REPENTANCE.

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OTHING in the World makes fo great a Change as Repentance: It changes Things in Heaven and in Earth; for it changes the whole Man from Sin to Grace; from Vitious Habits to Holy Customs; from Unchaft Bodies to Angelical Souls; from Swine to Philofophers; from Drunkenness to sober Counfels: And God himself, with whom is no Variableness or Shadow of Change, is pleas'd, by defcending to our weak understandings, to fay, that he changes also upon Man's Repentance, that he alters his Decrees; revokes his Sentence; cancels the Bills of Accufation; throws the Records of Shame and Sorrow out of the Court of Heaven; and lifts up the Sinner from the Grave to Life, from his Prison to a Throne, from Hell and the Guilt of Eternal Torture, to Heaven, and a Title to never-ceafing Felicities. If we be bound on Earth, we shall be bound in Heaven. If we be abfolv'd here upon fincere Repentance, we fhall be loofed there. In a word, if we Repent, God will Repent, and not fend the Evil upon us which we had deferv'd.

But Repentance is a Conjugation and Society of many Duties. It contains in it all the Parts of a Holy Life, from the Time of our Return, to the Day of our Death inclufively; and it has in it fomething especially relating to the Sins of our former Days, which are now to be abolish'd by fpecial A&s and have oblig'd us to fpecial Labours, brought in many new Neceffities, and put us into a very great deal of Danger. It being a Duty

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confifting of fo many Parts, and fuch Employments; it alfo requires much Time, and leaves a Man in the fame Degree of Hope or Pardon, as is his Reftitution to the State of Righteousness and Holy Living, for which we covenanted in our Baptifm. For we must know, that there is but one Repentance in a Man's whole Life, if Repentance be taken in a Proper, Strict, Evangelical, Covenant Sense, and not after the ordinary understanding of the Word; that is, we are but once to change our whole State of Life, from the Power of the Devil and his intire Poffeffion, from the State of Sin and Death, from the Body of Corruption, to the Life of Grace, to the Poffeffion of Jefus, to the Kingdom of the Gofpel; and this is done in the Baptifm of the Water, or in the Baptifm of the Spirit, when the first Rite comes to be verify'd by God's Grace coming upon us, and by our Obedience to the Heavenly Calling, we working together with God. After this Change, if ever we fall into the contrary State, and be wholly eftrang'd from God and Religion, profeffing ourselves Servants of Unrighteousness, God has made no more Covenant of Reftitution with us. There is no Place left for any more Repentance, or intire Change of Condition, or new Birth; A Man can be regenerated but once. Such are Voluntary, Malicious, Apoftate, Obftinate, Impenitent Perfons, and the like: But if we be overtaken by Infirmity, or enter into the Borders of this State, and commit a grievous Sin, or Ten or Twenty, fo we be not in the intire poffeffion of the Devil, we are for the prefent in a damnable Condition if we die; but if we live, we are in a recoverable Condition, for fo we may repent often. We repent or rife from Death but once, but from Sickness many Times; and by the Grace of God we shall be pardon'd if we fo repent. Our Hopes of Pardon are just as is our Repentance, which if it be Timely, Hearty, Induftrious and Sufficient, God accepts, not by weighing Grains and Scruples, but by eftimating the great Proportion of our Life. A hearty Endeavour, and

an effectual general Change fhall get our Pardon; the unavoidable Infirmities, paft Evils, and present Imperfections, and fhort Interruptions, against which we Watch, and Pray, and Strive, being put upon the Accounts of the Cross, and Pay'd for by the Holy Jefus.

He who repents truly, is greatly forrowful for his past Sins; not with a fuperficial Sigh or Tear, but a Pungent Afflictive Sorrow; fuch a Sorrow as hates rhe Sin so much, that the Man would rather choose to die than act it any more: This Sorrow is call'd in Scripture, A Weeping forely; a Weeping with all Bitterness of Heart; a Weeping Day and Night; a Sorrow of Heart; a Breaking of the Spirit; Mourning like a Dove, and Chattering like a Swallow. And we may read the Degree and Manner of it in the Lamentations, and fad Accents of the Prophet Jeremiah, when he wept for the Sins of the Nation; in the Heart-breaking of David when he mourn'd for his Murder and Adultery; and the bitter Weeping of St. Peter after the shameful denying of his Master. The Expreffion of the Sorrow differs according to the Temper of the Body, the Sex, the Age, and Circumstances of Action, and the Motive of Sorrow, and by many accidental Tenderne ffes, or Masculine Hardneffes. Repentance is not to be estimated by the Tears, but by the Grief: And the Grief is to be valued not by the Senfitive Trouble, but by the Cordial Hatred of the Sin, and ready actual Dereliction of it; and a Refolution, and real refifting of its confequent Temptations. Some People can fhed Tears for nothing, fome for any thing; but the proper and true Effects of a Godly Sorrow, are Fear of the Divine Judgments, Apprehenfion of God's Difpleasure, Watchings and Strivings against Sin, patiently enduring the Crofs of Sorrow, which God fends as our Punishment; and Accufation of ourselves in perpetual begging Pardon; Mean and Bafe Opinions of ourfelves; and all the natural Productions from thefe, according to our Temper and Conftitution. For if we be apt to Weep in other Accidents; it is ill if we Weep

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not alfo in the Sorrow of Repentance; not that weeping is of itself a Duty, but that the Sorrow of it, if it be as great, will be still exprefs'd in as great a manner.

Our Sorrow for Sins must retain the Proportion of our Sins, tho' not the Equality. We have no particular Measures of our Sins. We know not which is greatest, Sacrilege, Superftition, Idolatry, Covetoufnefs, the renouncing of our Religion, or the betraying our Country; and therefore God ties us not to nice Measures of Sorrow, but only that we keep the general Rules of Proportion; that is, that a great Sin have a great Grief, a smaller Crime being to be wash'd off with a lefs Shower.

Our Sorrow for Sin is then beft accounted of, for its Degree, when it, together with all the Penal and Afflictive Duties of Repentance, fhall have equall'd or exceeded the Pleasure we had in Commiffion of the Sin.

True Repentance is a punishing Duty, and acts its Sorrow, and judges and condemns the Sin, by voluntary fubmitting to fuch Sadneffes as God fends on us; or ftrives to prevent the Judgment of God, by judging ourfelves, and punishing our Bodies and our Spirits, by fuch Exercises of Piety as are troublesom to the Body; fuch as are Fafting, Watching, Long Prayers, troublefom Poftures in our Prayers, expenfive Alms, and all outward Acts of Humiliation. For he who must judge himself, must condemn himself if he be guilty; and if he be condemn'd, he must be punish'd; and if he be fo judg'd, it will help to prevent the Judgment of the Lord, as St. Paul inftructs us in this particular. Our Grief may be fo full of Trouble, as to out-weigh all the Burdens of Fafts and bodily Afflictions, and then the other are lefs neceffary: When they are used, the Benefit of them is to obtain of God a Remiffion, or a Leffening of fuch Temporal Judgments which God has decreed against the Sins; but the Sinner is not by any Thing of this reconcil'd to the Eternal Favour of God; for as yet this is but the Introduction to Repentance.

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Every true Penitent is oblig'd to confefs his Sins, and to humble himself before God for ever. Confeffion of Sins has a special Promise; If we confefs our Sins, he is faithful and juft to forgive us our Sins. God has bound himfelf to forgive us, if we duly confefs our Sins, and do all that for which Confeffion was appointed: If we are afham'd of them, and own them no more; for Confeffion of our Sins to God, can fignify nothing of felf in its direct Nature: He fees us when we act them, and keeps a Record of them, and we forget them unless he reminds us of them by his Grace. Therefore to confefs them to God, does not punish us or make us afham'd: But Confeffion, when it proceeds from Shame and Sorrow, and is an Act of Humiliation and SelfCondemnation, and a laying open our Wounds for Cure, is then a Duty God delights in. In all which Circumstances we shall be very much help'd if we follow the Advice of St. James, and confefs our Sins to one another ; not as the Wicked Ones do, who boast of their Wickedness, and are even fo impiously vain as to bely their ownselves to fhew their Superiority in Sin; but with all Humility, Self-abafement, and Confufion, to prudent and pious Raftors, whofe Inftructions may serve to recover us and restore us to the right Path from whence we wander'd. But we must not think that our unburdening our Minds of this Load to a Minifter will give us any true Ease, unless we do it with due Contrition and a fincere Resolution of new Obedience; or that there is any, the leaft Efficacy in fuch an Act of itself, except it proceeds from a juft Sense of our own Guilt, an Abhorrence of the Crime, and an earnest Defire of Forgiveness from God by his and our own Prayers. When our Spiritual Guide knows our Needs, he can beft minifter Comfort or Reproof, Oil or Caufticks: He can more opportunely recommend our particular State to God; he can determine our Cafes of Confcience, and judge better for us than we do for ourselves. The fhame of opening fuch Ulcers may restrain our forwardness to contract them ;

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