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nitent for them. This is all he can be, and he cannot well be otherwife if he be in his Senfes and hath the ufe of his Reafon, and fees fuch Terrible danger before him as is now unavoidable; he must be greatly troubled that he hath brought himself to that, that is, that he must fuffer for his Sin, for he was never troubled at the Sin before, nor would be now, but like it and live in it ftill if that were all; but he cannot, but be concerned at the dreadful punishment of it, and he must be very hardy indeed if he go not thus Shivering and Contrite and Penitent as they call it,to his Execution; this is only a Natural abhorring of pain or what is evil to us from a principle of Self-prefervation, not an abhorrence of Sin from Choice and Reafon and free apprehenfion of Mind, for all this is from a force and violence offered to the Mind by a fenfe of prefent danger, and from that Fear, Terrour, and Confufion that a Sinner is then in; when Hell and Eternity are just prefented before him, then he parts with his Sins as a Man does with his Money when he has a Sword or a Pistol held to his Breast, out of mere fear not out of free choice: No Man but must be afraid of Hell who believes it and has any fense of it; And all this dying forrow and Repen→ tance arifes only from hence. Some I know make a mighty difference both as to the Caufe and the Vertue and Efficacy of this forrow; if it arife only from the fear of Hell it is Attrition, if from the Love of God

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joyned with it, is Contrition, and fo will be more effectual, Now I am afraid the first is the chief fpring if not only cause of it in dying Sinners, and that there is no real difference between thefe two forts of forrows in the Nature of the thing, but only an over-nice diftinction in words and thoughts, and in confidering the fame thing by feve ral mental conceptions, when the Paffion is the fame in it felf and the causes of it are not to be fo nicely diftinguifht; but whatever be the principle of this forrow, and however ftrong and fincere it be, and whatever purposes and refolutions it may be joyned with, yet that this mere mental Repentance is not true and perfect Repentance, fuch as the Gospel promises Pardon to, I have fhewn before in giving the Notion and defcribing the Nature of Repentance, and particularly, proved how fhort and imperfect this is in the fourth Section of the first Chapter, fo that a Dying Sinner cannot then perform fuch a full Repentance as hath a certain title to Pardon and Salvation by the promises of the Gofpel: But to fhew further, that a foolish unprepared Dying Sinner can have no hopes of entring into Heaven by all he can then do, and that his moft earnest Prayers and Entreaties, his Cries and Sorrows, his Wifhes and purposes and Refolutions, and all the Parts of his dying Repentance, put to gether are not fufficient to do this, as the Parable here fuppofes, I fhall produce fome more Pofitive and Exprefs Proofs, and as I

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think convincing Arguments against this Ef ficacy and Validity of a Death-Bed Repen

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SECT. IV.

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More Pofitive Proofs and Arguments against the validity of a Death-Bed Repen

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tance.

First,

Irft, It does no way come up to the plain and indifpenfable Conditions of Salvavation required by the Gospel, for those are no other than Faith and Obedience, believing the Gospel and living according to it, which are the plain and only pathway to Heaven by Christianity, and he that thinks of Chrift's bringing him thither any other way, abuses his Saviour and his Religion, and puts a wretched cheat upon himself. Í know Faith and Repentance, and Faith alone, are often fet down as the only Terms and Conditions of Salvation by the Gospel; but then they are to be taken not in a strict and narrow fenfe, but in a large one, as they include all that belongs and is confequent to them, all that Obedience and new Chriftian Life which is made as plain a Condition of Salvation by the Gospel as Faith it felf, and Repentance, I have fhewn plainly takes thofe in, fo that the whole Practical Condition of the Goipel is meant by them. Faith is the firft Principle and Foundation of Repentance, Obedience and

all

all Chriftian Vertues, and therefore as including and containing thofe is made the Condition of our being faved by a Metonymy whereby the Caufe comprehends alfo the Effect. Faith does fo plainly in Scripture. mean not only an affent to another's words, or a trust and affiance in them, but that which worketh by love, Gal. 5. 5. and that which produces good Works and is dead without them, that 'tis a strange miftake to make that the Condition of our being juftified and faved without Obedience. 'Tis to be obferved, and I think it may help to clear this matter, that when Faith and Believing is made the only Condition of being faved, and nothing elfe is mentioned, this is always fpoken to thofe Jews or Heathens who were not yet Christians and Believers, and the only way for them to be faved was to believe and embrace Christianity and become Difciples of Chrift: As when Chrift fays, Jobri 3. 15. Whosoever believeth on the Son of Man fhall not perish but have everlasting Life: This is fpoken to Nicodemus, who then expreft his disbelief of Chrift's words, and was not brought fully to believe in him though he was difpofed to it. So John 6. 40. when Chrift faith, This is the will of him that fent me, that every one which feeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life: This is fpoken to the Jews who murmured at Chrift and were far from believing in him. And 15 Chrift bid the Apostles preach this to the unbelieving World, Whofoever believeth and is baptized shall be faved, Matth. 16. 16. i, e. believing and

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profeffing Christianity puts them into a falvable ftate, and if they live according to this Faith they fhall certainly be faved. As if we should fay to a Perfon who defires to know how he may be a Scholar; Go to School or to the University; This would put him into a certain way to Learning; but he must not only be enter'd and enroll'd and matriculated there, but muft ftudy and read and do fuch things as belong to a Scholar. When St. Peter advised the Jews who were pricked to the heart, Acts 2. 37. and St. Paul, the Jaylor when he ask'd what must I do to be faved, that they fhould believe in Chrift and repent, They meant thereby turn Chriftians, which would put them into a falvable state; but then they must perform all the other things which belong to Chriftians as well as have this Faith, or elfe they would lofe and forfeit this their good state. When Christ therefore speaks to his Disciples who already believed in him, and St. Paul writes to thofe who were Chriftians and Believers, they tell them not only of Faith, which is the first Christian Vertue and the root of all the reft, but of Obedience and of all good Works, of living as becometh the Gospel, and adorning their Profeffion with all manner of Vertues which they make as necessary to Salvation as Faith it felf: Thus if ye keep my commandments, faith Chrift, ye shall abide in my love, John 15. 20. And ye are my friends if yo do whatfoever I command you, ver. 14. And not every one that faith unto me, Lord, Lord, Thall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, but he

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