pofes and Refolutions, and meer Sorrow and Repentance for not having it. I deny that any Baptifm, or any thing else will fave à Man.

This I fay to prevent an Objection that it would not otherwise be eafie to Answer, which is this, That if the Grace of Baptifm will fend a wicked and unqualified Soul to Heaven by vertue of a meer dying Repentance, without any degrees of Actual Holinefs, without which, the Scripture tells us, no man shall fee the Lord, why may not the Grace of the Eucharift do the fame by the like dying Repentance? Or according to the Roman Principles, the Grace of Penance and Abfolution, or of Extreme Unction, which have all the fame fuperftitious Error at the bottom.

SECT. II.

The Pleas and Pretences on behalf of
Death-Bed Repentance Answered.

Aving fhewed that there is nothing in the cafe of the Thief upon the Crofs to fupport or juftifie the validity and efficacyof a Death-Bed Repentance, I fhall now examine other Pleas and Pretences which are brought for it, and fhew how weak and ungrounded they are, fo that no Man may believe fuch a dangerous and mistaken Doctrine, nor venture his Soul not only upon fuch an uncertain hazard, but fuch a cer

tain danger and inevitable ruine as that will bring upon him, if he prefume upon it and truft to it: I fhall confider and rectifie the common prejudices that are about it which are chiefly thefe following:

First, That at whatfoever time a Sinner repenteth, he fhall find Mercy.

Secondly, That if a Man do fo heartily and fincerely refolve upon a good Life, that God fees if he fhould live he would make this good, then this Will fhall be taken for the Deed.

Thirdly, That God may turn and change a Man's Heart on a fudden.

Fourthly, That by denying the efficacy of a Death-Bed Repentance, we throw Men into defpair, and take away the Arguments that fhould perfuade them then to Repent, and limit God's Mercy, and reftrain his Grace, and the like.

Firft, That Expreffion, Whenfoever, or at what time foever, a Sinner repenteth he shall find mercy. Now this though it be not express and in fo many words in Scripture, and therefore when the words in the Original would not fully bear fuch a Tranflation, Ezek. 18. 21. and fome were offended at it as giv ing too much encouragement to the Doctrine I am oppofing, it was left out of the Sentences beginning our Morning-Prayer, yet if we allow it to be true in the utmost and fulleft fenfe, and there is no great difference between when and whenfoever, or at what time

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foever, yet it no way avails to the maintaining the efficacy of a late or Death-Bed Repentance; for all that a Man can then do, does not come up to true Repentance, fuch a Repentance as has Pardon and Salvation promifed to it by the Terms of the Gospel. A Man may then be very forry for his Sins, and heartily troubled and concerned for them, but this Sorrow alone, were it upon never fo good Reafons, is not Repentance, but that which may bring us to Repentance, as St. Paul fays, Godly forrow worketh Repentance, 2 Cor. 7. 10. and therefore it is not the thing it felf. We may as well fuppofe that feeling the finart of a Wound is healing it, as meer Sorrow for Sin is true Repentance. Few Sinners and few Malefactors but are thus forrowful when they come near the place of Punishment and Exe cution: They are forry they must fuffer for their Sins, and the terrour of their Sufferings makes Sin very bitter to them, but if that were removed, they would love them and commit them perhaps as much as ever. If Sorrow alone for Sin though never fo deep and grievous were true Repentance, then Cain and Judas were as great Penitents as any, and fo will all the damned be to all Eternity, who will thus forrow and thus repent for ever of their Sins, but without any amendment; and they will wifh alfo a thousand times that they had been wifer, and lived better, and had not by their foolish and wicked courfes brought themfelves into fuch

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a miferable and wretched condition, and would God but let them live over their Lives again, oh how much better would they be ! how much otherwife would they live! and how heartily would they purpose and refolve to leave all their Sins and lead a very good Life, would God but give them opportunity and space, and try them once more! This is the language of Sinners both in this World and the next too, when the day of Grace and the time of Tryal is over, when it is too late to do all this which they now with they had done, but would not do it when God gave them time, and fo they have loft the only opportunity which it is impoffible to retrieve. Would God grant either the Sinner that is damned, or the Sinner that is a dying, opportunity to live again, they would both be better perhaps; but fince he does not, he will judge them not according to what they would be but what they have been, not according to what they wish and refolve to do, but what they actually have done, fince the Scripture no where tells us that Men fhall receive according to their Wishes, their Purposes and Refolutions, but according to their Works and Actions, whether they have been good or evil. And therefore,

2ly, I believe there is no ground for that determination which has been often given about a Death-Bed Repentance: that if a Man's Purposes are then fo fincere that he would make them good if he lived, that then they may be fufficient to his Salvation. Had God

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God given him time to make them good, and from a bad Man to have become a good one, which is the only true Notion I know of Repentance, then indeed he had fallen under the promises and the measures of the Gospel, where God has declared Pardon to all Men that Repent and Amend, but no where that I know of to those who only refolve to do fo, though never fo fincerely. And therefore fhould a Man's Purpofes be never fo fincere at that time, which I doubt not but they may be as to the prefent fenfe of his Mind, that is, he may really intend at that time what otherwife could not be properly called a a Purpose or Refolution in him, yet this may may not be afterwards effectual, but may go off as most of the Vows of Sick Men and Ship-wrecked Mariners do when the Sicknefs and the Storm is over, and they are just as they were before when they are well and upon dry Land; for nothing is more eafy and more fudden than to wish and purpose and refolve well, especially when Men are under any great fear or great danger which wholly takes up their Minds, and they confider not fo much the difficulty of performing what they refolve upon, as the neceffity they fee of avoiding the danger that is before them; but when they are got free from that, their Minds and their Purpofes change as well as their Circumstances. But let us allow all that can be fuppofed, that these Purposes of the dying Sinner are not only fincere but would be effectual too, if he lived, which

neither.