophet Jeremiah when he would express the Repentance of the People of Israel Jer. 3.25 We lye down says he in our shame and our Confusion covereth us because we have sinned against the Lord our God In like manner the Prophet Daniel after he had in the Name of the People made an humble acknowledgment of their manifold and great Sins he takes shame to himself and them for them Dan. 9.5 We have sinned says he and have committed iniquity and have done wickedly and have rebelled in departing from thy Precepts and from thy Judgments O Lord righteousness belongeth to thee but unto us confusion of face as at this day to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and unto all Israel that are near and that are far off through all the Countries whither thou hast driven them because of their trespass which they have trespassed against thee O Lord To us belongeth confusion of face to our Kings to our Princes and to our Fathers because we have sinned against thee By which we may judge how considerable and essential a part of Repentance this Holy Man esteemed shame for the sins they had been guilty of to be And indeed upon all occasions of solemn Repentance and Humiliation for sin this taking shame for their sins is hardly ever omitted as if there could be no sincere Confession of sin and Repentance for it without testifying their shame and Confusion of face upon the remembrance of their sins Now to stir up this affection of shame in us let me offer to you these three Considerations I. Consider what great reason we have to be heartily ashamed of all the sins and offences which we have been guilty of against God It was a good old Precept of Philosophy that we should reverence our selves i. e. that we should never do any thing that should be matter of Shame and Reproach to us afterwards nothing that misbecomes us and is unworthy of us I have shewn at large that all Sin and Vice is a dishonour to our Nature and beneath the Dignity of it that it is a great reproach to our Reason and directly contrary to our true and best Interest that it hath all the aggravating circumstances of Infamy and Shame that every sin that was at any time committed by us was done in the presence of one whom of all Persons in the World we have most Reason to reverence and against him to whom of all others we stand most obliged for the greatest Favours for innumerable Benefits for infinite Mercy and Patience and Forbearance towards us in the presence of the Holy and Just God who is at the farthest distance from sin and the greatest and most implacable Enemy to it in the whole World and who will one day punish all our faults and expose us to open shame
for them who will bring every work into judgment and every secret sin that ever we committed and take Vengeance upon us for all our iniquities So that whenever we sin we shamefully entreat our selves and give the deepest wounds to our Reputation in the esteem of him who is the most competent Judge of what is truly Honourable and Praise-worthy and cloath our selves with shame and dishonour We are ashamed of Poverty because the poor Man is despised and almost ridiculous in the Eye of the proud and covetous rich Man whose riches are his high Tower and make him apt to look down upon the poor Man that is below him with contempt and scorn we are ashamed of a dangerous and contagious Disease because all men fly infectious company but a Man may be poor or sick by misfortune but no Man is wicked but by his own fault and wilful choice Ill-natur'd and inconsiderate men will be apt to contemn us for our poverty and affliction in any kind but by our Vices we render our selves odious to God and to all good and considerate men II. Consider that shame for sin now is the way to prevent Eternal Shame and Confusion hereafter For this is one great part of the Misery of another World that the sinner shall then be filled with everlasting shame and confusion at the remembrance of his faults and folly The Eternal Misery of wicked men is sometimes in Scripture represented as if it consisted only or chiefly in the Infamy and Reproach which will then overwhelm them when all their crimes and faults shall be exposed and laid open to the view of the whole World Dan. 12.2 where the general Resurrection of the just and unjust is thus described Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake some to everlasting life and some to everlasting shame and contempt Where everlasting life and everlasting shame are opposed as if Eternal shame were a kind of perpetual Death In this World sinners make an hard shift by concealing or extenuating their faults as well as they can to suppress or lessen their shame they have not now so clear and full Conviction of the evil and folly of their sin God is pleased to bear with them and to spare them at present and they do not yet feel the dismal effects and consequences of a wicked life but in the next World when the righteous judgment of God is revealed and the full Vials of his wrath shall be poured forth upon sinners they shall then be cloathed with shame as with a garment and be covered with confusion then they will feel the folly of their sins and have a sensible Demonstration within themselves of the infinite Evil of them their own Consciences will then furiously fly in their faces and with the greatest bitterness and rage upbraid and reproach them with the folly of their own doings and so long as we are sensible that we suffer for our own folly so long we must unavoidably be ashamed of what we have done So that if sinners shall be everlastingly tormented in another World it necessarily follows that they shall be eternally Confounded Is it not then better to remember our ways now and to be ashamed and repent of them than to bring everlasting Shame and Confusion upon our selves before God and Angels and Men This is the Argument which St. John useth to take men off from sin and to engage them to Holiness and Righteousness of Life 1. Joh. 2.28 That when he shall appear that is when he shall come to judge the World we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming III. And lastly Consider that nothing sets men at a farther distance from Repentance and all hopes of their becoming better and brings them nearer to Ruin than Impudence in a sinful course There are too many in the World who are so far from being ashamed of their Wickedness and blushing at the mention of their faults that they boast of them and glory in them God often complains of this in the People of Israel as a sad presage of their Ruin and an ill sign of their desperate and irrecoverable Condition Jer. 3.3 Thou hadst a whore's forehead and refusedst to be ashamed and Jerem. 6.15 Were they ashamed when they committed abominations Nay they were not ashamed neither could they blush therefore they shall fall among them that fall and in the time that I visit them they shall be cast down Hear likewise how the Apostle doth lament the case of such Persons as incurable and past all remedy Philip. 3.18 19. There are many of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping that they are enemies to the Cross of Christ whose end is destruction whose God is their belly whose glory is in their shame Such Persons who glory in that which ought to be their shame what can their end be but destruction There is certainly no greater argument of a degenerate Person and of one that is utterly lost to all sense of goodness than to be void of shame and as on the one Hand they must be very towardly and well disposs'd to Virtue who are drawn by ingenuity and meer sense of Obligation and Kindness so on the other hand they must be very stupid and insensible who are not wrought upon by Arguments of fear and sense of shame There is hardly any hopes of that Man who is not to be reclaimed from an Evil course neither by the apprehension of danger nor of disgrace and who can at once securely neglect both his Safety and Reputation Hear how the Prophet represents the deplorable Case of such Persons Isa 3.9 The shew of their countenance bears witness against them in the Hebrew it is The hardness of their countenance doth testifie against them and they declare their sin as Sodom they hide it not Wo unto their Souls for they have rewarded evil to themselves When Men are once arrived to that pitch of Impiety as to harden their Foreheads against all sense and shew of Shame and so as to be able to set a good face upon the foulest Matter in the World wo unto them because their Case seems then to be desperate and past all hopes of Recovery For who can hope that a Man will forsake his Sins when he is not so much as ashamed of them But yet one would think that those that are not ashamed of their Impiety should be ashamed of their Impudence and should at least blush at this that they can do the vilest and the most shameful things in the World without blushing To conclude this whole Discourse let the Consideration of the evil and shamefulness of Sin have this double effect upon us to make us heartily ashamed of the past Errors and Miscarriages of our Lives and firmly resolved to do better for the future I. To be heartily ashamed of the past Errors of our Lives So often as we reflect upon the manifold
ROM VI. 21 22. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed For the end of those things is death But now being made free from sin and become Servants to God ye have your fruit unto Holiness and the end Everlasting Life I Have several times told you that the Apostle in these words makes a Comparison between an Holy and Virtuous and a Sinful and Vicious Course of Life Vol. 8. and sets before us the manifest Inconveniences of the one and the manifold Advantages of the other I have finish'd my Discourse upon the First Part of the Comparison the manifest Inconveniences of a sinful and vicious Course I proceed now to the other Part of the Comparison which was the Second Thing I propounded to speak to from these words viz. the manifold Benefits and Advantages of an Holy and Virtuous Course and that upon these Two accounts First Of the present Benefit and Advantage of it which the Apostle here calls Fruit Ye have your fruit unto holiness Secondly In respect of the future reward of it and the end everlasting life So that here is a considerable Earnest in hand besides a mighty Recompence afterwards infinitely beyond the proportion of our best Actions and Services both in regard of the greatness and duration of it everlasting life that is for a few transient acts of Obedience a perfect and immutable and endless state of Happiness And these Two the Apostle mentions in Opposition to the Inconveniences and Evil Consequences of a wicked and vicious Course What fruit had you then in those things c. But before I come to speak to these Two particulars I shall take notice of the description which the Apostle here makes of the change from a state of Sin and Vice to a state of Holiness and Virtue But now being made free from sin and become the servants of God intimating that the state of sin is a state of Servitude and Slavery from which Repentance and the change which is thereby made does set us free but now being made free from sin And so our Saviour tells us that whosoever committeth sin is the Servant of sin and this is the vilest and hardest Slavery in the World because it is the Servitude of the Soul the best and noblest part of our selves 't is the subjection of our Reason which ought to rule and bear Sway over the inferior Faculties to our sensual Appetites and brutish Passions which is as uncomely a sight as to see Beggars ride on Horse back and Princes walk on foot and as Inferiour Persons when they are advanced to Power are strangely Insolent and Tyrannical towards those that are subject to them so the Lusts and Passions of men when they once get the Command of them are the most domineering Tyrants in the World and there is no such Slave as a Man that is subject to his Appetite and Lust that is under the Power of irregular Passions and vicious Inclinations which transport and hurry him to the vilest and most unreasonable things For a wicked Man is a Slave to as many Masters as he hath Passions and Vices and they are very imperious and exacting and the more he yields to them the more they grow upon him and exercise the greater Tyranny over him and being subject to so many Masters the poor Slave is continually divided and distracted between their contrary Commands and Impositions one Passion hurries him one way and another as violently drives him another one Lust commands him upon such a Service and another it may be at the same time calls him to another Work His Pride and Ambition bids him spend and lay it out whilst his Covetousness holds his Hand fast closed so that he knows not many times how to dispose of himself or what to do he must displease some of his Masters and what Inclination soever he contradicts he certainly displeaseth himself And that which aggravates the Misery of his Condition is that he voluntarily submits to this Servitude In other Cases men are made Slaves against their wills and are brought under the Force and Power of others whom they are not able to resist but the sinner chuseth this Servitude and willingly puts his neck under this yoke There are few men in the World so sick of their Liberty and so weary of their own Happiness as to chuse this Condition but the Sinner sells himself and voluntarily parts with that Liberty which he might keep and which none could take from him And which makes this Condition yet more intolerable he makes himself a Slave to his own Servants to those who are born to be subject to him to his own Appetites and Passions and this certainly is the worst kind of Slavery so much worse than that of Mines and Gallies as the Soul is more Noble and Excellent than the Body Men are not usually so sensible of the Misery of this kind of Servitude because they are govern'd by Sense more than Reason But according to a true Judgment and Estimation of things a Vicious Course Life is the saddest Slavery of all others And therefore the Gospel represents it as a design every way worthy of the Son of God to come down from Heaven and to debase himself so far as to assume our Nature and to submit to the Death of the Cross on purpose to rescue us from this Slavery and to assert us into the liberty of the Sons of God And this is the great design of the Doctrine of the Gospel to free men from the Bondage of their Lusts and to bring them to the Service of God whose service is perfect freedom And therefore our Saviour tells us John 8.31 32. That if we continue in his word i. e. if we obey his Doctrine and frame our lives according to it it will make us free Ye shall know says he the truth and the truth shall make you free And if we observe it the Scripture delights very much to set forth to us the Benefits and Advantages of the Christian Religion by the Metaphor of Liberty and Redemption from Captivity and Slavery Hence our Saviour is so often call'd the Redeemer and Deliverer and is said to have obtained eternal Redemption for us And the publishing of the Gospel is compared to the Proclaming of the year of Jubile among the Jews when all Persons that would were set at Liberty Isa 61.1 2. The spirit of the Lord is upon me saith the Prophet speaking in the Person of the Messiah because he hath anointed me to Proclaim liberty to the Captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. And it is probable that upon this account likewise the Christian Doctrine or Law is by St. James call'd the Royal law of liberty This is the great design of Christianity to set men free from the Slavery of their Lusts and to this end the Apostle tells us Tit. 2.13 that Christ gave
bear to their Children so that if we have any Regard to them or Concernment for their Happiness we ought to be very careful of our Duty and afraid to offend God because according as we demean our selves towards him we entail a lasting Blessing or a great Curse upon our Children by so many and and so strong bonds hath God tyed our Duty upon us that if we either desire our own Happiness or the Happiness of those that are dearest to us and part of our selves we must fear God and keep his Commandments And thus I have briefly represented to you some of the chief Benefits and Advantages which an Holy and Virtuous life does commonly bring to men in this World which is the first Encouragement mention'd in the Text ye have your fruit unto holiness Before I proceed to the Second I shall only just take notice by way of Application of what hath been said on this Argument 1. That it is a great Encouragement to well-doing to consider that ordinarily Piety and Goodness are no hindrance to a Man's temporal Felicity but very frequently great promoters of it so that excepting only the case of Persecution for Religion I think I may safely challenge any Man to shew me how the Practice of any Part or Duty of Religion how the exercise of any Grace or Virtue is to the prejudice of a Man's temporal Interest or does debar him of any true Pleasure or hinder him of any real Advantage which a prudent and considerate Man would think fit to chuse And as for Persecution and Sufferings for Religion God can Reward us for them if he please in this World and we have all the assurance that we can desire that he will do it abundantly in the next 2. The hope of long life and especially of a quiet and comfortable death should be a great encouragement to an Holy and Virtuous Life He that lives well takes the best course to live long and lays in for an happy old Age free from the Diseases and Infirmities which are naturally procur'd by a vicious Youth and likewise free from the guilt and galling Remembrance of a wicked Life And there is no condition which we can fall into in this World that does so clearly discover the difference between a good and bad Man as a Death-bed For then the good Man begins most sensibly to enjoy the comforts of Well-doing and the Sinner to taste the bitter fruits of Sin What a wide difference is then to be seen between the hopes and fears of these two sorts of persons And surely next to the actual possession of Blessedness the good hopes and comfortable prospect of it are the greatest Happiness and next to the actual sense of Pain the fear of Suffering is the greatest Torment Tho' there were nothing beyond this life to be expected yet if men were sure to be possess'd with these delightful or troublesome Passions when they come to dye no Man that wisely considers things would for all the Pleasures of sin forfeit the Comfort of a Righteous Soul leaving this World full of the hope of Immortality and endure the vexation and anguish of a guilty Conscience and that infinite terror and amazement which so frequently possesseth the Soul of a dying Sinner 3. If there be any spark of a generous mind in us it should animate us to do well that we may be well spoken of when we are gone off the Stage and may transmit a grateful Memory of our lives to those that shall be after us I proceed now to the Second Thing I proposed as the great Advantage indeed Viz. The glorious Reward of a Holy and Virtuous Life in another World which is here called everlasting Life And the end everlasting Life by which the Apostle intends to express to us both the Happiness of our future State and the Way and Means whereby we are prepared and made meet to be made partakers of it and that is by the constant and sincere Endeavours of an holy and good Life For 't is they only that have their fruit unto holiness whose end shall be everlasting Life I shall speak briefly to these two and so conclude my discourse upon this Text. I. The Happiness of our future state which is here exprest by the name of everlasting Life in very few words but such as are of wonderful weight and significancy For they import the Excellency of this state and the Eternity of it And who is sufficient to speak to either of these Arguments Both of them are too big to enter now into the heart of Man too vast and boundless to be comprehended by humane understanding and too unweildy to be manag'd by the Tongue of Men and Angels answerably to the unspeakable greatness and glory of them And if I were able to declare them unto you as they deserv'd you would not be able to hear me And therefore I shall chuse to say but little upon an Argument of which I can never say enough and shall very briefly consider those two things which are comprehended in that short description which the Text gives us of our future Happiness by the name of everlasting Life viz. The Excellency of this state and the Eternity of it 1. The Excellency of it which is here represented to us under the notion of Life the most desirable of all other things because it is the Foundation of all other Enjoyments whatsoever Barely to be in being and to be sensible that we are so is but a dry Notion of Life The true Notion of Life is to be well and to be happy vivere est benè valere They who are in the most miserable condition that can be imagin'd are in being and sensible also that they are miserable But this kind of Life is so far from coming under the true Notion of Life that the Scripture calls it the second death Revel 21.8 it is there said that The wicked shall have their part in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death And Chap. 20. ver 6. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first Resurrection on such the second death shall have no power So that a state of meer misery and torment is not Life but Death nay the Scripture will not allow the Life of a wicked Man in this World to be true Life but speaks of him as dead Ephes 2.1 speaking of the sinners among the Gentiles You saith the Apostle hath he quickned who were dead in trespasses and sins And which is more yet the Scripture calls a Life of sinful Pleasures which men esteem the only Happiness of this world the Scripture I say calls this a Death 1 Tim. 5.6 She that liveth in pleasures is dead whilst she liveth A lewd and unprofitable Life which serves to no good end and purpose is a Death rather than a Life Nay that decaying and dying Life which we now live in this World and which is allayed by the
repent without such a degree of God's Grace as cannot be resisted no Man's Repentance is commendable nor is one Man's Impenitence more blameable than anothers Chorazin and Bethsaida can be in no more fault for continuing Impenitent than Tyre and Sidon were For either this irresistible Grace is afforded to men or not if it be their Repentance is necessary and they cannot help it if it be not their Repentance is impossible and consequently their Impenitence is necessary and they cannot help it neither V. I observe from the main scope of our Saviour's Discourse That the Sins and Impenitence of men receive their Aggravation and consequently shall have their Punishment proportionable to the Opportunities and Means of Repentance which those Persons have enjoyed and neglected For what is here said of Miracles is by equality of Reason likewise true of all other Advantages and Means of Repentance and Salvation The Reason why Miracles will be such an Aggravation of the Condemdemnation of men is because they are so proper and powerful a Means to convince men of the Truth and Divinity of that Doctrine which calls them to Repentance So that all those Means which God affords to us of the Knowledge of our Duty of Conviction of the Evil and Danger of a sinful Course are so many helps and Motives to Repentance and consequently will prove so many Aggravations of our Sin and Punishment if we continue impenitent The VI. And last Observation and which naturally follows from the former is this That the Case of those who are impenitent under the Gospel is of all others the most dangerous and their Damnation shall be heaviest and most severe And this brings the Case of these Cities here in the Text home to our selves For in truth there is no material difference between the Case of Chorazin and Bethsaida and Capernaum and of our selves in this City and Nation who enjoy the clear Light of the Gospel with all the freedom and all the Advantages that any People ever did The Mercies of God to this Nation have been very great especially in bringing us out of that darkness and superstition which covered this Western part of the World in rescuing us from that great Corruption and Degeneracy of the Christian Religion which prevailed among us by so early and so regular a Reformation and in continuing so long this great Blessing to us The Judgments of God have been likewise very great upon us for our Sins God hath manifested himself by terrible things in righteousness our Eyes have seen many and dismal Calamities in the space of a few years which call lowdly upon us to repent and turn to God God hath afforded us the most effectual Means of Repentance and hath taken the most effectual Course of bringing us to it And tho' our Blessed Saviour do not speak to us in Person nor do we at this day see Miracles wrought among us as the Jews did yet we have the Doctrine which our Blessed Saviour preach'd faithfully transmitted to us and a credible Relation of the Miracles wrought for the Confirmation of that Doctrine and many other Arguments to perswade us of the Truth of it which those to whom our Saviour spake had not nor could not then have taken from the accomplishing of our Saviour's Predictions after his Death the speedy Propagation and wonderful success of this Doctrine in the World by weak and inconsiderable Means against all the Power and Opposition of the World the Destruction of Jerusalem and the Dispersion of the Jewish Nation according to our Saviour's Prophesie besides many more that might be mentioned And which is a mighty Advantage to us we are free from those Prejudices against the Person of our Saviour and his Doctrine which the Jews by the reverence which they bore to their Rulers and Teachers were generally possest withal we are brought up in the belief of it and have drunk it in by Education and if we believe it as we all profess to do we have all the Obligation and all the Arguments to Repentance which the Jews could possibly have from the Miracles which they saw for they were Means of Repentance to them no otherwise than as they brought them to the belief of our Saviour's Doctrine which call'd them to Repentance So that if we continue impenitent the same woe is denounced against us that is against Chorazin and Bethsaida and we may be said with Capernaum to be lifted up to Heaven by the Enjoyment of the most excellent Means and Advantages of Salvation that any People ever did which if we neglect and still continue wicked and impenitent under them we may justly fear that with them we shall be thrown down to Hell and have our place in the lowest part of that dismal Dungeon and in the very Centre of that fiery Furnace Never was there greater cause to upbraid the impenitence of any People than of us considering the Means and Opportunities which we enjoy and never had any greater reason to fear a severer Doom than we have Impenitence in a Heathen is a great Sin else how should God judge the World But God takes no notice of that in comparison of the Impenitence of Christians who enjoy the Gospel and are convinced of the Truth and upon the greatest reason in the World profess to believe it We Christians have all the Obligations to Repentance that Reason and Revelation Nature and Grace can lay upon us Art thou convinced that thou hast sinned and done that which is contrary to thy Duty and thereby provoked the Wrath of God and incensed his Justice against thee As thou art a Man and upon the stock of Natural Principles thou art obliged to Repentance The same Light of Reason which discovers to thee the Errors of thy Life and challengeth thee for thy Impiety and Intemperance for thy Injustice and Oppression for thy Pride and Passion the same Natural Conscience which accuseth thee of any Miscarriages does oblige thee to be sorry for it to turn from thy evil ways and to break off thy Sins by Repentance For nothing can be more unreasonable than for a Man to know a fault and yet not think himself bound to be sorry for it to be convinced of the evil of his ways and not to think himself obliged by that very Conviction to turn from it and forsake it If there be any such thing as a natural Law written in Mens Hearts which the Apostle tells us the Heathens had it is impossible to imagine but that the Law which obligeth Men not to transgress should oblige them to Repentance in case of Transgression And this every Man in the World is bound to tho' he had never seen the Bible nor heard of the name of Christ And the Revelation of the Gospel doth not supersede this Obligation but adds new Strength and Force to it and by how much this Duty of Repentance is more clearly revealed by our Blessed Saviour in the Gospel by how much the
Arguments which the Gospel useth to persuade Men and encourage them to Repentance are greater and more powerful by so much is the Impenitence of those who live under the Gospel the more inexcusable Had we only some faint hopes of God's Mercy a doubtful Opinion and weak Persuasion of the Rewards and Punishments of another World yet we have a Law within us which upon the probability of these Considerations would oblige us to Repentance Indeed if Men were assur'd upon good grounds that there would be no future Rewards and Punishments then the sanction of the Law were gone and it would lose its force and Obligation or if we did despair of the Mercy of God and had good Reason to think Repentance impossible or that it would do us no good in that case there would be no sufficient Motive and Argument to Repentance for no Man can return to his Duty without returning to the love of God and Goodness and no man can return to the love of God who believes that he bears an implacable hatred against him and is resolved to make him miserable for ever During this Persuasion no Man can repent And this seems to be the reason why the Devils continue impenitent But the Heathens were not without hopes of God's Mercy and upon those small hopes which they had they encouraged themselves into Repentance as you may see in the instance of the Ninevites Let them turn every one from his evil ways and from the violence that is in his hands Who can tell if God will turn and repent and turn away from his fierce anger that we perish not Jonah 3.8 9. But if we who have the clearest Discoveries and the highest Assurance of this who profess to believe that God hath declared himself placable to all Mankind that he is in Christ reconciling the World to himself and that upon our Repentance he will not impute our Sins to us if we to whom the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of Men and to whom Life and Immortality are brought to Light by the Gospel if after all this we still go on in any impenitent Course what shall we be able to plead in excuse of our selves at that great day The men of Nineveh shall rise up in Judgment against such an impenitent Generation and Condemn it because they repented upon the Terror of lighter threatnings and upon the Encouragement of weaker hops And therefore it concerns us who call our selves Christians and enjoy the clear Revelation of the Gospel to look about us and take heed how we continue in an Evil Course For if we remain impenitent after all the Arguments which the Gospel superadded to the Light of Nature affords to us to bring us to Repentance it shall not only be more tolerable for the men of Nineveh but for Tyre and Sidon for Sodom and Gomorrah the most wicked and impenitent Heathens at the day of Judgment than for us For because we have stronger Arguments and more powerful Encouragements to Repentance than they had if we do not repent we shall meet with a heavier Doom and a fiercer Damnation The Heathen World had many excuses to plead for themselves which we have not The times of that ignorance God winked at but now commands all men every where to repent because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the World in righteousness by that Man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead FINIS Books Printed for R. Chiswell SCRIPTORVM ECCLESIASTICORVM Historia Literaria facili perspicua methodo digesta in 2 Vol. Fol. Authore GVL. CAVE S. T. P. His Primitive Christianity 5th Edit 8 o. His Dissertation concerning the Government of the Ancient Church by Bishops Metropolitans and Patriarchs 8 o. Arch-Bishop Tenison's Conference with Pulton the Jesuit His nine Sermons on several Occasions Eight Volumes of Arch-Bishop Tillotson's Sermons Published from the Originals by Dr. Barker Vol. 1 st of Sincerity and Constancy in the Faith and Profession of the True Ruligion 3 d Edition Corrected 1700. Vol. 2 d Of the Presence of the Messias the Glory of the Second Temple Of Christ Jesus the only Mediator Of the Nature Office and Employment of good Angels Of the Reputation of good men after Death c. The 2 d Edition Corrected 1700. Vol. 3 d Of the Sin and Danger of adding to the Doctrine of the Gospel Honesty the best Preservative against Dangerous Mistakes in Religion The Nature and Evil of Covetousness The Wisdom of Religion c. The 2 d Edition Corrected 1700. Vol. 4 th Of Natural and Instituted Religion c. Second Edition Corrected 1700 Vol. 5 th Proving Jesus to be the Messias c. Second Edition Corrected 1700. Volumes 6 th and 7 th Upon the Attributes of God Second Edition Corrected 1700. Volume 8 th Of Repentance Ten Sermons on several Occasions by Bishop Patrick His Hearts Ease or Remedy against all Troubles The 7 th Edition 1699. His Commentary on Genesis Exodus Leviticus and Numbers in Four Volumes His Commentary on Duteronomy 1700. Valentine's Private Devotions The 26 th Edition 1699. Wharton's Sermons in Lambeth-Chappel in 2 Vol. 8 o. With his Life The Second Edition 1700. Dr. Conant's Sermons in Two Vol. 8 o. Published by Bishop Williams Dr. Wake of Preparation for Death The 6 th Edition 1699. Dr. Fryer's Nine Years Travels into India and Persia Illustrated with Copper Plates Fol. 1698. Bishop Williams Of the Lawfulness of Worshipping God by the Common-Prayer With several other Discourses Mr. Tulley's Discourse of the Government of the Thoughts The 3 d Edition 12 o 1699. The Life of Henry Chichele Arch-Bishop of Canterbury in which there is a particular Relation of many Remarkable Passages in the Reigns of Henry V. and VI. Kings of England Written in Latin by Arthur Duck L. L. D. Chancellor of the Diocess of London and Advocate of the Court of Honour Now made English and a Table of Contents annexed 8 o 1699. The Judgment of the Ancient Jewish Church against the Vnitarians in the Controversy upon the Holy Trinity and the Divinity of our Blessed Saviour With a Table of Matters and a Table of Texts of Scriptures occasionally explained by Peter Alix D. D. Short Memoâ—â—â—s of Thomas Lord Fairfax Written by himself Published 1699. The Life of John Whitgift Arch-Bishop of Canterbury in the times of Queen Elizabeth and King James I. Written by Sir Geo. Paul Comptroler of his Grace's Houshold To which is annexed a Treatise intituled Conspiracy for pretended Reformation Written in the Year 1591. By Richard Cosin L. L. D. Dean of the Arches and Official Principal to Arch-Bishop Whitgift 8 o. 1699. An Exposition of the 39 Articles of the Church of England by Dr. Burnet Bishop of Sarum Fol. 1700. His Sermon to the Societies for Reformation of Manners March 25. 1700. A Practical Discourse of Religious Assemblies By Dr. William Sherlock Dean of St. Pauls The 3d. Edition 1700. A Treatise concerning the Causes of the present Corruption of Christians and the Remedies thereof 1700. In the Press The Fourth and Last Part of Mr. RVSHWORTH's Historical Collections Containing the Principal Matters which happen'd from the beginning of the Year 1645. where the Third Part ended to the Death of King Charles the First 1684. Impartially Related Setting forth only Matter of Fact in Order of Time without Observation or Reflection Fitted for the Press in his Life-time To which will be added Exact Alphabetical Tables
we would but enter into the serious Consideration of them we should soon be resolved in our Minds about them Do but consider a little what Sin is It is the shame and blemish of thy Nature the reproach and disgrace of thy Understanding and Reason the great deformity and disease of thy Soul and the eternal Enemy of thy Rest and Peace It is thy Shackles and thy Fetters the Tyrant that oppresses thee and restrains thee of thy Liberty and Condemns thee to the basest Slavery and the vilest Drudgery It is the unnatural and violent state of thy Soul the Worm that perpetually gnaws thy Conscience the cause of all thy Fears and Troubles and of all the Evils and Miseries all the Mischiefs and Disorders that are in the World it is the Foundation and Fewel of Hell it is that which puts thee out of the Possession and Enjoyment of thy self which doth alienate and separate thee from God the Fountain of Bliss and Happiness which provokes him to be thine Enemy and lays thee open every moment to the fierce revenge of his Justice and if thou dost persist and continue in it will finally sink and oppress thee under the insupportable weight of his wrath and make thee so weary of thy self that thou shalt wish a thousand times that thou hadst never been and will render thee so perfectly miserable that thou wouldest esteem it a great Happiness to exchange thy Condition with the most wretched and forlorn Person that ever lived upon Earth to be perpetually upon a Rack and to lie down for ever under the rage of all the most violent Diseases and Pains that ever afflicted Mankind Sin is all this which I have described and will certainly bring upon thee all those Evils and Mischiefs which I have mentioned and make thee far more miserable than I am able to express or thou to conceive And art thou not yet resolved to leave it Shall I need to use any other Arguments to set thee against it and to take thee off from the Love and Practice of it than this Representation which I have now made of the horrible Nature and Consequences of it And then consider on the other Hand what it is that I am perswading thee to turn to to thy God and Duty And would not this be a blessed change indeed To leave the greatest Evil and to turn to the chief Good For this Resolution of returning to God is nothing else but a Resolution to be wise and happy and to put thy self into the Possession of that which is a greater good if it is possible than Sin is an Evil and will render thee more happy than Sin can make thee miserable Didst thou but think what God is and what he will be to thee if thou wilt return to him how kindly he will receive thee after all thy wandrings from him days without number thou wouldst soon take up the Resolution of the Prodigal and say I will arise and go to my Father And consider likewise what it is to return to thy Duty It is nothing else but to do what becomes thee and what is suitable to the Original Frame of thy Nature and to the truest dictates of thy Reason and Conscience and what is not more thy Duty than it is thy Interest and thy Happiness For that which God requires of us is to be righteous and holy and good that is to be like God himself who is the Pattern of all Perfection and Happiness It is to have our Lives conformed to his Will which is always perfect holiness and goodness a state of Peace and Tranquillity and the very temper and disposition of Happiness It is that which is a principal and most essential Ingredient into the Felicity of the Divine Nature and without which God would not be what he is but a deformed and imperfect and miserable Being And if this be a true Representation which I have made to you of Sin and Vice on the one Hand and of God and Goodness on the other what can be more powerful than the serious Consideration of it to engage us to a speedy Resolution of leaving our Sins and of turning and cleaving to the Lord with full purpose of heart After this we cannot but conclude with the Penitent in the Text Surely it is meet to be said unto God I will not offend any more That which I see not teach thou me and if I have done iniquity I will do no more 3. Consider how unreasonable it is to be unresolved in a Case of so great moment and concernment There is no greater Argument of a Man's weakness than Irresolution in matters of mighty consequence when both the Importance of the thing and Exigency of present circumstances require a speedy Resolution We should account it a strange folly for a Man to be unresolved in the clearest and plainest matters that concern his temporal welfare and safety If a Man could not determine himself whether he should eat or starve if he were dangerously sick and could not determine whether he should take Physick or Die or if one that were in Prison could not resolve himself whether he should accept of Liberty and be contented to be released or if a fair Estate were offer'd to him he should desire seven years time to consider whether he should take it or not this would be so absurd in the common affairs of Life that a Man would be thought infatuated that should be doubtful and unresolved in cases so plain and of such pressing concernment If a Man were under the Sentence and Condemnation of the Law and liable to be executed upon the least intimation of the Prince's Pleasure and a Pardon were graciously offer'd to him with this intimation that this would probably be the last offer of Mercy that ever would be made to him one would think that in this Case a Man should soon be determined what to do or rather that he should not need to deliberate at all about it because there is no danger of rashness in making haste to save his Life And yet the Case of a sinner is of far greater importance and much more depends upon it infinitely more than any temporal Concernment whatsoever can amount to even our Happiness or Misery to all Eternity And can there be any difficulty for a Man to be resolved what is to be done in such a Case No Case surely in the World can be plainer than this Whether a Man should leave his Sins and return to God and his Duty or not that is whether a Man should chuse to be happy or miserable unspeakably and everlastingly happy or extremely and eternally miserable And the circumstances and exigences of our Case do call for a speedy and peremptory Resolution in this matter The Sentence of the Law is already past and God may execute it upon thee every moment and it is great Mercy and Forbearance not to do it Thy Life is uncertain and thou art liable every
minute to be snatch'd away and hurried out of this World However at the best thou hast but a little time to resolve in Death and Judgment and Eternity cannot be far off and for ought thou knowest they may be even at the door Thou art upon the matter just ready to be seized upon by Death to be summon'd to Judgment And to be swallowed up of Eternity And is it not yet time thinkest thou to resolve Would'st thou have yet a little longer time to deliberate whether thou should'st repent and forsake thy Sins or not If there were difficulty in the Case or if there were no danger in the delay if thou couldst gain time or any thing else by suspending thy Resolution there were then some Reason why thou should'st not make a sudden Determination But thou canst pretend none of these It is evident at first sight what is best to be done and nothing can make it plainer It is not a matter so clear and out of Controversie that Riches are better than Poverty and Ease better than Pain and Life more desirable than Death as it is that it is better to break off our Sins than to continue in the Practice of them to be reconciled to God than to go on to provoke him to be Holy and Virtuous than to be Wicked and Vicious to be Heirs of eternal Glory than to be Vessels of wrath fitted for Destruction And there is infinite danger in these delays For if thy Soul be any thing to thee thou venturest that if thou hast any tenderness and regard for thy eternal Interest thou runnest the hazard of that if Heaven and Hell be any thing to thee thou incurrest the danger of losing the one and falling into the other And thou gainest nothing by continuing unresolved If Death and Judgment would tarry thy leisure and wait till thou hadst brought thy thoughts to some issue and wert resolved what to do it were something but thy Irresolution in this matter will be so far from keeping back Death and Judgment that it will both hasten and aggravate them both make them to come the sooner and to be the heavier when they come because thou abusest the goodness of God and despisest his patience and long-suffering which should lead thee and draw thee on to Repentance and not keep thee back Hereby thou encouragest thy self in thy lewd and riotous courses and because thy Lord delayeth his coming art the more negligent and extravagant Hear what doom our Lord pronounceth upon such slothful and wicked servants Luke 12.46 The Lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him and at an hour when he is not aware and will cut him in sunder and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers None so like to be surprized and to be severely handled by the Justice of God as those that trifle with his Patience 4. Consider how much Resolution would tend to the settling of our Minds and making our Lives comfortable There is nothing that perplexeth and disquieteth a Man more than to be unresolved in the great and important Concernments of his Life What anxiety and confusion is there in our Spirits whilst we are doubtful and undetermined about such matters How are we divided and distracted when our Reason and Judgment direct us one way and our Lusts and Affections biass us to the contrary When we are convinced and satisfied what is best for us and yet are disaffected to our own Interest Such a Man is all the while self-condemned and acts with the perpetual regret of his Reason and Conscience and when ever he reflects upon himself he is offended and angry with himself his Life and all his Actions are uneasie and displeasing to him and there is no way for this Man to be at peace but to put an end to this conflict one way or other either by conquering his Reason or his Will The former is very difficult nothing being harder than for a sinner to lay his Conscience asleep after it is once throughly awaken'd he may charm it for a while but every little occasion will rouze it again and renew his Trouble so that tho' a Man may have some Truce with his Conscience yet he can never come to a firm and settled Peace this way but if by a vigorous Resolution a Man would but Conquer his Will his Mind would be at rest and there would be a present calm in his Spirit And why should we be such enemies to our own Peace and to the Comfort and Contentment of our Lives as not to take this course and thereby rid our selves at once of that which really and at the bottom is the ground of all the trouble and disquiet of our Lives SERMON XI Ser. 11. The Nature and Necessity of holy Resolution The Third Sermon on this Text. JOB XXXIV 31 32. Surely it is meet to be said unto God I have born chastisement I will not offend any more That which I see not teach thou me if I have done iniquity I will do no more THESE words are a Description of the temper and behaviour of a true Penitent his Confession of Sins and Resolution of Amendment Concerning Resolution I have shewn what it is in general What is the special Object or Matter of this kind of Resolution Vol. 8. What is implyed in a sincere Resolution of leaving our Sins and returning to God and our Duty That in this Resolution the very Essence and formal Nature of Repentance doth consist And have offer'd some Considerations to convince men of the necessity and fitness of this Resolution and to keep them stedfast to it As 1. That this Resolution is nothing but what under the influence of God's Grace is in our Power 2. The things themselves which we are to resolve upon are the strongest Arguments that can be for such a Resolution 3. How unreasonable it is for men to be unresolved in a Case of so great moment 4. How much this Resolution will tend to the settling of our Minds and making our Lives Comfortable I proceed to the Considerations which remain 5. Then be pleased to consider that a strong and vigorous Resolution would make the whole Work of Religion easie to us it would conquer all difficulties which attend a Holy and Religious Course of Life especially at our first entrance into it Because Resolution brings our Minds to a Point and unites all the strength and force of our Souls in one great Design and makes us vigorous and firm couragious and constant in the Prosecution of it and without this it is impossible to hold out long and to resist the strong Propensions and Inclinations of our corrupt Nature which if we be not firmly resolved will return and by degrees gain upon us it will be impossible to break through Temptations and to gain-say the importunity of them when the Devil and the World solicit us we shall not be able to say them nay but shall be