The Causes of the Decay of Christian Piety, Chapter 7
CHAP. VII. A survey of the Mischiefs arising from Mistakes concerning Repentance.
ANOTHER dangerous Underminer of Christian Practice is the many affected mistakes in the business of Repentance. Men look upon that as the grand recipe of the Gospel, an infallible Catholicon against all their spiritual maladies; and so far they judge right, for so indeed it is. But when they proceed to compound this sovereign Medicine for their own use, they do it most deceitfully; leave out the principal and most operative ingredients: and by being such ill Apothecaries defame the Gospel as the Dispensatory, and Christ as the Physician, and likewise ruine themselves as the Patients. But of those who make this imperfect and Defective composition, all do it not alike; some leave out one part, some another, and some so many that they retain nothing of its substance and reality. Eat out all the heart and vertue of it, and leave only an empty shell, the gilding as it were of the Pill, the Form and meer outside of Repentance.
IN this later rank I place those who suffer repentance to pass no farther than their Frontiers, and Outworks; assign it its quarters in the superficies of the man, the Face, or Tongue, or Gesture; but if it attempt to penetrate any deeper, if it send but one serious thought to alarm the heart, then like the Edomites against Israel, Num. 20. all the forces are mustered to impede its passage; such formal Penitents as these all ages have produc't. Christ tells of those who disfigured their faces, Mat. 6. 16. put on as it were a vizard only to act this part: and Esay 58. 5. long before describes them, by the bowing down the head like a bull-rush, and certainly the race of them is not worn out in our daies; a demure or rather a lugubrious look, a sad or whining tone, makes up, 'tis to be fear'd, the sum of many mens Humiliations. Nay as the world has of late gone, that alone were but a modest pretence: such theatrical forms stickle hard for the prize, not of that one part but of all religion: a distorted countenance is made the Mark of an upright heart, and none is thought to speak the Language of Canaan, that dresses it not in an uncooth sound: and then what wonder is it that they are impatient others should worship God, as David invites, in the beauty, while themselves chuse to do it in the Deformity of holiness.
BUT others make somewhat a fairer advance towards repentance, by taking in some of those things which are indeed its necessary concomitants; of this kind is in the first place confession of Sin: and this after some sort is stuck at by few; no man who hath not herded himself with the worst sort of Fanaticks, imagines himself sinless, or pretends to be thought so by others, but will very readily acknowledge to all the world that he is a sinner: and as to men, so especially and more solemnly to God. Every man that but offers at praying at all, thinks confession a necessary Branch of his devotion: all publick forms have ever carried that in the front, as supposing it the most principal, universal, and daily requisite to the lapsing state of humane corruption: And perhaps 'tis the general innate perswasion of this, that hath secur'd that part of our Liturgy, from those impertinent cavils, which have particularly aim'd at most other members of it. And I suppose this is as frequent in the Closet as in the Church: the only fear is, that there it is as loose and general too: that those private and particular guilts which are neither fit nor possible to be distinctly inserted in publick, do many times lose their place even in private Confessions also. The shortness and the ease of general forms being very likely to recommend them to those whose numerous sins threaten too great a length, and whose confus'd snarl'd consciences render it difficult, thus to pull out thread by thread: but where Sins are thus moulded up in a lump, they will like great masses of Pills or confections keep the more undecay'd, retain more of their strength and vigor. So that such Confessions are very indulgent to Satans interest, who fears not the impressions that can be made upon him, while his body remains entire: the great execution then beginning when 'tis broken and scatter'd, and each sin is singled out for a particular pursuit: and where that is not attempted, the war can never be successful, nor thought in earnest.
BUT suppose this be done; and by exact enumeration, each sin is parted from its fellows, as when a conqueror pursues the flying troops of routed Enemies: yet if this be all, if quarter be allowed, and any mercy given, no real prize is gain'd by this atchievement. He who recounts his sins with milder purpose towards them than utter excision, he makes no approach towards the essential part of Repentance. He may bring out large Catalogues of his sins, and call them confessions; but he may better express his own sense, if he term them rather inventories of his goods, for such 'tis apparent he reckons them, whilest he resolves to keep them. Indeed there is not a more absurd piece of Pageantry, than these formal Confessions, and such as shews how little, God is consider'd in his great Attribute the searcher of hearts. 'Tis certain no man would hope to attone an offended superior, by a submiss acknowledgment of his fault, did he know that his purpose of reiterating it were discern'd: and what a tacite blasphemy is it then, to treat God at such a rate as presumes him as deceivable as a poor Mortal; and sure this were a strange Ingredient in repentance. We look on it as a high pitch of impiety boastingly to avow our sins, and it deserves to be consider'd whether this kind of confessing them have not some affinity with it. Should I tell a man I have injur'd and provok'd you thus and thus, and so I resolve to do again at the next opportunity: I refer it to common construction, whether this were not to justifie, not retract the unkindness. Now what I suppose thus said to man, is in the secret purpose of our heart, no less articulately spoken to God, who needs not our words to discern our meaning. Therefore whoever intends to repeat his sins, nay does not seriously intend to forsake them, does in truth maintain and defend his vicious practice, how loudly soever his Tongue accuses it. And such clamors are but like the feigned Quarrels of combin'd cheats, in order to delude some third person. But alass, the scene is here unluckily laid, for God will not be mock'd, nor will the Mercy promis'd to him that confesseth and forsaketh, ever reach him that confesseth and retaineth. Confession is no farther acceptable than as it either flows from, or tends to beget an abhorrence of Sin, and abstracted from those qualifications it becomes loathsome and distasteful to God. Alass, can we think our Historical vein so pleasant, that he shall be delighted with the narrative of those crimes, whose perpetration he detested. Can it be Incense in his nostrils, to have our Dunghils displayed? or can his pure eyes be gratified with such polluted prospects? True indeed, he gladly descends to all this as a Physician; nauseats not our foulest ulcers, when we bring them for cure: but when like beggars we make them openly our form of address, and dread nothing more than their healing; certainly their View will only excite his indignation, not his pity. And this, 'tis to be fear'd abodes sadly to many of us, 'tis our vulgar Objection to the Romanist, that they make their confessions contributive rather to their confidence than to their reformation: what their share is in that guilt, I shall not here examine, but I may too truly pronounce they have not enclos'd it, that black circle of Sin and confess, Confess and sin, encompasses as well Protestants as Papists; if possibly not quite so many, the cause 'tis doubtful is (what we need not boast) not that More of us confess aright, but that Fewer confess at all. But of those that do, if we may but cross, examine, and interrogate their actions against their words, these will soon confess (and that not auricularly, but in a loud and audible voice) the invalidity of their solemnest Confessions. When we see a man that yesterday kept a Humiliation, to day trampling on the necks, invading the possessions of his Brethren, we need no other proof how vainly and unprofitably, if not how hypocritically and provokingly, he confessed his Pride, or Covetousness; and the like we may infer when we see any man persevere in any gross wilful sin. And of such, God knows there are such multitudes, as will give us instances more than enough, how wide a difference there is, between a meer Confitent & a true Penitent.
BUT in the next place, a passionate regret at Sin, a grief and sadness at its Memory, more speciously pretends to enter us into Gods roll of Mourners: Sorrow has (in vulgar acceptation) so engrost the whole notion of repentance, that men are apt to secure themselves, that the Wind of a penitential Sigh is so mighty, as will blow away the guilt of the most mountainous Sin: that if they have but wept a little upon their crimes, they have quite extinguisht the wrath they kindled: but alas these are vain dreams, God who delights not to grieve the children of men, does not project for our sorrow, but our innocence; and would never have invited us to the one, but as an expedient to the other. 'Tis natural even to meer Animals to shun that by which they have smarted, and therefore sorrow for sin is a very proper means to avert our appetite from it: but if we have learnt the unhappy skill of separating the effect from the cause, if our Grief abate not our Love; if we can cast kind looks at our sins, even through those Tears wherewith our Eyes are glas'd, this will sure be as far from accomplishing our design, as Gods: leave us equally unpardon'd, as unreform'd.
NAY alass, such Sorrows as these will rather serve to enhanse than Expiate our guilts; they are loud witnesses against us that we know the malignity of those sins we commit; that we have pois'd them, and find them as a talent of lead upon our Souls, and yet prefer them before Christs light burthen: that we have outvied that perverse Election wherewith Elihu charges Iob, and chosen affliction rather than innocence, Job 36. 21. and though we have felt the gnawing of the Worm, yet still resolve to cherish it, till it gain its woful Concomitant of unquenchable fire, and sure this resolvedness, this high fortitude in Sin, can with no reason be imagin'd a preparative to its remission, 'twill rather serve to list us among Satans Martyrs, than Gods Penitents.
AND indeed if we examine the original of this kind of Sorrow, what is there that an with any face pretend to an acceptation? alas, 'tis apparent there is no dislike to the sin; for the natural effect of that, would be the abandoning it. If I have faln into the mire, common reason directs me, not to sit down and cry that I am so defiled; but to cleanse and wash my self, and beware of such another misadventure. Now Gods enmity is purely with the sin: and if we think to contract a league with him; we must espouse his quarrel, hate what he hates: But in this case 'tis quite otherwise, we dislike only the consequence, not the crime; are dissatisfied to see that what is so pleasant, will not be safe: detest those temporal or eternal miseries, which God has annext to it: which is upon the matter to grieve, not because we are guilty, but God is just; and to avert only that part of the evil, of which he owns to be the author, that of Punishment: whilest that of Sin, as our own creature we dandle and caress. And can we think it sufficient to atone an incensed Majesty, that we love our own ease, while yet we love our sin so much better? is it a vertue to have some ineffective regrets to damnation, and such a Vertue too, as shall serve to ballance all our vices? this were indeed a compendious course to block up Hell gates, and leave none a possibility of ever getting thither, but those who scaled the wall and desperately resolved to possess themselves of that place of Torment. But alass, they are other fruits of Repentance that must deliver us from the wrath to come: for though I deny not, that the apprehension of Danger, is extreamly both reasonable and useful, yet 'tis only by way of preparative: 'tis like the Trumpet that gives the Alarm, and sets us to the battail, but it must not pretend to be like those of Gideon that atchiev'd the whole victory. To see our danger, may occasion, but does not cause, or necessarily infer an escape. I may madly leap into that pit which I see gaping to swallow me, and then my fore-sight serves only to render me my own murderer. In short, if that formidable aspect of our Sins, make us run from them, it has done us the happiest office; pluckt us as S. Iude says, out of the fire: but if our love be so doting, as to counter-charm our fear; if we be so bewitcht with the deceitfulness of sin, that we will have its Embraces, though we know them deadly; if we weep that we have sinn'd, and yet go on to sin; our wilful Guilt will defile our Tears, but our tears will never cleanse our guilt. We only assist in the judicature against our selves; and to Gods condemnation add our own: and what we call our Penitence, becomes a sad Attestation of our Incorrigibleness.
AND as this meer Sorrow will never avail, so neither will a partial and imperfect reformation, and that whether it be defective in respect of the kind, or of the Duration: to the former we have spoken elsewhere, and shall not need to repeat: but of the later there will need no less caution; men being apt to obtrude fallacies on themselves in this as much as in the other. Every transient gleam of Piety is concluded to be that flame in which the Holy Ghost descended, and though it want the main circumstance of resting on them, yet serves to personate the Comforter. He that whilest the soreness of his late pangs of conscience remains, finds himself a little indispos'd for a new carier in sin, presently concludes repentance hath had its perfect work in him, made that change and transmutation, which certainly denominates him a new creature, and pronounces his vicious appetites extinct and mortified: when alas they are but strew'd over with a little penitential Ashes, and will as soon as they meet with combustible matter, any apt temptation, flame out as fierce as ever, and God knows the event does too often actually attest this after all the ablutions, and purification of their repentance, their next work is to divest themselves of their white robe, and those whom yesterday you saw in the laver, to day you shall find wallowing in the mire: and as with far the more guilt, so sometimes with much the greater confidence, for having been so washt: yet so strongly are some mens phancies possest with their imaginary purity, that they are the last that take notice how the scene is chang'd: they comfort themselves, that sin and they have had some little skirmishes, though but preparatory to a closer league; that they had fixt good purposes, though there remain nothing visible but their violation; and so will call themselves Christs Sheep, though their notorious impurities witness them to belong only to that herd into which the Legion entred.
THIS is a deceit which one would think should immediately detect its self, but 'tis strange to see, how our wishes can prescribe to our faith; and what a more than omnipotent power our selflove has in reconciling contradictions: yet I can scarce think this innate strength of corruption had been sufficient for the purpose, had it not had the auxiliary aid of some commodious doctrines. My present design is so far from controversial, that I am loth to point out any to which I must express unkindness: yet upon this occasion, I shall refer it to consideration, whether that method which has been us'd to quiet some Consciences, be not very apt to stupifie more. When I see one who from his present reigning sins, regularly infers the illness of his state; that is yet by his Casuist, diverted from that prospect, and bid look back to see, whether no part of his life afforded any Evidence of true Grace, and if he can but remember any such time; is warranted to make that his Epocha, from whence to date his infallible assurance; is told that that immortal seed, though it may be covered, yet cannot be choaked; but will most certainly spring up unto Eternal life: When I say I see this easie remedy prescrib'd to his fears, 'twill be obvious for me to compound my self an Antidote from the same Ingredients: To fix my Eye upon some mark of Regeneration which at some time or other, I either have, or phancied to have had upon me, and with the stedfast beholding of that, as of the brazen Serpent be fortified against all the venome of my fiery lusts. Cast in this one stick, and with it sweeten all the waters of Marah, secure me against all the bitter effects of my present guilts. How fatal an influence such discoursings as these are apt to have on practice, is too obvious both in the cause, and effect: I need not examine the authority of that grand Principle on which they are founded; since if that were admitted, yet it will not justifie the before mention'd Superstructure: for suppose it receiv'd as an infallible truth, that grace if true can never be lost: yet 'tis, by the confession of all, so easie to be deceiv'd in judging what is so, and our partialities to our selves are so likely to betray us to that deceit; that these Corallaries men deduce thence for their personal assurance, can never partake of the suppos'd infallibility of those premises they derive from, and consequently are much too slight a basis for men to trust with so great a weight, as is that of their present comfort and future state.
SEVERAL other pernicious errors there are in the matter of Repentance which men fall into, shall I say, or rather aspire to; make it their ambition to be under their covert and patronage, and with extreme Violence to their reason as well as religion, climb up to those castles in the air, and there fortifie themselves impregnably against all the sacred Artillery of Divine threats. Their false confidences serve them as feather-beds, not only to sleep securely in, but to dead all bullets that are shot against them. But of all those deceitful refuges, there is none more treacherous, & yet more confidently and universally resorted to, than that of a Repentance in reversion, to commence no body knows when, some moneths or years hence, when this business is dispatcht, that lust satiated; or indeed to bear the same date (if not a later) with their last Will and Testament. This is that unhappy retreat to which thousands fly as the routed Syrians to Aphek, 1 Kings 20. 30. till they are entomb'd in that wall, whose shelter they solicited: How desperate the hazard of such procrastination is, hath been so convincingly demonstrated by better Pens; that trumpet hath been blowed so loud by all our spiritual watchmen, that there remains nothing seasonable, but to wonder whence men have got that Lethe which secures them their sleep in spight of that Alarm: and certainly 'tis matter of the greatest astonishment to observe the stupid, yet common boldness of men, who so fearlesly expose themselves to this most formidable of perils; who yet in things of far less danger and lighter consequence are so nicely timorous, that no security is thought enough, every the remotest danger to their outward concerns, excites their present vigilance to avert it: but here that order is most absurdly inverted, and the present eminent danger is assign'd and put off to their future care. Let the Physician tell them he observes some Symptomes of a latent Malady, some aptitudes or first Causes of a Disease; what hast is there made to meet that Enemy in the frontiers, before it advance too far? All Arts of prevention are us'd, and such uneasie remedies submitted to, as perhaps out-bid the pain of the Disease. In like manner let a Lawyer tell them he has spied some defect in an entail, which may perhaps in the next age give some interruption to their design of having their houses endure for ever, Psal. 47. how solicitous are they to repair that error, and leave nothing to the mercy of a Law-quirk? And in both cases thank the vigilant care of their informer that gave them notice of their danger: but let the Divine tell them he sees their Souls languishing under the most mortal diseases; that they have actually forfeited their inheritance in the land of the living, they can hear it unconcernedly; say, or at least think those cares are to be remitted to Felix his more convenient season, that when their Bodies are as infirm as their Souls, then care may be taken for both together. That 'tis enough for their spiritual Life to commence when the natural is expiring, and then to provide for everlasting Habitations, when they are putting off their Earthly Tabernacle: as for the thanks they give their Monitor, 'tis generally the same that St. Paul received from the Galatians, to count him their enemy for telling them the truth, Gal. 4. 16. but alass he has no reason to resent the injury, since 'tis but the same they offer to their nearest and most intimate friend, that Angel guardian which God and Nature has placed within their own breasts, I mean their Conscience: let that at any time whisper the same admonition, and immediately they cry out as Ahab to Eliah, Hast thou found me O my Enemy. All arts are us'd to convey themselves out of its Reach, Business, or Company, or Drink, or any thing is solicited to come in to their rescue, that in that throng they may deceive its pursuit, or at least in that louder noise drown its voice; and is not this to look on it as their Enemy, while they shun it as a Malefactor does the Officer. Yet I appeal to the breasts of those, who lean upon the broken reed of a late Repentance, whether this be not the case with them: let them tell me whether they dare trust themselves alone with their Conscience, give it opportunity of speaking freely to them, of laying before them the mad adventure they make of their precious Souls; which they do not only expose to as many hazards of a swift damnation, as there are accidents which may surprize their bodies with a sudden death; but do besides by this resistance repel and quench that Spirit, without which they can never hope to effect that so necessary, so difficult a work; nay, I may, I fear, ask some of them whether they have not so often shunned these parleys, that their Consciences like an abus'd Friend, has at last given them over, ceast to pursue them with more of those unwelcome importunities; and by its silence left them secur'd from all noise which may disturb that treacherous sleep into which they have lulled themselves. To those who are thus given up to the spirit of slumber, I cannot hope to speak loud enough to rouse them; but to those that are but of the former rank, that have not yet so prosper'd in their unkind design against themselves, as quite to have alienated their bosom friend, that are yet within the reach of those amica verbera, the stripes and reproofs of their own Conscience; to such I would address with this most affectionate petition, that they would not seek to remove themselves from that wholsome discipline; that they would not fly that Chyrurgion whose Lancet threatens none but the imposthumated parts; but rather chuse to be shewed the formidableness of their Danger, than by a blind embracing it, to perish in it. And if they have but any general confus'd inclinations to this so reasonable a request, I shall then put on more solemnity, assume to come as an Envoy from those dreaded Consciences of theirs, to mediate an enterview, to propose the fixing some time of parley, and bespeak their patience to hear it out: And let them but grant this, let them but dare to do so much in order to their own safety, and I can scarce think it possible they should after retain that daring, which only tends to their ruine. In a word, let men seriously and attentively listen to that voice within them, and they will certainly need no other medium, to convince them either of the error or danger of thus procrastinating their Repentance, which themselves acknowledge must not upon their utmost peril be finally omitted, and yet nothing but an immediate dispatch can secure it shall not.
'TWILL be needless to descend to a particular view of more of these deceits, they will easily be detected by this one general Rule, that whatsoever falls short of a present, universal, permanent Change, falls as much short of Repentance. All the pretences that are made upon any other score are but the Garments of the elder brother put upon the back of the younger, which though they might delude a blind Isaac, will never be able to deceive an all-seeing God. All that remains is to offer to the Readers consideration, how nearly he is concern'd to guard himself against all delusions in this so important an affair. It was an ancient Stratagem of War to poison the waters in an Enemies Camp, that so they may drink their own deaths: but Satan has here far out-vied that Policy. Were but our Nourishment infected, we had still a recourse left us to Medicine, but here he has envonom'd our very Physick, and what cure remains for those whose very remedies are their disease: when that Bath which was design'd to cleanse us, is its self polluted, we may well cry out as Dyonisius of the corrupted River of Alexandria, foreign what Flood shall cleanse these Waters? Where can we be secure, when our Repentance (which the Apostle, 2 Tim. 2. 26. supposes the Means of disentangling us) is its self become our Snare. This as it loudly proclaims our danger, so surely in all reason it should awake our care, teach us not to suffer our selves to be abus'd with delusive appearances and shadows of Repentance, lest we finally find that Ixion-like we have embrac'd a Cloud. What an amazing defeat will it be to him, who presumes his Tears have blotted out the hand-writing against him; to find the full Bill brought in at the great Assize, and those he call'd his penitential sorrows here, to prove but the Prologue to that Tragedy which ends in weeping and gnashing of teeth. And therefore let every one timely provide against that fatal surprize, use this excellent receipt, not as a Cosmetick only to beautifie the face, give him some fair appearance to himself, but as Medicine to restore health; reduce him to such an Athletick vigorous Habit, as may evidence its self in all vital Actions, which will prove the best evidences in our last trial, where the inquisition will not be so much upon our Mouths or Eyes, as upon our Hands: not how many confessions we have made, or how many tears shed, but what acts of Vertue we have substituted in the room of our Vices: whether we have broke off our Sins by righteousness, and our Iniquities by shewing mercy to the Poor, and without this 'tis infallibly certain, our Christianity will be as ineffectual to our Bliss, as it is to our Piety: if we will not permit it here to bring us to the obedience of Servants, it shall never instate us hereafter in the inheritance of Sons.