BEfore I lay down the Expedients and Means conducing to Repentance, I shall first remove the Impediments. In this great City, when you want water, you search the cause, whether the Pipes are broken or stopped, that the current of water is hindered: So when no water of Repentance comes (though we have the Conduit-pipes of Ordinances) see what the cause is; where is the stop that these penitential waters do not run. There are ten Impediments of Repentance.
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Men do not apprehend that they1 need Repentance; they thank God all is well with them, and they know nothing they should repent of, Rev. 3. 17. Thou sayest, I am rich, and have need of nothing. He who apprehends not any distemper in his body, will not take the Physick prescribed. This is the mischief sin hath done; it hath not only made us sick, but senseless. When the Lord bade the people return to him2, they answered stubbornly, Wherein should we return? Mal. 3. 7. So when God bids men repent, they say, wherefore should they repent? they know nothing they have done amiss. Surely no disease worse than that which is Apoplectical.
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People conceit it an easie thing to3 repent: It is but saying a few prayers; a sigh, or a Lord have mercy, and the work is done. This conceit of the easiness of Repentance, is a great hinderance to it. That which makes a person bold, and adventrous in sin, must needs obstruct Repentance; but this opinion doth make a person bold in sin. The Angler can let out his line as far as he will, and then pull it in again: So when a man thinks he can lash out in sin as far as he will, and then pull in by Repentance when he list, this must needs imbolden him in wickedness. But to take away this false conceit of the easiness of Repentance, consider, 1. A wicked man hath a mountain of guilt upon him, and is it easie to rise up under such a weight? Is salvation per saltum? Can a man jump out of sin into Heaven? Can he leap out of the Devils arms into Abrahams bosom? 2. If all the power in a sinner be employed against Repentance, then it is not easie. All the faculties of a natural man joyn issue with sin, Ier. 2. 25. I have loved strangers, and after them will I go. A sinner will rather lose Christ and Heaven, than his lusts: death, which parts man and wife, will not part a wicked man and his sins; and is it so easie to repent? The Angel rolled away the stone from the Sepulchre; but no Angel, only God himself can roll away the stone from the the heart.4
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Presuming thoughts of Gods mercy. Many suck poison from this sweet flower. Christ who came into the world to save sinners, 1 Tim. 1. 15. is accidentally the occasion of many a mans perishing. Though to the Elect he is the bread of life, yet to the wicked he is […], a stone of stumbling, 1 Pet. 2. 7. * To some5 his blood is sweet wine, to others the water of Marah. Some are softned by this Sun of Righteousness, others are hardned. Oh saith one, Christ hath died, he hath done all for me, therefore I may sit still and do nothing. Thus they suck death from the Tree of Life, and perish by a Saviour. So I may say of Gods mercy, it is accidentally the cause of many a ones ruine: Because of mercy men presume, and think they may go on in sin: But, should a Kings clemency make his subjects rebel? The Psalmist saith, there is mercy with God, that he may be feared, Psal. 130. 4. but not that we may sin. Can men expect mercy by provoking justice? God will hardly shew them mercy, who sin because mercy abounds.6
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A supine sluggish temper. Repentance is looked upon as a tedious thing, and such as requires much industry, and men are settled upon their lees, and care not to stir: They had rather go sleeping to Hell, than weeping to Heaven, Prov. 19. 24. A slothful man hideth his hands in his bosom; he will not be at the labour of smiting on his breast (Chrysost). Many will rather lose Heaven, than ply the oar, and row thither upon the waters of Repentance. We cannot have the world citra pulverem, without labour and diligence, and would we have that which is more excellent7? Sloth is the canker of the soul, Prov. 19. 15. Slothfulness casts into a deep sleep. It was a witty fiction of the Poets, when Mercury had cast Argus into a sleep, and with an inchanted Rod closed his eyes, then he killed him. When Satan hath by his witcheries lull’d men asleep in sloth, then he destroyes them. Some report, while the Crockadil sleeps with his mouth open, the Indian Rat gets into his belly, and eats up his entrails: So while men sleep in security, they are devoured.
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Another obstruction of Repentance8 is the tickling pleasure of sin, […] Thes. 2. 12. Who take pleasure in unrighteousness. Sin is a sugred draught, but mixed with poison. The sinner thinks there is danger in sin, but there is delight, and the danger doth not so terrifie him, as the delight bewitcheth him. Plato calls love of sin, a great Devil9. Delighting in sin hardens the heart. In true Repentance there must be a grieving for sin; but how can one grieve for that which he loves. He who delights in sin can hardly pray against it; his heart is so inveagled with sin, that he is afraid of leaving it too soon. Sampson doted on Dalilahs beauty, and her lap proved his grave. When a man rolls iniquity as a Sugared lump under his tongue, it infatuates him, and is his death at last. Delight in sin10 is a silken halter, 2 Sam. 2. 26. Will it not be bitterness in the latter end?
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An opinion that Repentance will11 take away our joy; but that is a mistake; it doth not crucifie, but clarifie our joy, and take it off from the fulsom lees of sin. What is all earthly joy? it is but Hilaris insania, a pleasant phrensy.