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SERMON XXXIV.

MATTH. Xvii. 21.

Howbeit, this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting. P. 208.

It was a general received command, and an acknowledged rule of practice in all ages and places of the Christian world, that we are to hear the church; which, being acted by the immediate guidance of the Holy Ghost, hath set apart the time of our Saviour's fasting in the wilderness, to be solemnized with the anniversary exercise of abstinence, for the subduing the flesh and quickening the spirit, 208.

As for the words, among other expositions, they are more judiciously interpreted of an evil spirit having had long and inveterate possession of the party out of whom it was cast, and the sense of them, as improvable into a standing, perpetual precept, is this; that there are some vices which, partly by our temper and constitution, partly by habit and inveterate continuance, have so firm an hold of us, that they cannot be throughly dispossessed but with the greatest ardour and constancy of prayer, joined with the harshest severities of mortification, 211.

In the text are two parts:

1st, An intimation of a peculiar duty, prayer and fasting. 2dly, The end and design of it, which is to eject and dispossess the unclean spirit. The entire discussion is managed in three particulars:

I. In taking a survey of the extent of this text, 212:

This duty of fasting admits of several kinds and degrees: The 1st kind is of constant, universal exercise; universal, both because it obliges at all times, and extends to all persons, 212. The 2d, is a fast of a total abstinence, when for some time we wholly abstain from all bodily repasts, 214. The 3d, is an abstinence from bodily refreshments in respect of a certain sort or degree, and that undertook for some space of time, 216. This head is closed with. a caution, that the observation of fasting in this solemn season should be so strict, as not to bend to any man's luxury;

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so dispensable, as not to grate upon his infirmity of body, 219.

II. In shewing what are the qualifications that must render this duty of fasting acceptable to God, and efficacious to ourselves, 222.

There are four conditions or properties, a joint concurrence of all which is a necessary qualification of it for this great purpose. 1st, That it is to be used, not as a duty either necessary or valuable in itself, but only as an instrument, 222. 2d, That it be done with a hearty detestation of the body of sin, for the weakening of which it is designed, 227. 3d, That it be quickened and enlivened with prayer, 229. 4th, That it be attended with alms and works of charity, 231.

III. In shewing how this duty of fasting comes to have such an influence in dispossessing the evil spirit, and subduing our corruptions, 233.

It does not effect this, either, 1st, by any causal force naturally inherent in itself, 233. neither, 2dly, by way of merit, as procuring and engaging the help of that grace that does effect it, 234. But it receives this great virtue, 1st, From divine institution, 234. 2dly, By being a direct defiance to that disposition of body and mind, upon which especially the Devil works, 234. But when we have taken all these courses to eject the evil spirit, we must remember that it is to be the work of God himself, whom the blessed spirits adore, and whom the evil obey, 236.

SERMONS XXXV. XXXVI.

REVEL. ii. 16.

́Repent; or I will come unto thee quickly, and fight against them with the sword of my mouth.

P. 237.268.

It is wonderful upon what ground a rational, discerning man can satisfy and speak peace to his conscience in the very career of those sins, which, by his own confession, lead him to assured perdition, 237. One would think that the cause of it must of necessity be one of these three :

1st, That he is ignorant of the curse attending his sin, Which cannot be here the cause.

238.

2dly, That he may know the curse, and yet not believe it, 239.

3dly, That though he knows and believes the curse, yet perhaps he relaxes nothing of his sin, because he resolves to bear it, 239.

But it is shewn that it can proceed from neither of these reasons; therefore the true one is conceived to be a presuming confidence of a future repentance: other reasons indeed may allure, this only argues a man into sin, 241. Now the face of these words is directly set against this souldevouring imposture of a deferred repentance. In the prosecution of them it will be convenient to inquire into their occasion. In the 12th verse we find, they are part of a letter to the church (here collectively taken, as including in it many particular churches) of Pergamos, indited by the Spirit of God, and directed to the angel, that is, the chief pastor of that church, 242.

The letter contains a charge for some sinful abuse that had crept in, and was connived at, ver. 14. This abuse was its toleration of the Nicolaitans, whose heresy consisted in this, 1st, That they held and abetted the eating of sacrifices offered to idols to be lawful. 2dly, That they held and abetted the lawfulness of fornication, 244.

It likewise contained the counsel of speedy and immediate repentance in the words of the text, in which are two parts:

1. The first stands directed to the church itself; Repent, or I will come unto thee quickly. God's coming is shewn to mean here his approach in the way of judgment, 245.

2. The other part of the words relates to those heretics And I will fight against them with the sword of my mouth; that is, with the reprehending, discovering force of the word, and the censures of the church, 248. From this expression these two occasional observations are collected:

1. That the word of God powerfully dispensed has the force and efficacy of a spiritual sword, 249.

2. When God undertakes the purging of a church, or the reformation of religion, he does it with the weapons of religion, with the sword of his mouth, 250.

The general explication of the words thus finished, the principal design of them is prosecuted by enforcing the duty of immediate repentance; which is done,

1st, In shewing what that repentance is that is here enjoined, 252.

Repentance in scripture has a threefold acceptation.

1. It is taken for the first act, by which the soul turns from sin to God, 253.

2. It is taken for the whole course of a pious life, from a man's first turning from a wicked life to the last period of a godly: which is the only repentance that Socinus will admit. But this is not the proper notion of repentance; 1st, Because then no man could properly be said to have repented till his death, 253. 2dly, Because scripture, no less than the natural reason of the thing itself, places repentance before faith, 254. 3dly, Because scripture makes all those subsequent acts of new obedience after our first turning to God, not to be the integral, constituent parts, but the effects, fruits, and consequents of repentance, 254.

3. Repentance is taken for a man's turning to God after the guilt of some particular sin, 255.

II. Arguments are produced to engage us in the speedy and immediate exercise of this duty, which are,

1. That no man can be secure of the future, 256.

2. That supposing the allowance of time, yet we cannot be sure of power to repent, 259.

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3. That, admitting a man has both time and grace pent, yet by such delay the work will be incredibly more difficult, 263. And the delay of this duty is most eminently and signally provoking to God, upon these reasons:

1. Because it is the abuse of a remedy, 269.

2. Because it clearly shews that a man does not love it as a duty, but only intends to use it for an expedient of escape, 270.

3. Because it is evidently a counterplotting of God, and

being wise above the prescribed methods of salvation, to which God makes the immediate dereliction of sin necessary, 271.

After the general nature of this subject, follows a consideration of it in particular. The grand instance of it is a death-bed repentance; the efficacy of which, having been much disputed in the world, is here discussed under two heads:

I. This great case of conscience is resolved, whether a death-bed repentance ever is or can be effectual to salvation, 273. Several arguments against it being stated and answered, 273. six positive arguments are produced to prove and assert it.

1. That such a repentance, commenced at the last hour of a man's life, has de facto proved effectual to salvation, 283.

2. Is taken from the truth and certainty of that saying, owned and attested by God himself, that if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted, according to that a man hath, and not according to that a man hath not, 284.

3. Because repentance saves not, as it is a work, or such a number of works, but as it is the effect of a renewed nature and a sanctified heart, from which it flows, 286.

4. If to repent sincerely be a thing at the last moments of our lives impossible to be done, then, for that instant, impenitence is not a sin, 287.

5. That to deny that a death-bed repentance can be effectual to salvation, is a clear restraint and limitation of the compass and prerogative of God's mercy, 287.

6. That if a death-bed repentance cannot possibly be effectual to salvation, then a sinner upon his death-bed, having not repented before, may lawfully, and without sin, despair,

288.

II. Supposing a death-bed repentance may prove effectual, yet for any one to design and build upon it beforehand is highly dangerous, and therefore absolutely irrational; which appears from these considerations:

1. From the exceeding unfitness of a man at this time, above all others, to exercise this duty, 290.

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