CHA P. IV.

The ill Confequences drawn from the Privilege of Repentance Obviated and Prevented.

THE moft wicked and greatest of Sin

ners, who have any thoughts of their Souls and of another World, though they are not prevailed upon by this to become better, yet make this referve and refuge to themselves, that they will Repent hereafter at fome time or other, and fo escape the Wrath to come, They know and are very fenfible, if they have not fhaken off all Religion, and all thinking and confidering of these things, that except they repent they shall all perish; but they hope and intend to prevent this by the Benefit of Repentance, and fo make ufe of that not to bring them off from their Sins, but to encourage them in them, with hopes to avoid all the miferable confequences of them and yet live in them, and fo by this privilege of an after Repentance they fet afide the prefent neceffity of a good Life, and wholly destroy or fuperfede all Religion."

I fhall therefore endeavour to prevent that most common and most fatal abuse of it ; for I am confident there are more Souls perish by that, than by any other mistake whatfoever, and a thousand times more than by down-right Infidelity and Disbelief of all Religion

Religion, which is a very rare thing, and 'tis hard to find out any certain inftances that have ever been of it in the World 'tis fo much against the Natural Senfe and Reafon, and Apprehenfion of Mankind, but the other is the commoneft thing in the World even for Chriftians perhaps above any others, to make falfe Reafonings to themselves from this privilege of Repentance which we have in the highest degree from the Gospel, to think they may fecure and fave their Souls, and yet indulge and allow themselves in the prefent enjoyment of their Sins, because they may fet all right by Repenting of them hereafter. I fhall therefore against this errour and abuse of Repentance, and to obviate this mischievous Confequence offer thefe following Confiderations.

1. Can we think a Wife God would make fuch a Grant and Conceffion to his Creatures as should destroy all Religion, and make void the neceflity of Ŏbedience and a good Life? which according to thefe Mens thoughts is unavoidably done by this Gofpel-privilege of Repentance? For fince, fay they, a Man is as certainly fafe who comes in at any time upon Repentance, and hall be certainly faved by the Terms and Conditions of the Gofpel as if he had fpent all his Life in the ftricteft Vertue and Religion, What need is there of fuch an early, and conftant, and perpetual Obedience, and fpending a whole Life in the fervitude and drudgery of Religion, when coming in at the eleventh hour, and working but a fhort fpace

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fpace at the latter end of the day, will have as much Wages, and as fure a Reward, and be as certainly accepted by God? Shall not a Sinner when ever he returns and repents find Mercy? Is there any time or bounds prefix'd to his Repentance, fo that he may not do it fo many years hence as well as at prefent; and after he has taken a great deal of liberty, and had the full fwinge of his Lufts and vicious Inclinations, when they afterward grow calm and cool of themselves, and he is tired or fatiated with them, then to leave them after he has had a full and a long enjoyment of them: To Repent time enough to avoid all the bitter effects and punishments of them, after they have fully tasted and exhausted all their sweetness and pleasantnefs, and then throw away the poyfonous core when they have fufficiently eaten of the dainty and forbidden Fruit. Men to be fure will draw fuch confequences to themselves, when Religion they think puts fuch an Argument into the hands of their Lufts which are apt to be too strong of themselves against all Religi on and Reafon whatsoever, and when they have fuch a fair colour and pretence as they fuppofe from Religion it felf, they will be fure to improve it to destroy all Religion by this one part of it, and by turning its own weapons upon it felf: fo that like the Eagle in the Fable it fhall receive its mortal wound from a dart that comes feathered from its own wing, and by this fubtile contrivance it fhall be made to countermine it felf. Is Heaven then to be thus out-witted

and over-reach'd in its own Policy? and

whereas

whereas it defigned this Privilege of Repentance to bring Men to Vertue, fhall the Devil find out a ftratagem whereby to be too hard for it even upon it's own ground, and make it an inftrument to encourage Men in their Sins? Has God like a Soft, and eafie, and indifcreet Prince granted fuch a Charter, and made fuch Conceffions to his Subjects as shall destroy his own Power and Government, and make their Obedience loofe and precarious? No fure, neither his Wisdom nor his Power is to be thus leffened and diminished; nor is the Grace of God, the greatest favour of the Gofpel to be thus turned into wantonness, and a principle of loofness and licentioufhefs, as thefe Men make it who thus prefume upon Sinning at prefent upon the advantage of an after Repentance,and refolve therefore to run on in the score, and to take up great fumms in hand, and be much in debt to Heaven, because they think the whole may be compounded at the last, and made up for a very little. We may be fure in the general there must be fome great errour and mistake in this matter, and that 'tis either a falfe Principle that these Men go upon, or that they draw a very falfe Conclufion from it; for God must be a very eafie Being,and Religion must have a very weak place in it if it lye open to fuch a confequence.

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2. We comonly tell Men in the fecond place therefore to prevent this that the after Repentance is very hazardous and uncertain, for no Man knows that he fhall have time to do it hereafter,or that he shall not be furprized with a fudden and unexpected Death before he has performed

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performed this Repentance he defign'd, and this indeed is very confiderable; and were there nothing else, yet a wife man would not venture his Soul and its Eternal State upon fo great an uncertainty as Life and Futurity is, for that we know is no more in our own power to command, than it is to recall the time that is paft, and who that thinks and confiders what Eternity means would hazard it upon fo ticklish a caft and so perfect a lottery as the continuance of Life is. Do not we see most of the World fnatch'd away on a fudden, Death hardly giving them any warning, but coming upon them with fecret and undifcerned fteps, and stealing up to them and striking the fatal blow before they were aware of it; and what fhall this poor Wretch do whofe Life is done before his Repentance is begun? He who intended fo many years hence to begin his Repentance, fhall begin it fooner in another World, but shall never end it, but Repent in vain to all Eternity, in weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth for his folly and madnefs in not Repenting fooner.

But though this be a monstrous hazard and no Man in his Wits would lye open to fuch a danger which can never be repaired but may be easily prevented, yet this uncertainty of Life feems not a fufficient fecurity to Religion, becaufe 'tis a fecurity only by accident, and it is in great measure loft if a Man do live out the ufual period which many do, and which moft hope to do; and there ought to be greater Reasons to oblige them to a prefent Repentance anda conftant Obedience, than the meer

fears