the fame condition he was in before. His refo lution indeed may put him upon doing the thing he refolves, but till he does it, he is where he was. As As a Man that is out of his way, and refolves, upon finding he is fo, to turn back, and to betake himself to the right path: This his refolution does but at the most flop him in his wrong courfe, and till he does really turn, and go back,and get into the right way, accord ing as he refolved, he is in the wrong way ftill. Refolution is a good principle of acting, and neceffary to put a Man upon it, but till we re ally act upon it, 'tis not our refolution to do the thing is doing it; and God, I am fure, requires us to Repent, and not only to refolve to do it. It would be very happy if a Sinner could be brought thus far, to refolve in good earneft to Repent, there would be then great hopes of him; but he muft do more than refolve, or else he is not much the better. There are many idle, and hafty, and ungrounded Refolvers, who do very heartily and fincerely, as they think, purpofe and intend to leave their Sins, efpecially upon their Beds of Sickness, and when they are under fome prefent Judgment, or the fear of Death, but when thefe are over, their Refolutions are so too; fo that there is but little regard to be made of Mens Refolutions, unless they are put into act, and made good by a fubfequent courfe of actions; without this no Man can tell whether the temper and habit of his Mind be altered, and whether it be not a fudden thought newly started in his Mind, which his awakened Reafon for the prefent fuggests to him, and fo he yields to it, rather than a lafting

Principle that will dwell upon his Soul, and make a lasting Impreffion upon his Will and Affections For Mens Reafon may be perfwaded for a little time, when they only confult with that, but they will be quickly drawn off from that, when their Lufts and Affections are again taken in, and the ftubborn Will will be quickly too hard for the weak Understanding. Hence it is that a Sinner fo often changes his Mind, and he refolves fometimes to be good from the fhort conviction of his Reafon, but is quickly bad again from the prevalency of his Lufts and Affections. So that it requires fome time, and feveral acts, to fix and settle a Mans own Mind, and it is impoffible it can be changed and altered by a fudden refolution, without fome tryal and marry repeated acts, that shall keep it to what it refolves; it mult ftand bent, as it were, that way fome time till its refolution become habitual, or eife it will be apt to restore it felf again by a kind of Elafticity, and a motion of reititution to its former temper and inclinations. When the Will has grown crooke ed by a long cuítom and habit of Sin, it will not be fet ftreight again by a fudden refolution; that may a little bend it the other way for a time, but it will return again to its former pofition, unless it be kept right by many new acts that bring it by degrees to a new habit. If a Mans Mind indeed were fully changed, and he that had a bad Mind before, had now a good one; this I fhould not doub: but would make him Happy, and be true Repentance. But there goes more to do this than a fudden refolution. The old habits of Sin must be driven

out,

out, and they must be driven out the fame way that they came in, that is, by contrary acts, and by a long courfe of other practices; they must be unwound or unravell'd as it were by degrees, and the Mind cannot get loofe from them but by this courfe; and therefore it must not only refolve within it felf, but it must make good, and confirm, and ftrengthen its refolution by frequent practices, or elfe it can neither attain to any habit of Goodness, nor break off from a habit of Wickedness. The ways of Vertue and Vice are not fo near to one another that a Man may take a fudden jump out of the one into the other by a fudden refolution, but they are like two contrary ways, that a Man who is got into one, must go back again, and take over a great many fteps, before he gets into the other. into the other. And as I faid before, 'tis not his refolving that he will do this which fets him in the other way, but he muft walk back as well as refolve, and he must move and keep on till he comes right. Meer refolving is at most no more than turning his face t'other way; but if he only does fo, and ftands idly refolving, he will be but little the nearer to his Journeys end: And to be sure if he goes back again, and breaks his refolutions, and fometimes walks one way, and fometimes the other, as many a Sinner does, who is uncertainly divided between his good and his bad refolutions, and fometimes follows one, and fometimes the other, he is very far from true Repentance, to make which there must be no thing less than an actual for faking of every Sin, and an amendment of every evil way, which are fruits meet for Repentance, or the worthy fruits

of

of Repentance, which both John the Baptist and St. Paul fpeak of.

CHA P. II.

The Motives to Repentance.

Aving defcribed the Nature, and fixt the true Notion of Repentance, which is laying the foundation of Repentance, in St. Paul's Phrafe, Heb. 6. 1. on which, after the old Rubbish is taken away, a good Life should be Built, and all the goodly ftructure of Christian Vertues fhould be erected. I come now to propofe the Motives and Encouragements to perfwade us to this great Duty, and they are as many, and as great, as there are obligations to Vertue and Religion,and diffwafives from Vice and Wickednefs. For Repentance is but a Return to Vertue, and Leaving Sin, and tho' the paffage from one to the other may not be fo pleafant and delightful, but like the Ifraelites, we muft pafs through a Wildernefs, through a vale of Sorrow, and a courfe of Contrition and Humiliation, yet Vertue is the happy Land flowing with delights, and all manner of good things, and Vice is a more than Egyptian Servitude and Slavery, which he is mad that will not get out of, or that any way hankers again after it, or after the Garlick and Onions, the fordid Pleafures and Enjoyments of it. I fhall first examine the Temptations and Enticements to Sin, and

D

expofe the falfe Reafonings and Arguments by which Men are drawn into that; then offer the Motives and greater Arguments to Repentance, both from the Nature and Reafon of the thing, and from the Gospel or Christianity.

THE

SECT. I.

Of the Enticements to Sin.

HE Enticements and Temptations to Sin and Wickednefs are fo great and many, that if we fhould judge of them by the effect and power which they have upon Mankind, they are much stronger than the Motives and Arguments to Vertue and a Good Life; for we fee they prevail upon more than the other do.Whole crowds follow the one, and are drawn by them into the broad way of Vice, whilft Vertue has but a fmall party who walk in her narrow path, and are perfwaded to keep clofely to it. Now furely there must be fome mighty and powerful charms in Vice that make it fo generally take with most Men; there must be some fecret and prevailing Reafons that bring them over, and engage them fo firmly on that fide, and make Vertue fo generally forfaken and deferted. Men are Rational Creatures and free Agents, that have a power to confider and choose what is best for them, what tends moft to please and delight, and make them happy, and they must be greatly impofed upon if they choofe that which tends only to make them miferable. God fets Life

and