A Companion for the Penitent, Introduction
THE Introduction.
DIrections and Helps for Repentance, can never come out of Season. For Repentance is *Luke 10. 42.the one thing necessary, and the chief Business of all Men in this World, and will be so whilst they live in it. The best do daily need it, to make up their daily Failures, their Defects and Forgetfulness. And the bad, have no time to delay it for one Moment, having deferred a great deal too long already, to shake off their sinful Habits, aud to set themselves with all their might to please God, and to secure their Everlasting Peace.
Especially this time of Lent, is a Season, wherein great numbers profess to make this their Business. For from the early usage and practice of the Church, this has still been made a solemn time for Sinners to call their Sins to Remembrance, and to seek Gods Mercy and Forgiveness of the same, by earnest Prayers, and amendment of Life, and by afflicting of themselves, and bringing forth Fruits worthy of Repentance.
And to help them in so necessary and beneficial a Work, I have composed and published the following Offices, hoping that they may prove acceptable to my Heavenly Master, and serviceable to direct and compleat the Repentance, and to settle the Comfort and Peace of some of his beloved Servants, into whose Hands his Providence shall bring them.
In the Office for the Penitent, I have endeavoured to mark out distinctly the several Steps, and full compass of a Sinners Restauration, or Reconciliation with God. Wherein I have all along interwoven instructions with their Devotions, and set their Work before them, that they may see what they have to amend, and what they are to doe to work out their Pardon, as well as how they are to petition for it.
I have sought to make the Soul acquainted with its Disease, without which it would neither know what it has for God to forgive, or for his Grace and its own Care to Remedy. And I have been very particular in some Forms of Confession, to affect it with a more distinct and effectual Sense of the several maladys which it lyes sick of, and which, as it must beg Mercy for, so in the Course of its Daily Care, it must both diligently and designedly set its self by God's help to Cure.
Where Sin is the Disease, the great Gospel way of Cure, is true Repentance. And this I endeavour to set out, in all the necessary parts, and great and worthy Fruits thereof. I lead the Penitent to express the same in such Acts, as through the Merits of Christ, are the truest atonement for Sins, and have the most express promises of Mercy and Forgiveness made to them. And then I instruct him to comfort up himself, with an humble claim and application of those Expressions of the Divine Mercy and Condescention, which are given to us for our Confidence and Consolation in performance of those Acts, And if he takes care to say all that I have here put into his Mouth, with Sincerity, and is really affected as these forms express, he is a true Penitent, and may be a comfortable one; he has thereby secured his Everlasting Peace, and may quiet and revive his Spirit, with the joyful Sence thereof.
In the Tryal or Judgment of the Soul, for discovering the safety of their Spiritual Estate, I have given them as clear, and full, and withall as brief a view as I can, of the final account which will be exacted of them. I have run through the several Heads of Tryal and Examination, and raised such questions upon them, as I take to be most pertinent and decisive of their future Condition, and fittest to settle their present Peace and then give them the Benefit thereof, by setting their Answers and God's Promises together, and applying all to themselves. My Desire is, so far as my Skill would reach, to omit no question which is necessary to their Safety: and my care has been, as I am able, so to word all, as that they may serve to clear their doubts and uncertainties, upon the several parts of their account, but beget none in them.
And this part will be of chief account and use, to both the other Offices. For it is the truest Tryal of Penitents, and the truest Direction for them in carrying on and compleating their Repentance. And it is the surest Ground of Peace of Conscience. For, containing the full Draught of settling our Peace with God, it must give the best Light and Direction for Peace in our Selves, which lyes in seeing that God is at peace with us.
Tho' the business of these Papers is not to prove and argue, but briefly to Direct; yet to the several Heads, which I have made the Articles of the Penitents Tryal, I have prefixed Texts of Scripture, to shew that God has made them the Terms of his Mercy. But 'tis not unlikely, that some who will not be perswaded to be so good as they should, will think that I am stricter about this account than I need. And if they doe, I cannot help it, but they may. My Part is to deal faithfully, both by my Blessed Lord, and by them; and to represent things to them, as he has left them, and as in the end they will find them. So that if my Discourse has more strictness, than they could wish to hear from it, it is because I look not how to suit their carnal wishes, but how to serve their Everlasting happiness. And because I would rather have them offended with me for telling them unpleasing Truths, whilst they may serve themselves by them; than flatter them with pleasing Errors, till it is too late for them to rectifie the same, and prevent their own everlasting Ruine and Destruction thereby.
In the Office for Persons troubled in Mind, I am careful to have them fully sensible of that Holy Obedience, which is needfull to keep them safe; as well as to free them from those unnecessary mistrusts and Fears, which render them uneasie. I seek to give them a just sense of the Things which trouble them, and to keep them from over-valuing them. And to make them acquainted with the true allowances of Favour, which God is ready to make to their Infirmityes, and with the several Grounds which they have to hope and look for them; and lead them on in their Devotions, both humbly to plead with God, and to comfort up their own Hearts with the same.
To the Offices, I have prefixed Collections of Pertinent and proper Scriptures. And these will serve the devout Minds, to express their Devotion in, or to support their Spirits withall; yea, and to guide and direct their Practice too. For they mark out their Duty upon the several Points which they refer to, and teach them, not only how they may address to God, but how they ought to imploy themselves, and what the Work and Business is, which Gods Favour and their own Eternal wellfare, or which his Peace and their own require at their Hands.