The Doctrine of Repentance

1. It must be a turning from sin with¹ the heart: the heart is the primum vivens, the first thing that lives, and it must be the primum vertens, the first thing that turns. The heart is that the Devil doth most strive for. Never did he so strive for the body of Moses, as he doth for the heart of man: in Religion the heart is all: if the heart be not turned from sin, it is no better than a lye, Jer. 3. 10. Her treacherous Sister Judah, hath not turned to me with the whole heart, but feignedly: or as the Hebrew, in a lye *. Judah did make² a show of Reformation, she was not so ⟨p. 66⟩grossly idolatrous as the ten Tribes; yet, Judah was worse than Israel; she is called treacherous Judah; she pretended to a reformation; but it was not in truth; her heart was not for God; she turned not with the whole heart. 'Tis odious to make a show of turning from sin, yet the heart is in league with it^*. I have read of one of our Saxon Kings who was baptized, that in the same Church he had one Altar for the Christian Religion, another for the Heathen^*. God will have the whole heart turned from sin. True Repentance must have no reserves or inmates.

1. It must be a turning from sin with¹ the heart: the heart is the primum vivens, the first thing that lives, and it must be the primum vertens, the first thing that turns. The heart is that the Devil doth most strive for. Never did he so strive for the body of Moses, as he doth for the heart of man: in Religion the heart is all: if the heart be not turned from sin, it is no better than a lye, Ier. 3. 10. Her treacherous Sister Iudah, hath not turned to me with the whole heart, but feignedly: or as the Hebrew, in a lye *. Iudah did make