How we may know we have repented and are in a Pardoned State, P. 340 Sect. 1. Not committing Sin the only Sure A (1) A Practical Difcourfe OF Repentance. R INTRODUCTION. Epentance is the great Gospel Duty which John the Baptift came Preaching, as a Preparation to Christianity; Matth. 3. 2. Our Saviour also himfelf began with the fame; Matth. 4. 17. The Disciples chofe the fame Subject to Preach on, Mark 6. 12. They went out and Preacht that Men Should Repent. St. Peter in his Sermon to the Jews, whereby he Converted three thousand Souls, Preaches to them this Duty, Acts 2. 38. And this was what St. Paul teftified to the Jews, and to the Greeks, Repentance towards God, and Faith towards B towards our Lord Jefus Chrift, Acts 20. 21. as if the whole fum of the Gospel lay in those two: Nay, our Saviour himfelf makes this the very end and defign both of his Sufferings, and of his Refurrection, that Repentance and Remiffion of Sins fhould be Preached in his name, Luke 24. 46, 47. It is a Duty therefore of the greatest moment and importance in Chriftianity, and ought above all to be confidered, practiced and underflood. The only Question is, Whether it be so proper and neceffary to preach it to Chriftians now, as it was at firft to Jews and Gentiles? The whole World then lay in wickedness, and God had concluded all under fin, and in a state of great corruption, both as to Manners and Worship; fo that Chrift came then as a Phyfitian to Cure the Sick, and prefcribed this Medicine of Repentance as proper to their cafe and condition at that time, and tells us himfelf, that he came not to call the Righteous, but finners to Repentance, Matth. 9. 13. But 'tis to be hoped that the World is well amended under Chriftianity, that they who have been brought up in the knowledge of that excellent Religion, and been devoted to it all their Lives,and had all the opportunities and advantages, as well as obligations of being vertuous, who have in their Baptifm put on Chrift, and dyed to fin, and by the most folemn Vows and Profeffions been engaged to a Holy Life all their Days; 'tis not to be thought that they ftand in need of fuch a Repentance, or of having it fo Preacht to them, or that they fhall have the fame Benefit of it as the ignorant and unhappy World before the Coming of Chrift into it. I Anfwer, Repentance was not a Temporary Duty in the beginning only of Chriftianity, and fitted to the Jews and Gentiles, who were first brought over to it, as the Socinians would have Baptifm, but it was a perpetual and lafting Duty, fuch as the weaknefs and infirmity of Human Nature, and its aptnefs to fall into Sin, would make always neceffary; and fad would it be for Chriftians if they were not to have the Benefit of it after Baptifm as well as before, which would put them into a worse State than Mankind were in before without Christianity; but though Repentance I own was Preach'd to them then upon fome peculiar accounts, and implyed a total change of their Religion and their way of Life, which belongs not to Chriftians, and was a Duty previous to Chriftianity, and what was to go before their Baptifm, and was hardly allowed to thofe who fhould afterwards Apoftatize from it; yet it ftill remains a Duty to us after we are become Chriftians, fo far as we are guilty of any Sin after we are washed in the laver of Regeneration: The vertue and benefit of it is not tranfient and confined only to that time, but permanent and in force afterwards all our Lives, if we truly perform it: And according to the different nature and degree of our Sins fuch is our Repentance, as Phyfick, differently fitted to the nature of the Difeafe, (fo the best † Πρῶτον μὲ γὰ τὸ ὑγαίνο Authors reprefent it) aveva roula Tor to repair the feveral de-x. Socrates apud Xenocays and weakneffes of phon, 1. 4. de dict. Es fact. Human Nature Socrat. to > B 2 Ιατρείου όξιν αναιρετικόν Η αμαρτίας ή μετάνοια. Chryfon. Hom. 78. Tom. 6. Τῶν ἁμαρτημάτων Αυλή. cure it of the many maladies it is incident to, and to bring it to fuch health, ftrength and foundness, as belongs to the Spiritual, and Chriftian, and Divine Life of the Soul, which is the aim, and end, and bufinefs of Repentance, the great Panacea of the Gofpel, which fuppofes us apt to be ill, and recovers us as often as we are so. ριον, σπιλωμάτων και SapTheLov. Chr. Hom. 113. Μετάνοια πάσης ψυχικής κ σωματικῆς ἀπενείας κα Retor by ow their púpuaxov. Ibid. It was not a duty fo properly of natural Religion, because it depended on, and is mainly encouraged by the Promise of God's free Grace and forgiveness of Sin, which could not be known by natural light; but by that it was evident, that they who had done any thing foolifhly and wickedly, fhould become wifer and better, and the reflection upon any bad actions was attended with forrow from the Principles of Natural Confcience, as Plutarch excellently defcribes it, The Sout throbbing and beating like a painful Ulcer, exercifing a Repentance with great Shame, that is biting and tormenting to it felf: But this was rather the Disease than the Remedy, and they felt only the Smart * To 28 ouredds ofor tax ἐν σαρκὶ ψυχῆς τὴν μετα μέλαν αίμα που σαν κ νύσουσαν ἐναπολίπς τας επί 28 ἀλλὰς ἀναιρεί λύπας : λόγΘ· τὴν μετάνοιαν αυτός ἐργάζεται δακνοπόλω σύν αισχύνη και κολαζομλύνω ὑφ' UTHS. Plutarch. de Animi tranquill. which was Natural, but knew not the Cure which was Chriftian and Evangelical. The |