: I SERMON III. ACTS II. 38. Repent, and be Baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus Chrift, for the Remission of Sins, and ye shall receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost e Shew'd you in my Last, that God is our nor with the Respects which our Adverfaries have set forth; That, in this our Fallen State, He is not properly our Father by the Act of Creating or Forming, but by that of Redeeming us; that He is also by Virtue of these Relations our Lord and King: And, confequently, has far other Rights in us than barely to claim some Abstracted, Moral, Duties, from us; that we have Committed, and may again Commit, Treason directly against Him, and so may make Forfeiture of Estates, Honours, Liberty, and Lives; and so must be Responsible to Him, not only in Regard of those Moral Duties to Men, our Brethren, but also of that Treason : Treason against His Divine Majesty; And, therefore again, cannot Hope to be Restor'd from those Forfeitures and Penalties, by Repentance only in Respect of such Moral Duties, nor indeed by Simple Repentance in any Respect; but must be Restored and fet Right with Regard of that Treason and those Penalties and Forfeitures, by a Saviour; so that Repentance, to gain the Divine Pardon and Forgiveness to Sinners, must be with Faith in that Restoration; otherwise Sinners cannot Attain to the Divine Pardon and Forgiveness at all. To these I added other Proofs relating to Moral Duties, viz. Supposing these to be the Chief Points, it would not thence follow, that Undoing as far as in Men lies by Repentance what they have done Wrong, must make them the proper Objects of God's Pardon and Forgiveness; there being many Crimes of this Species which no Repentance can Undo at all, because no Amends can be made for them to the Injured Party; in Justice to whom, therefore, Punishment must be Inflicted on the Injurious by God Himself; who, as the Common Father of Both, must see Justice Impartially Dispensed betwixt them: Add to this, that there are some Crimes so Heinous, that no Adequate Punishment can be found for them in This World, and therefore must they be reserved for Punishment in Another; Nay, that there is in Strictness, as these Men State the Case, no Crime injurious to Another, for which the Perpetrator has not made full Compensation in this World, but the Same must be Punish'd, nish'd, as aforesaid, in the Next; I mean, if there be not fome Law or Method of Compenfation found for them, other than that of Undoing them by that Simple Repentance Imagin'd by these Men. So far Short is mere Repentance from being a Ballance for All Crimes by which Injuries and Wrongs are done, that if God, I say, be but the Common Father of all His Creatures, and no more, it can be Such for None: Because He is as much concerned in Justice to His Injured Children, to Punish those that Hurt them, as He can be in Mercy to Favour the Injurious for any Repentances of theirs; So that here must be an Eternal Difunion and Chasm betwixt the Divine Attributes, which no Schemes of Men can ever Fill Up, or Reconcile together. But, Leaving the Consequences of fuch Suppofitions as this Above, I shewed you further, that we are by Nature Actually in the fore-mentioned State of Treason against God Himself, and of Forfeiture on Account of that Treason, and do, by every Sin committed after Grace given, in some Meafure again incur the fame; And, therefore also, do want to be fuftified or fet Right in Court, to be Ranfomed and Redeemed, by that Divine Saviour who undertook Fully to Satisfy, and Powerfully to Intercede, for us; so that, were it in our Power to Repent at Pleasure, yet Repentance without Faith to Apply that Satisfaction, that Ranfom and Redemption, would be of no Avail at all towards Obtaining the Divine Favour and Forgiveness: But neither is Repentance Itself in H our our Power; I mean, Repentance, as it must be supposed to be with the Changing or Rectifying of our Hearts and Minds: For that, being also Depraved and Ruined in the Faculties and Powers of our Minds, as well as in our Bodily Appetites, we can but have a faint Defire and Wish to Change and Rectify our Minds, but cannot truly Change and Rectify them at Pleasure : We want the Operation of the Holy Ghost besides, to Sanctify our Hearts, with Grace Powerfully to Move and Affift us, else can we only Defire and Wish, as above, but never can Perform the least Article of this Change for ourselves. And, confequently, there being no such Thing as that Voluntary Self-fufficient Repentance, which our Adversaries so much take upon them to Extol, fuch Repentance cannot be the Mean and Instrument whereby to Obtain the Divine Pardon and Forgiveness to Sinners; but Faith in a Saviour, with the Co-operation of the Holy Ghost, is absolutely Necessary hereto, and without These No Pardon, No Forgiveness. I come now to draw some Inferences from the Whole, and to Conclude. And, First, If Man has no Power in Himself to Change and Rectify His Mind at Pleasure (without which no Repentance is to be suppos'd) but wants the Operation and Influence of the Holy Ghost, to Change and Rectify It; then each Man, to be rendered Acceptable to the Deity, is not, as has been presumed what He is in Himself; but is what He is Made by that Divine Divine Change. Nay the Holy Scriptures both of the Old Testament and the Nem, are express that we are in Reality fo far from being All in All of Ourselves; that, considered in Ourfelves, They inform us we are absolutely Nothing, yea, less and worse than Nothing and Vanity. Ifai. 40. 17.--- For that, in us, that is, in our Flesh, or Nature, there dwelleth no good thing. Rom. 7. 18.----That all our very Righteousness are filthy Rags. Ifai. 64. 6.----And All, both Jews and Gentiles, have Sinned, and do come short of the Glory of God, being justified freely, not by their own Repentances and Works, but by His Free Grace in Chrift Jesus, whom God hath fet forth to be, what only can supply all our Defects, even a Propitiation for our Sins, through Faith in His Blood, for the Remiffion, or Palfing over, of Transgressions, by the Forbearance of God. Rom. 3. 23, 24, 25. But, Neither can we effectually apply this Propitiation without the Influence, I say, of the Holy Ghoft at the fame time Changing and Rectifying our Hearts and Minds, that so God (who is of purer Eyes than to behold Iniquity) may find nothing Foul or Polluted in us, to make Him to Abhor and Reject us, And so the Apostle tells us,---But ye are Washed, but ye are Sanctified, but ye are Fustified, in the Name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. 1 Cor. 6. 11.----The Same Spirit, He also says, helpeth our Infirmities; for we know not so much as what to Pray for as we ought; but the Spirit itself maketh Intercession for Us with groanings that cannot be uttered, or expressed, by Ourfelves: H2 |