Seventhly, ' Yea, what revenge.' The true penitent revenges himself upon himself for his sins, not by whips and scourges, as the papists do, but by buffeting the flesh, and bringing it into sulyection by fasting and prayer, and by crossing of his lusts, and loading of them with chains, and by drawing the sword of mortification against them, and by withholding from them that fuel that might feed them, and by the use of all other holy exercises, whereby the old man, the body of sin and death, may be subdued to the obedience and discipline of the Spirit of God.^ Holy revenge will shew itself by contradicting of corrupt self, and by a severe chastising and punishing of all those instruments that have been servants to the flesh ; as you may see by the daughters of Israel in dedicating their looking-glasses, by which they had offended, to the service of the sanctuary, Exod. xxxviii. 8 ; and as you may see by the Ephesians' burning of their costly and curious books before all men. Acts xix. 1 9 ; and by Mary Magdalene's wiping of Christ's feet with her hair, wherewith formerly her fond and foolish lovers were enticed and entangled, Luke vii. And the same spirit you may see working in Zaccheus, Luke xix. 8, 9 ; and in the jailor. Acts xvi. 23-34;. And so blessed Craumer thrust his right hand first into the fire, that being the hand by which he subscribed the popish articles, revengefully crying out, ' This unworthy right hand, this unworthy right hand,' as long as he could speak.^ The common language of holy revenge is this : Lord, pour out all thy wrath, and all thy fierce anger, and all thy fiery indignation, upon this lust and that lust ; Lord, bend thy bow, and shoot all the arrows of thy displeasure, into the very heart of my strong corruptions ; Lord, when wilt thou rain hell out of heaven upon this proud heart, this unbelieving heart, this unclean heart, this worldly heart, this froward heart, this treacherous heart of mine, &c. I have read of Hannibal, that when he saw a pit full of the blood of his ene- mies, he cried out with much content and delight, Oh beautiful sight ! So when a penitent Christian sees his spiritual enemies, his strong cor- ruptions, all in a gore-blood, oh how delightfully and rejoicingly does be cry out, Oh beautiful sight ! Oh blessed sight, that ever I have seen ! When the children of Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea- shore, then they sang a song of praise, Exod. xv. The application is easy. O sirs ! let no man deceive his own immortal soul ; for it is most certain, that repentance to life hath all these lively companions attend- ing of it. Sound repentance, and the companions of it, are born together, and will live and continue together till the penitent soul changes earth for heaven, grace for glory. And let this much suffice for the first part of true repentance, &c.
2. The second part of true repentance lies in confession of sin, luhioh flows out of a contrite heart. I mean, not a bare, formal, empty con- fession, such as is common amongst the worst of sinners, as that we are all sinners, and stand in need of a Saviour, God help us ! God be mer- ciful unto lis ! &c. ; but of such a confession of sin as ariseth from a true sight and full sense of sin, and from the due apprehensions of a righteous law that is transgressed, and a holy God that is provoked,
* 1 Cor. ix. 27. A penitent sinner loathes the very scars of his sins after they are healed. — Gregory Naziamen. * Foxe and Clarke, as before. — G.
402 A CABINET OF JEWELS. [ChAP. III.
&c. When tongue and heart goes together ; when the tongue speaks out of the abundance of the heart ; when the tongue is the faithful interpreter of the heart, freely, ingenuously and humbly acknowledg- ing iniquity, transgression, and sin; and the penitent judging himself worthy of death, of wrath, of hell, and unworthy of the least mercy and favour from God, &c.
Now such a confession as this is you shall find in repenting sinners; and if you look again, you shall find those persons so confessing, to be under the capacity of the promise of the forgiveness of their sius, &c.
[1.] First, You shall find repenting sinners confessing their sins : Ezra ix. 6, ' O my God, I am ashamed, and blush to lift up my face unto thee, my God : for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens.' Ver. ]0, 'And now, O our God, what shall we say after this ? for we have forsaken thy com- mandments,' &c. Ps. li. 3, ' I. acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.' Ver. 4, ' Against thee, thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight.' Dan. ix. 4, 5, 'I prayed unto the Lord my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, &c. ; we have sinned and committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts, and from thy judgments,' &c. Ver. 8, ' O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of face, as at this day.' Luke XV. 18, ' I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him. Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee ;' ver. 19, 'And am no more worthy to be called thy son,' &c. 1 Cor. xv. 9, ' For 1 am the least of all the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.' 1 Tim. i. 13, ' Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious,' &c. Isa. liii. 6, ' All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all,' I might easily produce a hundred other scriptures to prove that repent- ing sinners are confessing sinners, but let these suffice, &c.
[2.] Secondly, If you please to cast your eyes upon other scriptures, you shall find these penitent confessing sinners to be exj^ressly under the promises of the forgiveness of sins :^ 1 John i. 9, 'If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.' Ps. xxxii. 5, ' I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord ; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah.' Lev. xxvi. 40-42, 'If they shall con- fess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked con- trary unto me ; and that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies ; if then their uu- circumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punish- ment of their iniquity : then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham . will I remember.' Jer. iii. 12, 13, ' Keturn, thou backsliding Israel, saith the Lord, and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you : for