SECT. I. Scripture Words for Repentance.

AS to a true Notion of Repentance there are several words in Scrip­ture by which it is expressed, the chief and most remarkable are these three, [...], or [...]. The two first we translate by Repen­tance, and have no other word for them, the last is turning away from our Sins, and turning to God and Goodness. The 1. [...], is an after concern or trouble arising from our Sins, when our Mind and Con­science smite us when we have done amiss, and we feel inward trouble and horrour arising in our Souls upon the reflection of our past folly and wicked­ness. [Page 13]This is attributed to Judas, Matth. 27.3. Then Judas which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented, [...]. So that this is but a low part of Repen­tance, though if it be duly qualified, it may be that Godly sorrow which worketh Repentance not to be repented of, 2 Cor. 7.10. If the bitterness we taste in Sin turn our appetite from it, and our grief quite remove our love for it; if our tears help to wash away our Sins, and to cleanse our guilty and polluted Souls, then however sharp or brackish they are, they are sanative and medicinal, and so have a true ver­tue and efficacy in them, without which they are useless and insignifi­cant. 2. [...] is an after thinking, or an after-Wisdom and Understand­ing, when the Sin we thought before so charming and inviting, so that it tempted us with its seeming Pleasure or Profit, or some appearance of good, which was the reason we chose and embraced it, we now see and under­stand to be foolish and unreasonable, mischievous and pernicious, and are under full convictions of the sad con­sequences and effects of it, and there­fore [Page 14]have both wishes and desires that we had never committed it, and pur­poses and resolutions not to be guilty of it again: Now this goes a great deal further than the other, but still it goes no further than the mind, and the inward thoughts, passions and affecti­ons there, which may be if not insincere yet ineffective. There must be some­thing further to make up and perfect Repentance; which is 3. [...] and [...], turning from Sin, and turning to God and Goodness. Thus the Scrip­ture speaks most clearly of Repentance, Ezek. 18.21. If the wicked turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and doth that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not dye. Again at ver. 27. When the wicked turneth away from his wickedness, and doth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive. And at ver. 28. Be­cause he considereth and turneth from all his transgressions that he hath committed, he shall surely live, he shall not dye. So Acts 26.20. That they should repent and turn to God, which are homony­mous, and turn from darkness to light, and from the power of satan unto God, ver. 18. This is leaving a wrong path [Page 15]or course of actions we have been en­gageds in, and entring upon a better. And this more fully declares the nature of Repentance, that 'tis an actual amendment and reformation of our Lives, a ceasing to do evil, and learning to do well, as the Prophet expresses it, Isa. 1.16, 17. When they do good that are accustomed to do evil; as another Prophet, Jer. 13.23. when they who have been bad in any instance become good; this is the very essence of Re­pentance, as I shall further shew you, 'tis Obedience after Disobedience, Ver­tue after Vice, Good after Evil, and these three together make up true Re­pentance, which is indeed the whole practical condition of the Gospel, as St. Paul summes it up.

SECT. II. Kinds and Degrees of Repentance.

BUT before I come to discourse fully of that, I must premise some Limits and Cautions about this Duty, or else we shall talk very confusedly about it in general, as belonging alike to all Persons. Now there are several sorts [Page 16]and kinds of Repentance, according to the several kinds and degrees of Sinners.

There are some Sinners whose Lives are like a leprous Body spread all over with corruption and filthiness, as the Prophet describes the wickedness of the Jews, Isa. 1.6. From the sole of the foot even to the head there is no sound­ness in it, but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores; i. e. They have been wicked in the general tenor and habit of their Lives; and these must be wholly changed, the whole mass being corrupted it must be quite altered: The whole frame of their Minds, and whole course of their Actions must be made quite otherwise; like a defiled Body they must be wash'd all over; or rather, like a dead Carcass they must be raised to life again, and re­stored wholly from their state of Death and Corruption which they were in before.

There are others who are not so di­seased all over, but yet have some mortal illness growing in some part upon them, who are guilty of some particular Sins, some known and wil­ful Faults that destroy their good state, [Page 17]and put them into the rank, though not of the greatest Sinners, yet of such Sinners as shall not enter into Heaven, nor escape Eternal Wrath and Venge­ance, unless they particularly repent of them, and wholly forsake and leave them: And thus every one who is con­scious to himself that he is, or has been ever guilty of any known and great Sin, whatever it be, though it should be but one such Sin, must amend that, and must get off that particular illness, or else it will prove deadly and mortal if it continue upon him; for one such disease, or one such wound, whilst 'tis uncured upon the Soul, will kill and destroy it as well as more. Though a Man may not be univer­sally depraved, nor be wholly prosti­tuted to debauchery and irreligion, yet if he will indulge himself in any known Sin, or in any particular Lust and Wickedness, he is in a lost and undone state, till he repents and whol­ly leaves that Sin: And if a Man is in a good state, and fall into a wilful and great Sin, as we know David did, that surely cuts him off for a time from his good state, and renders him lyable to Gods Anger here, and to Misery here­after [Page 18]till by a serious and hearty Re­pentance he recovers him­self, and is so perfectly recovered from the Sin that he will never commit it again, what­ever Temptation is offered to him.

There are other Sins which are of a lower and less heinous Nature, which do not destroy our good state, nor put us out of the Favour of God, nor ex­clude us out of Heaven; and these are such as very good Men are subject to, and may not be free from whist they are in this body of Sin and Corruption. As the most healthful and best Consti­tutions may be subject to some smaller illnesses and indispositions of Body, though not to great and mortal di­seases, so some frailties, failures and imperfections, will stick to the best of Men, though not any mortal and wil­ful Sins; and these frailties and infir­mities are Sins in a strict sense, as com­ing short of perfect Obedience to the Divine Law; and these are in some sense also to be repented of, i. e. we are to be sensible of them, and sorry for them, and we are every day to pray to God to forgive us these our Tres­passes, and we are to endeavour to overcome them as much as is possible, [Page 19]and never let them grow, as they may by neglect, into wilful Sins; but these are all pardonable by the Mercy of God, and by vertue of the gracious Covenant which he hath made with us in Christ Jesus, upon a general Re­pentance, without a perfect and par­ticular amendment of all of them, which is utterly impossible and incon­sistent with Humane frailty and infir­mity.

There is therefore a great difference to be made, in respect of several kinds of Sins, and several sorts of Sinners, of this great Duty of Repentance.

There are some of whom the Scrip­ture sayes, that they need no repentance, Luke 15.7. i. e. who need not such a Repentance as shall change and alter their Spiritual state, who never were in a bad state, being early Baptized, nor never were guilty in their whole lives of any one such great and wilful, and heinous Sin, as put them into a damnable state: I hope there are not a few who are in this blessed conditi­on, and therefore who need not this greater Repentance, as I think I may call it, who by the blessing of God, and by means of a very Vertuous and [Page 20]Religious Education, have been early trained up in the wayes of goodness, and never departed from them; who were set right at first, and never wan­dered or strayed out of the paths of Vertue; whose Feet never slipt so far as to take hold of the paths of Death, or be caught in the snares of the De­vil; who never defiled themselves with any great Sin, but have preserved their virgin-purity, and have had no foul spot to sully the whiteness and beauty of their whole unblemisht Conversa­tion, but were alwayes innocent and alwayes safe, like Zacharias and Eli­zabeth were alwayes righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless, Luke 1.6.

I cannot say these are wholly sinless, and altogether perfect, for so none of the Race of Adam, or the Children of Men are, except our Blessed Saviour; for there are some infirmities, and weaknesses, and imperfections, that belong to these, and so they stand in need of that lesser Repentance I be­fore spake of, but they never were guilty of the great offence, and so [Page 21]need not that greater Repentance which others do.

And 'tis of that I now speak, a re­pentance from dead works, as the Apo­stle calls it, Heb. 6.1. A Repentance from wilful and mortal Sins, such as put us into an ill state, and such as we shall certainly perish except we repent of them, Luke 13.3.

SECT. III. True Notion of Repentance.

NOw this Repentance I would thus describe, answerable to those three words by which it is exprest in Scrip­ture, A sorrow for our Sins, joyned with change and alteration of Mind, and amendment or reformation of Life; or such a sense of Mind as makes us leave and forsake, or turn away from every Sin, or all the Sins we have been guil­ty of, and practice the contrary Ver­tues, or perform those other Duties we have broken or been wanting in. Thus, where we have been bad Men in any instance, and violated our Duty, and offended God, and broken or trans­grest [Page 22]his Laws, it will make us become good Men afterwards, and perform our Duty, and return to God, and keep or obey his Commandments in all those cases wherein we have done otherwise before. This, this alone is such a Repentance as avails to Pardon and Salvation; as it takes away eve­ry Sin which would damn us, and brings us to that Obedience, and pra­ctice of all Vertue and Holiness, with­out which no man can see God, or be saved.

Repentance, I own, is a word of an equivocal meaning, that signifies several things, and has several senses belonging to it; as sorrow and trouble of Mind, change of Thoughts, and the like; which are meant by the La­tin Paenitentia and Resipiscentia, and by the Greek [...] and [...]; and it is commonly taken for something that goes no further than a Mans own Mind, for the inward working and change of its own Thoughts, and the sorrow and trouble it conceives upon the reflection of its past Sins, and the consideration of its bad state. And here it is Repentance must first begin, in the Mind, the principle of all Moral [Page 23]actions, its being sensible of its evil wayes, and truly sorrowful and afflict­ed for them; when its Heart is smit­ten within, and bleeds as it were from those inward wounds it feels in its own Conscience, and when it vents it self in all the sorrowful expressions of in­ward trouble, when it weeps bitterly, like St. Peter, Matth. 26.75. and ri­vers of tears run down its eyes because it has not kept the Law of its God; when it is pricked to the heart, Acts 2.37. and is under very deep com­punction and contrition of Soul, and mourns and laments for its grievous wickedness; when it is afraid of the anger and indignation of that God whom it has offended, and has a just dread of those Punishments it knows it has deserved; when it is under great convictions of the folly and evil of its Sins, and is very sensible of the sad fruits and consequences of those things whereof it is now ashamed; when it con­siders how little benefit and advantage it ever got by them when it commit­ted them, and to what a sad account they now turn, and how that the end of them is like to be death and damna­tion. This inward sense and godly [Page 24]sorrow, if it continue upon the Mind, and go not off like a morning dew, or an hasty cloud or sudden storm, will surely work repentance not to be repent­ed of, will bring it to perfect and true Repentance, not only to Confession and Humiliation, and afflicting its Soul by Fasting, and putting on Sackcloth and Ashes, which may be signs and attendants sometimes, but no proper parts or acts of true Repentance; but this will beget in it good purposes and resolutions of becoming better, and forsaking its Sins, hearty wishes that it had never committed them, and sincere vows and intentions to forsake them; for whilst it has that sense up­on its Mind it cannot well do other­wise. Now this is a very good be­ginning, and a very good part of Re­pentance; and it wants nothing to make it true, perfect and complete, but bringing forth fruits meet for re­pentance, Matth. 3.8. Acts 26.20. that is, all this having an effect upon the life and actions, mending and re­forming those, and making them suit­able and agreeable to those inward thoughts and passions of Mind, that we may be not only renewed in our [Page 25]minds, but become new men, and new creatures, and walk in newness of life, Rom. 6.4. That we may put off con­cerning the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and may put on the new man, which after God is created in righ­teousness and true holiness, Eph. 4.22, 24. That we put off the body of the sins of the flesh, Coloss. 2.11. That if we have yielded our members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity, unto iniqui­ty, so now that we yield our members ser­vants of righteousness unto holiness, Rom. 6.19. That we be washed, that we be cleansed, 1 Cor. 6.11. That we sin no more, John 5.14. That denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we live so­berly, righteously and godly in this pre­sent world, Tit. 2.12. For Repent­ance is the whole practical condition of Christianity, and together with Faith, makes up the entire duty of a Christian, as St. Paul summes it up, Acts 20.21. Testifying both to the Jews and to the Greeks, repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ. That we who were enemies to God by our wicked works, may be recon­ciled to him, by Conversion and Obe­dience, [Page 26] and may become holy and unbla­mable, and unreprovable in his sight, Coloss. 1.21, 22. That we being made free from sin, and become servants to God, may have our fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life, Rom. 6.22. Which are the full and excellent de­scriptions which are given us in the New Testament of this Duty of Re­pentance, which make actual Refor­mation and Obedience essential to it, and which make it consist plainly in these two things;

I. [...]. Quaest. Athanas. ascript. Q. 133. de Parab 72. p. 435. [...], &c. Chrvs. Hom. 10. in Math. [...]. Aret. in 3. c. Apoc. In a relinquishing and forsaking every Sin, or all the Sins we have been guilty of.

II. In performing and practising the Vertues contrary to those Sins.

In St. Peters Phrase, Eschewing evil and doing good, 1 Pet. 3.11. i. e. The good that is con­trary to the former evil.

I. A reliquishing and forsaking every Sin, or all the Sins we have been [Page 27]guilty of. We must first break off the practice of those, and cease from any one act of them, and so we shall by degrees break the strength and force of them upon our Minds: For as all habits grow upon us by ma­ny repeated acts, which are like so ma­ny strokes, as it were beating upon the Mind, that do form and fashion it in­to such a habit and disposition; so when this force and impression is ta­ken off, the habit will grow more weak and languid, and the Mind will be able to recover and unbend it self from it: Let us then resolutely cease from acting, and certainly if any thing be in our power our outward actions are, and we shall find that the most habitual Sin will fade and wither, as being without that recruit which should feed and nourish it; for all Ha­bits grow by new and repeated acts, as a Tree by the accession of new sap into its branches; and if they be not supplyed with these, they will de­cay and dye of themselves. If we can but put a little stop to our Lusts in their violent career, and check but a few acts of them, this will keep them [Page 28]from being so unruly and ungovern­able, till in time we may wholly master and conquer them. The Sin­ner must first keep himself from the outward act, from touching the un­clean thing wherewith he was defiled; he must refrain his feet from every evil way, and go on no further in a wrong path, that so he may return in­to the wayes of Vertue. If his Re­pentance does not make him break off every Transgression, and keep him back from every Sin, and restrain him from the commission of what he was formerly guilty of, though it makes him never so much troubled and dissa­tisfied with what he does, though he commits it with never so much relu­ctancy, and is never so sorrowful for it after he has done it, yet if he still commits it, and repeats it when a Temptation is offered to him, he is very far from true Repentance; and let him be never so unwillingly drag'd to it, so that the evil which he doth he would not, let him not comfort himself with that, for so long as he doth it he is a slave to it, and he is led captive by it so strongly, that it over powers even his Conscience and his Reason, and [Page 29]till he can break loose from it, so as not to commit it again, he is a ser­vant of sin, and under the greatest bondage and servitude. Let a Man have never so much dislike of his Sins, and pretend never so much to abomi­nate and abhor them in his thoughts, yet if he commits them in his practice, 'tis but protestatio, as we say, contra factum, but a fruitless Repentance that still brings forth the unfruitful works of darkness, for 'tis not what Men think of their Sins, but their not do­ing of them, that is the true fruit of Repentance.

II. As we must leave the Sin, so we must practice the contrary Vertue. And this will be more easily and rea­dily done; for if the Habit of Vice and Wickedness be destroyed, that of Vertue will follow of course; as if the Disease be removed Health is restored. Virtus est Vitium fugere, The very leaving of Vice is the coming to Ver­tue. For the Mind cannot stand still, but is a moving and an active Princi­ple, and if it be not Vicious it will be Vertuous, it cannot stand neuter and indifferent to those two, but will ne­cessarily [Page 30]take either one side or the o­ther. He that leaves off Drunkenness, by so doing becomes sober. He that will no longer defraud must necessarily become just. The contrary Vertue does in most cases succeed the forsaken Vice, as Light does succeed Darkness, and Day Night. It does not I con­fess do it alwayes; for it does not ne­cessarily follow that he who does not swear should be devout, nor that he who does not cheat should be charita­ble, nor that he who will not blas­pheme God should worship him, and yet those are very meet and worthy fruits of Repentance, that he who has prophaned the Sacred Name of God by customary Swearing, should not only leave off that upon his Repent­ance, but with a Religious dread and awful veneration should ever after a­dore and worship him; and he that has been unjust and unrighteous should not only break off his sin by righteousness, but by shewing mercy to the poor, Dan. 4.27. That as sin did before abound, so now the contrary Grace and Vertue may much more abound, as the Apostle speaks in another case, and as he sayes in the like case to the Roman Christians [Page 31]who were once impure Gentiles, As ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness, and to iniquity unto ini­quity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness, Rom. 6.19. That now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye may have your fruit unto holiness, ver. 22. and that this fruit may be the greater because of the former barren­ness and unfruitfulness which we were guilty of. He that has neglected any necessary Duty, and so is guilty of a Sin of Omission, is bound to amend and repent of that as much as of any other Sin, and so Repentance will ob­lige him to the practice of all manner of Vertue, as well as the quitting and abandoning of all manner of Sin. The true Penitent must not only pluck up all the Habits of Sin in his Soul, and weed out all those venemous seeds of Wickedness that have grown up into sinful practices, but he must have all manner of Vertue planted in his Heart, and he must bring forth the fruits of his Repentance in an universal Good­ness and Holiness of Life; and unless it does so, it is not as I shall show you, true and perfect Repentance, because [Page 32]nothing else can restore the Mind to a soundness and a good state. And Re­pentance is like a recovery of Health after Sickness. The disease must be thoroughly got off, the sickly matter must be discharged, the illness must be cured and removed, and when that is done, the Patient must get his for­mer strength, and be able to perform all the proper and vital operations, and till he does this we cannot say he is well: So till a Sinner has wholly got rid of his past Sins, and has utter­ly relinquish'd and forsaken them, till he has purged them all out by Repent­ance, and has brought himself, by the Grace of God, to such a Spiritual strength and soundness, as to perform the proper duties and operations of the new life, and to practice those Ver­tues which were contrary to his former Vices, he cannot be said to be reco­vered to a state of Health and Sound­ness, and true Repentance. He may be under a method of Cure indeed, as a sick Man is under a course of Phy­sick, and in some fair hopes and a like­ly way of recovery before this, and this is often called Repentance, and 'tis a part of it but not the whole: [Page 33]But the great work is not done, nor is his Repentance finish'd and perfected till he is come to this, to forsake every former Sin, and practice the contrary Vertue. How long he is to do this, I shall not determine, as I cannot tell how long a Man must be free from a Disease before he is well, and how much time exactly there must be be­tween a state of Sickness and that of Health. 'Tis hard to fix the indivi­sible point between those two states, and so it is between a state of Sin and a perfect Repentance of it; but all Men can still know pretty easily when they are well, and so they may by this sure mark when they have truly and fully Repented, namely, when they have thus brought forth the fruits of repentance, Matth. 3.8. Repent­ance is not to be known, neither is it to be counted true, or at least perfect without those: Those Fruits of it in­deed are not different from the thing it self, they are not only signs, and outward marks and indications of it, as the Fruit of a Tree is a sign that the Tree is alive, for here the Tree would not be alive at all, if it were without that Fruit. These are not then only a sign that his Repentance [Page 34]is true; but they are like our Breath, which is not only a sign that we are alive, but that very thing by which we live. True and perfect Repentance con­sists in those, and is never without them; as I shall shew by considering what an imperfect thing all the Repentance is which is done in a Mans Mind, without any effect upon his Life and Actions.

SECT. IV. Mental Repentance imperfect without Actual.

ALL that Sorrow and Trouble for Sin which a Sinner feels in his own Soul, all that Conviction and Condem­nation of his ill state and sad condition, by reason of his past Sins when he re­flects upon them, and all those Vows, and Purposes and Resolutions of leav­ing his Sins, and living better here­after, though they are good symp­toms and good beginnings of Repent­ance, yet if they go no further, and do not bring forth the meet fruits of Repent­ance, they are far from being perfect or indeed true Repentance [...]. Theod. in Isa. c. 30.: For all these may be in most Sinners, and yet they continue still in their Sins, and be never [Page 35]the better for them in their lives: And there are very few Sinners, I believe, that have not these now and then in their Minds, and do not sometimes repent after this fashion; they are often convinced of their evil courses, and their Consciences accuse them for their Sins, and they find a great deal of trouble and disquiet in themselves upon the account of them, and they cannot but look back upon what they have done with sorrow and trouble, and with some kind of dread and fear; and when they bethink themselves they know they are in a bad state, and they cannot but be melancholly and dissatisfied with themselves, and have some faint wishes that they had done otherwise, and some short and ineffe­ctual purposes and resolutions to live otherwise sometime hereafter, and to become better at some convenient sea­son, but before that comes, the Temp­tation is again offered, the Sin and the Company invites, the melancholly and the thoughtful mood is gone off, the dark and gloomy, and cloudy wea­ther, that hung over his Soul is clear­ed up and dispersed, and the Man falls to his Sins as fresh and as briskly as [Page 36]ever, and he is never the better for that short fit of Repentance that came upon him: It is quickly gone off, and he is rid of his Sorrow, and his good Purposes, but not at all of his Sins. And though it should happen again to return upon him, as it will indeed, and he cannot well prevent it, yet he can put it off again by the same means, and can be wicked still for all these fits and qualms of Conscience that are apt now and then to come over his Mind; the Man is not made much better by all these, but his Sins still prevail upon him, and he still com­mits them, and is by no means brought off from them. As long as he is not, how little he can be said to Repent, I shall now shew by examining all those parts of Repentance, without this.

1. Let's consider the Sinner in sor­row and tears for his Sins, and in some trouble and contrition of Mind for them. This the Apostle assures us is not perfect Repentance; 'tis not the thing it self, but 'tis that which is on­ly a likely and a good means to pro­duce it, Godly sorrow worketh repent­ance not to be repented of, 2 Cor. 7.10. but if it do not work that, if it do [Page 37]not bring a Man to repent and leave his Sins, though he lament and weep over them; and when he is fall'n into any foul Sin, do only childishly cry over it, and not wash and make him­self clean, as the Prophet expresses it, Isa. 1.16. and put away the evil of his doings, when he is thus troubled for them, he is but little the better for all his sorrow, and all his tears are but feigned and hypocritical without that. Though he is sorry for his Sins, yet he will not part with them, but he still retains so much love for them, that through his very tears, he still looks kindly upon them and will by no means leave them; He is rather sorry that he cannot keep them with more content and satisfaction to himself, but yet keep them he will, however trou­blesome and uneasie they may be now and then to him. Like Herod who was exceeding sorry that he must gra­tifie his Herodias in what she required of him, Mark 6.26. but yet he did it for all his sorrow. Men may see reason upon some account to be sorry for their Sins; there are some considerations that will alwayes trouble their Minds in the commission of them; there are [Page 38]some evils and inconveniences that do unavoidably attend them, but yet there are other considerations of pleasure or profit, or the like, that do still prevail over those, and so make them commit them: And though they are sorry after they have done them, as 'tis very hard to suppose they should not, yet there are other things that still overcome them, and the Temptation of something else, notwithstanding this, is too hard and powerful for them. Sin cannot be brought forth without some pangs and uneasiness after it, but yet the fancied pleasure inclines the Sinner to return again to it; and though he finds and experi­ences some bitterness in it after he has swallowed it, yet the sweet morsel is so pleasant to him, that he will not refuse or abstain from it for all that. And thus, what is a Man the better for all his sorrow, who is only sorry that he cannot sin without some trou­ble, but yet is still resolved to sin with it, and after all his pretended sorrow for his Sins, is so well pleased with them, that he yet lives in them. Re­pentance is not the meer dropping a few brackish tears over our Sins, or [Page 39]venting a few hollow and empty sighs upon the remembrance of them, but 'tis an actual leaving and forsaking of them, which is the only sign that we are sorry for them in good earnest.

2. A Man may be under great con­viction of Mind of the evil of Sin, and of the ill state he is in, as well as great remorse and compunction of Heart for it, and yet not have true and perfect Repentance: For most Sin­ners have that some time or other, unless they are perfectly hardened and brought to a senselesness of Mind, and a stupidity of Conscience. They can­not but sin with some remorse, and have some twitches and vellications of Conscience, and condemn that in their Minds, which yet they may pra­ctice in their Lives. Few Men can go on so easily and comfortably in their Sins, but their Consciences will sometimes fly in their faces, and rise up against them: And this is so far from lessening or abating them, that 'tis one of the greatest aggravations of the guilt of them, if they still conti­nue thus to commit them against their Consciences, and against the inward sense of their own Minds.

No Man that does in the least con­sider, but must know what a sad and desperate state he is in whilst he is wicked and impenitent, but 'tis not the meer knowing and being sensible of this will bring him out of it, no more than a Man that is sick, and finds an inward weakness within him, or that feels himself mortally wound­ed, must by so doing become well, and be immediately cured. This in all reason should make him presently use all means he can to be so: But 'tis not the meer sense of his danger that makes him safe, it should awaken him to do all he can to avoid it, and when he sees it so plainly before him, not to venture into it with his eyes open: But 'tis plain that most Sinners do this; they know their Sins lead to the paths of Death, and that their wayes tend to Misery and Destruction, and yet they are still so mad as to walk in them, and therefore they are said in Scripture to love death, and to choose destruction, because they love and choose that which they know and are sensible will bring those. The charms of Vice do so fascinate and bewitch them, that they take down the plea­sant [Page 41]Poyson, and eat of the forbidden Fruit, though they know they are both deadly; and there Lusts have such power over them that they will still cleave to them, tho' they know they shall perish in their embraces. So that if Men be never so sensible of their danger, and never so much con­victed of their ill state, by reason of their Sins, yet if this does not make them leave them, 'tis a sign they love them so well, that they will boldly venture all for them, and never be brought to part with them whatever shall come of it. But,

3. A Sinner may sometimes resolve and purpose to leave his Sins, and that very sincerely too, and yet his Re­pentance may not be perfect; for the thing is not done by a Mans meer re­solving to do it, though never so sin­cerely. And Repentance is a different thing from a Mans resolving to repent. A Man may be very Poor, who re­solves to be Rich, and very Ignorant, who resolves to be a Scholar, and though the thing be never so much in his power, yet till he does that which he resolves, he may be in the same condition he was in before. His reso­lution [Page 42]indeed may put him upon doing the thing he resolves, but till he does it, he is where he was. As a Man that is out of his way, and resolves, upon finding he is so, to turn back, and to betake himself to the right path: This his resolution does but at the most stop him in his wrong course, and till he does really turn, and go back, and get into the right way, ac­cording as he resolved, he is in the wrong way still. Resolution is a good principle of acting, and necessary to put a Man upon it, but till we really act upon it, 'tis not our resolution to do the thing is doing it; and God, I am sure, requires us to Repent, and not only to resolve to do it. It would be very happy if a Sinner could be brought thus far, to resolve in good earnest to Repent, there would be then great hopes of him, but he must do more than resolve, or else he is not much the better. There are many idle, and hasty, and ungrounded Re­solvers, who do very heartily and sin­cerely, as they think, purpose and in­tend to leave their Sins, especially up­on their Beds of Sickness, and when they are under some present Judgment, [Page 43]or the fear of Death, but when these are over, their resolutions are so too; so that there is but little regard to be made of Mens resolutions, unless they are put into act, and made good by a subsequent course of actions; without this no Man can tell whether the tem­per and habit of his Mind be altered, and whether it be not a sudden thought newly started in his Mind, which his awakened Reason for the present suggests to him, and so he yields to it, rather than a lasting Prin­ciple that will dwell upon his Soul, and make a lasting impression upon his Will and Affections: For Mens Reason may be perswaded for a little time, when they only consult with that, but they will be quickly drawn off from that when their Lusts and Affections are again taken in, and the stubborn Will will be quickly too hard for the weak Understanding. Hence it is that a Sinner so often changes his Mind, and he resolves sometimes to be good from the short conviction of his Reason, but is quickly bad again from the prevalency of his Lusts and Affections. So that it requires some time, and several acts, to fix and settle [Page 44]a Mans own Mind, and it is impossi­ble it can be changed and altered by a sudden resolution, without some tryal and many repeated acts, that shall keep it to what it resolves; it must stand bent, as it were, that way some time till its resolution become habitual, or else it will be apt to restore it self again by a kind of Elasticity, and a motion of restitution to its former temper and inclinations. When the Will has grown crooked by a long cu­stom and habit of Sin, it will not be set streight again by a sudden resolu­tion; that may a little bend it the other way for a time, but it will return a­gain to its former position, unless it be kept right by many new acts that bring it by degrees to a new habit. If a Mans Mind indeed were fully changed, and he that had a bad Mind before had now a good one, this I should not doubt but would make him happy, and be true Repentance. But there goes more to do this than a sud­den resolution. The old habits of Sin must be driven out, and they must be driven out the same way that they came in, that is, by contrary acts, and by a long course of other practices; [Page 45]they must be unwound or unravell'd as it were by degrees, and the Mind cannot get loose from them but by this course; and therefore it must not only resolve within it self, but it must make good, and confirm, and streng­then its resolution by frequent pra­ctices. or else it can neither attain to any habit of goodness, nor break off from a habit of wickedness. The wayes of Vertue and Vice are not so near to one another that a Man may take a sudden jump out of the one in­to the other by a sudden resolution, but they are like two contrary wayes, that a Man who is got into one, must go back again, and take over a great many steps, before he gets into the other. And as I said before, 'tis not his resolving that he will do this which sets him in the other way, but he must walk back as well as resolve, and he must move and keep on till he comes right. Meer resolving is at most no more than turning his face t'other way; but if he only does so, and stands idly resolving, he will be but little the nearer to his journeys end: And to be sure if he goes back again, and breaks his resolutions, and [Page 46]sometimes walks one way, and some­times the other, as many a Sinner does, who is uncertainly divided between his good and his bad resolutions, and sometimes follows one, and sometimes the other, he is very far from true Repentance, to make which there must be nothing less than an actual forsaking of every Sin, and an amend­ment of every evil way, which are fruits meet for repentance, or the wor­thy fruits of Repentance, which both John the Baptist and St. Paul speak of.

SECT. I. Of the Enticements to Sin.

THe Enticements and temptations to Sin and Wickedness are so great and many, that if we should judge of them by the effect and power which they have upon Mankind, they are much stronger than the Motives and Argu­ments to Vertue and a good Life; for we see they prevail upon more than the other do. Whole crowds follow [Page 49]the one, and are drawn by them into the broad way of Vice, whilst Vertue has but a small party who walk in her narrow path, and are perswaded to keep closely to it. Now surely there must be some mighty and powerful charms in Vice that make it so ge­nerally take with most Men; there must be some secret and prevailing Reasons that bring them over, and engage them so firmly on that side, and make Vertue so generally forsaken and deserted. Men are Rational Crea­tures and free Agents, that have a power to consider and choose what is best for them, what tends most to please and delight, and make them happy, and they must be greatly im­posed upon if they choose that which tends only to make them miserable. God sets Life and Death before them, as Moses before the Jews, Deut. 30.15. and it must be great madness to choose the worser part, and what one would think it impossible for any man to do, if his Reason were not cheated and deceived with false appearances of good in it, and it were not represented to him in such a false light, and such false co­lours, as made it seem quite otherwise [Page 50]then it is in its own Nature: For no Man can choose Evil as Evil, naked in it self, and with its own ugliness and deformity about it, but it must be drest up under the show of Good, and painted and decked up in a mere­tricious dress, to hide its Native and abominable Filthiness. Mens Imagi­nations must be deluded, and so their Reason deceived and imposed upon by the Temptations to Sin; and there must be a great many false reasonings used to entice them to it, or else so many who have thoughts about them, and who cannot do any thing with­out thinking some way or other, could never be drawn over to consent to it, and to commit it.

Now the chief Delusions, and false Reasonings and Perswasions by which Men are drawn into Sin, for there must be some such process in their Minds, are such as these following.

1. They see and feel the present Good of their Sins, and the after Evil is so uncertain or so remote that they know not what to think of it, and so are not much influenced by it, for they think it unreasonable to part with the present Pleasure, and the cer­tain [Page 51]Profit which their Sins afford them, for an unknown, and unseen, and unconceived Pleasure and Happi­ness, they know not when or where; they find and feel most Vices very grateful to their Natural Appetites, and outward Senses, and they are not such fools as to be perswaded out of those, nor to put a force and restraint upon Nature and its proper enjoy­ments. Vertue tyes them up to such severe, and hard, and unnatural re­straints, as they cannot endure; its Mortifications and Self-denyals are ve­ry uneasie to Flesh and Blood, and they look upon its Rules and Precepts as the morose dictates of peevish and melancholly Men, who cannot so well enjoy what others do, and therefore talk against the liberties and freedoms of Humane Nature, and fright Men from the pleasures and enjoyments of Sin here, with the terrours of another World, and imaginary dangers here­after.

Is it then so very certain that Vice is so pleasant here? So desirable and comfortable upon the account of pre­sent enjoyment, and that its punish­ment hereafter is so unknown and un­certain? [Page 52]That 'tis not to be taken into consideration, nor worth being more minded than it is by these Sinners; do they never think of dying? or are they possessed with such a frenzy as to hope they shall live alwayes, or that three or fourscore years will never be run out, though few live so long, and they perhaps have lived above half that time, and see how quickly it is gone, and then will any Man in his wits venture to be miserable for ever, for the Pleasures or Profits of Sin which are but for a season, were they never so great? If there were a much grea­ter uncertainty about another World then there is, yet who would run so dreadful a hazard, who would put so great a matter to such a dangerous venture? Were not the evidence we have of a future state from Nature, from Revelation, from the Resurre­ction of Christ, nay from the belief of all Mankind so strong as it is, so that not only whatever the Jews or the Christians have believed and wit­nessed down through all Ages must pass for a fable, if it be not true, but what all Wise Men have ever believed about a God and Religion, must be a [Page 53]meer dream and chimaera: Yet how­ever no Man can ever be sure but that there is another World, he can have no positive proof or demonstration that there is not, and were there no more in it but that there may be such a thing, which the greatest Atheist or Sceptical Infidel cannot pretend to de­ny, yet this might be enough to keep him from running upon so dreadful, though meerly possible danger, and exposing himself to such extream but irrecoverable mischief, especially for the poor and pitiful temptations of Sin at present. For alas however plea­sant and delightful they may imagine them, yet they are generally mistaken, and there is more true pleasure and comfort, a thousand times, to be found in a Life of Vertue and Religion than in the most tempting Wickedness, and the most gustful Sensuality: For which yields most present pleasure and com­fort of Life, a sound and healthful Body, a fair and good Reputation, a quiet and easie Mind, or a shattered and rotten Carkass, a scandalous and infamous Life, a guilty, and disorder­ed, and distracted Conscience? Are not most of the pleasures of Sin not [Page 54]only short but sickly? That have a sharp and poysonous sting hid under all their sweetness, so that however they go off to the Palate, yet they are very bitter after they are gone down; whereas the pleasures of Vertue are clear, and pure, and lasting, not mixt with any of those dregs which foul and embitter Sin, but purified from all the sediment and the lees that are at the bottom of Sensuality and Wicked­ness. Religion does not deny us any truly Natural and proper Pleasure and Enjoyment, but only keeps us within the bounds of Innocency and Vertue, within which compass a Man may enjoy all the Pleasure that he can wish, or was made for. It does not by its Rules of Mortification and Self-denyal destroy or cut off any Natural Appe­tite, or true part of us; that is not the meaning of cutting off a right Hand, or plucking out a right Eye, Matth. 5.29, 30. but only to destroy the unna­tural Excesses, to cut off the vitious Corruptions, to take away the depra­ved and inordinate Affections and Lusts, that will grow too strong and unruly, without a wife conduct and government of our selves by the rules [Page 55]of Vertue and the restraints of Reason and Religion; and would any Man think fit to have those let loose, and have the reins thrown upon their neck without any check or controul? Will he complain of the severity of Reli­gion, and the loss of his Natural Free­dom by the restraints of morose and peevish Vertue, as he calls it, if he be not allowed the full swinge of his Lusts, and the gratifying of his im­moderate Passions and Desires in all manner of instances? Then adieu not only to the government of Vertue and Religion, but the government of all Humane Laws and Worldly Wisdom, which for the conveniency of this World, and the Peace, Quiet and Comfort of this present Life, has thought fit to keep Mens Lusts and Passions within such bounds under the severest penalties, and to prohibit the same Sins under the punishments of this World, that God has done under the far greater punishments of ano­ther; for nothing is more pernicious and destructive to the welfare of a Kingdom, as well as of particular Men, then Licentiousness and De­bauchery, which besides the imme­diate [Page 56]Judgments of God upon it, does by its own Nature bring a thousand present Miseries and known Evils a­long with it, besides the unknown and unspeakable Miseries that attend it in another World.

Can any Sinner deny this, when he seriously thinks and considers of it? Does not his own observation, and his own experience, by which I hope he will be instructed if by nothing else, teach him that this is the Nature of Sin? That as 'tis a common pest and plague to the World, and to Mankind in general, so 'tis generally a disease to his Body, a moth and canker to his Estate, and a worm to his Conscience: Whereas Vertue is health and sound­ness to his Body, life to his Soul, and grace to his Neck, as the Wise Man observes, That length of dayes are in her right hand, and in her left hand riches and honour. That she is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her, and happy is every one that retaineth her, Prov. 3.16, 17, 18, 22. This true Notion of Vertue, which is not an empty Pane­gyrick, but a strict Truth founded in Nature, that will alwayes be true of [Page 57]it, and that all Wise Men will find to be so, this will sufficiently answer the first and greatest Temptation by which Sin entices and allures unthink­ing Men with the bait of present Pleasures and Enjoyments. But,

2. The next greatest Temptation to Sin is that of Example, which is so strong and powerful that few can re­sist it, who love to be modish and in the fashion, as too many Vices gene­rally are, and therefore are more tak­ing upon that account, and lose their reproach and shame due to them, by the great party and number they have on their side, which otherwise would sneak and be confounded if they stood alone; but when so many are brought over to them, others follow if it be only for company; and many Men are drawn in even contrary to their inclinations, by the Example of others, because they do not care to be singu­lar, nor to be reproached for being so, but are willing to do what they see so many others do, and hope they shall fare as well as they, and escape all the seeming dangers of their Sins, both here and hereafter, as well as the rest [Page 58]of their Neighbours, or the great num­ber of their fellow Sinners. Now this, however common and powerful it be, yet is the most unreasonable thing in the World; for is any Man in another case willing to be sick, or to dye, for company? Is any so easie or so com­plaisant as to pledge another in a cup of Poyson? Or would he not stop the mad Frolick when he saw the rest of the company drop down dead before him? Is any Man unwilling to avoid the Plague if he can, because there is a general infection, and because so ma­ny of his Neighbours or his Acquaint­ance have dyed of it? Would any re­fuse the saving his Life, and escaping if he could upon a plank, because the rest of his company are sinking and drowning? Did Men think it as much worth their while to save their Souls as their Lives, how many others so­ever lost them, had they as just and terrible apprehensions of their own Damnation as they have of their dy­ing, this Temptation of Example and Company would be quickly taken off, and signifie nothing: For alas, what comfort will it be in the flames of Hell to hear so many others roaring [Page 59]and howling in them? To hear their hideous cryes, and tortures, and la­mentations, will not abate their own, but rather increase them; therefore the Rich Man in the Parable, Luke 16.28. did not desire the company of his Brethren there, but rather sought to prevent their coming into that place of torment. The Devils indeed, from the unaccountable malice of their Na­ture, tempt others to be as wicked and as miserable as themselves, and every one does their work who entices another to any Sin, but this will not ease their pains but augment them, by adding more mischief, and so more guilt to them.

No Man who knows what it is to be happy, but must wish to be so, tho' he were alone, and no Man who knows that Vertue alone is the way to be happy, but must choose to be Vertuous though he saw never so ma­ny others Wicked; let them reproach and laugh at him as long as they please for a Man singular and by himself, let them count his Life folly for being so strict and so precise, if it be, in the great matters of Vertue, for not Drink­ing to the utmost pitch, not daring to [Page 60]Swear the least Oath as other Gentle­men do, not running into any the same excess of Riot, or customary Wickedness, but living up strictly to the Rules of the Gospel, and the Terms of Salvation there laid down, without any such abatements as the loose Opinions or the loose Practices of others are willing to put upon them, since God will not alter his Methods or Judgments by any of those, let them, I say, condemn or deride him never so much for this, and call him precise Fool, or formal Saint, or the like, yet no Man that knows the good of Vertue will be laughed out of it by a nick-name, or be ashamed of be­ing singular in that any more than in any other excellency of Learning or Knowledge above others; and I sup­pose none of those who are so much against singularity, but would be wil­ling to be Rich though never so many others were Poor, and why not then to be Vertuous, which is ten times more valuable, though never so many others were Vitious. Example indeed is very prevailing, and like a Conta­gion spreads and diffuseth it self very secretly and insensibly, and infects all [Page 61]about it, because it begets the same thoughts, the same faise principles, and so makes Men have less sense of the evil of Sin, and of the danger of it, but where a Man has fixt and steddy thoughts of those, there the power of Example and the Temptati­on of it to unwary and unsetled Minds, is taken off and removed.

Having examined those Enticements and Temptations by which Men are generally deluded into the deceitfulness of Sin, and exposed the false Reason­ings and Sophistry, which impose up­on them, and perswade them to com­mit it, I shall now offer the many Motives and Encouragements, and greater Arguments, to make Men leave their Sins, and perswade them to Repentance. And here I shall,

• I. Consider the Motives to Repent­ance from the Reason and Nature of the thing.
• II. Those which are peculiar to Re­velation and proper to Christia­nity, of which this is the great Duty.

SECT. II. Motives to Repentance from Reason.

THE Motives to Repentance from the Reason and Nature of the thing, such as would perswade a Wise Heathen, or any Man of Sense and Understanding, to Repent, after he had been foolish and wicked, These must be taken from the manifold evil and mischief of his Sins and Vices, which though they invited him at first with the appearing charms of Plea­sure, or some other seeming good, yet now he finds upon a better Considera­tion, and a serious Reflection upon them, that they are poysonous and bitter, painful and irksome, and have a thousand ill consequences and shame­ful effects that do necessarily attend them, and are the cursed Fruit that spring out of that root of bitterness; that though they are a little pleasant to the taste, yet they are Gall and Wormwood i'the Stomach; and like the Grapes of Sodom, though they look fair to the eye, yet they are but bitter and poysonous, as the poyson of [Page 63]dragons, and the venome of asps, Deut. 32.33. and that there was little or no fruit in those things whereof he is now ashamed, and besides, that the end of those things is death, Rom. 6.21. That he has Naturally an inward fear and dread of a Divine Nemesis and Vengeance hanging over his head, and of some grievous Punishment or Evil befalling him for any ill thing he has done, and that he finds by his own wiser thoughts and better observations, now that he has given himself leave to think, and to consider things over again with calm Thoughts and sober Reason, after that his Lusts are cool, and his Passions more sedate, that Sin is but disguised misery, that it is the mother of all evil and mischief, as it is the daughter of folly and inconside­ration, that the most tempting Vice is but as a Pandar, whose wayes lead to death and destruction, Prov. 3.17. and that Vertue is the only true way to Comfort and Happiness, That the wayes of that are wayes of pleasantness, and all its paths are peace, ver. 3. and that the effect of it is quietness and ossurance for ever, Isa. 32.17. So that we must suppose such an one brought to Re­pentance [Page 64]by such Considerations, and by such a Method as this follow­ing.

1. He is brought to think and con­sider by some Accident, Affliction or Judgment, by Sickness or the fear of Death, or something that awakens his Mind, and the powers of Reason and Thinking, which rouze his stupid and sensless Soul, and excites his Lethar­gick drowsie Faculties, dozed with brutishness and sensuality, and which does, in the Scripture Phrase, bring him to himself, Luke 15.17. This is gene­rally done not only by the Grace of God working inwardly upon his Mind, but by something else also at the same time, from without which touches him to the quick, and enters like Josephs fet­ters even into his Soul, and with its piercing keenness stimulates, and even forces him to attend and consider, and think, whether he will or no, of his Spiritual state and condition, and then when he looks about him, he fees what a woful state he is in, deep and in the mire of Sin and Guilt; to go forward he is afraid, for he now sees the dread­ful precipice before him, which he dis­cerned not before, when he ran blind­fold [Page 65]into Sin, or without sense or fear of danger, as the horse rushes into the battle, and how to go back he knows not, 'tis so difficult, and he is so plunged in the depth of wickedness, but he sees he must perish inevitably if he do not struggle, and do what he can, and endeavour to the utmost to get out of his miserable condition, so he prayes to God to help him, and sadly bewails himself, and laments, and weeps over his wretched case which he finds him­self in, and has brought himself to: He repents and grieves for his past folly, and is now willing to repair and amend it, and to snatch himself, if he can, as a brand out of the fire, and to lay hold upon some plank that may save him from sinking in this dreadful storm, wherein he finds he has ship­wreckt his Conscience, and the waters are gone over his Soul, and he is ready to be swallowed up of the gulph of de­struction, then he makes Vowes to Heaven, and whilst the same thoughts continue upon his Mind, resolves to keep them, and if they go not off when the storm is over, or he do not forget them when he comes to shore, and is set upon dry land, but these [Page 66]strong impressions last upon his Mind, and leave a due sense abiding upon his Soul, even when the violent cause is over, and the affliction is removed, then he is like to be a good Man, and to repent in earnest, and these thun­der-strokes of Providence may not on­ly startle and rouze him, but as is re­ported of some Animals, they may make him conceive and bring forth a new and holy Life, and be available to his true Conversion and Repent­ance, and I believe this is Gods usual way by which he begins to effect this upon most Sinners, by thus bringing them to some serious thinking and considering. It is very great Mercy when God thus checks them in their career, and calls to them by the loud voice of his Judgments, and thus, as he generally does, puts the first stop to them, and makes them bethink themselves and consider; but then this method must not only awaken, but keep their eyes open, and make them see and consider those other Thoughts and Reasons which are the more pro­per seminal Principles that will be more likely to produce and beget this true Repentance. Such as are,

2. In the second place, a serious reflection and thorough conviction of the Evil that is in Sin, and of the real Good of Vertue, as the only thing which can make us truly happy; for till Men have brought themselves to be fully perswaded and convinced of this, and to believe it as firmly as they do any truth in Mathematicks, or any other Science, they will never be brought truly to Repent, that is, to dislike, and hate, and renounce the one, and heartily to love, and persue, and embrace the other; for Men will still love their Sins, and hanker after them, and be ready to comply and close with them upon every occasion; if they only fall out with them some­times, as Lovers do with what they like and admire, and tho' there may be some bickerings between them, and some penitential passions and resent­ments now and then, yet they may still have their Heart, if they do not upon wise observations and thorough convictions, believe them to be ene­mies to their Welfare and Happiness, to the comfort of their Lives here, and their Eternal Salvation hereafter, and that they get nothing by them but [Page 68]poor, and empty, and sickly pleasures, but that they bring substantial misery, and bitter remorse and anguish of Mind, and a thousand mischiefs and inconveniences along with them at present, besides the terrible hazards and dangers of another World, so that they are by no means to be loved or chosen, if we love our selves, or choose our own Happiness: For we must bring it to this, if we would be sted­dy and certain, to the first Principles of Self-preservation, and a desire of our own Happiness, which lyes at the root of our Nature, and what we shall alwayes act upon, if we rightly understand it, and do not grosly err and mistake about it, and a few wise observations, and a little sober think­ing and considering will easily satisfie us, and fully convince us, that Vice is the certain cause of misery to us, and that Vertue is the only way to be truly easie and happy. The Sinner will be convinced of this by his own experience, when he reflects upon his past follies, and sees how little he has got by his Sins but shame and sorrow, and trouble of Mind, perhaps a sick­ly and diseased Body, and a wasted [Page 69]Estate, and wretched Beggery, and every thing that shall make him mise­rable in this World, before he goes to the greater misery of another. For do we not dayly see this, how one Man brings himself by his Sins to a morsel of bread, how he shipwrecks his Fortunes as well as his Conscience, by Luxury and Prodigality, another consumes his Body as well as his Estate by Debauchery, Lust and Intempe­rance; by these they sin, as the Apo­stle remarks, against their own Bodies as well as against their Souls; they make them bear the scars and marks of their Sins upon them, and become Martyrs in the Devils service, and en­dure often more torture of Body for their Sins, than other Martyrs have done for their Religion; sacrifice their Lives to them, and by living too fast, as they call it, bring an untimely death upon themselves, and are in so much hast sometimes to dye, that their Bodies often rot before they come into their graves. If these mischiefs do not fol­low all Sins, yet some others do, and the greatest of all is inseparable from them, which is torment and anguish of Conscience, and pain and uneasi­ness [Page 70]of Mind, which every Man feels, unless his Conscience be stupified and mortified, which is a worse state than the other, upon the commission of any great Sin, and this is ten times greater than any fancied pleasure in it: This is a sting, a wound, a prick upon the most tender part of a Mans Soul, a dart struck through his Liver, a Worm gnawing upon his Vitals; nothing is so close and so cutting a pain and mi­sery as a Mans own ill Conscience, when it is let loose upon him, and like a Fury falls upon him with its ut­most rage, lashes him with its snaky whips, and burns him with its fiery torches, 'tis then a Devil let loose, and a Hell kindled within his own bosom. They who have felt but a little of it, know it is more exquisite pain than any belongs to the Body, and what is it then to endure this for ever, and lye under that, and the further anger of God to all Eternity. Oh madness and folly, that wants a name, that will do this for any Sin whatever! Oh the dreadful Evil of Sin, that brings all this, and so many other mischiefs up­on us! But,

3. Vertue on the contrary, has a thousand Comforts, Blessings and Goods, belonging to it, which should make us love it as we do our selves, and choose it as heartily and firmly as we do our own Happiness. When we rightly understand and consider it, we shall find Reason to do so; that neither disturbs our Mind, nor diseases our Body, nor squanders away our Estate, nor brings any reproach and discredit along with it, as Vice gene­rally does; and it takes away no real Good, or true Pleasure, or proper En­joyment from us, but it allowes us all that we can desire, or that our Nature was made for, within the due bounds and limits of our Duty, and within those we may enjoy as much Vertu­ously and Innocently, as the greatest Liberty and Debauchery can afford the Sinner. Vertue does not destroy our Pleasures, but refines and purifies them, and so makes them sweeter and better, and draws them off from the filthiness, and sediment, and bitterness that lyes alwayes at the bottom of all sinful Pleasures and Enjoyments.

No Man ever repented of his Ver­tues, or was sorry that he had done a [Page 72]good Action, but he finds great com­fort and satisfaction within himself when he reflects upon it, and it is a prop and stay to his Mind, and he rests securely upon it, and is chearful, confident, and erect under all acci­dents, and all dangers and difficulties whatsoever. His Heart standeth right, and approveth it self to God, and to his own thoughts, having no ill de­signs, no base and mean ends and pur­poses, but such only as are good and vertuous, and this gives him great peace, firmness of Mind, and bravery of Spirit, and he feels an inward strength and vigour in himself, and the constant springs of joy and com­fort rising up in his own breast, and overflowing his Soul.

But Vice sneaks and is cowardly, and fills a Man with fear and confu­sion, and all the mean, and little, and uneasie, and tormenting Passions that belong to Humane Nature.

Vertue approves it self to our Rea­son, and agrees with the native sense of our own Minds, and has a Natu­ral beauty and loveliness that com­mends it to our first sight and appre­hension, and makes it amiable and de­sirable, [Page 73]esteemed and honoured, and admired by every one, even by those who forsake it, who cannot but be so just to it, as to commend and approve it very often in others.

But Vice has a Natural ugliness and deformity that makes Men ashamed of it after they have committed it, and commit it in darkness and obscurity, and after to deny and extenuate it, as being presently sensible of the folly and undecency, and unreasonableness of it, as having done what they can­not justifie, and what presently flyes in their faces, if they have not a brow of Brass, and a forehead of Steel. It is contrary and awry to our own Na­ture, and against the first sense and tenderness of our own Minds, so that great violence must be used to commit it at first, and great pain follows upon it. 'Tis a force, a Rape upon the Virgin-modesty, and the Natural sense of Good and Evil that we are born with.

Vertue has alwayes very good and desirable effects upon us in this Life, as well as great Rewards in another. 'Tis in the Wise Mans Phrase, and in a true literal sense, Health to our [Page 74]navel, and marrow to our bones, Prov. 3.8. It keeps our Bodies in good plight, neither drains or exhausts them with forced Pleasures, or unruly Passions, nor choaks or suffocates them with immoderate loads, nor drowns and washes them away with floods of drink, and cups of intemperance.

It brings a Blessing of God upon our Estates, and often makes us Rich by the help of Industry and Frugality, whilst nothing is so expensive, and so impoverishing as Vice, which spends many times all upon its Lusts, and the hungry Wolf comes often to the door where the Swine and the Goat have been used to dwell. Though Vertue may not alwayes bring abundance, neither is it desirable alwayes to a wise Man, though Solomon puts Riches as the common Blessing in the left hand of Wisdom, Prov. 3.16. yet it makes a little that the righteous hath better than great riches of the ungodly, Ps. 37.16.

Honour and a good Name do more certainly belong to Vertue than Riches, and whilst Vice brings a blot and a re­proach upon a Mans Credit, Vertue makes him loved, and honoured, and [Page 75]esteemed by all that know him while he lives, and embalms his Name when he is dead, and makes his Memory to be precious.

But above all, it makes a Man tru­ly easie and happy within himself; it secures him the peace and tranquillity of his own Mind, which is the great­est happiness in the World: So that all Natural Good, and all that is desi­rable to Humane Nature, growes as a proper Fruit out of Vertue, which is the true Root that Naturally brings forth all Good, as Sin does all Evil; and these are so annexed to them by the nature and constitution of things as effects to their proper causes, that nothing can cut them off or precide them, and these besides all the super-added Motives of revealed Religion, are by plain Reason and observation of things, very strong Arguments to bring Men off from Vice to Vertue, i. e. to true Repentance.

4. Therefore Fourthly, A wise Man when he comes to reflect and consider, finds that that which hindered him from seeing all this before, was only his foolish Lusts, and his corrupt sen­fual Inclinations, and his strong Passi­ons, [Page 76]and violent and unreasonable Appetites, which blinded his Reason and clouded his Judgment, and dar­kened his Understanding, and besot­ted, intoxicated and bewitched him, i. e. by some unaccountable wayes hin­dered him from discerning and consi­dering these things which are so plain and evident, and therefore the reason why he before chose Vice and forsook Vertue, was because he did not see and consider this, nor was so truly convinced of the Evil of Sin, and the Good of Vertue, but now he has quite other thoughts and apprehensi­ons about them, and therefore he is changed in his Will and his Affections, by this change wrought in his Mind, and his Understanding; and this being a lasting and effectual change upon all the inward principles of action, has a necessary influence upon his outward actions that are alwayes moved and turned by those inward springs and wheels within us; for though a Man is still at liberty, and is under no force and compulsion from without, but acts freely from within himself, yet his Will will follow the last dictate of his Understanding, and he will not [Page 77]choose Evil as Evil, when he appre­hends it to be so, and he must some way have his Reason corrupted, and judge falsly and erroneously, before he will practice so: Omnis peccans ignorat. If he has a true and lively sense of the Good of Vertue abiding upon his Mind, he will not choose Vice again: 'Tis this sense, I doubt not, confirms the blessed Spirits above, and will do the Souls of all good Men in Heaven, when they see and know this so per­fectly that 'twill be impossible for them to fall, but now we see things darkly, and judge weakly, and often change and alter our Minds, as not having such a clear view of things, nor attending so closely to the dictates of impartial Reason, but our thoughts are often lured off by the temptations of the Flesh, and our Minds hearken but to one side, to the false reasonings and suggestions of the Devil and our own Lusts, or are surprized with the sudden importunity of a temptation, before they can recollect themselves. Else no Man could say, Video meliora probo (que) deteriora sequor, for we cannot but love and choose Good when we apprehend it, and hate and abhor Evil [Page 78]when it is visible and naked to us. We must therefore strip Vice of its dis­guise and its false colours, and wash off its paint and meretricious charmes, and see it as it is in its deformity and ugliness, and in the miserable and sad consequences of it, and then we shall hate that which we once loved, and throw away the gilded poyson, and shake the smooth and shining Viper off of our hands, and cast the rotten curtizan from our armes and embraces.

We shall be ashamed that we were so cheated and imposed upon, so de­luded by the deceitfulness of sin, that we were so weak as to be governed by our mean passions and low inclinati­ons, which are the imperfection and the soft side of our Nature, and that we should not live up to that Reason which is proper to us, and distin­guishes us from brutes, that we should hearken only to the desires of our Senses and our inferiour Appetites, and not to the wise voice and dictates of Reason and Understanding which God had given us. We shall be con­vinced of the folly of this, and see the many ill effects that have come of it, when we consider rightly, and weigh [Page 79]things impartially, and make judg­ment not by our Lusts and Passions, but by right Reason and Wisdom, and shall condemn our selves when we grow cool, for all the mad frollicks and extravagancies we committed in the heat of folly, and shall then feel the pains and wounds they gave us, tho' we were not sensible of them before. Then we shall see that danger which before we were not duly aware of, and have a dread and terrour of that upon our Minds which is the due punishment of our Sins; for the con­sciousness of our own guilt will fill us with terrible fears, and we shall find the burden greater than we can bear, but how fully to get rid of it is a de­fect, and a desideratum in Natural Re­ligion, and therefore we must go fur­ther than that for the other Motives to Repentance, which are fetcht from Revelation, and from the Gospel and Christianity under which God now commandeth all men to Repent, as St. Paul sayes, Acts 17.30. now more than heretofore, namely, by some more proper and peculiar Motives, greater than Mankind had before to encourage them to this Duty, such as [Page 80]I shall come now to consider, and shall offer very largely.

SECT. III. Motives to Repentance from the Gospel.

1. NOW then by Revelation and the Gospel we have an assu­rance of Gods pardoning us upon our Repentance, which the World could not have without a Revelation, for this depends upon the free Will, and anbitrary Pleasure of God, to which he is not obliged by his Essential and Natural Goodness, and of which we cannot be certainly assured without an express Promise and Divine Revela­tion. Nature taught all Mankind that there was a God, the knowledge of this is not to be had from Revelation, but must be supposed as previous and antecedent to it; we learn it not from the Bible, but from the great Volume of Nature that lyes every where written before us with the plainest Marks of an Infinite, and Perfect, and Wise God, and in that, the Chara­cters of his Goodness are as legible as these of his Power and Wisdom, by [Page 81] making his Sun to shine on the evil and on the good, and sending Rain on the just and the unjust, and by other the Natural provisions and contrivances for the good of his Creatures, God has shown himself to be no evil and malicious Principle, as some Hereticks imagined, but a Being of Goodness, which is an Essential Perfection of his Nature, and as Natural and Necessa­ry to him as his very Being. And this Goodness belongs to him not only as a Creator but a Governour, and ob­liges him not to condemn an innocent Creature, nor inflict more misery up­on it than he gives it good by its Being. His Natural Justice, as well as his Goodness, hinders him from doing any injury by his Power, or acting contrary to the unalterable Rules of Right and Wrong, from dooming Men to Misery by an Eternal Decree before they had offended him, from punishing any one more than he de­serves, for the fault of another, and for any fault of its own that was wholly inevitable and unavoidable, but after Men have wilfully offended God, and been guilty of voluntary Crimes, and presumptuous Disobedience against [Page 82]his known and Righteous Laws, and so fallen under his just Anger and Dis­pleasure, that then he should not pu­nish them as they deserve, this his Natural Goodness does no way re­quire of him; if it did, then he could never punish any Sin, nor make any use of the Sword of Justice, but his Goodness would tye up his hands, and put a necessary and constant restraint upon him, which would make it whol­ly inconsistent with his other Attri­butes, and with his wise Government of the World, in order to which it is more necessary to punish Sin than to forgive it. If it be not inconsistent then with Goodness to punish Sin, it is not necessary from that, it should be forgiven, and God is not obliged to do this from his Essential or Natural Goodness, but it depends upon a more Free and Arbitrary Grace and Good­ness that was not included in the Na­tural Knowledge of God, or in the Notion of the Divine Goodness, as a necessary part of it, and so not know­able by the Light of Nature. Gods Goodness is over all his Works, and yet, so far as we know, he never of­fered forgiveness to a great number of [Page 83]his Creatures when they once rebelled against him, and yet the Devils them­selves can bring no just impeachment against the Divine Goodness notwith­standing that, no more could we have done if God had dealt thus with Man­kind, if he had punisht us as soon as we wilfully broke his Lawes, and ne­ver admitted us to Pardon. A good Lawgiver is bound only to give righ­teous and good Lawes to his Subjects, and if they break them they make themselves justly lyable to the punish­ment that was threatned, and 'tis no more contrary to Goodness to inflict that, then it was at first to threaten it; and though that be very severe and terrible, yet if it exceed not the merit of the Crime, i. e. if it be no greater than is necessary for the ends of Government, for that is the only true and full measure by which the proportion of the Fault and the Pu­nishment can be adjusted, 'tis no way contrary to the Goodness of the Governour to see it executed. I do not think he is alwayes obliged to pu­nish by his vindictive Justice, no more than he is obliged to pardon by his Essential Goodness, but here his Pre­rogative [Page 84]rogative takes place, and there is room either to pardon or to punish as he pleases, without regard to any Law or Obligation. Mercy which is a re­laxing of a Law, is due by no Law, if it were it would make void all o­ther Lawes, it would be not a relax­ing or an abating of a Law, but a correcting all other Lawes by a Law that is superiour to them, and so it would be an injury or a denying a Le­gal Right, not to grant it where that snperiour Law required it, but it is a pure, and arbitrary, and undue favour shown to one that has no manner of right or claim to it, which a supreme Governour, who has a Power para­mount to all Law, may by vertue of that, grant or deny by the meer mo­tion and free inclination of his own good pleasure. So that Mankind could not know that God would do this, would be so good as to forgive their wilful Sins and Offences against him from his Natural Goodness, nor could have any certain grounds to be assured of this, but by his own express pro­mise, and positive declaration of this his free Grace and good Will towards them. They might have some faint [Page 85]hopes, and probable surmizes, and small expectations of this from his Natural Goodness, as Malefactors may presume and hope such a thing from the temper and disposition of a good Governour, but they could not neces­sarily conclude it, or be any way ascer­tained of it. They might have such an uncertain encouragement to hope this, as the Men of Niniveh had, Jonah 3.9. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not; and this was as high as Mens hopes could rise without a Revelation of Gods par­doning them upon Repentance. Their Repentance indeed was the most like­ly means to turn away his fierce Anger, and the best thing they could do, but they could not be certain that this would succeed and be effectual, but in their greatest Humiliation, and Mourn­ing, and Fasting, they must with a doubtful Heart, and a trembling Hand, offer their Petitions to Heaven, as a condemned Prisoner does to his angry Judge or incensed Prince, not know­ing whether he will vouchsafe to hearken to it, or so much as to cast his eye upon it. The greatest incou­ragement [Page 86]to Repentance is our being sure that it will obtain our Pardon, and restore us certainly to Favour, and set us right in the Court of Hea­ven; and since we that know this can yet very hardly be perswaded to a Duty that is not so very pleasant or so very easie, with what disadvantages must those who knew not this, be brought to it; with what desponding fears and uncertain hopes must the Prodigal, Luke 15. take a weary jour­ney, and return home to his Fathers house, who knew not whether he should be admitted or no when he came there; with what a doubtful and perplexed Mind, with what weary paces and dispirited motions must he take every step thither, when he could not tell what he should meet with at his journeys end, but had too much reason to fear he should for ever be cast out and excluded, as he might have been by his good Father; and this must be the case of the most pe­nitent Sinner, and of all Mankind, when without a Revelation they had no assurance of Pardon, though upon their Repentance, but only an uncer­tain hope and presumption of it; but [Page 87]now the greatest Sinner who has lived never so prodigally and wickedly, has a thousand times greater incourage­ments to return, and leave off all his vicious and riotous courses of living, because he is most certainly assured that if he does so his Heavenly Father will receive him with open arms, and the heartiest embraces, and treat him as kindly and indulgently as if he had served him many years, neither had transgrest at any time his commandment, ver. 29. In a word, we have the same incouragements to repent and leave our Sins now under the Gospel, as Rebels have to come in and lay down their Arms when there is a Pro­clamation of Pardon, and an Act of Indemnity past to all that do so, where­as before there was only an uncertain presumption of the Princes Mercy, which they could not be sure of with­out a Revelation.

2. We have not only Pardon given us upon promise now, but granted upon a most valuable consideration, and founded upon a full Expiation of Guilt and Atonement of Sin by a Sa­crifice, the most perfect Sacrifice of the Son of God, and so purchased for [Page 88]us, and made over to us by a Cove­nant established and confirmed by the Blood of Christ. Pardon of Sin is so great a thing, so Princely and so sin­gular a favour, the greatest Act in­deed that a Prince can do, and 'tis so desirable, so comfortable to a poor Criminal, than which nothing in the World can be more valuable to him, that it can never be too well assured to us, and we can never be too much satisfied in it. Guilt is alwayes so fear­ful and timorous, so terrible and so un­easie a thing; 'tis such a heavy load and burden lying upon a Mans Mind, such a deep wound upon the tenderest part of a Mans Soul, that like a prick upon a Nerve, it puts the whole Man into convulsions and agonies, and fills him with unexpressible pains and tor­tures. There is no such rack, no such Hell indeed, as what is set up and kindled in a Mans own breast by his guilty Conscience, when he is haunt­ed by his own Sins as so many Hellish Fiends, and lasht by them like so ma­ny snaky Furies, that poyson and sting him to the very Heart, and his own fears of Vengeance and future Punish­ment, represent sad and frightful [Page 89]images, like to so many Specters, al­wayes appearing before his Mind, and therefore there is no such comfort as that which delivers us from Guilt, no such [...], or blessed news, as what our Saviour pronounces to a Sinner by the Gospel, Son be of good chear, thy sins are forgiven thee; there is no such anodine as that which plucks out the sting of Sin, and takes away the pains and the smartings of a wounded Con­science; that which does this puts not only Oyl into the Wounds, but new Life into the fainting Soul; 'tis like taking a Man off from the Rack or the Wheel, and giving him more ease than he feels when he has just voided a Stone after a sharp fit. And there­fore the Remedy that does this is the most choice, the most precious and valuable thing in the World: What that is we now know by the Gospel, but Mankind could not know by Na­tural Light, what would expiate Sin, and certainly take away Guilt; and therefore the Heathens, though they tryed all means by their Lustrations, Sacrifices, Purgations, and other ways, (for the sense of their Guilt put them upon all attempts to get rid of it) yet [Page 90]they could never find what would cer­tainly do it, but must be still fearful and melancholly under their acknow­ledged Guilt and unattoned Crimes. Whether thousand of rams, or ten thou­sand rivers of oyl would be accepted as a price of their Sins they could not tell, or whether it would not cost more to redeem a Soul, whether if they brought their first-born, and offered the fruit of their Bodies for the sin of their Souls, or offered up their own Blood as was sometimes done, 'twould be effectual was very uncertain; but there was no­thing they thought too dear it seems, nothing, however cruel either to them­selves or others, that they would stick at in hopes to accomplish this. The most barbarous and inhumane super­stition of the Heathen World in offer­ing up their Children to Molech; in offering the Sacrifices of Men, which was no unusual thing among them, arose from the great streight and the great darkness they were in, as to the expiation of Guilt, and the atonement of Sin, which was so dreadful, so pain­ful, that they could not bear it, and yet knew not how to remove it. But now God be thanked, we have that [Page 91]which should chear up our Spirits, and put us upon a hearty and a speedy Repentance from all our Sins, because upon our doing this, we have the Blood of Christ, and the Sacrifice of the Lamb of God, to deliver us from all Sin. That which the World was so anxiously, so concernedly, and yet so vainly seeking after before, that is only to be had and only made known by the Gospel Revelation, the full and perfect, and certain Expiation of Guilt, which is the greatest Argument and Encouragement to Repentance: for without that, 'tis not all our Repent­ance will take away our past Guilt; 'tis not our greatest sorrow, or most penitent tears, will wash away the stains and guilt of our Sins, unless they are mixt with, and have all their vertue from the Blood of Christ; and 'tis not they indeed, or any thing we can do, that has any proper vertue or efficacy to do this, but only the Sacrifice of Christ. Repentance is a necessary disposition and qualification in us, without which no Sacrifice can be available to us, if it does not as the Scripture speaks, Purge our Consciences, and so purifie as well as atone, which [Page 92]is a strong Consideration to enforce this Duty, because without it we lose all the benefit of this Sacrifice; but 'tis not our Repentance that can either purchase, or procure, or pay for our Pardon, or that can any way challenge, or upon any account merit or pretend a right to it, be it never so exact; for by what rules of Justice does it dis­charge our past arrears of wickedness, though we stop now and run no fur­ther on in the score? What do we more by leaving our Sins, and becom­ing good now, than we ought always to have done, and always were obli­ged to? or how shall we make that which is past and done to be undone as it were, and the old account to be blotted out, and the past Guilt done away? 'Tis only the Meritorious Sa­crifice of Christ can do this, and whe­ther God could do this without any Sacrifice I will not dispute, because I know not the Measures of the Divine Government, nor the Secrets of his Wisdom and Counsel, but by a Sacri­fice it is much better obtained and assured to us, as being granted upon the account of something that was given in stead of it, and that is worth [Page 93]it indeed in fair Justice, for so was the Blood of the Son of God of equal va­lue to the Souls of all Mankind, tho' I acknowledge it depends upon the free pleasure of the Governour to ac­cept or refuse such a satisfaction and compensation as was made by that or by any Sacrifice, yet all this being transacted in such a Method, being granted upon a valuable Considera­tion, and being made over to us by a formal Covenant and standing Agree­ment, ratified and sealed by the Blood of Christ, as well as a bare Promise: So that by all these immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lye, we might have strong consolation, Heb. 6.18. we have hereby the greatest comfort, the highest satisfaction and assurance in the World given us, of that which we can never be too much assured of, and which is of the nearest and closest concern to us in the World, the Pardon of our Sins, and the Ex­piation of all our Guilt, which is on­ly to be had, and only fully discover­ed by the Gospel; and 'tis indeed the greatest thing in which the Gospel consists, as 'tis different from Natural Religion.

3. From hence, namely, from the Sacrifice and Death of Christ arise new Motives, and fresh and most endear­ing Obligations to perfwade all Chri­stians to repent and leave their Sins. The very Nature of a Sacrifice carries these in it, and was designed to offer the strongest Motives against Sin at the same time that it procures Pardon for it. It is the wisest expedient that could ever be thought of, to show Justice and Severity, and yet Mercy and Clemency at the fame time; to put a Governour into those two dif­ferent Capacities, both at once to for­give, and yet to punish the same per­son, and to show him to be neither too easie nor yet implacable, but by an admirable temper and mixture of two Vertues and two Passions that seem contrary to one another, it finds out a way to spare the Man, and yet show the greatest displeasure to his Sin, neither to suffer the Guilty to perish, nor yet the Guilt to be unpu­nished; so that hereby the greatness of the Guilt and the greatness of Gods Anger, is as visible against the Sin in the sufferings of the Sacrifice, as if the offender himself had suffered; and [Page 95]we have Reasons to dread it the more, even because it is forgiven us; but we have stronger Reasons, I think, to do this, out of gratitude to that dear Person who was pleased to become a Sacrifice for us, and from the conside­ration of his Love, and what he has done for us, we have most particular and strong engagements to leave our Sins: For 'tis the highest ingratitude, and the most disobliging thing to him that can be to continue in them, who suffered for this very end, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and cleanse us from all our sins; 'tis a spoiling all his great undertaking for us, making void his Passion in effect, and making his Blood to be but like common Wa­ter spilt upon the ground, and yet 'tis a renewing his Passion at the same time, A crucifying to our selves the Son of God afresh, and putting him to an open shame, Heb. 6.6. 'Tis like run­ning the Spear again into his Side, making new Wounds in his Breast, and pricking him to the very Heart; 'tis doing that which is more displeasing to him than his very Cross, which he willingly underwent rather than we should live and dye in our Sins. Look [Page 96]then, O unworthy and impenitent Christian, upon thy Saviour offering up himself a Sacrifice for thee, and consider what a mighty Argument his Death is to perswade thee to Repent. Do not thy Sins look terrible when thou seest them through the Blood of Christ, and canst thou have any hopes that God who spared not his own Son, will spare thee, if thou continuest in them? And how great are the Cha­racters of his Love, which are there written in his own Blood? and will not so much Love prevail upon thee to leave thy Sins, were there nothing else? How does thy dying Saviour, with his expanded Arms, and his Head hanging down, beseech and intreat thee, and speak to thee as it were from every gaping Wound in his bro­ken Body, to forsake and renounce those Sins which crucified him, and for which he dyed? And if with the belief of a Christian thou hast but the Passions of a Man, this cannot but strongly affect and move thee.

4. Christianity and the Gospel set forth and shew us the true Nature and Evil of our Sins, in a better light, and by greater considerations, [Page 97]than Mankind had before; Sin was al­wayes known to be a weakness and imperfection of our Nature, gratify­ing a low passion, a foolish humour, a silly custom, acting in opposition to Reason, and doing things quite con­trary to our own wise and calm thoughts, but by rashness and inconsi­deration doing that which we shall afterwards repent of, and condemn our selves for, and wish we had never done, and what we know will tend more to our mischief and prejudice than any real good to us, only it pleases our fancy, and tickles our senses, and is a little grateful to us at present; so that 'tis a sort of Childish­ness, and want of Understanding, and of Manly and Rational Government of our selves to yield to it, and be overcome by it, this it must appear to any thinking Man, to a Heathen and Philosopher that considered the nature of things, and the difference of Good and Evil that arose from thence, and therefore that to repent of it was as necessary as for a Man to act wisely and reasonably, not to do what is weak and foolish, below the Nature and the Reason of a Man; but now [Page 96] [...] [Page 97] [...] [Page 98]Christ, besides all this, has represent­ed Sin in more ugly and frightful cha­racters by the Gospel, as that which had thrown all Mankind into the most miserable and lost condition, as the work of the Devil which he came to de­stroy, as the device and stratagem of evil and malicious Spirits to destroy us, so that whenever we are drawn into Sin we are drawn in by the Devil, and used as tools by cunning infernal Fiends, who this way over-reach us, and sport themselves in our ruine and destruction; so that when we think we are enjoying our Pleasures, and gratifying our Lusts, and using the freedoms and liberties of Humane Nature, we are but inveigled by those Devils with the baits they lay for us, and the snares they every where set to entrap us, and are meer slaves and properties to their cunning and cursed designs upon us, so that Christ came to rescue us from those by calling us to Repentance, to rescue us from the snares of the Devil, and redeem us from that servitude and slavery where­by we are led captive by him. Chri­stianity better acquaints us also with the Nature of Sin and the Evils of it, [Page 99]than Nature could by showing us the ruins it had made upon Mankind, and the cost and expences Heaven was at to repair Humane Nature; by letting us see the wretched and miserable estate the Sins of Mankind had thrown them into irrecoverably without a Sa­viour. Our Salvation by that stupen­dous and mysterious way makes the greatness of our danger, and the mis­chief of our Sins, more evidently known to us, and the whole scheme and contrivance of it contains other considerations against Sin than Natu­ral Religion could ever have known or suggested; for by this Sin appears further to be so malignant and hateful to God, so detestable and odious in his sight, and so contrary to his wise Government of the World, that he would not pardon it without the Blood of his own Son shed as an a­tonement for it, nor forgive it to Man­kind without such a valuable compen­sation and satisfaction made for it, as that was. Now this demonstrates to us above any thing its abominable and displeasing Nature to God, and that according to the wise Rules and Max­imes of his Government, by which [Page 100]he manages the World, it must suffer and be severely punished, and that there was no escaping of this but by an extraordinary contrivance of Di­vine Wisdom and Mercy, which found out a way by Jesus Christ to save Sin­ners by Repentance. Sin is a greater debt, a more deep provocation to Heaven, a more horrid affront to Di­vine Power and Authority, a more considerable injury to the good of the World, and to the Justice and Holi­ness of God, than to be easily forgiven and passed by, as we find by the my­stery of our Redemption, and the dis­pensation of Christianity, which shows us above any thing the Nature and Evil of it, and consequently the great Reasons of our Repenting from it.

5. As the Nature and Evil of Sin, fo the Consequences and Punishments of it are greater by Christianity; and Christ by the threatning of those greater Judgments upon it has called us more loudly to Repentance. Na­ture and the light of Reason taught all Mankind the present and Natural Evils that were like so many Curses cleaving to Sin, like Hercules his poysoned shirt clinging to it, and [Page 101]sticking fast about it. God had an­nexed a world of evils and mischie­vous effects to Vice and Wickedness, by the original settlement and funda­mental constitution of things; it was a disease to the Mind and a torment to the Conscience, and very often a disease to the Body and rottenness to the Bones, a wound to a Mans Cre­dit and a blemish to his good Name, and an enemy to all his Interests, and to all his Happiness in this World. These plain and necessary effects of Sin Mankind could not but observe, as so many bitter Fruits naturally growing out of it as from a proper Root, and like so many plagues sent from Heaven steeming out of this Pandora's box: And these Natural Pu­nishments of Sin, and the other as Natural Goods and Rewards of Ver­tue, were the true sanction of the Law of Nature. But besides all these, there are a thousand times greater and more additional evils superadded to our Sins by Christianity, if we do not in time Repent of them; there are the positive and eternal evils of Sin in another World; for I can by no means call the Torments of Hell Natural, [Page 102]which God has revealed to us by the Gospel. How little these were known to the World before, I might show from the odd fancies of the wisest Heathens about the transmigration of Souls, and the revolution of all things within such a period of years; and whatever guess they had rather than belief of Punishments for Sin in ano­ther World, yet that they should be so great as the Scripture now repre­sents them, and that they should be Eternal, which is the most dreadful part of them, this can only be known from the Revelation and Will of God, who may continue our being, and lengthen or shorten our duration to what time he pleases, and therefore as Christ has brought Life and Immortality to light by the gospel, 2 Tim. 1.10. so in like manner he has brought Hell and Damnation, and revealed such in­tolerable and greater Punishments to Sin than the World knew before, as cannot but fright the most daring Sin­ner, and make the fondest Sensualist part with his Lusts, when he considers that all their tempting charms, and enticing gayety, and momentany plea­sures, shall end in nothing but Hellish [Page 103]torments, unquenchable flames, and eternal howlings and gnashings of teeth, which must be owned to be a thousand times greater than all the known, and visible, and Natural Evils of Sin.

SECT. IV. Motives to Repentance from the Consi­deration of Hell.

NOW because this is the greatest determent from Sin imaginable, and consequently the greatest motive to Repentance that can possibly be given; for nothing is so strong and powerful upon most Men as their fears, which is the quickest and strong­est Passion in Humane Nature, and is apt to make a very great impression where nothing else will, and nothing can be so much an object of our fear, as Hell and Eternal Misery, which is the utmost and most dreadful Evil that can be either felt or imagined. I shall particularly and largely offer and represent it to the Sinners thoughts, both as to its Nature, consisting in the greatest pains and torments of Body [Page 104]and Mind, and in the most wretched and miserable state and condition, and as all this is Eternal and shall never have end: Both which, if heartily believ'd and seriously consider'd, would have a mighty power and almost irre­sistible force to bring Men off from their greatest Sins.

I. Then let us consider its Nature, as consisting of the greatest pains and torments both of Body and Mind, and in the most wretched and miserable state and condition. I shall not attempt fully to describe, or draw a picture of this place of Torments, our imagi­nation is to be help'd out with all the known instances of Misery, and so to form an Idea of that future, and un­known, and invisible one: It is cer­tain it must be adapted to those two parts of which we consist, our Bodies and our Minds, and what are the pro­per Evils to either of those we very well know, sensible Pain and great Anguish and Sorrow, and other tor­menting Passions, and these we must suppose in the highest degree to be­long to Hellish Misery; for as Hea­ven is the utmost good our Natures [Page 105]can possibly receive, and are capable of, so Hell is the greatest evil, and as such is represented to us by that Reve­lation which assures us of it, attended with the most sad and woful circum­stances that can be imagined. I shall offer the thoughts of it to the Sinner under such Ideas and Representations as are given of it by the Holy Ghost in Scripture. And

1. We must conceive a horrid, dark and dismal dungeon in some deep ca­vern of the Earth, designed for hor­rour, and fill'd with the blackness of darkness, and inhabited only by cur­sed Fiends, and frightful Ghosts and Devils, into which the wretched Cai­tiff is to be thrown, bound hand and foot, and so cast into outer darkness, Matth. 22.13. and delivered into chains of darkness, 2 Pet. 2.4. Darkness is the Natural image and symbol of hor­rour and disconsolateness, as Light is of comfort and pleasantness; so that the Scripture expresses Happiness by the dwelling in light, as it does Misery by being cast into outer darkness, where there is not any beam of light, nor any the least glimpse of joy and com­fort. And thus to be shut up for ever [Page 106]in a place of darkness and horrour, and confined to this dismal and infer­nal Prison to all Eternity, would be a dreadful Misery were there nothing else, but they are to be tormented there as well as imprisoned, and that with the most exquisite pains and tor­tures, as they are described to us, in the second place.

2. By Fire and Burning, which is the most terrible, the most keen and painful of Bodily punishments, which enters the tender parts with pointed and piercing fury, and dissolves and distorts them with its rapid motion, and has nothing to abate its extreme cruelty, but that it quickly consumes and dispatches, and spends it self with its own rage and violence, as well as destroyes its subject. But this is the dreadful Nature of that infernal Fire, that it never goes out, but is, as the Scripture calls it, unquenchable, and that the miserable wretches that are condemned to it, shall endure the pain and the rage of it for ever, and shall never be consumed or destroyed by it, but shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy An­gels, and in the presence of the Lamb, [Page 107]and the smoke of their torment ascend­eth up for ever and ever, and they have no rest day nor night, Rev. 14.10, 11. Let us then set before us a burning Lake of liquid Fire and melted Brim­stone, like Nebuchadnezzars fiery Fur­nace, heat seven times hotter than any thing we here know, and the damned wretches cast into it, and like Dives sadly tormented in those flames over all their parts, so that the Tongue is swelled with heat as in a raging Fea­ver, and nothing would be so com­fortable to it as a drop of Water to cool it, and to slake and abate the scorching Calenture. Some are incli­ned to think all this but Allegory and Metaphor, and painted Fire, but the Scripture speaks so often of it, that I cannot but think it may be literally true, and that Fire is made the instru­ment of those Bodily pains that are there to be suffered and inflicted after the general Judgment and Resurre­ction. Or however that as great pains of Body are thereby signified and ex­prest, and shall really be endured some way or other, as by burning in Fire: For if the Holy Spirit to help our weak thoughts, and assist our imagi­nations, [Page 108]has made use of those known things only as emblems and pictures of some real pains, yet they are cer­tainly as great or greater than any of those by which they are shadowed out and represented, as the pleasure of Heaven is much greater, no doubt, and does far exceed that of a Feast, a Wedding, a Crown, or any such Earthly resemblance. As to the pro­per pain and torment of the Mind, which is the other, and the greatest part of Hellish Misery, for the Mind has a more quick, and keen, and im­mediate sense than the Body, that is represented in Scripture by the worm which never dyes, Matth. 9.46. i. e. by a Passion that bites, and gnaws, and corrodes, and pains us within, as the Fire, or something else, torments the Body from without, and this in­cludes in it all those dismal and reflect­ing thoughts and apprehensions which the Mind has upon its dreadful state and condition. As,

(1.) A direful perception of the Di­vine Anger, Wrath and Displeasure, which when it lyes heavy upon the Mind in the highest degree, will press it into the deepest gulph of Misery, [Page 109]and fill it with the most terrible Ideas, and most dreadful apprehensions. Even in this World, when a Sinner tasts but a little of the Cup of Gods Fury, 'tis a cup of trembling, and a cup of astonishment, as the Scripture calls it, Isa. 51.17. Ezek. 23.32. and what will it then be when all the dregs of it must be drunk up! When God hides his Face but a little, there is all trouble and horrour, and what must it then be when he hides it for ever! The sense and apprehension of lying under the displeasure of Almigh­ty Power, and provoked Justice, and abused Goodness, and all these highly incensed against a Man, and never to be appeased, must be very dreadful, and make sad impressions upon the Mind, The Presence and the Favour of God giveth Life and Comfort, what Death and Misery must it then be to be banished for ever from both, with a Depart from me ye oursed.

(2.) The Mind will reflect upon what is past with infinite remorse and anguish, and with great regret curse its own folly and madness that has brought it to this sad condition, when God had put it in its power to have [Page 110]made it self for ever happy, had it been wise and considering as it ought to have been. This will be the great sting of its Misery, that it wilfully brought it upon it self, and for a few foolish, and rash, and finful actions, undid it self for ever, and for some trifling reasons and pitiful temptations, the little pleasures or profits of Sin, which are now all gone, made it self thus wretchedly and eternally mise­rable. How with rage and envy will it look up to that Happiness it has lost, and sees others enjoy, and vex it self with fury that it should refuse and re­ject that when it was offered to it; and this one thought will double and increase its Misery, and make it curse and tear it self, that it was its own choice.

(3.) As the Mind with looking back will be filled with remerse and anguish upon its past Sins and past Madness, so by looking forward, and seeing no end of the Misery it is in, it will be filled and overwhelmed with Despair, which is a Passion of Mind so perfectly and so unspeakably mise­rable, that I shall not venture to de­scribe it, for 'tis beyond any thing we [Page 111]can imagine, and it properly belongs to the next head, which is the eternity and endless duration of these Tor­ments and Misery, which though it be but a circumstance of time, and not properly that wherein they con­sist, yet is the most dreadful perfecti­on and completion of them, which I shall consider by and by.

Let us now but seriously think with our selves what a dreadful state it is to be under all this torment of Mind, and pain of Body, to lye thus upon the rack of the greatest tortures both from within and without, and that in such extremity that they shall make dreadful and hideous signs and expres­sions of it, in weeping, and mourning, and lamentation, and gnashing of teeth, Matth: 22.13. when they shall gnaw their tongues for pain, and blaspheme the God of heaven, because of their pains, Rev. 16.10, 11. And yet all their bitter cryes and dolorous excla­mations shall only blow up and kindle the rage and fury of the surrounding flames, for none of their sighs shall put out, nor their tears extinguish any the least spark of those flames which are kindled by the Wrath of God, [Page 112]who is a consuming fire. Who can ex­press or imagine the keenness and sharpness of those pains of Body, or the pangs and agonies of Conscience, the passions, and anguish, and re­morse of Mind, and nothing to take off, or divert, or give the least inter­mission to all these, but an angry God above, a dark and bottomless pit of burning Brimstone below, and fright­ful, and ugly, and insulting Spirits, like so many executioners, all about it, and no friend to call to, to pity or to help it.

O sad, and miserable, and intolera­ble condition! Who would not do all he could to warn others and himself that they come not to that place of Torments? What pleasure or profit can there be in the most tempting Sin, that should make a Man venture the enduring all this for the sake of it? Who would endure this but one day, or one month, for all the things this World can afford? Who would suffer it for so long a time as this life of Sin here lasts for all that he gets by it? Who would endure it a thousand years for all the Kingdoms of this World, and the Glories thereof, much less [Page 113]who would for a trifling Lust, or a sinful Inclination, for a little unjust Gain, or unlawful Pleasure, endure it for ever? Which is the next thing I am to speak to. That,

II. This is Eternal, and shall never have end. This is the dreadful and amazing circumstance of this Misery, and that which must confound him that suffers it, that it shall last for ever, so that there shall never be any hopes of having an end of it, after ne­ver so many thousand years, but there shall be still an infinite Eternity be­hind, and so as much as there was at the first beginning. Who can think of this without the utmost horrour, and amazement, and having his thoughts swallowed up with the dreadful consideration of it? It is so great that some have had their Rea­son overcome and overwhelmed by it, so that they have thought it unagree­able, and inconsistent with Gods Good­ness and Justice, to inflict so long and so great a Misery upon any of his Creatures, and have therefore endea­voured to limit this Eternity to a shorter compass of time, and not to [Page 114]extend it to an absolute but a limited Eternity, as sometimes it is under­stood in Scripture, and therefore to reconcile all those places of Scripture to this notion of it, and to interpret them so, that Eternity in the fullest and utmost sense may not be under­stood by them. I shall therefore briefly examine this Argument, which on the one side seems very careful of the credit and honour of the Divine Justice and Goodness, but on the o­ther takes off extremely from the ut­most terrour of Hellish Torments, in denying them to be Eternal, so that it may tend in great measure to take off the power and force of those which are the greatest restraints that God could lay upon Sin and Wickedness; and since so few are prevailed upon by them, though under the doctrine and perswasion of their being Eternal, how much fewer would be so if they thought them otherwise. I shall there­fore,

• First, Briefly show how this Eter­nity of Hellish Torments is agreeable to Gods Goodness.
• Secondly, How it is plainly and un­deniably proved from Scripture and Revelation.

First, How 'tls agreeable to Gods Goodness to punish the few Sins of a short Life with such great and never ending Torments, when in all Govern­ments and all distributions of Justice, the Punishment ought not to be so dis­proportioned, and so much greater than the Crime. And besides, how a good, and tender, and pitiful God, should keep a poor Creature in being for ever, meerly to let it suffer, and be miserable, and endure infinite Tor­ments. To this I answer briefly;

• 1. Whatever Punishment is neces­sary to secure the ends of Govern­ment, to preserve Obedience to Laws, and to keep bold and daring Men from breaking and violating them; whatever is necessary to this end is just, and necessary, and agreeable both to the Goodness, and Wisdom, and Justice of the best Government; for otherwise, there must be no such thing as Government in the World, but God must give up his Authority, and throw the reins loose upon the necks of his Creatures, if he have not a power to threaten and inflict such Punishments as shall be sufficient to deter Men from Disobedience, and to [Page 116]restrain them from Wickedness. Now we easily see to how little purpose a less Punishment would ferve then that of Hell to those ends, since there are so few awed even by that, tho' God has so severely threatned it. If then, for the ends of Government, and for publick good, such a Punishment as this be necessary, it is consistent both with Justice and Goodness however fevere it be, for this is the only just measure and proportion of Punish­ments that they be able to attain their end, and the Rule of Justice is to be taken not from any private but pub­lick Reasons.
• 2. God has given us free choice, and proposed both Eternal Happiness, and Eternal Misery to us; He hath set before us life and death, Deut. 30.15. so that if we obey him, and live wise­ly and vertuously, we shall enjoy the one, but if we choose Sin, we choose Death with it, and our destruction is of our selves, and we judge our selves unworthy of everlasting life, Acts 13.46. as Paul and Barnabas told the Jews. Gods proposing such vast Re­wards and Punishments, as 'tis per­haps a necessary sanction of his Laws, [Page 117]so 'tis perfectly our own fault and madness, if we refuse the one and in­cur the other.

Secondly, I shall show how this Eter­nity is clearly and undeniably proved from Scripture, which it seems to be, be­cause the word Eternal and Everlast­ing, and what amounts to that, is al­wayes used upon this account, as ever­lasting fire, Matth. 25.41. and ever­lasting burnings, Isa. 33.14. and the fire that is unquenchable, and that never goes out, Mark 9.46. Luke 3.17. But to this they say, that the word Eter­nal is often used in Scripture in a li­mited sense, according to the nature of the thing to which it belongs; as the Jewish Priesthood is called an ever­lasting Priesthood, Exod. 40.15. and their Law of Atonement is called an everlasting statute, Lev. 16.34. tho' neither were to be so strictly, nor to last longer than the Jewish oeconomy: So Sodom and Gomorrha, and the Ci­ties about them, are said to suffer the vengeance of eternal fire, in ver. 7. of St. Judes Epistle, because it brought eter­nal destruction to them, though there be now none of that fire remaining, so shall the fire of Hell, say they, de­stroy [Page 118]and annihilate the wicked, and so as the Scripture speaks, bring ever­lasting death and destruction upon them, though if that shall last Eter­nally, yet they shall not be Eternally tormented in it.

Now in reply to this, I own, that the word Eternal and for ever, is often used in a limited sense, but that it cannot be so when it is spoken here of Hellish Torments, there is this evi­dence, that the same word [...], which is spoken of Eternal Punish­ment, is spoken also of Eternal Life, so that if it be understood of a limit­ed Eternity in the one, it must be so in the other, which no body ever held or supposed, and yet there is as much Reason from hence to deny the absolute Eternity of Heaven, as the absolute Eternity of Hell

2. That they suffer Eternal Death, and are Eternally destroyed, is not to be understood in a strict and literal sense, so that they lose all Being, but yet are not Eternally tormented is plain from those places where it is said, They have no rest day nor night, Rev. 14.11. which supposes them not to be in a state of non-existence, but of [Page 119]actual pain. 'Tis said there also, that they shall be tormented with fire and brimstone, and that the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever, ver. 10.11. which can never without violence be understood of the Fire which still lasts, and which they sup­pose to be Eternal, whilst they are not tormented in it, but destroyed by it, though it remains still as a monu­ment of Gods Justice and Vengeance upon Sinners, for the smoke of their torment ascending for ever, supposes them to be for ever tormented, and their having no rest night nor day, ne­cessarily implyes this. Besides, as it is said, The fire is not quenched, nor ne­ver goes out; so it is said also, that their worm never dyes. Now though the Fire might possibly continue with­out its proper subject, yet the Worm there meant never can, for that is only that anguish, and remorse, and vexa­tious reflection of Mind, which if it never dye, the subject of it must last, and continue, and suffer it for ever. So that though our Socinian Adversa­ries avoid the other places of Ever­lasting Punishment, and Everlasting and Unquenchable Fire, with some [Page 120]Art and Sophistry, yet they can never evade those of the worms never dying, and of the smoke of their torments go­ing up for ever, and their having no rest day nor night, Rev. 14.11.

But not to dispute further of these matters, let the Sinner seriously conss­der and meditate of these infinitely great, and infinitely lasting and never ending Torments. If there be such a thing as Hell, it concerns him highly to Repent, and so take care to avoid it. If he do not think this to be true, but secretly disbelieve it, he must dis­believe all Religion, and all Revela­tion, and run into the utmost madness of Scepticism and Atheism; and then let him consider, that 'tis not his be­lief makes things to be true or false, but whatever he thinks of them, they are and will be what they are in them­selves; and 'tis certain he can never know them to be false, however he is inclined to believe them so; and there­fore were they never so uncertain, and were it but merely probable, or in­deed possible, that there should be any such thing, yet no Man in his wits should run the venture, and lye open to so prodigious and dreadful an ha­zard [Page 121]as an Eternity of Misery. But to such Christians that firmly believe them, and have all Reason so to do both from Revelation and Reason too, for all Mankind had ever some belief and expectations of sad Punishments in another World for Wickedness, to them 'tis unaccountable folly and mad­ness to live in such Sins, and in such courses, as will throw them into this unquenchable Fire, and consign them to this dreadful and everlasting state of Misery. Is there any Sin whose charms are so great, whose gains are so tempting, that for the enjoyment of all these for a little season, 'tis worth enduring the Torments of Hell for ever?

If these Terrors of the Lord will not perswade Men to Repent and Leave their Sins, nothing will. Yet there is one or two other Motives or Argu­ments to Repentance from Christiani­ty, which I must propose after this of Hell, and all the rest, namely,

SECT. V. Other Gospel Motives to Repentance.

6. ANother Motive which may be said to be peculiar to the Gos­pel, and which should encourage to Re­pentance above all others, is the Pro­mise of the Divine Grace and Holy Spirit to enable us to peform it, to assist us to overcome all our evil Habits, and to master all the Corruptions and Imper­fections of Humane Nature, to con­quer all those Sins that are thought never so difficult, or even insuperable to Flesh and Blood, and to practice all those Vertues that are most contrary to our Natural Temper or Sensual In­clinations. Be there never so many Arguments to the doing of a thing, and never so much danger in not do­ing it, be it never so great and im­portant, or never so necessary, yet if after all a Man be without power and without ability to do it, they will be all in vain, and to no more purpose, than to perswade a blind Man to see by the conveniency of that Sense, or a lame Man to run by the danger he [Page 123]may otherwise be in, or a Man tumb­ling from a precipice to stop before he falls to the bottom, 'tis only to mock and deride us with Motives and Argu­ments to a thing, if it be wholly out of our power to effect it, and there­fore there is no such Motive to the do­ing a thing that we are otherwise per­swaded is of great moment and im­portance, as to be assured of sufficient power to enable us to go through with it, without which all our Vigour will be dampt, and all the sinews of Industry cut, and all our Endeavours blasted, by which we should set about it, and we shall run the Censure of those foolish undertakers our Saviour speaks of, Luke 14. who would make War, or build a Tower, without power to go on with it. God has therefore given us the greatest Encou­ragement by the Gospel, that can be to set upon the practice, as of all o­ther Duties, so especially of this hard one of Repentance, when he thereby assures us, that his Grace shall be suf­ficient for us, that he worketh in us both to will and to do, that his Spirit shall be given us, and abide with us for ever, and that we shall be mightily strengthened [Page 124]by it in the inner man; so that a new, and strong, and vital Principle, shall be added to Humane Nature to streng­then its weakness, repair its decayes, recruit its forces, support its feeble powers, raise its sunk state, and re­store it to the Vertue and Perfection it had lost by its Sins. How weak and decayed, how corrupted and de­generated Humane Nature was of its self, both Scripture and our own Ex­perience do sufficiently teach us; how strong and violent our Passions are, and how weak our Reason to master and govern them; how prone the Will is to consent to what is evil be it but a little grateful to Flesh and Blood, and what strong proclivities and in­clinations are in us to many Sins. The Heathens were very sensible of this corruption and decay of Humane Na­ture, and into what a low and dege­nerate state it was sunk, and there­fore they complained very often of the [...] and [...], of the Souls being sunk into Matter and a Terrestrial State, its wings being molted, and its powers being drooping and sickly, and what should raise and restore it, and be a Cure to this Disease, they could [Page 125]not find out; they felt how strong were the propensions to Vice, and how the Mind [...], as Hierocles speaks, was carried by its Passions, like so many weights hanging upon it, and incli­ning it to Sin, and what should bal­lance these, what should turn and counterpoize those propensities and in­clinations, what should bear up against all the Corruptions from within, and the Temptations from without, and relieve and succour the weak forces of decayed Nature that was so strongly besieged, and so little able to hold out of it self, this they could not know; for 'tis only by the Gospel and Chri­stianity that we have the Promise of Gods Grace and Holy Spirit to be given to us when we ask it, and to belong as a right to all Christians by vertue of the New Covenant, and be a stand­ing Principle to prevent and restrain us from Sin, and work Holiness and Vertue in our Minds. And now by vertue of this we have the greatest in­couragement to Repent and Leave our Sins, which is a Power to do so. We have a new Principle of Life con­veyed into our Souls, and a fresh, and [Page 126]Heavenly, and almost a miraculous Power given to us, by which the Lame may walk, and the Lepers be cleansed; i. e. by which those who are Natu­rally Impotent may be enabled to do their Duty, and the greatest Sinners may be cured of their foulest Sins. All the Excuses which were more rea­sonable and plausible heretofore of the weakness and impotency of our Na­ture, of the strength and power of our Corruptions, of the necessity and unavoidableness of our sinful Actions, are now quite taken away by this Divine Grace and Assistance of the Holy Ghost which the Gospel pro­mises and bestowes upon us. By this the greatest Sin may be conquered, the strongest Lust and Temptation over­come, and the longest Habit and Cu­stom changed and broken, so that no Sinner should be discouraged from breaking off his Sins by Repentance, by reason of the difficulty or impossi­bility of it, since no Sin is too strong for the Grace of God, but we can in every thing be more than conquerours through him which strengtheneth us, and greater is he that is in us, than he that is in the world, than the Devil or any [Page 127]Sin that we shall be in danger of, which can never take such possession of any Soul, as not to be cast out by the Power and Spirit of Christ. How­ever hard it is to overcome a long Custom, and root out an ill Disposi­tion, and to restrain and check an un­bridled Lust and Appetite that has too long had the reins thrown upon its neck, yet a firm Resolution, streng­thened with the Divine Grace and Assistance of Heaven, will be able even to quicken and raise those who are dead in trespasses and sins, to create them again in Christ Jesus unto good works, and to renew them again unto Repentance, Heb. 6.6. That Lust which we thought was so violent that all the force of Reason could not stand against it, that Temptation which we called irresistible, that Custom and Habit which we imagined incurable, that Vice which we counted too hard for Flesh and Blood to deny, these may all be certainly, not to say easily, overcome by the Divine Grace, if we will make use of it. Let the greatest Sinner therefore, with the Power of Christ and the auxillary forces of Hea­ven, set upon his strongest Sins, let [Page 128]him but boldly and resolutely fall up­on them, and he shall find they will give ground, and in a little time their power will abate, and he will, by the help of God and his own constant en­deavours, obtain a full and a perfect victory over them. God will not in­deed, without our own endeavours and cooperation, do the whole work for us, nor will his Spirit work upon us, as if we were Machines, and had not internal powers and principles of action within our selves, by an irre­sistible force and impulse which shall do all this in an instant, and convert a Sinner in a moment. No, this must be done gradually and successively, by the bringing in of other thoughts, dispositions, inclinations and practices, by a kindly and gentle influence upon our Minds, the Spirit descending like rain, or shedding its Vertue like dew upon our Hearts, and so bringing forth the fruits of Repentance in us, not like a violent stream or a mighty torrent, bearing down all immediate­ly before it. The Spirit of God, which is compared in Scripture to the winds blowing, where we see the effects though we discern not the cause, does [Page 129]not by a sudden gust, like a hurricane, convert a Sinner, and turn him from his Sins, in such a manner as a tree is torn up by the roots with a violent tempest, but by a fresh and gentle gale it carries the Sinner from Vice to Vertue, by filling his Mind with new thoughts, and strongly moving and determining him the right way, and secretly inclining his Mind to choose, and his Understanding to see and con­sider what is his true Interest and Hap­piness, and by an inward energy and vertue, as a principle of Life, acts secretly and undiscernably upon all our Faculties, changing our thoughts, de­sires and affections, and working up­on our Minds, though in a way agree­able to our Rational Faculties, yet by a Power superiour and superadded to them.

And now let every Sinner consider what great Motives and Encourage­ments, and so what Obligations he hath to Repent by the Gospel, how powerfully and how endearingly, by Motives both of Love and Fear, Christ doth there call Sinners to Repentance. It was his great work, and for this purpose he came into the World, to [Page 130]recover lost and undone Mankind, and to rescue them from that state of Sin and Misery they were in, and to restore them to a state of Vertue and Happi­ness. This was a design worthy Christs coming into the World, and all the mysterious dispensation of Christianity.

7. And this is of such absolute necessity and importance to us, that 'tis impossible we can otherwise es­cape Misery, and not perish inevi­tably. God when he would show the greatest Mercy and Kindness to us in the World, and demonstrate his Love to us in the highest manner, as he hath done by the Gospel, yet hath there told us, that except we repent we shall all certainly perish, Luke 13.5. This is the perpetual and indispensa­ble condition, upon which alone we must expect any benefit by Christ and the Gospel, this is as low as God can go with us. Perfect and uninterrupt­ed Obedience all our lives is his due, and when we have broken that, and he compounds with us, and accepts of Partial and Renewed Obedience in­stead of Entire, i. e. of Repentance, and returning to our Duty instead of keeping alwayes to it; this is the ut­most [Page 131]favour can be expected from him or that he can grant to us, and Repent­ance is the only way by which it is possible for a Sinner to escape Wrath and Damnation. This I shall a little clear, and make out, and then per­swade to this Duty of Repentance from the absolute necessity of it.

1. Then, 'tis this alone can consist with the Wisdom and Honour of God, as he is Governour of the World. God as he is a Being of Infinite Good­ness and Compassion to his Creatures, so he is a very Wise and Prudent Go­vernour of the World, and therefore though, like a merciful Prince, out of the Goodness of his Nature, and the tender Inclinations he has for all his Subjects, he is ready to shew all Mer­cy and Clemency to those that have offended him, yet if he should do this too easily, without any security of their good behaviour for the future, or any care and provision for their bet­ter Obedience, it would not a little reflect upon the Wisdom of his Go­vernment, and represent him as too soft and easie a Being, and render his Authority in time cheap and contemp­tible. It would not only loosen the [Page 132]reins of Government, but be a letting them go out of his hands, and throw­ing them upon the necks of his inso­lent and rebellious Vassals, if without any tyes or obligations for the future, or letting them know upon what con­ditions they should be capable of his favour and continue in it, he should take off all the Punishment their past Crimes had deserved, this would be to encourage them to commit new ones, and give them just grounds to hope for an absolute and perpetual im­punity. Should God have granted by the Gospel, or any other way, such an Unconditional Charter of Mercy and Pardon, this would have certain­ly destroyed that very Power by which he granted it, and such a Privilege or Concession as it would greatly have reflected upon his Honour, so it would have quite undermined his Authority; it would have been a resigning up his Throne, and a laying his Crown at the feet of his own insolent Rebels. For what would have remain'd to him of Power to Govern or to Punish, if he had done this? If he had set out a standing Act of Grace and Mercy to all Sinners, without any Condition or [Page 133]Proviso that they turn from their Wickedness which they had commit­ted, that they should come in and lay down all their Hostile Weapons, and be Faithful and Loyal hereafter, or else be utterly uncapable of any bene­fit of it: Without this it had been rather a Dispensation, or Indulgence to be Wicked, than a wise Proclama­tion of Mercy to serve the true Ends and Interest of Government. God indeed has with great Wisdom and Goodness found out such a temper in his Government, and contrived such an expedient, as shews the most ad­mirable Wisdom and the most won­derful Mercy both together, and that is, for the sake and by the mediation of a Sacrifice to pardon, and yet to punish the Sinner, by the same way to give an instance of his Mercy and a remonstrance of his Justice; and the design of all that is to show, that though he is the most inclined to Mer­cy and Clemency, yet he will never show it but in such a way as is consi­stent with the Honour and Wisdom of his Government. He is willing to a­bate of his extream Right over his Creatures, and to take off the edge [Page 134]and severity of his Laws, so far as Prudence and the Wise Ends of Go­vernment will give leave, but not so far as shall give any manner of encou­ragement to Disobedience and Wick­edness, and that would be unavoid­able, if he should ever grant a Pardon to wicked Men upon any other condi­tion than turning away from their Wickedness

2. As 'tis this alone can consist with the Honour and Wisdom of God, as he is a wise Governour, so nothing but this can render us acceptable to him, as he is a truly Righteous and Holy Being. If we consider God as such, as a Being essentially holy, so that this is not only his Perfection but his very Nature, then it can never be imagined that he can have any love or kindness, or show any favour to a wicked Man, till he has turned away from his Wickedness. What is so contrary to himself he can never love, if he love himself, for he might by the same reason as well hate himself as love that. The love of God de­pends not upon any particular arbi­trary inclination, or unaccountable humour and fancy, as in weak Mor­tals, [Page 135]but it arises from his own Essen­tial Excellencies and Perfections, and is grounded upon a true and a lasting Principle, his own Nature rather than his Will: So that whilst God himself is unchangeably holy, he will alwayes love any Soul that is truly holy, and comes up to his original Holiness by such measures and proportions as its Nature will admit, but whilst the Mind continues wicked, it can never by any means in the World be recon­ciled to God, 'tis alienated from him, 'tis opposite to his Nature, and 'tis therefore the necessary object of his hatred and displeasure, or as the Scrip­ture speaks, An abomination to him. Sin is the only thing that God hates, and the only cause why he is angry and displeased with any of his Crea­tures, and as long as this remains there is an everlasting breach, and a perpe­tual ground and foundation of enmity between them, and not only Light and Darkness, but Heaven and Hell are more irreconcilable than a Righte­ous God and a Wicked Soul. All the Sacrifices that can be offered to atone and expiate for such an one, if it con­tinues such, were they never so rich, [Page 136]or never so many, can no more com­mend it to God, or make its peace with him, than all the Bribes and Pre­sents of the Indies could pervert a Just and Righteous Judge, or blind the eyes of Justice and Integrity it self. There can never be any other terms of Reconciliation between a Wicked Soul and a Righteous God, but only this, that it become Righteous, and till it do so, it can never become the object of Gods Love and Favour, unless he change his own Righteous Nature, and cease to be Righteous and Holy himself.

3. Without this we can never be freed from the Natural and Necessary Evils of Sin upon our Minds, where­by it will make us inwardly miserable till we are cured of them; for though we should suppose all the Political Evils, as I may call them, of Sin ta­ken away and removed, i. e. all that outward Mischief and Punishment which is to be inflicted upon it from the Arbitrary Will and Threatning of the sovereign Lawgiver, though he should out of tenderness and compas­sion, or for the sake of a Sacrifice or other Consideration, abate of that, [Page 137]and not execute the utmost Penalties, and those positive Severities that he had denounced against it, yet so many are the Natural Evils that are annex'd to it, that it would of it self make the Mind necessarily and inwardly mi­serable. This does not depend upon the Will of God as a Governour only, but as a Creator, as he hath setled and ordered the nature of things, and made it impossible they should ever be otherwise. Misery is so entailed to Sin by the fundamental constitution of things, that 'tis impossible ever to cut it off. It is as inseparable from, and as closely connected to it as effects are to their causes; and we may as well divorce Light from the Sun, or Heat from Fire, as Misery from Wicked­ness. It springs out of it Naturally, as a foul stream from such a corrupt fountain, growes upon it as the pro­per and bitter fruit from such a poy­sonous root, and Sin as a true Parent has the seeds of all Evil in its own bowels. A Mind that is over-run with Vice will as necessarily be corrupted, and weakened, and vitiated, as the Body is decayed and impaired by a Disease. The one will as necessarily put the [Page 138]Mind out of order, as Sickness does the other; and till it be cured and made sound, it will alwayes be in pain and uneasie. Its Faculties will necessarily be weakened and impaired, and disordered by it, and so lose their true and proper happiness; and it will be put into an unnatural frame and temper, and be like the Body when its Limbs are out of joynt, in great torture till it be set right again. God must alter his own Nature, and the Nature of things too, or else Vice and Wickedness, whilst 'tis continued in, will make the Mind miserable, sickly and uneasie, and fill it with restlesness and disquietude, and make it a torment and vexation to it self.

4. Without Repentance, and being freed from our Sins, we can never be capable of partaking or enjoying any true and positive Happiness, much less that great and eternal one in Hea­ve. Happiness must be something within our selves, like Health, it consists in the right crasis and constitution of the Mind, in the strength, and vi­gour, and regular operation of all its Faculties. Till it be put into this state by Repentance and Vertue, 'tis unca­pable [Page 139]of enjoying any true Happiness. Our Vices must therefore be first cured and purged out, or else our Souls will be as uncapable of enjoying their pro­per spiritual and rational pleasures, with their Sins, and wicked Habits and Dispositions upon them, as our Bodies of enjoying their animal and sen­sual ones witha Lethargy or Apoplexy, or whatever destroys their proper strength, sense and perception. Without Holy Minds, and Vertuous Dispositi­ons, and Heavenly Affections and In­clinations, as we can no way hope for Heaven, so we are no way fitted or qualified for it, and therefore our Minds must necessarily be disposed and prepared for that by Repentance and previous habits of Vertue, and such a divine temper and holiness of Mind, as can alone make us meet to be parta­kers of the inheritance of the Saints in light, as St. Paul speaks, Coloss. 1.12. without which we should no more en­joy Heaven than a blind Man enjoyes the light of the Sun, whose Organs are spoil'd and vitiated, and who wants the use of those Senses and Faculties by which he should perceive it. So that if a Sinner should be sent to Hea­ven [Page 140]with all his unrepented Sins, un­mortified Lusts and vitious Inclinati­ons, and without that love of God and Goodness which is to fit him for it, he would be not only like him which came to the Marriage-feast without a Wedding-garment, who must be turned out of that company he was so unfit for, but like one that had the greatest dainties set before him, but that was sick, and had no stomach, and so could not taste or relish any of them. Till the Mind is brought to love God, and delight in him, and in all the actions of Vertue and exercises of Religion, it canot be happy in Heaven, but that would rather be unagreeable and an aversion to it, than an Happiness. Till a Sin­ner therefore be brought off from his Sins by Repentance, and restored to a vertuous, and holy, and good Mind, he cannot enjoy Heaven or Happi­ness, nor be freed from Sin and Misery, nor can a Holy and Wise God be re­conciled to him, or forgive him.

Upon all these accounts we see his Repentance is absolutely necessary to entitle him to Pardon and Salvati­on, and without this he must certain­ly [Page 141]and unavoidably perish. Now,

8. This absolute necessity of it is a strong and powerful Argument to per­swade us to it. Whilst Men have any hopes of escaping with their Sins, this with the pleasures and temptations of them will encourage them to persist in them, and to enjoy their Lusts and their Liberties which they have made very hard and uneasie to deny themselves, but when they find they must either do this, or else necessarily perish for ever; this, if any thing, will prevail upon Men who believe and consider the dreadful horrour of Everlasting Damnation. Now the absolute ne­cessity of Repentance is as plain by the Gospel, as the power and validity of it. We are as much assured that with­out it we shall be damned, as we shall be saved with it. Now this above all commends a Medicine to us, that it will cure us if we use it, but that we shall dye if we do not; however bitter and unpalatable it may be, how­ever it may disorder us while it is working upon us, and however pain­ful the operation may be, yet if we must lose our Lives without it, this will make us choose and endure it, [Page 142]and go through with it. Though we must cut off a Right-hand, yet if the Gangrene will kill us if we do not, we shall submit to it. Though it be very painful to part with our Lusts and our beloved Sins, yet since we must be damned if we do not, this will bring us to it. If a Man must sink unless he throwes away his rich­est lading, and discharges himself of his weighty treasure, he will lose that rather than his Life; and if he be not mad, he will for the same reason, cast away his Sins rather than his Soul. No Man disputes this when he is brought into such a necessity, such a strait and exigency as to be thus tryed. Now Christ has by the Gospel put this necessity upon us, either Repent and leave your Sins, or perish with them. There is no avoiding this, no possibility to prevent it any way, and therefore when there is but one thing to be done, and such a necessity for doing it, one would think it should do it self; but this is a necessity of Reason, of Choice, of Thought, of Deliberation, that requires our Minds to think of it and consider it, or else it will not work upon us; and there­fore [Page 143]we can throw off the force and power of it by not thinking, or not considering of it; but if we did as we ought, duly consider of it, it would have an irresistible force and power upon us, and no Man could hinder the effect of it; but he that will shut his eyes and not see a precipice may fall down it, and the greatest necessity of avoiding any danger is took off by not heeding, or not being sensible of it, though it be never the less great in it self for all that, and the necessity would work upon any but those who are heedless and inconsiderate.

Sad is the state and condition of those under the Gospel, who live in a state of Sin and Impenitence, or in the habit of any unrepented Sin, they are under as absolute a sentence of condemnation, as if the great Judge had pronounced it upon them, and bid them, Go ye cursed. Whilst they continue such, there is no more hopes of Mercy for them than for the damned themselves. Their state indeed is not as unalter­able as the others is, and this is the only difference, for they are otherwise as much Children of Wrath as they: They are not bound in chains of dark­ness, [Page 144]nor confined to this state by an irreversible Judgment, but they are fettered to their Sins, and to their state by their own choice, and till they break those bonds, and get free from them, they can never come out of that sad condition; which should make every impenitent Sinner tremble, and seriously bethink himself what a sad state and condition he is in, what a doom hangs over his head, and how near his steps take hold of Death, how he walks upon the brink of Hell and Damnation, and the least fatal accident, or sudden death, does irre­coverably throw him in without Re­demption, which should make his Heart tremble, and his Blood chill, and his Hair stand an end, if he con­sidered it as he ought. Let him there­fore resolve to snatch himself out of the fire, and speedily recover himself from the jaws of Death; Repentance alone can do this, and this he should set about immediately, and be per­swaded to it by those powerful Mo­tives and Arguments which the Gospel and Christianity proposes, and which I have from thence offered to him.

I shall subjoyn to these another Mo­tive or Exhortation to Repentance, which I cannot call so properly Evan­gelical and peculiar to the Gospel, but what arises from both Nature and Reason, and some Gospel Con­siderations mixt together, and com­plicated with those, and that is the Consideration of Death, and our be­ing made ready and prepared for it by Repentance, and therefore that no­thing else can free us from the fears and terrors of it.

SECT. VI. Exhortation to Repentance as a Prepa­ration for Death, or in order to make us ready to dye.

THE last Motive then I shall pro­pose to Repentance is this, that nothing else can prepare and make us ready and fit to dye, and therefore no­thing else can take off the fear and terror of Death, to which in all rea­son we must otherwise be exposed, and so all our life time subject to bondage, as the Scripture speaks. Dye we know we must in a little while, and there [Page 146]is none so foolishly Sceptical as to de­ny or disbelieve this, and to hope to escape the Grave where he has seen all his Fore-fathers laid before him, and which is the common lot or fate of every Mortal. There is nothing there­fore more concerns us while we live, than to be alwayes ready and prepa­red to dye, this should be our great work and business, if we considered the true end of living, or understood the mighty consequence of dying, as Religion represents them both to us; and he that is not so foolish as to think he shall never dye, should above all things take care so to live that he may be alwayes ready to dye; and of the two, 'tis a greater folly to think we shall dye, and not prepare for it, than to think we shall not dye at all. This it is then which a wise Man is con­cerned to do all his Life, to be ready and prepared for Death, which he knows will certainly come, and be­cause it is uncertain when it will come, therefore to be alwayes ready, and alwayes provided for it. There is so much danger and hazard not to do this, and the folly of it is so visible, and so amazing, that no Man of com­mon [Page 147]Prudence, no Man in his wits, one would think, should neglect to do it: 'Tis so important, so weighty, so absolutely necessary a Duty, that our Saviour most earnestly presses it in several Discourses, and proposes it in two or three Parables, that it may make a more strong and lively impres­sion upon our Minds. In the Parable of the wise and foolish Virgins, Mat. 25. at the beginning, where the com­ing of the Son of Man is compared to the unexpected coming of the Bride­groom at midnight, ver. 6. in others to a Masters surprizing his Servants unaware at the second or third watch, Luke 12.38. Matth. 24. at the latter end, and in both the Evangelists, to a Thief stealing upon a Man at an un­known and uncertain hour of the night: The design of all which is to press this great Duty upon us of be­ing alwayes watchful, and alwayes doing our Duty, and alwayes prepa­red for our Lords coming: This is the Inference which Christ draws from all those Parables and Discourses; Be ye therefore ready, for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not, Luke 12.40. Christ often calls him­self [Page 148]the Son of Man, and as such he is to be our Judge, and as a Judge he is said to come when ever he passes Judgment upon us, and therefore St. James represents the nearness of his Judgment by that phrase, Behold the judge standeth before the door, Jam. 5.9. and his executing Judgment and Destruction upon Jerusalem was called his coming, Matth. 24.3. And as his final publick Judgment of all the World at the last day is called his coming, 1 Cor. 15.23. and several times in that Chapter of St. Matthew, so his private Judging of us at our Death is his coming also meant by these several Parables, and for that coming of his we ought to be always ready; i. e. always prepared for dy­ing. Here I shall show,

• I. That this Readiness or Prepara­tion consists only in Repentance, and a holy Life as the fruit and perfection of it.
• II. The great obligations we have to be alwayes thus ready and prepared for Death.

I. This Readiness or Preparation for Death, consists only in Repentance and a good Life as the fruit of it: For nothing else can fit us to dye, but to Repent and live well, neither can there be any other readiness and pre­paration for Death but only that. For we must not imagine that we can be ready on a sudden; and that though we were utterly unprepared before, that at a few days or hours warning we can make our selves ready and fit to dye: No, our whole Life, at least a considerable part of it, is to be spent in making our selves ready; for we must not think that our Souls can, like our Bodies, be drest in a few mo­ments, or that we can be fit to meet the Bridegroom when he calls us in hast, and on a sudden. Vertuous ha­bits are not put on in a moment, nor can vitious ones be so easily and quick­ly cast off as our cloaths are; no, ra­ther like Diseases that are chronical, and have by long time been growing upon us, they require long time, and great care, and much pains, and ma­ny remedies, and a timely course be­fore they can be cured and got off, and before we can be well, and so ready [Page 150]to meet the Lord. 'Tis not a few pe­nitential tears upon a Death-bed will wash away the filth of a wicked Life, or cleanse a guilty and polluted Soul that has been many years contracting an habitual uncleanness, whose Sins stick to it like an old Leprosie, and have eat like rust or a canker into the very heart and substance of it, and yet they must be all got out by Re­pentance, and the Soul must be made sound and clear, and recover it self into a vertuous and good habit before it can be ready for another World, and duly prepared for a Future State. Indeed there is a great difference to be made according to the past course of Mens lives; there may be a great many such happy Souls, who by a ve­ry careful Education, and the good Example of their Parents and others, and by a Vertuous disposition and in­clination in themselves, and above all, by the Grace and Providence of God, have been alwayes kept from great and mortal Sins, and so never fell into a bad and damnable state all their lives, but were alwayes vertuous and inno­cent as to any such offences as should forfeit and endanger their Salvation [Page 151]by the terms of the Gospel and the Covenant of Grace; without that we were all in a damnable state, and the Scripture hath concluded all under sin without that, Gal. 3.22. For we have all sinned, and come short of the glory of God, and of that strict and exact Obedience which we owe to the Law of God, so that if he should en­ter into Judgment with us, and be se­vere and rigorous in demanding his utmost right over us, we could not contend with him, nor answer him one of a thousand, as Job sayes, Job 9.3. and no Man can upon these terms be just with God, as he there sayes: for so in his sight shall no man living be ju­stified, Psal. 143.2. but by the Grace and Mercy of the Gospel, according to which God will now deal with Mankind, many, I doubt not, have been so justified, that through their whole lives they never were in a state of Damnation, for nothing puts us into that under Christianity, but a great, and known, and wilful Sin, or rather a course and habit of such Sins: and though no Man liveth without Sin, that is, without some Frailties and Imperfections, and lesser Sins, [Page 152]which come not up to the perfection of the Divine Law, for which he ought to beg pardon, and say, God forgive us our trespasses, yet God for­bid that those should put us into an ill state, for then no Man in the World would be ever out of it: But oh thrice happy are those Souls who have not defiled themselves with any great and damnable Sins, who have alwayes kept to their first Love, and preserved their first Vertue unstained and unspotted, and have been so trained up in the wayes of Re­ligion and Goodness, that they never wandered or went astray from them, nor never stept into the paths of wil­ful Sin, so that their steps should at any time take hold of Death; who never past out of that line which di­vides the two states of Grace and Damnation, nor ever approached so near to the brink of Hell as to be in danger of falling into it. These have reason to give thanks to God all their lives, who has thus kept them out of the snare of the Devil, and secured them from the jawes of Death and Destruction; and whilst they per­severe and go on in this good state [Page 153]and condition, and pass from strength to strength, and from one degree of grace to another, and grow up in all manner of Grace and Goodness, tho' they have not already attained, neither are already perfect, as the Apostle speaks of himself, Phil. 3.12. yet they are alwayes safe, and alwayes ready for the coming of the Son of Man, and their whole Life is a most sure, a most comfortable preparation for Death.

But these are very few I doubt, not only to the general number of Man­kind, but even to good Men; for most of the good Men we read of in Scripture were, some time or other, guilty of great and wilful Faults, as Noah, and Abraham, and David, and St. Peter, and St. Paul, and Mary Magdalene, and whilst they were so, and before they had recovered them­selves by Repentance, I cannot but think them in a bad state; for Mens states are not fixt and certain in this Life, but are alterable and changed according to their outward actions, and the inward temper of their Minds, and when ever a wilful and a known Sin breaks the course of Vertue, and [Page 154]destroys the habit of Goodness in their Souls, it breaks their good state, and destroys their comfortable condition; As when a Disease strikes the Vitals of our Body, and overcomes the Strength and Health of our Consti­tution, unless we get it off it will cer­tainly bring Death along with it. God indeed has prescribed us a certain Re­medy, and an infallible Cure for all Mortal Sins, and the greatest Spiri­tual Maladies and Diseases that would otherwise destroy us, and bring Death upon us, and that is Repentance, which for the sake of Christ and his Merits, and by the Mercy and Pro­mise of God shall recover us out of that miserable and mortal state into which every wilful Sin had cast us. This shall set us right again in the Court of Heaven, where we were cast and condemned before, and this shall bring us to a state of Life and Grace, who were before struck with the sentence of Death. And blessed be God who has thus graciously pro­vided for poor, and otherwise lost Sin­ners by Jesus Christ! But Repent­ance, alas, though it be a sure Re­medy, yet is not so easie a one as we [Page 155]imagine; 'tis a very bitter dose that must not only go down very unplea­santly, but must work strongly and powerfully upon our Minds, it must not only make us sick, and sorrowful, contrite and troubled at the very Heart for every Transgression, but it must purge out of our Souls every Sin, and carry off every vile Lust and wick­ed Inclination. It must not only work upon the peccant humours, and so put the Soul into great trouble and disorder, but it must perfectly heal and cure it, and to do that it must take away the root of the disease, it must search to the bottom of the Heart, it must touch us to the quick in the tenderest part of us, in the most darling Sin, and most beloved Lust, and it must cut and launce so deep that no secret corruption remain with­in, and no fomes Morbi be left behind. In a word, it must perfectly cure the Soul, and whatever disease it labour­ed under, it must quite remove it, so that it never return again upon it; for 'tis but a palliating, a counterfeit or an imperfect cure till this be done: And till the Mind be perfectly resto­red, and amended, and made better, [Page 156]it has not truly repented; and there­fore the Scripture requires in Repent­ance, not only a broken Heart, which is the most significant phrase in the World for the deepest trouble of Mind for our past Sins, but it requires a new Heart, and a new Soul, and a new Crea­ture, and a new Man, to make up true Repentance; and not only that we be renewed in the Spirit of our Minds, but that we bring forth fruits worthy of Repentance, and that we turn from every evil way, and leave and forsake every Sin that we have ever been guilty of, as I have more largely shown before. We must do all this before we can be said truly to Repent, and before we can have any good grounds to expect Pardon of any wil­ful Sin we ever committed in our whole lives, we must thus Repent of it: And though we are as sure of for­giveness if we do so, as if we had ne­ver committed it, which is the great­est favour in the World, yet how will a poor penitent be alwayes afraid that he has not been sufficiently sorrowful, and fully repented of his Sins; how will his former Guilt affright him, when it stares him in the face; and [Page 157]how will the sad load of all his Sins lye heavy upon his Conscience when he is brought to a due sense of them; and how must he be contented to lose a great deal of that comfort in his Mind here, though he may be safe hereafter; and though his Repentance may put him into a good condition, yet it will make his Heart sorrowful, and the remembrance of his Sins will make it often bleed afresh within him. And when he looks back upon his past danger he must tremble at it, tho' he has reason to hope he has escaped it, and it must keep him alwayes humble, and not over-confident of himself; and though he has his Par­don in his hand, yet he must still look upon it with tears in his eyes. No­thing can truly satisfie a Man that he has repented of his Sins, but that he has left them out of Religious Grounds and Principles, and has had so much tryal of himself, as to know he would not commit them, though he were in the same circumstances and temptati­ons that he was in before. And thus when a bad Man is become a good one, when he that was careless and irreligious is become pious and devout, [Page 158]when he that was vitious and de­bauch'd is become sober and vertuous, when he that was unjust becomes just and righteous, and besides restitution for all past injustice, would not com­mit one act of it to gain all the World, when he that stole steals no more, and he that was given to drunkenness or uncleanness, or any other Sin, whol­ly leaves and forsakes it, and is brought by Religion to be quite another Man than he was before, then, and not till then, is his Repentance such as may make him hope for Pardon when he lives, and prepare him to dye with comfort. For to proceed a little fur­ther in this great concern, to make a Soul fit and ready for its immediate en­tering upon another state, it must have these two qualifications at that time.

1. It must be thoroughly purged from every Vitious Habit, or else it is neither meet to be partaker of the inhe­ritance of the Saints in light, nor ca­pable of the Pure, and Spiritual, and Heavenly Happiness. As the Tree falls, so it lyes, sayes the Wise Man, Ecclesiastes 11.3. And the same ha­bit and temper, as to the main, which the Soul carries out of this World, [Page 159]will abide with it in the other. If any one habitual Wickedness remain upon it, or the love of any one Sin be so rooted in it, that if it lived here it would not be brought off from it, that will ruine it, and make it mise­rable for ever; for if we love any one Sin more than Heaven, we must be contented to lose and part with Hea­ven for it; and if any Lust or Vitious Inclination be so dear to us, that we are not willing to give it up for the sake of Happiness, we give up our Happiness for the sake of that, for they two are so inconsistent, that we cannot keep both. Let not therefore any Sin remain unmortified in thy Soul, if thou wouldst put thy self into such a readiness and disposition, as shall fit thee to enter upon a happy Future State. And,

2. Let all Vertuous Habits, and Religious Dispositions of Mind be then excited, and exercised, and in­creased to the highest perfection. 'Tis these will fit our Souls for Heaven, and be the true Wedding garment for the Marriage-feast, and 'tis these are meant by that expression in the Para­ble, of having our Lamps burning, in [Page 160]order to our waiting for the coming of the Bridegroom. Let our Devo­tion therefore be then kindled into the highest flame and ardour, and our Souls expire and ascend up in it to the Regions above. Let us raise our Minds to the highest love of God, and of our Blessed Saviour, and let our Souls be ravished with the thoughts of their wonderful love and kindness to us. Let us look up to Heaven, and to those joyes which God has there prepared for us, and let us desire, as soon as God pleases, to be translated to them. Let us look down upon this World with mean and despicable thoughts, and let us consider what a poor, and a miserable place it is, and be very willing to part with it; and let us exercise all Faith, and Hope, and Trust, and Confidence, in our Faithful Creator and Merciful Re­deemer and be willing to throw our selves wholly and chearfully upon them, and to trust them with out Souls when they are going into an un­known place, and to the invisible Hades. When we believe our Lord is near, and coming in a few minutes, thus should we wait for him, with our [Page 161] Loyns girded up, and our Lamps burn­ing, as our Saviours expression is, and our Minds put into such a Religious frame and disposition that we may be as like Heaven as we can, and our Souls may be ready to go in with the Bridegroom, and to be admitted to the Marriage-feast of the Lamb for evermore. We must not think that these Habits and Religious Dispositi­ons of Mind are to be got on a sudden, but we must bring our Minds to them by previous Acts, and long Prepara­tions, and frequent Exercises before­hand, and habituate our selves to these Divine and Religious Duties and Exer­cises, or else we shall find, like the foolish Virgins, that we want Oyl, and have nothing in our Souls that should feed, and nourish, and kindle, and maintain these Heavenly Habits and Dispositions, which are the imme­diate readiness of our Minds. But to give the plainest advice I can, in so important a matter, I shall propose two easie Directions, which I would have every one observe that would make himself the most ready for Death, and the coming of the Son of Man.

The 1st is, To be doing all the good we can to promote the Honour of God, and the Welfare of Men; to be as the Parable represents it, Mat. 24. at the latter end, doing earnestly the business of our Lord, and taking all the care we can of his Family, and giving them their meat in due season, and discharging all that trust faithfully and diligently which our Lord hath committed to us, and not smiting our fellow servants, or doing any the least injury to others, or eating and drinking with the drunken, and living carelesly and idly, as the evil Servant is said to do, Who put away the thoughts of his Lords coming, ver. 48. Those who do that are apt to be negligent and wicked, but he that is alwayes watchful, and alwayes wait­ing for the Lords coming, as the Pa­rable describes the good Servant, will be faithful and diligent in performing every Duty, and every Office that his Lord requires of him, and will be con­triving and designing to do all the good he can to please his Lord, and purchase his Favour; for he knows that an idle Servant shall be punished as well as a wicked one, and that the omission of a necessary Duty, commanded us by [Page 163]our Lord, will be as much charged upon us as the commission of any thing that he has forbidden us: He will therefore be careful and diligent to do all his Masters Commands, to fulfil all his Will, to help and relieve his fellow-servants, and do all the good he can in his Masters Family, encourage others to do their Duty, exhort, advise, reprove and admonish them, and prepare them, as well as himself, for his Lords coming, and Blessed is that servant, who when his Lord cometh he shall find thus doing, and thus employed. But,

2. He that will be thus ready must never allow himself in any Sin, or in the doing of any thing that he knows is unlawful, and forbidden by his Lord; for if his Lord cometh and findeth him in that, He shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites, there shall be weep­ing and gnashing of teeth, Mat. 24.51. There is no hopes for him if he be thus surprized in his Wickedness, and Death overtake him in the midst of his Sin, like the revenger of Blood, before he can get into any City of Refuge. He that ventures upon a [Page 164]wilful Sin, ventures upon the very brinks of Hell and Damnation, and if a sudden Death turn him over, he falls in irrecoverably; and at best he that suffers himself to live in a bad state, i. e. in a course of Sin, hangs over the bottomless Pit by no other hold but the weak and brittle thread of Life, and if that break, or be cut asunder, he drops into that dreadful place of horrors. No Man therefore who is master of his Wits, and knows he is not master of his Life, should dare to live one moment in so much peril, ex­posed to such danger and hazard, and venture his Soul and his last stake up­on so ticklish a cast as this uncertain Life is: But he should instantly, whilst he has this thought offer'd to his Mind, catch himself out of the Fire, out of the Eternal Flames of Hell, into which, so far as he knows, he may be just a falling; for they sur­round him, and are ready to lay hold upon him as long as he continues in his Sins, and the gulph is open and ready to suck him in, and swallow him up, till he plunges out, and re­scues himself by a speedy Repentance. Let no Man then make one hours, one [Page 165]minutes delay, who knows not how few hours or minutes he may have.

II. For in the next place to give some Reasons why we should be thus ready: Who knows at what hour the Son of Man cometh? Who that is un­prepared knows what time he shall have to prepare himself? Who can tell whether the next moment shall be his own, and how little time he may have for so great a work? And who would loyter any part of his time, who knows how much that work will take up; for 'tis not a few spare hours, or dying minutes, will put the Soul into a readiness, will change its tem­per, and purge out its Sins, and dis­pose and fit it for another World? And who can set back Death but a few hours when it gives a short warn­ing, and is ready to strike us; or per­haps without any warning seizes and hurries us to the other World. It is every day making up to us, and ap­proaches nearer us every hour, and with quick and undiscerned steps it dogs and follows us, and may over­take us before we are aware of it. A sudden Feaver may set the strongest [Page 166]Body on fire, and presently flare out the Lamp of Life. A Convulsion may seize in a moment the main fort of Life, and surprize us in our greatest strength. An Apoplexy or a Deliquium may stop the nimble wheels of Life that moved vigorously and strongly just before, and make all the Vital Faculties stand still immediately. Besides a thousand accidents from without, make us in the midst of Life to be in Death, so that we can never be secure, but we may be a dying, and every time we expire, it may be, so far as we know, our last breath. Who would not be then ready who may thus be called on a sudden, who may have the Son of Man come in an hour when he thinketh not. Come he certainly will, but we cannot tell whether in the third or fourth watch of the night; let us then watch the whole night, that is, be ready alwayes. If we knew the time of his coming we might be careless, and sleep, and drowze perhaps till he was near us, but since we are alwayes to expect him at an uncertain hour, let us put our selves into a posture and readiness to receive him at his own time. We can never be ready too [Page 167]soon though he come late, but if we are too late before we are ready, we lose an opportunity we can never re­gain, and we slip that time which we shall bewail to all Eternity. Let us think,

2. Upon the certainty of his com­ing. If there were any hopes that he would never come, if there were any probability that we should never dye, if any Man could be so foolish as to perswade himself to doubt of that, he might have some reason to neglect the other, but no Man can be Sceptical as to that point, nor be so vain as to dispute himself out of the belief of it, but he knows and is convinced of that fatal Truth, that he must once dye, and be laid in the same place of dark­ness where he has seen so many others laid before him; why should he not then prepare and provide for that which will dertainly happen? it can never be in vain or to no purpose to do this; it can be no lost labour, no unnecessary work, but all must con­fess it ought to be done one time or other. Why do we not then do that which we own to be necessary? Why that it is indeed, sayes the foolish [Page 168]Sinner, but it may be done hereafter, and at a more convenient season! Would you not think a Man mad that should talk thus when he was in dan­ger of drowning, and would not take hold of the rope was thrown out to him till his last and third rising, but let go what he had in his hand in hope to catch it again afterwards? or he that was like to fall down a precipice, and would not save himself when he might, but trust to a twig that was near the bottom? He deserves to perish that will not be willing to be saved till he is just perishing. And he that allowes himself to live in a sinful state at pre­sent, with hopes to get out of it here­after, is but like him that stabs himself with a design of being cured, or swal­lows down a deadly Poyson upon pre­sumption of taking an Antidote after he has done it; the one is certainly strong enough to kill him, and the other may not be strong enough to save him, or he may be dead before he can take it. Mens resolutions to Re­pent hereafter are alwayes insincere, for if they were not they would Re­pent at present: And besides what a sad state are they in till they do this; [Page 169]they are like Prisoners lying under a sentence of Death and Condemnation, who hope to procure a Pardon, but will not endeavour to do it till they are called to Execution, and it be too late. Their unrepented Sins do put them into as damnable a state as if Heaven had past sentence upon them, and though they know this yet they are willing to continue so till their state is desperate, and they are never like to be otherwise. For he has no reason to think he shall be ever ready, who is not willing to make himself ready at present. Let us not there­fore delay one minute this great work of Repentance, but let us set about it immediately, and resolve to go through with it, and to live in such a constant habit and practice of Re­pentance, and a good Life, as shall make us duly ready and prepared to dye. For,

3. Let's consider how terrible Death must be to a wicked impenitent Sin­ner, and what concern he will be in at the approach of it, when he must leave all the pleasures of his Sins, and the remembrance of them fills him only with terrour and astonishment, [Page 170]when all their false charms and mere­tricious looks, whereby they before pleased and enchanted him, go off, and they now look gastly and frightful, and stare him in the face with a scaring ap­pearance, and with the sad apprehensions of what they are like to end in; when a dreadful Eternity presents it self be­fore him, and is like to swallow him up in an horrid abyss of Misery, when he comes so nigh to the other World that he can look as it were over to it, and see the sad reception he is like to have there, when he sees Hell open before him, the bottomless Pit gaping to receive him, and some of the Flames of it flashing as it were out upon him; when Death like an Executioner comes to seize and apprehend him, and hur­ry him before the dreadful Tribunal, where all his past Actions must be ex­amined, all his secret Sins laid open, and a dreadful Sentence shall be im­mediately pronounced upon him. The thoughts of this is enough to make a good Man afraid, and the best of us must tremble when we come before this Judgment-seat, and are to have our everlasting Fates decreed and de­termined, but the Wicked must be [Page 171]filled with terrour and amazement, who can have no hopes, no refuge to fly to, who has no plea for any Mercy or Pardon, nor no excuse to make for himself, who has neglected and de­spised all the means of Grace that were offered to him, and who would not be perswaded to any true Repent­ance before it was too late, and there­fore he must now Repent in vain for ever. Who can express the bitter thoughts, the fears, the horrours, the agonies of such a Soul at that time? and who would ever feel them, who has now power and opportunity to a­void them? Death carries something of terrour in it to all Men, as it is a punishment of Sin, and a dark passage to the unknown Regions that are be­low, and it may be either great pre­sumption or great stupidity to have no Fear of it. A good Man may not overcome all the Natural Fear of Death, but the wicked has all rea­son to be scared and terrified with it, when it comes near him, or he thinks of it.

I shall therefore in the last place consider the Terrour of Death, and how we are only freed from this by [Page 172]Repentance and Religion, by the hopes and assurances of Christianity, and our having sincerely Repented of all our Sins, and so as I have shown, fitted and prepared our selves thereby for Death.

SECT. VII. Of the Fear of Death, and how we are delivered from it by Repentance and Religion.

THere is no Natural Evil so great as Death, the King of Terrors, and the chief of those dreadful things that Humane Nature is afraid of. Skin for skin, and all that a man hath will he give for his life, Job 2.4. He is willing to part with every thing that he may compound with it; nay what will not he not give to purchase a short reprieve from Death and the Grave? that he may but set them back a while, and gain a little more time to live. How is the poor Man willing to endure any thing, to linger out a miserable Life a little longer, though in the midst of pains, and aches, and greater torments of Body perhaps then he would feel [Page 173]in Death it self. How patiently will he submit to the most tedious penance, and severest discipline that his Physi­cian shall lay upon him, and swallow down the most loathsome and bitter draughts, that the more bitter cup of Death may pass from him. How will he endure the utmost cruelties of Sur­gery, and bear a living Martyrdom rather than dye, have his Body burnt and scarified, his Flesh cut and man­gled to the Bone, his Limbs cut off or sawn asunder, that so he may dye by piece-meals, and out-live some part of himself, and escape out of the hands of Death, though it be never so nar­rowly, and run away from it though he leave a Leg or an Arm behind him. This shows how Natural the love of Life is, and how willing most Men are to preserve and purchase it at any rate, and with what abhorrence they look at Death, and how it frights and startles them when it comes near them; when they behold its pale look, and its terrible visage, and see the ghastly mon­ster laying hands on them, and ready to lay them prostrate at its feet, how does it then appalle and terrifie them, and make their Blood chill, and their [Page 174]Spirits cold and clammy, and their Hearts dye within them, when they think how their once brisk and spright­ly bodies, that have been long enjoy­ing all the sweet Pleasures of Life and Sense, shall in a moments time be de­prived of all those, and become only a heavy clod, and a cold and senseless lump of Flesh, laid out upon its once warm Bed, and then lock'd up in its little Cabin, and so laid in the proper place of Rottenness and Putrefaction, where it is to molder into Dust, and to be as clean forgotten in a little time as if it had never been. This is a ve­ry mortifying, and a very melancholly Consideration to most Men, and when they consider that in a little time this must certainly be their own case, and their own fatal condition, this must keep them in perpetual fear and bon­dage; if there were no provision a­gainst this Natural Fear of Death, if Religion did not afford us some helps and assistances against it, and there were not something to take off, and abate its Natural Terrour, and to sup­port, and strengthen, and encourage the Mind of a good Man against it. Death as it is the Punishment of Sin, [Page 175]and was for that end ordained by God, and brought into the World, for by sin entered death, as the Apostle sayes, Rom. 1.12. carries some marks of his Anger, and so must necessarily have some degree of Fear accompany it; but Christ who was to deliver Man­kind from the greatest Punishments which our first Parents drew upon themselves and their Posterity by their Transgressions, and was to free us from the saddest effects of theirs and our own Sins, he has, tho' not quite, taken away this Punishment, no more than he has the other temporal ones occasioned by the Fall, for we must still dye, and still have some fear of Death, yet the worst effects of Death, and for which it was most to be dread­ed, those Christ has delivered us from; and it was one great reason why he became a Man, and why he took part of the same flesh and blood of which we are partakers, and which makes us subject to Death, That through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the Devil, and deli­ver them who through fear of death were all their life time subject to bondage, as the divine Author of the Epistle to [Page 176]the Hebrews assures us, Heb. 2.15. Now the wayes by which Christ and Christianity do this, are chiefly these two;

• I. By assuring us of another Life.
• II. By taking away the sting of Death which is Sin upon our true Repentance. I shall,

1. Show this. Then,

2. Enquire whether a true Penitent and good Man ought to have no Fear of Death.

3. Give some Directions about thus overcoming the Fear of Death, that so we may not be too much terrified with it when it approaches.

I. Christ and Christianity free us from the Fears of Death, by assu­ring us of another Life, and of a Glorious Immortality after Death. Death would be very terrible indeed, if it took away our Being, and made an end of us when it came and put us into a state of Annihilation. If the Grave were to swallow us up, and we were to pass into the dark abyss of Non-Entity when we went out of the World. If when we expired our last [Page 177]Breath, our Souls were to pass with it into the soft Air, and we were to be no more after we went off the stage of this World. Nothing can be so close, so desirable as our being, which is the foundation of all Happiness and Enjoyment to us, which some have thought so considerable that they have supposed it more eligible to be miserable than not to be at all, though I can by no means be of their mind, and think being only in order to be miserable, to be no desirable thing, if the Misery be greater than the Com­fort of being, and bare existence is a very thin evanid, abstracted thing to be compared with solid and substantial Misery, but the closest Principles of Self-love and Self-preservation, must make us very unwilling to part with our Beings, and all the Pleasures and Enjoyments that belong to them; and therefore if we were to resign up those by Death, it would be very terrible: And how could we be sure we did not, if we had not firm and certain grounds of another Life after this, or if we had nothing but the uncertain guesses and conjectures of it from Na­tural Light. Most Men indeed had [Page 178]some dark intimations of this from thence, and did either hope or fear there might be such a thing rather than believe it. But now Christ hath brought Life and immortality to light through the Gospel, 2 Tim. 1.10. He hath utterly dispelled that cloud which kept those of this World from seeing into another, and hath clearly and ma­nifestly revealed to us the certainty of another and an Immortal State, and by his Resurrection from the Dead and Ascension into Heaven, given vi­sible and ocular demonstration of it. And how should this take off the Fear of Death, when we are sure of ano­ther Life after it, when 'tis only a passage to another and a better World too, if it be not through our own fault, if we are not unprepared and unfitted for it? if we are, then indeed this is no great Comfort to us, but we might wish that Death would put an end to our Being; but if we have Repented us of all our Sins, and are truly prepared for Death, this should much lessen and abate the Fear of it; when though we may be a little un­willing to leave our old State and Cir­cumstances, our old Dwelling and [Page 179]Habitation, our old Friends and Ac­quaintance, and to go into a new and unknown place, yet we are sure in the general, that we shall be much better provided for, and in a much better condition than we are here; and tho' the passage seems to us rough and dangerous, and we are loth to leave the shore, and to launch into the migh­ty deep of Eternity, yet this is a sort of Childish fondness in us to what we have been used to, and like the hu­mour of him that would not leave his poor and pitiful Cottage that he has alwayes lived in, though he were to go and take possession of a Kingdom in another Country. Do not Man­kind that have more Wisdom and a larger Spirit, willingly leave their own Native Country, and Kinsfolks, and Relations, and transport themselves to an unknown place, where there is any fair hopes and probability of mending their Fortunes, and living in a more happy and comfortable condition? and have we not as good evidence, and as much reason to believe that Heaven is as rich and happy a Country as the Indies, or any other place where we have never been, and had only rela­tions [Page 180]of them from others? has not Christ given us as much assurance of this as we can desire? and has not the Scrip­ture described and drawn the Chart and Map of those Heavenly Regions, and given us as true and full an ac­count of the Pleasures and Riches of them, as we can wish for or expect in this Mortal State? If we knew them so fully and particularly as we shall do hereafter, we should not so much love Life as we now fear Death; but God has concealed the particular knowledge of them from us at pre­sent that we may be willing to live here, but the general knowledge of a Future and Glorious Immortality which we have by Jesus Christ, where­by we are assured that Death does not conclude our Being, but only translate us to a much better State, if we be fit for it by Repentance, this should de­liver us from the Fear of Death.

II. Christ has taken away the sting of death, as the Apostle intimates, 1 Cor. 15.56. and so has delivered us from the servile Fear of it, for the sting of death, as he there sayes, is sin. 'Tis that which makes the darts of [Page 181]Death so sharp and poysonous, because they are envenomed with our own Sin, and dipt in our own Guilt. Were that but once drawn out, we might play with the harmless Serpent, and it would not bite or wound us. Could we disarm Death of those Terrours with which our own Sins dress it up, it would not appear so ugly and so frightful to us. 'Tis they which put us in a state of Bondage and Servility, and depress and sink our Minds with a slavish Fear that we are going to ex­ecution when we are going to dye, and that we are committed to the Grave but as to a Prison where Death like a terrible Lictor or Execu­tioner is to torment us, or we are to be delivered over to him that has the Power of Death, that is the Devil. Now this may justly terrifie us, when we think that whenever Death arrests us, it hurries us only to a place of Torments, and seizes us as condemn­ed Prisoners to be carried where we must suffer. 'Tis not leaving the Plea­sures of this Life makes Men so unwill­ing to dye, as the fear of going to the Miseries of another. 'Tis not a present Temporal Death they are so afraid of, [Page 182]as that Future and Eternal one which comes after it And this indeed is justly to be feared, were Hell to swallow us up as well as the Grave, and were we to sink into the bottom­less Gulph when our feet take hold of Death; but Christ has delivered us from all the danger of this, if we do not wifully throw our selves into it. He has taken away all that Guilt, and all that Punishment due to our Sins which we are afraid of, if we have but sincerely and timely repented of them; and though Death summons us to Judgment, and we know our selves Criminals, yet by the performance of that we have our Pardon signed in the Blood of Christ, and Heaven will certain­ly allow of it to a Christian if he have not forfeited it by a desperate Impenitence. True, and sincere, and perfect Repent­ance will free us in great measure from the Fears and Horrors of Death when it comes near us. Our Sins indeed will then be most apt to scare us, when Death sets them in order before us, but we have all the assurance of the Gospel, all the assurance of Heaven, that if we have duly repented of them, they shall no way hurt or indanger us; I will not [Page 183]say that they shall no way make us afraid, for this perhaps would not be­come a very modest, and humble, and penitent Sinner to be quite fearless, but he will have great hopes with his fears, and very chearful and comfort­able grounds that shall greatly lessen and abate them; The righteous hath hope in his death, Prov. 13.32. Hopes that his Sins are pardoned in and through Christ, and that whenever he goes hence, he goes to a Glorious and Blessed Immortality, and this will take away if not all Fear of Death, yet such a troublesome and torment­ing one, as fills us with perplexity and confusion whenever we think of it, and makes us all our life time subject to bondage, as Scripture speaks. And this will help to resolve that Question I proposed in the second place, namely,

2. Whether a true Penitent, or good Christian, ought to have no Fear of Death? I Answer, He ought to have no such Fear as makes him all his life time subject to bondage; such a base, slavish, immoderate Fear, as makes him not enjoy himself, but sinks down his Spirit, and depresses his [Page 184]Mind to that degree, that he is al­wayes uneasie, and perplexed, and di­sturbed at the thoughts of it. Such as has been storied of some, that they would not have the word Death na­med in their hearing, for the very na­ming and thinking of it, made such an impression upon them, and struck them with such a panick Fear, that like the Hand-writing upon the Wall to Belshazzar, Dan. 5.6. in the midst of their jollity, it would make their countenance change, and their thoughts trouble them, so that the joynts of their loins were loosed, and their knees smote one against another: But above all, such a Fear of Death as makes a Man think it a greater Evil than Sin, and so to avoid that will deny his Saviour and renounce his Religion, or do any thing whatever is necessary to escape a present Fear of Death. This makes him a slave to every one that has power to kill him, and to save his Life he will deliver up his Conscience, his Soul, his Saviour, his Religion, and all those things which ought to be a thou­sand times more dear to us, and which we should be much more unwilling to part with than our lives. These are [Page 185]unreasonable and unlawful Fears of Death, but there is still a Natural Fear of Death which may belong to a penitent good Christian, and which it is not necessary he should wholly overcome, as it is a Natural Evil, as it is a Punishment of Sin, as it is a going to our last great and terrible Tryal before the Bar of Heaven, a Tryal upon which our Souls and their Eternal Fate of Happiness or Damna­tion does depend. This may cause some Fear in a true Penitent, or a very good Christian, and I do not know that God has any where forbid it, or that he has promised such a full assurance to every true Penitent and good Man, as wholly to take away all kind of Fear of Death, or that this is any want of saving Faith in him. In some extraordinary cases God may give it, as in cases of Suffering and Persecution, when an extraordinary assistance of Gods Spirit, and an extraordinary as­surance of their Salvation, took away all Fears of Death and made them go to the Flames and to the Gibbet rejoycing and triumphing, but that this is ordinary and constant, I see no Reason nor no Scripture to believe. [Page 186]The Fear of Death is a Natural and Invincible Infirmity to many a true Penitent, and good, and humble, and timorous Christian, who though his Conscience accuse him not of any great and ill things, yet may magni­fie every little fault and imperfection, and not forgive it himself, tho' God does, nor be at peace in his own Mind, though he be with God, 'Tis a great perfection to conquer the Fears of Death, if it be done upon good grounds, for some have no Fear of Death out of a sensless stupidness, be­cause they have no sense of what fol­lows after Death: And we find the greatest part of Men who have most reason to be afraid of it, to be the least so, out of meer Natural courage and hardiness, and for want of thinking, or believing, or considering the things of Religion and another World; o­thers from false Principles and Mi­stakes, by thinking a Pardon or Ab­solution sets them right in the Court of Heaven, and that they may boldly appear there with some such security, or those that have low thoughts of Religion, and think a little Sorrow for their Sins, and a few Sighs, and [Page 187]some Prayers when they come to dye, will carry them to Heaven as well as if they had lived never so Holily, and Righteously, and Godly. Now if Mens Confidence and Fearlesness a­rises from such Mistakes as these, 'tis like the hope of the Hypocrite that shall perish, Job 8.13. and such pre­sumptuous persons only rush into Hell with their eyes shut, and see not their danger before they are in it. On the contrary, a modest and humble peni­tent Christian may be afraid where no Fear is, may judge too hardly of him­self, and may be though quite out of danger, yet not out of all Fear; for after all God will not judge us by our own Fears, or Hopes, or Opinion of our selves, which may be all ground­less and mistaken, but he will judge Righteous Judgment, and correct the Errors by which we may pass Judg­ment of our selves; and the Terms of the Gospel and not our own Thoughts shall be the Rule by which we shall be judged at the last day. But to take off the Fear of Death as much as we can, and to free our selves from a sla­vish and immoderate degree of it, the [Page 188]best Directions that can be are these two.

• 1. What hath been already given, duly to prepare and fit our selves for it by a timely and thorough Repent­ance.
• 2. To joyn the liveliest Act of Faith with this our Habitual Repentance, and exert that at the time when Death is near us.

(1.) To perfect our Repentance, and so to live in the habit of that and of all goodness, that we may be the best prepared to dye that we can be. Dye we know we must. Death if it be not now near us, and yet we do not know but it may be dogging us at the heels, yet will certainly in a little time come up to us, and fright and startle us when it does, if we do not take great care to be ready and prepared for it. Since we must therefore necessarily encoun­ter this great Monster, this terrible Enemy which there is no escaping but we must certainly grapple with him, let us all our lives prepare for the battle, let us arm our selves with the whole armour of God and Reli­gion, with a careful, and pious, and [Page 189]good life, with a timely and thorough Repentance of all our evil ways, with a sincere, and upright, and good Con­science, and with avoiding every thing that we know is sinful and un­lawful, and which will make Death terrible to us whenever it comes. Let us not be such desperate Bravoes in Sin, as to venture upon that with a false Courage, which will make us the worst of Cowards when we come to dye; but let us be so wisely afraid of Death now, as to live with that care and exactness that we may not be afraid of it when we come to it. It were well if some Men were more afraid of Death than they are, and as I am sure they have all reason to be, that so they might be brought off from their evil wayes, and not run head­long upon those dangers which are ve­ry near them, though they are not sensible of them. The sword hangs over their head though they do not see it, and nothing but the thin thread of Life keeps it from falling upon them; they walk blindfold upon the brinks of Hell and Damnation, and it would be well of Fear would open their Eyes, and make them recover [Page 190]themselves before Death makes it too late. Nothing can truly and through­ly arm us against the Fears of Death, but Repentance and a good Life: To those who have lived in the practice of them Death is a very harmless thing, 'tis but lying down to sleep, closing the eyes and going to rest, the Bodies being sensless a while, till it awakes at the great day of Judgment, and passing a longer night in the Grave till it arises more fresh and lively in the morning of the Resurrection; and as for the Soul, 'tis a short and quick passage from Earth to Heaven, and therefore such have no reason to be afraid of it, when it approaches them never so near. But then,

(2.) Let the true Penitent quicken his Faith at that time, and raise that to the highest and strongest pitch, that so he may then look beyond the grave, and see, and believe, and desire those happy and glorious things which God has prepared for him in another World. If we believed those as we ought we should never be so afraid to dye, if we were so affected with those pleasures that are above, and that are at Gods Right-hand for evermore, we should [Page 191]not be so loth to part with the Plea­sures shall I say, rather with the Trou­bles and the Miseries of this Life. Did we think as we ought of that perfect peace, and joy, and satisfaction which is not to be had here, but to be met with only in Heaven, we should not be so fond to abide in this Valley of Tears, and not go up to those Man­sions above, where is full Joy and Contentment. Let us fix our thoughts and set our hearts upon those happy Regions of Bliss and Glory, and we shall not fear to pass through the sha­dow of Death to come to them, tho' the way to that Heavenly Canaan is through a Wilderness, through the dark and unknown Region of Death, through which a thousand wandering Souls are alwayes passing, yet we shall be conducted safely through it by Angels, who will bring us to the Pa­lace of the great King, where we shall be received by our blessed Master and Saviour, and by all the Saints and holy Souls that are gone before us, who as they rejoyce at a Sinners Repentance, will now welcome him to his Fathers house; and we shall then as much wonder at our selves for [Page 192]fearing to dye, as we are now willing to live. If the account which Scrip­ture gives us of those invisible Regi­ons be true, and we do fully believe that Joy, that Glory, that Blessedness, that unspeakable Happiness which is there revealed to us, this our Faith, joyn'd with our Repentance, should overcome the Fears of Death, and make us not only not afraid, but de­sire to be dissolved, and to be willing to lay down this load and luggage of Flesh, because we know that if our earthly house o [...] this tabernacle were dis­solved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. And there shall be no more Sin, nor Sorrow, nor Repent­ance: but the blessed Penitent, now he is safely arrived at his happy Port, shall look back upon the past hazards and dangers he was in, and comfort­ably remember how his Sins like so many Rocks had like to have split and shipwreck'd, and swallowed him up in the gulph of Perdition, and how by the wonderful Grace of God he hath happily escaped them, and is come safe to Heaven, and therefore [Page 193]will now offer Eternal Thanksgiv­ings, and pay his Vows of Praise to his great Deliverer, and rejoyce ever­more in his Glorious and Heavenly Salvation.

SECT. I. Of Apostacy. Sins after Baptism. Ʋpon Relapse.

FIrst then as to those places of the Hebrews which are brought as the ground of the Novatian Do­ctrine, for the irremissibleness of wil­ful Sins committed after Baptism, they do not belong to any Sins of a Christian whilst he continues such, but to one renouncing Christianity, and wholly Apostatizing from it, even after he has professed it, and had mi­raculous evidence and conviction of it. They who were enlightened or Bap­tized, [...], and have tasted of the Heavenly gift, have been sensible of the Benefits of Baptism, and the Pri­viledges of Christianity, and been made partakers of the Holy Ghost, have further had those miraculous and ex­traordinary Gifts of the Holy Ghost conferred upon them, which new Bap­tized Persons then very often had, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, have had a sense of the excellency of [Page 200]the Gospel and the Christian Revela­tion, and those powerful and great Miracles, [...], which accompanied the dispensation thereof, and the times of the Messiah, or that have been duly affected with the powerful Con­siderations of Eternity and another World, which are the great things their Religion sets before them; if such as these shall (like Julian after­wards, or the Gnosticks then) fall away from all this, and apostatize from their Faith and Religion by the Fears of Persecution, or the Love of this World, it is impossible to renew them again to Repentance, seeing this their revolt implyes no less than the crucify­ing to themselves the Son of God afresh, and putting him to open shame; i. e. the condemning of Christ as a Male­factor and Impostor, and so joyning and consenting with the Jews in Cru­cifying him as such, and bringing an open reproach and discredit upon him, as if he were a false Prophet, and that upon Tryal and Experience they found his Religion to be false, and therefore forsook it. This Apostacy and renouncing the whole Religion of Christ, is meant also by Sinning wil­fully [Page 201]after we have received the knowledge of the truth, Heb. 10.26. It is sin­ning in the same word and sense as the Apostate Angels did when they revolted from Heaven, 2 Pet. 2.4. for in the next Verses it is called, Treading under foot the Son of God: i. e. Contemning him as a vile mis­creant, and as if he were not Risen from the Grave, but lay dead there, and so were to be trod upon, and counting the Blood of the Covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing; as if it were shed justly, and so were the Blood of a common Ma­lefactor, and doing despite unto the Spi­rit of Grace, reproaching all the evi­dence by which the Holy Ghost con­firmed the Truth of Christ and his Doctrine, both in him and his Apo­stles. This can be no less than a ma­licious apostacy and defection from Christianity in general, and not only a wilful breach of any of its particu­lar Laws.

And something like unto these is that Sin unto death, in St. John. 1 Ep. 5.16. that which deserved the utmost and severest censures; as he which under Moses Law sinned presumptu­ously, [Page 202]and was [...], did make void and throw off the Law, was to dye without mercy, Heb. 10.28. So under Christianity this presumptu­ous Sinner was to be Spiritually cut off from all the Benefits of Christian Communion, and from the Prayers of the Faithful, as we find they were by the Discipline of the Primitive Church.

This was so severe at first that they denyed all Peace and Absolution to such Apostates and Lapsi, even in ar­ticulo Mortis, at the point of Death, and would never receive them again into their Communion, thereby to fright all persons from all false and cowardly compliances in those times of danger and persecution, but after­wards the Church was forced to abate of this rigour, which had made such Disturbances, and occasioned those great Schisms of the Novatians and Donatists. There were other Sins al­so for which the guilty Penitents were excluded from all Communion to the last in those purer and severer Ages, as Murder, Adultery, and those Un­natural Lusts which they call'd Mon­stra, these were never admitted to [Page 203]Pardon and Absolution of the Church, as appears by the Canons of those an­tient Councils of Eliberis, Arle; and Ancyra and by the Writings of Ter­tullian and others, and the opposition made in Africa to the Decree of Pope Zephyrine, and by the milder Canons of the Council of Nice afterwards, but all this was only prudential, and an ex­ternal Discipline in foro humano, which the Church altered according to its Discretion, but they did not deny all Pardon with God for those Sins upon Repentance, nor utterly cut them off from all hopes in another World, but allowed God could pardon them, tho' not the Church; that they might be forgiven, though not in this World, yet in the World to come, according to that Jewish Notion, that though there were no Sacrifices nor ordinary means of Expiation for some Sins, yet that God would forgive them here­after.

Secondly, That Sins are Pardoned after Baptism as well as before, is plain from the Incestuous Corinthian, who though he had committed such a Sin as was not usual among the Gen­tiles, [Page 204]and was to be put out of the Church, and to be delivered unto Sa­tan for it, yet this was not to cut him off from Pardon and Salvation, but as a better means to bring him to both; it was only for the destruction of the flesh, that the Spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord, 1 Cor. 5.5. And this sure was the design of those severe and long Penances in the Primitive Church, whereby tho' they excluded Sinners from the bene­fits of Communion and means of Grace, yet it was not to bereave them of all hopes of Pardon, and consign them irreversibly to Damnation, but to beget a greater terrour and dread of Sin, and to make their Repentance for it more compleat and perfect, and so by those present Judgments and Se­verities here, to prevent their Eternal Condemnation hereafter, for this ought to be the Rule and Measure of all Church Power and Discipline, it ought to be for Edification not for Destru­ction, and they could not miss of this. The Spirit of God writes to the Church of Ephesus, which were a company of Baptized Christians, to Remember from whence they were fallen, [Page 205]and Repent, and do their first works, Rev. 2.5. And St. Paul threatens the Christians at Corinth, to bewail and correct those which had sinned, and not repented of the uncleanness, and for­nication, and lasciviousness they had com­mitted, 2 Cor. 12.21. but does not denounce that they were unpardona­ble, Sad would it be if all wilful Sins were so after Baptism, this would make Christianity a more terrible and severe dispensation than the Law, and put us in a worse condition than we were without it, and no Man would then be Baptized till he was a Clinic and near dying, and going out of the World; but Baptism puts us into a state of Pardon, and the Grace and the Vertue of it continues all our lives; and if we sin we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, 1 John 2.1. and his Mediation will upon our Repentance procure Pardon at Gods hands at all times for us.

Thirdly, I shall next consider Sins of Relapse, when a Person after Sorrow and Repentance for a Sin, yet falls in­to it again, and repeats it after he has resolved against it, and been convict­ed [Page 206]of the heinousness of it; now this is a sad case, and shows the power of his Lusts, and the weakness of Reli­gion upon a Mans Mind, and no Man who is in this state can be said to Re­pent: He is no more got rid of his Sins than a Man is of a Feaver be­cause it intermits sometimes, and he is well by intervals, but his Fits return again upon him, which shows that the Disease is still in his Blood, as the other's Relapses do that sin still reigns in him, because he obeys it in the Lusts thereof. A Man in the begin­ning of his Repentance from some ha­bitual Sins, may not get rid immedi­ately of all his Evil Customs and Sin­ful Inclinations, but they may some­times draw him back again, and some­times master and overcome him, and he may rally again, and recover him­self, and at last vanquish them: Now whilst this Conflict lasts, and 'tis un­certain which side will get the better, and have the final victory, no judg­ment can be made of a Mans state, because the issue is doubtful and un­certain. He is fighting and striving for his Life, for his Soul, and for Hea­ven, and he may by his own care and [Page 207]endeavours, and by the assistance of Heaven conquer and overcome his Sins, and to him that overcometh God will give of the tree of life, Rev. 2.7. but if he is overcome by them, he is a slave of Sin, and a captive of the Devil, and a child of Hell, and heir of Damnation; but what shall a Man do who has often thus relapsed into Sin after his most serious Vows and Reso­lutions against it, are his Sins against those unpardonable, and is there no hopes for him? I Answer by no means, if he can but recover himself from them, and after all attempts at last get rid of them, and bring forth the contrary fruits of Repentance and O­bedience. I confess such an one ought to suspect himself, and to suspect his Repentance, till by many tryals he has made it good, and confirmed it; and he ought to be doubly watchful over himself, and to take heed least Sin en­ter again at any of those weak places at which it used to have admittance, and to fortifie himself against all those temptations and opportunities that used to betray him to it, and therefore to keep his Mind to a close sense of Religion, and to a careful use of all [Page 208]the Means and Instruments of it, and to beg earnestly of Heaven Grace proportionable to his needs, and then if it be not his own fault, it will cer­tainly be sufficient for him. But such Relapses, though they are not quite hopeless, nor put a Man into a condi­tion that is desperate, yet they are very dangerous, they grieve Gods Ho­ly Spirit, they give a new Wound to our Consciences, they make the old Wound that was healed bleed afresh, and render it more difficult to be cured again, and more ready to mortifie and become incurable, they bring the Mind to a weakness, and unsteadi­ness, and irresolution, and to have no power or command over it self, but let its good Purposes and Principles be bore down by a weak Lust or a silly Temptation, and one such fatal Re­lapse sets it back a great way, and makes it with great difficulty roll up the same stone which hath driven it so much downwards, and with greater labour set upon the same work and design which such a miscarriage makes more hard to be effected.

They who make Repentance lye in some transient Acts, which upon new [Page 209]Sins are to be repeated toties quoties, like a Medicine to be taken as often as the same illness returns, forget that Repentance is a state of Health after Sickness, a state of Vertue and Obe­dience after Vice and Disobedience, and that when such a state is once broken, 'tis not easie to be made whole again, but like a broken Limb, it cannot be set without great pain, and long time to grow together again, and that if it be often broken it will contract an habitual weakness and lameness.

How long God will suffer a Sinner thus to continue in a state of Falling and Rising, Repenting and Relapsing, before he cuts him off from any hopes of Pardon or benefit of Repentance, we do not know, nor how long a har­dened impenitent wretch may go on in a course of sinning before the means of Grace, and the day of Salvation may be over with him; so that if he knock God will not open, and there shall be no place found for his Repent­ance. This is a secret likewise which is only in the breast of the Almighty, who threatens that his Spirit shall not alwayes strive with man, Gen. 6.3. [Page 210]And behold now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation, 2 Cor. 6.2. And to day if ye will hear his voice har­den not your hearts, Heb. 3.15. And if thou in this thy day hadst known the things belonging to thy peace, but now they are hid from thine eyes, Luke 19. 42. And seek the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near, Isa. 55.6. So that God is not alwayes to be found, nor alwayes near, and it may be too late for the things of our peace, and the accepted time and the day of Salvation may not con­tinue alwayes, but a Man may sin so long till God will withdraw his Grace, and may come to an unpardonable pitch and an impenitent state, and may despise the riches of Gods goodness, and forbearance, and long-suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God lead­eth to repentance: But after his hardness and impenitent heart, may treasure up wrath against the day of wrath, and re­velation of the righteous judgment of God, Rom. 2.4, 5.

This should keep us from neglect­ing the present opportunities, and not put off our Repentance from day to day; But to day, while it is called to [Page 211]day, hearken to his voice, lest we be har­dened with the deceitfulness of sin. But if any be under those Fears that he has brought himself to that sad state, this is the only true satisfaction can be given him; Whilst he is willing to Repent, and has a just sense of his Sins, and of his ill state, he is not har­dened, and if Gods Grace doth so far work upon his Mind as to make him see and apprehend the necessity of Repentance, and the forsaking all his evil wayes, then it is not quite with­drawn from him; and if he be will­ing to try all means, and use his best endeavours to get rid of his Sins, there is great hopes that he may effect this, for God will never be wanting to as­sist our sincere Wills and hearty En­deavours; and if his Spirit worketh in us to will and to desire to leave our Sins from a right apprehension of the danger and mischief of them, and produce such convictions and illumina­tions in our Mind, it is certain it hath not abandoned or deserted us, and it will work in us to do also, and to effect and perform those good thoughts and purposes if we persist in them, and endeavour with our utmost power to [Page 212]make them good and effectual. No Man is cut off from Pardon who Re­pents and becomes a good Man, tho' he has been never so bad an one, and no Man will have Gods Grace denyed him, who is at any time sincerely willing and desirous to make use of it, but 'tis a hard and insensible state that has sinn'd away its Life, and its day of Grace, and has only deep hor­rours and fruitless sorrows when it is too late to amend and become a good Man, that is hopeless and despe­rate.

SECT. II. Of the Sin against the Holy Ghost, its Nature, and whether Pardonable or no.

WHat is the particular Nature of the Sin against the Holy Ghost, and wherein that which is so dreadful does truly consist, the Scrip­ture methinks is very plain, though they who have left that, and followed their own or others conjectures and opinions about it, are very confused and intricate, and very different and [Page 213]divided among themselves. They have made a great many Sins against the Holy Ghost when God has no where in Scripture made but one, and that being of so dreadful and heinous a Nature, we must be careful to ap­ply it no further than we have war­rant from the Word of God, and from our Saviour who best knew it; and it appears clearly from his Discourse a­bout it to be this, A blasphemous charging of the Miracles he did by the Power of the Holy Ghost to the Power of the Devil. This the Phari­sees did Matth. 12.24. when Christ had wrought a mighty Cure and Mi­racle upon a Demoniack to the ad­miration of all the People that had brought him unto him, ver. 21. Then was brought unto him one possessed of a Devil, blind and dumb, and he healed him, insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and saw. And all the people were amazed, and said, Is not this the Son of David? But when the Pha­risees heard it, they said, This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils. Our Saviour when he had confuted that unreason­able and malicious Calumny against [Page 214]him, by showing how unlikely it was that the Devil should thus destroy his own Kingdom and Interest by being divided against himself, and lending him his Power to cast out Devils, and that it might as well be pretended that all Miracles that were done by their Prophets of old, or by others a­mongst them afterwards, were per­formed by a Diabolical Power as well as his, and so they would destroy the force and credit of their own Mira­cles as well as those he did, he imme­diately proceeds to discourse of this Sin, Wherefore I say unto you, all man­ner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men, but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto them. And he repeats it again in the next Verse, And whosoever speaketh a word against the son of man it shall be forgiven him; that is, yet may with less guilt and danger abuse me, for any thing else that does not so imme­diately reflect upon, and reproach the Spirit of God, as when ye called me wine-bibber, and glutton, and a friend of Publicans and Sinners, but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost; if ye use any reproachful sayings against the [Page 215]Spirit of God by which I do my Mira­cles, this shall not be forgiven neither in this world nor in the world to come. Neither here, nor as some of you vainly expect hereafter, but shall be certainly and severely punish'd in both. Now here is no mention at all, nor the least intimation of those other Sins in which some have placed this Sin against the Holy Ghost; as in final Impenitence, which the Pharisees could not then be charged with, not Apo­stacy from Christianity, which they had not at all professed, nor were by this very likely to do; nor denying the Truth for fear of Suffering, as in the instance of Francis Spira, which is often said to be his Sin, nor any of the six Sins in which the Schoolmen have placed it, as Envying our Bro­thers Graces, Impugning the known Truth, Obstinacy, Impenitency, Des­peration and Presumption, which two latter are unluckily put together to make this one Sin, when they are so contrary to themselves. Whatever mixture there might be of these, or any of these, or the like Sins, in the Minds of the Pharisees who commit­ted this Sin against the Holy Ghost, [Page 216]yet those are no more this particular Sin here meant by our Saviour, than Pride and Covetousness, and other Sins that might go a great way, and be no small causes to bring them to this Sin, and dispose their Minds for it; but St. Mark sets the thing beyond all dispute in chap. 3. ver. 28.29, 30. where he relates these words of our Saviour, thus, Verily I say unto you, all sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewith so­ever they shall blaspheme: But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost shall never have forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation. And then he gives the reason of our Saviours saying all this to them, namely, be­cause they said he hath an unclean Spi­rit; i. e. a Diabolical and impure one, which makes it as manifest as can be desired, that this their Sin was their blaspheming and speaking so reproach­fully of the Holy Ghost which was in Christ, as if that were not the Holy Spirit of God, but an unclean and a Devilish Spirit. How great and hor­rid a Sin this was, will appear from these four Considerations.

1. It tended to destroy the whole Truth of Christianity, and consequently to rob the World of all the benefit it has by it. There could nothing so malicious be contrived to undermine the Foundation of the Gospel, as this assertion of the Pharisees, that our Sa­viour wrought his Miracles by the help of an evil or unclean Spirit; for this was to make him a Magician, a confederate with the Devil, and so to represent his Religion as a work and contrivance of Hell, that could tend only to the mischief and destruction of the World: For if no good thing could come out of Galilee, as in a Pro­verbial derision they gave out to the People, to be sure no good thing could come from Hell and from evil Spirits. The Devil would never lend his Power had he been able, to promote or esta­blish any thing but a false Religion, that should withdraw the World from the Worship of the true God. The greatest demonstration for the Truth of Christianity were the Miracles of Christ, as he often appeals to them, John 10.37, 38. John 14.11. Mat. 11.4. and if these were done not by a Divine but a Diabolical Power, and [Page 218]by a compact with the Devil, they are then the greatest Arguments a­gainst it; for then it may be only a mystery of iniquity brought into the World by him whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power, and signs, and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness, 2 Thes. 2.9, 20. as Antichristianism is de­scribed.

2. It tends not only to undermine the Truth of Christianity, but of all Revelation whatever from God. The greatest proof and demonstration that can be given to any Prophet that comes from God to reveal his Will to Men, is his working of Miracles, and satisfying those he is sent to that he has a Divine Authority and Commis­sion, by his showing his Credentials from God, who would never suffer a Cheat and Impostor to do such migh­ty works as must necessarily cheat and deceive those that see them. Now if notwithstanding that he teach nothing contrary to the Nature of God, nor of Good and Evil, and yet perform such wonderful Miracles as can be done only by the Finger of God, and by a Divine Power; if we will still [Page 219]suspect this, then we can never be sa­tisfied of the truth of any revelation from Heaven, and so the Pharisees did not only undermine Christianity, but even their own Law; for it might with as much reason be said, that Moses and the Prophets who pretend­ed to come from God, and wrought Miracles to show they did so, yet were only the Prophets and Embassa­dors of the Devil, and did all their Miracles by his Power, as of Christ.

3. This must proceed from a very spightful temper and malicious hu­mour that made them speak this a­gainst their Consciences, and the sense of their own Minds. Sure they who were eye-witnesses of his Miracles, and so had the best and fullest evidence of the truth of them, and who heard the excellency of his Discourses and Sermons, in which was nothing con­trary to the Worship of the true God, or the Moral Duties of Religion, they must as our Saviour once told them, know both him and also whence he was, John 7.28. When they must be con­vinced that he was both an innocent and good Man himself, and that his Doctrine commanded the highest Ver­tue [Page 220]and Goodness, and tended to de­stroy the whole Power and Interest of the Devil in the World, they could not surely believe themselves, or think this their black charge was true; but when they saw the People amazed at his healing a Demoniack, and saying, Is not this the Son of David? Matth. 12.23. And so they feared that they should have lost their Power and Au­thority together with their Law, and that the People should have left them and followed him, then they gave out this vile and abominable reflection up­on him, that he did all this by the Power of the Devil, which was the utmost shift that Malice could invent to blind the eyes of others against a Truth which they could hardly be supposed not to see themselves.

4. It was the most taunting, re­proachful Slander against God and his Holy Spirit that could possibly be, and therefore is alwayes called Blas­phemy, which is the most daring, pro­voking and transcendent Crime against God that can be, and proceeds from the most contemptuous and scornful, most wretched and depraved temper of Mind. To slander and calumniate [Page 221]the Son of Man was a great Sin, to call a sober and temperate Person a Glut­ton and Wine-bibber, a friend of Pub­licans and Sinners, and to raise slan­derous and false stories against any Mans Credit is one of the greatest though the commonest Sins; but to proceed so far as to slander and re­proach God, this was accounted by one of the Heathens as bad or worse than to deny him, but to represent the Holy and Blessed Spirit of God as an Apostate Angel, as a Hellish Fiend, and to reproach, and scoff, and ca­lumniate whatever he does for the good and salvation of Mankind, as the work and intrigue of the Devil. This is such an horrid Sin, that our Saviour says, it should not be forgiven, but bring certain Judgment upon them.

I come now to inquire how and up­on what account it is Unpardonable, which is the greatest difficulty about it. Now though no Sin in its own Nature be unpardonable, because none so great but that the infinite Mercy and Goodness of God does still exceed it, and none is exempted from that General and Gracious Promise of Par­don which he hath made to Mankind, [Page 222]and none has so much Guilt in it, but that the Blood of Christ and Merit of his Sacrifice is able to atone and expi­ate for it, and none does so far cor­rupt and deprave the Mind but that the Grace of God can restore and a­mend it; yet a Sin may however be unpardonable by reason of some cir­cumstances attending it, and chiefly upon these three accounts.

1. As not being Repented of, for so every wilful Sin is unpardonable: For though the Gospel proposes Mer­cy and Pardon to every Sin and Sinner without exception, yet 'tis upon this never failing condition of Repentance and Amendment, without which we shall as certainly perish, as if there had been no place for Mercy at all, but we had stood under an irreversible decree of Condemnation for the first Sin we had committed. The Cove­nant of Grace is made upon that Con­dition on our part, which if we fail of, we shall as certainly lose the be­nefit of it as if there had been no such Covenant made.

2. That Sin is also unpardonable by the standing terms of the Divine Mercy, which is not curable by all [Page 223]the ordinary means of the Divine Grace, but resists and baffles all those remedies which can be used to that purpose. As a Disease is uncurable when it is too strong for all the reme­dies that can be used against it, so is a Sin unpardonable when it is too hard for all the means whatsoever that are proper to amend it. As when a Man will be an Infidel and disobedient to God when he sees plain Miracles be­fore his face, and will not be convin­ced by all these, which are the best and only means to that purpose, when he will still be obstinate, and harden himself against the highest evidence that is possible, as Pharaoh did, when he could not but confess that the Mi­racles were done by the Finger of God, and yet would not hearken unto him; or as the Pharisees, and some of the Jews, who would not be perswa­ded to Christianity by all the visible Wonders, and extraordinary Miracles wrought by Christ and his Apostles. What was there more to be done to satisfie those Men? and how could any thing that God and the Divine Power was able to do convince them of their Infidelity, if this would not? [Page 224]And so now when all the considerati­ons, and all the credible evidences of Religion will not work upon a Man, nor perswade him to a good Life; when he resists all the means of Grace that God has appointed, he then re­sists the last and utmost remedy that should do him good, and so is neces­sarily in a hopeless uncurable state and condition.

3. That Sin is unpardonable which provokes God to withdraw his Spirit, and all the influences of the Divine Grace, and to give them up to a spirit of slumber and a reprobate sense, and hardness of Heart, as he is sometimes said to do, if not for one Sin, yet for a great many obstinately and irre­claimably continued in.

And now let us examine the Sin a­gainst the Holy Ghost by these 3 ways.

(1.) Can it be said to be unpardon­able because unrepented of? It seem­eth not upon this account, because it is probable that many of those who were guilty of it did afterwards Re­pent, and turn Christians. Among the many numerous Proselytes to Christianity in the time of our Savi­our, and especially of the Apostles, it [Page 225]cannot be proved or thought that there were not some of those made Con­verts that had fall'n into it; and Christ when he prayed for his Enemies, and for his Crucifiers, most earnestly en­treated his Father to forgive them all without any exception, Luke 23.24. by which he had plainly some hopes of their Repentance and Amendment, and if he had not, it would have been in vain to have used so many means as he did afterwards to that purpose; besides that he intimates not the least word to them of their Impenitence, nor was that to be said of them till the last, this would not sufficiently di­stinguish this Sin from any other great and wilful one, for any such unrepent­ed of and that by a particular Re­pentance, is unpardonable as well as this against the Holy Ghost, unless we will venture to say what we have no sufficient warrant for, and therefore is very bold, and especially when 'tis a kind of limiting the Grace and Mercy of God, that Men could never Repent of this as they can of all others, but that God who hath opened a door of Mercy and Repentance in all other cases, hath absolutely shut it in this, [Page 226]so that they shall never be able nor willing to enter in.

(2.) Is it unpardonable upon the se­cond account, as it was not curable by any means that God had appointed and thought fit to use to that purpose? This it seems not to be neither, be­cause God had not yet made use of all the means that he intended for the Conversion of the Jews, and the Scribes and Pharisees. Our Saviour indeed had done a great many Miracles to te­stifie his Divine Power, but still there were a great many more which re­mained behind, and which he had not yet performed. If we look into the Gospel of St. Matthew and St. Mark, and observe the time when our Savi­our had his discourse of this Sin, we shall find he wrought many very con­siderable Miracles after that; and what was the design of all them, but to perswade those to believe in him, and to embrace Christianity, who were not perswaded so to do by his former ones. And there remained ano­ther Motive behind, which was an evidence even beyond all, and which was such an Argument to convince the Jewish Infidelity, as did outdo al­most [Page 227]all the other Miracles of our Sa­viour, and that was his Resurrection from the Dead. This was the great and irresistible proof for the Truth of Christ and his Religion, and of this especially the Apostles were to be wit­nesses to all the World, as being the strongest demonstration of Christiani­ty; and it is beyond all controversie, that a great many who were not brought to believe in Christ for his Miracles which they saw him do, or had as much reason to believe as if they saw him, yet were afterwards convinced and believed upon his Re­surrection; and yet besides this sign, which our Saviour sayes was to be given them after they had charged him to do his Miracles by an unclean Spirit, Matth. 16.4. for that was meant by the sign of the Prophet Jo­nas, there yet remained another means to cure the Infidelity of these People, and bring them off from their unrea­sonable unbelief, and that was the sending the Holy Ghost in so visible a manner upon the Apostles on the day of Pentecost, whereby the Jews saw and heard those poor unlearned Men, who were Fishermen, and Publicans, [Page 228]and Persons of ordinary Rank, and little Education, speak all sorts of Tongues and Languages, more than the Learnedest of their own Rabbies were able to do, and work all sorts of Miracles as great as ever Moses or any of their Prophets were recorded to perform. This also without doubt made a great many Proselytes to Christ and his Religion that were not so be­fore, and brought in vast numbers of Believers into the Church, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles. Now when so many means were appointed and used by God, and those such strong and powerful ones, even after the Jews had been guilty of that vile reproach of many of our Saviours Miracles, who can say that this Sin was not curable by any remedies when they were not all used, but there were still many others to be applyed? and who can say that the Scribes and Pha­risees had resisted the last means of Conviction, when our Saviour and his Apostles had after that so many others to offer to them, and which might probably prevail upon them? it feem­eth more likely from this which is so plain and undeniable, that the Sin [Page 229]against the Holy Ghost was the resist­ing all the means whatever that were or could be used by the Spirit of God, both in Christ and the Apostles too for the bringing Men to Christianity, and so it became unpardonable because it baffled the last means that could be used against it; and as to the word [...] or reproach, which ought to be taken notice of as the very speci­fick form and essential difference of this Sin, none seem to be more lite­rally guilty of that, no not the Scribes and Pharisees, who said, Christ did his miracles and cast out Devils by Beelze­bub, or an evil Spirit, than they who in the time of the Apostles, when they saw them filled with the Holy Ghost, and speaking with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance, Acts 2.4. yet mocking and vilely reproach­ing all this, said, These men are full of new wine, ver. 13. The ascribing this visible Power of the Holy Ghost on the Apostles to Drunkenness, and [...] mocking at all this, as if they had been inspired with the Spirit of Wine, or of Bacchus, rather than the Spirit of God, seems as great a re­proach and calumny to him, as the [Page 230] [...] against the Miracles of Christ and the ascribing them to an unclean Spirit: And this was more especially the time of the Spirits oeconomy and dispensation, when he was so plenti­fully poured out upon the Apostles and other Christians, and was sent in­to the World to be Christs Advocate, and the publick Patron of Christiani­ty, whereas before when Christ was not glorified, it is expesly said that the Holy Ghost was not yet given; John 7.39. For all these Reasons I should be inclined to be of their Mind, who think this to be the true Sin a­gainst the Holy Ghost, which is there­fore unpardonable because uncurable by all the means which the Spirit of God could use, were not the words of St. Matthew, and St. Mark especially, so plain, that our Saviour spoke of this Sin because the Scribes and Pharisees said, He hath an unclean Spirit, Mark 3.30. and because there is no other thing mentioned by our Saviour as the reason of his discourse about it, but because when he had healed the Blind, and the Dumb, and him that was possessed with a Devil, the Pha­risees said, This fellow doth not cast [Page 231]out Devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the Devils, Matth. 12.22, 24. Our Saviour did not only forewarn the Pharisees, and tell them that this ca­lumny of theirs came very near, and was a preparation to the Sin against the Holy Ghost, and that this would be likely to bring them to commit that afterwards, if they took not great care of themselves; but he seems plainly to charge them as already guilty, and not meerly in danger of it, and that which they had already said was no doubt a most horrid Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, and nothing could be worse than to reproach the Spirit that was in Christ himself, to whom he was given not by measure, but in a more full and extraordinary manner than he was to others afterwards: For though the Holy Ghost was not before given to the Apostles nor other Christians till Christ was ascended in­to Heaven, yet he was given to him, and to reproach him in him was like the reproaching the Authority of a Prince, not only in his Envoys and Embassadors but in his own Son.

So that allowing the Sin against the Holy Ghost to be the ascribing the [Page 232]Miracles of Christ to the Power of the Devil, which seems to be the plainest and simplest account of it, and most agreeable to the words of our Saviour, and to the only places of Scripture where it is ever mentioned, and in such a difficult matter we must be careful not to venture further than we have clear Authority from the Scrip­ture it self, then from what has been largely said on this Head, it does not seem that this Sin was therefore un­pardonable, because it had resisted and been too hard for all even the last means of Conviction which was to be used to recover Men from it, since there were many others that God had appointed after that.

(3.) In the Third place, Can we say it is unpardonable upon another account, because God was thereby provoked to withdraw his Grace and Spirit from those who were guilty of it, and to give them up to hardness of Heart, and an uncurable state of Mind? This we must not say of any but where God himself has expresly declared it, and it would be great rash­ness as well as uncharitableness to pro­nounce this of any, but where God [Page 233]has first pronounced it, which he has not, that I know of, of the Scribes and Pharisees upon the account of this Sin against the Holy Ghost. Our Sa­viour indeed charges this in some mea­sure upon the whole Jewish Nation, who believed not in him notwith­standing the mighty works which they saw him do, and this was a partial but not a total nor an incurable hard­ness to all, nor so far as we know to the Scribes and Pharisees themselves, but there were means still used to reco­ver them, which would have been all in vain and to no purpose, if they had been under an irrecoverable and judi­cial hardness, and it had not been on­ly blindness or hardness in part which had happened to Israel, Rom. 11.25. or to the Jews. And we shall ven­ture too far out of our depth, if we offer to say that God made use of ma­ny means and remedies to convince and convert the Jews, the Scribes and the Pharisees, when he had appointed and decreed that none of those should have any effect or good operation up­on them, this will hardly be consistent with the Goodness and Mercy, or with the Truth and Sincerity of the [Page 234]Blessed God, nor does he ever for any one Sin, but for a long obstinate course of many provoking Sins continued in irreclaimably against the Methods of Divine Grace, give up any Person to hardness of Heart.

There remains, I confess, another way by which a Sin may become un­pardonable, and that is by being ex­empted by God from the general Pro­mise and Covenant of Pardon which he hath made with Mankind. He who has all Sovereign Power, and an entire Right of Punishment, and up­on whose Free Grace and Arbitrary Favour all Pardon and Forgiveness de­pends, may except what Sin he pleases out of his General Act of Grace and Proclamation of Pardon and Indemp­nity, but this surely should be done particularly and by name, and in the very Act and Proclamation it self, there in the very Charter and Covenant of Grace which God has signed with Man­kind, this ought to be expresly exempt­ed, and whether this Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost be so or no is the que­stion, or whether this expression of our Saviours concerning it, that it shall not be forgiven, may be mollified and [Page 235]understood not in the utmost rigour of the Word, but as a great many of the best Interpreters of Scripture have judged, particularly St Chrysostome of old, and Dr. Hammond of late, that this Sin shall hardly and not without great difficulty be forgiven, and not so soon or so easily as other Sins, that it sup­poses and proceeds from such a corrup­tion of the Mind that is more danger­ous and more hard to be cured than any other distempers it is subject to, but yet that 'tis not quite impossible, as the words literally taken seem to im­ply. I shall offer you the Reasons that plead for this Opinion, and then deter­mine what is most safe and satisfying in this matter.

1. It is very usual in Scripture to re­present a thing that is very hard and difficult, as if it were utterly impossi­ble, and never could be. This our Saviour himself does in the case of the Rich Mans entering into the Kingdom of Heaven; to express the hardness of it, he does it by a thing that is utterly impossible, Matth. 19.24. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God, And so does the [Page 236]Prophet also make use of a Natural impossibility to represent the great dif­ficulty of a Mans turning from a long course and custom of sinning, Jer. 13.23. Can the Aethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots, then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil. Not but it is possible, notwith­standing those Proverbial expressions, that a Man who has been accustomed to do evil a very great while may yet be brought off from his Sins, and be­come a good Man, or else all the Ex­hortations to Repentance, and Pro­mises of the Gospel are in vain, and so may a good Man become a very bad one too, and fall from his own sted­fastness, and become guilty of abomi­nable Sins: As David did that was a Man after Gods own Heart, notwith­standing that St. John in the same way and manner of expression with these, declares concerning him, 1 Ep. 3.9. Whosoever is born of God, doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin because he is horn of God. That Phrase, he cannot, denotes not an utter impossibility, for the Prophet as well as Experience too plainly show the contrary, that a [Page 237]righteous man may turn from his righ­teousness, and commit iniquity, and dye in it, Ezek. 18.26. Things are some­times so exprest in Scripture, as they often are also amongst Men, as if there were no hopes, nor no probable means of effecting a thing, when yet there are very certain ones, as in that ex­pression 1 Sam. 2.25. not a little pa­rallel to this, If one man sin against another the judge shall judge him, but if a man sin against the Lord, who shall intreat for him? Not that there is no Advocate, nor no way of interceding with God when a Man thus sins a­gainst him, but to show the guilt and danger of it above the other. That place of the Hebrews, chap. 6. ver. 4. For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, &c. If they shall fall away to renew them again to Repent­ance; that is by very good Interpre­ters thought to denote only great diffi­culty, and not impossibility in the ut­most rigour and strictness, which it is plain none of the other Phrases, how­ever they may sound, must be taken in; and therefore this expression of our Saviour concerning the Sin against the Holy Ghost, they think may be mol­lified [Page 238]and understood with the same largeness and latitude as those, and to import only thus much, that it shall be more difficultly repented of, and so more hardly forgiven than any other Sins.

2. Both the first part of this Verse, That all manner of sin; and blasphemies shall be forgiven unto men, and many other absolute and unconditional Pro­mises, or Threatnings, or like Decla­rations in Scripture, must not, they say, be too rigorously and literally understood; for if they are, the truth which is now evident in them, as they are taken with that fairness and equi­ty, and those supposals which must go along with them, will be forced out, and they will become false; for it will not be true, that all manner of sins and blasphemies shall be forgiven unto men, for then none should be damned of made miserable in another World. And when St. Paul sayes, They that do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of Heaven, Gal. 5.21. it must not be made a certain and general conclusion from thence, that none who were ever guilty of any one of those Sins, where­of he there gives us a black Catalogue [Page 239]shall ever be saved, nor become capa­ble of entering into Heaven, but that they shall not be so without Repent­ance and Amendment, though that is not there mentioned, nor any provisi­on concerning that is so much as inti­mated in that place; nor is that, tho' necessary, Condition to the forgive­ness of every Sin exprest or put down in our Saviours general Declaration, that all manner of sins and blasphemies shall be forgiven unto men, but it is without all Controversie to be suppo­sed; and the same allowances that are to be made to all these and the like ex­pressions of Scripture, without which, if they are strained over-rigorously, they would not be true, these they think reasonable to apply to our Savi­ours expression concerning this Sin, and that where it is said not to be forgiven, that is, not without a very particular and full Repentance of it. And to strengthen this a little further, they observe that there is another Phrase and Expression concerning this Sin, used by our Saviour, where the sense must not be forced so far as the words would seem to carry it, and that is this, That it shall not be forgiven nei­ther [Page 240]in this world, nor in the world to come, Matth. 12.32. As if our Savi­our did thereby intimate that any Sins should be pardoned in another World, which are not in this. Some Inter­preters think that some of the Jews had this opinion as the Papists now have, and that our Saviour therefore used the expression to take off all hopes from them that had such a vain be­lief, and levelled his words against that, but I rather think this to be the plain sense, that it was only a com­mon Phrase among the Jews, that the thing should not be, or never be, with­out regard to any such opinion, which we have not sufficient authority to prove the Jews had, but only that Death they thought was a kind of Ex­piation for some Sins in their Life: However this Phrase must have some allowance made for the words of it, and so they would have the other.

3. Another Reason for the abating the severity of the Expression concern­ing this, is that there are other Sins which seem equal to this in guilt and heinousness, which are yet all decla­red to be pardonable; and those not only the most wilful Sins, against [Page 241]Natural Light as well as Revealed Re­ligion, but against Christianity and even the Holy Ghost; such as were those of the Heathen World, described Rom. 2. and yet they were received into the Christian Religion, and made parta­kers of the Christian Covenant, as 'tis plain many of the Corinthians also were, whose Names were put in the List of the vilest Sinners, 1 Cor. 6.11. And the Apostle expresly tells them, That such were some of them; to wit, Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, effe­minate, abusers of themselves with man­kind, thieves, covetous, drunkards, re­vilers, extortioners, ver. 9.10. and yet these very Men were washed, were sanctified, were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the Spirit of our God, ver. 11. And St. Peters denyal of his Master after he had seen all his Miracles, and been so fully con­vinced by them that he was, as he had confest, the Son of God, was a very great Sin, yet upon his repenting and weeping bitterly for it, it was for­given. Nay, they who treated our Saviour with the basest and the cruel­est usage, and at last barbarously mur­dered him, our Saviour prayed his Father even to forgive these; and [Page 242]therefore that greatest of Sins, the putting an innocent Man to death, and Crucifying the very Son of God, this was not excluded from Pardon, but the very Blood that they thus vil­lanously shed was an Expiation for the very Sin of shedding of it. And if it be said, that these however great and horrid Sins, yet were not so im­mediately Sins against the Holy Ghost, against whom peculiarly this unpar­donable Sin is committed, if we care­fully examine the Bible we shall find a great many Sins and Provocations, chiefly if not directly against him, wherein he was particularly affronted, if not blasphemed and reproached, and yet not unpardonable. St. Paul owns himself a Blasphemer as well as a Persecutor, 1 Tim. 1.13. and wherein can we think his Blasphemy consisted? not in blaspheming God, the God of Israel, for he was a very strict and Religious Worshipper of him according to the Law, and the strictest Sect of the Jews; but it must be in blaspheming Christianity, and such things as were done to the spread­ing and confirmation of that. And nothing seems to be so likely a subject [Page 243]of his Blasphemy as the Miracles of Christ and the Apostles, because no­thing was so strong an Argument for the Christian Religion, which could not well be reproached, unless those were evil spoken of, and yet he ob­tained Mercy, and became the great instance of an hearty Penitent, and a zealous Convert. But we have more particular Instances of some Sins a­gainst the Holy Ghost himself, that tended to reproach and dishonour him in a high measure, and yet are no where declared to be unpardonable. Ananias is said to lye to the Holy Ghost, Acts 5.3. and to tempt the Spirit of the Lord, ver. 9. and vertually to de­ny his Knowledge and Omniscience, by denying part of the Money for which he had sold his Estate that was devoted by him to the Church; and Simon Magus who offered Money that he might purchase the Holy Ghost, and thought a few pieces of Silver a just Price, and valuable Consideration for him, and that the Power of God might be bought and sold for a little Money; He did reproach the Holy Ghost, by which the Apostles did their Miracles, in the highest manner; [Page 244] Acts 8.19. and therefore St. Peter very severely reproves him, ver. 20. Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money. And that ex­pression might have been thought to have put him into an irreversible state of Ruine and Perdition, had not St. Peter added what shows it to be other­wise; ver. 22. Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if per­haps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee. And there is another Instance that seems as great and im­mediate a reproach to the Holy Ghost as what the Pharisees were guilty of, in charging the Miracles which Christ wrought by the Power of the Holy Ghost to an Evil Spirit, and that was the mocking at the Disciples upon whom the Holy Ghost was poured out on the day of Pentecost, as if they had been inspired with new Wine, Acts 2.13. and yet this has no Mark set upon it by the Apostles, whereby it can be certainly known to be either the Sin against the Holy Ghost meant by our Saviour, or a Sin that was un­pardonable.

4. As there are other Sins that seem equal to this yet certainly Pardonable, so there are expressions concerning some other Sins which seem as much to exclude them from all hopes of re­mission, and to pass as severe and des­perate a Sentence upon them, as Christ does here upon this; and yet the best Interpreters think they admit of an abatement and mitigation, as in Heb. 6.4.5, 6. For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come: If they shall fall away, to renew them again un­to repentance, seeing they crucifie to them­selves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. And again, Heb. 10.26. For if we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin. The Sin that is meant in both these places is most probably the Apo­statizing from and renouncing of Chri­stianity, which the Christians were then in great danger of in those times of Danger and Persecution, and there­fore the Apostles had all reason to re­present [Page 246]it as the most hazardous and guilty, and to let them know that af­ter they had once fallen from their Baptism, they could not be renewed by another Baptism, and after they had rejected the Sacrifice of Christ, there was no other Sacrifice to be ex­pected to be offered for their Sins, nor was Christ to dye more than once: This was indeed a very horrid Sin, and to those especially who had pro­bably had extraordinary Gifts commu­nicated to them, as the Phrases there used seem to denote. These might well be charged with those tremendous expressions, ver. 29. That they had trodden under foot the Son of God, and counted the blood of the covenant where­with they were sanctified, an unholy thing, and done despite unto the Spirit of Grace. But yet the Primitive Church, how severe soever it was at first to the Lapsi in denying them Communion after they had Apostatized, yet it was the same also to many other Sins, to whom it utterly denyed the Communion of the Church for ever as well as to Apo­stacy, though the Persons were never so penitent who committed them: And whilst they kept to this most se­vere [Page 247]Discipline which they were for­ced afterwards to abate, yet they did not peremptorily sentence those peni­tent Apostates, nor any others, to cer­tain Perdition, but left them to the Mercy of God, for which they would not engage to be Sponsors or Sureties, as not being able to ascertain them of it; and this is the most, I think, of what St. John sayes of the sin unto death: I do not say that we shall pray for it, 1 John 5.16. i. e. we cannot have such an assurance that God will hear the Prayers for that as for other Sins, and therefore we cannot so confident­ly encourage Men to pray for it, tho' he does not at all forbid them to do it. This Sin unto death was very likely also to be Apostacy from Christianity to the Idolatry of the Gnosticks or the Gentiles, and that was certainly a very deadly Sin, and such as was not to have the benefit of the Prayers of the Church; but to say that this would never be Pardoned, after St. Peters de­nyal of his Master was, and after the Church did frequently admit the Lapsi at least to Lay-Communion, I think we ought to have a more plain and manifest Revelation of the Will of [Page 248]God in that matter than we have from that difficult place. However from these three places which come the nearest to this Sin, though there is no mention of it in any of them, it ap­pears that either other Sins, as well as that particular one of the Pharisees, may be represented unpardonable, or else that those expressions which are used to set out the guilt of those Sins are yet to be mollified and abated. But,

Lastly, The Evangelical Covenant of Pardon and Forgiveness being ex­prest in such general and large terms as extend universally to all manner of Sins, without any exception whatso­ever; and there being no one Sin whatever exempted out of that in the Charter it self, or in the Form of Ab­solution prescribed by Christ Matth. 16.29. John 20.23. they think it is more agreeable to say, that no one particular Sin, how great soever, is unpardonable by the Gospel; and that this will be a greater force and vio­lence to those many Promises of the Gospel, than to mitigate the severity of those expressions which seem to speak otherwise of some Sins, and [Page 249]particularly of that against the Holy Ghost: And therefore to come to a resolution in this matter that may be safe and satisfying, I shall do it very briefly in two particulars.

1. I say, That either for those Rea­sons the Expression here may be molli­fied, and not taken in its literal and rigorous sense, but so as to import the great guilt of the Sin and difficulty of its Pardon, but not the utter impossi­bility. Or else,

2. That there were some particular circumstances in that Sin of the Pha­risees, which make it a Sin proper to them in those times, and such as Chri­stians are not now in any possible dan­ger of committing; for though we have sufficient Reasons to believe the truth of Christianity upon the account of the Miracles done by our Saviour, and we have an unquestioned assu­rance of the truth of those from un­doubted History, and universal Testi­mony and Tradition, yet we cannot have that ocular evidence, and visible demonstration of them that the Jews and Pharisees had; and therefore if any of the Jews in our dayes who have swallowed many of them this blas­phemous [Page 250]account of Christ and his Miracles, that he did them all by the Power of Magick which he learned in Egypt, if they do now vent this horrid Calumny, yet I think they are not so perfectly Criminal, nor is this so high a degree of villany in them as it was in their Fore-fathers, who saw the very Miracles done before their faces, which is the highest evidence that can be. And unless the Person be in all those circumstances that they were, which would make him a great deal more inexcusable, I question whether he can be charged with this Sin. And therefore as a Conclusion from the whole, and as the most useful remark from this Subject, I shall advise these two things.

(1.) That no Sinner be discourag­ed from Leaving his Sins howsoever great, nor from Hopes of the Divine Mercy, upon any ungrounded Fears that he is fallen into this Sin, and so is in a hopeless, irrecoverable, unpar­donable state. By what has been said it appears that no one now has reason to do this; and it is certainly the greatest design of the Gospel and our Saviours coming into the World, to [Page 251]perswade Mankind that were sunk in­to the saddest Sins and Wickedness, to Repent and Forsake all their Evil wayes: And there is no such means to encourage to this, as to assure them of the Divine Mercy, and the certain Forgiveness of all of them if they do. 'Tis this is the way to bring Men in to their Duty and Allegiance, when their Governour proclaims an univer­sal Act of Grace for what is past; whereas the being cut off from all such hopes, makes them go on, and grow more desperate; and 'tis by this Good­ness and Mercy of God, held forth to all Sinners, and so fully displayed in the Gospel and the Death of Christ, that we are led to Repentance, and therefore it ought by no means to be lessened or diminished unless we would make God less Good than he is, and hinder Men from ever becoming better.

(2) Let us take care to avoid all manner of wilful Sin, and especially all those great ones that come near and any way approach to this Sin against the Holy Ghost. A very wilful Sin, in a Christian especially, is in some fense a Sin against the Holy Ghost; [Page 252]'tis a grieving, a quenching, and a re­sisting the Spirit, in the language of Holy Scripture. That Blessed Spirit is concerned as the great promoter of Vertue and Goodness in the World, and as the great Principle of it in the Hearts of Men, and whenever we do any wicked thing we offer violence to that, and by our rude and vicious carriage we affront, and grieve, and at last banish and drive away that Blessed Guest out of our Souls. What­ever is Wicked and Sinful is so con­trary to his Pure and Excellent Na­ture, that it is highly offensive to him; and if we go on in a course of long and customary Wickedness, we sin the more against him, and come the nearer to that sad and wretched state that is unpardonable. I do not think indeed that any one Sin, or particular Act of any Sin whatever puts us into that condition, but as every Sickness and Indisposition of Body is a tenden­cy to Death and Mortality, so every wilful Sin is a corruption of the Mind, and an approach to a state of Spiritual Death. And there are some Sins that bring this sooner upon us, as the act­ing against our Consciences, and the [Page 253]sense of our own Minds, an opposing the Truth that is evident to us, a scof­fing at Religion and making a mock of Sin, an abusing the Scriptures and ridiculing the Holy Word of God, an obstinate resistance of all the motions of Gods Holy Spirit upon our Minds. These and such like gross and obsti­nate impieties, though I do not think they are any of them the very Sin a­gainst the Holy Ghost, for that ought not to be extended further than we have a warrant from Scripture, yet they are so many approaches as it were to it, and have more of the ill symp­toms of that upon them, and there­fore we ought especially to avoid them lest they bring us by degrees into that sad state which is unpardonable; for though one Sin, I believe, do not do this, yet a great many may, and espe­cially such as those which do so waste the Conscience, and corrupt the Mind as to make it uncurable. And this is the saddest State and Condition in the World, next to the State of Hell and Damnation, tho' it be not the imme­diate Sin against the Holy Ghost.

Having endeavoured to give the plainest and fullest Satisfaction I can [Page 254]to the most doubtful and scrupulous Minds about this Sin of the Holy Ghost, I shall now Discourse of some other things of a Lesser Nature, which many Penitents and good Men are apt to be greatly dissatisfied with, and have dark and wrong thoughts about. As,

• I. Concupiscence, the Lustings of the Flesh, or struggle between that and the Spirit, which they find in themselves.
• II. Trouble of Mind, and a wound­ed Spirit, which many lye under by reason of their Sins, or by reason of Melancholly, or both together.

SECT. III. Of Concupiscence, the Lustings of the Flesh or struggle between that and the Spirit.

THE right understanding of our selves is very necessary to the right understanding of Religion. Re­ligion is fitted and adapted to Humane Nature in its present state and capa­city in this World, and is designed not to destroy it but to perfect and improve it, and raise it to its true Happiness and Perfection. We can­not be like the Angels in Heaven, nor like pure and glorious Spirits whilst we live here upon Earth, and have Bodies of Flesh and Blood united to our Souls. God who made us, and knows our Frame, did not intend to destroy and undo his own Creation by the Precepts of Religion, nor make us cease to be Men by becoming Chri­stians. We find indeed in our selves a great many weaknesses and corrup­tions, strong passions and sensual in­clinations, which if we did not wise­ly govern would be great occasions of Sin to us, and if we let them loose [Page 256]would carry us into a thousand Mis­chiefs as well as Sins and Wickednesses. They who give the reins to those, and the full swinge to their Natural Lusts and Passions run into all Vice and Debauchery, and commit all un­cleanness with greediness. And the best of Men cannot be wholly free from that Original Concupiscence, and those Sensual Motions and Desires that are not alwayes agreeable to Reason and Religion; but they complain of this bondage of corruption, and this body of death, which they cannot be delivered from, Rom. 8.21. and 7.24. Grace and Religion, though it gives us ano­ther Principle, and conveys new pow­ers of a Divine and Spiritual Life in­to our Souls, yet whilst the Animal and Sensual Life remains, and whilst we are compounded of Flesh and Blood as well as Spirit and Reason, and have a Carnal as well as Spiritual Principle in us, there will be a mighty struggle and a great contest between those two, and a kind of civil war in our breasts between those different Parties, and which of those shall be uppermost, and have the chief Power, and gain the Victory, is the great [Page 257]point, and the great concern of all Vertue and Religion; since in all of us, as the Apostle sayes, The Flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the Flesh, and these are contrary one to the other, so that we cannot do the things that we would, Gal. 5.17. And this we know by Experience as well as by Revelation. Now this Concupiscence that remaineth in good Men is often matter of great trouble to them, and they know not what to judge of it, or how far it is a Sin and ought to be Repented of, and what way they may best overcome it. I shall therefore to clear and satisfie their thoughts about this matter of the struggle or Lusting between the Flesh and Spirit, show these three things.

• First, That mere Lusting on either side is not what makes either Sin or Vertue, or denominates a bad or a good Man.
• Secondly, That these are the proper matter of Vice or Vertue, in which the tryal and exercise of them lye.
• Thirdly, That we ought to lessen the Power of the Fleshly Lusting, and increase that of the Spirit, and [Page 258]what are the proper means to do this, I shall briefly consider.

First, That meer Lusting on either side is not what makes either Sin or Vertue, nor what constitutes or deno­minates a bad or a good Man: For this Lusting is in both good and bad, though according to several degrees and measures; in the one the Lust­ing of the Flesh prevails, and in the other that of the Spirit, and 'tis from this, the prevalency of either of these, and not the meer contention of them, that we are counted good or bad before God. The best of Men may have the same Passions, Appe­tites, and Bodily Inclinations with o­thers, and may be disposed thereby to such Lustings and Desires of the Flesh, but they do not let those carry them to unlawful Practices, to undue Ob­ [...]ects, to consent to what is sinful, or commit any thing that is forbidden by a Divine Law. The worst of Men may have some ineffectual Desires and good Motions stirred up in their Souls now and then, and it may be with some force and violence that they over­come the tender sense of their own [Page 259]Minds, and the strugglings and re­bukes of their own Consciences, and their own Spirits and the Spirit of God may strive within them against their Lusts and sinful Inclinations, but the latter is too hard for them, and the Temptations of Sin and Wicked­ness prevail over all their faint De­sires, good Wishes, Purposes or Reso­lutions. 'Tis certain no Man can be wicked but against the sense of his own Mind, the smiting of his Con­science, the convictions of his own Reason and Judgment, and a strong inward Principle that makes Vice troublesome and uneasie to him at its first commitment, before he has worn off Natural Shame and Innocence, and is hardened by Custom, and long continuance. We have Naturally in us a Principle of Vertue as well as of Vice; they are both indeed blended and mixt in our Nature, and there­fore the Spirit does as truly Lust a­gainst the Flesh, and has strong Na­tural Motions against that, as the Flesh hath against the Spirit. We have the Natural Seeds of Probity, good Nature, Pity, Charity, Kind­ness, Modesty, and other Vertues [Page 260]sown in our Hearts, and appearing in the first tender indications of undis­guised Nature, in Children and In­fants, as well as the seeds of Vice and Wickedness, and all manner of Pra­vity and Corruption that grow up afterwards in Mens Lives. There is an Original Lust and Concupiscence to Good as well as to Evil; and as there is an Original Sin in our Nature, in a true sense and meaning, so there is an Original Righteousness still re­maining in us, as not only Nature and Experience, but St. Pauls words here of the two Lustings of the Flesh and Spirit, do plainly suppose and demon­strate. But because some have thought that the first Motions of Concupis­cence, or the meer feeble and ineffe­ctual Lustings and Desires of the Flesh after Evil or undue Objects, is truly and properly a Sin, I shall clear and consider that Point, and take off the trouble that some have thereupon in their Minds.

1. These meer Lustings or first Mo­tions of Concupiscence cannot be Sin, because they are Natural, and result from our very Frame, and Make, and Constitution; and as an Argument [Page 261]that they are so, and so come from pure Mechanism of Body, and the Temperament of Blood and Spirits, they are the same both in us and in Brutes who have such Bodies as we have, and who never were capable of Sinning or Falling, or being punish'd as such. Now nothing that is purely Natural can be Sinful, for as such it is the work of God and part of his own Creation which he has pronounced to be good, and it plainly serves such good ends and designs for the benefit of the World, as God thought ne­cessary, and as are wisely appointed by him. 'Tis therefore making God the Author of Evil, or with the An­tient Hereticks, making an Evil Prin­ciple to be our Creator, to suppose any thing in us that is purely Natural to be Sinful.

2, These Lustings and first Desires were in our first Parents before the Fall (for they are only the inclination of our Animal Nature to its proper good, and a suitable Object) when they beheld the forbidden Fruit, and saw that it was good for food, and plea­sant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired, Gen. 3.4. Had they gone no further [Page 262]but only seen it, and thought it fair and lovely to the eye, but checked this their Desire and Lust after it with the Consideration of Gods Prohibition, and of the Punishment he had threat­ned against the eating of it, they had not then lost their Innocence, nor bro­ken Gods Command, nor incurred the grievous Penalty of it.

3. Those Natural Desires and In­clinations were even in our Blessed Sa­viour, who was in all things tempted like unto us, yet without sin, Heb. 4.15. Who as he increased in Wisdom and Stature, and grew up as a Man, so he hungred and thirsted, and felt pain, and was extremely sorrowful even un­to Death, and prayed that the bitter Cup might pass from him; which all showed that he took our Nature with its Weaknesses and Infirmities upon him, and that those are not Sins unless they go further, and make us do some­thing unlawful which he never did; but his Vertue would not have been so great, nor could he have been tempt­ed by the Devil, or rewarded by his Father for his Obedience, had not he had the same Natural Desires and In­clinations [Page 263]that belong to Flesh and Blood.

4. These first Motions are unavoid­able, and not under the power or command of our Will, any more than such sensations and perceptions from Objects suited to such Faculties and inward Powers; so that we can no more help such Motions and Desires arising from such causes, than the see­ing things when they are set before our Eyes, or having our Ears struck with such sounds as are near us. The Mind is as suddenly struck with such a Desire and Inclination from such an Object making impression upon it a­greeable to its Nature and Capacity, as it is by our outward Senses. Indeed the Mind can judge of this afterwards, and has a power to determine it self as it pleases, either to choose or refuse such a Motion offered to it, and this we call Will; and if it does choose it, and consent to it, then as St. James sayes, Lust hath conceived and brought forth sin, James 1.15. but it is not Sin before it hath thus conceived and brought it forth; and though the Acti­on be not yet produced, yet when the Mind has consented to it, from thence [Page 264]it derives its Sinfulness, and all its Blame and Guilt, and there wants no­thing in it self but only Power and Opportunity, which are things with­out it, to bring it into Act: So that as a weight is the same, though its tendency downwards be stop'd by what it lyes upon, so is the pravity of the Will when it consents to an unlaw­ful Desire, though it be hindered from executing it. But I shall show this further in the Second Head of Dis­course, namely;

2ly, That these Lustings and De­sires of the Flesh and the Spirit are the proper tryals of our Vertue, and the chief matter of our Obedience; and according as either of these pre­vail upon us, so we are fix'd in our Moral state here, and our Eternal state hereafter. The Flesh sollicites us with the temptations of Bodily Pleasures and Delights, with the en­joyments of the Animal Life, and the sensible and present good things of this World; and if we choose those with­out regard to the Laws of Vertue, and Religion; if we are so fond of them that we will break through those [Page 265]to obtain them, and prefer the short gratifications of Sin and Flesh for a season before the better Pleasures of Vertue and Innocence, and the Glori­ous Rewards of them for ever, then our choice is foolish and unreasonable, and our destruction wilful and una­voidable. The Spirit proposes to us the dictates of Wisdom and Reason, and shows us both the folly and unde­cency of being thus governed by our lower Appetites, and being led away by those like Brutes that have no un­derstanding, and not living up to the dignity of our Nature, and letting our Reason curb and controll those sensual inclinations: And it further layes be­fore us the great obligations of Reli­gion, and the strong and powerful considerations of another World, and by all these it prevails upon all that se­riously think and consider, let their Carnal Inclinations be never so strong, and the Lustings of their Flesh never so fierce and violent; tho' their first Motions cannot be quite hindered and supprest, and the fire of Concupis­cence cannot be quite extinguish'd and put out, yet it may be kept under and hindered from ever blazing out, from [Page 266]ever gaining any consent of the Will to what is unlawful, and from ever committing it by outward deed or action; and while it does so, it is safe though it be still tryed, though it be in a state of perpetual warfare, and the Flesh be such an intestine enemy as cannot be wholly destroyed, but like the Canaanites, its Lusts may be still a thorn in our side to vex us, Num. 33. and to buffet us, 2 Cor. 12.7. yet we may still master and conquer it, and keep it under, and make it subject as a Vassal to the Laws of Reason and Religion. It would be moe easie, and more happy, if we brought it in­to a condition that it could never stir, or rebel, or rise up against the Spirit, but it may be as great Vertue, and greater Victory, and more highly re­wardable to struggle and overcome; and like Socrates, though by Nature and Constitution we are never so per­verse and ill disposed, yet to become otherwise by thought and Philosophy, and to owe our Vertue though not to our temper yet to our care and cir­cumspection, to the power of Grace and Religion: That will change our Hearts and our Tempers, and renew [Page 267]us inwardly in our Minds, and instead of stony Hearts, give us Hearts of Flesh, Ezek. 36.26. and instead of Fleshly and Earthly Desires give us Spiritual and Heavenly ones, and whatever we are by Nature, make us meek and gentle, sober and tempe­rate, pure and chast, and entirely Ver­tuous by Principle, Habit and Resolu­tion. 'Tis very happy when a Natu­ral Temper disposes us to acquire those Christian Vertues; when the Soil is kindly, and fitted for them to take root and grow up in it, but we must prepare and cultivate it, and weed out those corruptions that are in it, till we plant it with all those Graces, and it bring forth those Fruits of the Divine and Spiritual Life, though we are at never so much care and pains about them.

How we may bring the Spirit to prevail alwayes over the Flesh, and to conquer the Lustings of it, and by what means we may lessen the Power of one, and increase that of the o­ther, I am in the Third place to con­sider.

1. These Lustings of the Flesh, so far as Natural, are not Sinful, but [Page 268]but may be consistent with the con­trary Principle of the Spirit when kept within due bounds, and governed by the Laws of Vertue and Religion. We cannot be without such Passions, Appetites and Inclinations whilst we have Body and Flesh about us, and these are part of Gods Creation, and not made in vain, but put in us for good ends so far as they were design­ed by God and Nature. They were not given us to torment and vex us with unsatisfied Desires and impatient Appetites; like Tantalus his Punish­ment, to have the daintiest Fruit be­fore him, and be set up to the Chin in a cool River, and yet not taste the one, nor quench his thirst with a drop of the other: No, Religion does not tye us up from any proper Natural En­joyments with a touch not, taste not, handle not, but allowes us the satisfy­ing and gratifying our Natural Appe­tites and Desires within the bounds of Vertue, Decency and Lawfulness. It lets us eat of all the Trees, and Fruits, and Dainties of this Earthly Paradise, only it keeps us from the forbidden Fruit, and suffers us not to gratifie our Desires brutishly and unreason­ably, [Page 269]and without regard to publick and private good, which is more to be regarded than any Mans particular humour or pleasure. God therefore, as we are Rational Creatures who are to promote the universal Happiness of the whole World, has given us such Laws as conduce to that end, and we are alwayes to observe them, and not transgress the limits and prescriptions by which he has bounded our Sensual Desires and Inclinations, and without destroying them has made them useful and serviceable to the wise ends of his Providence. So that we are not bound with the Stoicks to root up those, nor with the Asceticks to deny our selves such gratifications as are Innocent and Decent, Lawful and Useful. But,

2. We are to destroy the Excesses and Irregularities of them which are vicious, mischievous and unbecoming; and this Religion means when it bids us mortifie our earthly members, and crucifie the Flesh, with the Affections and Lusts; and pluck out a right eye, and cut off a right hand when they offend us, or draw us to Sin; not that we are to destroy hereby any part of our Na­ture, or any of the Passions and In­clinations [Page 270]resulting from it, but so far as they are unnatural and immoderate, inflamed and heightened by folly and fancy, and exceed the measures both of Nature and Reason, Vertue and Re­ligion, and exceed the bounds both of Humane and Divine Laws, so far we are to destroy, kill and mortifie them; for they become then mischievous and pernicious to the World, and bring shameful and miserable effects along with them, and are a reproach and a dishonour to our Reason and our Na­ture, as being contrary to and below both. The frame and make of our Bodies require to be sustained with Meat and Drink, and the Natural Ap­petites of Hunger and Thirst are to be gratified with what is acceptable to the Taste and Palate, but when this runs into Luxury, Gluttony and Drun­kenness, when Vanity, Brutishness and Debauchery mixes it self with our Meat and Drink, then these Natural Appetites are vicious and immoderate, forced beyond Nature by Folly, Fancy and Custom, and our Table becomes a Snare and a Sin to us. We cannot but desire the good things, the con­veniences, the plenty, the riches of [Page 271]this World, for we see the usefulness and the necessity of them to our pre­sent Life, but to desire them so immo­derately, as not to be content with a moderate competency and sufficiency, with food and rayment, as the Apostle has fix'd a competency, 1 Tim. 6.8. with what answers the wants of Na­ture and the circumstances of our Con­dition, but to be alwayes craving after more without any use or occasion, this is that immoderate desire of Riches which we call Covetousness; and so in other things 'tis the Excess, the Ir­regularity, the immoderate and the vicious Abuse, not the Natural Passion and Inclination it self that is to be de­nyed, restrained and mortified.

3. To do this we must so check, and restrain, and deny even our Natu­ral Appetites that we may have the power and government alwayes over them: Now if we let them loose, and lay the reins upon their neck, and let them take their utmost liberties, and go alwayes to the furthest bounds of what is lawful, they will hardly be kept in as they ought to be, but we shall walk upon the brink of danger and the side of a precipice, where [Page 272]it will be hard to escape falling some­times, and our Sensual Inclinations will grow more heady, strong and un­governable by being alwayes indulged, and not used to a more severe disci­pline and management, which all wise Men have therefore prescribed by the Rules and Precepts of Mortification and Self-denyal.

4. To abate these Lustings and De­sires of the Flesh, and increase and raise those of the Spirit, let us consi­der how little and mean are the ob­jects and gratifications of the one in respect of those of the other. How the one are low, sordid and Brutish, the other Rational and Angelical, such as the highest order of Beings next to God are capable of. How little is there in all the Riches, and Greatness, and State of this World, how much less in all the mad frollicks of Debau­chery, and all the beastliness and fil­thiness of Brutish Lusts, in all those things that make up Carnal Enjoy­ments, and are the summe, as the Apostle reckons them up, of all that is in the World, The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, 1 John 2.16. How much greater [Page 273]and nobler is it to have a wise, and sober, and vertuous Mind, easie Thoughts, and a chearful Conscience, Spiritual Desires and Affections set upon things above, and strong and well-grounded hopes of an Eternal Life and a Glorious Immortality: These are the Objects of our Spiritual Desires, and we should increase those by representing the worth and value, the greatness and excellency of these above any other things that we can choose or desire, or any enjoyments of the Animal and Sensual Life. 'Tis a vain fancy and opinion of the latter, whereby we raise our imagination and heighten our expectation of something great and extraordinary in them, 'tis that kindles our Affections, and inflames our Desires after them; but did we wisely consider how vain, and trifling, and inconsiderable they are, and how poor, and little, and short, and sorry gratifications they afford, this would wean us from such weak fancies and opinions of them, and so slack and cool our Desires and Lustings after them.

Lastly, We must use all Religious Means and Methods to mortifie and abate the Lustings of the Flesh, and strengthen and increase those of the Spirit by the Acts and Exercises of Religion, Piety and Devotion. 'Tis in the growth and prevalence of the latter lyes our Moral State, and the greatest exercise of all Vertue, and in the right ordering and governing of our Passi­ons Appetites and Inclinations, so that we must use all possible Methods to keep the lower Appetites under, and obedient to the superiour, and not let them dethrone our Reason, or disobey Religion; and therefore we must use all the helps we can have from Religion and Philosophy, and the Divine Grace and Assistance, to tame our inordinate Lusts by Fasting, by Watching by Prayer by due watchfulness and circumspection over our selves, and over all the weak places of our Nature, that Sin do not enter in at some of those inlets that are un­guarded, and do not surprize and easi­ly beset us when we are unprepared and unarmed by Religion against the assaults of it; and there is nothing so [Page 275]helpful to this, and to increase and strengthen our Spiritual Desires so that they shall alwayes prevail over the Lusts of the Flesh, as the constant and uninterrupted exercises of Piety and Devotion: These give life, and vi­gour, and nourishment to our Spiri­tual Desires, and keep them alwayes warm, and heated, and intent upon their proper Objects, whereas a ne­glect of those begets a carelesness stu­pidity and senslesness of all those things, and sinks Men into a meer Sensual, and Animal, and Worldly, and Brutal Life. Nothing is therefore so proper to bring us to these Spiritual Desires, and to make those alwayes prevail over the Lusts of the Flesh, as Devo­tion and Piety, which raise the Mind to things above the Body, and above this World, and take off and abstract the Soul from Sensual and Carnal En­joyments, and make it live up as near as it can to that Life it shall have in Heaven, when it shall be all Spirit, and have no Flesh or Lusts to contend with or be contrary to it.

I shall in the next place consider ano­ther thing which befalls many a Sinner, [Page 276]and which, tho' a due effect of his Sins, and an evidence of the sad state they bring him to, and so may be of great use to be duly considered on this account, yet is a kind of Excess of Repentance, and sometimes too great an extream that way, and what ought to have the nicest Resolutions, and best Dire­ctions given about it to cure and re­move it; I mean, Trouble of Mind, or a Wounded Conscience, which many a Sinner lyes under, and which I shall briefly Represent and Discourse of, by considering how great a Mise­ry it is above all others in this World, and what Cure and Remedy there may be for it, or for those who are fallen under it.

SECT. IV. Of Trouble of Mind, or a Wounded Spirit.

THE greatest part of our Hap­piness or Misery lyes in our Minds and Spirits, in those inward Faculties and Sensories which are di­stinct from our Body and outward Senses. We feel very often more plea­sure or pain in those distinct from the Body than the Body it self is capable of; for these are quicker and more sensible than Matter and Body can be, and are the proper subject of percep­tion of any Pleasure and Pain, and of all Rational Happiness or Misery. A Mans inward Thoughts do often give him more torment and uneasiness, an­guish and disquietude of Soul, and more real pain and misery than any Bodily torment, or even Death it self; and therefore some have chosen Death, and have willingly endured any Bo­dily pain rather than lye under the greater pain, agonies and horrours of their own Minds, and many that have been under those, yet have felt an in­ward [Page 278]ward joy comfort and satisfaction of Mind that has supported them under the worst pains and sufferings of Bo­dy and the greatest outward evils that could ever fall upon them, and their Minds and Spirits have been chearful and erect and despised the threatnings of Tyrants, and born the greatest tortures of Body, and the hardest calamities of this World. Thus did all the Martyrs, and thus do many good Men and good Chri­stians enjoy an inward happiness of Mind, a peace, and comfort, and de­light of Conscience under a painful and sickly Body, a poor and necessi­tous Condition, and under a great ma­ny outward Evils which they are here subject to; but there are some closer and more inward Evils felt by others, a guil­ty and uneasie Mind, a troubled and dis­quiet Conscience, a scaring dread of a Divine Vengeance hanging over their heads, and a fearful expectation and looking for of Judgment, which shall devour them in a little time, these are such dreadful Evils as sink down a Mans Mind, and oppress it with an insupportable burden greater than it can bear, and swallow it up in a gulph [Page 279]of unspeakable and intolerable Mise­ry. This is the greatest and the worst of Miseries, to which no other Mise­ry nor no other Evils here that we are subject to are comparable: As the Wise Man observes, Prov. 11.14. The spirit of a man may sustain his in­firmities, but a wounded spirit who can bear? I shall consider three things re­lating to such a Wounded Spirit or Troubled Mind.

• I. How little all other Evils are in respect of this.
• II. How dreadful and insupport­able that is.
• III. What is the proper Cure or Remedy for it.

I. All Worldly Evil, or all that we can call outward Misery to a Christian, is in respect of that but like a small Wound to a sound Body, a little scratch upon the Skin, which though it may pain a Man a little, and be something uneasie, yet may be well enough born, and will heal of it self, or by the help of proper Remedies, so long as it touches not the Vitals, nor comes near the great Vessels of Life; but inward [Page 280]Misery the pain and anguish of a Mans own Mind caused by his Sins and an evil Conscience, is like a dart struck through his Liver, like a sword piercing into his Bowels or his very Heart, like a prick upon a Nerve or the most tender and vital part of us, which puts us into Convulsions and Agonies, and scatters all the force and power of our Animal Spirits. When any outward Affliction falls up­on a good Man, he has something to support himself, His heart standeth firm, or is fixed trusting in the Lord, Psal. 112.7. He has inward springs of Comfort rising up in his Mind that supply it with fresh vigour, and over­flow and refresh it with constant re­cruits. Under the greatest losses and disappointments here, he is sure he cannot lose Heaven if he take care to live well, nor be disappointed of his expectations hereafter; and that at present he has a good Providence that will not leave him destitute or unpro­vided, but do what is best for him. Under the greatest Calumny and Slan­der that others may load him withal, which is as uneasie as any thing to an ingenuous Mind, yet when a Mans [Page 281]Conscience acquits and vindicates him, though all the World should reproach and accuse him, he has more peace from thence than disturbance from all the noise and clamours of others. Un­der the greatest Sickness or the fears of Death, when that most terrible thing comes near him and stands be­fore him, though he may not be whol­ly without fear, yet he is not without hopes and comfort too; but now what shall a wicked Man do under all these, when his Mind is sick as well as his Body, when Death scares him, and comes as he thinks, to torment him before his time, when he is afraid to dye, and yet thinks he must dye when ever he is a little ill, how often does such an one dye? how often does he taste the bitterness of Death? and how does he feel something in his Mind worse than Death to his Body, and the agonies of his Conscience are the foretaste of that second and Eternal Death.

This shows how dreadful and un­supportable a Wounded Spirit is, which is the second thing I was to consider, but I have prevented my self in some measure with what I have said al­ready, [Page 282]and I dare not undertake fully to describe that which they who have felt tell us it is impossible to represent, or give account of: What horrours they have been in, what dismal ter­rours they have layn under, how they have suffered, as they imagine, the very torments of Hell, so great have the torments been above any thing else they could ever conceive or have an Idea of: So that I take this to be a sensible proof and demonstration of a Hell; and if a Fiend had come from thence, and with the ghastliest look and the frightfullest appearance had told us what he felt there, it could not have been more convincing nor more affecting than what an old and despairing Sinner has both felt and confessed before he came thither; when God has made him preach this with­out rising from the dead, to warn his Brethren from the like Sins, and if it were possible to make them Repent, and not come into that state of Tor­ments, when without going to the other World, or having a Messenger come from thence, they have seen and heard him cry out in the anguish of his Soul, like Cain, that his sins and [Page 283]his punishment is greater than he can hear, Gen. 4.13. When the wrath of God has layn heavy upon him, and the arrows of the Almighty have stuck fast in him, and he has been forced to drink of the wrath of the Almighty, as Job expresses it, Job 21.20. Or as the Psalmist more fully, when he tells us, Psal. 75.8. In the hand of the Lord there is a cup, and the wine is red, it is full of mixture, and he poureth out of the same, the dregs whereof the wicked shall wring out, and drink of them. This bitter Cup of Gods Wrath mix­ed with all the poysonous extracts of his own Sins, the wicked has been forced to drink, and has found that these are not vain and empty words, but real and sensible things, that we want proper words to express; for all the terrible Idea's and representations come very short of the things them­selves, to be whip'd with Snakes, and lash'd with Scorpions, to have hot burning Torches and flaming Swords held and applyed to us, which were the Metaphorical descriptions of these tortures of Conscience, are far short of what they are in themselves, and nothing indeed can come nigh the [Page 284]sense of them, nor is what we feel in pain or pleasure to be ever drawn fully and to the life in picture.

When a Man feels something in himself that nothing else is like, when his Soul is overwhelmed with the deep Passions of remorse, anguish and despair, when God hides his Face and takes away all Comfort from him, when he has no more hopes of Mer­cy, and judges himself as incapable of it as the damned in Hell, when Gods Spirit has left him, so that he can nei­ther pray nor do any thing to relieve himself, but lyes as a condemned Cai­tiff, a Malefactor sentenced, past all hopes of Pardon, and only expecting Punishment, and the last stroke of Vengeance, this is a sad, a deplorable condition which I have known many a Sinner in under a Wounded Spirit, and had one great instance before me when I was writing this.

These Wounds are not felt indeed by many a Sinner in the heat of Blood, in the career of his Lusts, and the hot persuit of his Sins, when in his high frolicks and jovial diversions he drowns the noise of his Conscience, or lulls it asleep with charming Plea­sures, [Page 285]or full Cups, or some unthinking madness, but it will awake one time, or other, and like a sleeping Lyon when 'tis roused up by some Judgment, by some Sickness, or Affliction, it will fall terribly upon him with rage and fury, and tear and consume him; then all the wounds which sin gave it will bleed afresh, and it will feel them after­wards, unless they have been cured by a timely repentance; if they have festered, and gangrened, and mortified the Soul for a time, yet when it comes to it self it will feel them with unex­pressible pain and anguish, which no­thing can asswage. I mean when a Man has sin'd away his Life, and Death and his Sins are set together be­fore him and 'tis hard to know which is the more terrible. When the Sting of Death swelled up with Sin and Guilt strikes as deep into a Man's Consci­ence, and wounds his Spirit, as Death it self strikes into his Body with its fatal dart, so that he suffers a double death at the same time, and the Spi­ritual far more painful than the Bodi­ly. I take a Wounded Spirit here in the highest and most common sense; and though when a Mans Spirit is de­jected [Page 286]and sunk with any thing 'tis very hard to bear it, which may be the sense of the Wise Mans words in the forequoted place, when the strength of a Mans Mind is lost which should support him under all his infir­mities that he is subject to from with­out, yet nothing does so sink it, so wound and destroy it as Sin and Guilt, especially when it is come to such a degree, and to such a sad condition as we commonly mean by a Wounded Spirit; i. e. a Mind deeply pierced with the sense of its own Guilt, and of Gods Anger upon it. This like­wise admits of degrees, and in some cases 'tis a very happy thing for a Sin­ner, and 'tis to be sure alwayes a just Punishment.

I shall therefore in the Third place briefly consider what is the proper Cure and Remedy of such a wounded Spirit or troubled Mind; for there is no Spiri­tual Illness but what is curable if we take it in time, by Religion; no Wound of Soul but what there is Balm for in Gilead, in Christianity; there is no Disease too great for our Heavenly Physician, but what the Gospel has a proper and certain Remedy for, if we [Page 287]duely and timely apply it. A Man may tarry too long indeed, and not use the Physick till it be too late, till Death comes and puts an end to the time of Tryal, and the time of Re­pentance; and then a Wounded Spirit, i. e. the extremest Sorrow for a Mans Sins, the deepest Contrition of Soul for them, cannot come up to true Gospel Repentance to which there is a certain promise of Pardon and For­giveness, for that is only upon turn­ing to God, and leaving all our Sins, and leading a new Life, and bringing forth the Fruits of Repentance by Obe­dience to the Gospel for the future, which is a necessary condition by the terms of the Gospel which he cannot perform whom God cuts off before he can do it; and therefore such an one must be left to the Infinite Mercy and Righteous Judgment of God, to be dealt with by such measures as are not within the Covenant of Grace, or the Terms of the Gospel, for by those I cannot see any title he has to Pardon: But in other Cases a Wounded Spirit may be the greatest Mercy, and even the very beginning of Health, or of a Cure to a Soul, when God does not [Page 288]suffer a Man to go on senslesly in his Sins, till he come to a seered Consci­ence, and a reprobate Sense, and to hardness of Heart and blindness of Mind, but by some methods of his Grace and Providence alarums his Conscience and awakens his stupid Mind, and brings his almost sensless and stupified Soul to some Spiritual sense of his condition. Then his Soul will be wounded as Davids was when he reflects upon those Sins which he committed without consideration, and he will be sore struck and smitten as every Penitent must, at the remem­brance of his evil wayes. All Re­pentance is such a wounding of the Soul as makes its Heart bleed within it, and its Blood and Spirits melt into Tears and Sorrow for what it has done; 'tis not such an easie thing as most men think it to be; 'tis such a Pain, such a Wound to the Soul, that the Pleasure of the greatest Sin is but a poor trifle to it, and no man that rightly understood it would venture upon any Sin from the reserved hopes of it. Repentance is a bitter Remedy made up of very strong and unplea­sant ingredients, and we must go [Page 289]through a long course to purge out the old Disease and take away the root of it; so that before a wicked mind can be cured by it, it must be cut, and lanced, and wounded, and have very severe applications made to it. The work of Regeneration or the New Birth cannot be wrought with­out many pangs or throwes, nor does God ever almost bring a bad man to become a good one without some trouble and disorder of Mind. There is a trouble of Mind indeed which is excessive and unreasonable, for every Sinner ought in some measure to be troubled in Mind and he has not a due sense of his Sins if he is not, but there is a trouble of Mind which takes away the hopes of Mercy and throwes Men into despair, which is commonly called a Wounded Spirit, and 'tis so in the highest degree; and whether there is any Remedy for that, and what it is, and what advice is to be given in such a case, and what judgment to be made of it, I shall briefly consider.

1. Then this is often joyned with Melancholly of Body which is very hard to be cured, and till it be so it is [Page 290]apt to darken the Mind, and bring a cloud over the Spirits, and to fill the Soul with very black Idea's and Ima­ginations, and to hinder it from mak­ing true judgment of it self or its own actions; and this is as pityable, and ought as much to be remedied by Phy­sick and Care, as other Diseases of Bo­dy, for I have known very good Persons subject to it; and one of the best means to cure it is to know that this is one cause of that trouble of Mind, which will be so much abated when one is perswaded from whence it often comes, or is heightened: For Melancholly is not curable by Reli­gion or Divinity, and they who are subject to it should take the more care of their lives that there be no true and great cause to fall in and joyn with the Melancholly of their Bodies, and they should make a judgment of them­selves in their best tempers, and when their thoughts are clearest, and should trust others, and especially their Spi­ritual Guides to judge for them, since they are so unfit generally to pass judgment upon themselves.

2. This Trouble of Mind which makes Men despair of Mercy is most [Page 291]unreasonable, and contrary to the whole tenour and design of the Gos­pel; for there is Pardon held out to the greatest Sinner by the Blood of Christ, and to the greatest Sin, or the greatest number of Sins if we Re­pent of them, and leave them, and become good Men before we dye. This is as certain as the Gospel is true, and therefore no Man has any just cause to despair for the greatest Sin or Sins, who is so heartily troubled for them that he would not for the World commit them again, and who resolves never to do so by the Grace of God, but to practice the contrary Vertues, and who makes good this Resolution by a Vertuous, and Pious, and Religious Life, this Man will as certainly be happy as if he had been alwayes innocent and never had offended God: I cannot say he will be in a state as comfortable and free from trouble, though if he has thus Repented and become a good man, he has good reason to be so, but he will be as safe, and if he has still some trouble of mind remaining upon the remembrance of his Sins though never so long past, and he cannot see the Pardon of them with the same [Page 292]certainty and evidence that he knows he committed them, yet this shall not hinder his Pardon nor affect his Sal­vation if he has truly and fully Re­pented of them. For,

3. And Lastly, This Trouble of Mind which proceeds from judging too hardly or severely of himself is rather an Infirmity than a Sin, and God will not condemn a Man for it though he may condemn himself; for God will not condemn a Man unjustly though he should unjustly condemn himself, much less because he does so. Despair is indeed a sad state, but I cannot say it is alwayes a damnable Sin, or want of Faith as some think, for it may arise not from a disbe­lief of the Gospel, or of the Divine Goodness, or the freeness and fullness of Gods Grace in and through Christ, but meerly from a false, and mistaken, and too hard and humble an opinion of a Mans self, and this is a fault not of a Mans Will but of his Judgment, and a weakness and imperfection in his Understanding for which he shall never be condemned by a Righteous God, but he will reverse this false Judgment which he made of himself [Page 293]when he lived or when he dyed, and set it right in the Court of Heaven, and do Justice to him at the great Tribunal, though he did not do it to himself here. That God will judge Men according to their Works is plain in Scripture, but no where that I know, that he will do so according to their Thoughts, their vain Hopes, and presumptuous or vain Fears, and Trou­bles, and Doubts, and even Despairs of themselves. So that tho' this Trouble of Mind or this Wounded Spirit be a comfortless and unhappy state, yet it truly depends upon the cause to make judgment of it, or to conclude any thing from it, and true and timely Re­pentance is the best and certainest Re­medy for it.

SECT. I. The Case of the Thief upon the Cross Examined.

THE Relation and Account of the Thief upon the Cross, and our Saviours Discourse with him, tho' it be put in, and lye in the Gospel on­ly as a meer History, and a matter of fact that belonged to the manner of our Saviours dying, his being crucified be­tween Two Thieves, so that it was not intended or designed by any of the Evangelists to teach any Evangelical Doctrine, or to give any peculiar Rule, Principle, or Instruction that was ex­traordinary, and that was to be learnt and collected, confirmed and authori­zed only by that, and therefore though 'tis mentioned by all the Evangelists, [Page 316]yet by Three of them very shortly and briefly, as a meer circumstance re­markable, chiefly for this, that the Legs of the Two Thieves were bro­ken, as was usual in crucifixions; whereas Christ being sooner dead, pre­vented this, and so litterally complea­ted that Prophecy, A bone of him shall not be broken: And for the sake of ano­ther Prophecy, That he should be num­bred with transgressors, and be a Com­panion and fellow-Sufferer with the most infamous Criminals, and Male­factors, and nothing farther was inten­ded or designed by it, so far as we know, or appears to us from Scripture, as the proper use, and the genuine pur­pose of it, though by accident indeed it was an honourable Confession of Christ, and a bearing Testimony to him before his Crucifiers, and also an Owning a future state of Bliss and Happyness after this Life, when a Man was going out of the World, by his desiring Christ to remember him in his kingdom, and Christ's promising, that he should be that day with him in Paradice; but these were Truths not to be learnt from hence only, but elsewhere, tho' they were hereby very solemnly at­tested [Page 317]to: But there has been a Do­ctrine raised from hence, and not to be learnt from any other place of Scrip­ture, never taught by Christ, or any of his Apostles, but wholly taken up, and founded upon this Instance of one of the Thieves upon the Cross, which has from a matter of History and Circum­stance been improved to Teach and Advance a new Doctrine, no where else to be found in the Bible; namely, That a wicked Man, when he comes to dye, may hope to be happy and go to Heaven by vertue of a sudden Con­version and a short Death-Bed Repen­tance, though he has spent his whole Life never so carelesly and wickedly: Or that a Death-Bed Repentance may be by the Gospel sufficient and effectual for a Mans Salvation, who has lived a very ill Life, and who does not soo­ner Repent of it, than when he comes to dye. Now this I think is not only the falsest, but the most Pernicious and Mischievous Doctrine that can be, for it plainly takes away the necessity of a good Life, since that is not necessary which a Man can any way hope to be saved without; and so tends to encou­rage Men to continue in their sins, [Page 318]with the hopes that they may have time enough to repent of them when they come to dye, and that there is a possi­ble, if not a likely way to save them­selves at the last, though they live never so wickedly, provided they have but a little time and warning, which hardly one in five hundred but has to perform this sudden Repentance, and are not prevented to do it by a sudden Death, which is an accident that hap­pens but to few; If there be nothing else but this accidental uncertainty to secure Religion, and the necessity of a good Life, so that otherwise a Sin­ner may at the last claim the full bene­fit of Pardon by the Gospel-Covenant if he come in then by a short Repen­tance, though he has stood out all his life in Rebellion against God, and may, as we commonly say, dye well, and make a good end, though he lived never so ill: If this be true, then this Gospel-Priviledge of Repen­tance destroys the Gospel it self, and the main End and Design of it, and takes away the necessity of Gospel-Holyness and Obedience, in order to our future Happyness; it removes and alters those Conditions of Salvation [Page 319]which are indispensibly required by the Gospel, it abates and remits the plain terms of it, and by such a clause of Priviledge takes away all the Au­thority and force of its Commands, and all the Terror of its Threats and Pu­nishments, and in effect unlooses all our Obligations to the Law of God, and to a good Life; whatever does this, and has such mischievous Conse­quences, and is so contrary to the first and plainest Truths in Religion, as I shall show this is, cannot surely be a Gospel-Doctrine, and therefore I am perswaded that is not which allows Salvation to a meer Death-Bed Repen­tance by the terms of the Gospel.

The Great thing to support this, is the instance of the Thief upon the Cross, Luke 23.42, 43. though I shall show there is no certain ground or true foundation to be had from that of any such thing if we fully consider and examine it.

As to the Parable of the Labourers in the Vineyard, Matth, 20. who came in at the Eleventh hour, and were rewarded as well as those who were hired at the first; this be­longs to another matter, and is spoken [Page 320]in favour of the Gentiles, who though not so soon called and taken into the Covenant, as the Jews yet should af­terwards be called and received into it, and have as great Priviledges, and as great a Reward as the Jews them­selves, who were Gods first, and pe­culiar People, hired and called in long before them: So that this is foreign to the case of a late and short Repentance of a dying Christian, who was called or hired as soon as he was baptized, and knew Christianity; and if he loy­ter all the day, and will not work at all, no not one hour, or any conside­rable part of his Life, till Night comes, and then when 'tis too late, and he cannot work at all, only falls a crying and sorrowing, and repenting for this his loytering and being idle, there is no­thing in the Parable to excuse such an one, but only those at the most, who had not the knowledge of Christianity, or the means of Salvation sooner offer'd them, but came in and worked as soon as they had, as soon as they were called and hired. The Parable taken altogether, must not be applyed further than this, as if it extended to all those Christians who come in and Re­pent [Page 321]only at the last, or even to those who have one hours time in proportion to their whole lives to do a few Acts of Obedience, for it is by no means true that he who works and is Reli­gious a short and very little part of his Life, shall be as well rewarded, and have as full an hire and recompence of God in another World, as he who does so the whole; for then God would not render to men according to their works, as he hath declared he will do at the last judgment, for tho' he may do what he will with his own, yet his rewards and promises are now fixt and determined by a Covenant; and though God might bring in the Gen­tiles at the latter hour, and reward them as well as the Jews, because there was nothing to the contrary in theirs or any other Covenant, yet now as he that knows his Masters will, and does it not, shall be beaten with more stripes, so he that hath well used Ten Talents, shall have a greater improvement, and greater gifts bestowed upon him, and he shall have a higher reward who does more and greater Acts of Vertue in his life, than he who does less; for Heaven, though it be a gift is a [Page 322]reward too, and shall be exactly propor­tioned in the degrees of it to the deser­vings and actions and behaviours of Men.

The main foundation then of this Doctrine of the Efficacy or Sufficiency of a Death-Bed Repentance must be the case of the Thief upon the Cross i. e. the History or Relation of a Man who dyed as a Malefactor and yet certainly went to Heaven, for that is the whole of it: Now I doubt not but many hundred such Malefa­ctors have gone to Heaven, and many Thousand Sinners that were once bad Men, but yet had they never Repented till they came to dye, I do as verily believe that not one of them had gone thither, but to another place where Men shall for ever repent at the same rate that most Men do who have not done so before that time: To Ground and Establish this Doctrine upon this Historical Case, and 'tis I believe the only Doctrine that has such a foundation, we must examine whe­ther it certainly and exactly comes up in all the Particulars and Circumstan­ces of it to the case of a wicked Mans living a very ill life till he comes to [Page 323]dye, and then only repenting of it: We must then enquire whether it plain­ly and certainly appears from the ac­count the Scripture gives us of it,

1. Whether he were a very ill Man in the whole or general course of his Life?

2. Whether we are sure he did not Repent long before he came to dye? for if these two are not certainly known, nor do appear from Scripture, the case may be very different, and no way suit or answer the late and dying Repentance of a very wicked Man: And,

3. Supposing those two, yet how can we tell whether this might not be an extraordinary case, and such as belongs to no other Sinner whatso­ever?

1. Whether it do appear from the account Scripture gives us of him, that he was a very ill Man in the whole or general course of his life? The reason of which inquiry is this, that a general habit of irreligion and wick­edness, through the whole course of a Mans life puts him into a more wret­ched, and dangerous, and deplorable state than any particular Act of Sin, [Page 324]or then any one sin whatsoever; for that like a Leprosie spreads over and cor­rupts the whole Mind, lays the whole Conscience waste, and roots up all the Principles of Religion, and puts Men in the number of those who have no fear of God before their eyes, and who live without God in the World; but a Man may not be so far gone, not be a Sinner of so high a rate, but may be an imperfectly good Man, and yet fall into a wilful sin by the suddenness or greatness of the Temptation, by Sur­prize and Inconsideration, and laxness of Thoughts; by a remissness in Re­ligion, and not being duely upon his Guard, and by the struggle that is in his mind between the Flesh and the Spirit, between this World and ano­ther, which makes the one now and then get the better of the other; such an one is a kind of borderer upon Ver­tue, and lives between the confines of that and wickedness; and sometimes he is governed and brought under the power of one, and sometimes is over­come and made a prey by the other; Now though such an one is not fit for the Kingdom of Heaven, till he comes wholly off from every wilful [Page 325]sin, and is more under the power of Religion, yet he is nearer to the King­dom of Heaven, and may sooner by Repentance and becoming a good Man, fit himself for it, and so enter into it. It does not at all appear in Scripture from the History of this Pe­nitent Theif whether he had been a very ill Man or no, in the general course of his Life; only that he was a Thief, which was enough to denomi­nate him [...], and suffered as he himself owns, justly, and received the due reward of his deeds, Luke 23.41. But who knows what abatements his sin might have either by extream ne­cessity, or some other circumstances which God might fairly consider and allow for, though he was brought to an infamous Death here by the severi­ty of Humane Laws: Even a good Man who is so in the general course and habit of his Life, may fall into a particular act of wilful sin, as we see in David, Moses, and St. Peter, and let him that standeth take heed lest he fall, as the Apostle advises, 1 Cor. 10.12. For no Man is perfectly out of danger whilst he is in this state of probation and infirmity; and though every such [Page 326]Sin breaks a Mans good State, and puts him into an ill one, till he recovers himself by Repentance and Amend­ment; for Mens States of Grace and Damnation are no way fixt here, but are alterable in this World according to the temper of their minds, and be­haviour of their lives, yet 'tis more easie to recover from a single act than a long habit, as 'tis to cure a green wound than an old Ulcer, or a Chro­nical Disease: And where there is an habitual soundness within, where the Mind is not vitiated with habitual Cor­ruptions, and evil Principles, and ir­religious Habits and Customs, but has a pretty good Sense of Religion, though it happens to be over-powred with a temptation, there it will sooner reco­ver it self, and throw off the Disease and the Corrupt Matter by its own inward Strength, and the assistance of the Divine Grace; There the inward Sense and the Principles of Religion will unfold and expand themselves by the power of Restitution, since though they have been prest down and over­powred, yet they have not been quite broken and destroyed; the Religious and Vertuous Sense will revive again [Page 327]in the Mind which was not wholly ex­tinguished, though very much Damped and Choaked and weakned; and thus they plainly seem to be in thus penitent Thief by his Carriage to our Saviour, which I shall consider by and by, by his rebuking the other Thief who was railing at Christ, with that most sober Reprimand, Dost thou not fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation, ver. 40. and by the firm belief and full perswasion he had of the happy­ness of another State, and his Devout and Religious Prayer to Christ to remember him when he came into his Kingdom; These make it very proba­ble, that he was not a very profligate or ill Man in the general course of his Life, but rather such a good one, who lived not in the habit of many great sins, but fell into a particular Act by a Temptation that might greatly lessen it before God, though it made him an Example before Men: But,

2. Whatever his Sin was, however great, and however sinful a Man he had been, yet who knows how long he had repented, and how sincerely, and what fruits he had shown of his Re­pentance? We know not when the [Page 328]theft was committed, and whether he did not immediately Repent of it, and make Restitution for it, even before he was apprehended, and before the thoughts and terrours of Death frigh­ted him into it; and herein may lye a mighty difference, for if a Man upon the reflection of his Sin and a wicked Life, and the serious consideration of the great danger he is in thereby, shall by the Grace of God, setting these things home upon his Mind, strongly fixing and exciting these thoughts in him, shall be brought to good purposes and resolutions of becoming better, and do strengthen and make good these by his Actions, and thus begins to be good, and ceases to be wicked, not from a sudden fright and fear of Death, but from the Convictions of Religion, from the free and full perswasion of his own mind, which is like to remain and continue with him, this puts him into a much better State and Condi­tion, and is more truely Repentance than that which arises in Men when they come to dye, when they have a force put upon them, which almost takes away the true freedom and liber­ty of their Wills; and therefore what [Page 329]they do then is owing wholly to that, and ceases generally when that is re­moved: As to the Thief, we know not what his case was, and therefore 'tis meer conjecture to suppose he did not Repent till he came to dye, and 'tis the most groundless thing i'the World to apply his Case to that of a wicked Man, who repents not till he finds he must quickly dye, when so far as we know his was perfectly diffe­rent, that he was neither a very wicked Man in the general Course of his Life, and as for that single Act of Wicked­ness which is recorded of him, that he might repent of it as soon as he com­mitted it, and that might be many years before he suffered for it. We have no certain knowledge of any of these things, and therefore we can make no certain judgment by it, much less raise a Doctrine from it, which supposes those two things which so far as we know may be both false; and then who would venture his Soul upon such a mere uncertainty as that another Man whom he knows very little of did not repent till he came to dye, and lived very ill all the while be­fore, [Page 330]neither of which may be true, but if they were, yet

3. How can he tell but this may be an extraordinary Case, and such as no way belongs to him, nor to any other Sinner whatsoever? What if Christ to show the wonderful and miraculous Power of his Cross to­wards the Salvation of Sinners, was pleased to give an uncommon and ex­traordinary instance of it at that time such as no other Sinner should ever expect the like, unless Christ should again come down, and dye upon the Cross with him? What if God, who will have Mercy on whom he will have Mercy, was pleased to let this penitent Thief be a singular Example of his unlimited Power and Prerogative to save beyond all ordinary Rules, be­cause of his dying at that time with Christ? This does no more make it to be a standing and certain measure of his dealing with others, than a Princes showing some extraordinary Act of Mercy to a few Persons when he comes first to his Crown, and re­leasing all Prisoners at his Inaugura­tion, declares that this shall be the constant Rule of his Government, or [Page 331]that his Subjects shall have reason to expect this at other times from him. Thus the Case might be extraordina­ry as to God, but I rather lay it as such upon the account of the Person himself; for 'tis certain he was an ex­traordinary Person who had the ho­nour not only to dye with Christ, and to bear him company upon the Cross, but to confess and own him there in the face of all his enemies who were then flouting and reviling him, when this good Man was owning him to be the Messiah, calling him Lord, and praying him to remember him when he came into his Kingdom. So that he de­clared the most illustrious Act of Faith in him that could be, greater than his own Disciples then had, for they did not so clearly believe and understand his Kingdom not to be of this World, and they all forsook him and fled, when this Man alone bore witness to him before the scoffing Jews and all his barbarous Crucifiers, which was being a Martyr to him, though not for him, a confessing him in his Death though not by it. And he that did thus confess Christ before men, and was not ashamed to do it when he [Page 332]was in his lowest and most contemp­tible state, and who probably was for this treated with more insulting mock­ery if not worser usage by Christ and his own Crucifiers, is it any wonder that Christ according to his Promise Matth. 10.32. should confess such an one before his Father in Heaven? And that he who suffered with him, and so eminently believed in him, should reign with him, and be saved and received into his Kingdom? Can a wicked and careless Sinner who has denyed Christ by his Life, who has affronted, dis­obeyed and contemned him, who in the language of Scripture has crucified to himself the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame, Heb. 6.6. by Apostatizing from his Baptism and by an unchristian Life, can such an one expect to have the same treatment and usage from our Saviour for a few dying Sorrows, and empty Vows, and little Remorses as this Famous Con­vert, this Great Confessor, this Emi­nent Martyr, this Apostle of Christ, as I may call him, who preached him upon the Cross before his greatest ene­mies, and sealed his Illustrious Faith in him with his dying words and his [Page 333]last breath? No surely, the case must be very different between him and an ordinary and profligate Sinner, a wick­ed and vile Christian.

I do not think any far fetched No­tion necessary to salve this matter of the Thieves Salvation, by supposing him with a late Author, to have the benefit of Baptism, the Baptismus San­guinis, and then that Baptism will save a Man without Obedience and a good Life. For I deny that Baptism has any such Grace or Benefit, as with­out those to save a wicked Man, tho' he should be Baptized in articulo Mor­tis, when he was just a dying: For if a newly Baptized Person be not actually a good Man in such a degree as God will accept by the Terms of the Gospel, his Baptism shall not save him, though it puts him into a state of Salvation if he be so, but not other­wise, as is plain by Simon Magus; for the conditions of Salvation are not specifically different before Baptism and after, but only gradually: If they were, a Man would defer his Bap­tism till near his Death as some did of old upon this mistaken Notion of such a Baptismal Grace as saves a Man [Page 335]by an outward without an inward Regeneration and real Holiness, the actual proof and signs of which the Primitive Church required in the A­dult before they admitted them to Baptism. And therefore to suppose a Man may be saved upon Baptism, though he is not a good Man, is not allowable, but if he dye just upon it, God will judge him according to the present temper of his Mind, and the past course of his Actions, allowing him the Gracious Termes of the Gos­pel which he has now a right to by his Baptism; but to think he can be sa­ved without any Actual Goodness in his Mind and in his Life, is I think very false; though a less degree may save him that knows not Baptism or Christianity than him that does. But as for the Baptism of Blood, or allow­ing Martyrdom the priviledge of Bap­tism, this is not founded upon ordi­nary right but presumptive equity, and Salvation is allowed to them, be­cause no Man but must be presumed to be a very good Man, and have a high degree of actual Vertue and Ho­liness who dyes a Martyr, and prefers Religion before every thing in this [Page 334]World, even his very Life: And with­out this in some higher measure than meer Purposes and Resolutions, and meer Sorrow and Repentance for not having it, I deny that any Baptism, or any thing else will save a Man.

This I say to prevent an Objection that it would not otherwise be easie to Answer, which is this, That if the Grace of Baptism will send a wicked and unqualified Soul to Heaven by vertue of a meer dying Repentance, without any degrees of Actual Holi­ness, without which, the Scripture tells us, no man shall see the Lord, why may not the Grace of the Eucharist do the same by the like dying Repent­ance? Or according to the Roman Principles, the Grace of Penance and Absolution, or of Extreme Unction, which have all the same superstitious Error at the bottom.

SECT. II. The Pleas and Pretences on behalf of a Death-Bed Repentance Answered.

HAving showed that there is no­thing in the case of the Thief upon the Cross to support or justifie the validity and efficacy of a Death-Bed Repentance, I shall now examine the other Pleas and Pretences which are brought for it and show how weak and ungrounded they are, so that no Man may believe such a dan­gerous and mistaken Doctrine, nor venture his Soul not only upon such an uncertain hazard, but such a cer­tain danger and inevitable ruine as that will bring upon him, if he presume upon it and trust to it: I shall consi­der and rectifie the common preju­dices that are about it which are chiefly these following,

• First, That at whatsoever time a Sinner repenteth, he shall find Mercy.
• Secondly, That if a Man do so heartily and sincerely resolve upon a good Life, that God sees if he should [Page 337]live he would make this good, then this Will shall be taken for the Deed.
• Thirdly, That God may turn and change a Mans Heart on a sudden.
• Fourthly, That by denying the effi­cacy of a Death-Bed Repentance, we throw Men into despair, and take away the Arguments that should perswade them then to Repent, and limit Gods Mercy, and restrain his Grace, and the like.

First, That Expression, Whensoever, or at what time soever, a Sinner re­penteth he shall find mercy. Now this though it be not express and in so ma­ny words in Scripture, and therefore when the words in the Original would not fully bear such a Translation, Ezek. 18.21. and some were offend­ed at it as giving too much encourage­ment to the Doctrine I am opposing, it was left out of the Sentences be­ginning our Morning-Prayer, yet if we allow it to be true in the utmost and fullest sense, and there is no great difference between when and whenso­ever, or at what time soever, yet it no way avails to the maintaining the effi­cacy of a late or Death-Bed Repent­ance; [Page 338]for all that a Man can then do, does not come up to true Repentance, such a Repentance as has Pardon and Salvation promised to it by the Terms of the Gospel. A Man may then be very sorry for his Sins, and heartily troubled and concerned for them, but this Sorrow alone, were it upon never so good Reasons, is not Repentance, but that which may bring us to Re­pentance, as St. Paul sayes, Godly sor­row worketh Repentance, 2 Cor. 7.10. and therefore it is not the thing it self. We may as well suppose that feeling the smart of a Wound is healing it, as meer Sorrow for Sin is true Repent­ance. Few Sinners and few Male­factors but are thus sorrowful when they come near the place of Punish­ment and Execution: They are sorry they must suffer for their Sins, and the terrour of their Sufferings makes Sin very bitter to them, but if that were removed, they would love them and commit them perhaps as much as ever. If Sorrow alone for Sin though never so deep and grievous were true Repentance, then Cain and Judas were as great Penitents as any, and so will all the damned be to all Eter­nity [Page 339]who will thus sorrow and thus repent for ever of their Sins, but with­out any amendment; and they will wish also a thousand times that they had been wiser, and lived better, and had not by their foolish and wicked courses brought themselves into such a miserable and wretched condition, and would God but let them live over their Lives again, oh how much better would they be! how much otherwise would they live! and how heartily would they purpose and resolve to leave all their Sins and lead a very good Life, would God but give them opportunity and space, and try them once more! This is the language of Sinners both in this World and the next too, when the day of Grace and the time of Tryal is over, when it is too late to do all this which they now wish they had done, but would not do it when God gave them time, and so they have lost the only opportunity which it is impossible to retrieve. Would God grant either the Sinner that is damned or the Sinner that is a dying opportunity to live again, they would both be better perhaps, but since he does not, he will judge them [Page 340]not according to what they would be but what they have been, not accord­ing to what they wish and resolve to do but what they actually have done, since the Scripture no where tells us that Men shall receive according to their Wishes, their Purposes and Re­solutions, but according to their Works and Actions, whether they have been good or evil. And therefore,

2ly, I believe there is no ground for that determination which has been often given about a Death-Bed Re­pentance: n: that if a Mans Purposes are then so sincere that he would make them good if he lived, that then they may be sufficient to his Salvation. Had God given him time to make them good, and from a bad Man to have become a good one, which is the only true Notion I know of Repentance, then indeed he had fallen under the pro­mises and the measures of the Gospel, where God has declared Pardon to all Men that Repent and Amend, but no where that I know of to those who only resolve to do so, though never so sincerely And therefore should a Mans Purposes be never so sincere at [Page 341]that time, which I doubt not but they may be as to the present sense of his Mind, that is, he may really in­tend at that time what otherwise could not be properly called a Purpose or Resolution in him, yet this may not be afterwards effectual, but may go off as most of the Vows of Sick Men and Ship-wrecked Mariners do when the Sickness and the Storm is over, and they are just as they were before when they are well and upon dry Land; for nothing is more easie and more sud­den than to wish and purpose and re­solve well, especially when Men are under any great fear or great danger which wholly takes up their Minds, and they consider not so much the difficulty of performing what they re­solve upon, as the necessity they see of avoiding the danger that is before them; but when they are got free from that, their Minds and their Pur­poses change as well as their Circum­stances. But let us allow all that can be supposed that these Purposes of the dying Sinner are not only sincere but would be effectual too, if he lived, which neither he nor any other but only God can know, yet I see no rea­son [Page 342]to think that God will deal with him for what he might or would here­after be, and not for what he was or is at present, or that the Rule of the Divine Judgment at the last day shall be this, to reward Sinners because they might have been good Men if they had lived longer, or to punish good Men because they might have been bad perhaps if they had lived longer too, though God had seen either of these in his Infinite Prescience, but thinks fit to prevent them by cutting a Man off and taking him out of the World, he will not acquit or condemn him for foreseen futurities which might or would have happened, but for past and certain Actions which he hath done, and which God himself cannot make to be undone, though he may hinder these to be done which are not, and so to become nothing. 'Tis the present Habit and Temper and Frame of a Mans Mind, and the present Moral state of Vertue or Vice which a Man is in when he dyes shall dispose him to Happiness or Misery; so that 'tis not he that was formerly or might hereafter be a good Man if he had lived, but only he that is so at present [Page 343]in the disposition of his Mind and ha­bit of his Life, is fit for the Kingdom of Heaven, and meet for the inheri­tance of the Saints in light: And 'tis not he that was a wicked Man here­tofore, or might be such afterwards if he had lived in such tryals and cir­cumstances which it pleased God to take him away from, and so in this sense take him from the evil to come, but he that is a wicked Man at pre­sent in the habit of his Mind and course of his Life shall go to Hell. Repent­ance is not a resolution to forsake Sin and become a good Man, but the be­coming so after we have been other­wise in any instance. And he that has lived very carelesly and wickedly all his life, and only resolves to live other­wise when he comes to dye, can no more be called a good Man than he a good Schollar that has spent all his time idly in the University, but when he is to be expelled from thence re­solves to study hard: Or he a Rich Man who has prodigally wasted all his Estate, but when it is gone almost to the last Farthing resolves to save and become Rich. Good resolutions are good spurs to quicken, and are ne­cessary [Page 344]to carry on and put us upon any great or excellent design, but if the design were attained as soon as it is purposed and resolved upon, no Man would miss of his end, nor ever fail of being Wise and Learned, and rich and Great, if a sudden resolution of being so would do the business. Nor would any Sinner be either miserable or wicked when he comes to dye, if it were sufficient to purpose and re­solve at that time to become good and happy. 'Tis a loose and a false Noti­on of Repentance which places it in meer Purposes, and in good Wishes and Resolutions, and in a short tran­sient passion and compunction of mind and inward working of thoughts, ra­ther than in a settled and permanent change both of Mind and Actions, in a new Heart and a new Life, in turn­ing from Sin, and doing that which is lawful and right, in being renewed in our minds, and amending and re­forming our wayes in which the Scrip­ture places it, that has given occasion to this dangerous mistake of the suffi­ciency of a Death-Bed Repentance; but Repentance, as I have all along showed, is a greater thing than most [Page 345]imagine. 'Tis not a slight Remedy, but a Medicine made up indeed of a great many parts and ingredients, such as Sorrow and Trouble, and Fasting and Confession, and good purposing and resolving, and the like, but till these work the Cure, and make the Mind better, purge out all the sickly matter, free the Soul from all its Sins and restore it to a state of Vertue and Religion, of Grace and Goodness, they all signifie nothing; for true and perfect Repentance must be like Health or a recovery after Sickness, and till the Mind is brought off from its sick and weak state, from all its Spiritual Maladies and Sinful Habits, to a good degree of soundness, and a Vertuous Crasis and Constitution, so as to be free from Sin, work Righteousness, and perform the proper acts of the Divine Life, so as the drunkard is made sober, the unclean chast, the unrighteous not only just but charita­ble, the profane and irreligious devout and pious, and the like, it has not Re­pented as the Scripture requires, nor is it qualified for Pardon or for future Happiness; for no wicked Man in any kind shall enter into Heaven, 1 Cor. [Page 346]6.9. till he be made good after he has been otherwise in any instance; for one wilful and habitual Sin conti­nued in will certainly damn him, and nothing but Obedience, which if it be after Disobedience is called Repent­ance, is the Gospel Condition of our Salvation, and without this, faith and trust in Christ, and hopes in Gods Mercy and Free Grace, which are the true supports and comforts to a good Man, are deceitful comforts and meer delusions to a bad one, for without ho­liness and habits of Grace and Good­ness, no man shall see the Lord, and if we will enter into life, we must keep the Commandments. And God surely did not give us such Commands that we should either keep them while we live, or else Repent of not doing it when we come to dye; then a Man might break them all while he lives, and only Repent that he had not kept them when he is a dying, and this should be instead of keeping of them, which would defeat and de­stroy all the Gospel, and all the ne­cessity of Obedience and a Holy Life, and keeping Gods Commandments, [Page 347]and God must then alter those Terms, and alter even his own Judgment at the Last Day, and not judge us by our Works, nor by what we have done in the flesh whether it be good or evil, but only by the sincerity of our dying Repentance which I no where find mentioned, nor is this dis-junctive any where in the Gospel, Leave thy sins and live well, and keep my Commands, or else Repent and be sorry for not do­ing all these things at the last, and that shall be as well. But I shall by and by give my positive Arguments more fully against this mischievous mistake.

3ly, The next difficulty, and the next plea for a Death-Bed Repentance is this, That God may on a sudden so powerfully alter a Mans Mind, and so work upon his Heart by his Spirit, as to change and convert him, and make him another Man in a very little time, or just before he dyes. I answer, God may do this if he pleases to exert his utmost force and power upon us, and so he may raise us again after we are dead, and make us live a new Life upon Earth, but we are not I suppose ordinarily to expect this, no more are we the other, which is as contrary to [Page 348]the ordinary Methods of his Grace, as the other of his Providence; God does not use a miraculous and extraordina­ry power in either, and for any Man to depend upon this, is a downright tempting of God, and by neglecting the common means which he has put into his hands, to call for a Miracle which God will not grant to the care­less and idle when there is no need of it. God has given us all sufficient Means, sufficient Motives, and Argu­ments, sufficient Grace and Assistance to Repent and leave our Sins; and if we will not make use of these, but abuse the Talents he has committed to us, he will not for that reason give us a double number, when we come to dye, and dispense the more to us for our having been idle and prodigal all our lives. The habits of sin and wicked­ness which we have been contracting all our Lives will not be changed on a sudden when we come to dye, when we have complained so long and often of our sins, as being so hard to be over­come, and so impossible to be left off, shall we expect all of a sudden to have it become so easie a matter, and so sud­den a business to get rid of them? when [Page 349]we have suffered them to run so long upon us, and have not thought 'em curable by all the Methods of Grace and Religion, shall we think to meet with a sudden Charme and Amulet for them that shall cure them we know not how? Some Men talk of infused habits without being able to reconcile them either to Sense or to Nature, and of instantaneous Conversion, without being able to give any one example of any such thing from all the Scripture; some indeed were suddenly and mi­raculously converted to Christianity, as St. Paul, and the Goaler; and a Man may be brought to believe otherwise than he did by such a strong Argu­ment as a Revelation, which shall im­mediately turn his Judgment and Un­derstanding, but to have him that has been along while accustomed to do evil, in an instant do good, is without president in Scripture, and no way re­concileable with that known place of Jerem. 13.23. A Man cannot sudden­ly step out of the wayes of Vice in­to those of Vertue; they do not lye near, but contrary to one another; so that a Man must go back and undo his vitious habits, and unravel all his [Page 350]sinful customs by degrees before he can attain to the contrary Vertuous ones, which are not to be acquired without great pains and time, and long care and watchfulness. To root out Vice and make Grace grow in the heart, is not an easie nor a sudden work, we find how much it costs us to mortifie a lust, to conquer a passion, to master an ill inclination, and what pains we must take with our selves to do this, and can we think all this may be done on a sudden, by a Man who has all his days lived loosely, and given the reins to all these; that he can be made that in a moment which he could not be made all his Life? God may in­deed give him a New Soul, and that a very Vertuous one, and Annihilate his Old one that was so habitually vi­tious, but to make that good in a moment is more difficult than the other, more contrary to Nature, and what is as little to be expected so far as I know from God. The summe is, none but a good Man can go to Hea­ven, and none can be made such on a sudden without a Miracle; and no Man can expect to be saved by that, but by the ordinary Means and Grace [Page 351]of the Gospel. Those Graces and Ver­tuous habits which can alone qualifie and make us meet for Heaven, cannot be brought into our Souls on a sudden, nor can any sudden Convictions, or sudden Thoughts and sudden Passions change and alter a Mans mind so as to renew it, and put it in another frame, and make it inwardly Holy and Righ­teous when it was habitually bad be­fore, without so much time, and so many Acts of Obedience as shall change its Principles, Thoughts, Inclinations, Affections, Temper, Disposition, and the like. In vain had God commanded us so many Vertues, and so many Acts of Obedience as Qualifications and Conditions to fit our Minds for Eter­nal happyness, if without living in those, and performing them any time our Souls might be disposed and fitted for it. There cannot be a sufficient change of the Mind for this purpose without change of Life and Actions. To talk of inward Principles of Grace in the heart without vital Acts of Ho­lyness and Obedience in the Life, and that an old Sinner by such a new Prin­ciple infused into him, is a kind of Embrio Saint, just conceived, though [Page 352]not formed as he should be, nor able to performe any Acts of Obedience, is to strain a Metaphor, and depend up­on a Similitude without rightly under­standing the thing; Every Christian hath this inward Principle of Grace in­fused into him by vertue of his Bap­tisme and Christianity, and it exerts it self with his own will and endeavours all his Life, unless hindred by him; and it is never perfectly taken away from any perhaps, or at least only from the most Vile and Profligate of Sinners in this World, but it will and doth stir and move, even in very wicked Minds, but this is all ineffectual, and to no purpose, unless it produce Acts of Vertue and Obedience and a Good Life, without which it neither Sancti­fies nor Regenerates, nor makes us good Men, nor fit for Heaven, and without those which are the Vital Mo­tions and Effectual Operations of this Grace of the Gospel which is given us by our Baptisme, he who may be supposed to have this inward Principle infused into him, and stirring with his fears at the time of his Death, yet for all that is but an Abortive Christian, [Page 353]and hath neither the new Birth or Re­generation, nor the Divine Life in him.

4ly. The great Prejudice against this Doctrine is this, that 'tis too severe, and will tend to make us judge over­hardly of others, and to throw dying Sinners into despair, as being in an hopeless State by the Gospel, and so hinder their Repentance at that time as being insufficient, and ineffectual. To which I answer, That 'tis no more severe than the Gospel is, which shuts every wilful Sinner out of Heaven, and pronounces Damnation upon every one that does not live a good Life, at least after a bad one, which is the true Notion of Repentance, but we must make a new Gospel if we abate of this and come lower than is any way con­sistent with the Divine Wisdom and Government, and with securing Ver­tue and Religion, and not opening a wide door to Looseness and Licenti­ousness, and encouraging Men in their Sins rather than bringing them off from them; I believe indeed 'tis more out of pity and tenderness than any good ground in Reason or Scripture that the other Doctrine has took place, but we must not pervert the Gospel [Page 354]out of an unreasonable tenderness, and by pretending to be more merciful than God is or has declared himself to be; and 'tis I doubt the greatest cruel­ty to our own and others Souls thus to deceive 'em into ruine by giving them hopes contrary to the Gospel, and I account it the greatest charity to for­warne Men of their danger, and to free them from such a fatal mistake; It does not so much concern us to judge other Men, and apply this Doctrine to them as to our selves, God is their proper judge to whom we ought to leave them, and to their own Master they shall stand or fall at the great day, but 'tis more dangerous to assume a sort of Power to dispense with the Laws of God by our pretended Chari­ty, and to give a relaxation to the rules of the Gospel, and the conditions of Salvation out of undue Piety, and in effect to blame and condemne God, and think he deals more hardly with Sin­ners than he ought to do, or then we our selves would do, when he pro­nounces Damnation upon them for their bad Lives, and will not save them for their dying Repentance; out of this Principle of pity others have gone [Page 355]farther, and denyed the Eternity of Hellish Torments, and have thought it too hard that God should punish the sins of a short Life with never-ending pains, and have therefore thought good in their great pity to release all the Damned, and even the Devils themselves out of Hell within so many years, but this is to understand the Measures and Reasons of the Divine Government better than God himself, to prescribe new ones to him contrary to what he has lay'd down, to set up a Court of Equity upon him in our thoughts, and to correct the fixt Rules and declared Measures of his Justice and Mercy with some others of our own, which surely is not to be al­lowed.

As to the driving Sinners into despair by this Doctrine; this cannot be said of those who have time before 'em to repent and live better if they make use of it, and nothing will more strong­ly excite them, and more immediately put them upon this than the faithful and open telling them the truth as I have done, and taking them off from all hopes and trust of a dying Repen­tance which has destroyed so many [Page 356]Souls. As for the dying Sinner him­self, however I pity him, I dare not give him hopes farther than I have warrant from God and Authority from the Gospel, which no Minister can have to assure him of Pardon and Salvation from a mere late and Death-Bed Repentance. He can only advise such an one to do all he can at that time, which may help, if not wholly to remit his punishment yet in some measure, to abate and mitigate it, which is a very great thing, and commend him to the Extraordinary and Uncovenanted Mercy of God, which is not limited by any thing but the recitude of his own Nature, to which we must leave some great Ca­ses not knowing what to judge of them our selves, but as to the ordinary and covenanted Mercy of God which he himself has limited, and which ought not be stretcht or extended any more than narrowed or confined to any other bounds than those of the Gospel, such a Repentance has no title to it by any promise there that I know of, and therefore I would not for all the world venture my Soul upon it, nor would have any Man else to do so; for be­sides [Page 357]all other hazards of a sudden Death and the like that attend such a Repentance, 'tis venturing whether God will not break the Rules and Measures of the Gospel, or at least abate them, and be more merciful than he has there promised to be, which no Man has any reason to ex­pect he should be, but rather a great deal to question whether he can be.

Let none of us therefore trust to such a Late and Death-Bed Repen­tance which will expose us not only to infinite danger, but to inevitable and certain ruine, nor let us believe any such Doctrine which has no foun­dation either from the Thief on the Cross, or from any thing else in Scrip­ture to be relyed on, but however se­vere the other Doctrine be, let us consi­der it is true as I shall fully prove it is, and I know no Mischief of its severi­ry but this which is the plain conse­quence of it, that we must not delay our Repentance, but take care to live a good life if we hope to go to Hea­ven.

SECT. III. The Invalidity of a Death-Bed Repen­tance shown from the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins.

HAving Examined and Answered the Pleas and Pretences on be­half of a Death-Bed Repentance I shall show its Invalidity and Insufficiency by such plain and positive Proofs as shall take away that common error and fatal mistake on the other side and fully confirm and establish my Opinion against it, The first whereof shall be that Excellent Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins, Matth. 25. especially the latter part of it at the 10, 11, 12. verses, for I shall not represent it en­tire in all the parts but only what is more full and home to my purpose in relation to the foolish Virgins of whom it is said, That while they went to buy the bridegroom came, and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage and the door was shut, afterwards came also the other Virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, [Page 359]open to us, but he answered and said ve­rily I know you not.

Parables were an Eastern and Jewish way of instruction very frequently used by their wisemen, and so made customary to the people, for all forms and modes and habits of speech like those of cloths would look odd and antick and uncouth that were not so; as they were very antient and very common among them and from thence taken up by our Saviour, so they were very agreeable to Nature, and a most useful lively and familiar way of re­presenting any Truth or Doctrine by way of History and Similitude; They shewed us the thing in an Image and Picture, so that we saw it as it were before us and it thereby made a strong impression upon both the fancy and the memory, and they set us a pattern and example of it by which we might the most easily comprehend, under­stand and remember it and have it as it were in a Scene drawn before our eyes and acted before us, which are the most natural ways by which Mankind are to be taught moved and affected; Abstracted naked Truths are many times too fine for their gross thoughts [Page 360]and understandings, and they cannot conceive Spiritual things so well as when they are drest up in another garb, and brought down to their Senses; Most of our thoughts and apprehensions are formed by such ideas and images on the brain and mind as are the draughts and models of the things themselves, and Parables have these two things in them which are apt to make the stron­gest impression upon the minds of Men which are Imagery or Picture, Acting or Representation by Example. Now in these Dramatical Composures and Instructions there is a main Plot or one chief and Principal Design runs through the whole, and is chiefly aimed at and carried on in all the parts and acts of it, and that is chiefly to be minded as the Scope and Aim of the Parable, the Air and Countenance and Eye as I may call it of this moral Picture, which looks upon such a principal Truth, Doctrine and Instruction as what it intends chiefly to convey and represent thereby to our minds: Now the very Scope and Drift and Design of the Parable of the Wise and Foo­lish Virgins is to show that we ought to be always prepared and provided [Page 361]for another World, and that there is no hopes of entring into Heaven by any thing we can do on a sudden when the Bridegroom is just a coming, and when Death is just upon us and very near us and we are unprepared before for it: These three things are plainly meant and imported and aimed at by it.

• 1. That we cannot enter into Hea­ven without Holy and Vertuous Ha­bits and Dispositions of Mind.
• 2. That these are not to be had or attained on a sudden.
• 3. That without those we shall be shut out of Heaven notwithstanding our most earnest Desires, Prayers and Entreaties, and all other Applications we can make to enter in.

1. That we cannot enter into Heaven without Holy and Vertuous Habits and Dispositions of mind, Those are meant by the Oyl which the Wise Virgins had in their Vessels but the Foolish were without, and not sensible of the need of it till it was too late; to think that our Soul may be happy and fit for Heaven without those is as foolish [Page 362]and inconsiderate as to think that a Lamp will burn without Oyl, without that which is to feed and constitute and maintain the flame; Vertue and holi­ness are the main Things in which the happyness and Perfection of the Mind consists, the highest Improvement of all its faculties and ca­pacities, and the foundation of all that Peace Joy Bliss and Satisfaction which it can have in it self or any thing else, and the only qualification to make it capable of receiving all the happy­ness that can be communicated to it, without these as we are unworthy of being received into Heaven, which is the highest reward which God ap­points to those who most faithfully serve and obey him, and which he will never give to such vile and undeser­ving Wretches as have contemned it all their lives and not thought it worth any of their pains and endeavours, and therefore he has barred and excluded all wilful Sinners out of it of what kind soever, by a positive Decree and Declaration, 1 Cor. 6.10. Galat. 5.19, 20. So they shut out themselves by a Natural Incapacity and Unfitness, for Heaven is the Place and Region of [Page 363]the purest Vertue and the most per­fect and God-like Holiness, and no­thing else can dwell there or be capa­ble of the pleasures and enjoyments that are to be met with in it. An old Sinner with his corrupt Habits, and depraved and vicious Inclinations a­bout him, would find nothing there to entertain him, no suitable objects or proper actions to delight and please him, but would be as unfit to be took from his Vices and put into Heaven, as a Swine from wallowing in the mire to be placed on a Throne. As God will not suffer any such impurity to appraoch that holy place nor any unclean thing to enter into it, so it could not be supposed capable of en­joying the proper and Spiritual Hap­piness of it, till it was very much changed and altered and brought off from the love of Vice to the love of God and Goodness, and so fitted to partake both of the favour of one, and the good and happiness of the other.

'Tis certain none but good Men shall enter into Heaven, and partake of the Joys and Glories above, which God hath laid up for those that love him, [Page 364]all others are both unworthy and un­capable to enjoy them, and shall ne­ver taste of any part of them; as I shall show by a few Considerations.

• 1. From the Nature of God.
• 2. From the Nature of Heaven as a Gift and Reward.
• 3. From the Nature of its Happi­ness.
• 4. From the Nature of our Minds which are to be the subjects of it.

1. From the Nature of God, which is the standard and measure both of all Holiness and Happiness too, so that the more any Being approaches to that, the nearer it is to Happiness, and the more contrary it is to that the more miserable it must necessarily be. Now Holiness and Vertue is the only thing by which we can be like God, and become partakers of the Divine Na­ture, and are changed into the same image, and the greatest resemblance of his Glorious Perfection, 2 Cor. 3.18. and therefore 'tis the only thing that can advance us to the highest degrees of Happiness. That which makes the Devils themselves such miserable [Page 365]wretches, nay hell it self so wretched a state, is their contrariety and repug­nancy to God and Goodness, their being so directly opposite to the Di­vine Nature, their not having the least Ray of Divine Goodness and Ho­liness to dwell in that place of dark­ness, the sink and centre of all Sin and Wickedness. And Heaven it self is therefore so happy so blissful a place, because 'tis the Region of all Divine Vertue and Holiness, because it ad­vances us to a God-like State and Per­fection, and transforms us into the nearest likeness of God himself, and is the fullest participation of him and his Perfections. All Vertue and Ho­liness is an efflux or irradiation of the Divine Nature communicated to the Humane, Gods Essential Holiness trans­fused into our Nature, his Image im­printed upon our Minds, and there­fore it makes us the Children of God in the Scripture language, and so na­turally and necessarily beloved by him, even in some degree as he loves him­self and takes infinite complacency and delight in his own Essential Per­fections and Original Holiness. The righteous Lord loveth righteousness, Psal. [Page 366]11.7. from his own Righteous Na­ture, and for the same reason, The wicked his Soul hateth, for he cannot love any Being so contrary to himself, and so repugnant to his own Righteous and Holy Nature; for we may as well suppose him to hate himself or to love the Devils, the most opposite to him­self, and therefore the most accursed Beings, as to love a very wicked and impure Soul which does truly partake of the Diabolical Nature and is most repugnant to the Divine. He cannot take such an one into his special Love and Favour, and communicate any of his own Happiness to it and admit it into Heaven, which is the highest de­gree and fullest participation of his Love and of his Happiness, upon the account of its unlikeness and contra­riety to the Essential Perfections and Holiness of the Divine Nature.

2. God cannot bestow Heaven up­on any but those who are Good and Vertuous, as 'tis a Gift and Reward proposed and promised by him only to such as are so. God as he is a Just Judge and an Impartial Distributer of Rewards and Punishments, and will render to every man at the last day ac­cording [Page 367]to his works, he cannot with­out injury to that Character, and the plain charge and imputation of Par­tiality and Injustice, bestow and con­fer so great a Reward as Heaven is to be upon those who are wholly unwor­thy and undeserving of it, who have lived wickedly and disobediently all their Lives, had no regard to the Ho­nour and Glory of God, nor doing him any service in the World, nor made Heaven and Religion and Ver­tue their great end, but gratified their Vices and enjoyed their Lusts, and allowed themselves in all the undue liberties of Sensual Pleasures, and broken the Divine Commands, and lived in a direct and open opposition to God and Religion. If such Men shall be at last rewarded by God as well as those who have faithfully served him, and sincerely obeyed him, and made it their business to promote his Honour and promote Religion, and do all the good they could in the World, who have denyed themselves all unlawful pleasures and vicious gratifications, and have took great pains with them­selves, to conquer their sensual incli­nations, and overcome the Tempta­tions [Page 368]of this World, and to live up to the strict rules and answer the great ends and designs of Religion, if the reward of Heaven and the Crown of Glory be not laid up for these, and they alone partakers of it, and not the other, then God will be thought at that great day when he says he will judge the world in righteousness, not to have done right to his Creatures, nor to have had a due regard to their Actions, not to have loved and rewarded Vertue, punish'd and hated Vice as they de­served, and not to have dealt with Mankind according to the known mea­sures of Justice among themselves, and the certain rules of distributing rewards and punishments. The whole Scripture assures us the contrary to this, and the reason of the thing makes it impossible to be otherwise, for tho' Heaven is the Gift of God infinitely beyond what is due to any of our Ver­tues, yet 'tis a Reward too, and shall be given in a way of Justice, and in such a manner as is agreeable to the rules of Righteousness.

3. Such is the Nature of this Hea­venly Happiness that none but good Men can partake of it, for none but [Page 369]they can love God and delight in him, and take any complacency and satis­faction in the enjoyment of him. The wicked whilst he continues such is an enemy to God and a hater of him, and whilst he is so were he carried to Heaven, he would be only like a Traytor taken captive and brought in Chains to his Princes Court, where it would be no pleasure to see him upon his Throne in all his greatness whom he hated, against whom he had been a Rebel, and from whom he could ne­ver expect any favour; and therefore the being thus brought into his Pre­sence and seeing all his Glory would be only a greater vexation to him, and an adding to his misery; and only more torment him as it does the Devils, to see and know there is such a Being above them whom they can never have their friend or be reconciled to. No Man while he is wicked can have any more hopes of this than those wretched Spi­rits, and therefore can never have any, or be capable of any happy commu­nion or fruition of God in Heaven. And as to the spiritual pleasures and noble enjoyments there, they are no more suited and adapted to him than [Page 370]any other pleasures are to one that has lost the proper Faculties to which they should be agreeable, and by which he should have the perception of them, than Musick to one that is deaf, or Light and Beauty to one that is blind, and therefore such a vicious wretch cannot be imagined to be in any other condition in Heaven, were he to go thither with his sinful Habits, than all other Animals are when they are ta­ken out of their proper Elements; for Heaven is no place, nor has no suit­able pleasures and entertainments but for those who love God and Goodness, and delight in the exercises and enjoy­ments of Religion.

4. From the Nature of our own Minds 'tis impossible we can enter in­to Heaven or be capable of Happiness, without Holiness and Vertue. Our Happiness there must be suited to those Faculties and Capacities which belong to us; it must lye in the highest per­fection and improvement of the seve­ral powers of our Minds, and the most proper sense and enjoyment re­sulting from thence, when our Under­standings are advanced to the highest knowledge especially of God and [Page 371]the Divine Nature, which is that Bea­tifick Vision, that seeing of God as he is, in which the Scripture places the chiefest part of Heavenly Happiness, when the Will chooses the chiefest and supream good with the greatest vigour and ardour, and enjoys it with the highest rapture and extasie of fruition. When our Souls are thus improved with the brightest understanding of Truth, and the strongest love and will­ing of Good. When our Powers and Fa­culties are the most raised and perfected, the most enlarged and opened, and filled up with the fullest enjoyment of those their proper Objects, then they are in the most happy and pleasurable state imaginable. Now nothing can do this but Religion and Wisdom and Ver­tue, which are the highest accomplish­ment and improvement of our Minds, without which we can never enjoy the true Happiness we were made for, and to which our Minds are fitted. Vertue alone can give that, and all the Pleasure, Peace and Joy that result from it, whereas Wickedness will ne­cessarily not only corrupt and impair the Mind and spoil its Faculties, but disorder and wound and corrode it, [Page 372]and make it very painful and uneasie, and a Hell and Torment to it self.

2. As none but good Men shall en­ter into Heaven, so none can be made good on a sudden. Those Vertuous and Holy Habits and Dispositions of Mind are not to be had or attained immediately, in a little time and on a sudden hurry; as is intimated here by the Virgins wanting Oyl, and not be­ing able to procure or buy it in their present distress when the Bridegroom was a coming. We must be prepared and provided with those things that are necessary for our Future Happi­ness before Death comes and puts us on a sudden hurry, and alarums us with its unexpected approach, or else we shall be sadly disappointed and un­provided if we expect to procure or attain them then. If we think to borrow of anothers Vertues and Me­rits to help out our own defects and wants at that time, as they of the Church of Rome imagine something like these foolish Virgins; or as others, that the Bridegroom himself shall sup­ply them in an extraordinary manner out of his stock, though they have no Oyl at all in their own Vessels, no [Page 373]Righteousness of their own: All these vain hopes and expectations of idle and careless and foolish Sinners, will then deceive and disappoint them and make them miserable. If Men have not attained to the Vertues and Graces of Religion nor any degrees of Holiness and Goodness all their Lives, and think to acquire them now on a sudden when they are near dying, they may as well hope that a Tree that has bore no Fruit all the Year, should on a sudden, when it is just to be cut down, and the Axe is laid to the root of it, sprout and bud, and blossom and bring forth Fruit. This would be a strange Miracle, and it must be as great and unaccountable to have a wicked Man on a sudden be­come a good one, and bring forth the Fruits of Vertue and Repentance. All our Vertues are owing to the Grace of God, as the growth of all Plants and Trees is to the Rain, and warmth and influence of the Heavens, but to think that Gods Grace which could not work upon a Man all his Life be­fore, will now in such an extraordi­nary manner change and convert him on a sudden as to make him imme­diately [Page 374]become a good Man, is to sup­pose a Saint made, as Adam was in full growth and perfect flature the first day he lived, without passing through the degrees of Youth and Childhood; as God thinks not fit to make Mankind so now, but pro­duces them by the ordinary and ap­pointed way of his Providence, so he makes good Men by the ordinary me­thods of his Grace and influences of Religion, and the New Creature is formed by degrees, and growes into a perfect Man, and increases in Wisdom and Goodness till it comes to the mea­sure of the stature of the fulness in Christ Jesus. The Spirit worketh up­on our Mind agreably to their Na­ture in a manner indiscernable from its own proper operation, enlighten­eth the Understanding, and inclineth the will gently and kindly by the thoughts and considerations of Reli­gion, offering them clearly and im­printing them strongly upon the Soul, and so in a rational way begetting right apprehensions and affections in it, and so altering the temper and dis­position of the Mind, and by frequent acts and repeated practices bringing a [Page 375]Man to new habits, and thus conver­ting him from bad to good, not in an instant but by long strivings and gra­dual operations upon him. No very bad Man was ever made a good one on a sudden, nor can any more be so by the Grace of the Gospel, than a Child over night become a Man the next morning by the course of Nature and Providence, or Seed sown in the ground spring up and ripen and bear Fruit in a few hours. Such Mushroon Converts and Penitents have no good root but dye away, and wither as sud­denly and instantaneously as they came up with the first heat and tryal of a Temptation; till Religion shoots deeper into their Hearts and gets better root­ing in their Souls, like the Seed that fell on stony ground, it is quickly gone and does not grow at all, nor bring forth fruit with patience, as the Scrip­ture emphatically speaks, i. e. with due continuance. Good Purposes and Resolutions and such like good Prin­ciples of Action must continue some time upon the Mind, and exert their power and efficacy upon it by proper acts and tryals and experiments, or else they are but like false conceptions [Page 376]that produce nothing, like Clouds without Rain, Blossoms without Fruit, and abortive causes without any effects.

A sudden Sorrow upon a wicked Mind will no more make it good, nor bring forth the worthy fruits of Repentance, than a sudden shower upon the Sands of Arabia, or Rocks of Caucasus will make them become fertile and good ground; there must be long cultivation, and great labour and pains taken with such barren ground before it will be a fruitful Soil, and bring forth any thing by all the showers and influences of Heaven up­on it. A hardened Sinner who hath lived many years in the wretched courses and habits of Wickedness, must by long time, and great care, and many methods of Gods Grace and Goodness have his Heart changed, and his Life mended, and his old Vicious Habits plucked up and new Vertuous ones planted in their place, and these take root, and grow up, and bear Fruit in his Life, before he can become such a good Man as is fitted for Heaven: Such an one can never be made so in a little time just before Death, but it must require at least a good part of [Page 377]his Life to become such, and it should be indeed the business of our whole Lives to make our selves such as shall be thus fit for Heaven. To think that great work can be done at the latter end when we are just a dying, and may be dispatched in a very little time, all on a sudden, is as idle and unrea­sonable, as for a Man that has a good dayes journey to take to lye loytering, and never mind it till the Sun is near down and night is coming upon him, and then to set out and think to reach it by a sudden start, or by some unac­countable wayes to fly thither, or be Magically transported and set down he knows not how at his journeys end: Or rather to make the Case more exactly parallel to an old Sinner, like one who hath travelled almost all the day in a wrong way, and spurred and driven on very furiously in his vicious courses, and is now to turn back and begin to take the right way when the day is far spent, and night is at hand and just upon him. So is it with a Man who hath been all his Life fol­lowing his Vices, driving on in a full career of Wickedness, and galloping in the way to Hell and the broad road [Page 378]of Damnation, and yet thinks by a Death-Bed Repentance and a short stop at the last to come to Heaven. Good God! What thoughts have such Men of the great work and business of Religion, which ought to be the great work and employment of our Lives, who think to dispatch it all in a few moments; as if God gave us not our Lives to spend them in his Service and to his Glory, and to work out our Salvation and fit our selves for Heaven, and do good, and grow in Grace, and the like great ends of Life, but we might pass by all those and wallow in our Lusts and spend almost all our days in the gratificati­ons of Vice and Wickedness, and in the Devils service, and think it enough to put off God with a very small part at the last, and devote our dying hours, or a short time when we know we must live no longer to Religion and Repentance. This is to think God a very easie Master, and Religion a very easie work, and Heaven a re­ward very easily to be attained and come at, and that none of them are to be so much minded and regarded but that a little time will serve the [Page 379]turn, and that all may be done and taken care of at the last, though not quite so well indeed, yet upon a forced-put the whole business may be dispatcht in a very little time so as to secure the main chance and not fail of the great end of Religion which is to save a Mans Soul and go to Heaven; If this can be done a sudden, few Men will care to spend much time, more time than needs about it, and this very Mistake and Opinion is the reason why they do not, but generally neglect and cast off Religion, and go on i'their Sins and live carelesly and wickedly and can never he perswaded to a strictly Ver­tuous and holy Life, though they be­lieve Religion and are very far from any Atheistical Doubts and Denyals of it, but they think to do all the great work at the last, something that shall serve instead of all the rest, i. e. to Re­pent and be sorrowful for their sins, for they account this sufficient Repen­tance, and that the dying thus peni­tent shall be as well as if they had min­ded Religion all their lives and dischar­ged the great ends of it. If it will by the fixt terms and standing provision of the Gospel save their Souls and carry [Page 380]them to Heaven, it is as well and will serve their purpose as well and the great purpose of Religion and God designed and appointed it should do all this, which we no where find in Scripture, and which to suppose would destroy all Religion.

3. Without those holy Habits and Dis­positions, Graces or Vertues of Mind we shall be shut out of Heaven not­withstanding all we can do at the last, notwithstanding our most earnest De­sires Prayers and Entreaties, and all other applications we can make to en­ter in; this the Foolish Virgins found, though they beg'd hard, and pray'd earnestly, and knockt loud and cry d Lord Lord, and were never so importu­nate with the Bridegroom to let them in, and presumed no doubt upon ha­ving a peculiar Interest in him, if not some Relation to him, as many do to Christ, yet all would not do without timely preparation and having Oyl in their Lamps, i.e. Grace and Vertue in their hearts; The door was shut, and all their cryes would not open it and though they call'd the Bridegroom Lord Lord, and had some pretended Acquaintance or Friendship with him, [Page 381]and reposed some Trust and Confi­dence in him, yet all was in vain and to no purpose, without due qualifica­tions in themselves; His Answer was, I know you not, as Christ's will be at the last day to those wicked Men who yet put mighty hopes in him, and trust and rely very strongly upon him for Sal­vation, and think they have some claim and pretence to his special love and fa­vour, and call him Lord Lord Saviour Saviour and the like; but yet if they have not done the will of his heavenly Father in their lives, done their Duty, and made themselves fit for Heaven, he will profess unto them, I never knew you, depart from me ye that work iniquity. Matth. 7.22, 23.

Earnest and importunate Prayers are very prevailing Applications to God when the thing is fit to be granted and we fit to receive it, and when God can with consistency to his Wisdom and Justice and other Attributes bestow the favour we ask of him, and 'tis accor­ding to the promises he hath made to us so that we can ask in Faith, and have good reason to believe it shall not be denyed, because there is no bar or just cause either in God or our selves [Page 382]to hinder it, then we shall be certainly sure of it, and God will alwaies give to those who thus ask him, but 'tis not our unreasonable though never so im­portunate Prayers that will make God do an unfit or unreasonable thing, or prevail with him to break the Rules of his Wisdom and Justice, or out of pi­ty and tenderness violate the standing wise Methods of his Providence and Government: Pity and Compassion is not a weak passion in God as it is in Men, who are in pain to see another fall into such a misery as they are sub­ject to themselves, and which may as well fall upon them, and therefore they have a fellow-feeling of it, because it touches them with the quick thought of their own frailty and liableness to it, but God is subject to no such weak­ness and uneasiness, and therefore pity in him is but a wise Exercise or Effect of his Goodness whereby he is inclined to inflict as little evil and do as much good to his Creatures as the Capaci­ties of their Nature, and the Perfe­ctions of his own will admit:

Should a Wise and Good Governour out of weak pity and commiseration to the cryes and lamentations of condem­ned [Page 383]Prisoners and dying Malefactors stop the course of Justice and suspend the Execution of wholesom and ne­cessary Laws, He would destroy his Government by his easiness, and bring a thousand times more Mischief to the Publick, and so his Pity instead of a Vertue would become both imprudence and cruelty in the highest degree.

God as he is Pityful and Mercyful, so he is Wise and Just too, and will not break the standing Rules of the Gospel nor the wise measures of his Divine Government by which he impartially distributes Rewards and Punishments according to Mens Works, out of any fond consideration to any Mans parti­cular case, He will not, he cannot act contrary to the unalterable Rules of Justice either in punishing the Inno­cent, or clearing and letting the guilty go free, He must lay down his Govern­ment of the World if he were merci­ful contrary to those, and should not so far regard his own Honour, and assert his Power and Authority, and Justifie the goodness of his Laws as to revenge all open affronts against them, and punish all great and notorious and habitual Sinners notwithstanding all [Page 384]their Prayers and Entreaties to the con­trary; If the cryes and lamentations of a dying Sinner should make God forgive him out of meer pity and ten­derness though he had broke all the Laws of Heaven in his life and lived in direct opposition against them and never took any care to keep them, this must alter the Rule of God's Govern­ment, the Rule of the Gospel, and the Rule of his last Judgment, and he must for his sake break and act contrary to all those; If notwithstanding those, Gods Pity and Mercy to a poor Wretch could suffer or incline him to do this, we might then as reasonably hope that this his pity might reach even to the damned in Hell, their Case is very pi­tiable and very lamentable as well as the others, and their cryes and how­lings and lamentations are very loud and importunate, but they are unrea­sonable and too late, and therefore God is deaf to them; one would think if Pity could so over-rule Justice as to prevail with it to dispense with the severe and righteous Rules lay'd down by the great God, it would put out the flames of Hell, or let the tears and cryes of the damned quench those dreadful and [Page 385]Everlasting burnings, and not suffer so many poor and miserable Creatures to lye tortured for ever in the utmost Extremity, but God's Justice and Judgment is as deep and bottomless as Hell it self, and though we cannot search into all the reasons of it, yet we know by his word that it shall take place and be duely executed not­withstanding his own greatest Pity and Mercy, or his Creatures greatest Cryes and Lamentations.

A groundless presumption of God's Mercy and Pity hath ruined many Souls; The Gospel declares the highest instances and degrees of it in the Re­demption of the World by Jesus Christ, and in pardoning our sins up­on our Repentance, and to show this required a wonderful Method and most Stupendous Expedient, thus to find out a way to reconcile Gods Justice and Mercy together by the Sacrifice of Christ, now this utmost Grace and Mercy of Heaven neither does nor could go farther than past Sins upon Repentance and Amendment Obe­dience and a good Life afterwards; to expect any Mercy from God beyond this, beyond the Gospel and the Rules [Page 386]and measures of Mercy there layd down is the most vain and groundless and presumptuous thing i'the World, and so 'tis for a dying unprepared Sinner to think he can do any thing then by which he may hope to prevail with Christ, and to enter into Heaven:

For alass what can he then do? He can use strong Crying and Tears and Prayers to God, so did the Virgins and so may the Damned; but alass for what can he pray? That God would save him without Obedience and a good Life, which he has declared he never will; that he would not now punish him for a wicked and impenitent and disobedient life, which he assuredly will do, that he may not now be shut out when the Bridegroom is coming, though he is no way prepared for it and has no Oyle in his Lamp, no ver­tuous habits and Dispositions of mind to fit him to go in, and now 'tis too late to get them all on a sudden, and in vain to expect to borrow this Oyl of others, or to have it given by the Bridegroom himself; would he pray now to God to give him Grace when he has despised and rejected it all his Life, would he now have it grow up [Page 387]into vertuous habits and the frults of Obedience and a good life all on a sudden, would he now become a new Man and a new Creature in a few hours, and from a wicked Man all his life become a good one in a few days: He may almost as well hope that God should make him young again now he is old, and turn his old and weak and dying Body into a young and lusty and healthful one and work those mighty Miracles upon his Body as well as his Mind by his Prayers; God can do the one by an Almighty Irresi­stible power as well as the other if he pleases, but 'tis very vain and ground­less to depend upon the utmost of what God's power is able to do in any thing, and therefore that is never to be brought in for or against any thing of this Nature.

The only question is not what God, but what such a wicked Man and dying Sinner can then do, can he have all his old habits of vice and wickedness rooted out and his Nature changed, and a ver­tuous and holy disposition of mind plan­ted in their stead? Can that lust or sin­ful Inclination which was so hard to be conquered before, that he pretended it [Page 388]was impossible for him almost to leave it can this now be so soon and so easily overcome? All those Corruptions and Diseases of Soul which have been so long upon him that they are become chronical and habitual, and which were before incurable by all the means of Grace and methods of Providence, by all the advices and exhortations of his own Friends and God's Ministers are these now to be perfectly got off and cured on a sudden and the Mind restored to Soundness and Holyness? Is that now to be done so easily and so quickly which he found so hard to do all his life, and which is one of the hardest and most difficult things in the World to make a Bad Man a Good one? No this is Unnatural and Im­possible and cannot be in the Nature of the thing, but a Man may be very sorrowful and heartily troubled that he was not so, and have great trouble and remorse of Mind for his sins, and so be heartily penitent for them, This is all he can be and he cannot well be other­wise if he be in his Senses and hath the use of his Reason, and sees such Ter­rible danger before him as is now un­avoidable, he must be greatly troubled [Page 389]that he hath brought himself to that, that is, that he must suffer for his Sin, for he was never troubled at the Sin before nor would be now but like it and live in it still if that were all, but he cannot but be concerned at the dreadful punishment of it, and he must be very hardy indeed if he go not thus Shivering and Contrite and Penitent as they call it to his Execution, this is only a Natural abhorring of pain or what is evil to us from a principle of Self-preservation, not an abhorrence of Sin from Choice and Reason and free apprehension of Mind, for all this is from a force and violence offered to the mind by a sense of present danger, and from that Fear, Terrour and Con­fusion that a Sinner is then in, when Hell and Eternity are just presented before him, then he parts with his Sins as a Man does with his Money when he has a Sword or a Pistol held to his Breast, out of mere fear not out of free choice: No Man but must be afraid of Hell who believes it and has any sense of it, and all this dying sor­row and Repentance arises only from hence; some I know make a mighty difference both as to the Cause and [Page 390]the Vertue and Efficacy of this sorrow, if it arise only from the fear of Hell it is Attrition, if from the Love of God joy­ned with it is Contrition and so will be more effectual, Now I am afraid the first is the chief spring if not only cause of it in dying Sinners, and that there is no real difference between these two sorts of sorrows in the Nature of the thing but only an over nice distinction in words and thoughts and in conside­ring the same thing by several mental conceptions, when the passion is the same in it self and the causes of it are not to be so nicely distinguisht, but whatever be the principle of this sor­row, and however strong and sincere it be, and whatever purposes and re­solutions it may be joyned with, yet that this mere Mental Repentance is not true and Perfect Repentance, such as the Gospel promises pardon to, I have shown before in giving the No­tion and describing the Nature of Re­pentance, and particularly proved how short and imperfect this is in the fourth Section of the first Chapter, so that a Dying Sinner cannot then perform such a full Repentance as hath a certain title to Pardon and Salvation by the [Page 391]promises of the Gospel: But to show further that a foolish unprepared Dy­ing Sinner can have no hopes of en­tering into Heaven by all he can then do, and that his most earnest Prayers and Entreaties, his Cryes and Sor­rows, his Wishes and Purposes and Resolutions, and all the parts of his dying Repentance put together are not sufficient to do this, as the Para­ble here supposes, I shall produce some more Positive and Express Proofs and as I think convincing Arguments against this Efficacy and Validity of a Death-Bed Repentance.

SECT. IV. More Positive Proofs and Arguments against the validity of a Death-Bed Repentance.

FIrst, It does no way come up to the plain and indispensable Condi­tions of Salvation required by the Gospel, for those are no other than Faith and Obedience, believing the Gospel and living according to it, which are the plain and only pathway to Heaven by Christianity, and he that thinks of Christs bringing him thither any other way, abuses his Sa­viour and his Religion, and puts a wretched cheat upon himself. I know Faith and Repentance and Faith alone are often set down as the only Terms and Conditions of Salvation by the Gospel, but then they are to be taken not in a strict and narrow sense, but in a large one, as they include all that belongs and is consequent to them, all that Obedience and new Christian Life which is made as plain a Condition of Salvation by the Gospel as Faith it self, and Repentance I have shown [Page 393]plainly takes those in, so that the whole Practical Condition of the Gos­pel is meant by them. Faith is the first Principle and Foundation of Re­pentance, Obedience and all Christi­an Vertues, and therefore as including and containing those is made the Con­dition of our being saved by a Meto­nymy, whereby the Cause compre­hends also the Effect. Faith does so plainly in Scripture mean not only an assent to anothers words, or a trust and affiance in them, but that which worketh by love, Gal. 5.5. and that which produces good Works and is dead without them, that 'tis a strange mistake to make that the Condition of our being justified and saved with­out Obedience, 'Tis to be observed, and I think it may help to clear this matter, that when Faith and Believ­ing is made the only Condition of be­ing saved and nothing else is mention­ed, this is alwayes spoken to those Jews or Heathens who were not yet Christians and Believers, and the only way for them to be saved was to be­lieve and embrace Christianity and become Disciples of Christ: As when Christ sayes, John 3.15. Whosoever [Page 394]believeth on the Son of Man shall not perish but have everlasting life: This is spoken to Nicodemus who then exprest his disbelief of Christs words, and was not brought fully to believe in him though he was disposed to it. So John 6.40. when Christ saith, This is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son and believ­eth on him may have everlasting life: This is spoken to the Jews who mur­mured at Christ and were far from believing in him. And so Christ bid the Apostles preach this to the unbe­lieving World, Whosoever believeth and is baptized shall be saved, Matth. 16.16. i.e. believing and professing Christianity puts them into a salvable state, and if they live according to this Faith they shall certainly be saved. As if we should say to a Person who desires to know how he may be a Schollar, Go to School or to the Uni­versity; This would put him into a certain way to Learning, but he must not only be enter'd and enroll'd and matriculated there, but must study and read and do such things as belong to a Schollar. When St. Peter advi­sed the Jews who were pricked to the [Page 395]heart, Acts 2.37. and St. Paul the Jaylor when he ask'd what must I do to be saved, that they should believe in Christ and repent, They meant thereby turn Christians, which would put them into a salvable state, but then they must perform all the other things which belong to Christians as well as have this Faith, or else they would lose and forfeit this their good state. When Christ therefore speaks to his Disciples who already believed in him, and St. Paul writes to those who were Christians and Believers, they tell them not only of Faith, which is the first Christian Vertue and the root of all the rest, but of Obedi­ence and of all good Works, of living as becometh the Gospel, and adorning their Profession with all manner of Vertues which they make as necessary to Salvation as Faith it self: Thus if ye keep my commandments saith Christ, ye shall abide in my love, John 15.20. And ye are my friends if ye do whatso­ever I command you, ver. 14. And not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven, Mat. 7.21. [Page 396] If ye know these things happy are ye if ye do them, John 13.17. So St. Paul to the Corinthians, Circumcision is no­thing, nor uncircumcision, but keeping the Commandments of God, 1 Cor. 7.19. and to the Galatians, In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature, Gal. 6.15. For by the gospel the wrath of God is revealed from Hea­ven against all ungodliness and unrighte­ousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness, Rom. 1.18. And when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels he will take vengeance on all them that obey not his gospel, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, 2 Thess. 1.8, 9. And those Christians who do any such works of the Flesh as are mentioned Gal. 5.19, 21. shall not inherit the Kingdom of God, but for the sake of those the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience, Colos. 3.6. These things are as clear as if they were writ with a Sun-beam, so that none, one would think, who reads the Gospel should suppose Faith alone [Page 397]without Obedience should justifie and save us, or that Christ is a Saviour to any but those who obey him, Heb. 5.9. since blessed are they who do his com­mandments, for they only have right to the tree of life, Rev. 22.14. From all which it is plain, that Obedience to the Laws of the Gospel is the only and the indis­pensable Condition of our Salvation.

And indeed this is the very de­sign of Christs giving us such ex­cellent Laws, that we should obey them and be happy for ever by doing so, and if we do not, but live wick­edly, we must be eternally miserable. It had been in vain for God to have given us any Laws, or commanded us any thing, if he had not given them such a Sanction, and obliged us to them by such Rewards and Penalties; and therefore if Mens heads were not bewildred with odd schemes and dis­putes about decrees and strange me­thods of Salvation, this would be the first and plainest Principle in all Reli­gion as 'tis the truest, and there would never be any dispute about it, that if Men live well here they shall be for ever happy, if ill for ever miserable. However ignorant Men call this a [Page 396] [...] [Page 397] [...] [Page 398]Legal Condition of Salvation, and would have no such in the Gospel, yet as I have shown Christianity requires it, so does also the very Nature of Religion and of Divine Government, and the belief of a Future Judgment and of Rewards and Punishments in another World do all suppose it: For what are those Rewards for but for those who live Vertuously, and those Punishments but for those who live Wickedly? And what is a Future Judgment but to reward all Men ac­cording to their works? where God as a Just and Impartial Judge shall without respect of persons judge accord­ing to every mans work, 1 Pet. 1.17. And every one shall receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad, 2 Cor. 5.10. For when the Son of Man shall come in the glory of his Father with his Angels, then he shall reward every man according to his works, Matth. 16.27. In the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, he will render to every man according to his deeds, Rom. 2.6. To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek [Page 399]for glory, and honour, and immortality; eternal life: But unto them that obey not the truth but obey unrighteousness, tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doth evil, ver. 8, 9. No­thing can be plainer than this in the whole Gospel, that Men must expect to receive hereafter according to the goodness or badness of their Lives here, and that the only Condition of their Salvation is Obedience to the Laws of the Gospel. 'Tis a wretch­ed misunderstanding and a total de­stroying of Christianity, to set up any loose Principles of Faith and Free-Grace or the like, which are not con­sistent with this, and to delude our selves with hopes of Salvation by Christ upon any other Condition or by any other Means than this of Obe­dience.

God indeed hath granted us this fa­vour and priviledge by the Gospel, that though we have disobeyed him sometime and some part of our lives, yet if we come off from this Disobe­dience and return to our Duty in time, and performe Obedience to him for the future, that then he will forgive our former Disobedience and not charge it [Page 400]upon us nor punish us for it, but gra­ciously pardon it for the sake of Christ and his meritorious sufferings, and that he will receive us again into his fa­vour and reward us for our new Obe­dience as if we had never done other­wise, but had been always obedient and never transgrest his Commandments; This is the great grace and favour and priviledge of the Gospel, and this is what we call Repentance, for Repen­tance is the same thing with Obedience, only it comes after Disobedience, 'tis a Mans living well after he has lived otherwise, which takes in Obedience and a good Life, though after a bad one, 'tis like a Mans setting up again after he had once broke, when after his kind Creditor has been plea­sed to compound with him and instead of his whole Debt, to wit, an entire and Universal Obedience all his Life to accept of such a partial and broken one, he may again thrive and grow rich and so get free from his former poverty; or as I have often represen­ted the Nature of Repentance, 'tis like a Mans recovering health and strength and soundness of body after he has been weak and ill or distempered in [Page 401]the whole or any part; Health and Strength is the same to him that it was before, though he had once lost it, as Riches is to the other now he hath got them again after he was broke; so 'tis the same vertue of Mind which we ought always to have have had that Repentance restores us to, and 'tis the same Obedience to God's Laws which a Penitent performs upon his return to his duty that he should have performed before, and 'tis this only that commends him to God and gives him a title to the promises of the Gospel and procures Pardon and Salvation to him.

'Tis God's infinite Mercy in and through Christ to allow and accept of this After Obedience as the Con­dition of our Salvation when it is so broken and interrupted whereas the whole Obedience of our Lives is due to God, and he might refuse to ac­cept of this lame and after and imper­fect one, but still 'tis Obedience to Gods Laws after we have broken them by our sins, 'tis this Obedience renew­ed, ex postliminio as I may call it, that recommends us to his favour, ob­tains our pardon for what is past, and entitles us again to the reward [Page 402]we had forfeited, and without this we can never be reconciled to God nor received into Heaven, for none shall go thither but the Vertuous and Obedient whither they have always been so, or only after they have been otherwise, but still they must be Ver­tuous, and they must be Obedient, or else they can never come thither, for 'tis certain Obedience, which if af­ter Disobedience in any instance is call'd Repentance, is by the Gospel the abso­lute and indispensable Condition of our Happyness and Salvation:

Now no Man can in any sense call the Sorrows and Remorses and Repen­tance of dying Sinners Gospel Obedi­ence, but only a trouble and concern for the want of it and for the disobedience of their whole lives; There would be no difference between Obedience and Disobedience if this were so, No Master or Father would account him an Obedient Servant or Obedient Son who should only confess and be sorry that he had always disobeyed him un­til upon this his sorrow he showed himself Obedient for the future and did him some faithful Service. How long a Man must be Obedient after he [Page 403]hath been Disobedient or how long time is required for a Sinner who re­pents to come off from his Sins and become a good Man is hard to deter­mine exactly, but there must be so much time as shall make a Drunkard sober, a Whoremonger chast, an un­just Man Righteous, a Swearer and Prophane Person Devout and Pious, the Covetous Man Just and Charitable, and the like, for we are assured that whilst Men are such Sinners as any of those, they have no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God, Ephes. 5.5. and therefore they must so long obey the Laws of God till they are tru­ly become and may be denominated Sober Just Charitable Pure Holy Reli­gious and the like, for Heaven is a place only for such Men and such Souls as are thus qualified and who have obeyed Gods Laws so long till they are become thus; It shall never be gi­ven to those who have been disobedi­ent to God all their lives and can now performe no acts of Obedience to him, such can never perform that Indispen­sable Condition of Salvation required by the Gospel, and nothing less then this will do, there is no such disjun­ctive [Page 404]any where in the Bible that I know of, to this sense, Be Holy and Obedient and lead a Good Life in order to be Fternally happy, or else Repent and be Sorry for not doing it when you come to dye, but only thus where you have sinned and been disobedient for the time past, Repent and be Obedient for the time to come, and this shall be accepted, as in that known place, when the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness which he hath committed, and doth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive, Ezek. 18.27. 'Tis his doing that which is lawful and right, i. e. his Obedience for the future, shall save his soul alive; all his trans­gressions that he hath committed they shall not be mentioned unto him upon his new Obedience or Repentance, in his Righ­teousness that he hath done shall he live, ver. 22. it must be Righteousness af­terwards, or his obeying God after his former disobedience shall entitle him to Life and Happyness, and be the Condition of it.

2. As Obedience is the only term and condition of our Salvation by the Gospel, so there is no just reason or good ground to hope that God will in [Page 405]any case abate of the termes of Salva­tion he hath there lay'd down, or be mercyful beyond those, for two rea­sons.

1. Because this would be neither consistent with the Holiness of his Nature, nor the wisdom of his Go­vernment, for as he is a Holy and Righteous God he cannot love any but a righteous and good Soul, and so cannot make any other happy because a wicked and impure Soul is contrary to his Nature and what he hates and abo­minates and what can never see or en­joy God; neither is it consistent with the Wisdom of God as Governour of the World to reward any but the obedient and the righteous, for it would reflect upon his Justice and his Authority if he should suffer Men to go on in their Wickedness and Disobedience all their lives, and not punish them for it; Mercy indeed and Clemency is the Honour of any Prince and that which commends him to the love and esteem of all, but then it must be shown wisely to proper and fit Objects and for good Reasons, to bring Men in to their Duty, and draw them off from their Disobedience with the promise [Page 406]of a Pardon upon their doing so, and returning to their Allegiance. But if a Prince shall grant this to all sort of Offenders out of the weakness and softness of his Temper, he will loosen his Government, and weaken his Au­thority, and make himself cheap and contemptible, and as he will encourage Rogues and Rebels, so he will injure the Publick, and not take due care as becomes a wise Governour of the Common good; should God grant a full and absolute pardon to Sinners who have lived never so long in their sins because they are very sorry for them when they come to dye and they can live in them no longer, this would encourage Men who love their Sins to continue in 'em all their lives and then Repent at last, and so save them­selves the trouble, as they think it, of living a very good life. God indeed has promised pardon to all who repent and turn from their sins, and live good and holy lives after they have lived bad ones, and this is sufficient encou­ragement to make a wicked Man be­come a good one with the certain hopes that when he does so God will receive him, but to go farther and suppose [Page 407]God to pardon a long wicked life spent altogether in Sin and Disobedience merely for a little sorrow and remorse and trouble when Men come to dye is to open a wide Door to vice and wick­edness, and to supersede the necessity of Obedience and a good life and there­fore should God grant this, it would destroy Religion, and take off the Ob­ligations to Vertue, and make all his Motives to Obedience and Threatnings against Sin to be void, empty and ineffectual.

2. There is no Reason to think God will abate of the termes of the Gospel, and be more merciful than he has there promised to be because as the Gospel seems to contain the utmost Grace and Mercy that God can show to Men, so it shall certainly be the Rule of the last judgment, and God will then pro­ceed and pronounce judgment ac­cording to the Rules and Measures of that; 'tis the most vain and impudent thing in the World to expect any fur­ther Mercy than God has revealed to vs by Jesus Christ, He hath in all proba­bility shown the utmost kindness and favour that is possible to Mankind for his sake, he has opened the bowels of [Page 408]his Mercy and the Riches of his Grace as the Apostle speaks, Eph. 1.7. and has exhausted all the treasures of love and compassion to poor Sinners that a Wise and Just God can possibly show with consistence to his own honour and the honour of his Laws and Go­vernment to expect therefore that God should be gracious beyond the Gospel, and make farther and greater abate­ments to us, and be more merciful than he hath promised to be by his Son whom he sent with the most full and gratious Message of loving kindness that we could reasonably desire or God in wisdom grant is a most groundless and unreasonable presumption which makes void all Gods threatnings and is a direct disbelief of his word, and expresly contrary to what is plainly delared by the Gospel it self, for in that Christ assures us that the word which he has there spoken, the same shall judge men at the last day, John 12.48. and therefore he will judge us by no other rule, nor use any other measures in disposing his Mercy or his Justice to his Creatures than what he hath layd down, and made known to us by the Gospel; God shall judge the world, says [Page 409]St. Paul, in that day according to my Gospel, Rom. 2.16. 'Tis not therefore to be expected that God should use any other Judgment or show any other Mercy to Sinners than what is accor­ding to the termes of the Gospel and the Conditions of Salvation there lay'd down, and a Death-Bed Repentance doth not as I have shown come up to those.

3. I have showed all along this Discourse that it is not such a True and Perfect Repentance as the Scripture promises Pardon and Salvation to, for that consists not only in sorrow and trouble of Mind, conviction of Soul, and Compunction of heart, but in actual Reformation and new Obedi­ence, and indeed 'tis this alone is a Mans retracting his past folly and wickedness and being wiser for the fu­ture, undoing all the evil he has done as much as he can and doing all the good he can for the time to come, and so making all possible amends to the honour of Religion, and the honour of God which have been highly injured and violated by him, and though he can never make perfect reparation and satisfaction to them, and therefore [Page 410]Christ alone did this by his Death and Sufferings, yet he is to do all that he is able and that is in his power to do, that he may thereby vindicate the Divine Authority and Government which he hath opposed and resisted and Justifie the wisdom and goodness, justice and holiness of the Laws of Heaven which he hath broken and contemned, and so make all the compensation he is able to repair the sad Mischief he hath done by his Sins. We truly say, that no injury to another person will be forgiven but upon Restitution and ma­king all the reparation for it that can be, because 'till this is done the sin re­mains and the evil effects of it continue and till a Man is willing to undoe that as far as he is able, to take away and de­stroy all the effects of it, he keeps the sin and does not truly Repent of it, nor wish it undone, now surely we owe as much to God and Religion in Justice as we do to our Equals and where we have done any thing to injure those, as our sins are the greatest injury to them we can be guilty of, there al­so we must make as much restitution and reparation as we are able, and un­doe the sins we have committed by a [Page 411]more zealous and hearty and new Obe­dience, and making up, if it were possible, the past failures and defects of our Sinful Lives by greater care and zeal and diligence for the future. We may do this by a timely Repent­ance, but by a late and a dying one we cannot.

4. A Sinner cannot be then freed at his Death from what will necessarily make him miserable, his Sinful Ha­bits, which will sink his Soul into Hell by a Natural Causality as well as Di­vine Judgment: God has expresly de­clared that neither fornicators, nor ido­laters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, nor such like shall inherit the Kingdom of God, 1 Cor. 6.9, 10. And who are such but they who have lived in the habit of any of those Sins? And are there­fore to be denominated and accounted such from the general practice of their Lives, and have not been washed and sanctified, or made better, but only are now sorry for being so when they are dying; If Sorrow would make Men to be otherwise and their Tears [Page 412]alone would blot out this black Cha­racter without a contrary Practice, there would hardly be any such to be found, though 'tis plain the World is too full of them. There would be no Thief or Felon or Traytor at any Assizes or Court of Judicature, if when they came to be tryed and were found guilty, and were to be con­demned, their meer sorrow and trou­ble would set them right, and change their character, and make them to be accounted otherwise in the eye of the Law. But besides this Sentence and Judgment of God upon all kind of Sinners whereby he bars any such from Heaven, and adjudges them to Hell, their Sins Naturally sink them thither, for that is the true place and center of Wickedness, and therefore of Misery. Filthy and impure Minds fall into it by a kind of Spiritual Gravitation, or by such a Constitution of the Spiri­tual and Intellectual World, which as necessarily carries them thither as the Mechanism of this material World carries a stone downward. So that 'tis as unavoidable for a Sinner loaded with his wicked Habits to fall into Hell and Misery in another World, as if here [Page 413]he had a Millstone tyed about his neck, and were cast into the Sea to fall to the bottom of it. The weight of his Sins will of it self press and sink him down into the utmost gulph of Misery; and when he is quite ta­ken away from the diversions and pleasures and bodily enjoyments of this World, and is left wholly to the reflections and agonies and dismal ap­prehensions of his own Mind, his Conscience which is now stupified and amused with other imaginary plea­sures of Body and this World will then awaken and fall upon him with all its rage, and torment his Soul and make it unexpressibly miserable were there no other sentence or judgment upon him. The dreadful horrors and apprehensions of his own Mind let loose upon him would always be a very great torment and Hell to him, if he had nothing to relieve or divert him, but was left naked and open to the full stroke of his Conscience, and his thoughts were whollytaken up with the frightful Images and Ideas of his own Guilt, and overwhelmed with all the bitter Passi­ons of Fear, Sorrow and Despair, as they will hereafter. Sin will as certainly fill [Page 414]him with those in another World and cause such painful sensations or percep­tions within his Soul as he now feels in his Body upon a torturing Disease, or any instrument of Cruelty applyed to it; for that is as contrary to the Nature and Frame of the one as those are to the other, and they would be alwayes felt here if the Body did not drown and stifle and choak the free and natural thoughts of the Mind, which it cannot hereafter. If the Mind therefore be not freed from its Sins and Evil Habits it will necessarily be miserable with them in another World. It can sometimes avoid those inward pains and torments here because it has the gratifications of its Sins, and other enjoyments and entertainments to bear it up, and yet they will often get in and disturb it even amidst all its plea­sures and jollities, but in its separate Estate hereafter it will be wholly with­out those and so for ever subject to the inward misery and uneasiness which Sin ever causes in its own thoughts.

5 Allowing Salvation to a meer dying Repentance, as it seems contra­ry to all plain Notions and certain Principles in Religion, namely, that [Page 415]none but Vertuous and good Men can go to Heaven, and that Obedience and a good Life is the only way thither, and that Vice while it continues upon the Mind will necessarily make it mi­serable, and the like, which I have largely insisted upon. So,

Lastly, The consequences of it seem plainly to destroy all Religion. For,

1. It sets by all those general com­mands which are often given to Chri­stians, of Walking worthy of their vo­cation, adorning their profession, and letting their conversation be as it be­cometh the gospel. Letting their light so shine before men that others may see their good works, and so glorifie their Father which is in Heaven. Doing all to the Glory of God, and promoting that and Religion as much and as far as they can in the World, Learning of Christ and following his Example, and showing they are his Disciples by bear­ing much fruit, Doing all the good they can to others, and being useful in their places, improving their Talents, and not being unprofitable Servants, Redeeming the time, and taking all op­portunities of serving the great ends of Religion, Growing in Grace and being [Page 416]perfect, as their Father which is in Heaven is perfect. These are general Commands given to Christians, and such as they are all obliged to, though not in the highest degrees yet in such measures as God who knows our frame and our circumstances intended we should come up to. They are not only Counsels of Perfection, and Ro­mantick unpracticable Directions of some Acts of Supererogation, but they are strict Rules of necessary Du­ty and Christian practice which every good Christian is bound to live up to, and if they wholly fail in doing so, and do no way make them good in their Lives but act contrary to them, they are not good Christians at pre­sent nor shall be rewarded as such hereafter, but shall be condemned and punished eternally for being other­wise. Now a notorious wretched Sin­ner who hath been so far from having any regard to these Christian obliga­tions that he hath lived all his Life in direct opposition against them, and now only Repents when he is a dying, he must be wholly excused from all these, they must be all set aside and signifie nothing in his case if he can go [Page 417]to Heaven not only without observing them in any sort or any tolerable manner, but living wholly opposite and reverse to them; for He instead of adorning his Profession, and letting his Conversation be such as becometh the Gospel, hath been the greatest shame and reproach to it, and been unworthy the name of it, and shall he now then share in the noblest re­wards of it? Instead of letting his Light shine before Men he hath been an example of the greatest Wicked­ness, and dishonoured God in the highest manner all his days, and shall he now be rewarded and honoured by him? Instead of learning of Christ and living up to the example he set us, he hath learn'd of the Devil, and liv'd like a Bruit, and practiced all sort of Diabolical and Bestial Wickedness, and shall he now reign with Christ and be taken up into Paradise with him? Instead of doing any good, he hath done all the mischief imaginable in corrupting and debauching others, and tempting them to all manner of lewd­ness, and instead of promoting Reli­gion he hath served the cause of A­theism and Irreligion, and done all he [Page 418]can to make others disbelieve the truth of all Religion, if not by lewd Prin­ciples yet by lewd Practices that are the greatest contradiction to it, and shall he now partake of its Glorious Promises which he hardly believed and would never seek after all his Life? Instead of improving his Ta­lents in his Masters Service he hath wholly wasted and consumed them in Luxury and Prodigality, and spent all the Blessings God had intrusted him with to quite other purposes than he gave them. Instead of growing in Grace he hath grown to the utmost perfection almost of Sin and Wicked­ness, and is become a Sinner of the highest rate, and hath dayly impro­ved in it. Instead of redeeming the time he hath squandered it all away in folly and madness, and took all op­portunities to gratifie his Lusts, and spent his whole Life in the persuit of sinful pleasures, and now indeed he would redeem the time in a wonderful manner, and do all the business of Life very compendiously and very con­cisely in a few days or hours before he is to dye: And when he hath follow­ed none of these Christian Rules and [Page 419]Directions, but acted altogether against them, yet he would have God set them all by, and make them all have no meaning or be to no purpose, but only a little dying Sorrow and Re­pentance to serve instead of all of them.

2. As those general Commands must be set aside by this priviledge of a dying Repentance, so must also those particular Commands which oblige us to the practice of several Vertues, such as Piety and Devotion, Sobriety and Temperance, Purity and Chasti­ty, Self-denyal, Heavenlymindedness, overcoming the World, governing our Passions and Appetites, mortifying the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts, and the like: For 'tis too late sure to begin to practice those when a Man is just upon dying if he has neglected it all his Life? Shall he be­gin then to mortifie the Flesh which he hath gratified alwayes before with the most unlawful Lusts and forbidden Pleasures, but now Sickness mortifies it indeed, and Death will do so some­thing more, and he would have this Vertue as much in his Coffin or his Grave, when he lyes cold there, as he [Page 420]can pretend to it now; his Lusts do then dye with his Body, as a Candle goes out when all the nourishment is spent that should maintain it. Is he now to govern his Passions and Appe­tites when both the causes and the ob­jects of them are removed? Is he to provide against the heat of the Sun when it is just Night or Winter with him, and make a bank to stop the cur­rent when the water is all dryed up? Is he to overcome the World when he is leaving it, with an odd sort of Parthian victory? Is he then to be Heavenly minded when he never minded Heaven before, but now 'tis the next thing when he can mind the Earth no longer? Is he then to pra­ctice Self-denyal when he never deny­ed himself any Worldly Interest or Sensual Pleasure before on the score of Religion, and now he denyes those and his Life both alike, because he cannot keep them? Is he now to be­gin to practice the Vertues of Chastity and Temperance and Sobriety, which he never did before? then he hath put them off to a very convenient season when his Vices have quite left him, and so if Vertues will come of them­selves [Page 421]like guests uninvited, there is no other company to hinder them, but he was as vertuous and sober almost half his Life, I mean when he was asleep, as he can be now when he is as incapable of the contrary acts as he was then; and is only like the Enthusiast cured of seeing vanity when he lost his Eyes, but perhaps not of being vain, for the ghosts and spirits of his departed Sins may still haunt and pos­sess him. If these Christian Vertues are necessary to be practiced in order to our Eternal Salvation, a dying Re­pentance cannot be sufficient without them; if it be, then those particular Precepts and Commands must be set aside by it, as well as the other gene­ral ones I mentioned, for 'tis certain he can no more practice these Vertues now than he could in his Mothers Womb, and they might be as well in­fused into him then as they can be now without any practice, and some­thing better, because there were then no contrary Habits to hinder them: But the Doctrine of infused Habits is like the Hypothesis of Transfusion of Blood contrary to Nature and Expe­rience; and the dying Man may as [Page 422]well depend upon one for his Body as the other for his Soul.

3. The salvability and sufficiency of a meer dying Repentance as it sets by and discharges us from all those gene­ral and particular Commands of Chri­stianity, so also from the whole Chri­stian engagement and Baptismal Co­venant: For can that then be any way made good or performed in any mea­sure when a Man has violated it all his Life, and notoriously broken it in all the parts that belong to it? Can he then sufficiently renounce the Devil and all his works when he hath hi­therto complyed with them? the pomps and vanities of this wicked World when he has minded nothing else? and the sinful Lufts of the Flesh when he has followed them and been led by them all his dayes? Can he then keep Gods Commandments who hath broken most of them? and walk in the same all the dayes of his Life who hath walked all his days in the ways of Sin and the paths of Unrigh­teousness, and never left them till just now he is at his journeys end and can live no longer? Surely this Bap­tismal Covenant is made only pro [Page 423]formâ and is but a modish and man­nerly Ceremony at our entring into Christianity if we are not more obli­ged to stand to it and make it good, and expect the benefits of Christianity upon our so doing, in some further and better manner of performance than a wicked Christian can do when he comes to dye? If his meer Sorrows and Purposes and Resolutions will serve instead of all that is expresly or implicitely meant by it, it is void and null in all the other parts of it, and the Church has unfaithfully and un­sincerely drawn it up in other words of a different sense and meaning that signifie nothing, and the Scripture hath exprest it as odly and unfitly, when it speaks of our dying to Sin and rising unto Righteousness by our Bap­tism, That we are symbolically buried with Christ by baptism unto death, that like as Christ was raised up by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life, Rom. 6.4. For if we have been planted together in the like­ness of his death, we shall be also in the likness of his resurrection, Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed [Page 424]that henceforth we should not serve sin; for he that is dead is free from sin, ver. 5, 6, 7. Likewise reckon ye also your selves to be dead indeed unto sin, but a­live unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord, ver. 11. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof: Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield your selves unto God as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as in­struments of righteousness unto God, ver. 12.13. Here is enough to give us the plain meaning of Baptism, and the great obligation of it to renounce Sin and live a good and holy Life. And we are then said to put on Christ and to put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holi­ness, Eph. 4.24. and to put off con­cerning the former conversation the old man which is corrupt according to the de­ceitful lusts, ver. 22. and to be rege­nerated and born again, and have a Spiritual Principle of Life and Holi­ness communicated to our Souls, and we then voluntarily consent to the terms of Christianity. and solemnly engage and undertake to live accord­ing [Page 425]to them, now all this which is very great and very obliging, one would think, is made very little, and very easily took off and abated and dispen­sed with if when it has been utterly neglected and disregarded, violated and broken all our lives a mere short and Dying Repentance will make it up and supply all the failures and the whole non-performance of it; I own that true and timely Repentance will relieve us against the many failures and breaches of it by bringing us to performe it better afterwards, sincerely endeavouring to make it good when we have broken it by any wilful sin, and upon our performance of it though not with perfect exactness yet with sincere integrity depends our Title to all the Priviledges of Christianity, But now to have no regard to it or take any care to observe it nor make it any way good in our lives but to live loosely and wickedly as if we had no such strict Engagement and Obliga­tion upon us and to allow our selves in notorious Sins and unlawful Liberties expresly contrary to our Baptismal Covenant, and yet think to salve all and have the whole benefit of it by [Page 426]a short Sorrow and Repentance when we come to dye this is either to make it have no meaning at all, or that we are not obliged to the performance of it; but let us not deceive our selves whosoever doth not make good his Baptismal Covenant in his Life which a wicked Man cannot at his Death, as he is false to Christ and breaks his own most solemn and voluntary engage­ments, so he forfeits all the benefits of his Christianity, all that Pardon and Salvation which Christ hath purchased and proposed to him.

Thus all the Obligations to Chri­stian Holiness and Obedience layd up­on us either by our own Baptismal Vows and Promises or by the parti­cular or general Commands of God and our Saviour are all taken away and dissolved by this loose Doctrine of a Death-Bed Regentance being suffi­cient for Salvation, so far as this is allowed in the case of one who hath been a great Sinner all his life, so far there must be an exception to all those, and they must all stand by and be set aside to make room for his going to Heaven. All the Laws of Religion and the whole Constitution of Christianity, [Page 427]and all the ordinary Rules and the standing Method of Salvation by the Gospel must be past by and over-ruled to make way for such an Extraordi­nary President, and whether God will do this is to me no more a question than whether he will release the Devils and the Damned out of Hell, I think there is scarce any more ground or more reason to hope for one than the other, and that 'tis as much a limiting the Divine Grace and Mercy and Confining Gods Extra­ordinary Power of showing Mercy where he pleases, and denying his In­finite Pity and Compassion to his Crea­tures and entring into his unsearchable Councils, and diving into his unfatho­mable Judgment to deny the latter as the former.

If God in one case may act contrary to all Rules and to his own Threatnings Judgment and Sentence pronounced against Sinners he may do so, so far as I know by the same Extraordinary Mer­cy and unbounded Prerogative in the other.

But what shall we say then to such a wretched Sinner when he is a dying, and never repented till he was so, is his case hopeless and desperate? Is [Page 428]there no comfort to be given him, is this hard and cruel Sentence to be pro­nounced upon him? And is he to be thus tormented before his time? Can nothing be done or said to him to give him any manner of hopes and comfort. and is he to be cast into the deepest gulph of despair? What a Miserable Comforter must a Minister whom he then sends for be to him who is of this Opinion, and talks at this rate? What will all his Prayers and Tears and strong Cryes then signifie if they can do him no good to the saving of his Soul?

I Answer, the case is I confess very sad and I know not what to say to it, I dare not pervert the Gospel to give him false comfort, I must not be un­faithful to the great God and my blessed Redeemer whose Minister I am in saying, Peace Peace when there is no Peace, in loosing what is bound in Hea­ven, and by a false Key or Picklock rather pretend to open the Kingdom of Heaven when God has shut it, I must not by any sweet and poysonous Opiates give a short and stupifying ease to his mind, and put him into a secure sleep till he awakes in his sad mistake [Page 429]and lifts up his eyes being in torments, I must not corrupt Religion and sow Pil­lows under his Arm-holes to put him into a state of false ease and quiet, and by some drops of Spiritual Laudanum, some comfortable false Doctrines and Narcotick Principles of Divinity take away his pains for a moment, and give him hopes contrary to the Gospel; I must not lye for God much less against him and bring a pretended Message from him to such a poor Wretch which he never sent me with, and forge a Counterfeit Pardon for him which Christ or the Gospel has not signed only to chear and delude him for a few hours. I must not I dare not then say any thing contrary to the Truth or to this Doctrine, which I believe to be such, to deceive him or others. It may not be then so seasonable, nor am I bound at that time to preach this to him as I do now to the living that they may never come to this sad Condition, but may take care to prevent it by a time­ly Repentance and a good Life, I would not for Ten Thousand Worlds be in that lamentable Case, and I here warn every one that Reads this, in the Name of God to avoid it:

But what then shall such an one do, shall he not pray shall he not cry migh­tily to God, shall he not lament and mourn and be deeply sorrowful and penitent? Yes by all means as much as is possible, and should be directed ad­vised and assisted to do this by the Mi­nister and his Friends and all about him; but what will it signifie accor­ding to the former Doctrine? 'Twill not save his Soul or get him Heaven; I answer I cannot say it will nor can any Minister assure him of this, but it will abate his misery and lessen his torments and be a great mitigation to his future punishment, it will though not obtain a pardon for all the sins of his wicked life, yet lighten his Sentence in some measure and make his suffe­rings to be something less than they would otherwise be.

There are many degrees of Tor­ment and Punishment even in Hell it self, as there are of Glory and Happyness in Heaven, as there are many Mansions above in our Fathers House, so there are many Cells in the Infernal Prison, and some are beaten there with more stripes and more intense torments than others. The fire of Hell is kindled seven times hotter for [Page 431]some more profligate and daring and presumptuous Sinners, and especially for those who defie Heaven and with their last breath deny or affront God and openly scorn and disown Religion, such bold Hectors against Heaven who stand out to the last against it and show no signs of Sorrow or Religion, but brave Hell and Death these provoke God to the utmost and challenge him as it were to do his worst, and they shall terribly feel the weight of his Power, and the force of his Almighty Arme and the Effects of his most incen­sed and provoked Anger, but now a Penitent and fearful and sorrowful Sin­ner who trembles at Gods Judgments, and is afraid of his indignation, and laments over his Sins, and humbles himself under his hand, and Repents as well as he can and bitterly grieves for his Sins and owns God is just and righteous in punishing him and that 'tis the due desert of his ways and con­fesses them before Men and warns others from them, and does all he can to undoe them and make reparation for them, and thus owns Religion though he has before denyed and opposed it and gives Glory to God though he be­fore [Page 432]dishonoured and disobeyed him in his life, such an one though for the rea­sons before given he has not a sufficient Title nor sufficient Qualifications for Heaven because he has not performed the Condition on which 'tis promised nor can acquire the Vertuous Habits that can alone fit him for it, nor can come up to the full terms on which God has promised Pardon and Salva­tion, and all this dying Repentance is not enough to make him a truely good Man nor beget in him that holiness without which he shall never see God, nor root out those old sinful Acts and Habits that will condemn and make him miserable, yet he shall have a ve­ry great Abatement and Mitigation to his future Misery and his Punishment shall be much lessened by it: This is a very great thing if we duely consider it and worth all his most earnest Prayers and deepest Sorrow and Com­punction and all he can do to save him from those highest and extremest de­grees of Misery.

Hell indeed is a general word for future Misery in Scripture as Hea­ven is for Happyness, but they consist not in one and the same in­divisible [Page 433]thing but are Two States of very various and different and unequal degrees according to the Deserts and Capacities of those who are in them; As there are several degrees of Good and Bad Men here upon Earth, so there will be of happy and miserable Souls in Heaven and Hell, some are very im­perfectly but yet sincerely good and are far from such Obedience and per­fection as Human Nature might come up to and those being without any wilful and deliberate and great Sin shall be in the lowest place in Heaven, and lower than this the Scripture allows none to go thither; they who live in any such one known and habitual sin and wickedness are such Sinners as are expresly excluded from thence, They have another place and state allotted to them in the other World, for there being no third or middle state revea­led by Scripture but only those two of Heaven and Hell, they must necessa­rily go to the latter, and there accor­ding to the Nature or Quality or De­grees of their Sin be punisht with ma­ny or fewer stripes, and be in a state of greater or lesser Misery according as their Lives and their Deserts have been:

The Valley of Hinnom from whence comes Gehenna, which we tran­slate Hell, was a deep Valley near Hierusalem where the Canaanites burnt their Children alive to Moloch and used all direful noises to hinder their cries and lamentations from being heard, and afterwards the Jews say that Josias turned it into the place of publick Executions and that all Carkasses and Dung and filthy things were thrown there, to prevent the noysomness of which there was a perpetual fire al­ways burning in that place that was never put out at any time: The Scrip­ture has made this the chiefest image and representation of Hell and from thence describes the Misery of it by fire and burnings, which give one of the most general and sensible ideas of Pain and torment; Both the Spiritual Hap­pyness of Heaven and Misery of Hell must be thus represented to the gross Thoughts of Mankind by the most de­lightful and most painful things known to their Senses, that they are best ac­quainted with in this World, and which will make the strongest impression upon them, though they may be in [Page 435]themselves of another Nature fitted chiefly to the Souls and Spirits and Ra­tional faculties of Men in their separate state, and the happyness or misery of those is chiefly designed by them; God we know is a Consuming fire to the wicked, but he will very differently pu­nish them, though fire seems to carry one equal idea of pain and torment yet as our Saviour says that it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of Judgment, (and they are set forth for an example in Scripture, suffe­ring the vengeance of eternal fire, Jude 7.) then for that City who rejected the Gospel, Matth. 10.15. so it shall be more tolerable for such wicked Men who have been so in a lesser degree in their Lives and at their Deaths have been as penitent as they could be then for Sinners of an higher order and a more daring and impenitent sort,

Heaven and Hell being taken for Pla­ces rather than States seem to our Ima­ginations to imply and signifie one equal and indivisible perfect and complete and same idea of Happyness or Misery that shall belong to all alike who are sentenced to either of those, but there are very great Differences and Degrees [Page 436]in them, a thousand times more than there is in the different States of Hap­piness or Misery among Men in this World, where in the same place and upon the same Globe we see some in very happy circumstances and mighty enjoyments, others in great Pain and Misery and a most pitiable Condition, this here is only a Tryal of them, and not according to their de­serts, but it shall be so exactly in ano­ther Wold, the great day of Recom­pence and Retribution; Then they who have done most Evil and com­mitted most sins and not repented of them in time but gon on to provoke and disobey God and despise and neg­lect Religion all their lives, these shall suffer the sad and utmost Vengeance of God's Anger and of Eternal fire, All other wicked Men of what sort soever, whether they were Sinners above others, or only lived in some sins without Repentance and Amend­ment, these shall be for ever in a very bad state, a state of Misery and loss of true happiness, and their Misery shall be exactly proportioned to their sins, and be in the same de­grees [Page 437]and measures that those were which are all known to the infinite­ly wise and Just God who without re­spect of persons will then render to all according to their works, and with an equal and impartial Justice distribute-those Rewards and Punishments to them.

They then who have served God best in their lives shall be best rewarded by him, they who have suffered with Christ shall then reign with him, they who en­dured any afflictions for his sake and the Gospels shall have the greater Glo­ry which those are not to be compared to, they shall receive a hundred fold for all they have done or suffered for Christ, not only for suffering Persecu­tion though Martyrdom has always had a brighter and a weightier Crown assigned to it, but for denying any present Interest or worldly gain, or unlawful pleasure and sensual Inclina­tion for the sake of Vertue and Reli­gion; then those who have best impro­ved their Talents to Gods Glory, and the good of others, and the Service of Religion shall have more gifts and re­wards from their great Lord, they who have turned many unto Righteousness [Page 438]shall shine as the stars in Glory, in se­veral Orbs and different degrees of Light and Lustre, for as the Apostle says one star differeth from another in glory, 1 Cor. 15.41. and So likewise shall it be at the Resurrection and in another World, there shall be different degrees of happyness and glory for Good Men both in their Bodies and Souls accor­ding to their different degrees of Good­ness, Service and Obedience to God in this life.

There being but two places or rather two States in another World appointed for all rational beings that ever were created, as seems plain by the Scripture Revelation, where so far as it describes or gives us a Map of that Invisible and unknown World it divides it only into two Mighty King­doms or vast Regions an upper and a lower parted from one another by unknown bounds and inhabited by Good and Bad Spirits, where the one are very happy and the other very mi­serable, there being but two such Re­ceptacles for the Souls of all Men and Angels to spend an Eternity in, (for the fixt continuance and Eternal Duration of their state is more plainly revealed [Page 439]then their particular State and Condi­tion) so that all Rational Souls must be consigned to one of those States and Places, (for they who have made a Third or Fourth have made it only out of their own brains and imaginations not out of any Scriptural foundation or Authority) there must be allowed to be very great differences and unequal degrees of happiness or misery in those two places or else neither the Justice of God nor the different Cases of Men can be accounted for with any tolera­ble ease and satisfaction to our thoughts or be any way reconciled to the prin­ciples either of Reason or Religion.

God the Just and All-knowing Judge will give all allowances to the hard circumstances, the invincible igno­rance, the unavoidable failures, the powerful temptations, the particular cases and several disadvantages that any of Mankind have been under, and with the fairest and most impartial equity will adjudge all their Conditions and proportion their future Rewards and Punishments according to what is due to them, all things considered, accor­ding to the right or wrong use of that [Page 440]freedom and liberty which he gave them and the faults or vertues under that light and knowledge they had, of their own wills and choices, by which alone they can either be or be denomi­nated good or bad Men; Some of Man­kind seem not to have either vertues enough to qualifie them for Heaven or to be so wilfully vitious as to deserve Hell, but to be in a kind of middle state here between Vertue and Vice whatever they shall be in hereafter, and many who are guilty of some Vices which the Scripture declares damnable and exclu­sive of Heaven yet are not of such downright Irreligion and General Pro­fligacy and Debauchery as others, Thus also many have some real sense of Reli­gion but yet are but weakly moved and influenced by it and do but just live in a very low way of Grace and Vertue and are not so Rich in good works nor do so abound in Acts of Piety, Zeal, Usefulness and Charity as others. Therefore one Equal Complete Perfect Entire State either of Happiness or Mi­sery cannot belong to all these alike, but Heaven or Hell are proportionable unequal different conditions of both [Page 441]exactly suited and fitted to the Moral and Religious Deserts, Capacities and Qualifications of all Rational Beings in which they shall be fixt to all Eter­nity without alteration, though per­haps not without further improve­ments and gradual risings and fallings, according to the Nature of either of those States.

These Thoughts have been a great ease and satisfaction to my self in the Conception of the great and amazing things of another World; and I therefore communicate them not only on the fore-mentioned account, but because they may be so to others who consider those greatest Objects of Meditation with any penetration of thought, according to the best helps we have of Philosophy and Scrip­ture, and I am perswaded it would be good Service to Religion if it were thus fairly reconciled in all the revea­led Truths and Articles of it to the thoughts of inquisitive Men as I doubt not but it may be, but this is a subject of another Nature which I am not now to meddle withal.

SECT. I. Not committing Sin the only sure Mark of a good State.

TO show this Mark given by the Apostle to be the true Test and Criterion by which we may make Judgment of our Spiritual Condition and know we are in a good State, I shall offer these following Considera­tions to prove the Truth of it

1. Then, those other Marks which come short of this by which too many are apt to deceive themselves are not safe and sufficient. Many are apt to make some inward and secret things wrought upon their Minds the Marks of Grace to them, and the signs and evidences of their good State, where­by they may be sadly cheated and de­luded unless these inward Marks are made more certain and evident by out­ward and visible Actions. None can know they have any inward Principle of Spiritual Life in their Souls, or the root of the matter in them, as some love to speak, but by such vital opera­tions and visible effects of it in their [Page 479]Lives; as we cannot know the Tree is alive at the root but by the sprouts and branches that shoot from it and show it to be so, but we conclude it to be dead without those in their pro­per time, and so we may our selves in a Spiritual sense without the Fruits of Repentance and Holiness in our Lives. A Christian cannot know he hath Faith but by his Works, nor be sure of Grace in the Heart but by the efficacy of it in restraining him from Sin and the visible effects of it in a Holy Conversation. We cannot so perfectly feel and discern this secret and inward principle in our selves so as to be any way assured of it unless the force and power of it appear in our Actions, and in reforming and bettering our Lives, and to judge of our being in a state of Grace any o­therwise from any voice or testimony within, is very precarious and un­grounded and very liable to error and delusion, for the Spirit bears witness to none but those whose Consciences at the same time bear witness that they are the children of God by not committing sin, and it sealeth none but those who have this Mark, and bear the Marks [Page 480]of Vertue and Holiness upon their Souls and in their Lives. The pre­sumptuous and conceited Enthusiast is very confident and assured of himself and his good state, though he is evi­dently guilty of very great and noto­rious Sins, and therefore he is forced to that lewd Principle that God sees no Sin in his Children, and that he may be a Child of God notwithstand­ing those, whereas this according to St. John is the only Mark of a Child of God, that he doth not commit Sin. To pretend to inward Marks of Grace when we are guilty of sinful Actions, is as if a Man should judge himself to be sound at Heart and healthful within when the Plague is broke out upon him, and the Spots appear and his Sores run, to talk then of the good­ness of his Pulse and other secret and uncertain signs within himself, where­by he feels himself to be well, is evi­dent cheat and wretched delusion, and so it is to judge of our Spiritual good State by any inward marks and tokens when our Lives are bad, and we commit Sin in the Apostles sense, i. e. live in the practice of any wilful Wickedness. But further, there are other imperfect [Page 481]signs not quite so deceitful and Enthu­siastick as these, by which many think they are in a good State though they are not brought off actually from eve­ry Sin, as that they are troubled and concerned at their Sins, and commit them with great reluctancy and unea­siness of Mind, so that they do the things which they would not, and that they often wish they were better, and have a mind to leave their Sins and some purposes to do so, though their Sins are so strong and powerful that they still prevail upon them, and they cannot wholly get rid of them, this they take to be good signs of Grace, that they have some good motions and stirrings in their Souls, some de­sires and wishes, and this desire of Grace they take to be Grace it self, and though they do not the good they would, yet that they have some mind and inclination to do it. Now all this may be in such as are truly Sinners and Unregenerate Persons, that are still in an impenitent state and under the power and dominion of their Sins, but are not quite sensless and stupified, nor are come to what the Apostle calls a seared Conscience, without [Page 482]sense of their Sins, nor to a reprobate Mind void of all judgment about them, which is the utmost degree of profligate wickedness, till they are brought to those, their Sins will be uneasie to them, and fill them with trouble whenever they think and re­flect upon them, as they cannot avoid to do sometimes, and they will feel sharp twitches and vellications of Conscience as long as they have any Conscience remaining, and have not quite wasted and destroyed it, and worn off all the Natural sense of Good and Evil upon their Minds, but if they will still sin notwithstanding this, and will not hearken to the secret calls or loud clamours of their own Consci­ences, but will still follow their Lusts and Vices, and be drawn away by the strong and alluring Temptations of them, all this Regret and Trouble which they sometimes bring upon them is only a self-conviction and self-condemnation, and is so far from giv­ing any abatement to their Sins that it adds this highest aggravation to them, that they are committed all the while against Conscience and against the in­ward sense of their own Minds. And [Page 483]though now and then in a good mood and a melancholly fit when they are thus troubled for their Sins they have a mind to leave them, and come to some faint Wishes Purposes and Reso­lutions to do so, yet if these prove in­effectual, and the next Temptation overcomes them, and they commit the Sin again when it is offered again and the company or the charms invite again to it, 'tis certain whosoever thus committeth sin is the servant of sin, as our Saviour sayes, John 8.34. and 'tis a sign he is such a slave to it and it hath got such power over him that it leads him captive at its will, and is so far Master of him that he cannot throw it off notwithstanding his frequent Wishes and imperfect Desires that he could; but how short all this is of Perfect Repentance, and therefore of putting us into a good State, I have shown more largely before, Chap. 1. Sect. 4.

2. The Scripture not only forbids every wilful Sin but excludes it out of Heaven, and declares that every wil­ful Sinner of what kind soever shall not enter into it, as neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor abusers [Page 484]of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revi­lers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God, 1 Cor. 6.9, 10. i. e. whoever are to be denominated such by the practice of their Lives and ha­bit of their Minds, by their living and dying in any of those Sins whatsoever, or in any one of them. This is plain­ly adjudged by the Gospel, which is the Rule God will judge us by at the last day, and by that Rule we may judge our selves now, and all other judgments of our selves are false and deceitful. Whatever Sinner finds him­self in the number of that black Cata­logue, may see his Name as it were in the dead Warrant, and nothing but timely Repentance and Amendment before he dyes can blot it out. The Sentence of Damnation is as positive and express against all or any such Sinners, as the Sentence of Death is against Treason or Felony by the Civil Law, and no hopes to escape the Knowledge or Justice of infinite Wis­dom and infinite Power, and therefore whoever is cast by any one such In­ditement and found guilty of any such Capital and Mortal Crime can never [Page 485]escape before the Divine Tribunal, the process of which is laid open to us by the Gospel, and by that we should judge our selves now as impartially as we know God will hereafter.

3. The Reason of this is plain, namely, of Gods forbidding every wilful Sin upon pain of Damnation, and excluding every such Sinner out of Heaven, for otherwise he could have forbidden no Sin, but must have laid open all his Laws to be broken and trampled on by the disobedience and unruliness of his Creatures; for had he suffered every one of Mankind to live in impunity under any one wil­ful though single Sin, such as his parti­cular inclination or his interest would most incline to, by this means he would have opened a gap for the breach of all his Laws, so that none of them should have been duely ob­served but all of them broken by parts and by piecemeal by some Sinner or other, one would have chosen to have gratified his Revenge, another his Lust, one would have wallowed in Drunkenness another have persued his Gain by all the methods of Fraud and Unrighteousness, and according as [Page 486]Mens inward tempers and outward temptations had been so they would have chosen or indulged every one of them their beloved Sin, and so God must have given up all his Authority and his Government to some or other of the vitious inclinations of his Crea­tures if he had not forbid all Sin what­ever upon pain of Damnation and ex­cluded it without exception out of Heaven.

4. One such wilful Sin is such an Af­front Contempt and Disobedience to the Divine Authority in general as in­volves in it an Universal guilt and breach of the whole Law of God, thus St. James saith, He that shall keep the whole law besides and yet offend in one point is guilty of all, James 2.10. for this reason, for he that said Do not com­mit adultery, said also, Do not kill, now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill thou art become a Transgressor of the law, ver. 11. i. e. the same Power and Authority of God gives Sanction to all his Laws, and 'tis a vertual dis­owning and disclaimer of that wil­fully to disobey it and rebel against it and openly oppose it in any case, which he does who lives in any one [Page 487]known and wilful Sin and is to be ac­counted an Enemy and Traytor to Heaven and punisht as such, who re­nounces its absolute Power and Right to Govern him in all things and sub­verts the whole foundation of Obedi­ence and Submission to it.

5. One such wilful Sin or vile Lust if it be suffered to prevail upon the Mind expels all true Principles of Ver­tue and Religion out of it or shows it to be devoy'd of any such as being ut­terly inconsistent with them, for he that alloweth himself in any sinful li­berty or unlawful practice contrary to the plain Rules of Religion can never have a due and just sense of that up­on his Mind, nor be supposed in any other things to be governed by such considerations of God and Heaven and Religion as are the true principles of all Vertue and Goodness, where those are not in the heart, all seeming Acts of Vertue and Religion lose their form and worth and excellency and are but the spurious Off-spring of Chance Hu­mour or Interest, for he that does any good action or abstains from any bad one out of Regard to Religion and the Considerations of God and another [Page 488]World would for the same reasons act uniformly and not allow himself to live contrary to those in any other instan­ces nor comply with the most darling lust or strongest temptation when con­trary to those, but if he does so in any case he may as well do it in others, for this shows that he is swayed and governed by some other Principles than those of Religion; A sense of Honour as 'tis call'd, or not doing a thing base and scandalous in the opinion of others, or a prudent Caution and Discretion in serving our present Interest, these may keep many Men from some Vices that would destroy their Credit or their present Advantage but if there be no other foundation for them, it is not Vertue and Religion, but only Art and Managery which may have its reward here, but will never be re­warded in Heaven, and this is what some commonly mean by a Moral Man, but 'tis a mistake, for this is only a Man of Conduct and Cunning, whereas Morality is founded upon true and certain and Eternal Principles and Reasons of Vertue but he that acts not by those nor any Principles of Religion will be a Knave for his Inte­rest [Page 489]and a Secret Sinner for his Lusts and make his Conscience give way as oft as there is occasion to his Conve­nience or Inclination, for in other sins which the Custom and Opinion of the World have not made so infamous or so disadvantagious there he can be no­toriously guilty and break the plain Rules of Vertue and Religion; He that can do so by indulging himself in any wilful Sin as he corrupts and spoils all his other seeming Vertues by ma­king them to be base born, and not to proceed from a Religious and Vertuous Stock, so he throws off all true Princi­ples of Religion, and shows that he has no true Root or genuine Seed of it in his heart.

6. Such an one lyes open to all other Sins and may for the same reason commit any that he allows himself in one, when the mind is thus prosti­tuted and debaucht by consenting to any one particular unlawful Lust, it would grow common to all others if it had the same temptation to invite and the same opportunity to commit them, and 'tis only for want of those that it is not universally lewd and wicked, and given up to commit all [Page 490]uncleanness with greediness, what should hinder or restrain him from all other Sins who gives way to any one plain and great one, if he were assaul­ted by the like temptation in any other place he would yield to it and comply with it even in the grossest manner, for he has lost his guard and the secu­rity of his Vertue, and by such a wide and open breach made in his Con­science all other sins might enter and the whole Legion take possession of him, There can be no true Reason to preserve him from any or from all sins, who knowingly and wilfully allows himself in any one.

7. Any such sin is utterly inconsi­stent with true sincerity, and this we know is absolutely necessary to our good state though perfection of Obe­dience is not, 'tis truely and commonly said that God requires not absolute per­fection of us but only true sincerity because the best Men cannot attain to the one and he must be a very bad one who hath not the other, but there is a perfection of parts and degrees, we are not bound to the highest degrees of every Vertue in order to a State of Grace and Goodness, but we are to [Page 491]have such a perfection of parts as to performe every Duty and every Ver­tue required of us and to be without every willful Sin contrary to the Divine Law, for less than this will not amount to true sincerity that shall commend us to God and approve us to him who knows our hearts, for whilst he sees there any one sin that we love more than we do him, which we prize and value above his favour and all that he can give us even Heaven it self, he cannot think our hearts are upright towards him or that we sin­cerely love him; for can he sincerely love God who does any wilful thing that he knows is infinitely displeasing to him? And can it be consistent with the faithfulness and integrity of friendship to do the most injurious and the most disobliging thing imaginable? Can he love his Prince or the Govern­ment where he lives who endeavours in any thing to subvert and destroy that Authority by an open standing out and breaking their Laws? There may be indeed a Personal Love to an Earthly Prince distinct from Obedience to his Laws, (and so some would have to God and Christ) for he may be ca­pable [Page 492]of receiving other Pledges and Testimonies of it and may be many other ways obliged by us, because he may have a Distinct Interest or Inclina­tion different from his laws, but this can­not be in God whose Laws are always agreeable to his Nature and the result of his own infinite Wisdom and Rea­son, and he can never be pleased with any that act contrary to them nor is capable of receiving any other grateful or acceptable thing from us but only Obedience to his Commands, so that by this only we that are his Creatures can oblige him, and testifie the sinceri­ty of our Love to him, as St. John says, This is the love of God that we keep his commandments, 1 John 5.3. There is no other certain sign or ex­pression of our Loving God but obey­ing him, and no sign of Loving him with all our heart and soul and mind, but obeying him Universally, and not di­viding and sharing out our Love to him and our sins, and suffering any of our vile Lusts to be his Rivals and Competitors in our Affections; Whilst we allow our selves in any known and wilful sin we take part with that which is an Enemy to God, we har­bour [Page 493]and nourish a known Traytor to him in our breasts and if we will not give it up we break with God and De­clare open Enmity against him, and will rather part with him and his friendship than part with a Paltry and a Vile Lust, whilst we thus indulge any darling Sin and secret Wickedness in our heart as God cannot love us so neither can we sincerely love him, but whatever showes and pretences of kindness and respect we may show to him otherwaies, whatever Courtship and Honour we may give to him by the Ceremonies of Worship, and the External Rights and Offices of Reli­gion, yet he will account us only false and treacherous and hypocritical Wretches, and not accept of any thing else we offer to him: For,

8, Allowing our selves in one such darling Sin or beloved Lust spoils all our Religious Duties and makes them both unacceptable to God and us unfit to performe them as we ought; He that allows himself in any secret Sin and unlawful Lust how must he be sunk into a sensual State that will keep him from rising to Spiritual Thoughts and Exercises, his Mind is taken up [Page 494]with other apprehensions and idea's of different objects, which he prefers to all the things of Religion and these sink down his mind and bemire it in flesh and sense that it cannot use its wings or rational faculties and mount upwards to the purer objects of Faith and Religion: Those vitious inclina­tions must quench and put out the fire of Devotion and make the mind move sluggishly and heavily in such an im­proper work, and damp all its Religious Ardors and Affections; When a Man out of a Natural Sense of God cannot excuse himself wholly from worship­ping and praying to him, (for I speak not of such as have cast off all Religion, but only such as allow themselves in one wicked Lust or unlawful Liberty) how must it be a violence to him to pray against a Sin and beg pardon of it and Grace to forsake it, when he secretly re­solves to keep it and has no true and full design in his mind to leave it? What a struggle must there be be­tween his Conscience that is awakened by his Devotion and his sensual Appe­tite which is so fond of the Sin that nothing can keep him from it, and who when he is deploring himself in [Page 495]the holy Offices yet intends to commit it the next opportunity? What hor­rid Mockery and impudent Banter is this with the great and awful Majesty of God? And what wretched Hypo­crisie to make shows of great Honour and Address to him when our hearts are not right with him, and we must know that he well knows they are not so? No Man could have the face to be so impudent to another as to come and make great court to him and express great Respect and Reverence and Kindness for him, when he knew at the same time that the other also knew that this was all false and hypocritical, and that he took all occasions at other times to affront and contemne and dis­oblige him? And yet thus every Man does who under all his Devotion and seeming Piety nourishes a secret sin and an unlawful Lust and demurely covers a vile fraud or injustice or any immo­rality: So that either a Man must throw off all Religion or throw off every secret and beloved Sin; for either his Sin will spoil his Religion or his Religion must cure him of his Sin, or he must have great Mistakes and false Apprehensions of Religion who [Page 496]thinks to compound with Heaven and to pay External Homage to it and that God will accept of that instead of inward Vertue and sincere Obedience. One would think no Man could ever heartily performe one act of Devotion who has any such sin in reserve that he will not part with, but I am sure who­ever does so his Devotion will never be accepted by God, and it will be in vain to worship him openly while we secretly disobey him, such a blemish spoils all our Sacrifices and desecrates and pollutes the most sacred oblations, and as the Prophet exprest it to the Jews makes him that killeth an ox as if he slew a man, he that sacrificeth a lamb as if he cut off a dogs neck, he that offer­eth an oblation as if he offered swines blood, he that burneth incense as if he blessed an idol, Isa. 6.3. and he giveth the reason at the latter part of the verse, They have chosen their own ways and their soul delighteth in their abomi­nations, and these turn their very Prayers into sin and make them an abo­mination to God, as Scripture assures us, Psal. 109.7. Prov. 28.9. 'Tis strange and unaccountable to consider that a Man should have some sense of [Page 497]Religion and be govern'd by it in a great many things and live up to the Rules of it in several instances and yet be so besotted and infatuated as to let one darling sin overcome and enslave him when he knows that this by the Principles of his Religion is as damnable and destructive as any of the rest, which is just as if he should be careful to pre­serve his Health and avoid a great ma­ny Diseases and live by regular Me­thods to that purpose and yet give himself a mortal stab and a wound that will certainly dispatch him; for one Sin like one Wound may be Mor­tal and bring Death along with it as well as many, and one drop of Poyson may kill, and one wilful sin damn us as well as more.

God will not judge of our sins as the Custom and Opinion of the World does, nor abate of the Measures of our Duty and Conditions of our Salvation as we madly and unreasonably do our selves, but whatever sin stands con­demned by the Divine Law however Modish or Common and Customary it be, that will not alter its Nature, nor take off its guilt and danger; one Mans Temper carries him to such Sins that [Page 498]he thinks Flesh and Blood cannot resist anothes Trade or Business tempts him to others that he thinks 'tis impossible to get a Livelyhood without them, he cannot drive his Bargains with his Customers without immode­rate drinking nor Sell and Trade in the World without Customary Lying and perhaps Swearing, and to perswade Men out of those that their Conveni­ence and Condition or their Temper or Complexion do so strongly dispose 'em to, is to pluck out a right eye and cut off a right hand, I confess it is so in our Saviours sense, but 'tis also very ne­cessary to do this, to Cut off even the most pleasant or advantagious Sin and deny even the most darling and belo­ved Lust if we would not be cast into Hell hereafter and into a Bad State at present, our Saviours words there sup­pose and imply that, but as he says 'tis more profitable, more for our good Interest and Advantage to forego any pleasure and part with any Advantage then for the sake of them to expose our selves to such a miserable state.

He that is truly afraid of Hell will not dare to live in any such sin as he knows will bring him thither, he must [Page 499]be strangely thoughtless and inconside­rate or else a down-right Atheist Infi­del or Sceptick who can allow himself in any such sinful Liberties and undue Practices as are directly contrary to Religion and inconsistent with all the fears and the hopes of it and as one would think with all true Faith and belief of another World, but let every one that hath those and any serious sense of Religion remaining upon his Mind not venture to indulge himself in any secret or known Sin nor har­bour any beloved vice or wickedness in his Soul, but let him though with the greatest Self-denyal to his Temper or difficulty to his Circumstances and Condition in the World break it off and teare it from his heart though it stick by never so many strings and fibres and be like a second Nature grown to it, like a Cancer it will cer­tainly kill us if it be not thus torn from the breast and so perfectly cut off, that none of its spreading Venom or Poyson remain behind. He that has had any such mortal illness growing upon his Mind or been guilty of any such wilfull Sin as puts him into an ill state, must thus Repent of it so as never again to [Page 500]commit it nor live in the practice of it afterwards or else till he do this he can have no hopes that he is recovered or got out of it, nor any reasonable grounds to believe that he is in a Con­dition any way hopeful or comfortable, for

Lastly, 'Tis only this mark of not committing any known and wilful sin that distinguishes good Men who are born of God from those who are wicked and the children of the Devil and Ene­mies to God, and to be sure there must be some very great and notorious difference between them and some plain and evident marks by which they may be known from one another, now those are plainly given us by St. John, 1 Ep. 3. c. 8, 9. ver. He that commit­teth sin is of the Devil and whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin. Where nothing less can be meant by commit­ting sin then living in the practice of any known sin or wilful wickedness which destroys the image of God up­on the mind and so defiles and depraves our Souls that they are unlike to the pure and holy and unspotted Nature of God, and when any Vice of Pride, Lust Malice or the like abides upon [Page 501]them they bear these Marks and Signa­tures and likeness of accursed Fiends and of their Father the Devil upon them in Scripture phrase: There are none such great Sinners as to break all the Divine Laws, some sins are contrary to one another, and some may be con­trary to our Inclinations, Complexions, or Conditions and Employments, but he that will violate any one Law as it suits with any of those and will grati­fie any Lust or Temptation as it is offered to him, he is one whom the Scripture denominates a Sinner in the high sense, i. e. one who stands con­demned by it to an ill state here, and to Eternal Misery hereafter, We are all Sinners in a low sense as I shall show presently when I come to state the difference of Mens sins, and enquire what are and what are not consistent with a good state, but no Judgment could be made between a Good and a Bad Man if this did not distinguish them that the one though he may be encompast with a great many frailties and infirmities yet never allows him­self in one wilful known and deliberate wickedness which the other does; There may be degrees both of Sinners and [Page 502]of Good Men, some have attained to greater improvements and perfections both in Vice and Vertue and are more the Children of God or the Children of the Devil but that which divides their States and cuts the Line of diffe­rence between them must be this that the one allows himself in the practice of some known sin or sins which the other does not but carefully avoyds, and never commits any such wilful Wickedness.

Though this seems very plain and undeniable and I have endeavoured to convince every one of the truth of it by the several Arguments I have brought to prove it, it being of great use to them to Judge and Examine themselves by this plain and certain Mark and Criterion instead of the ma­ny false and uncertain ones that are given out as signs of Grace, and to judge thereby of their Spiritual Condi­tion, and know whether they are in a Good or Bad State, yet there are two seemingly great objections against it, The one is the quite other Character and Account which St. Paul gives of himself in the Seventh Chapter to the Romans who was undoubtedly in a [Page 503]good state and a Regenerate Man and yet speaks of sin dwelling in him, ver. 17. and that the good which he would he did not, but the evil which he would not, that he did; ver. 19. and that there was a war in his members warring against the law of his mind and bringing him into captivity to the law of sin which is in his members, ver. 23. &c. The other is that no Man lives without sin, and that 'tis impossible he should, for in many things we offend all, and if we say we have no sin we deceive our selves as the Apostle says, and therefore to ex­clude all from a state of Grace who live in any sin and to make the not committing sin the only true Mark and Sign of Grace is a very hard saying and a very severe thing and in effect is an excluding all Mankind since all are Sinners some way or other and none are so perfect as to live wholly without Sin: Now the first of these I shall answer very briefly because I would not enter into any long dispute about the sense of that Chapter, and the other I shall more largely consider in a distinct Section because it will oc­casion my giving an account of the difference of sins, what are and what [Page 504]are not consistent with a Good State which is a very material point in the right stating and understanding the Nature of Repentance and the Na­ture of Sin.

First then as to St. Paul's description of himself, Rom. 7. One of these two things must be allowed by all Sober and Understanding Men.

1. That if he speaks in the Person of a Regenerate Man, as some would have it, then all the Phrases and Expressions of sin dwelling in him, and the like must relate only to those sins of Frailty and Infirmity which a good Man is liable to and cannot be wholly free from and which are therefore consistent with a good State, as I shall particu­larly show in the next Section; A Good Man, who is especially under a state of imperfect goodness and not arrived to any great degree of Chri­stian perfection may say of himself in many Cases, that which I do I allow not I am guilty of many a hasty word, and undue passion and unreasonable desire and foolish imagination and the like which I do not approve of with my reason, but dislike and wish I [Page 505]could be perfectly free from, and so in many cases may say what I would that I do not many degrees of Charity and Devotion and other Vertues which I willingly would yet I do not perform, nor come up to such a pitch of good­ness as I gladly would but fall short in many things of my Duty, and such attainments as I would propose and come up to, such an one may be very sensible of the body of death and the bondage of Corruption he is in and of the strength of Concupiscence and the Law in his Members warring against the Law of his Mind, Chap. 4. Sect. 3. But these may only relate to such Im­perfections and Infirmities and sins of Frailty and Infirmity as may consist with a Good State and belong to a Good Man, but they are by no means to be applyed further to the commit­ting any wilful and known and pre­sumptuous sin which cannot be said of a Regenerate Man or one in a good state, and therefore,

2. Some of those Expressions in that Chapter seem to be such as cannot be­long to a Good Man such as those ver. 14. I am carnal sold under sin, ver. 23. That the law of his members brought [Page 506]him into captivity to the law of sin, ver. 25. That with his flesh he served the law of sin, So that St. Paul seems to speak here not of himself as a good Christian but of an Unregenerate Person under the Convictions of the Law, and though he uses his own name yet 'tis by a Metaschematism a Figure usual to him in other places, as Gal. 2.17, 18. If I build again the things which I destroy I make my self a trans­gressor, and we our selves are still found sinners, Rom. 3.7. If the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie, why yet am I judged as a sinner; where though he uses his own Name yet 'tis under the Person of a Blasphemous Objector, and 1 Cor. 13.2. If I have all faith and no charity what doth it profit me; which is an inoffensive way of transferring odious things to our selves when we would describe and re­prove them; Thus St. Paul here only personates an unregenerate Man, for in other places he gives a quite other Character of a Regenerate one directly contrary to what is here, as that He hath crucified the flesh with the affections and lust, Gal. 5.24. and crucified the [Page 507]old man, Rom. 6.6. and that he is dead to sin, Rom. 16.11. and free from sin and the servant of Righteous­ness; Whereas here it is said, that sin dwelt in him, that he was carnal sold un­der sin, that the law of his members led him into captivity to the law of sin, and that with his flesh he served the law of sin, this must be the state not of a good Christian, but of a Man at least under the Law and therefore the Apostle in opposition to this immediately de­scribes the other more happy state of a Christian under the Gospel in the next Chapter and in answer to the grievous Exclamation, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death, he comfortably re­plies to himself, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord, ver. 25. i. e. there is a remedy for it by Christ and Christianity, and the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death, ver. 2. chap. 8.

The Answer to the other Objection will be fully given in the next Section.

SECT. II. The Differences of Sins, what are and what are not consistent with a good State.

THAT all Men are Sinners not only Experience but the Scrip­tures do in many places assure us, that there is not a righteous man upon earth who sinneth not; that in many things we offend all; and that if we say we have no sin we deceive our selves, and the truth is not in us; by which is not only meant that no Man is wholly free from all manner of Sin in the whole course of his Life, or can pass all his dayes without falling into some Sin or other, but that no part of his Life, even when he is come to his best State, a State of Grace and Vertue, is so perfect as to be quite sinless, and without any Sin of what kind soever, so that he should not be obliged to beg Pardon of God, and say dayly, Forgive us our Trespasses. Now this as it is matter of Humiliation to the best Men, so it is turn'd to another use and quite different purpose by the [Page 509]worst; they comfort themselves in all their greatest Sins that all Men are Sinners as well as themselves, that none are free from all Sins, and let them that are so cast the first stone at them, they plainly confound hereby the different states of good and bad Men, and are not willing to distin­guish or make such a true judgment as the Scripture does plainly between them, for the same Scripture that tells us all are Sinners and hath concluded all under Sin, yet declare that every wilful Sin is damnable, and that they who commit it and live in the practice of it shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, and that he who shall keep all the law besides and yet offend in any one point is guilty of all, and shall be punish'd as truly though not so fully for one wilful unrepented Sin as for more.

There is no way to reconcile this, and take off any seeming difficulty about it, but by that plain difference which both Scripture and Reason al­low between Sins, that some of them are Sins of Frailty and Infirmity which are unavoidable to us in our present [Page 510]state, and which are consistent with a good one, and which the best of Men cannot live wholly without whilst they are in this Body of Flesh and Blood, and that others are wilful and presumptuous, known and deliberate Sins which are committed with full consent of the Mind, and against a plain Law of God, and with that pre­sumption and disobedience that makes them unpardonable without a particu­lar Repentance and a perfect Amend­ment. It concerns us very carefully to distinguish and know the difference between those and not to erre to be sure, on the wrong side by judging too kindly of our Sins, and calling those Infirmities and Weaknesses which are Sins of Wilfulness and Presump­tion; nor can we without judging right and avoiding Mistakes on either hand judge truly and comfortably of our selves, and know what our Spiri­tual state is, or what condition we are in as to God and another World. The only way to be safe is to avoid every Sin, at least every wilful Sin, and to grow up to as high a degree of Ver­tue and Goodness as we can, and to get as much mastery over all our Im­perfections [Page 511]and Infirmities as is possi­ble; but since some Sins and Frailties will cleave to us whilst we carry this body of Sin and of Death about us, we may use the Psalmists excellent Prayer both for our Instruction and our Devotion, Psal. 19.12, 13. Who can understand his errors? Cleanse thou me from secret faults, keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins, let them not have dominion over me, then shall I be upright, and I shall be inno­cent from the great transgression; where he gives us an account of several sorts of Sins: 1. Such as he calls Errors and secret Faults, by which are meant Sins of Ignorance and Infirmity, which we are to pray God to forgive and free us from as well as from others. 2. Pre­sumptuous Sins which implye such as are both known and wilful, and those 3. such as have dominion over one, a reigning habitual prevailing power; now if we be kept free from these latter though not the former, we are safe and out of danger, in a state of sincerity and favour with God, and shall be treated as Righteous and Good Men notwithstanding those lesser Faults. Then shall I be upright, and I [Page 512]shall be innocent from the great trans­gression; i. e. from any such Sin as shall indanger my Soul, and expose it to Misery and Damnation. I shall consider and explain these several sorts of Sins.

1. Errors and secret Faults, Sins of Ignorance and Infirmity, such as we knew not to be Sins when we com­mitted them, either by a downright ignorance and not knowing any Law of God that forbad them, or by thoughtlesness surprize and inconside­ration, being unawares engaged in them before we could think or con­sider.

As to Sins of Ignorance our Saviour told the Pharisees, John 9.41. If ye were blind ye should have no sin; i. e. If ye had been perfectly ignorant of the Messiahs coming into the World, and had had no knowledge of this by the Prophesies of old, and by the Mi­racles which ye see me do, then your Infidelity and Unbelief had been excu­sable and without Sin. Where Chri­stianity is not revealed, as to the Hea­then World, where Faith is not pro­posed to Men with those Arguments and Reasons which should perswade [Page 513]to it, there God will not condemn them for their Ignorance which they could no way help, and which was only their misfortune and not their fault.

Our Blessed Saviour sayes of the Jews, If I had not come and spoken un­to them they had not had sin, Joh. 15.22. i. e. the Sin of Disbelieving and Rejecting him; as to other Sins known by their own Law, those they had been answerable for to God, as St. Paul sayes, As many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law, Rom. 2.12. and as many as have sinned with­out law shall perish without law; i. e. the Gentiles who had not the Law of Moses shall be condemned for their Sins by the Law of Nature.

It has been an uncharitable Question whether any of the Gentiles should be saved? Now tho' they cannot be saved in an ordinary way, by Vertue of the Christian Covenant to which they have no title or claim, yet God may in extraordinary Mercy let all Mankind have the benefit of it, and save them by Christ though they know him not; but I am sure he will never condemn them for not knowing Christianity or [Page 514]the Gospel which was not promulged or revealed to them.

There are many others whose Igno­rance will no doubt excuse them be­fore God at the last day, such who have lived under the darkness of Popery, and had no opportunity to know the gross Corruptions of it; and others who by their unhappy Circum­stances, and want of Education have had no means of instruction in the things of Religion, God will make gracious abatements to all those for this and the consequent ignorance there­upon it which they could not help, and which was all things considered un­avoidable to them, and they will ob­tain Mercy like St. Paul for a great many faults because they did them ig­norantly, 1 Tim. 1.13.

There can be no plea or pretence for this in any of the plain and great Duties of Morality, because those are all known by the Light of Nature which God hath set up in every Mans Mind, and which is the great security of all Religion: But in matters pure­ly positive and which have not that clear evidence for them, but there may be occasion for mistakes and misun­derstandings [Page 515]in things that are not so clearly Good and Evil in themselves, but are of another Nature, of a posi­tive and arbitrary Institution, there Mens Errors and Ignorances and Pre­judices may excuse in great measure, though they act not according to the Rules of Christianity and those Orders which Christ and his Apostles have set up in the Church; and this is all the ground of Charity I can have for the deluded and ignorant Sectaries of all sorts, many of which with honest well-meaning Minds may have great weakness of Judgment and want of Understanding, but God will judge Men at the last day rather by the pro­bity and sincerity and honesty of their Wills than by the truth and rightness of their Understandings. Indeed if Mens Ignorance be affected and wilful and such as they might easily help if they would use means of instruction and information, and fairly consider and examine things with such helps as they have, then this Ignorance be­comes a chosen fault of the Will, and so much as there is of that in it so far it is criminal and blamable, and this is its condemnation that it loveth dark­ness [Page 516]rather than light, and refuseth knowledge and instruction, and hateth the light neither cometh to the light lest its deeds should be reproved, Joh. 3.20.

There is an Ignorance of the Law and of the Fact, we may either not know that there is such a Command given by God, or though there be such a Law that such an action comes not under it or is forbidden by it, as many are not sensible there is such a Law concerning Church Union and Com­munion as forbids all Schism and Se­paration, unless the terms of Commu­nion are sinful and unlawful, or they do not think that worshipping God in their own way falls under the crime of sinful Schism or breach of Charity, but think it a very indifferent thing, and that there is no harm in it. Very many I doubt not do this, and 'tis only their Ignorance can excuse them from a Sin that is very contrary to the great Commands of Christian Peace and Unity. So others think there is no Idolatry in worshipping God be­fore an Image, or Christ in the Host or Eucharist, or praying to the Virgin Mary and Saints and Angels, and giv­ing them a lesser worship than they do [Page 517]to God himself, and how far their Ig­norance shall excuse them God only can judge, but so far as it is no fault of their Wills, and is consistent with the honesty and sincerity of their Minds, and is Morally unavoidable to them, so far it will be excused.

Next to Sins of Ignorance are Sins of Surprize and Inadvertency, when though we are not ignorant that such actions are sinful and against a Divine Law, yet we do not consider it at that time nor are aware that they are so. As on a sudden Passion when we have not time to think, when Fear or An­ger does so suddenly arrest our thoughts that we have not time to consider that what we do is blamable and faulty, though we know it is upon reflection and consideration. Thus St. Paul when he called the High Priest whited wall, Acts 23.3. being provoked by his unreasonable command that they should smite him on the mouth for saying only, that he had lived in all good Conscience before God to this day, ver. 1. when he was reproved for this by some who stood by and said, Revilest thou Gods high-priest, He returned this Answer, I wist not bre­thren [Page 518]that it was the high-priest. I did not consider it, I was not aware of it, it was done inadvertently, for I know it is written in Gods Law, Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people.

Thus even St. Peters denyal of Christ was out of a sudden fright and a fear that he should be so used as he saw his Master was, and he consider­ed not all his warnings, nor heard or minded the Cock crowing twice till Christ reminded him and looked upon him, and the Cock crew again, and then he went out and wept bitterly, for it was a grievous Sin though it had something of surprize and inadver­tency in it, and therefore found Pardon sooner than those deliberate Apostasies and Denyings of Christ, which the Epistle to the Hebrews speaks of as more unpardonable than the Gospel represents this.

Thus Moses in a Passion threw down the Tables of the Divine Law, and brake them beneath the mount, Exod. 32.19. though the Tables were the work of God, and the Writing was the Writing of God graven upon the Tables, as 'tis said there, and so 'twas a great disrespect to God, ver. 16. he [Page 519]being suddenly and extreamly provo­ked with the sight of the Golden Calf, and the Idolatrous dancing of the People about it.

Thus a good Man may be surpri­zed with a sudden Passion, an undue Anger, hasty and rash words, and speaking unadvisedly with his Lips, and he may before he is aware be sur­prized with a Temptation that shall make him have an undue Desire, an unreasonable Wish, a Lustful or Co­vetous Thought or Look, though he would not when he considers and be­thinks himself commit any unlawful act persuant or consequent to any of those, but the suddenness of the thing gives him not time to recollect or use his Reason as he would do, and this proceeds from an unavoidable infirmi­ty of Mind which cannot alwayes be upon its guard and provided against sudden surprizes, but must think of a great many other things besides those of Religion.

3. Those Natural Inclinations and first Motions of Concupiscence that are in us to things forbidden and un­lawful are only Sins of Infirmity, if they go no further than those first [Page 520]Motions Thoughts and Desires, and the Mind does not give any consent to them, nor indulge or approve them, nor would gratifie them unduly and unlawfully had it power and opportu­nity; for those first Motions and In­clinations are necessary and unavoid­able arising from the frame and consti­tution of our Nature, and the Mecha­nism of our Body, Blood and Spirits, so that we can no more help or pre­vent them than we can the senses of Pain and Pleasure, or the Appetites of Thirst or Hunger, or the Motions and Impressions of outward Objects made upon our Senses, and therefore they are not simply evil but good in them­selves so far as they are Natural, and intended by God to serve the good of the World and of particular Persons and the wise ends of Providence, but as they are irregular and inordinate, excessive and immoderate, and destroy those ends for which God intended them so far they are sinful, and when any of those Natural Appetites or Sen­sual Inclinations grow too strong and unruly, and are not kept under the government of Reason or within the bounds of Vertue and Religion, then [Page 521]they carry Men to all loosness and wickedness, and make them commit Sin and Uncleanness with greediness

A good Man may with St. Paul be very sensible and complain of this body of sin and of death, and of the law of sin that is in his members, of many ir­regular Appetites and undue Passions, and weak and foolish imaginations and unreasonable desires and inclinations, of too quick gusts of Sensual things, and too much deadness of Spiritual, of having too many thoughts and de­signs for Earthly and present things and too little zeal and affection for things Heavenly that are a thousand times more valuable. These are im­perfections that are in the best of us, and we see that they are so, and are very sensible and complain of them, but yet we cannot wholly avoid them, but after all our thoughts and all our care they still return upon us, and the Flesh will lust against the Spirit, and there will be a perpetual war and struggle between them; but if the Spirit do so far prevail by the helps of Grace and considerations of Religion, that it do never yield to any wilful Sin, it shall then be rewarded as a Conque­rour, [Page 522]which though it did not wholly subdue and drive out that homebred enemy, yet kept it alwayes under, and made it submit to its Government and not keep up an open Rebellion against it. Of this I have largely discoursed in the Third Section of the Third Chapter.

I proceed now to those Sins which are known wilful and presumptuous, habitual and reigning in us, any one of which is inconsistent with a good State, and excludes us out of Gods Favour here and Heaven hereafter; such as the Psalmist in the forequoted place prayes against, Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins lest they get the dominion over me.

All known and wilful Sins are pre­sumptuous, as being done in defiance of a Divine Authority that we know has forbid them, and in contempt of God and his Laws to whom we owe all Honour and Obedience, and notwith­standing all those threatnings and se­vere punishments that God has de­nounced against them, He that sins wilfully after he has received the know­ledge of the truth of these things there remains nothing for him but a certain [Page 523]fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the ad­versaries.

This is despising the Law of God, thus wittingly and wilfully to break it, and is sinning with a high hand and a most presumptuous boldness, when we choose to do that which we know is most highly displeasing to Heaven, and which God has laid all the obliga­tions he possibly can upon us not to do.

When any such Sin gets dominion over us so that it becomes customary and habitual to us, it makes us the Devils slaves and captives at his Will, and shows that he is our Master and that we are the Servants of Sin, and overcome by that and brought in bon­dage to it, that it prevails upon our Minds above all the Power of Reason and Principles of Religion, and that we choose it above all the great things of Heaven and another World that Religion offers to us, and think it more desirable than any of those and had rather gratifie a paltry Lust and a foolish Inclination than save our Souls and have all the favour of God, that we prefer it before any other good, [Page 524]and let it have the ascendant in our Love and Affections above all other things; for it is utterly inconsistent with any Love of God or any due re­gard to him, and banishes all Princi­ples of Religion out of our Minds and destroyes all sincerity and uprightness of Heart towards God, and abandons us to a state of enmity with him and everlasting destruction hereafter.

This I have shown is true of every wilful and chosen and known Sin.

I shall now from the distinction I have given you of these Sins from those of Infirmity, Ignorance and Inadver­tency, make the following Inferences and Remarks.

1. That those Sins of Infirmity are to be Repented of, i. e. we are to be sorry for them, and pray God to for­give them: Though they do not de­stroy our good state, nor deprive us of Gods Favour here or Heaven here­after, yet they are such as are to be matter of Trouble and Sorrow and Humiliation to us, and we are dayly to pray God to forgive us our Trespasses as Christ has taught us in the Lords Prayer; and the Psalmist in the place before mentioned prayes [Page 525]God to cleanse him from his secret faults as well as to keep him back from pre­sumptuous Sins. For

2. These are true and proper Sins, and though they are not charged upon us to our Condemnation, yet this is by the great Favour and Mercy of God, and by Vertue of the Gracious Cove­nant made in Christ with Mankind, for otherwise God in Rigour and Ju­stice might punish and condemn us for them. The Papists hold a distinction between Sins Mortal and Venial in their own Nature, i. e. that some Sins are in themselves damnable and others not, which the Protestants have ge­nerally opposed for this Reason, be­cause all Sin is in it self Mortal, and in its own Nature deserves Death, as being [...], a breach and transgression of a Divine Law whose sanction is Death, but it is pardonable only by Gods Mercy on the account of its cir­cumstances which make it more excu­sable with a good and merciful God, but that it is not of it self venial or so little as not to deserve Punishment, they prove from hence that we are bound to pray God to forgive it. Now it is pure Grace and Favour for God [Page 526]to forgive, and what he is not obliged to; and if he is not obliged to pardon it, he may punish it were it not for his Mercy and Goodness, and the Gracious Covenant he has made with us in the Gospel. This should therefore,

3. Make us very sensible of Gods infinite Mercy and kind dealing with us by the Covenant of Grace. How many innumerable Sins and Frailties are we guilty of in our Lives which are in strictness deviations from the Divine Law? How many secret Sins are we to be cleansed and freed from which we might be ignorant of when we committed or not remember after­wards, and which are forgotten by us and blotted out of our memories, tho' they are not out of Gods, but he might impute and charge them to us would he enter into strict Judgment with us? How many foolish Thoughts, rash Words, irregular Passions, unreason­able Desires are we dayly guilty of, and how many defects and omissions of doing our Duty with less degrees of ardency frequency and perfection then we ought to do; these all stand in need of Divine Mercy, and this we shall be sure of for Christs sake if we [Page 527]are sincere and hearty and upright in our Obedience, but this is a mighty Favour of God and of the New Co­venant, and calls for a great sense of Thankfulness and Gratitude.

To say we sin dayly, and that the best things we do have Sin mixt with them is true in a certain sense as there is some defect and imperfection in our most Holy Duties, and that we have some Infirmities that we ought dayly to confess and beg forgiveness of at Gods hands, but this is by no means true of any such wilful Sin as every good Man must be free from whilst he is in a good state, and has a title to Heaven.

Under the Law God had provided a standing Expiation for the lesser Sins of Ignorance and Infirmity by the day­ly and other Sacrifices, but there was none for presumptuous Sins, but he that was guilty of them was to be cut off and dye without Mercy by the Law of Moses. Christianity is a more Gracious Dispensation, and allowes Pardon for the greatest Sin upon Re­pentance and Amendment, and the Blood of Christ is a standing Expiation for those and all the lesser and dayly [Page 528]Sins we commit, and Christ is our dayly Advocate and Intercessor with God for them.

4. When the Scripture sayes that we are all Sinners, and that if we say we have no Sin we deceive our selves, and that there is not a Righteous Man who liveth and sinneth not, and we by our dayly Confessions own our selves to be dayly Sinners; this is meant only of those lesser Sins of Frailty and Infirmity, Ignorance and Inconsidera­tion which I have explained to you, which are consistent with a good State, which regenerate and holy Men are not quite free from, which neither de­stroy our own sincerity nor Gods love to us nor our reasonable hopes of Hea­ven, but any other Sins that are of a wilful and presumptuous Nature, those a good Man must be wholly free from, or else he loses his Goodness and be­comes a Child of Wrath and Damna­tion, till he recovers himself by Re­pentance; and if he ever falls into any such, he must exercise a most bitter and particular course of Repentance, and put himself into a state of great Penitence, and bring himself to an en­tire amendment and forsaking of it [Page 529]till he can have any well grounded hopes of Pardon and Salvation.

There have been a great many Dis­putes about attaining Perfection of Obedience and Vertue in this Life; some holding Erroneously that they could absolutely and fully come up to it and live wholly without Sin; others as Erroneously that they were such dayly Sinners as deserved dayly Gods Wrath and Damnation, and that they sinned in every thing they did. Now these extreams of Errors are easily re­conciled and cleared this way, that no one can come up to absolute Perfecti­on so as to live without the lesser Sins of Frailty and Infirmity, but every good Man ought to be so perfect as to live without any wilful chosen and known Sin.

5. Even those lesser Sins we must strive against and endeavour to over­come and master, and pray for the Divine Grace, and use all care and watchfulness against them, else they become wilful and voluntary by our neglect of them, and not using a due diligence to prevent and hinder them. Smaller Sins like lesser and smaller Di­seases may affect and indispose the [Page 530]most sound and healthful Constitution, but if they are neglected and suffered to grow too much upon it, they may become great and mortal. The first motions of Concupiscence are not strict Sins or at most but Sins of Infir­mity, but if those first sparks are not put out as soon as they are kindled but are suffered to glow and kindle within by morose thoughts and indulged fan­cies and imaginations, they will break out into some undue acts and outward effects. If the Passions and Appetites that are Natural to us are not morti­fied by due care exercise and thought­fulness they will grow masterless and ungovernable, and be at the beck of every Temptation that invites them, and run greedily after every Lust that layes a proper object in their way or sets it before them. A hasty fit of Anger if it be not put out may not go off in a sudden blaze and expire in its own sudden heats and Passion, but the Cholerick humour may concoct into malice and revenge and habitual spite and ill will, and so may a fretful pee­vishness and sharpness of Temper spread like a Tetter, and grow incu­rable, and eat out all that sweetness [Page 531]and meekness, kindness love and good Nature, which are to be the Vertues of a Christian in all the proper acts of them, however sower be their Blood or predominant their Spleen. God may abate in great measure for an unhappy Constitution, but he will never allow any wilful Sin as the effect of it. We must guard our selves with greater care and watchfulness where we know we lye open to any such weakness, and call in all the helps of Religion to for­tifie and defend us against any such enemy that we are so much in danger of, else an impure an angry a covetous an ambitious thought and inclination nourished in our Hearts and not watch­ed over and corrected, may like a poy­sonous seed or root of bitterness if suf­fered to grow up, bring forth all the fruits that proceed from it, and make all those sinful corruptions in the Heart become wilful Sins, and produce actual Transgressions in our Lives.

We must not allow our selves in any Sins whatever upon pretence of their being little, for if we do they become wilful and chosen; and as the Wise Man sayes, He that sinneth by little and little shall perish by little and [Page 532]little. A small leak in a Ship may if it be not stop'd let in Water enough in time to sink it, and a small breach in the banks of a Sea-wall may cause a general inundation.

Some little Sins will adhere to the best of Men, but they must not be vo­luntary or consented to but brought upon them by ignorance surprize or inadvertency, and some unavoidable cause or necessity, which Morally speaking is so to them, and they can never perfectly help it, for so much of will as there is in any Sin, so much there is of guilt, and whatever abate­ments there are in our willing it, by the Minds not knowing or not think­ing of it, or being unawares ingaged in it, and not having the full use of its powers of choice or understanding, so much there is of excuse for it, and so far its circumstances make it pardon­able by a good God who will not con­demn us for any thing we cannot help, and which it was not in our power to avoid, and all Sins of Infirmity are such some way or other, for who can help being ignorant and mistaken after he has used the best wayes he can to inform himself of his Duty, and if he [Page 533]then commit a Sin ignorantly, and through the meer error and weakness of his Understanding, God will for­give it him.

So who can be alwayes so much up­on his guard and have his thoughts so much about him as not to say a rash and unfit word or do a some way blameable action, or not have some inward motions and sensual desires ri­sing up in his Mind contrary to strict Reason and Religion. If God should for every one of these enter into Judg­ment with us or condemn us, no Man could be saved, and no Flesh living could be justified: But he who con­siders our frame and knows that we are but dust, weak, imperfect, blind, ignorant, inconsiderate, heedless Crea­tures, made up of Sensual Passions, Appetites and Inclinations that are a part of our Nature, he will deal very graciously and favourably with us, and not punish us for any unavoidable weaknesses of our Nature but only for the wilful faults and presumptuous miscarriages that we wittingly and willingly commit against him and his Laws.

God alone can perfectly judge and exactly distinguish between all the [Page 534]faults of weakness and wilfulness, and tell what degrees of voluntary and involuntary, and so of blame and guilt are in them, he knoweth our Hearts and searcheth our Reins, and can bet­ter judge of our Actions and the se­cret springs of them than our selves.

In great and notorious cases every Mans Conscience can judge for him, but God is greater than our Consciences and knoweth all things, and if we sin­cerely avoid every wilful and great and notorious Sin, and would not for any Temptation in the World commit it, if as the Psalmist sayes, We be up­right and innocent from the great trans­gression, 'tis to be hoped all our other Sins and Miscarriages are Sins of par­donable Weakness and excusable In­firmity, that do no way endanger our good State; and whatever wilful Sins we have been guilty of through the whole course of our Lives, our ha­ving left them and truly Repented of them, as I have directed, frees us from all the dangers of them, and puts us into the Blessed State of Pardon and Forgiveness, notwithstanding the lesser Sins of Frailty and Infirmity which we cannot live wholly without.

SECT. III. The Benefits of Repentance or the happi­ness of being in such a good state.

THE Effects and Benefits of true Repentance such as I have de­scribed and such as I have given the sure Marks and Criteria of are Pardon and Forgiveness, which are very great things and very comfortable words to a poor Sinner to whom nothing can be said more reviving than those few words which Christ pronounced to the Paralytick, Matth. 9.2. and which he pronounces by the Gospel to every true Penitent, Son be of good chear thy sins be forgiven thee; these are words as powerful and effectual as tose of Lazarus come forth and let there be light, they will raise a drooping dead Soul out of the Grave and restore Life and Comfort to him, they will make light spring out of darkness and dispel the doleful black State he was in and make lightsome joy and gladness arise in his Soul, nothing can be said so chearing and refreshing so ravishing and trans­porting [Page 536]to him unless those other words which will follow upon it, Go ye blessed, receive the Kingdom prepared for you, 'tis a very blessed and a very happy state at present next to Heaven it self to have our sins pardoned and forgiven and to be freed from that miserable and wretched state into which they put us, if we are but duly sensible of it as we ought to be, How would a Criminal that was before condemned and lay under the Sentence of Death, be affected do we think and his Spirit cheared and his Heart leap within him and a new Life be put into him when a Pardon is brought him from his Prince and he is discharged from his condem­ned state and took off from the Cart or the Ladder, A Thousand times more reason has a poor Sinner to be raised and comforted when by the Mercy of God and the Love of Christ his past sins and guilt are taken away upon his true and sincere Repentance, The Scripture has pronounced such an one blessed in an especial manner by the Mouth of David, Psal. 32.1. Blessed is the Man whose transgression is forgiven and whose sin is covered; and St. Paul could not find out any thing better to [Page 537]describe the blessedness of a Christian by the Gospel then by borrowing the same words as he tells us of David, Rom. 4.6. the Holy Ghost inspiring both of them with the same Words and Idea's of Blessedness to Sinners, Blessed are they whose iniquities are for­given and whose sins are covered, Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.

I shall show the Blessedness of this State and Condition which Repentance puts a Sinner into upon these ac­counts.

• 1. As it frees him from the present miserable state he was in by reason of his Sins.
• 2. As he is delivered thereby from the fears of another World, and the more dreadful dangers hereafter.
• 3. As he is hereby reconciled to God and restored to his favour who was angry and displeased with him before.

First as it frees him from the pre­sent miserable state he was in by rea­son of his Sins. Nothing is so pain­ful and uneasie so perplexing and tor­menting [Page 538]as guilt when it lies heavy upon a Mans Mind and he has a quick sense and apprehension of it, this is to be stung with Scorpions to be whipt with Snakes to have burning Torches and all the conceived instruments of torture applyed to us, There is no tor­ment so great as a Mans Conscience struck with the horrors of its own guilt, haunted with its own fears as so many Furies or evil Spirits following and di­sturbing it wherever it goes, when it has the image of its own foul actions always before it, and imagines a Divine Judgment and Nemesis always behind it, when the very chattering of the Birds speaks its crimes to it as in a known story, and the hand-writing upon the wall makes it tremble and be amazed, and its own inward Con­sciousness makes it hear and see and read its sad doom and sentence in all places and on all occasions, what a lamentable condition must a Man be in when he lies thus under the load of his sins and the burden is greater than he can bear, and his perplexed mind is in such Agonies and Anguish as is un­expressible; That sure must be a very comfortable thing which will take him [Page 539]off of this Rack, and put him into a state of Ease and Quiet when he is thus tormented, and be a present Anodyne to relieve his pains. Mankind there­fore were in all times very inquisitive and very much concerned to find out a way if it was possible to expiate sin and atone guilt, they built Altars and offered Sacrifices and slew Thousands of Sheep and Oxen upon an hundred Hills and came by degrees to offer up Men and to slay their own Children and to give their first born for their transgression, the fruit of their bodies for the sin of their Souls, as the Prophet expresses it Micah 6.7. They would part with any thing however costly or dear to them to free themselves from the pain and fear they were under and give any hopes or ease to their consci­ous and timorous and perplext Minds, This was a great cause of most of the Heathen Superstitions, of their Purga­tions, Lustrations Sacrifices and the like, whereby they hoped to clear and purifie their guilty minds and appease the Anger of that Divine Vengeance that they were sensible hung over their heads by reason of their sins; This showed the greatness of the Disease and [Page 540]the want and necessity there was of a Remedy for it, which they being igno­rant of, used all the means they could think of and tryed all wayes however odd and foolish to help themselves; but it was only Christianity could fully make known the Expiation of sin by the Sacrifice of Christ and our having Redemption by his blood even the forgive­ness of sins upon our true Repentance, Colos. 1.14.

This is the most blessed Message and Gospel from Heaven to a poor guilty Sinner, this is preaching good tidings to the meek and humble sinner, Binding up the broken-hearted, proclaiming liberty to the captives, opening the prison to them that are bound, comforting them that mourn, as the Gospel is described by the Prophet, Isa. 61.1. and in our Saviours own phrase 'tis giving rest to them that are weary and heavy laden by reason of their sins, Matth. 11.28. when though we are conscious to our se ves of a great many faults we have committed in our lives and some of them such as fill us with shame hor­rour and confusion when we think of them yet we are assured they are all blotted out by Repentance and the [Page 541]whole guilt of them done away as if we had never committed them, this gives great ease and peace to our thoughts when our Conscience is thus discharged of all guilt and the terrible fears and apprehensions of it; this is more comfortable to the mind than to be eased of the most tormenting pain of body, to have voided a sharp stone af­ter a fit or have a throbbing Ulcer broke and cured, 'tis unexpressible pleasure to be put thus out of pain, and be restored to the peace and comfort of a Mans own Mind, when he had once lost it.

He who has so truly Repented of his Sins as I have directed hath all Reason for this, for he hath as sure grounds of Pardon and needs no more fear Punishment than if he had been alwayes innocent and never had of­fended or done any thing amiss; tho' his Sins fill'd his Mind with Sorrow before, and gathered all the black Clouds of Grief and Melancholly over his thoughts, yet now they ought to be dispersed and he may chear up and be comforted. If he has any Fears they are unreasonable, for if his Sins are perfectly gone they ought to be gone too.

While he was under the guilt of his Sins he had reason with St. Peter to weep bitterly, with David to wash his bed with his tears, that Bed which he had so polluted before; with Mary Magdalen to vent so many tears as might wash her Saviours feet, and then wipe them with the Hair of her Head, that so she might do Penance with those Meretricious Eyes and Locks which had drawn others into Sin. The Pious Penitents of old had all the signs and symptoms of the dee­pest mourning and lamentation for their sins, ashes upon their head, sack­cloth upon their loins, lying down in their confusion because they had sinned, stri­king their Breasts with the Publican and every one crying out in the anguish of his Soul with the Psalmist, My iniqui­ties are gone over my head, and are a hea­vy burden too grievous for me to bear: My iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up, they are more than the hairs of my head, therefore my heart faileth me: These are the words, and these the Passions and this the Picture of a Penitent under a state of penitence and the guilt of his sins, but now upon his true Repentance all [Page 543]Tears are to be wiped from his Eyes, or at least the same fountain is to send forth sweet Water that did bitter and that is to become a Balm and an Oyl of gladness to his Soul which was so sharp and corrosive before, His Repen­tance will now be his greatest comfort which was so severe and so bitter be­fore, and when his Wounds are healed and bound up and the operation is over, The bones which were broken will rejoice and he will hear of joy and gladness in­stead of sighs sorrow and contrition. He who had so much Reason to be an­gry and displeased with himself before by reason of his Sins and his Folly, will now be pleased and satisfied when he is grown wiser and better, and will have that solid satisfaction and lasting pleasure in his own Mind, which is a thousand times greater than all the vain and empty and short-lived pleasures of his Lusts and Vices, and he will now have a thousand times more inward ease by the practice of Repentance than he had before by the practice of his most grateful Sins.

2. Repentance as it will free him from the present unhappiness of his Sins and Guilt, so it will deliver him [Page 544]from the fears of more dreadful Mise­ries in another World, and from the dangers which he is exposed to here­after by reason of his Sins. This is the chief and great Reason why a Sin­ner is in such anguish and horrour and perplexity at present because his guilt forebodes greater Miseries to him and his conscious mind has a Pro­phetick Spirit that foretels evil things to come upon him hereafter; He knows he deserves punishment and vengeance to fall upon him and he therefore fears though he has a short respite here yet it shall be unavoidable and in a greater measure hereafter. Religion is so Natural to the reason of our minds and has such a sure founda­tion both in Nature and Revelation that hardly any Sinner can shake off all sense of it and free himself from the fearful belief and expectations of its future punishments, and though he laughs at them sometimes and would seem in his highest mirth to have cou­rage enough to make a jest of them to others yet he fears them in good earnest, and trembles at the thoughts of them when he is alone and when Death brings them nearer to him he [Page 545]is scared and terrified and has sufficient proof of their Reality in his own mind, What a wretched and miserable Con­dition is he then in when the terrors of Death and the greater terrours of Hell are set before him, when all about him is horror and misery and the black­ness of darkness, when he has nothing to look back upon but the bitter me­mory of his past sins and no prospect before him but the unknown and un­conceivable torments of another World, when Gods. Anger lyes heavy upon him and sinks him into the deepest gulph of despair and the Grave and the bottomless pit are ready to swallow him up and to devour him both Soul and Body; what an instance of Misery is here, what a Picture of Hell, nay what a real and sensible Hell is there then before us? Who that stands by the Bed of such a dying Wretch and draws the Curtains and sees the Ago­nies and hears the doleful expressions of such a miserable Creature would not be deeply affected with such a sad state as he sees a Man put into by sin and impenitence? Who would not then think Vertue and Religion very com­fortable and very desirable things and [Page 546]much to be preferred to sinful loose­ness and extravagance? Who would not then give all the World either that he had not sin'd or that he had Repen­ted in time and so not brought himself into that remediless state of present and future torment? Repentance if it be true and sincere will prevent a Sinners coming to this which will otherwise certainly be his Portion and he can never escape it in this World if he be not stupid, but to be sure not in the next. Now who that knows he must dye in a little time and that then at fur­thest this will be his case if he go on in his sins and be not timely brought off from them would ever madly con­tinue in them and not break them off by Repentance when he is all the while exposed to this dreadful danger and lyes open to the fears and miseries of another World:

How comfortable is it to be delive­red from those and to live in such a state that a Man has no reason to be afraid of Death nor to be scared with the thoughts of another World? But whenever it comes he can welcome it chearfully, or at least submit to it pa­tiently without horror and distraction [Page 547]and have reasonable and well-groun­ded hopes that it shall be well with him hereafter, full assurance he may never have without all manner of fears but he will have chearful and rational hopes according to the certainty and evidence of his Repentance and the sin­cerity of his Vertue and Obedience, such a conditional assurance every one has by a Faith truly Divine that if he thus repents he shall be saved, this is founded on a proposition that is Di­vinely revealed, and so is matter of Faith, but that I have so repented is not matter of Faith but only of private Judgment, and Opinion of my self, but I have no reason to doubt or be afraid if I know upon examining my self that I have forsaken every wilful sin and have left the ill course of life I was in and would not for any profit or pleasure commit a wilful Sin though I were never so much tempted to it and it were never so much in my power, and that I have thus endea­voured to live and to do my Duty sin­cerely to God and Man though with great imperfections and infirmities still upon me, this will give us a Rational and a Moral assurance of our Salvation [Page 548]which is all we can have without a particular Revelation, how will this cheer and support a Man when he comes to dye, how will it take out the sting and allay the bitterness of Death in great measure, and be the best Cor­dial to keep up his Spirits in his last Agonies and Extremities, being con­scious to himself of his own sincerity and his conscience not condemning him as to any wilful Sin, He will have con­fidence towards God, and can assure his heart before him, 1 John 3.19. He can then safely trust and rely upon the Mercy of God in and thorough Christ for the pardon of all his sins because he has truely and in time repented of them, and 'tis not a mere presumptu­ous and ungrounded confidenee which like the hope of the hypocrite shall perish, Job 8.13. but he has a sure Title to it by the Gospel and the spirit of God beareth witness with his spirit, and by the joynt testimony of that and his Conscience agreeing with the Rules and Measures of the Gospel (for otherwise 'tis but deceit and delusion) he hath great in­ward comfort and chearful hopes of Heaven and hath no reason to fear but it shall be well with him in another [Page 549]world. 'Tis very happy to live in such a state as this where we are provided against not only all the evils of this World and the worst that can happen to us here but against Death and all the evils of another, and may chear­fully enjoy the blessings of Providence at present and rejoyce in the hopes of a much greater happiness hereafter, so that we may as the wise Man says, Eat our bread with joy and drink our wine with a merry heart for God now accepteth our works, Eccles. 9.7. but a state of sin and impenitence is a dreadful and a hazardous state, exposed to the Ter­rors of Death and the amazing Evils of another World, so that if a Man con­sider'd it as he ought he could not en­joy himself one moment, nor would ever live under the fears and dangers of it for all the World, and what if he thinks not of it which is all the relief he has against it? Yet it is never the less in it self, nor never the farther from him, but though he is now never so stupid or in the deepest Lethargie yet Death and Hell will awaken him, or however the flames there may be ready to catch hold of him while he is asleep and in the most sensless state.

3. Repentance puts us into a very blessed and happy state as it reconciles us to God and restores us to his favour who was before angry and displeased with us; We are enemies to God by our wicked works and alienated from him, Coloss. 1.21. Our iniquities have sepa­rated between us and our God and our sins have hid his face from us, Isa. 59.2. 'Tis they make the only breach and separation between God and his Crea­tures and provoke him who is Love and Goodness to put on Wrath and Anger and become even a consuming fire, so that his anger is said to be kind­led against sinners and wax hot against them and he poureth out the fierceness of his anger upon them and they drink of the cup of his fury and feel his wrath and in­dignation; many a sinner has done this and cryed out in the Anguish of his Soul, Thy wrath lyeth hard upon me, Psal. 88.7 Thy fierce wrath goeth over me, thy terrors have cut me off, ver. 16. Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me and horror hath overwhelmed me, Psal. 55.5. Thine arrows stick fast in me and thy hand presseth me sore, Psal. 38.2. Who knoweth the power of thine anger even according to thy fear so is thy [Page 551]wrath, Psal. 90.11. For we are consu­med by thine anger and by thy wrath are we troubled, ver. 7. God who is a Spi­rit as he can convey secret and un­speakable comfort into our Souls so he can impress intolerable and unspeakable horrors upon them, and who is able to bear the weight of his Anger or endure the sense of his Wrath and Indigna­tion? In his Pleasure and Favour is Life and in his Anger is a double Death to the Soul, The inward Sensation and Perception of Gods Love is the ohiefest joy and happyness to a Soul either in this World or the other, and the Sense and Perception of his Anger is the greatest Misery; God the fountain of all Happiness doth diffuse and commu­nicate such a Peace Joy Comfort to good Souls, such an inward Taste and Relish of Spiritual Pleasure and Delight as is unspeakable, past understanding, called joy in the holy Ghost, and is no doubt the sweetest and most affecting pleasure a Soul is capable of, this the Angels and blessed Spirits above enjoy, and are transported with the most ra­vishing Sense and Rapturous Impressi­ons of it and 'tis what makes Heaven to them, and a little foretaste of it when [Page 552]God lifts up the light of his countenance upon us when a pious Soul tasts and sees how good and gracious God is, this puts more gladness in the heart than Corn and wine and oyl and all worldly enjoy­ments, now on the contrary when God hides his face and withdraws his loving­kindness and imprints a strong sense of his Wrath and Anger upon the Mind this is the utmost and the deepest Mi­sery, this gives the bitterest sense of Evil, fills it with the greatest horrors, sinks it into the deepest gulph the bot­tomless Pit of Misery, and is the very Punishment and Hell of the damned.

How happy is it then to be Recon­ciled to God by Repentance whom we had angred and provoked by our sins before we feel any of this and before his Wrath and Anger is poured out upon us, it will certainly fall upon eve­ry Sinner some time or other unless he Repents, for God though he defers his Anger for some time that his Goodness and long-suffering may lead us to Re­pentance yet his abused Love Patience and Mercy will turn to greater Wrath and Fury if we persist in our sins and in a course of impenitency.

As 'tis a very terrible thing to have the great God our Enemy and he cer­tainly is so whilst we are in a state of Sin, so 'tis the comfortablest thought in the World and what will alone make us happy to be Assured that he is our Friend and that we are in a State of Favour with him upon our Repentance.