enjoyned Peter, forgive him 77 times; and why shouldst thou thinke God will not forgive thee? Why should the enormity of thy sins trouble thee? God can doe it, he will doe it. My conscience (saith Anselm) dictates to me, that I deserve damnation, my repentance will not suffice for satisfaction; but thy mercy, O Lord, quite overcomes all my transgressions. The gods once (as the poets fain) with a gold chain would pull Jupiter out of heaven, but they altogether could not stirr him, and yet he could draw and turne them as he would himselfe; maugre all the force and fury of these infernal fiends and crying sins, his grace is sufficient. Confer the debt and the payment; Christ and Adam; sin and the cure of it; the disease and the medicine: confer the sicke man to the physician, and thou shalt soon perceive that his power is infinitely beyond it. God is better able, as 2 Bernard informeth us, to helpe, then sin to do us hurt; Christ is better able to save, then the divel to destroy. If he be a skilful physician, as Fulgentius addes, he can cure all diseases; if mercifull, he will. Non est perfecta bonitas a quá non omnis malitia vincitur, his goodness is not absolute and perfect, if it be not able to overcome all malice. Submit thy selfe unto him, as Saint Austin adviseth, he knoweth best what he doth; and be not so much pleased when he sustains thee, as patient when he corrects thee; he is omnipotent, and can cure all diseases when he sees his owne time. He lookes down from heaven upon earth, that he may hear the mourning of prisoners, and deliver the children of death, Psal. 102. 19. 20. and though our sins be as red as scarlet, he can make them as white as snow, Isay, 1. 18. Doubt not of this, or aske how it shall be done; he is allsufficient that promiseth: qui fecit mundum de immundo, saith Chrysostome, he that made a faire world of nought, can do this and much more for his part; doe thou onely beleeve, trust in him, rely on him, be penitent and heartily sorry for thy sins. Repentance is a soveraign remedy for all sins, a spirituall wing to ereare us, a charm for our miseries, a protecting amulet to expell sins venome, an attractive loadstone to draw Gods mercy and graces unto us. Peccatum vulnus, pænitentia medicinam; sin made the breach, repentance must helpe it; howsoever thine offence came by errour, sloath, obstinacy, ignorance, exitur per pœniten 5 1 Conscientia mea meruit damnationem, pœnitentia non sufficit ad satisfactionem: sed tua misericordia superat omnem offensionem. 2 Multo efficacior Christi mors in bonum, quam peccata nostra in malum. Christus potentior ad salvandum, quam dæmon ad perdendum. 3 Peritus medicus potest omnes infirmitates sanare; si misericors, vult. 4 Omnipotenti medico nullus lan 3 Chrys. guor insanabilis occurrit; tu tantum doceri te sine, manum ejus ne repelle: novit quid agat; non tantum delecteris cum fovet, sed toleres cum secat. hom. 3. de panit. tiam, this is the sole meanes to be relieved. 3 'Hence comes our hope of safety, by this alone sinners are saved, God is provoked to mercy. This unlooseth all that is bound, enlightneth darkness, mends that is broken, puts life to that which was desperately dying: makes no respect of offences, or of persons. This doth not repell a fornicator, reject a drunkard, resist a proude fellow, turn away an idolater, but entertains all, communicates it selfe to all. Who persecuted the church more then Paul, offended more then Peter? and yet by repentance (saith Chrysologus) they got both magisterium et ministerium sanctitatis, the magistery of holiness. The prodigall son went far, but by repentance he came home at last. This alone will turn a woolf into a sheep, make a publican a preacher, turn a thorne into an olive, make a deboshed fellow religious, a blasphemer sing Halleluia, make Alexander the copper-smith truly devout, make a divel a saint; and him that polluted his mouth with calumnies, lying, swearing, and filthy tunes and tones, to purge his throat with divine psalms. Repentance will effect prodigious cures, make a stupend metamorphosis. An hauk came into the ark, and went out again an hauk; a lyon came in, went out a lyon; a bear, a bear; a woolf, a woolf; but if an hauk came into this sacred temple of repentance, he will go forth a dove, (saith Chrysostome) a woolf go out a sheep, a lyon a lamb. This gives sight to the blind, legs to the lame, cures all diseases, confers grace, expels vice, inserts vertue, comforts and fortifies the soule. Shall I say, let thy sin be what it will, do but repent, it is sufficient? 5 "Quem pœnitet peccâsse, pæne est innocens. "Tis true indeed and all sufficient this; they do confess, if they could repent, but they are obdurate, they have cauterized consciences, they are in a reprobate sense, they cannot thinke a good thought, they cannot hope for grace, pray, beleeve, repent, or be sorry for their sins, they finde no griefe for sin in themselves, but rather a delight, no groaning of spirit, but are carryed headlong to their owne destruction, heaping wrath to themselves against the day of wrath, Rom. 2. 5. 'Tis a 1 Spes salutis per quam peccatores salvantur, Deus ad misericordiam provocatur. Isidor. Omnia ligata tu solvis, contrita sanas, confusa lucidas, desperata animas. 2 Chrys. hom. 5. Non fornicatorem abnuit, non ebrium avertit, non superbum repellit, non aversatur idololatram, non adulterum, sed omnes suscipit, omnibus communicat. Chrys. hom. 5. 4 Qui turpibus cantilenis aliquando inquinavit os, divinis hymnis animum purgabit. 5 Hom. 5. Introivit hîc quis accipiter, columba exit; introivit lupus, ovis egreditur, &c. 6 Omnes languores sanat, cæcis visum, claudis gressum, gratiam confert, &c. 7 Seneca. 3 grievous case this I do yeeld, and yet not to be despaired : God of his bounty and mercy cals all to repentance, Rom. 2. 4. thou maist be called at length, restored, taken to his grace as the thiefe upon the cross, at the last hour, as Mary Magdalen and many other sinners have been, that were buried in sin. God (saith 'Fulgentius) is delighted in the conversion of a sinner, he sets no time; prolixitas temporis Deo non præjudicat, aut gravitas peccati, deferring of time or grievousness of sin doe not prejudicate his grace; things past and to come are all one to him as present, 'tis never too late to repent. This haven of repentance is still open for all distressed soules; and howsoever as yet no signes appear, thou maist repent in good time. Hear a comfortable speech of St. Austin; 3 Whatsoever thou shalt doe, how great a sinner soever, thou art yet living; if God would not helpe thee, he would surely take thee away; but in sparing thy life, he gives thee leasure, and invites thee to repentance. Howsoever as yet, I say, thou perceivest no fruit, no feeling, findest no likelihood of it in thy selfe, patiently abide the Lords good leasure, despaire not, or thinke thou art a reprobate; he came to call sinners to repentance, Luke 5. 32. of which number thou art one; he came to call thee, and in his time will surely call thee. And although as yet thou hast no inclination to pray, to repent, thy faith be cold and dead, and thou wholy averse from all divine functions, yet it may revive; as trees are dead in winter but flourish in the spring: these vertues may lye hid in thee for the present, yet hereafter shew themselves, and peradventure already bud, howsoever thou dost not perceive it. "Tis Satans policy to plead against, suppress and aggravate, to conceal those sparks of faith in thee. Thou dost not beleeve, thou saist, yet thou wouldst beleeve if thou couldst, 'tis thy desire to beleeve; then pray, Lord help my unbeliefe; and hereafter thou shalt certainly beleeve: dabitur sitienti, it shall be given to him that thirsteth. Thou canst not yet repent, hereafter thou shalt; a blacke cloud of sin as yet obnubilates thy soule, terrifies thy conscience, but this cloud may conceive a rain-bow at the last, and be quite dissipated by repentance. Be of good cheer; a child is rationall in power, not in act; and so art thou penitent in affection, though not yet in action. 'Tis thy desire to please God, to be heartily 4 'Delectatur Deus conversione peccatoris; omne tempus vitæ conversioni deputatur; pro præsentibus habentur tam præterita quam futura. 2 Austin. Semper pænitentiæ portus apertus est ne desperemus. 3 Quicquid feceris, quantumcunque peccaveris, adhuc in vitâ es, unde te omnino si sanare te nollet Deus, auferret; parcendo clamat ut redeas, &c. 5 Rev. 22. 17. 4 Matth. 6. 23. sorry; comfort thy selfe, no time is overpast, 'tis never too late. A desire to repent, is repentance it selfe, though not in nature, yet in Gods acceptance; a willing minde is sufficient, Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, Mat. 5. 6. He that is destitute of Gods grace, and wisheth for it, shall have it. The Lord (saith David, Psal. 10. 17.) will hear the desire of the poor, that is, of such as are in distress of body and minde. "Tis true thou canst not as yet grieve for thy sin, thou hast no feeling of faith, I yeeld; yet canst thou grieve thou dost not grieve? It troubles thee, I am sure, thine heart should be so impenitent and hard, thou wouldst have it otherwise; 'tis thy desire to grieve, to repent and beleeve. Thou lovest Gods children and saints in the mean time, hatest them not, persecutest them not, but rather wishest thy selfe a true professor, to be as they are, as thou thy selfe hast been heretofore: which is an evident token thou art in no such desperate case. 'Tis a good signe of thy conversion, thy sins are pardonable, thou art, or shalt surely be reconciled. The Lord is neer them that are of a contrite heart, Luke 4. 18. 'A true desire of mercy in the want of mercy, is mercy it selfe; a desire of grace in the want of grace, is grace it selfe; a constant and earnest desire to beleeve, repent, and to be reconciled to God, if it be in a touched heart, is an acceptation of God, a reconciliation, faith and repentance it selfe. For it is not thy faith and repentance, as Chrysostome truly teacheth, that is available, but Gods mercy that is annexed to it; he accepts the will for the deed: so that I conclude, to feel in ourselves the want of grace, and to be grieved for it, is grace it selfe. I am troubled with feare my sins are not forgiven, Careless objects; but Bradford answers, they are; for God hath given thee a penitent and beleeving heart, that is, an heart which desireth to repent and beleeve; for such a one is taken of him (he accepting the will for the deed) for a truly penitent and beleeving heart. 1 2 All this is true thou replyest, but yet it concerns not thee; 'tis verified in ordinary offenders, in common sins, but thine are of an higher strain, even against the Holy Ghost himselfe, irremissible sins, sins of the first magnitude, written with a pen of iron, engraven with the point of a diamond. Thou art worse then a Pagan, Infidel, Jewe, or Turke, for thou art an apostate and more, thou hast voluntarily blasphemed, renounced God, and all religion, thou art worse then Judas himselfe, or they that crucified Christ: for they did offende out of ignorance, but thou hast thought in thine heart there is no God. Thou hast given thy soule to the divel, as witches and conjurers 1 Abernethy, Perkins. 2 Non est pœnitentia, sed Dei misericordia annexa. doe, explicite and implicite, by compact, band, and obligation (a desperate, a fearfull case) to satisfie thy lust, or to be revenged of thine enemies; thou didst never pray, come to church, hear, reade, or doe any divine duties with any devotion, but for formality and fashion sake, with a kinde of reluctancie; 'twas troublesome and painfull to thee to performe any such thing, præter voluntatem, against thy will. Thou never mad'st any conscience of lying, swearing, bearing false witness, murder, adultery, bribery, oppression, thefte, drunkenness, idolatrie, but hast ever done all duties for feare of punishment, as they were most advantageous, and to thine owne ends, and committed all such notorious sins, with an extraordinary delight, hating that thou shouldest love, and loving that thou shouldest hate. In stead of faith, feare and love of God, repentance, &c. blasphemous thoughts have been ever harboured in his minde, even against God himselfe, the blessed Trinitie: the Scripture false, rude, harsh, immethodicall: heaven, hell, resurrection, meer toyes and fables, 2 incredible, impossible, absurd, vaine, il contrived; religion, policie and humane invention, to keep men in obedience; or for profit, invented by priests and law-givers to that purpose. If there be any such supream power he takes no notice of our doings, hears not our prayers, regardeth them not, will not, cannot helpe; or else he is partiall, an excepter of persons, authour of sin, a cruell, a destructive God, to create our soules, and destinate them to eternall damnation; to make us worse then our dogs and horses. Why doth he not govern things better, protect good men, root out wicked livers? why do they prosper and flourish? as she raved in the tragedy-pellices cælum tenent, there they shine, 1 3 Suasque Perseus aureas stellas habet. where is his providence? how appears it? Marmoreo Licinus tumulo jacet, at Cato parvo, Why doth he suffer Turkes to overcome Christians, the enemy to triumph over his church, Paganisme to domineer in all places as it doth, heresies to multiply, such enormities to be committed, and so many such bloudy wars, murders, massacres, plagues, ferall diseases? why doth he not make us all good, able, sound? why makes he venomous creatures, rockes, sands, 4 1 Cæcilius Minutio. Omnia ista figmenta male sanæ religionis, et inepta solatia a poetis inventa, vel ab aliis ob commodum, superstitiosa mysteria, &c. 2 These temptations and objections are well answered in John Downams Christian warfare. 4 Vid. Campanella cap. 6. Atheis. Triumphat. et c. 2. ad argumentum 12. ubi plura. Si Deus bonus, unde colum, &c. 3 Seneca. |