A discourse of the true nature of the Gospel demonstrating that it is no…

Thus it is sufficiently proved, that Sinners were by the Moral Law obliged to own their Sins with the most bewailing Expressions of Grief, tho that Law gave them no Encouragement and Hope; and that Adam after his Fall was engaged to this Sorrow and Contrition, before any promise of Pardon and Acceptance tendered. If we now consider the other and chiefest part of Repentance, it will be evident that this was not only required of the Father of Mankind fallen, but that it was his Duty, and what he practised in all the time of his Innocence and flourishing Condition: For what is Repentance mainly, but an hearty abhorrence of Sin, joined with a most careful Avoidance of it, and a most firm Resolution against it? Now this was as surely in Adam, when continuing the same upright Creature which God had made him, as it is certain that then he was holy, Holiness and hatred of Sin being altogether inseparable; and therefore unless we will suppose our first Father to have been unholy in his original Being, we must not doubt of his daily acting of this principal and most considerable part of Repentance. I call it so, because it is that which to bring forth the other is appointed: for we are not commanded to mourn, and to bewail our Follies and Miscarriages, merely for the sake of vexing and tormenting our selves, or as if by the inward Anguish of our Souls, we were to do Penance to pacify a displeased God; but all this trouble of Mind for Sin, is intended and required to embitter it to us, and to render us vile in our own Eyes, and to throw us humbled before the Throne of Grace. For tho we are Sinners, and poor and miserable, yet we are naturally proud, and therefore a Sense of our Sin and Misery is requisite to bring down our haughty Spirits; tho we also daily feel the dismal Mischiefs of Sin, yet our depraved Natures render us too prone, and readily inclined unto it; and therefore a piercing Sorrow is necessary to bring us to that true Repentance of which I am speaking, which consists in hating Sin, and turning from it. It is but needful that an aching Wound make us sensible of the malignant Mischief of Sin, to render it the Object of our highest Aversion. Well then, it is hatred of Sin, and an hearty resistance of it, which is the last and chiefest Act of Repentance, since our Sorrow is designed only to produce this Effect, and so after all to hate Sin;

Thus it is sufficiently prov'd, that Sinners were by the Moral Law oblig'd to own their Sins with the most bewailing Expressions of Grief, tho that Law gave them no Encouragement and Hope; and that Adam after his Fall was engag'd to this Sorrow and Contrition, before any promise of Pardon and Acceptance tendred. If we now consider the other and chiefest part of Repentance, it will be evident that this was not only requir'd of the Father of Mankind fallen, but that it was his Duty, and what he practis'd in all the time of his Innocence and flourishing Condition: For what is Repentance mainly, but an hearty abhorrence of Sin, join'd with a most careful Avoidance of it, and a most firm Resolution against it? Now this was as surely in Adam, when continuing the same upright Creature which God had made him, as it is certain that then he was holy, Holiness and hatred of Sin being altogether inseparable; and therefore unless we will suppose our first Father to have been unholy in his original Being, we must not doubt of his daily acting of this principal and most considerable part of Repentance. I call it so, because it is that which to bring forth the other is appointed: for we are not commanded to mourn, and to bewail our Follies and Miscarriages, meerly for the sake of vexing and tormenting our selves, or as if by the inward Anguish of our Souls, we were to do Penance to pacify a displeased God; but all this trouble of Mind for Sin, is intended and requir'd to imbitter it to us, and to render us vile in our own Eyes, and to throw us humbled before the Throne of Grace. For tho we are Sinners, and poor and miserable, yet we are naturally proud, and therefore a Sense of our Sin and Misery is requisite to bring down our haughty Spirits; tho we also daily feel the dismal Mischiefs of Sin, yet our deprav'd Natures render us too prone, and readily inclin'd unto it; and therefore a piercing Sorrow is necessary to bring us to that true Repentance of which I am speaking, which consists in hating Sin, and turning from it. It is but needful that an aking Wound make us sensible of the malignant Mischief of Sin, to render it the Object of our highest Aversion. Well then, it is hatred of Sin, and an hearty resistance of it, which is the last and chiefest Act of Repentance, since our Sorrow is design'd only to produce this Effect, and so after all to hate Sin;