You will obferve, that Sinners are here again call'd upon by God, not fimply to Repent, (as Repentance is often understood to mean only the being furry for some evil Thing done, and Refolving to do the fame no more) but to Turn, or Return to God with Faith and Affiance in their Saviour, who had promis'd to Blot out their Sins as from a Bill of Charge brought into Court against them; to Heal the Infirmities and Sickneffes of their Souls; and to Redeem them from Captivity and Bondage. All which are Acts that no Mortal can do for Himfelf. For, what is declar'd concerning Thofe guilty of Idolatry in the Time of the Prophet, is true of all other Sinners when left to Themselves and Their own mere Repentances: Every one that is fo, is Brutih in his Knowledge. Jer. 10. 14. A Man, in this State, does not fo much as know the Way to the Divine Reconciliation, or by what Means He may be Reconcil'd to God: much less has He Ability and Means, in HimSelf, to Reconcile Himfelf to Him; and, therefore, howfoever Men may boaft of their ReaJoning Powers, they are not able by any Reason of theirs, in this Cafe, to help themselves out of any of those Intricacies, which their Sins have Perplext and Intangled them in. Nay, their Sovereign Reafon, with their other Faculties, is Corrupted and Deprav'd, and can only ferve, so often as they truft to It's Guidance, to Mislead them more and more: As God alfo, with a most just Sarcafm on one of these vain Revolters, fays Ifai. 44. 20. He feedeth of Afbes, His Tranfgreffions, like the Apples of Sodom, look look Specious to his Eye, do tempt and allure his Appetite, but turn to Cinders, Duft, and Afbes in his Mouth: For why? A deceived Heart, Reafon perverted and deprav'd, hath turned him afide, so that he cannot deliver his Soul, nor fay, Is there not a Lie in my RightHand? The Meaning is, that he is given up to an Infatuated and Reprobate Mind, ftill to deceive and disappoint Himself, and, with all his affected Talk about the Eternal Reason, Relation, and Fitnefs of Things, to defire and do only those Things that are not Convenient, nor Fit. To every fuch Perfon he fays again by the Prophet Jeremiah, Ch. 2. v. 22. Tho' thou wafh thee with Nitre, and take thee much Sope, yet thine Iniquity is marked before me, faith the Lord God. No Purifications of Man's Contriving can, much less can any Contrivance of Man, without any Purification at all, avail to raze the Ingraven Characters of Man's Tranfgreffion out of the Adamantine Tables of the Omniscient and Almighty. Man can Deftroy, but, without God, can do nothing to Reftore, himself. As the Divine Saviour alfo fays by another Prophet, Hof. 13.9.0 Ifrael, thou haft deftroyed thy felf, but in me is thy Help. To which a few Verfes lower he adds the Manner of this Divine Help without which Man can do Nothing. ----I will ran fom thee, fays he, from the Power of the Grave; I will redeem thee from Death: 0 Death I will be thy Plagues; 0 Grave, I will be thy DeftruЯtion Repentance is hid from mine Eyes: that is, This Course is decreed for the Redemption of Man, and my Purpose concerning it fall B 2 not, not, nay it cannot, be revers'd or chang'd, fo as that any other Method of effecting Man's Salvation, may be fubftituted in the Place of This. But this is more exprefsly declar'd in the New Teftament; where either the fufficiency of Faith without any mention at all of Repentance; or, Repentance with Faith in Our Saviour, are fo mention'd together, as to make it Plain to every Reader, that, without this Faith, Repentance by itself can be of no Avail at all for the Remillion of Sins. For, fo Our Lord in St. Mark, Ch. 16. v. 16. He that believeth, and is Baptized, fhall be faved; but He that believeth not, fhall be damned. And fo he teftifies of himfelf to Nicodemus, Joh. 3. 16. 18. God fo loved the World that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perif, but have everlasting Life. And, He that believeth on him is not condemned; but he that believeth not, is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the Name of the only begotten Son of God. And the fame John the Baptift testifies of him, Joh. 3. 36. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting Life; and he that believeth not the Son, Shall not fee Life, but the Wrath of God abideth on him; that is, He is left to that Deftruction to which both the Corruption of Nature in him, and his own actual Tranfgreffions of every Kind, had confign'd him. Thus alfo to distinguish clearly what it is that gives It's whole Validity to Repentance, our Lord's Commiffion to his Difciples for Planting his Gospel (recorded by St. Luke) was, that Repentance and Remiffion of Sins fhould be Preach'd, Preach'd, How? Not fimply by Themselves, but in his Name; that is, through Faith in his Name, among all Nations. And, accordingly St. Peter, at the firft Execution of this Commiffion, Preaches in the Text---Repent, and be Baptized every one of you, in the Name of Jefus Chrift, for the Remiffion of Sins. The Grant of Remiffion of Sins was to go out in the Name of Fefus Chrift, and was to take Effect by Virtue of that Name, and not otherwise. So, the fame Apostle, in another Place, with Allufion to the Words of the Prophet above-cited, fays, ---Repent, and be Converted, that your Sins may be blotted out, when the times of Refreshing, (Gr. avalúžews, of Refpiration, literally, of Reftoring the Breath of Life to the Animal Frame) from the Prefence of the Lord, fhall come. Acts 3. 19. So St. Paul tells his Hearers at Ephefus, that---He had kept back from them Nothing of the Doctrine that was profitable for them to know, having teftified to the Jews and alfo to the Greeks thefe two neceffary Points, viz. Repentance towards God, and Faith towards our Lord Jefus Chrift. Acts 20. 20, 21. Repentance and Faith you fee were to proceed with that Agreement, and with thefe Respects; even with a CONVERSION or TURNING to God through Faith at the fame Time towards our Lord Jefus Chrift: Here is no place left for Simple Repentance, Repentance without that Converfion to the Deity and without that Faith towards our Lord Jefus Chrift. Even the Baptifm of John, the Fore-runner of our Lord, though it was by way of Eminence and with Diftinction ; Diftinction call'd The Baptifm of Repentance, yet was not the fame Preach'd by him fimply, and in feverance from that Faith in our Lord Jefus Christ, even then when our Lord was not yet Manifefted to Ifrael: For fo St. Paul said to fome that had been Baptized only with the said Baptism of John.---John verily Baptized with the Baptifm of Repentance, but withal admonishing Thofe whom he fo Baptized, that they should believe on Him who fhould come after him that is, on Chrift Jefus; even to this End and Purpose, that, being Baptized again in His Name, they might receive the Holy Ghoft. Hence we fee clearly, that the Baptism of Repentance by Itself was not fufficient: For what Reafon plainly for this, that Repentance Itself is not fufficient by Itfelf to Reconcile Men to God: And fo we find the Perfons to whom St. Paul fpoke This, took it; For the Sacred Hiftorian tells us, that----When they heard this, they were accordingly Baptized, in the Name of the Lord Fefus. Acts 19.4, 5. Moreover, that there is fome other Ingredient In, and With Repentance, that gives to Repentance it's whole Value and Acceptableness, is clear from hence, that even Repentance itself in the New Teftament, to make it Efficacious, is not allowed to be our own mere Act; but is, in many Places, by way of Eminence also call'd ---The GRANT, or GIFT of God. Thus when St. Peter, in his Apology to the Disciples, had inform'd them, How the Gentiles alfo by his Preaching bad received the Holy Ghost; they all glorified God, faying, then hath God alfo to the Gentiles |