The Christian Life, Chapter 4 · Section 1
SECT. I. Concerning those Duties that are proper to our Beginning and Entrance into this warfaring Part of our Christian Life; shewing how they all conduce to the subduing of Sin, and acquiring the heavenly Virtues.
THIS first part of our militant Life being nothing but our Initial Repentance, or the first turning of our Souls to God from a state of wilful Sin and Rebellion, the Duties that are proper to it, and by which this turn of our Souls is to be introduced and performed, may be reduced to these six Heads,
1. A hearty and firm Belief of the Truth of our Religion.
2. A due Consideration of its Motives, and a ballancing of them with the Hardships and Difficulties we are to undergo.
3. A deep and through Conviction of our great need of a Mediator to render us acceptable to God.
4. A hearty Sorrow, Shame and Remorse for our Sins past.
5. Earnest Prayer to God for Aid and Assistance to enable us effectually to renounce them.
6. A serious and well weighed Resolution to forsake and abandon them for ever.
I. IT is necessary to our good Beginning of this our Christian Warfare, that we should heartily believe the Truth and Reality of our Religion. For our hearty Belief of the Gospel is in Scripture represented as the main and principal Weapon by which we are to combat against the World and our own Lusts. And hence it is called the shield of faith, and the breastplate of faith, which are the two principal parts of Armour of Defence, denoting that an hearty Belief of the Gospel is the principal Defence of a Christian against all the fiery darts of Temptation; the Armour of Proof that guards our Innocence, and renders us Invulnerable in all our spiritual Conflicts. For, above all things, saith the Apostle, take the shield of faith whereby ye shall be able to quench the fiery darts of the wicked one, Eph. vi.16. And as it is the principal part of our defensive, so it is also of our offensive Armour. For so we find all the Victories and Triumphs of those glorious Heroes, Heb. xi. attributed to this irresistible Weapon of their Faith. 'Twas by Faith that they despised Crowns, confronted the Anger of Kings, and triumphed over the bitterest Torments and Afflictions; by faith that they wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lyons, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, and out of weakness were made strong. Nay so great a share hath Faith in the Successes of our Christian Warfare, that it is called by the Apostle, the good fight of faith, 1 Tim. vi.12. and S. John assures us, that this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith, 1 John v.4.
FOR if we firmly believe the Gospel, that will furnish us with undeniable Answers to return to all Temptations, and enable our Faith infinitely to out-bid the World whatsoever it should proffer us for our Innocence. For our Belief of the Gospel carries in the one hand infinitely greater Goods, and in the other infinitely greater Evils to allure and bind us fast to our Duty, than any the World can propose to entice or terrifie us from it. For on the one hand it discovers to us those immortal Regions of the Blessed, which are the proper Seat and pure Element of Happiness; where the blessed Inhabitants live in a continued Fruition of their utmost Wishes, being every moment entertained with fresh inravishing Scenes of Pleasure; where all their Happiness is eternal, and all their Eternity nothing else but one continued Act of Love and Praise and Joy and Triumph; where there are no Sighs or Tears; no Intermixtures of Sorrow or Misery, but every Heart is full of Joy, and every Joy is a Quintessence, and every happy Moment is crowned with some fresh and new Enjoyment. On the other hand it sets before our eyes a most frightful and amazing Prospect of those dismal Shades of Horror, where mighty Numbers of condemned Ghosts perpetually wander to and fro, tormented with endless Rage and Despair; where they always burn without consuming, always faint but never die, being forced to languish out a long Eternity in unpitied Sighs and Groans. And after such a Prospect as this, what poor, inconsiderable Trifles will all the Goods and Evils of this world appear to us? But yet unless we believe the Reality of them, how great soever they may be in themselves, they will signifie no more to our Hope and Fear (which are the Master Springs of our Action) than if they were so many golden Dreams or liveless Scare-crows. For all Proposals of good and evil do work upon the Minds of men proportionably as they are believed and assented to; and as that which is not true, is not, so that which we do not believe, is to us as if it were not. How then is it possible we should be moved by that Good or Evil which we do not believe, and in which by consequence we cannot apprehend our selves concerned?
WHEREFORE in our Entrance into the Christian Warfare, it is highly necessary that we do not take up our Faith at a venture, and believe winking, without knowing why or wherefore; but that we should, so far as we are able, impartially examine the Evidences of our Religion, and search into the Grounds of its Credibility, that so we may be able to give some Reason to our selves and others of the Hope that is in us. For which End it will be needful that we should read, and impartially consider, some of the Apologies for the Christian Religion; of which we have sundry excellent ones in our own Language *Dr. Stillingfleets Origines. Dr. Patricks Translation of Grotius. Sir Charles Wolsely.; and if we will but take the pains to instruct our selves in the plain and easie Evidences of Christianity, we shall quickly see abundant cause to assent to it; and then our Faith being founded on a firm Basis of Reason will be able to bid defiance to the World, and to out-stand the most furious Storms of Temptation.
II. TO our good Beginning of this our Christian Warfare, it is also necessary that we should duly consider the Motives of our Religion, and ballance them with the Hardships and Difficulties we are to undergo. For thus our Saviour makes Consideration a necessary Introduction to our Christian Warfare, Luke xiv.28. where he compares mens rushing headlong into the Difficulties of the Christian Life without Consideration, to a mans resolving to build a Tower without computing the Charge of it, or a Kings going to War without ever considering before-hand whether with his Army of ten Thousand he be able to encounter his Enemy with Twenty. By both which Comparisons he intimates to us the unprosperous Issue of mens listing themselves under his Banner to combat the Devil, the World and their own Lusts without ever considering before-hand either their own Strength or their Enemies, the Arguments with which they must fight, or the Difficulties that will trash and oppose them. So that when they come to execute their rash Resolutions, there start up so many Difficulties in their way which they never thought of, and against which they took no care to fore-arm themselves, that they have not the Heart and Courage to stand before them, but after a few faint Attempts are presently sounding a cowardly Retreat.
FOR indeed Consideration is the Life and Soul of Faith, that animates and actuates its Principles, and elicits and draws forth all their natural Power and Energy. And let the Truths we believe be never so weighty and momentous in themselves, never so apt to spirit and invigorate us, yet unless we seriously consider and apply them to our Wills and Affections, and take the pains to extract out of them their native Vigour and Efficacy and to infuse it into our Faculties and Powers, they will lie like so many dead Notions in our Minds, and never impart to us the least Degree of spiritual Courage and Activity. And accordingly our Saviour attributes the ill Success of Gods Word in the Hearts of men (which he compares to the high-way, the stony and thorny Ground) either to their not considering it at all, or to their not considering it deeply enough, or to their not considering it long enough. Either the divine Truths which they heard went no farther than their Ears, and so lay openly exposed like so many loose corns upon the high-way to be picked up by the Fowls of the Air; or if it entred into their Mind and Consideration, it was so slightly and superficially, that like corn sown in a rocky ground it had not Depth enough to take root, to fasten and grow into their minds and digest into Principles of Action; or if they at present received it into their deeper and more serious Consideration, it was but for a little while, for by and by they permit their worldly Cares and Pleasures, like Thorns, to spring up in their Thoughts and Choak it, before it was arrived to any Maturity. But that which rendred it so prosperous and fruitful in good and honest Hearts, was, that having heard the word they kept it, i. e. retained it in their Thoughts and Consideration, and so brought forth fruit with patience, Luk. viii.12, 13, 14, 15. So that to the making of a good Beginning in Religion, it is not only necessary that we should ponder the Motives and Arguments of Religion, and ballance them with the Difficulties of it, but that we should revolve and repeat them on our minds till we have represented to our selves with the utmost Life and Reality, whatsoever makes for and against our Entrance into the Christian Warfare; and upon our having weighed them over and over in the Scales of an even and impartial Judgment, we have brought the Debate to this Result and Conclusion, that there is infinitely more Weight in the Arguments of Religion to persuade us to it, than in all the Difficulties of it to dishearten us from it. For unless we enter into Religion fore-armed with the Motives, and forewarned of the difficulties of it, we shall never be able to stand our Ground; but finding more Opposition than we expected, and having not a sufficient Strength of Argument to bear up against it, we shall quickly repent of our rash Undertaking, and be forced to retreat from it with Shame and Dishonour. For this is usually the Issue of those rash and unsetled Purposes which men make in the heats of their Passion; when they have been warmed by some pathetick Discourse, or startled by some great Danger, or chafed into a Displeasure against their Sins by the sense of some very dolorous Accident whereinto they have been betrayed by them; in these or such like Cases, its usual with men to make hasty Resolutions of Amendment, without considering either the Matters which they resolve upon, or the Motives which should support their Resolution; and so finding when they come to Practice, more Difficulty in the Matter than they were aware of, and having not sufficient Motives to carry them through it, their Resolution flags in the Execution, and very often yields to the next Temptation which encounters them.
NOW though I do not deny but that those Heats of Passion are good Opportunities to begin our Religion in, and if wisely improved will very much contribute to our Voyage heavenwards, and like a brisk Gale of Wind render it much more expedite and easie; yet if in these Heats we resolve too soon, without a due Consideration of all Particulars, and of the Difficulties on the one side and the Arguments on the other, it is hardly possible that our Resolution should ever prove a lasting Principle of Goodness. For when we resolve inconsiderately, we resolve to do we know not what, and our Resolution includes a thousand Particulars that we are not aware of; most of which being repugnant to our vicious Inclinations, will when we come to practise them be attended with such Difficulties as will easily startle our weak Resolution, which having not a sufficient Foundation of Reason to support it, will never be able to outstand those boisterous Storms of Temptation whereunto it will be continually exposed. If therefore we mean our Resolution should hold out, and commence a living Principle of Goodness, we must found it in a through Consideration both of the Duties and Difficulties of Religion, and of the Motives which should ingage us to embrace it; we must set before our Minds all the Sins we must part with, and all the Duties we must submit to, and fairly represent to our selves all the Difficulties and Temptations wherewith we must ingage; and as much as in us lies render them actual and present to us, by supposing our selves already ingaged in our Spiritual Warfare and surrounded with all the Temptations both from within and without that we can reasonably expect will oppose themselves against us; and having thus placed our selves in the midst of the Difficulties of Religion, we must never cease urging our selves with the great Arguments and Motives of it, till we have throughly persuaded our stubborn Wills and obtained of them an explicit Consent to every Duty that calls for our Consent and Resolution.
III. TO our good Beginning of the Christian Warfare it is also necessary that we be deeply and throughly convinced of our great need of a Mediator to make a Propitiation for our Sins and render us acceptable to God. For 'tis to convince us of this necessary Truth that the Scripture doth so expresly declare that as there is one God, so there is one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 1 Tim. ii.5. that if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and that he is the Propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but for the sins of the whole world; and that 'tis for his name sake that our sins are forgiven, 1 John ii.1, 2, 12. that we have redemption through his blood, Eph. i.7. and that without the shedding his blood there is no remission, and that 'twas by the sacrifice of himself that Christ put away sin, Heb. ix.22, 26. that we are accepted of God through his beloved Son, Eph. i.6. that Christ is entred into heaven now to appear in the presence of God for us, Heb. ix.24. and that there he ever lives to make intercession for us, Heb. vii.25. that 'tis through him that we have access unto the Father, Eph. ii.18. and by him that we have admittance to his grace and favour, Rom. v.2. The design of all which is, throughly to convince us of this great truth, that by our Apostacy from God and Rebellion against him we have all rendred our selves so very obnoxious to his Vengeance, that he would not pardon us upon any less Atonement than the precious Blood, nor admit us into favour upon any less Motive than the powerful Intercession of his own Son; that by the heinousness of our Guilt we have so highly incensed the Father of Mercies against us, that no less consideration than the Death and Advocation of the greatest and dearest Person in the whole world will move him to admit of our Repentance and listen to our Supplications. And certainly next to exacting the Punishment due to our sins at our own hands, the most dreadful Severity he could have expressed was to resolve not to remit it upon any other consideration than that of his own Sons undergoing it in our stead; by which he hath given us the greatest reason that Heaven and Earth could afford to tremble at his Justice, even whilst we are inclosed in the Arms of his Mercy.
THIS therefore we ought to be deeply and throughly convinced of, that our Sins have set us at such a distance from God, that 'tis nothing but the bloud of Christ will reconcile him to us; and that though without our Repentance he will never be reconciled to us, yet 'tis not for the sake of that or any thing else we can do that he will be induced to receive us into favour, but only for the sake of that precious Sacrifice which his eternal Son hath offered up for us. The firm Persuasion and Consideration of which will mightily over-awe our minds, and imprint upon them such gastly and horrible Apprehensions of sin, as will scare us from all thoughts of Compliance with it; the dreadful demonstration which God hath given us of his righteous severity against it in the very Reason of his pardoning it, will effectually antidote us against all our sinful Securities and Confidences: For this way of Gods pardoning us upon the Sacrifice of his Son, guards his Mercy with such an awful Terror, as is sufficient to dishearten the most desperate sinner from presuming upon it. For he that dares presume to sin on upon a Mercy that cost the bloud of the Son of God, hath courage enough to out-face the Flames of Hell, and is not capable of any Mercy that the great God can indulge with safety to his own Authority. For what Mercy can be safe from that mans Abuse and Presumption, that dares abuse a Mercy so guarded and secured as this is, by being founded upon such a dreadful Consideration?
AND as a through Persuasion of the Necessity of Christs Sacrifice to the Forgiveness of our Sins will fill us with awful Apprehensions of the divine Severity, and set before us a most dismal Prospect of the vast demerit of our Sin, both which are necessary to ingage us to a through Reformation; so a through conviction of the Necessity of his Intercession to render our Duties, our Prayers and Persons acceptable to God, will effectually humble and abase us in our own eyes, which, as I shall shew you by and by, is highly conducive to a good Beginning of this our Christian Warfare. For next to banishing us from his Presence for ever, the most effectual course God could take to abase us was to exclude us from all immediate Intercourse with him, and not to admit of any more Addresses or Supplications from us, but only through the hands of a Mediator; which is a plain Demonstration how infinitely pure he is, and how base and vile our Sins have rendred us: insomuch that he will not suffer a sinful Creature to come near him otherwise than by a Proxy, that he will not accept of a Service from a guilty Hand, nor listen to a Prayer from a sinful Mouth, till 'tis first hallowed and presented to him by a pure and holy Mediator. So that unless we are strangely inconsiderate, we cannot but be touched with a deep sense of our own Vileness, when we think at what a distance the pure and holy God keeps us; how he stands off at the Stench of our Abominations, and notwithstanding all his Benignity towards us, will neither hear us, nor have any thing to do with us, without the powerful Intercession of his own Son.
AND as our Conviction of the Necessity we have of Christs Sacrifice and Intercession is very apt to affect us with holy Sorrow and Fear, both which are very powerful Instruments of our Reformation; so our persuasion of the Reality and Excellency of his Mediation is no less apt to inspire us with a mighty Hope and Assurance of Acceptance with God if we reform and amend. For it seems that upon propitiatory Sacrifices and interceding Spirits, guilty Minds have been always inclined to place their Confidence of Acceptance with God. Hence it was a Principle generally received by men of all Nations and Religions, (however it came to pass I know not,) that for sinful men to appease the incensed Divinity it was necessary, first, that some Life should be sacrificed to him by way of Satisfaction for their Sins, and that the nobler it was, the more propitious it rendred him. 2. That some high Favourite of his should be prevailed with to intercede with him in their behalf. Whereupon understanding by universal Tradition that there were a sort of middle Beings (whom they called Demons) between the sovereign God and Men, they began to address to these and to bribe them with sacred Honours to interpose with God in their Behalf. And if they could make a shift to rely upon Sacrifices, the most precious of which were the Lives of sinful Men; and to depend upon Intercessors of whose Interest with God they had little or no Security; what a mighty ground of Confidence and Assurance have we, for whom the Son of God once offered such a meritorious Sacrifice upon Earth, and continues to make such a powerful Intercession in Heaven? For besides that as he was a spotless and innocent Person, his Sacrifice was wholly meritorious for guilty offenders, and besides that as he was a Person of infinite Value and Dignity his Sacrifice was meritorious for a World of guilty offenders; God, upon whose good Pleasure the Admission or Refusal of it intirely depended, has openly declared his Acceptation thereof as a Propitiation for the sins of the World, and ingaged himself by a publick Grant and Charter of Mercy to indemnifie for the sake of it every sinner in the World that will but return to him by a serious and hearty Repentance; neither of which great things could ever be said of any other Sacrifice. And in the virtue of this Sacrifice, as well as of his own personal Interest with his Father, he now intercedes in our behalf; and pleading our Cause, as he doth, with the price of our Souls in his hand, even his precious Blood by which he redeemed them, we may be sure that with that powerful Oratory he cannot fail of succeeding in our behalf. For having purchased for us by his Blood, all those favours which he intercedes for, he is invested with the Right and Power of bestowing them upon us. So that now, for our greater Security, all those Favours which God hath promised us, are actually deposited in the hands of our Mediator; and though his bare Promise is in it self as great an Assurance as can be given us, yet it is to be considered that guilty Minds are naturally anxious and full of unreasonable Jealousies, and consequently whilst they looked upon God as their adverse Party, and a Party infinitely offended by them, would have been very prone to suspect the worst, had they had nothing but his bare Word to depend on. And therefore in Condescension to this pitiable Infirmity of his sinful Creatures, he hath not only promised them his Acceptance and Favour upon Condition of their Return to him, but hath also put the Performance of his Promise into a third Hand, even into the Hand of a Mediator, who by the Nature of his Office is equally concerned for both Parties; as well that God should perform his Promise, if we performed our Duty, as that we should perform our Duty if we received the Benefit of his Promise. And hence, Heb. vii.22. our Mediator is called the Sponsor, or Surety of a better Covenant. So that now we have no longer to do with God immediately as our adverse Party, but by a Mediator, who by his Office is obliged to be on our side as well as Gods, and to take care that neither receive the others Part of the Covenant without performing his own. Thus as he hath been sometimes pleased in Complyance with humane Weakness to enforce his Promise with his Oath, not that the one is in its own Nature a greater Security from God than the other, but because with Men an Oath is more obliging than a Promise; so in great Condescension to the unreasonable Diffidence of our guilty Minds, he hath not only promised us Pardon and Acceptance upon our Repentance, but he hath also given us a collateral Security for the Performance of it, even the Security of a Mediator, in whose hands he hath deposited whatsoever he hath promised us. Not that in it self this is a greater Security than his own bare Word and Promise, which he cannot falsifie without renouncing his Being: but because this way of giving Security by a third Person is more accommodate to the Method of our Covenants and Agreements with one another, and consequently more apt to satisfie our anxious and diffident Minds.
AND thus the Conviction of our need of a Mediator, and the Persuasion of the Reality and Excellency of his Mediation will powerfully work both on our Hope and Fear, which are the main Springs of all our religious Endeavours; and give us at once the most horrible Prospect of the Evil of Sin, and the most comfortable Assurance of Pardon and Acceptance with God upon our Repentance and Amendment; both which are absolutely necessary to our successful Entrance into the Christian Warfare.
IV. TO our Beginning of this Holy Warfare it is also necessary that we should be affected with a deep Sorrow and Shame and Remorse for our past Iniquities. For this the Apostle calls sorrowing to repentance, and tells us that godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of, 2 Cor. vii.9, 10. and accordingly it is recorded of St. Peter's Converts that the beginning of their repentance was their being pricked at the heart, Acts ii.37. and even Repentance it self is in Scripture called a broken and contrite heart, this being the most immediate Preparation to a true Repentance or Change of mind, Psal. li.17. And hence the ancient Penitents are described in Scripture as girding themselves with sackcloth and repenting in dust and ashes; in Allusion to the antient manner of great and solemn Mournings, which was to put on Sackcloth, cover the Head with Ashes, and sit in the Dust. And in the primitive and purest Ages of Christianity it is evident that the bitterest Sorrows and Remorses were looked upon as necessary Preparations to Repentance; for the Penitents in those days, as Tertullian and Nazianzen describes them, lay prostrate at the Church Doors in Sackcloth and Ashes, supplicating the Prayers of the Presbyters and Widows, hanging on the Garments and Knees of those that entred into the Church, kissing their Footsteps and with rivers of Tears in their eyes beseeching their Prayers to God for their Pardon. Now though we are not under the Severities of such an Ecclesiastical Discipline, yet are we equally obliged with those ancient Penitents to exercise it internally in our Hearts. For sin is as bad now as it was then, and as great an evil in us, as it was in them; and therefore ought to be lamented by us with an equal Sorrow and Remorse. And indeed if we ever mean to wage War with it with Success, it is necessary we should acquire before-hand a through sense and feeling of the Evil of it; that we should chastise our souls with some degree of that bitter Sorrow and Regret it deserves, and inflict upon our selves some part of that Hell of infinite Horror and Anguish that is ingendring in its Womb; that so being the more sensible of its Malignity, we may be the more enraged against it and enter the Lists with it with the greater Resolution and Animosity. For our Sorrow and Remorse for our Sins, if it be serious and hearty, will convert into Hatred and Indignation against them, and that Hatred will animate us in all our Conflicts with them, and render us more obstinate against their Terrors and Alurements. So that when in the aftercourse of our Warfare against them, we are tempted afresh to yield and comply with them, the Remembrance of the past Shame and Sorrow, Remorse and Confusion we have undergone for their sakes, will render us far more deaf and inexorable than otherwise we should be to their Solicitations.
IF therefore we would ingage in this spiritual Warfare with Success, we must be often reflecting upon our past Sins, and representing them to our selves in all their aggravating Circumstances. And when we have surveyed them round about, and considered them in all their natural Turpitude; Disingenuity and Indecency, and applied them to our selves with all their appendant Stings, shameful Effects and dismal Circumstances, so that our hearts begin to feel them, and to smart and bleed under the dolorous Sense of them; then must we pour them out before God in sad and mournful Confessions. For the very Confession of our Sins before so pure and great a Being, is in it self an effectual Means to increase our Shame and Sorrow for them; and he must have a very hard Heart that can ingenuously and without any Reserve lay open his crimes before the God of Heaven and Earth in all their black Aggravations, without being stung with a sensible Regret and Confusion; especially if he frequently repeat his Confessions as he ought to do.
V. TO our successful Beginning of this our Christian Warfare it is also necessary that we earnestly implore the divine Aid and Assistance to enable us to go through with it. For God knowing how unable we are of our selves to ingage in this great Enterprize with that good Conduct that is necessary to give us any probability of Success, hath promised us his own Presence and Assistance even from the Beginning to the End of it; and if in any part of it his Assistance be necessary, 'tis doubtless in the Entrance, which, as I shall shew you by and by, is by far the most difficult and hazardous. If therefore we presume to enter upon it without supplicating God to second us with his Grace and Assistance, we shall quickly find our selves shamefully foiled and defeated. For though he hath promised to assist us, yet 'tis upon Condition that we earnestly beg and seek him; he will give his Spirit, but it is to those that ask it, Luke xi.13. he will draw near unto us, but first we must draw near unto him, James iv.8. and we are assured that we shall have if we ask, that we shall find if we seek, and that it shall be opened unto us if we knock, Mat. vii.7. And therefore we are bid to go boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help us in the time of need, Heb. iv.16. and not only to pray without ceasing, 1 Thess. v.17. but in every thing by prayer and supplication to let our requests be made known unto God, Philip. iv.6. and if in every thing we ought to make known our Wants to him, then much more in this great and difficult Undertaking, in which it will be impossible for us to succeed without his heavenly Aid and Assistance.
WHEREFORE as we hope for Victory in this our spiritual Warfare, we must earnestly implore his Concurrence with us, and beseech him to second us in all our weak Efforts and Endeavours. We must lay open our woful Case before him, and remonstrate to him that we are heartily willing to do what we are able, but that without him we are abundantly sensible all will be in vain. We must tell him that our Dependance is upon him, and that all our Hope of Success is in him, and that we dare not stir one step without him; and beseech him that he will not stand by, and see us spend our selves in ineffectual Struglings, but that he will graciously stretch forth his helping Hand to us, and not suffer us to miscarry for want of his necessary Assistance. Which if we do, we may assure our selves that the merciful God, who is the Father of our Spirits, will never abandon his own offspring whilst it cries out to him, and with pitiful and bemoaning Looks implores his Aid and gracious Co-operation.
WHILST therefore we are thus endeavouring to prepare our selves for our spiritual Warfare, we ought in every act of Preparation to look up to God, and earnestly supplicate the Concurrence of his Grace and Spirit. While we are endeavouring to believe, we must beg him to help our Vnbelief, to remove all Prejudices from our minds and present the Evidences of our Religion to our Understandings in a clear and convincing Light. When we are setting our selves to a serious Consideration, we must beseech him to fix our Thoughts, to suggest to and repeat his heavenly Motives and Arguments so fast and thick upon our Minds, that no sinful or worldly Thought may be able to crowd in to disturb or divert our Meditations. When we are labouring to persuade our selves of our Need, and the Reality of our Saviours Mediation, we must earnestly intreat him to open our eyes, and convince us effectually of the horrible Danger of our sin, and of the infallible Efficacy of that blessed Remedy. When we are attempting to affect our selves with the bitter Sense of our past Transgressions, we must implore him to strike in with us, and to inspire our Minds with such piercing and powerful Convictions of the infinite Shame, Baseness and Danger of them, as may sting our brawny Consciences to the quick, and dissolve our frozen Souls into a sorrowful Repentance; that so when we enter the lists and proceed to Resolution, which is the Beginning of our spiritual Warfare, we may be armed against our Sins with such a lively Faith, such puissant Considerations, such Horror and Animosity against them, and such an assured Hope of being rescued from the fatal Issues and Effects of them, as that we may be able to promise our selves a happy Success in the ensuing Course of our Warfare against them. And having thus fitted and accoutred our selves for this great and momentous Enterprize;
VI. WE are to enter into a serious and solemn Resolution of Amendment, of forsaking and renouncing all our Sins and never returning to them more, whatsoever Temptations may invite, or Difficulties encounter and oppose us. Which Resolution is in Scripture called foreign, which we translate Repentance, but in strictness signifies a Change of Mind or of Purpose and Resolution, a renouncing our sinful Purposes and solemnly ingaging our selves in a contrary Resolution of living soberly and righteously and godly in this present World. So that wheresoever the Precept of Repentance is expressed by this word, the meaning of it is, to oblige us to change the wicked Purposes of our Hearts into a firm and serious Resolution of forsaking all ungodliness and worldly lusts and intirely resigning up our selves to the Will and Disposal of God. And hence it is that foreign and foreign, i. e. to change our minds and convert or turn, are in Scripture so often put together; the one denoting the inward Change of our Resolution, the other the outward Change of our Practice pursuant to it. So Acts iii.19. repent and be converted, and Acts xxvi.20. that they should repent and turn to God and do works meet for repentance; that is, that they should resolve to forsake their Sins, and submit to their Duty, and put their Resolution into Practice. And so that other word foreign, which we also render Repentance, strictly signifies an after-care, that is pursuant unto this foreign or Change of Resolution.
NOW this Repentance or Change of Resolution is the Initial Act of the Religion of Sinners, whereby they resume their inward man from the Service of sin, and submit and resign their Wills to God; whereby in Heart and Will they forsake the Devils Colours, and list themselves Volunteers under the Banner of Christ. And being so, it ought to be performed with so much the more Care and Preparation. For the Beginning of all great Enterprizes is the Ground and Foundation of them; which if it be not firmly laid will be apt to sink under the Superstructures, and to endanger their Ruin and Downfal. Now all the foregoing Duties being necessary Preparations to a good Resolution, we ought before we resolve, to spend a considerable portion of time in the diligent Practice of them; and not to resolve hand over head till we are duly and throughly prepared for it, till by exercising our Faith and Consideration, &c. we have broken and tamed our perverse and obstinate Wills, and throughly persuaded them to part with every Sin, and to approve of and consent to every Duty that is comprehended in a through Resolution of Amendment. And if when we are about to resolve, we find upon a strict Examination any secret Reserve or Exception in our Wills, if there be any Lust which they are not throughly persuaded to part with, or any Duty to which they are not fully reconciled, we ought for that time to forbear resolving, and to go on in the Exercise of the preparatory Duties, till we find our reluctant Wills throughly conquered and persuaded by them. For if there be any leak left open in our Resolution for any Sin to creep in at, that will be sure to insinuate in the next Storm of temptation; and if it should not let in other Sins after it, as 'tis a thousand to one but it will, 'twill by its own single Weight sink us into eternal Perdition. Wherefore before ever we enter into the Resolution of Amendment, we ought to be very careful that our Wills be throughly prepared for it; that they be reduced to a fair Compliance with the matter we are resolving upon, and effectually dissuaded out of all Resolution to the contrary; and when this is done, we may chearfully proceed to the forming of our good Resolution.
WHICH ought to be performed by us, between God and our selves, with the greatest Seriousness and Solemnity. For now our Hearts being ready, we are to betake our selves to our Knees, and in these or such like words to devote our selves to God, O thou blessed Author of my Being, I am now fully convinced that I ow my self to thee by a thousand Ties and Obligations, and am infinitely sorry and ashamed that I have so long sequestred and withdrawn my self from thee to serve my own base Lusts and Affections. Wherefore now in thy dread Presence, and in that of thy holy Angels, I here intirely resign up my self unto thee, and do resolve without any Reserve or Exception that whatsoever Temptations I may meet with for the future, I will never wilfully withdraw or alienate my self from thee more. From henceforth I heartily renounce all my Sins, and particularly those that have been most dear and pleasant to me, and do faithfully promise to continue thy true and loyal Subject as long as I breath, and that whatsoever Invitations I may have to the contrary I will never revoke the Resolution I now make, or any part of it. So help me O my God.
AND having thus solemnly resolved, it will be highly necessary that for the farther Ratification of it, we should yet more solemnly repeat it in the holy Sacrament; wherein, according to the Custom of Feasts upon Sacrifices, God and every faithful Communicant do mutually re-oblige themselves to one another, and upon the sacred Symbols of the Body and Blood of Jesus do ratifie to each other each others Part of that everlasting Covenant which by the Federal Rite of his meritorious Death and Sacrifice was inviolably sealed and confirmed. So that when we take those holy Elements into our hands, which the Priest in Gods stead presents and offers to us, we do in effect make this solemn Dedication of our selves to God; Here we offer and present unto thee, O Lord, our selves, our souls and bodies to be a reasonable, holy and lively Sacrifice unto thee; and here we call to witness this sacred Blood that redeemed us, and those vocal Wounds which do now intercede for us, that from henceforth we oblige our selves never to start from thy service what Difficulties soever we may encounter in it, or what temptations soever we may have to forsake it. And having thus resolved and confirmed our Resolution by the Body and Blood of our Saviour, and taken the Sacrament upon it not to depart from what we have resolved, we have actually listed and ingaged our selves in a Warfare against Sin, the World and the Devil, upon the final Success whereof our everlasting Fate depends. And thus you see what Duty is implied in the Beginning or Entrance of this warfaring Part of the Life of a Christian.