Prescribing Some Means for Repentance

I Shall in the last place prescribe some Rules or Means conducible to Repentance.

1. The first is serious consideration,¹ Psal. 119. 59. I thought on my waies, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies. The Prodigal, when he came to himself, and did seriously consider his riotous luxuriances, then he repented. Peter, when he thought of Christs words, wept. There are four things, which if they were well considered of, would be a means to make us break off a course of sinning.

2. Consider seriously what sin is; and² sure there is enough evil in it to make us repent: There are in sin these twenty Evils.

3. Every sin is a recession from³ God⁴, Ier. 2. 5. God is the supream good, and our blessedness lyes in union with him; but sin, like a strong byass, draws away the heart from God. The sinner takes his leave of God; he bids farewel to Christ and mercy. Every step forward in sin, is a step backward from God, Isa. 1. 4. They have forsaken the Lord, they are gone away backward. The⁵ further one goes from the Sun, the nearer he approacheth to darkness: the further the soul goes from God, the nearer it approach to misery.

4. Sin is a walking contrary to God,⁶ Levit. 26. 27. The same word in the Hebrew * signifies both to commit sin, and⁷ to rebel. Sin is Gods opposite: If God be of one mind, sin will be of another: If God saith sanctifie the Sabbath, sin saith, prophane it. Sin strikes at Gods very being: If sin could help it, God should be no longer God, Isa. 30. 11. Cause the holy One of Israel to cease from before us. What an horrible thing is this, for a piece of proud dust, to rise up in defiance against its maker!

5. Sin is an injury to God. For 1. It⁸ violates his Laws; here is crimen laesae majestatis. What greater injury can be offered to a Prince, than to trample upon his royal edicts? A sinner offers contempt to the Statute-Laws of Heaven, Nehem. 9. 26. They have cast thy Law behind their back; as if they scorned to look upon it.

6. Sin robs God of his due. You injure a man when you do not give him his due. The soul belongs to God, he laies a double claim to it; it is his by creation and purchase: now sin steals the soul from God, and gives the Devil that which of right belongs to God.

7. Sin is profound ignorance. The⁹ School-men say, All sin is founded in ignorance¹⁰; did men know God in his purity and justice, they durst not go on in a course of sinning, Ier. 9. 3. They proceed from evil to evil, and know not me, saith the Lord. Therefore ignorance and lust are joyned together, 1 Pet. 1. 14. Ignorance is the womb of lust. Vapours arise most in the night: The black vapours of sin arise most in a dark ignorant soul. Satan casts a mist before a sinner, that he sees not the flaming sword of Gods wrath. The Eagle first rolls himself in the sand, and then flies at the Stagg, and by fluttering his wings, so bedusts the Staggs eyes, that he cannot see, and then he strikes him with his tallons (Pliny): So Satan that Eagle or Prince of the Air first blinds men with ignorance (2 Cor. 4. 4), and then wounds them with his darts of temptation. Is sin ignorance? there’s great cause to repent of ignorance.

8. Sin is a piece of desperateness. In every¹¹ transgression, a man runs an apparent hazard of his soul; he treads upon the brink of the bottomless pit. Foolish sinner, thou never committest a sin, but thou dost that which may undo thy soul for ever¹². He who drinks poison, it is a wonder if it doth not cost him his life. One taste of the forbidden tree lost Adam Paradise: One sin of the Angels lost them Heaven: One sin of Saul lost him his Kingdom. The next sin thou committest, God may clap thee up prisoner among the damned. Thou that gallopest on in sin, it is a question whether God will spare thy life a day longer, or give thee an heart to repent, so that thou art desperate even to phrensy.

9. Sin is a befilthying thing; it is called […], filthiness, Iam. 1. 21. The Greek word signifies the putrid matter of ulcers. Sin is called […], an abomination, Deut. 7. 25. Nay, in the plural, abominations*, Deut. 20. 18. This filthiness¹³ in sin is inward: a spot in the face may easily be wiped off; but to have the liver and lungs tainted, is far worse: Such a pollution is sin, it hath gotten into the mind and conscience, Tit. 1. 15. ‘Tis compared to a menstruous cloth, Isa. 30. 22. The most unclean thing under the Law (Hierom) · A sinners heart is like a field spread with dung. Some think sin an ornament, it is rather an excrement. So doth sin befilthy a person, that God cannot abide the sight of him, Zach. 11. 8. My soul loathed them.

10. In sin is odious ingratitude. God hath¹⁴ […]ed thee (O sinner) with Angels food; he hath crowned thee with variety of mercies,¹⁵ yet dost thou go on in sin? As David said of Nabal, in vain have I kept this mans sheep, 1 Sam. 25. 21· So in vain hath God done so much for the sinner. All Gods mercies may upbraid, yea accuse the ungrateful person. May God say, I gave thee wit, health, riches, and thou hast imployed all these against me, Hos. 2. 8. I gave them corn, and wine, and oyl, and multiplied their silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal. I sent in provisions, and they served their Idols with them. The Snake in the fable which was frozen, stung him that brought it to the fire, and gave it warmth: So a sinner goes about to sting God with his own mercies. Is this thy kindness to thy friend? Did God give thee life to sin? Did he give thee wages to serve the Devil?

11. Sin is a debasing thing; it degrades a¹⁶ person of his honour, Nahum 1. 14. I will make thy grave, for thou art vile¹⁷. This was spoken of a King (Sennach); he was not vile by birth, but by sin: Sin blots our name, taints our blood: nothing doth so change a mans glory into shame, as sin doth. ‘Tis said of Naaman, He was a great man and honourable, but he was a leper, 2 Kin. 5. 1. Let a man be never so great with worldly Pomp, yet if he be wicked, he is a leper in Gods eye. To boast of sin, is to boast of that which is our infamy; as if a Prisoner should boast of his fetters, or be proud of his halter.

12. Sin is a damage. In every sin there is¹⁸ infinite loss. Never did any thrive by grazing on this Common. What doth one lose? he loseth God, he loseth his peace, he loseth his soul. The soul is a divine spark lighted from Heaven; it is the glory of the Creation; and what can countervail this loss (? Chrysost) Matth. 16. 26. If the soul be gone, the treasure is gone; so that in sin there is infinite loss. Sin is such a trade, that whosoever follows it is sure to break.

13. Sin is a burthen, Psal. 38. 4. My iniquities¹⁹ are gone over my head, as an heavy burden, they are too heavy for me. The sinner goes with his weights and fetters on him. The burden of sin is ever worst, when it is least felt. Sin is a burden where-ever it comes. Sin burdens God, Amos 2. 3. I am pressed with your sins, as a Cart is pressed under the sheaves²⁰. Sin burdens the soul; what a weight did Spira feel? how was Iudas his conscience burdened? insomuch that he hanged himself to quiet his conscience²¹. They that know what sin is, will repent that they carry such a burden.

14. Sin is a debt: ‘Tis compared to a²² debt of ten thousond talents, Mat. 18. 24. Of all the debts we owe, our sins are the worst·²³. In other debts a sinner may fly into forein parts, but here he cannot, Psal. 139. 7. Whither shall I fly from thy presence? God knows where to find out all his debtors (Chrys). Death frees a man from other debts, but it will not free him from this: not the death of the debtor, but of the creditor dischargeth this debt.²⁴

15. There is deceitfulness in sin, Heb. 3. 13. Prov. 11. 18. The wicked worketh a deceitful work. Sin is a meer cheat: while it pretends to please us, it beguiles us. Sin doth as Iaell, first she brought the milk and butter to Sisera, then she struck the nail thorow his temples that he died, Iudg. 5. 26. Sin first courts, and then kills: ‘Tis first a Fox, and then a Lion: Whomsoever sin kisseth, it betraies. Those Locusts in the Revelations, are the perfect Hierogly phicks and emblems of sin; On their heads were as it were Crowns like gold, and they had hair as women, and their teeth were as the teeth of Lions, and they had stings in their tails, Rev. 9. 7. Sin doth just as the Usurer, who feeds a man with money, and then makes him morgage his Land: So sin feeds the sinner with delightful objects, and then makes him morgage his soul. Iudas pleased himself with the thirty pieces of silver, but they proved deceitful riches; ask him now how he likes his bargain.

16. Sin is a spiritual sickness: One man²⁵ is sick of pride, another of lust, another of malice: ‘Tis with a sinner, as it is with a sick Patient, his pallat is distempered; the sweetest things taste bitter to him: So the word of God which is sweeter than the honey-comb, tastes bitter to a sinner, Isa. 5. 20. They put sweet for bitter; and if sin be a disease, it is not to be cherished, but rather cured by Repentance.

17. Sin is a bondage; it binds a man²⁶ Apprentice to the Devil²⁷. Of all conditions, servitude is the worst. Every man is held with the cords of his own sin. I was held before conversion (saith Austin²⁸) not with an Iron Chain, but with the obstinacy of my will. Sin is imperious and tyrannical; it is called […], a Law, Rom. 8. 2, because it hath such a binding power over a man. The sinner must do as sin will have him: He doth not so much enjoy his lusts as serve them; and he will have work enough to do to gratifie them all²⁹, Eccles. 10. 7. I have seen Princes going on foot. The soul that princely thing, which did once sit in a chair of State, and was crowned with knowledge and holiness, now is made a lacky to sin, and runs on the Devils errand.

18. Sin hath a spreading malignity in it;³⁰ it doth not only hurt to a mans self, but to others: one mans sin may occasion many to sin. As one Beacon being lighted, may occasion all the Beacons in the Country to be lighted. One man may help to defile many³¹. A person that hath the plague, going into company, doth not know how many have gotten the plague of him. Thou that art guilty of open sins, knowest not how many have been infected by thee³². There may be divers for ought thou knowest, now in Hell, crying out, that they had never come thither, if it had not been for thy bad example.

19. Sin is a vexatious thing; it brings³³ trouble with it. The curse which God laid upon the woman, is most truly laid upon every sinner, Gen. 3. 6. In sorrow thou shalt bring forth. A man vexeth his thoughts in plotting of sin; and when sin hath conceived, in sorrow he brings forth: Like one who takes a great deal of pains in opening a flood-gate, and when he hath opened it, the flood comes in upon him, and drowns him: So a man beats his brains to contrive sin, and then it vexeth his conscience³⁴, brings crosses in his estate, rots the wall and timber of his house, Zach. 5. 4.—

20. Sin is an absurd thing. What greater³⁵ indiscretion than to gratifie an enemy? Sin gratifies Satan. When lust or anger burn in the soul, Satan warms himself at this fire. Mens sins feast the Devil³⁶. Sampson was called out to make the Lords of the Philistines sport, Iudg. 16. 25. So the sinner makes the Devil sport. ‘Tis meat and drink to him to see men sin· How doth he laugh to see them venturing their souls for the world! As if one should venture Diamonds for Straws; or should fish for Gudgeons with golden hooks. Every wicked man shall be indicted at the day of judgement for a fool.

21. There is cruelty in every sin. Every³⁷ sin thou committest, thou givest a stab to thy soul³⁸. While thou art kind to sin, thou art cruel to thy self; like him in the Gospel, who did cut himself with stones till the blood came, Mark 5. 5. The sinner is like the Jaylor, who drew a sword to kill himself. Act. 16. 27. The soul may cry out, I am murdering. Naturalists say, the Hawk chuseth to drink blood, rather than water³⁹: So sin drinks the blood of souls.

22. Sin is a spiritual death, Ephes. 2. 1.⁴⁰ Dead in trespasses. Austin saith, that before his conversion, reading the death of Dido, he could not refrain weeping; but wretch that I was (saith he) I bewailed the death of Dido forsaken of Aeneas, and did not bewail the death of my soul forsaken of God⁴¹. The life of sin is the death of the soul. 1. A dead man hath no sense: So a person unregenerate hath no sense of God in him, Ephes. 4. 19. Perswade him to mind his salvation, to what purpose do you make orations to a dead man? go to reprove him for vice, to what purpose do you strike a dead man? 2. He who is dead hath no taste. Set a banquet before him, he doth not rellish it: So a sinner tastes no sweetness in Christ or a Promise: They are but as cordials in a dead mans mouth (Chrys). 3. The dead putrifie; and if Martha said of Lazarus, Ioh. 11. 39. Lord, by this time he stinketh, for he hath been dead four daies. How much more may we say of a wicked man, who hath been dead thirty or forty years in sin, by this time he stinketh.

23. Sin without Repentance tends to⁴² final damnation. As the Rose perisheth by the canker bred in it self: so do men by the corruptions which breed in their souls. What was once said to the Graecians of the Trojan horse, this Engine is made to be the destruction of your City⁴³. The same may be said to every impenitent person, this Engine of sin will be the destruction of thy soul. Sins last scene is alwaies Tragical. Diagoras Florentinus would in a frolick drink poison, but it cost him his life⁴⁴. Men drink the poison of sin in a merriment, but it costs them their souls, Rom. 6. 23. The wages of sin is death. What Solomon saith of wine, the same I may say of sin; at first it shews its colour in the cup, at the last it biteth like a Serpent, and stingeth like an Adder, Prov. 23. 31. Christ tells us of the worm⁴⁵ and the fire, Mark 9. 48. Sin is like oyl, and Gods wrath is like fire. So long as the damned continue sinning, so long the fire will continue scorching; and who can dwell with everlasting burnings? Isa. 33. 14. But men question the truth of this, and are like that impious Devonax, who being threatned with Hell for his villanies· made a mock at it, and said, I will believe there is an Hell when I come there, and not before⁴⁶. We cannot make Hell enter into men, till they enter into Hell.

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