Religion our true interest, or, Practical notes upon the third chapter of Malachi the…Religion our true interest, or, Practical notes upon the third chapter of Malachy the…

1. The Heart is ready to deceive with a false repentance. A Sinner is troubled a little for Sin, or rather, the consequent of it, and perhaps sheds a few tears, and now his Heart sooths him up that he is a true Penitent. But every legal terror is not Repentance, Acts 2.37. They were pricked in their Heart: yet after this, Peter said unto them Repent, ver. 38. If every slight Trouble for sin were true Repentance, then Judas and Cain may be listed in the number of penitents. Evangelical Repentance works a change of Heart, 1 Cor. 6.11. It produceth Sanctity. But the false penitentiary, though he hath trouble of Spirit, yet no Metamorphosis or change. He hath a weeping Eye, but an adulterous Heart. Ahab Fasts and puts on sack-cloth, but after this, he puts the Prophet Micaiah in Prison, 1 Kin. 22.27.

1. The Heart is ready to deceive with a false repentance. A Sinner is troubled a little for Sin, or rather, the consequent of it, and perhaps sheds a few tears, and now his Heart sooths him up that he is a true Penitent. But every legal terrour is not Repentance, Acts 2.37. They were pricked in their Heart: yet after this, Peter said unto them Repent, ver. 38. If every slight Trouble for sin were true Repentance, then Iudas and Cain may be listed in the number of penitents. Evangelical Repentance works a change of Heart, 1 Cor. 6.11. It produceth Sanctity. But the false penitentiary, though he hath trouble of Spirit, yet no Metamorphise or change. He hath a weeping Eye, but an adulterous Heart. Ahab Fasts and puts on sack-cloth, but after this, he puts the Prophet Micaiah in Prison, 1 Kin. 22.27.