When he hath made a credible profession of repentance, it is the pastor's duty, ministerially to declare him pardoned by Christ, but in conditional terms. [If his repentance be sincere.] And to absolve him from the censure of non-communion with the church, if he was under such a censure before his penitence, and to declare him meet for their communion, and to encourage him to come, and require the church to entertain him into their communion with gladness, and not upbraid him with his fall, but rejoice in his recovery, and endeavour his confirmation and preservation for the time to come: and it is his duty accordingly to admit him to communion, and theirs to have loving communion with him: all which the penitent person must believingly, lovingly, and joyfully receive. But if any by notorious perfidiousness, or frequent covenant-breaking, have forfeited the credit of their words, or have long continued in the sin which they do confess, so that their forsaking it hath no proof; the church then must have testimony of the actual reformation of such as these, before they may take their professions and promises as credible: yet here the difference of persons and offences is so great, that this is to be much left to the prudence of pastors that are present, and acquainted with the persons and circumstances of the case. In the transacting of all this, these following forms, to be varied as the variety of cases do require, may be made use of.
A Form of Public Admonition to the Impenitent.
The sin may be named and aggravated when it is convenient.
A. B. you are convict of a gross and scandalous sin; you have been admonished and entreated to repent. The promises of mercies to the penitent, and the threatenings of God against the impenitent, have not been concealed from you. We have waited in hope of your repentance, as having compassion on your soul, and desiring your salvation; but we must say with grief, you have hitherto disappointed us. We are certain from the word of God, that you must be penitent, if ever you will be pardoned, and that except you repent, you shall everlastingly perish. To acquaint you publicly with this, and yet here to offer you mercy from the Lord, is the next duty laid upon us for your recovery. Oh! blame us not, if, knowing the terrors of the Lord, we thus persuade you, and are loth to leave you in the power of Satan, and loth to see you cast out into perdition, and that your blood should be required at our hands, as not having discharged our duty to prevent it.[275]
Be it known unto you therefore, that it is the God of heaven and earth, the great, the jealous, and the terrible God, whose laws you have broken, and whose authority you despise. You refuse his government, who is coming with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly of their ungodly deeds and speeches; who hath told us that "evil shall not dwell with him." "The foolish shall not stand in his sight." "He hateth all workers of iniquity." "The ungodly shall not stand in judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous." God hath not his laws in vain. "Though the wicked contemn God, and say in their hearts he will not require it;" "yet their damnation slumbereth not, they are reserved to the day of judgment, to be punished." "And he seeth that their day is coming." If men cut off the lives of those that break their laws, will God be outfaced by the pride and stubbornness of sinners? He will not; you shall know he will not; he threateneth not in jest. "Who hath hardened himself against him, and hath prospered?" "Are you not as chaff and stubble? and is not our God a consuming fire?" "If briers and thorns be set against him in battle, will he not go through them, and burn them up together?" "Can your heart endure, or your hands be strong, in the day when God shall deal with you? It is the Lord that hath spoken it, and he will do it." What will you do, when you must bear with the pains of hell from God, that now can scarce endure to be thus openly and plainly warned of it? If we to please you should be silent and betray you, do you think the God of heaven will fear or flatter you to please a worm? "Do you provoke the Lord to jealousy? are you stronger than he?" O man! for your soul's sake, let not Satan abuse your understanding, and sin befool you. Must you not die? And doth not judgment follow, when all secrets shall be opened, and God will no more entreat you to confess. "Behold, the Judge standeth at the door." Will sin go then with you for as light a matter as it doth now? Will you then deny it, or will you stand to all the reasonings, or excuses, by which you would now extenuate or cover it? Will you defend it as your friend; and be angry with ministers and reprovers as your enemies? Or will you not mourn at last, (with weeping and gnashing of teeth,) and say, "How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof; and have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!" "Oh that you were wise, that you understood this, and that you would consider your latter end!" Believe God's wrath before you feel it: be convinced by the word and servants of the Lord, before you are confounded by the dreadfulness of his majesty. Yet there is hope; but shortly there will be none, if you neglect it. Yet "if you confess and forsake your sins, you shall have mercy; but if you cover them, you shall not prosper. And if, being oft reproved, you harden your neck, you shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy." "Be not deceived, God is not mocked. Whatsoever you sow, that shall you also reap." O man! you know not what it is to deal with an offended and revenging God. Nor what it is to hear Christ say, "Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity; I never knew you: depart from me, ye wicked, into everlasting fire." You know not what it is to be shut out of heaven, and concluded under utter desperation; and in hell to look back upon this obstinate impenitence, and rejecting of the mercy that would have saved you; and there to have conscience telling you for ever, what it is that you have done. Did you know what this is, could you, think a penitent confessing and forsaking your sin to be a condition too hard for the preventing of such a doleful state? O no! You know not what a case you are casting your immortal soul into. The Lord give you repentance, that you may never know it by experience. To prevent this, is our business with you: we delight not to displease or shame you. But God hath told us, "That if any do err from the truth, and one convert him, let him know, that he which converteth a sinner from the error of his way, shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins." I do therefore by the command, and in the name of Jesus Christ, require and beseech you, that you do, without any more delay, confess your sins and heartily bewail them; and beg pardon of them, and resolve and promise by the help of God to do so no more. And bless God that you have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, whose blood will cleanse you from your sins, if you penitently confess them; and that mercy may be yet had on so easy terms. If you had any sense of your sin and misery, or any sense of the dishonour done to God, or of the wrong that you have done to others, and of the usefulness of your penitent confession, and amendment, to the reparation of all these, you would cast yourself in the dust, in shame and grief before the Lord, and before the church. "To-day, therefore, if you will hear his voice, harden not your heart, lest God forsake you, and give you over unto your own heart's lust, to walk in your own counsels, and resolve in his wrath, you shall never enter into his rest." And then God and this congregation will be witnesses that you were warned; and your blood will be upon your own head. But if, in penitent confession, you fly to Christ, and loathe yourself for your iniquities, and heartily forsake them, I have authority to promise you free forgiveness, and that your iniquity shall not be your ruin.[276]
A Form of Confession, to be made before the Congregation.
* Here the sin must be named and aggravated, when by the pastor it is judged requisite.
I do confess before God and this congregation, that I have greatly sinned. * I have offended and dishonoured God, wronged the church, and the souls of others. I have deserved to be forsaken of the Lord, and cast out of his presence and communion of saints, into desperation, and remediless misery in hell. I am no more worthy to be called thy son, or to have a name or place among thy servants. I do here declare mine iniquity, and am sorry for my sins; they are gone over my head as a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me, they take hold upon me. I am ashamed, as unworthy to look up towards heaven, but my hope is in the blood and grace of Christ, who made his life a sacrifice for sin, and came to seek and save that which was lost; whose grace aboundeth where sin hath abounded. The Lord be merciful to me a sinner. I humbly beg of the congregation that they will earnestly pray, that God will wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sins; that he will forgive them, and blot them out, and hide his face from them, and remember them no more; that he will not cast me away from his presence, nor forsake me as I have forsaken him, nor deal with me according to my deserts: but that he will create in me a clean heart, and renew a right spirit in me, and grant me the joy of his salvation. And I beg pardon of the church, and all that I have wronged; and resolve by the grace of God to do so no more; but to walk more watchfully as before the Lord. And I desire all that are ungodly, that they think never the worse of the laws, or ways, or servants of the Lord for my misdoings; for if I had been ruled by God, and by his servants, I had never done as I have done. There is nothing in religion that befriendeth sin; there is nothing so contrary to it, as God and his holy laws, which I should have obeyed. Rather let all take warning by me, and avoid temptations, and live not carelessly, and hearken not to the inclinations or reasonings of the flesh, nor trust their weak and sinful hearts; but live in godly fear and watchfulness, and keep under the flesh, and keep close to God, and hearken to the faithful counsel of his servants. And I entreat your prayers to God, that I may be strengthened by his grace, that I may sin thus no more, lest worse befall me.[277]
A form of Prayer for a Sinner impenitent, after Public Admonition.
Most gracious God, according to thy command we have warned this sinner, and told him of thy threatenings, and foretold him of thy certain terrible judgments, that he might flee from the wrath to come; but alas, we perceive not that he repenteth or relenteth, but hardeneth his heart against reproof; as if he were able to contend with thee, and overcome thy power. O let us prevail with thee for grace, that we may prevail with him for penitent confession and reformation. O pity a miserable sinner! so miserable, as that he layeth not to heart his misery, nor pitieth himself. O save him from the gall of bitterness, and from the bonds of his iniquity. Give him repentance unto life, that he may recover himself out of the snare of the devil, who is taken captive by him at his will. Give him not up to a blind mind, to a seared conscience, a heart that is past feeling, nor to walk in his own counsels, and after his own lusts. Let him no longer despise the riches of thy goodness, and forbearance, and long-suffering, nor with a hardened, impenitent heart, treasure up wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of thy righteous judgment; who wilt render to every man according to his deeds, even to them that are contentious and obey not the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil. Let him be sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them that commit such things; and let him not think in his impenitency to escape thy judgment. O suffer him not, when he heareth the threatenings of thy word, to bless himself in his heart, and say, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imaginations of my heart, and add sin to sin; lest thy anger and jealousy smoke against him, and thou wilt not spare him, but blot out his name from under heaven, and all thy curses lie upon him, and thou separate him to evil, even to the worm that dieth not, and to the fire that is not quenched. O save him from his sins, from his impenitency, and the pride and stubbornness of his heart. O save him from the everlasting flames, and from thy wrath, which he is the more in danger of, because he feeleth not, and feareth not his danger. Let him know how hard it is for him to kick against the pricks, and how woeful to strive against his Maker. Lay him at thy footstool in sackcloth and ashes, in tears and lamentation, crying out, Woe unto me that I have sinned; and humbling his soul in true contrition, and loathing himself, and begging thy pardoning and healing grace, and begging the prayers and communion of thy church, and resolving to sin wilfully no more, but to live before thee in uprightness and obedience all his days. O let us prevail with thee for the conversion of this impenitent sinner, and so for the saving of his soul from death, and the hiding and pardoning of his sins; that he that is lost may be found, and he that is dead may be alive, and the angels of heaven, and we thy unworthy servants here on earth, may rejoice at his repenting. Let us see him restored by thy grace, that we may joyfully receive him into our communion, and thou mayst receive him at last into thy heavenly kingdom, and Satan may be disappointed of his prey; for thy mercy' sake, through Jesus Christ our Lord and only Saviour.[278] Amen.