Chapter 8: Containing a Serious Exhortation to Repentance

LET me in the next place persuade all to this great duty of Repentance. Sorrow is good for nothing but sin. If you shed tears for outward losses, it will not advantage you. Water for the Garden, if poured in the sink, does no good. Powder for the eye, if applied to the arm, is of no benefit. Sorrow is medicinable for the soul, but if you apply it to wordly things, it does no good. O that our tears may run in the right chanel, and our hearts even burst with sorrow for sin. That I may the more successfully press this Exhortation, I shall shew you that Repentance

- 1. Is necessary. - 2. It is necessary for all persons. - 3. For all sins.

1. Repentance is necessary, (Luke 13:5).Except ye repent, ye shall all likewiseperish. There's no rowing to Paradise, but upon the stream of repenting tears. Repentance is required as a qualification. It is not so much to endear us to Christ, as to endear Christ to us. Till sin be bitter, Christ will not be sweet.

2. Repentance is necessary for all persons.God commands all men, Acts. 17:30.

1. It is necessary for great ones, (Jeremiah 13:18). Say to the King and the Queen, humble your selves. The King of Niniveh and his Nobles changed their robes for sackcloth, Jonah 3. 6. Great mens sins do more hurt than others: the sins of leaders are leading sins; therefore they of all others had need to repent. If such as hold the Scepter repent not, God has appointed a day to judge them, and a fire to burn them, (Isaiah 30:33).

2. Repentance is necessary for the flagitioussinners in the Nation. England had need put it self in mourning, and be humbled by solemn Repentance. —Anglica gens est optima flens—What horrible impieties are chargeable upon the Nation! We see persons daily listing themselves under Satan. Not only the banks of Religion, but Civility are broken down. Men seem to contend as the Jews of old, who should be most wicked . In their filthiness is leudness, (Ezekiel 24:13). If oaths and drunkenness, if perjury and luxury will make a people guilty, then it is to be feared England is in Gods black Book. Sure men have cancelled their vow in Baptism, and made a private contract with the Devil: Instead of crying to mercy to save them, they cry, God damn them! Never was there such riding post to Hell, as if men did despair of getting thither time enough. Hath it not been known that some have died with the guilt of fornication and blood upon them? Hath it not been told that others have boasted how many they have debauched and made drunk? Thus, they declare their sin as Sodom, (Isaiah 3:9). Nay, mens sins are grown daring; as if they would hang out their flag of defiance, and give Heaven a broad-side. Like the Thraci[illegible]ns, who when it thunders, gather together in a body, and shoot their Arrows against Heaven. The sinners in Brittain do even send God a challenge, Job 15. 25. They strengthen themselves against the Almighty; they run upon him even on his neck, on the thick bosses of his bucklers. The bosses in the buckler are for offence in war. Gods precepts and threatnings are as it were the thick bosses of his buckler, by which he would deter men from wickedness; but they regard not, but are desperate in sin, and run furiously against the bosses of Gods buckler. O to what an height is sin boiled up! Men count it a shame not to be impudent.. May it not be said of us as Josephus speaks of the Iews; such was the excessive wickedness of those times, that if the Romans had not come and sacked their City, Jerusalem had been swallowed up with some Earthquake, or drowned with a flood or fired from Heaven: And is it not high time then for this Nation to enter into a course of physic, and take this pill of Repentance, who has so many bad humours spreading in her body politick? England is an Island encompassed with two Oceans, an Ocean of water, and an Ocean of wickedness; O that it might be encompassed with a third Ocean, namely, repenting tears. If the Book of the Law chance to fall upon the ground, the Jews have a custom immediately to proclaim a Fast. England has let both Law and Gospel fall to the ground, therefore had need fast and mourn before the Lord: The Ephah of wickedness seems to be full, Good reason tears should empty apace, when sin fills so fast: Why then do not all faces gather paleness? Why are the Wells of Repentance stopped? Do not the sinners of the Land know they should repent? Have they had no warning? Have not Gods faithful Messengers lifted up their voice as a trumpet, and cryed to them to repent? but many of these Tools in the Ministry have been spent and worn out upon rocky hearts. Hath not God lighted strange Comets in the Heavens, as so many Preachers to call men to Repentance, but still they are settled on their lees, (Zephaniah 1:12). Do we think God will alwaies put up our affronts? Will he endure thus to have his name and glory trampled upon? The Lord has usually been more swift in the process of his justice against the sins of a professing people God may a while reprieve this Land by Frerogative, but if ever he save it without Repentance, he must go out of his ordinary Road: I say therefore with Mr. Bradford, REPENT O ENGLAND. you have beleaper'd your self with sin, and hadst need go and wash in the spiritual Iordan. you have kindled Gods anger against you, throw away your weapons, and bring your holy Engines and Water-works, that God may be appeased in the blood of Christ. Let your tears run, lest Gods roll of curses fly . Either men must turn, or God will overturn: Either the fallow ground of their hearts must be broken up, or the Land broken down. If no words will prevail with sinners, it is because God has a purpose to slay them . Among the Romans, he who was for his capital offence forbidden the use of water, was thereby concluded to be a condemned person. So they who by their prodigious sins have so far incensed the God of Heaven, that he denies them the water of Repentance, may look upon themselves as condemned persons.

3. Repentance is necessary for thecheating crew, (Psalm 11:9). 18. Their deceitis falshood; who are wise to do evil; making use of their invention, only for circumvention: instead of living by their faith, they live by their shifts. These are they who make themselves poor, that by this artifice they may grow rich. I would not be misunderstood, I mean not such as the providence of God has brought low, whose estates have failed, not their honesty; but such as feign a break, that they may cheat their Creditors. There are some who get more by breaking, than others can by trading: these are like beggars that discolour and blister their arms, that they may move charity; they live by their sores: So these live by their breaking. When the Frost breaks, the streets are more full of water: So many trades-men, when they break, are fuller of money: These make as if they had nothing, but out of this nothing, great estates are created. Remember, the Kingdom of Heaven is taken by force, not by fraud. Let men know, after this golden sop the Devil enters: they squeeze a curse into their estates: they had need repent quickly: Though the bread of falshood be sweet, (Proverbs 20:17). yet many vomit up their sweet morsels in Hell.

4. Repentance is necessary for civilpersons: these have no visible spots on them; they are free from gross sin, and one would think they were unconcerned in the business of Repentance . They are so good, that they scorn a Psalm of mercy. Indeed these are often in the worst condition: these are they who need no Repentance, (Luke 15:7). Their civility undoes them; they make a Christ of it, and so on this shelf suffer shipwrack. Morality shoots short of Heaven; it is only nature refined. A moral man is but old Adam dressed in fine cloths. The Kings Image counterfeited and stamped upon Brass, will not go currant. The civil person seems to have the Image of God, but he is but brass metal, which will never pass for currant: Civility is insufficient to salvation: though the life be moralized, the lust may be unmortified. The heart may be full of pride and Atheism. Under the fair leaves of a tree there may be a worm. I say not, repent that you are civil, but that you are no more than civil. The house that was only swept and garnished, Satan entred into, (Luke 11:26). This was the emblem of a moral man, who is swept by civility, and garnished with common gifts, but is not washed by true Repentance; the unclean spirit enters into such an one. If civility were sufficient to salvation, Christ needed not to have died. The Civilian has a fair Lamp, but it wants the oyl of grace.

5. Repentance is needful for Hypocrites: I mean, such as allow themselves in the sin. Hypocrisie is the counterfeiting of sanctity. The Hypocrite or (stageplayer ) is gotten a step beyond the moralist, and does dress himself in the g[illegible]rb of Religion: he pretends to a form of godliness, but denies the power, 2 (Timothy 3:5). The Hypocrite is a Saint in jest; he makes a majestick shew, like an Ape clothed in Ermyn, or Purple. The Hypocrite is like an house with a beautiful frontispiece, but every room within is dark: he is a rotten post fairly gilded : under his mask of profession he hides his plague-sores . The Hypocrite is against painting of faces, but he paints holiness: he is seemingly good, that he may be really bad . In Samuels mantle he plaies the Devil; therefore the same word in the original signifies to use Hypocrisie, and to be prophane *. The Hypocrite seems to have his eyes nailed to Heaven, but his heart is full of impure lustings; he lives in secret sin against his conscience ; he can be as his company is, and act both the Dove and the Vulture; he hears the word, but is all ear; he is for Templedevotion, where others may look upon him, and admire him, but he neglects family and closet prayer. Indeed, if prayer does not make a man leave sin, sin will make him leave prayer. The Hypocrite feigns humility, but it is that he may rise in the world; he is a pretender to faith, but he makes use of it rather for a cloak, than a shield; he carries his Bible under his arm, but not in his heart; his whole Religion is a demure lye, (Hosea 11:12).

But is there such a generation of men to be found? the Lord forgive them their holiness. Hypocrites are in the gall of bitterness, (Acts 8:23). O how had they need humble themselves in the dust! they are far gone with the rot, and if any thing cure them, it must be feeding upon the salt Marshes of Repentance.

Let me speak my mind freely, none will find it more difficult to repent than Hypocrites; they have so jugled in Religion, that their treacherous hearts know not how to repent. Hypocrisie is harder to cure than Phrensie . The Hypocrites abscess in his heart seldom breaks. If it be not too late, seek yet to God for mercy.

Such as are guilty of prevailing Hypocrisie, let them fear and tremble, their condition is sinful and sad. 1. Sinful, because they do not embrace Religion out of choice, but design; they do not love it, only paint it. 2. Sad, and that upon a double account. 1. Because this art of deceit cannot hold long . He who hangs out a sign, but has not the commodity of grace in his heart, must needs break at last. 2. Because Gods anger will fall heavier upon Hypocrites, they dishonour God more, and take away the Gospels good name; therefore the Lord reserves the most deadly Arrows in his quiver to shoot at them. If Heathens be damned, Hypocrites shall be double-damned. Hell is called the place of Hypocrites, (Matthew 14:5). 1. As if it were chiefly prepared for them, and were to be settled upon them in fe[illegible]simple.

6. Repentance is necessary for Gods own people, who have a real work of grace, and are Israelites indeed; they must offer up a daily sacrifice of tears. The Antinomians hold, that when any come to be Believers, they have a Writ of Ease, and there remains nothing for them now to do, but to rejoyce. Yes, they have something else to do, and that is, to repent. Repentance is a continued act. The issue of godly sorrow must not be quite stopp'd till death. Hierom writing in an Epistle to Laeta, tells her, that her life must be a life of Repentance. Repentance is called a crucifying the old man, which is not done on a sudden, but leisurely, it will be doing all our life.

And is there not a great deal of cause why Gods own people should go into the weeping bath? 2 (Chronicles 28:10). Are there not with you, even with you, sins against the Lord? Have not you sins of daily incursion? Though you are Diamonds, have you no flaws? Do we not read of the spots of Gods children? Search with the Candle of the Word into your hearts, and see if you can find no matter of Repentance there.

1. Repent of your rash censuring: instead of praying for others, you are ready to passe a Verdict upon them . 'Tis true, the Saints shall judge the world, 1 (Corinthians 6:2). But stay your time; remember the Apostles caution, 1 (Corinthians 4:5). judge nothing before the time, till the Lord come.

2. Repent of your vain thoughts: These swarm in your minds as the Flies did in King Pharaohs Court . What beweildrings are there in the imagination! If Satan does not possess your bodies, he does your fancies, (Jeremiah 4:4). How long shall vain thoughts lodge within you? A man may think himself into Hell. O ye Saints, be humbled for this lightness in your head.

3. Repent of your vain fashions. 'Tis strange that the garments which God has given to cover shame, should discover pride. The godly are bid not to be conformed to this world, (Romans 12:2). People of the world are garish and light in their dresses: It is in fashion now adaies to go to Hell; but whatever others do, yet let not Judah offend, (Hosea 4:15). The Apostle has set down what upper garment Christians must wear, 1 (Timothy 2:9). Modest apparel; and what under-garment, 1 (Peter 5:5). Be ye clothed with humility.

4. Repent of your decaies in grace,(Revelation 2:4). you have left your first love. Christians, how often is it Low-water in your souls! how often does your cold fit come upon you! where are those flames of affection; those sweet meltings of spirit as once you had? I fear they are melted away. O repent for leaving your first love.

5. Repent of your non-improvement ofTalents. Health is a talent, estate is a talent, wit and parts are talents; and these God has intrusted you with to improve for his glory. He has sent you into the world, as a Merchant sends his Factor beyond the Seas to trade for his Masters advantage: But you have not done the good you might. Can you say, Lord, your pound has gained five pounds, (Luke 19:18). Oh mourn at the burial of your talents! Let it grieve you that so much of your age has not been time lived, but time lost; that you have fill'd up your golden hours, more with froth than spirits .

6. Repent of your forgetfulness of sacredvows. A vow is a binding ones soul to God, (Numbers 30:1). Christians, have not you since you have been bound to God, forfeited your Indentures? Have not you served for common uses after you have been the Lords by solemn dedication? Thus by breach of vows, you have made a breach in your peace. Surely this calls for a fresh laver of tears.

7. Repent of your unanswerableness toblessings received. You have lived all your life upon free quarter; you have spent upon free-graces stock; you have been bemiracled with mercy; but where are your returns of love to God? The Athenians would have ungrateful persons to be sued at Law . Christians, may not God sue you at Law for your unthankfulness, (Hosea 2:9). I will recover my Wooll and my Flax. I will recover them by Law.

8. Repent of your worldliness. By your profession, you seem to resemble the Birds of Paradise, that soar aloft, and live upon the dew of Heaven , yet as Serpents, you lick the dust. Baruc a good man, was taxed with this, (Jeremiah 45:5). Seekest you great things for your self?

9. Repent of your divisions; these are a blot in your Coat-armour, and make others stand aloof off from Religion. Indeed, to separate from the wicked resembles Christ, who was separate from sinners, (Hebrews 7:26). But for the godly to divide among themselves, and look askew one upon another, had we as many eyes as there are stars, they were few enough to weep for this. Divisions ecclipse the Churches beauty, and weaken her strength . Gods Spirit brought in cloven tongues among the Saints, (Acts 2:3). But the Devil has brought in cloven hearts: Surely this deserves a shower of tears.

—Quis talia fando Temperet à lachrymis?—

10. Repent for the iniquity of your holythings. How often have the services of Gods worship been frozen with formality, and sowred with pride? There have been more of the Peacocks plumes, than the groans of the Dove. 'Tis sad that ever duties of Religion should be made a stage for vain glory to act upon. O Christians, there is such a thick rhyne upon your duties, that 'tis to be feared there is but little meat left in them for God to feed upon.

Behold here repenting work cut out for the best; and that which may make the tyde of grief swell higher, is, to think that the sins of Gods people do more provoke God than others, (Deuteronomy 32:19). The sins of the wicked pierce Christs side; the sins of the godly go to his heart. Peters sin being against so much love, was more unkind, which made his cheeks to be furrowed with tears, (Mark 14:72). When he thought thereon he wept.

3. Repentance is necessary for all sins.

Let us be deeply humbled and mourn before the Lord for original sin. We have lost that pure quintessential frame of soul as once we had; our nature is vitiated with corruption. Original sin has diffused it self as a poison into the whole man. Like the Jerusalem-Hartichoke, which, wherever it is planted, immediately over-runs the ground. There are not worse natures in Hell than we have. The hearts of the best are like Peters sheet, where were a number of unclean creeping things, (Acts 10:12). This primitive corruption is bitterly to be bewailed, because we are never free from it. It is like a spring under ground, which though it be not seen, yet it still runs. We may as well stop the beating of the pulse, as stop the motions to sin. This inbred pravity retards and hinders us in that which is spiritual, (Romans 7:19). The good that I would, I do not. Original sin may be compared to that fish Pliny speaks of, a Sea-Lamprey, which cleaves to the keel of the ship, and hinders it when it is under sail. Sin hangs weights upon us, that we move but slow to Heaven. O this adherency of sin! Paul shook the Viper which was on his hand into the fire, (Acts 28:5). But we cannot shake off original corruption in this life. Sin does not come as a lodger for a night, but an indweller, (Romans 7:17). Sin that dwells in me. 'Tis with us as with one who has an Hectick feaver upon him, though he changs the air, yet still he carries his disease with him. Original sin is inexhaustible. This Ocean cannot be emptyed; though the stock of sin spends, yet it is notat all diminished; the more we sin, the fuller we are of sin. Original corruption is like the Widows Oyl, which encreased by pouring out, and that which may be another wedge to break our hearts, is, that original sin does mix with the very habits of grace. Hence it is, our actings towards Heaven are so dull and languid. Why does faith act no stronger, but because it is clogg'd with sense? Why does love to God burn no purer, but because it is hindred with lust? Original sin incorporates with our graces. As bad lungs cause an Asthma or shortness of breath: so original sin having infected the heart, our graces breathe now very faintly. Thus we see what in original sin may draw forth our tears. In particular let us lament the corruption

Of

- 1. Our Will. - 2. Our Affections.

1. Let us mourn for the corruption of our Will: The will not following the dictamen of right reason, is byassed to evil: The will distasts God, not as he is good, but as he is holy: It contumaciously affronts him, (Jeremiah 44:17). We willdo whatsoever thing goes forth out of our mouth, to burn incense to the Queen of Heaven. The greatest wound is fallen upon our will.

2. Let us grieve for the corruption of our Affections, which consists in two things.

Their

- 1. Diversion. - 2. Propension.

Let us grieve for the diversion of our affections; they are taken off from their proper object: The affections like arrows shoot beside the mark. At first our Affections were wings to fly to God, now they are weights to pull us from him.

Let us grieve for the propension of our Affections; our love is set on sin, our joy on the creature, our Affections like the Lapwing feed on dung. How justly may the distemper of our Affections bear a part in the scene of our grief? We of our selves are falling into Hell, and our Affections would thrust us thither.

2. Let us lay to heart actual sins. Of these I may say, Who can understand his errours? (Psalm 19:12). They are like Atoms in the Sun, like sparks of a Furnace. We have sinned in our eyes, they have been casements to let in vanity . We have sinned in our tongues, they have been fired with passion; what action proceeds from us in which we do not betray some sin? To reckon up these, were to go to number the drops in the Ocean. Let actual [illegible]ins be solemnly repented of before the Lord.