gift. (Prov. x. 22.) Do you therefore sit still, and fold your hands in your bosom, and say you must tarry till God give you an estate? Or do you not rather engage in some honest calling or trade, as the ordinary way [which] God is wont to bless to that end? "The diligent hand maketh rich." (Prov. x. 4.) And why do you not do so here too? If you will go on in sin, and say you wait till God give you repentance, you may wait long enough; when, every day you continue in sin, so much the farther off from repentance you are, and so much the more you provoke God to deny it you.

CONCLUSION.

To conclude: take heed especially of those things which are the ordinary hinderances of a timely repentance.

First. Wrong notions of repentance.

1. That it is an easy thing, and so may be done at any time.-That it is but sorrowing for sin, and crying "God-mercy" for having offended him. This prevails with too many that know not wherein the nature of it consists. Remember therefore that it is no easy thing to get a thorough change wrought in your hearts; to divorce your lusts to which you have been so long wedded; to part with those sins you love best, and engage in those ways of strict holiness which of all things in the world you hate most. The "old man" will fight hard ere he die. The flesh will never yield, and hardly be overcome. And if ever God work repentance to you, he will so work it as to make you work at it too, and labour after it, his grace using and employing your faculties. And what can you ever do either in seeking repentance before the infusion of the grace, or exercising it when infused, but you will find sin opposing you in it, and so creating difficulties in your work?

2. That it is a sour and an unpleasant thing, made up of sorrow, and sadness, and unquietness of spirit.-They know no delights but sensual ones; and think, if they part with the pleasure of sin, they part with the comfort of their lives. Do not therefore look merely on the dark side of repentance, or what may make it seem uneasy to you; look through it, and you will find that which will make it more pleasant. In the very sorrow you fear, if it be right, that is, godly sorrow, there will be such a mixture of love, as will make it in a good measure delightful to you. If it seem painful to you to strive against sin, and there be trouble in the combat; yet when you prevail over it, you will find comfort in the victory. You will be more pleased with having denied yourselves, than you could with having gratified yourselves. Our Saviour's promise, "Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted," (Matt. v. 4,) one would think, should reconcile you not only to any seeming trouble in the work of repentance, but to all the greatest difficulties and severities of the most strict and mortified life. If indeed your repentance be merely legal, proceeding from fear of wrath, or Popish, for the expiation of your sins, I grant, may be a sad and unpleasant thing; but if it be a true Protestant

it

repentance, that is, an evangelical one, mixed with love to God, and proceeding from the faith of free grace and remission of sins through the blood of Christ, it need not be such a scarecrow to you as to make you hazard your salvation by shifting your duty.

Secondly. Presumptuous thoughts of God's mercy.-That God may be merciful to them, and give them repentance, and pardon their sins, at the very last. Consider therefore :

1. As merciful as God is, yet his will sets bounds even to that infinite mercy as to the actings and outgoings of it, and beyond those bounds it will never pass.-There is a time, a day, a now of grace, which when it is once over, no mercy will be shown you. Offers of mercy, invitations made to sinners, and the acceptation of them, are but for a time. The door is open but for a time; and when that is past, it will be "shut ;" (Matt. xxv. 10;) and all your calling and knocking will never prevail with God for the opening of it again. And what then shall you be the better, the nearer repentance, or nearer pardon, for all that ocean of mercy that is in God, if you seek it too late, and when he will not let out one drop of it to you?

2. God's justice is as great as his mercy.-All his attributes are alike infinite; one doth not overtop the other. And then if you delay and put-off repenting to your latter end, why may you not as reasonably fear lest he should in justice punish you for your long impenitency, as [expect that he will] in mercy give you repentance?

SERMON X.

BY THE REV. THOMAS WOODCOCK, A.M.

SOMETIME FELLOW OF JESUS-COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.

HOW DOTH PRACTICAL GODLINESS BETTER RECTIFY THE JUDGMENT THAN DOUBTFUL DISPUTATIONS?

Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations.-Romans xiv. 1.

THIS epistle to the Romans is an epitome or body of divinity, containing faith and love in Christ Jesus; from which Rome degenerating, hath separated from herself and the scriptures of truth, the only grand charter of all Christianity.

In the beginning of the epistle the apostle discourseth about original sin, as having infected the whole nature of man with its guilt and filth, both Jews and Gentiles, all become abominable, fallen "short of the glory" and image "of God." (Rom. iii. 23.) For "by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin: and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." (Rom. v. 12.) Whence he inferreth, there is no possibility of our justification by the works either of the ceremonial or moral law; so that he concludeth a necessity of our being "justified by faith without the works of the law," (chap. iii. 28,) "through the redemption of Christ Jesus." (Verse 24.) But though we are "justified freely by his grace," yet we are not to live freely and licentiously in sin because grace abounds: "God forbid; " (chap. vi. 1, 2;) for holiness is inseparably entailed on our "most holy faith." (Jude 20.) Then he proceedeth to show the privileges of the adopted children of God;-that "there is no condemnation" due "to them; for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made them free from the law of sin and death; and that they are "heirs of God;" (Rom. viii. 1, 2, 17;) which is more than all the world;-till he arriveth at the head-spring of all grace, and that is eternal election, (chap. ix.,) without any foresight of faith or works. But as in time he chose first the Jews, rejecting them he chose the Gentiles, without any view of merit or eligibility in either of them before others; for the Jews were the smallest and meanest of all nations, (Deut. vii. 7,) and the Gentiles all overrun with idolatry and profaneness. Yet this conversion of the Gentiles was foreknown and therefore forewilled of God "from the beginning." (Acts xv. 18.) After these sublimer doctrines, he descends (Rom. xii.) to practical duties; and he who will understand the first eleven chapters of the epistle to the Romans, must practise the last five be acquainted with the mysterious duties of love, and then you will better understand the mysteries of faith.

In chapter xiii. 8, he exhorteth them to "owe nobody any thing but love" be in nobody's debt, yet owe every one love; a debt always to be paying, and yet always owing, yet still abiding our proper treasure.

This fourteenth chapter is a branch of some particular duties of love, and this verse is the sum of this whole chapter of charity; which words are said to have occasioned the conversion or confirmation of Alipius, as the foregoing words were of Augustine's: such is the authority and energy of the naked word of God upon the consciences of men, in the day of Christ's power. And the naked sword cuts better than when it is sheathed in a gaudy scabbard of the "enticing words of man's wisdom." (1 Cor. ii. 4.)

The apostles were frequently exercised with difficulties, how to compose the differences among Christians; the Jewish converts were eager to bring their circumcision, with their observation of times and meats, along with them into Christianity. (Gal. iv. 10.) The Gentiles were not accustomed to these things, and therefore opposed them; yet were as ready to bring a tang of their own old errors with them also; as their "doctrine of demons," (1 Tim. iv. 1,) and their “worshipping of angels," (Col. ii. 18,) and probably some of their heathenish festivals and customs. So that both parties were in an error, and neither of them fully understood that liberty [which] Christ had brought to them from these "beggarly elements," rudiments, and ordinances to which they were "in bondage." (Gal. iv. 9.) For if God saw good to free his church from those ceremonies which were instituted by himself, he would never allow them to be in a slavish subjection to the superstitions and ceremonies of worldly men's inventions, though never so dogmatically and magisterially imposed. For, as learned Davenant, on that, Col. ii. 18, observes, such injunctions are apt to grow upon men; forbidding first not to "touch" or eat such and such meats, then not to "taste," after not so much as to "handle" them. (Col. ii. 21.)

Now, to compose these differences, the apostles met at Jerusalem; (Acts xv. 2;) where they made no positive injunctions for the Christians to practise any ceremonies or observations of either party against their consciences, but limited the exercise of their liberty which they truly had by the gospel; but [advised] that they should “abstain from fornication," (which to explain is too great a digression,) “blood, things strangled," and what was " offered to idols." (Verses 20, 23.) These they would have them to avoid, that they may not offend those weak Jews who could not suddenly concoct these practices, till judgment should be brought to victory over these feeble fancies. And they laid this also as a burden on them for a time, till they could be brought to better understanding; and all this by way of advice from the apostles, elders, and the whole church; (verse 22;) their letter also was read to the whole multitude. (Verses 23-30.) So here, the apostle adviseth the Romans how to do in the like case with these weak ones: "Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations."

1. Here is the description of the person who is to be considered, ασθενουντα [“ weak ”].

(1.) Not him that is weak and sick to death, erring in the foundation of faith.-One who doth "not hold the Head," (Col. ii. 19,) who "denieth the Lord that bought him; "these are destructive heresies which bring on men swift damnation. (2 Peter ii. 1.) We are not to say to such," God speed you : (2 John 10:) their very breath is blasting to men's minds.

(2.) Nor is it one who is sick about "questions." (1 Tim. i. 4.) -"Foolish," endless, "unlearned," unedifying "questions," which only engender contention. Such are idle "busy-bodies," seekers, and disputatious quarrellers about some minute things, which hypocritical and vain minds trade in, to keep themselves buzzing about the borders of religion, that they may keep off from the more serious duties, and substantial parts thereof. (1 Tim. v. 13; 2 Tim. ii. 23.)

(3.) But he is one who is "weak in the faith;" who, though he hath embraced the doctrine of our Saviour, yet is not of a mature, concocted judgment, clear enough about the abolition of ceremonial observations, things [which] he judgeth ought to be forborne or done.-Now let things be never so indifferent in the general definition or thesis, yet when they come to be used and exercised in their individual circumstances, they will be determinately good, or determinately evil, in all moral agents and actions. And that which in general seemeth indifferent to one is not so to another: these Gentiles could freely eat things strangled, but the Jews could not. Therefore it is a very strong weakness or wilfulness in some who love to turn straws into trees, and feathers into birds, and not to leave things as Christ hath left them, and as they are in their own nature; but will transpeciate,* as others transubstantiate, by their own breath, in their own opinions; and more fiercely contend for their own laws than the commands of God; as Saul was more severe on Jonathan for tasting honey, than on himself for rebelling against God's express command. These heats indicate a hectic fever to be in the body, preternaturally eating up and preying on the vital heat,-love to God and our neighbour: the zeal for men's own chimneys eateth up the house of God.

2. Here is the injunction of charity toward weak ones.-Пpooλaμβάνεσθε "Take them to you, receive them into your houses," use hospitality toward them, supply their necessities; (Rom. xii. 13;) not "magnificent receptions," such as Levi gave our Saviour, doxy μayaλny. (Luke v. 29.) But when they fly for their religion and lives, μεγάλην. supply their wants, though they be not just of your size or opinion. Do not force him to practise what he cannot freely do, to buy your charity this is a dear purchase and a cruel sale. Generous hospitality is a duty of another fashion: receive them into your arms, into your bosoms, into your love and converse, that you may instruct them and win upon them; receive them into your society, into your communion; treat this weak brother with all humility, condescension, love, and kindness; yea, with all the warm graces Christianity hath "Divide into a needless number of species," "minutely specify."-EDIT

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