may open a Door for true Repentance to come in, and in due Time to be perfected in him, which will make the Promife of the Covenant to belong to him then. But for any Man to be conscious of fuch Sins within his own Breaft, and yet be wholly carelefs and unconcern'd about them; to know the Guilt juftly chargeable upon him, and not be apprehenfive, in the leaft, of any ·Judgment that attends him; nay, can live perhaps in a daily Habit of Drunkenness, Wantonnefs, or any fuch like Sins forementioned; and neither fee nor fear any Danger that his immortal Soul is brought into by them; these are fad and certain Tokens of a reprobate Mind and à harden'd Heart; which the moft favourable Conditions of the Covenant can afford no Hope or Comfort to, fo long as it contihues fo: Because there is no Way yet made for Repentance to take Place there, upon which the Benefit of all the reft depends; Luke xiii. Except you repent, you shall all perish, faid he that feal'd the Covenant for us.

35.

I proceed then to that fecond Part of Repentance, just now intimated to you, which is a godly Sorrow at Heart, for all thofe Sins, which Self-Examination has freshly brought into the penitent Sinner's Mind. St. Paul fpeaks of fuch a Sorrow as this, and attri 2 Cor. vii. butes fuch Virtue to its that godly Sorrowe (fays he) works Repentance to Salvation never to be repented of. A Character! which

would

1

would make every Man impatient with himself, till he forrowed after fuch a Manner: For all Men fadly know, they have need of Repentance, and every one wifhes fo to repent here, as to need no farther Sorrow for his Sins, when 'twill be too late, hereafter; but that his Tranfgreffions might be pardoned, and his Salvation fecure, before the great Day of the Lord's Vifitation comes: And fince this godly Sorrow St. Paul fpeaks of, is the true Seed of all thofe bleffed Fruits fo defirable and happy for Man, as to prevent all the Miferies which the forbidden Fruit brought on Adam and his Pofterity (taking in the Merits of Chrift's Sufferings with it) I think I fhall need fay no more for your full Inftruction in this Point, than to examine with you the feveral Particulars the great Apoftle prefcribes, for making this penitential Godly Sorrow an effectual Cure for the Sins of Men.

And fuch as are univerfally neceffary to make every Sinner's Repentance acceptable to God, and beneficial to themselves, are thefe:

1. A religious Anger at themselves, or even Indignation, (as the Apoftle's Word is) for having led fuch unaccountable Lives, as habitual Sinners do; which upon their own Reflection alone, they find is little likely to gain them any true Credit with Mẹn, and if the Scripture is believ'd, will furely kinD 4

dle

dle the Wrath of an Almighty God against -them. This alone would make an ingenuous Temper not a little offended, and that directly at itself; to think he is every Day lofing Efteem and Honour, by his own Act and Deed, both with God and all good Men. But as many as are not loft fo far as to forget that they are reasonable Creatures too, must have infinitely greater Caufe of Indignation at themselves, to confider that God their Maker once ftamp'd his own most holy Image upon their Souls, on Purpose to diftinguish them from all the viler Parts of his Creation, and to take them into Heaeven at laft; and that they are blotting out that ineftimable Image of his, and with their own Hands too, as faft as they can: For every wilful Sin they commit, does manifeftly do fo; whether thofe of leffer Obfervation (yet black with Guilt, and hateful in the Eyes of Heaven and Men) fuch as are Envy, Hatred, Malice and Revenge; all falfe, deceitful, cruel, or uncharitable Behaviour towards one another; and more notoriously still, thofe fatal Sins against our own Bodies; Drunkenness, Adultery, Fornication, and carnal Uncleannefs of every kind; by all which Sins, unhappy Souls, who can tamely allow themselves in them, are poorly degenerating from a Nature, little lower than the Angels, into that of the meanest Creatures, who have nothing elfe but mere bodily Senfe and Motion in

them.

them. To which, if we add the positive Decree of Heaven against them, that they who do fuch things shall not inherit the Gal.v. 21. Kingdom of God. Men muft think but little fure, and much lefs Hopes is there, of their ever coming to Repentance; if by Self-examination, they find themselves thus acceffary to their own miferable Condition, and yet go eafily on, not offended in the least at themselves, or have any fort of penitential Indignation at their dangerous and fhameful Ways. And thus is a religious Anger and Indignation at our felves a neceffary Step to that godly Sorrow, which the Apostle tells us, will work Repentance to Salvation, never to be repented of.

1

2. A fecond Branch of it is, an awful Fear of what will follow afterwards, if Men repent not of their Sins; and he that is appointed to be Judge of quick and dead at the general Refurrection, has left such a Sentence upon Record in the Gospel, to be pronounc'd upon impenitent Sinners at that Day, as 'tis hard to repeat only, and not to tremble, Go ye curfed (fays he) into Mat. xxv. everlasting Fire, prepared for the Devil and 41. bis Angels. A Punishment grounded on the eternal Juftice and almighty Power of a provoked God, and the immortal Nature of the offending Sinner's Soul; who had defy'd all the Threatnings of that Divine Power and Juftice, during all his Day of Grace, that

is,

is, as long as ever he lived; and moreover had flighted all the tender Offers of God's Love and Mercy to him too; choofing wilfully to enjoy the poor Pleasures of Sin for a Moment, rather than the richest Rewards of Repentance and Obedience to his God; though they were affured to him to be no lefs, than the fulness of Joy and perfect Happiness in the glorious Manfions of Heaven for evermore. And in that fearful Sentence abovementioned, are cen ter'd and contain'd at once, all the Fears that can be thought of to move the most harden'd Sinner living to a melting Sorrow for his Sins. If they prevail not, there's little hope that any leffer Inftances of the Danger he is in fhould raise that penitential Paffion of a godly Sorrow in him; wherefore leaving him to the unreveal'd (and therefore unexpected) Compaffion of his Judge, I pafs

3. To another Branch of Godly Sorrow, which in the Apoftle's Account, is call'd, A Vebement Defire; being an Affection of the Heart, implying the inward Ardour and paffionate Concern of a truly penitent Soul, to undo (as far as it is poffible) all the Evil that he had ever done; and to make his Peace with his offended God, tho' by all the hardest Means that the Gospel of Christ fhould require of him: A kind of holy Impatience within him, to become a a new Man; taking Pleasure in nothing fo

much,