can be no encouragement or ground of hope to any reafonable and confiderate man.

Laftly, As to the encouragement which men take from the fudden repentance of great criminals and malefactors, and their dying with fo much comfort and affurance; if this be well confidered, there is little comfort to be fetched from fuch examples. For,

1. Though a fincere repentance in fuch circumstances be poffible; yet it is almolt impoffible for the party himfelf concerned, much more for others, upon any good ground, to judge when it is fincere. God, who knows the hearts of men, and whether, if they had lived longer, they would, in the future courfe of their lives, have juftified and made good their repentance and good refolu tions, only knows the fincerity of it. But,

2. No certain judgment is to be made from the comfort and confidence of the party concerned; for the bu finefs is not, what comfort and confidence men have, but, what ground they have for it: and whereas men are apt pioufly to fuppofe that fo extraordinary a comfort and affurance is wrought in them by the Spirit of God, nothing is more uncertain; because we fometimes fee those who give no fuch teftimony of their repentance, to die with every whit as much courage, and comfort, and confident perfuafion of their falvation, as those that do. But this, certainly, is not from the Spirit of God: a natural obftinacy and courage may carry men a great way; and falfe and mistaken principles may fill men, for the prefent, with as much comfort and confidence as well-grounded hopes. In the church of Rome, great numbers of those who have led very wicked lives, after a formal confeffion and abfolution, and fome good words of encouragement from the Prieft, die as full of peace and comfort, to all appearance, as the best of

men.

Indeed, it is very natural to men, who find themfelves in a desperate condition, to be ftrangely elevated and raised, upon any hopes given of efcaping fo great a danger as they apprehend themfelves to be in; efpecially if thefe hopes be given them by a grave man, of whofe piety and judgment they have a venerable opiWhen men have the fentence of death in them

nion.

felves, as all wicked livers must have, they are natu-, rally apt to be over-joyed at the unexpected news of a pardon.

To speak my mind freely in this matter, I have no great opinion of that extraordinary comfort and confidence which fome have, upon a fudden repentance for great and flagrant crimes; because I cannot difcern any fufficient ground for it. I think great humility and dejection of mind, and a doubtful apprehenfion of their condition, next almost to defpair of it, would much better become them; because their cafe is really fo very doubtful in itself. There is great reafon for the repentance of fuch perfons, and it becomes them well; but I fee very little reafon for their great comfort and confidence, nor does it become their circumftances and condition. Let them exercife as deep a repentance as is poffible, and bring forth all the fruits meet for it that are poffible in fo fhort a time: let them humble themselves before God, and pray inceffantly to him day and night for mercy; make all the reparation they can, for the injuries they have done, by confeffion, and acknowledgment, and by making fatisfaction to the parties injured, if it be in their power, by giving alms to the poor, by warning others, and endeavouring to reclaim them to a better mind, and course of life; and for the reft humbly to commit themselves to the mercy of God in Jefus Chrift; let them imitate, as near as they can, the behaviour of the penitent thief, the only example the fcripture has left us of a late repentance that proved effectual, who gave the greatest teftimony that could be of a penitent forrow for his fins, and of his faith in the Saviour of the world, by a generous and courageous owning of him in the midft of his difgrace and fuffering, when even his own difciples had denied and forfaken him; but we do not find in him any figns of extraordinary comfort, much lefs of confidence, but he humbly commended himself to the mercy and goodness of his Saviour, faying, Lord, remember me when thou comeft into thy kingdom.

SER

SERMON

The long-fuffering of God.

ECCLES. viii. II.

CLI.

1

Becaufe fentence against an evil work is not executed Speedily, therefore the heart of the fons of men is fully Set in them to do evil.

I

The fecond fermon on this text.

Have confidered how apt men are to abuse the longfuffering of God, to the hardening and encouraging of themselves in fin, and whence this comes to pafs; where I confidered the feveral falfe conclufions which finners draw from the delay of punishment, as if there were no God, or providence, or difference of good and evil; or else, as is more commonly pretended, that fin is not fo great an evil, and that God is not fo highly offended at it, ar that God is not fo fevere as he is reprefented; that the punishment of fin is not fo certain, or, however, it is at a distance, and may be prevented by a future repentance: all which I have spoken fully to, and endeavoured to fhew the fallacy and unreasonablenefs of them. I fhall now proceed to the

III. and last thing I propounded, which was, To anfwer an objection, to which this difcourfe may feem liable; and that is this. If the long-fuffering of God be the occafion of mens hardness and impenitency, then why is God fo patient to finners, when they are so prone to abufe his goodness and patience? And bow is it goodness in God to forbear finners fo long, when this forbearance of his is fo apt to minifter to them an occafion of their farther mifchief and greater ruin? It fhould feem, according to this, that it would be much greater mercy to the greatest part of finners, not to be patient toward them at all; but inftantly, upon the first occafion and provocation, to cut them off, and fo to:

put

put a stop to their wickedness, and to hinder them from making themselves more miferable, by increafing their guilt, and treasuring up wrath to themselves against the day of wrath.

This is the objection; and because it seems to be of fome weight, I'fhall endeavour to return a fatisfactory anfwer to it, in thefe following particulars. And,

1. I ask the finner, if he will stand to this; art thou ferious, and wouldeft thou in good earnest have God to deal thus with thee, to take the very first advantage to destroy thee, or turn thee into hell, and to make thee miferable beyond all hopes of recovery? Confider of it again. Doft thou think it defirable, that God fhould deal thus with thee, and let fly his judgments upon thee fo foon as ever thou haft finned? if not, why do men trifle, and make an objection against the long-fuffering of God, which they would be very loth fhould be made good upon them?

2. It is likewise to be confidered, that the long-fuffering of God toward finners is not a total forbearance: it is ufually fo mixed with afflictions and judgments of one kind or other, upon ourselves or others, as to be a fufficient warning to us, if we would confider and lay it to heart, to fin no more, left a worse thing come upon us; left that judgment, which we faw inflicted upon others, come home to us. And is not this great good-i nefs, to warn us, when he might destroy us? to leave room for a retreat, when he might put our cafe past remedy?

All this time of God's patience, he threatens finners, to awaken them out of their fecurity; he punitheth them gently, that we may have no ground to hope for impunity; he makes examples of fome in a more fevere and remarkable manner, that others may hear, and fear, and be afraid to commit the like fins, left the like punifhment overtakes them; he whips fome offenders before our eyes, to fhew us what fin deferves, and what we alfo may justly expect, if we do the fame thing: and will nothing be a warning to us, but our own fufferings?

Nay, God doth ufually fend fome judgment or other upon every finner in this life; he lets him feel the rod, that he may know that it is an evil and bitter thing to

fin against him. He exercifeth men with many afflictions, and croffes, and difappointments, which their own confciences tell them are the juft recompences of their deeds; and by thefe lighter ftrokes, he gives us a. merciful warning to avoid his heavier blows; when mercy alone will not work upon us and win us, but being fed to the full, we grow wanton and foolish, he adminifters phyfick to us by affliction, and by adverfity endeavours to bring us to confideration and a fober mind; and many have been cured this way, and the judgments of God have done them that good, which his mercies and bleffings could not; for God would fave us any way, by his mercy or by his judgment, by fickness or by health, by plenty or by want, by what we defire, or by what we dread; fo defirous is he of our repentance. and happiness, that he leaves no method unattempted, that may probably do us good; he strikes upon every paffion in the heart of man; he works upon our love by his goodness, upon our hopes by his promifes, and upon our fears, first by his threatenings, and if they be not effectual, then by his judgments; he tries every affection, and takes hold of it, if by any means he may draw us to himself; and will nothing warn us, but what will ruin us, and render our cafe defperate and past hope?

And if any finner be free from outward afflictions and fufferings, yet fin never fails to carry its own punishment along with it; there is a fecret fting and worm, a divine Nemesis and revenge that is bred in the bowels of every fin, and makes it a heavy punishment to itself; the confcience of a finner doth frequently torment him, and his guilt haunts and dogs him where-ever he goes; for, whenever a man commits a known and wilful fin, he drinks down poifon, which, though it may work flowly, yet it will give him many a gripe, and if no means be used to expel it, will deftroy him at last.

So that the long-fuffering of God is wifely ordered, and there is fuch a mixture of judgments in it, as is fufficient to awaken finners, and much more apt to deter them from fin, than to encourage them to go on and continue in it.