the Form and meer outfide of Repent

ance.

IN this later rank I place those who suffer repentance to pass no farther than their Frontiers, and Outworks; affign it its quarters in the fuperficies of the man, the Face, or Tongue, or Gefture; but if it attempt to penetrate any deeper, if it fend but one ferious thought to alarm the heart, then like the Edomites against Ifrael, Num. 20. all the forces are mustered to impede its paffage; fuch formal Penitents as these all ages have produc't. Chrift tells of those who diffigured their faces, Mat. 6. 16. put on as it were a vizard only to act this part: and Efay 58. 5. long before defcribes 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 fad or whining tone, makes up, 'tis to be fear'd, the fum of many mens Humiliations. Nay as the world has of late gone, that alone were but a modest pretence: fuch theatrical forms ftickle hard for the prize, not of that one part but of all religion: a diftorted countenance is made the Mark of an upright heart, and none is thought to speak the Language of Canaan, that dreffes it not in an uncooth found: and then what wonder is it that they are impatient others fhould worShip God, as David invites, in the beauty, while themselves chufe to do it in the Deformity of boliness.

BUT

BUT others make fomewhat a fairer advance towards repentance, by taking in fome of thofe things which are indeed its neceffary concomitants; of this kind is in the first place confeßion of Sin: and this after fome fort is ftuck at by few; no man who hath not herded himself with the worst fort of Fanaticks, imagines himself finless, or pretends to be thought fo by others, but will very readily acknowledge to all the world that he is a finner and as to men, fo efpecially and more folemnly to God. Every man that but offers at praying at all, thinks confeffion a neceffary Branch of his devotion: all publick forms have ever carried that in the front, as fuppofing it the most principal, univerfal, and daily requifite to the lapfing state of humane corruption: And perhaps 'tis the general innate perfwafion of this, that hath fecur'd that part of our Liturgy, from those impertinent cavils, which have particularly aim'd at most other members of it. And I fuppofe this is as frequent in the Clofet as in the Church: the only fear is, that there it is as loose and general too: that thofe private and particular guilts which are neither fit nor poffible to be diftinctly inferted in publick, do many times lofe their place even in private Confeffions alfo. The fhortnefs and the cafe of general forms being very likely to recommend them to those whofe numerous fins threaten too great a length, and whose confus'd fnarl'd confciences render it difficult, thus to pull out thread by thread: but where Sins are thus moulded up in a

lump,

lump, they will like great maffes of Pills or confections keep the more undecay'd, retain more of their ftrength and vigor. So that fuch Confeffions are very indulgent to Satans intereft, who fears not the impreffions that can be made upon him,while his body remains entire: the great execution then beginning when 'tis broken and scatter'd, and each fin is fingled out for a particular purfuit: and where that is not attempted, the war can never be fuccefsful, nor thought in earneft.

BUT fuppofe this be done; and by exact enumeration, each fin is parted from its fellows, as when a conqueror purfues 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 fins with milder purpose towards them than utter excifion, he makes no approach towards the effential part of Repentance. He may bring out large Catalogues of his fins, and call them confessions; but he may better exprefs his own fenfe, if he term them rather inventories of his goods, for fuch 'tis apparent he reckons them, whileft he refolves to keep them. Indeed there is not a more abfurd piece of Pageantry, than thefe formal Confeffions, and fuch as fhews how little, God is confider'd in his great Attribute the fearcher of hearts. 'Tis certain no man would hope to attone an offended fuperior, by a fubmifs acknowledgment of his fault, did he know that his purpose of reiterating it were difcern'd:

difcern'd: and what a tacite blafphemy is it then, to treat God at fuch a rate as prefumes him as deceivable as a poor Mortal; and fure this were a ftrange Ingredient in repentance. We look on it as a high pitch of impiety boastingly to avow our fins, and it deferves to be confider'd whether this kind of confeffing them have not fome affinity with it. Should I tell a man I have injur❜d and provok'd you thus and thus, and fo I refolve to do again at the next opportunity: I refer it to common conftruction, whether this were not to juftifie, not retract the unkindness. Now what I fuppofe thus faid to man, is in the fecret purpofe of our heart, no lefs articulately spoken to God, who needs not our words to difcern our meaning. Therefore whoever intends to repeat his fins, nay does not seriously intend to forfake them, does in truth maintain and defend his vi cious practice, how loudly foever his Tongue accufes it. And fuch clamors are but like the feigned Quarrels of combin'd cheats, in order to delude fome third perfon. But alass, the scene is here unluckily laid, for God will not be mock'd, nor will the Mercy promis'd to him that confeffeth and forfaketh, ever reach him that confeffeth and retaineth. Confeffion is no farther acceptable than as it either flows from, or tends to beget an abhorrence of Sin, and abstracted from thofe qualifications it becomes loathfome and diftafteful to God. Alafs, can we think our Hiftorical vein fo pleafant, that he fhall be delighted with the narrative of those crimes, whose

perpe

perpetration he detefted. Can it be Incenfe in his noftrils, to have our Dunghils difplayed? or can his pure eyes be gratified with fuch polluted profpects? True indeed, he gladly defcends to all this as a Physician; naufeats not our fouleft. ulcers, when we bring them for cure: but when like beggars we make them openly our form of addrefs, and dread nothing more than their healing; cerrainly their View will only excite his indignation, not his pity. And this, 'tis to be fear'd abodes fadly to many of us, 'tis our vulgar Objection to the Romanift, that they make their confeffions contributive rather to their confidence than to their reforma ion: what their fhare is in that guilt, I fhall not here examine, but I may too truly pronounce they have not enclos'd it, that black circle of Sin and confefs, Confefs and fin, encompaffes as well Proteftants as Papifts; if poffibly not quite fo many, the cause 'tis doubtful is (what we need not boaft) not that More of us confefs aright, but that Fewer confefs at all. But of thofe that do, if we may but cross, examine, and interrogate their actions against their words, thefe will foon confefs (and that not auricularly, but in a loud and audible voice) the invalidity of their folemneft Confeffions. When we fee a man that yesterday kept a Humiliation, to day trampling on the necks, invading the poffeffions of his Brethren, we need no other proof how vainly and unprofitably, if not how hypocritically and provokingly, he confeffed his Pride, or Covetoufnefs; and the like L

we