But is there such a generation of men to be found? the Lord forgive them their holiness. Hypocrites are in the gall of bitterness, Act. 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 Phrensie²⁶. The Hypocrites Imposthume 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 long²⁷. He who hangs out a sign, but hath 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, Mat. 14. 5. 1. As if it were chiefly prepared for them, and were to be settled upon them in fe[…]simple.

6. Repentance is necessary for Gods²⁸ 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 man²⁹, 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 Chron. 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 children³⁰? 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: (Deu. 32. 5)³¹ instead of praying for others, you are ready to passe a Verdict upon them (Epictetus). ‘Tis true, the Saints shall judge the world, 1 Cor. 6. 2. But stay your time; remember the Apostles caution, 1 Cor. 4. 5. Iudge nothing before the time, till the Lord come.

2. Repent of your vain thoughts: These³² swarm in your minds as the Flies did in King Pharaohs Court (Exod. 8. 24). What beweildrings are there in the imagination! If Satan doth not possess your bodies, he doth your fancies, Ier. 4. 4. How long shall vain thoughts lodge within thee? A man may think himself into Hell. O ye Saints, be humbled for this lightness in your head.

3. Repent of your vain fashions. ‘Tis³³ strange that the garments which God hath given to cover shame, should discover pride. The godly are bid not to be conformed to this world, Rom. 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 Iudah offend, Hos. 4. 15. The Apostle hath set down what upper garment Christians must wear, 1 Tim. 2. 9. Modest apparel; and what under-garment, 1 Pet. 5. 5. Be ye clothed with humility³⁴.

4. Repent of your decaies in grace,³⁵ Rev. 2. 4. Thou hast left thy first love³⁶. Christians, how often is it Low-water in your souls! how often doth 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 of³⁷ Talents. Health is a talent, estate is a talent, wit and parts are talents; and these God hath intrusted you with to improve for his glory. He hath 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, thy pound hath gained five pounds, Luk. 19. 18. Oh mourn at the burial of your talents! Let it grieve you that so much of your age hath not been time lived, but time lost; that you have fill’d up your golden hours, more with froth than spirits³⁸.

6. Repent of your forgetfulness of sacred³⁹ vows. A vow is a binding ones soul to God, Numb. 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 lavor of tears.

7. Repent of your unanswerableness to⁴⁰ blessings 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?⁴¹ The Athenians would have ungrateful persons to be sued at Law⁴². Christians, may not God sue you at Law for your unthankfulness, Hos. 2. 9. I will recover my Wooll and my Flax. I will recover them by Law.

8. Repent of your worldliness⁴³⁴⁴. By your profession, you seem to resemble the Birds of Paradise, that soar aloft, and live upon the dew of Heaven⁴⁵, yet as Serpents, you lick the dust. Baruc a good man, was taxed with this, Ier. 45. 5. Seekest thou great things for thy self⁴⁶?

9. Repent of your divisions; these⁴⁷ are a blot in your Coat-armour, and make others stand aloof off from Religion⁴⁸. Indeed, to separate from the wicked resembles Christ, who was separate from sinners, Heb. 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 strength⁴⁹. Gods Spirit brought in cloven tongues among the Saints, Act. 2. 3. But the Devil hath brought in cloven hearts: Surely this deserves a shower of tears.

—Quis talia fando Temperet à lachrymis?—

10. Repent for the iniquity of your holy⁵⁰ things. 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, Deut. 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 mourn⁵¹ 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 hath diffused it self as a poison into the whole man⁵². Like the Hierusalem-Hartichoke, which, wherever it is planted, presently 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, Act. 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, Rom. 7. 19. The good that I would, I do not. Original sin may be compared to that fish Pliny speaks of, a Sea-Lamprey,⁵³ which cleaves to the keel of the ship, and hinders it when it is under sail. Sin hangs weights upon us⁵⁴, that we move but slow to Heaven. O this adherency of sin! Paul shook the Viper which was on his hand into the fire, Act. 28. 5. But we cannot shake off original corruption in this life. Sin doth not come as a lodger for a night, but an indweller, Rom. 7. 17. Sin that dwelleth in me. ‘Tis with us as with one who hath an Hectick feaver upon him, though he changeth 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 not·at all diminished; the more we sin, the fuller we are of sin. Original corruption is like the Widows Oyl, which encreased by pouring out (2 King. 4. 6), and that which may be another wedge to break our hearts, is, that original sin doth mix with the very habits of grace. Hence it is, our actings towards Heaven are so dull and languid. Why doth faith act no stronger, but because it is clogg’d with sense? Why doth 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.

3. Let us mourn for the corruption of⁵⁵ 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, Ier. 44. 17. We will do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our mouth, to burn incense to the Queen of Heaven. The greatest wound is fallen upon our will.

4. Let us grieve for the corruption⁵⁶ of our Affections, which consists in two things.

Their

1. Diversion.
2. Propension.

Let us grieve for the diversion of our⁵⁷ 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 our⁵⁸ 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 these⁵⁹ I may say, Who can understand his errours? Psal. 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 (Gen. 6. 2). We have sinned in our tongues, they have been fired with passion; what action proceeds from us wherein we do not betray some sin? To reckon up these, were to go to number the drops in the Ocean. Let actual sins be solemnly repented of before the Lord.

Footnotes

1. 1 ↩

2. ↩

3. am currum habet vostrum ut vesci non possit, nisi lapidem dein percutiendo aduncitatem frangat, quo facto rursus edit, & rejuvenescit: ita qui peccatis est praegravatus, nil spirituale illi sapiat, morietur […]ame nisi ad Petram Christum, per poenitentiam, se diu percutiat, usque ad mentis mutationem, & duritiei abjectionem Venantius Honor. ↩

4. Aquila enescente ↩

5. ↩
6. • […]
   ↩
7. ↩
8. ↩

9. Quis […]ejor […]it. Iosephus. ↩

10. • Pudet haec opprobria nobis, &c.
    ↩

11. Pudet non esse impudentem. Aug. Conf. ↩

12. Aut Hiatu, aut diluvio, aut incendio, &c. Jos. lib. 6. de bell. jud. ↩

13. • Toti in peccatis immersi, non levi tantum lachrymarum aspersione indigent sed ablutione. D. Rivet.
    ↩

14. 3 ↩

15. ↩

16. Ille morbus vix est sanabilis qui sanitatem imitatur. ↩

17. Qui se meliores existimant à pietate prorsus abalienantur. Brugens. ↩

18. ↩

19. Scenici actores. ↩

20. Aug. de Civitate Dei. ↩

21. Foris candidus, intus sordidus. ↩

22. Aethiopes exsiccata cadavera pingunt, & cippo vitreo operiunt, quid ornatius, imo quid turpius? Herodot. lib. 3. ↩

23. Aliud simulans, aliud agens. Hierom. ↩

24. […] ↩

25. Latet interdiù nycticorax, noctu verò prodit ad infausta. Pier. ↩

26. Difficilius curatur quàm insania. ↩

27. Quae simulata sunt, diuturna esse non possunt. Bern. ↩

28. ↩

29. Gal. […]. 24. ↩

30. […]. Chrysost. ↩

31. ↩
32. ↩
33. ↩

34. […]. ↩

35. ↩

36. Bon[…]s quandoque obrepit securitas, refrigescit zelus, adeò ut stimulis indigeant. Pareus. ↩

37. ↩

38. Turpissima est jactura quae per negligentiam fit. Sen. Ep. 1. ad Lucill. ↩

39. ↩
40. ↩
41. • An gratiam retulimus, an largitorem nostrum prout decuit coluimus.
    ↩

42. Valer. Maxim. lib. 5. cap. 3. ↩

43. ↩

44. Quomodo Coelum petunt qui terrenis degravant[…]r? Possidere se credunt, potius possidentur. Cyprian de Laps. ↩

45. Roranti b bunt ex aethere mella— […]ausin Hyerog[…]. ↩

46. […] · Grandia Ar. Mont. ↩

47. ↩

48. […]. Ignat. Epist. ad Philadelph. ↩

49. Scyrus lapis mirum id habet, ut integer enatet, comminutus mergatur. Plin. lib. 36. c. 17. ↩

50. ↩
51. ↩

52. A planta pedis usque ad verticem diffunditur hoc venenum. B[…]. ↩

53. • […]. Plin.
    ↩

54. […], Crassa moles. Beza. Heb. 12. 1. ↩

55. 1· ↩

56. […]. ↩

57. ↩
58. ↩
59. ↩