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tance, which occafions Celfus to fay: To the Heathen Sa-
crifices, the Crier calls to come, whosoever is pure and wife,
and free from Evil: But whom do the Chriftians call? Who-
foever is a Sinner, whofoever is Silly, whosoever is a Child,
him the Kingdom of Heaven fhall receive.
You call your
felves Sinners, under which Name are understood all forts of
unjuft Perfons, Thieves, Poifoners, the Sacrilegious, Honfe-
breakers, and Robbers of Tombs. Now if one was to raise
a company of Thieves, one could not be better fitted, than with
Such People as thefe. And is it not odd, to have a Reli-
gion made up of fuch fort of Men, that were wicked
at firft, and are always finning, and repenting afterwards,
or as a Quaker has expreffed it, from Sixteen to Sixty,
are, faying, We have erred and strayed like loft Sheep, and
go no farther.
Men fhould take care to establish in
themselves a fettled Habit of Virtue, and not checquer
out their Lives, as moft of you Chriftians do, with half
Saint, and half Sinner; if they find, upon juft Reasoning,
that they go on in a wrong Courfe of Life, they ought,
like wife Men, without any more to do, to turn into
the Right; but I cannot imagine what Ufe there is of a
whining Repentance, or maudlin Devotion.

Cred. We can cafily grant Spinofa, without the Pains Repentance of his Propofitions and Corollaries, that the bare Sorrow of not only Repentance is a Paffion, and not a Virtue; but Repen- Sorrow. tance confidered in its full Extent, as it takes in all the Acts, which are requifite to this Grace, is a Divine Grace, or Chriftian Virtue. If it be vitious to be willing to continue bad, then it is fome Degree of Virtue to be willing to be good. If it be a Sin to be glad of doing Ill, it is Virtuous to be forry for having done it. If it be wicked, carelefly to continue out of God's Favour, it is good, earneftly to endeavour to be reconciled to him; and if it be bad to continue in our Sins, 'tis better to forfake them. Therefore, Repentance, by which we do all this, is truly and properly a Virtue. But Repentance is not, as your Author would make the World believe, a bare Sorrow for Sin, but a ftedfaft Refolution of Amendment firft, and afterwards an actual Converfion. The whole

Perfor

S.n.

Performance of which is the true Gofpel Repentance, which, next to an uninterrupted Obedience, is most virtuous and dear in God's Sight.

Repentance Neither is there fo much Miferableness in Repentance, not fo trou- as you imagine. Indeed, if a Man never finned, he would so blesome as be happier than the eafieft Penitent; but the greatest Sinner, that has made his Peace with God, is infinitely more at Eafe, than the most thoughtless Unregenerate. 'Tis true, there is fome Trouble in Repentance, in conquering fo many evil Defires, and leaving off fo many Ill-habits, but it is not comparable to thofe Dreads and Horrors, which are continually in Solitude, affaulting the Mind of the most regardless Sinners, and give me leave to fay of the Atheistical Doubter too. But when a Man by fincere Repentance has made his Peace with God, and is received into his Favour, he then receives the greatest Comfort that ever he felt, or can feel here; fo that Men, who have experienced it, have compared it to their Enjoyment of Ease, after a racking Fit of Gout or Stone.

Nor is it any Difgrace to the Chriftian Religion, that its Members fometimes have lived lewd and flagitious Lives, before their Conversion to Christianity, or before they were fincere Practicers of its Doctrines; but it is rather the greatest Glory and Honour of our Religion, that the Doctrines it teaches are of fo great Efficacy, and the Affiftances of God's Holy Spirit, which it lays claim to, are fo prevalent, that they can over-power the Stubbornness of a perverfe Will, and the most inveterate Habits, and can make those Men eminent Examples of Virtue, who have fo long been beaten to Vice.

Daily ReAnd 'tis with as little Reafon that you endeavour to pentance expofe that daily Repentance, which Chriftians in their reasonable. Prayers do exercife. For whatever fome Men, who pretend to finless Perfection, may fay to the contrary; all fober Christians must own, that, as long as they carry Flesh and Blood about them, they will be fubject to a great many Imperfections and Failures, which God's Word, and their own Reason tells them they ought to have avoided. Now

repent

'tis the Duty of our daily Prayers, to beg Pardon of God for thefe Failures. I do not fay, that good Chriftians do every Day commit grofs and known Sins, and as often of them, and fall into them again; for a Man is not become a good Chriftian, that has not fully conquered all Habits of Sin, and does not carefully avoid every enormous Act of Vice. But alas! There is no good Christian but muft allow, that he oftentimes, through Ignorance or Inadvertency, either does, or omits, that which his Confcience afterwards checks him for, and which he would not have done upon fecond Thoughts; there are so many Circumftances, which may occafion Illness in a moral Action, which the wifeft Man cannot always fufficiently confider; there are so many cross Accidents befall us in the World, that we are oftentimes, before we are aware, betray'd into fome unjustifiable Fits of Difcontent and Peevifhnefs, or caufelefs Anger; our conftant Application to worldly Bufinefs, gives our Minds fuch a Tincture of carnal Things, that fometimes we may chance to omit, or make fome indecent Excurfions of Thought in our Devotion. Now thefe are really Faults, and which our Reafon and Con-fcience cannot justify, and, therefore, it is but reafonable, that, as often as we find our felves to have fallen into them, we fhould make our Peace with God for thefe Deficiencies, and beg his Grace for a greater Vigilance for the future. And truly, if there were any State of abfolute moral Perfection in this World, this were much a better way to obtain it, than by an arrogant Pretence to Perfection, in the midst of so many Failures unrepented of.

rational.

And I muft further take the Boldness to tell you, Sorrow of That the Sorrow in the Duty of Repentance, which Repentance, Chriftianity fuppofes, is a very rational Thing. Indeed I must needs own, that the turning into a good Courfe of Life, after a vicious one, is the thing principally defign'd by God, by enjoining the Duty of Repentance; but yet fuch is the Nature of Man, that Repenance can hardly poffibly be fincere, without this previous

Sorrow.

Sorrow. For Man is a Creature of Flesh and Blood, and made up of Paffions, and what does not make fome confiderable Imprefs upon his Affections, makes little or none upon his Mind. If a Man be fully fatisfied in his Reason, that he has carried himfeif undurifully towards God Almighty; that he has offended a good and gracious Benefactor, by the moft umworthy Provocations; that he has been guilty of the moft ftupid Folly, by neglecting his chiefeft Good, and fpending his Time in foolish infimficant Vanities; that he has contracted to himself the Infection of an enormous Guilt, and run himself into great Hazard of everlafting Punishment: When a Man gives himfelf up to the ferious Confideration of all this, he cannot but be heartily forry for bringing himself into these unhappy Circumftances, and the more deeply his Mind reflects upon it, the greater will his Grief be; and Men, whofe Affections are tender in other Cafes, if they are not fo in Repentance, do not ferioufly enough confider their Condition, and are not fo fincere in this Duty, as they ought to be. The hardest Conftitution of Soul will, in fome Measure, be affected with this; nor is it requifite that Men, whofe Affections are not the tendereft, thould be obliged to all thofe Sighs and Tears, which the more affectionate Souls abound with.

Phil. My next Exception is against a Doctrine you Chriftians efpoufe, which is, that Mens Actions are influenced by the Grace, as you call it, of God. For my part, I think this looks like enthufiaftical Cant; for we find within us a Power to do Good, or Evil, as we please; but fuch a fort of fupernatural Influence, as you contend for, would make Men perfect Machines. If it be Mens Duty to do good, it is in their Power to do it; and therefore it would argue great Injuftice and Tyranny in God Almighty, to punish Men for not doing that, which he himself only can do in them. Besides, methinks this is a lazy irreligious Sort of Doctrine, which deftroys human Endeavours, and good Tendencies, and puts all into the Power of an irrefiftable Grace, which holds Men in Fancy they fhall be faved, though they live never fo wickedly.

I

wickedly. Good honeft Pagan Morality is much to be preferr❜d to fuch Sort of Grace. For what are Men the better for fitting with their Hands in their Pockets, and talking of Jefus Chrift? For if the Doctrine of Jefus Chrift be good for any thing, it is good to be practiced; but no rational Man can believe, that Jefus Chrift fhould give Men Laws to obferve, and that he should only obferve them, for them himself.

Grace vin

dicated.

Cred. It is no Objection against the Reality of divine Doctrine of Grace, that fome enchufiaftical, or ill-defigning Men, have made great Miftakes about it, or made falfe Pretences to it. There is hardly any thing in the World fo plain, but fome Men have mifconftrued; or any thing fo good, but others have perverted. It is not my Bufinefs to defend thofe extravagant Notions fome Men have had concerning irrefiftible Grace; but yet, I fay, we have all the Reason in the World to believe, that there is a Portion of God's Holy Spirit, continually ready to affift Chriftian Men in their good Defigns, and which does co-operate with their Endeavours." That this is a Doctrine of our holy Religion is plain, not only from the Promife of our Saviour in fending the Holy Ghoft, but from the Effects of Divine Grace, frequently mentioned by the Apostles. By Grace ye are faved by Faith, and not by Works, leaft any should Glory, Eph. ii. 8, 11. Being confident of this very thing, that he which has begun a good Work in you, will perform it untill the Day of Jefus Christ, Phil. i. 6. I can do all Things through Chrift which strengthens me, Phil. iv. 13. The God of Peace, &c. make you perfect in every good Work to do his Will, working in you which is pleafing in his Sight. 'Tis plain then, that this is the Doctrine of our Religion, and 'tis as reasonable it fhould be fo. For when we live in a World of Senfe, where our Affections are all biaffed to carnal Objects, when we have strong Paffions towards Pleafure, and but weak Inclinations to Good, unless God Almighty did vouchfafe us confiderable Measures of his Grace, we fhould be able to do nothing as we ought to do. So wonderful is the Corruption of human Nature, and it has

that

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