Impenitence.

Impenitence is a great sin under the Gospel, Acts 8. 22. The longer one lies in any sin the more is the heart hardened, Ier. 16. 1. Ephes. 4. 18, 19. He which hardeneth his heart against many reproofs, shall surely perish; obstinate, impenitent sinners shall be destroyed, 1 Sam. 12. 25.

Impenitence perfectly conforms one to Satan, who is in malo obfirmatus, and sins without remorse, In malo perseverare diabolicum.

Reasons,

• 1. Repentance is Gods gift, therefore denying of it is Gods curse.
• 2. Hereby the highest favour of God is despised, the offering of repentance is a mercy that belongs to the second Covenant; obstinacy in sinning is a denying of Gods justice, and abusing his mercy.
• 3. So long as one lives in any sin without repentance, so long God looks on him as continuing in that sin, his minde is not changed.
• Page  3654. Without repentance a there is no remission, Acts 5. 31. Luke 24. 47. there∣fore the sin against the holy Ghost is unpardonable, Heb. 6. 6. because one cannot repent.
• 5. Final impenitency is a certain evidence of ones reprobation, Rom. 2. 5. Heb. 12. 17.
• 6. Under the Gospel there are the greatest arguments and motives to repentance, Matth. 3. 2. Acts 17. 30. Christ himself sent Iohn before him to preach the doctrine of repentance, and he himself did also preach it; he bad men amend their lives, because the Kingdom of God was at hand: and his Apostles also preacht the same doctrine of repentance.

He is a wilfull sinner which either holds in himself a purpose that he will sin, or is irresolute and not settled in a firm purpose of not sinning, or that purposeth to mend but not till hereafter.