A29686:551
A cabinet of choice jewels, or, A box of precious ointment being a plain…A cabinet of choice jevvels, or, A box of precious ointment being a plain…
A cabinet of choice jewels, or, A box of precious ointment being a plain discovery of, or, what men are worth for eternity, and how 'tis like to go with them in another world ... / by Thomas Brooks ...A cabinet of choice jevvels, or, A box of precious ointment being a plain discovery of, or, what men are worth for eternity, and how 'tis like to go with them in another world ... / by Thomas Brooks ...
London : Printed and are to be sold by John Hancock ..., 1669
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
The third Answer.
Ans. 3 Thirdly, A true penitential turning is a constant and continued turning from sin.1 As it is total in respect of the act, so it is final in respect of the time. True repentance takes an everlasting farewell, an everlasting adieu of sin; it saith with the Spouse, Cant. 5.3. I have put off my coat, how shall I put it on? I have found the smart of sin, I have put off the garments of the old man, the rags of old Adam, and how shall I put them on again? The burnt child will dread the fire. The man that hath smarted for Suretyship, will by no means be persuaded to come again into bonds, though you urge him to it never so frequently, never so strongly, never so rhetorically, yet he will tell you he has smarted for it, he has paid dear for it, and therefore you must excuse him; he is peremptorily resolved, nay he hath seriously vowed against it; and though he be never so much entreated, and by variety of arguments importuned, yet still he remains inexorable. A Christian that hath truly repented, is so sensible of the freeness and sweetness of the grace of God on the one hand, and of the weight of sin and wrath of God on the other hand, that he is highly resolved never to have any more to do with Idols,2 never to meddle more with those burning coals. True repentance is a continued act, a repentance never to be repented of. The true penitent is every day a turning further and further from sin, and nearer and nearer to God. There is nothing that fetches so many tears from a penitent man's eyes, nor so many sighs and groans from a penitent man's heart as this, that he can get no further off from sin, and that he can get no nearer nor no closer to God. Repentance for sin, and a willing continuance in sin, cannot consist in the same subject. A sincere penitent makes as much conscience of repenting daily, as he doth of believing daily, and he can as easily content himself with one act of faith, or love, or ⟨p. 275⟩