Certainly it is very sad,1 saith a worthy Divine, That scoffing at the doctrines of repentance and humiliation, which was wont to be a badge of profaneness, ⟨p. 111⟩should be adopted into religion: The Author tells us a little before, Christ and his appearance were not designed to cause tempests and earthquakes in our minds; without such artificial methods of repentance; saith the Author, our lives may be reformed, and minds rectified; but what saith the Scripture? Our Saviour preached up repentance. S. Paul tells us of a spirit of bondage, going before the spirit of Adoption. S. James would have sinners be afflicted, and mourn, and weep, and to turn their laughter into mourning, and their joy to heaviness, and to humble themselves in the sight of the Lord, that they may be lifted up: And what saith Reason? Sin of all things in the world, calls for sorrow, sorrow was made for sin, if for any thing at all; sin is so intimately in us, that it will not easily come out, being contracted with joy, it must be dissolved with sorrow: The hard heart, unless melted by the fiery Law, will not run into the Gospel-mould; nor will the proud heart, unless bowed down under the weight of sin and wrath, ever stoop under the Divine command; the new creature is not born without pangs, nor the inward Circumcision, which cuts off the dear, ⟨p. 112⟩but corrupt flesh of the heart, done without some anguish; self-judging ushers in justification before God, and despair in our selves a lively hope in our Saviour: On all hands we are summoned to methods of repentance; the groaning Creation shames us into that posture, and the indwelling sin presses us into it; the broken Law calls for a broken heart, and the storm of wrath black in the threatening, for a trembling one; a crucified Christ asks a mourning eye, and an exalted one gives it: Why the Author should call these penitential acts, artifices, or effects of ignorance, or think them unnecessary or improper, under the Gospel, I see no just reason at all for it.
Certainly it is very sad,1 saith a worthy Divine, That scoffing at the doctrines of repentance and humiliation, which was wont to be a badge of prophaness, ⟨p. 111⟩should be adopted into religion: The Author tells us a little before, Christ and his appearance were not designed to cause tempests and earthquakes in our minds; without such artificial methods of repentance; saith the Author, our lives may be reformed, and minds rectified; but what saith the Scripture? Our Saviour preached up repentance. S. Paul tells us of a spirit of bondage, going before the spirit of Adoption. S. James would have sinners be afflicted, and mourn, and weep, and to turn their laughter into mourning, and their joy to heaviness, and to humble themselves in the sight of the Lord, that they may be lifted up: And what saith Reason? Sin of all things in the world, calls for sorrow, sorrow was made for sin, if for any thing at all; sin is so intimately in us, that it will not easily come out, being contracted with joy, it must be dissolved with sorrow: The hard heart, unless melted by the fiery Law, will not run into the Gospel-mould; nor will the proud heart, unless bowed down under the weight of sin and wrath, ever stoop under the Divine command; the new creature is not born without pangs, nor the inward Circumcision, which cuts off the dear, ⟨p. 112⟩but corrupt flesh of the heart, done without some anguish; self-judging ushers in justification before God, and despair in our selves a lively hope in our Saviour: On all hands we are summoned to methods of repentance; the groaning Creation shames us into that posture, and the indwelling sin presses us into it; the broken Law calls for a broken heart, and the storm of wrath black in the threatning, for a trembling one; a crucified Christ asks a mourning eye, and an exalted one gives it: Why the Author should call these penitential acts, artifices, or effects of ignorance, or think them unnecessary or improper, under the Gospel, I see no just reason at all for it.
- 1Answer.
