generation, or new and fecond Birth; whereby we are understood to be again Reftored to that Integrity in our Souls from which we were Fallen, even to Spiritual Life, Motion, Senfe, Reafon &c. And,

This can be no more in our Own Power than our firft Formation and Birth were; but must be an Act of the Deity Rectifying our Minds, without any other Act of our own, than that of Willing and Thankful Acceptance. For which Reason alfo our Part in this Act is called Receiving the Spirit: being called to the Gospel; Accepting the Gospel, &c. And, therefore a gain, Simple Repentance is by no means All that we want, but Repentance together with thefe Helps and Means by Chrift Jefus; As the Apostle in a Multitude of Places is exprefs. What He fays to the Romans, Ch. 5. v. 18. comes particularly up to this Point, As by the Offence of one, Fudgment came upon all Men to Condemnation; even fo by the Righteousness of one the free Gift came upon all (that are born again in Chrift Fefus) unto Fuftification of Life. Confer Rom. 4. 8. and Galat. 3. 22. and 1 Pet. 1. 2, 3. In a Word,

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I

The Repentance taught in the Holy Scriptures therefore, cannot be without Faith in the Merits of our Redeemer; Neither is it in our own Power of ourselves to Repent Effectually: But this must be the Gift of God, by the Renewing of the Holy Ghoft, with Sacramental Purification by Water; Or, (when we have at any time fallen into Sins after Baptifm) with Application of the Body and Blood of Chrift to us, for

the

the Remiffion of our Sins, by the Sacrament of the Eucharift. And, whatsoever Repentance any Man, in his Ignorance or Perverseness, may Dream or Talk of, deftitute of this Faith, and of the Divine Affiftance by Thofe Means; It is all a falfe and fuppofititious, a mangled and defective Bufinefs; It is no true and intire Repentance. Indeed,

;

Repentance in Sacred Scripture is sometimes treated of by itself, and without any express Mention, at the fame Time, of Redemption by Chrift, or of Faith in that Redemption; and fome Parables in the Gospels feem to have been delivered by our Lord in Commendation peculiarly of this Virtue or Grace of Repentance. Whence Adverfaries do infer, that Repentance is fufficient by Itfelf to Reconcile us to God as also, that the Doctrine of fuch Repentance is in a peculiar Manner the Gofpel of Chrift, &c. But, it follows not; For, the Things deliver'd by our Lord during His Prophetic Miniftry on Earth, and Recorded by the Evangelifts, were many of them, Preparatory to the fuller Manifeftation of His Kingdom after the Descent of the Holy Ghoft; and therefore were not fo clearly and fully Explained by our Lord Himfelf Then, but remained to be more clearly and compleatly Revealed after that great Event. And, among the Points treated of by our Lord, thus Succindly and in that Preparatory Way, in the Evangelifts, perhaps that of Repentance may be one: And therefore, upon this as well as feveral other Points, we are to look for the True Gospel of Jefus Chrift as fully Revealed,

not

not in the Books of the Four Evangelifts only, but in the following Writings of the New Teftament taken together with the faid Books. Nevertheless, even those Discourses and Parables of our Lord recorded by the Evangelifts, (befides feveral Plain Sayings on this Head) are none of them without a Mixture of fome of thofe Expreffions by Tampering Imaginers called Figurative, which do ftill Allude and Refer to the Redemption by Chrift: So that the Doctrine of that Redemption is faved even in Those Discourses and Parables. To which we may add, that such Parables and Difcourfes in the Evangelifts, are but Few in Comparison; do not touch this Doctrine of Repentance, but Occafionally; are intended chiefly to Expose the great Corruption of the Jews with refpect of Chrift; and there are Multitudes of Places, I fay, in the other Scriptures befides, all of equal Authority with the Former; in which Places the Whole of Man's Pardon of Sins with God is exprefsly put upon the Redemption by Chrift alone: For which Reasons, whatsoever is otherwise, in fome particular Places, faid of Repentance, the Same must be ftill fuppofed to be faid of it, as in Conjunction with Faith, in that Redemption, and not otherwise as aforefaid: The true Gospel-Repentance being indeed a Complex and mixt Virtue, of no Efficacy or Avail at all without Faith, which is every where Understood with it; Both going together to make up that Difpofition or Qualification in Man, which is Neceffary to every one of us for Acceptance with our Maker, even as finful Crea

tures

tures that were cut off from, and wanted to be Reconciled and Re-united to Him. Yet neither is this all, But,

I

Though Faith and Repentance are so neceffary together, to procure us Acceptance with God; yet, fuppofing any Severance to be made betwixt them, there is then, in Point of Application, and fo in Point of Value, a great Difference: Faith hath then the Preference every Way. It is that alone, which, (as to our Act,) fhall be reckoned to us (even as to the Father of the Faithful of Old it was) for Righteousness. The Reason is given by St. Paul, and is plain to the common Sense of all Chriftians, viz. that We are not our own, but are bought with the Price of Chrift's Blood. 1 Cor. 6. 19. Confer 1 Pet. 1. 19. and, confequently, have no Part (but that of ufing our Diligence) in effecting our own Salvation, which is wholly the Act of the Divine Perfons, and of the Man Chrift Fefus, and Their free Gift: And, therefore (all vain Boafting of ourselves apart) is to be Render'd and Afcrib'd to God, with a Faithful and Free Confeffion. As the Apostle also hath expreffed---By Grace are ye faved through Faith, and that not of your felves; it is the Gift of God; not of Works, left any Man fhould Boaft. Eph. 2. 8. To put it otherwife, to fuppofe our Salvation not to be the mere Gift of God, but to be in fome Respect, the Fruit and Merit of our own Performances and Works, is to Sacrifice to our own Pride and Folly, and to turn the Acknowledgment of our Debt to God for our Deliverance, into an Impious and Vain-glorious

Challenge

Challenge of an Obligation and Debt due from God to Our felves for our pretended Services and Merits to Him: Which, as it is to the laft Degree Unfcriptural and Profane, fo I hope the Mention of it will not be heard among Chriftians without due Refentment and Abhorrence. For,

If this abominable Boast of Self takes Place, and Faith in the Satisfaction of Chrift be fet afide, there is an End of all Religion, even of that which they call Natural, as well as of that which is Conformed to Revelation. For if Man's Simple Repentance can do his whole Work, he needs no Helps from Above; And, confequently, is not bound to any Acknowledgments; and confequently again, is under no Obligation to Pray, or indeed to Perform any Act of Worship, Private, or Publick. This, I fay, must hold throughout; because, when Men are once gone thus far, when they have difcarded the Divine Influence and Affiftance in Spirituals, they will foon advance the other remaining Step farther, (after the Example of many of their Brother-Philofophers of Older and Later Times) to discard alfo His Providence in Temporals, at least, so as to drop all Religious Acknowledgments of it; and fo will bring Themselves to live in all Respects, Literally, as the Apoftle expreffes it, without God in the World. And,

What Wonder! This being in Effect the very Original Temptation reviv'd, nay, and that under a worse and more deformed Shape. God had then faid, Ye shall not Eat, and if

ye