regard them Neither can it be collected beforehand from any fixt rule or reason seeing it observes none And what neither our greatest wisdom can foretel nor our exactest care prevent it is wholly to no purpose to make a matter of our study and enquiry But as for the Everlasting happiness or misery of our Souls and Bodies in the other Life and at the Resurrection they are not left at random nor fall out by accident but are dispensed by a wise hand and according to a fixt and established rule For it is God who distributes them and this distribution is in Judgment and the procedure in that is by Laws and those laws are unalterably fixt for us and most plainly declared and published to us in the Gospel So that now it is no impossible no nor extream difficult thing for us to understand which shall be our own state in the next world For the laws are well known proclaimed daily to every ear by a whole order of men set apart for that purpose their sence and meaning is obvious to any common understanding and the Judgment according to them at that day will be true and faithful God will Absolve all those whom his Gospel acquits but Condemn every man whom it accuses There will be no perverting of Justice through fear or favour no Sentence passed through partiality or ill will but a Tryal every way unbyassed and uncorrupt where Every one shall receive according to the things done in the body 2 Cor. 5.10 And Judgment shall pass upon all men according to their works Rom. 2.6 And thus as the belief of the two former Articles the immortal state either of Bliss or Misery for our Souls and the Resurrection of our Bodies will inflame us with restless desires so if we seriously believe it will this third Article of the great and general Judgment possess us with sure hopes of being satisfyed in this great enquiry which of the two States will fall to our own share And as this belief of the last Judgment will be the most effectual means to encourage so will it be withal the surest to guide our Enquiries after it It chalks us out a method for our search and directs us to the readiest course for satisfaction For if the happiness and misery of the next world is to be dispensed to every man for a reward or punishment according to the direction of those Laws which promise or threaten them then have we nothing more to do in this enquiry but to examine well what those laws are what obedience they require what allowances and mitigations they will bear and what lot and condition they assign us For in that day we shall be look'd upon to be what they declare us and be doom'd to that state which they pronounce for us What they speak to us all now that the Judge of all the world will pronounce upon us all then their sentence shall be his and what they denounce he will execute He will judge us by no other measure but his own Laws those very Laws which he has taken so much care to proclaim to us and continually to press upon us which he has put into every one of our hands and made to be sounding daily in our ears the laws and sanctions of the Gospel Our blessed Saviour Christ the Judge himself has told us this long ago The word that I have spoken the same shall judge men at the last day Joh. 12.48 And his great Apostle Paul has again confirmed it Rom. 2. God shall judge the world at that day according to my Gospel vers 16. If we perform what those Laws peremptorily require they now already declare us blessed and such at the last day will Christ pronounce us But if by sinning against them we fall short of it they denounce nothing but everlasting woes and miseries and those he will execute For he tells us plainly that when he shall come to judgment in the Glory of his Father with his holy Angels he will reward every man according to his works Mat. 16.27 To them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and immortality he will give eternal life Rom. 2.7 But to them who obey not the Truth but obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish and that upon every man whether he be Jew or Gentile vers 8 9. For all this shall be acted in the greatest integrity without preferring one before an other It is only the difference in mens works which shall difference their conditions but they who have been equal in their sins shall be equal also in their sufferings For at the appearance of Jesus Christ God as S t Peter tells us without any respect of persons judges according to every mans work 1 Pet. 1.7.17 The way then whereby to satisfie our selves in this great matter is this To look well into the Gospel there to learn what we should be and into our own hearts and lives there to see what indeed we are and thence to conclude what in the next world whether in a state of Life or Death we shall be And to shew this to every man and to let him see now beforehand how he stands prepared for the next world and whether if he should be called away presently to the Bar of that Judgment he would be everlastingly acquitted or condemned in it is my present business and design It is to let us see our Eternal Condition before we enter on it and to make it evident to every man who is both capable and willing to be instructed what shall be his endless doom of Life or Death before the Judge pronounce it And since the Rule of that Court whereby we must all be tryed and which must measure out to us either Life or Death is as we have seen none other than the Gospel of our Judge and Saviour Jesus Christ that I may manage this enquiry with the greater light and clearness I will proceed in this method First I will enquire What is that condition of our happiness or misery which the Gospel indispensably exacts Secondly What are its mitigations and allowances those defects which it pardons and bears with And when at any time we fall short of this condition and thereby forfeit all right and title to that happiness and pardon which is promised to us upon it Then Thirdly What are those remedies and means of recovery which it points us out for restoring our selves again unto a state of Grace and Favour and whereupon we shall be reconciled And having by this means discovered what in the great and general judgment shall really and truly determine our last estate what shall be connived at in it and when once 't is lost what shall restore to it I shall in the Fourth and last place Remove those groundless doubts and scruples which perplex the minds of good and safe but yet erring and misguided people concerniâ—â— it And having in this manner cleared up all thâ—se
For every Man at the last day will be declared a Child of wrath who is a son of disobedience and he shall most certainly be Damned who dyes without amendment and Repentance in works which are wilfully and deliberately sinful Christs Gospel has already judged this long before-hand and at that day he will confirm it When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels i. e. when he shall come with his Royal attendance to judge the world He will take vengeance says S t Paul on all them that OBEY not his Gospel who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord 2 Thess. 1.7 8 9. When he comes in state with the ten thousands of his Saints it will be to execute Judgment upon all that are ungodly for all the ungodly DEEDS which they have committed Jude 14 15. And when our Lord himself gives a relation of his proceedings at that day he tells us that whosoever they be or whatsoever they may pretend if their works have been disobedient they shall hear no sentence from him but what consigns them to Eternal Punishment I will profess thus unto them says he I never knew you Depart from me ye that WORK iniquity Matt. 7.23 This will be the method of Christs Judgment and these the measures of his Sentence he will pronounce Mercy and Life upon all that are obedient but Death and Hell to all that disobey And indeed it were hight of folly and madness to expect he should do otherwise and to fancy that when he comes to judge us as S t Paul says according to the Laws of his Gospel he should absolve and reward us when in our works and actions we have transgressed them For this were to thwart his own rule and to go cross to his own measures it were to encourage those whom his laws threaten to acquit such as they condemn and in one word not to judge according to them as he has expresly declared he will but against them If we would know then what condition we shall be adjudged to in the next world we must examine what our obedience has been in this We can have no assurance of a favourable Sentence in that Court but only the doing of our duty Our last doom shall turn not upon our knowing or not knowing our willing or not willing but upon our obeying or disobeying It is in vain to cast about for other marks and to seek after other evidences nothing less than this performance of our duty can avail us unto life and by the merits of Christ and the grace of his Gospel it shall And thus we see in the general what those terms and that condition are which to mete out our last doom of Bliss or Misery the Gospel indispensably exacts of us It is nothing less than a working service and obedience the enquiry to be made at that day being only this whether we have done what was commanded us If we have performed what was required of us we shall be pronounced Righteous and sentenced to Eternal Life but if we have wilfully transgressed and wrought wickedness without amendment and repentance we shall then be declared incorrigible Sinners and adjudged to Everlasting Death This indeed is a very great truth but yet such as very few are willing to see and to consider of For obedience is a very laborious service and a painful task and they are not many in number who will be content to undergo it And if a man may have no just hopes upon any thing less than it the case of most dying men is desperate But as men will live and dye in sin so will they live and dye in hopes too And therefore they catch at softer terms and build upon an easier condition And because the Gospel promises Salvation and a happy sentence to faith love repentance our being in Christ our knowing Christ and other things besides obedience they conclude that they shall be acquitted at that Bar upon the account of any or all of these though they do not obey with them They make Faith Love Repentance and the rest to be something separate from obedience something which will save them when that is wanting So that if they be in Christ if they know and believe with the mind and love and repent in their hearts their hope is to be absolved at the last day be their lives and actions never so disobedient But this is a most dangerous and damning errour For it makes men secure from danger till they are past all possibility of recovering out of it and causes them to trust to a false support so long till it lets them drop into Hell and sink down in damnation And although it be sufficiently evident from what has been already said that our obedience is that only thing which will be admitted as a just plea and as a qualification able to save us in that Court yet because I would fully subvert all these false grounds whereupon men support their pernicious hopes and sinful lives together I will go on to prove it still further And this will be most plainly effected by shewing that all those other terms and conditions whereto the Gospel sometimes promises pardon and happiness concenter all in this and save us no otherwise than by being springs and principles of our obedience They are not opposed to our doing of our duty and keeping the Commandments but imply it For when pardon is promised to Faith to Love to Repentance or any thing else it is never promised to them as separate from obedience but as containing it Obedience is that still for which a man is saved and pardoned it is not excluded from them but expressed by them In order to a clearer apprehension of the truth of this I think fit to observe that there is an ordinary figure and form of speech very usual both with God and men which the Rhetoricians call a Metonymie or Transnomination and that is a transferring of a word which is the particular Name of one thing to express an other The use of it is this that in things which have a near relation and dependance upon each other as particularly the cause and its effect have the particular name of either may many times signifie both so that when the name only of one is expressed yet really both are meant and intended And then by that word which in its proper sence stands only for the effect we are to understand not it alone but together with it the cause also that produced it and by that which properly signifies the cause we are to mean not the bare cause alone but besides it the effect which flows from it likewise As for the latter of these the bare naming of the cause when we intend together with it to express its natural consequent and effect too because it is that which chiefly concerns our present business I will set down some instances of it which daily
my mind which strives against it and prevails over it and makes me practise contrary to what my mind approves So that when being enclined by Gods Law I would do good then being over-ruled by the law of sin I cannot but evil is laid before me and present with me Gods Law I say I serve with the mind For I delight in the Law of God after the inner man of my mind and conscience But all this while I only approve of it but no more For all the effect which it has upon me is only to create a liking of it in my mind But as for my practice and Outward performance it is under anothers power For I see another opposite Law viz. that of Lust and Sin which is seated in my bodily members not only warring against the Law of God in my mind but conquering also and prevailing over it bringing me into captivity that absolute sort of subjection and slavery to practise the Law of Sin which is seated in my members And since I am so far enslaved to the Law of Lust and Sin when the Law of God undertakes me that even that Law it self which God has appointed for my remedy is not able to rescue and deliver me I have too great reason to cry out O! wretched man that I am who shall deliver me since this Law given me by Moses is not able to do it from the slavery and misery of this body of death This indeed was our condition under the Law which shews at once the Laws holiness and goodness and withall its inability and weakness because notwithstanding it offer'd some Grace yet was not that enough but that during our subjection under it we commonly served sin still But now as for that slavish service of sin which a bare Jew who has no other help against it but Moses's Law complains of and longs to be delivered from that as I told you at first we Christians through the surpassing Grace of Christs Gospel are delivered from already So that to such a complaining Jew as I have here personated I Paul an Apostle of Jesus Christ can readily make answer Alter your subjection and you shall alter your service too for in becoming subject unto Christ instead of the Law you shall become servants of God instead of serving sin I thank God there is a way now in Christ for such deliverance or as it is read by some copies the Grace of God which comes through Jesus Christ our Lord shall deliver you although the Law could not which came by Moses But without this Grace I must still tell you that the Law it self will not generally have any such effect upon you seeing as I said it will only awaken your conscience but not reform your practice So then to shut up this discourse this you must still conclude upon that whilst you continue subject to the Law you will serve sin in your practice however you may disapprove it in your minds For I my self or the same I under the Law who with the mind as has been often observed serve in approving the Law of God do yet with the flesh so long as it has nothing else but the Law to restrain it serve in practising the Law of Sin But to return to what I said vers 5 6. of the last Chapter from whence we have hitherto diverted to answer this objection I say having by this passage from subjection to the Law to subjection unto Christ upon the Laws being abolished changed our service together with our subjection and become servants now not unto Sin but unto Christ All we Christians are safe from that Death which the Law of the members brought forth fruit to Chap. 7. vers 5. and have right to that Eternal Life which as I said is the gift of God to all his servants Chap. 6. vers 22 23. So that what reason soever a poor Jew under the Law who serves and obeys Sin may have to cry out of the body of Death yet we Christians who began to serve God upon our becoming subject unto Christ may comfort our selves to see that we are delivered from it And therefore whatever there be to a striving but yet unconquering Jew there is now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus's Religion because they are such who have changed their service together with their subjection and walk not now after the Flesh as they did formerly whilst the Law held them in subjection but after the Spirit This change of service I say is wrought in all true Christians by the Law of Christ although it could not generally be wrought in the Jews by the bare Law of Moses For the Law and power of the Spirit of life which is given to us in Christ Jesus and is expresly promised in his Religion though it were not in the Law of Moses that enabling Spirit I say hath made me Christian free from the so often mentioned Law of sin and from the punishment of it Death For what the Law of Moses could not do towards our deliverance from the service of sin in that it was too weak through the overpowering wickedness of the Law of lust in the Flesh even that hath God done in sending his own Son Jesus Christ in the likeness of sinful Flesh and in making him a Sacrifice for sin that in his death he might found his own Religion whereby he hath condemned and destroyed what the Law of Moses was overcome by viz. the Law of sin seated in the Flesh. So that by the help of Christs Law perfecting what the Law of Moses wanted the righteousness which was shown to us and required of us in the Book of the Law of Moses might be performed and fulfilled in us Christians although it was not ordinarily in the bare Jews because we are such who being Christs Subjects must be his Servants likewise and in our works and practice walk not after the lusts of the Flesh but after the motions of the Spirit Thus have I given a Paraphrase upon this involved and so much mistaken Chapter Wherein I have largely and as I hope truly represented the Apostles meaning his design and manner of arguing in this place In all which we see he intends not at all to give a Character of himself or of any other regenerate man but only of a midling Sinner who sins against his Conscience and transgresses with reluctance Which Transgressor of a middle rank he particularly represents under the person of an awaked but as yet unregenerate Jew who was one on whom the Law of Moses had wrought some change but could not work enough being able only to awaken his Conscience but not to reform his practice So that all that is there said in that seventh Chapter of willing but not performing c. only sets off the weakness and imperfection of the Law of Moses as to the making men compleatly obedient
sit as their Judge Depart from me all ye that work iniquity Mat. 7.23 As for this fourth faculty therefore our strength or bodily powers in outward works and operations it is one necessary ingredient of an entire obedience The service of our works is indispensably required to our pardon and happiness as well as the service of our minds our wills and our affections so that as ever we hope to live our obedient thoughts and desires must end in an obedient practice And thus at last we see what those powers or faculties are whose concurrence in Gods Service is necessary to make up an entire obedience We must obey all the particular Laws that are recounted in the former Book with our whole man both with our minds and souls and hearts and strength all these several powers must unite in Gods Service before it will be upright and compleat such as at present his Law requires and such as at the last day he will accept of CHAP. V. Of the second sort of integrity an integrity of times and seasons The CONTENTS Of the second sort of Integrity viz. that of Times and Seasons Of the unconstancy of many mens obedience Perseverance necessary unto bliss The desperate case of Apostates both as to the difficulty of their recovery from sin and the greatness of their punishment BUt besides the Integrity of our powers and faculties or the Integrity of the Subject whereof I have discoursed hitherto there is a second sort of Integrity which is plainly necessary to make our obedience available to our salvation at the last day and that is an Integrity of seasons and opportunities or our obeying the forementioned Laws not now and then but at all times We must not think to please God by an obedience that comes and goes by fits or by serving him only at such times as we are in humour or have no temptation to the contrary But our service of him must be constant and uniform we must obey him at all times and wilfully transgress in none For although all other things have their proper season yet sin has not it is alwayes forbidden and alwayes threatned so that whensoever we commit it it puts us under the curse and makes us liable to death and hell Some indeed there are who parcel out their time and divide it betwixt God and their sins They observe a constant course of transgressing and repenting of sin and sorrow For they are alwayes won when they are tempted and they are alwayes sorrowfull when they have done They are all holy purpose and good resolution before they are tryed but when the temptation comes they can make but a poor resistance for all their good thoughts quickly vanish and they are taken They are never constant either in pious purposing or in well-doing Their actions are not all of a piece but a medly of good and bad for they still keep on in an uninterrupted vicissitude and succession of works of obedience and sin Others again there are who act more agreeably to themselves and whilst they are for God are more constant in their obedience who yet fall off at last and sin against him for altogether For either they grow faint and weary by the tediousness and length of their journey or they are turned out of the way by some great difficulties or drawn aside by the importunate allurements of some temptation and when once by any of these wayes they are put beside their duty they turn their backs thenceforward upon God and never more obey him They are seduced by ill company or drawn away by interest or frighted by persecution and from that time their care slackens and their lusts encrease and grow too hard for Grace and the Gospel And thus what from inducements from within and what from occasions from without they are quite cut off from the service of God and Religion and give themselves up to serve their lusts for altogether and to an uninterrupted obedience of sin But now as for such a broken service and obedience as this God will by no means accept of it nor shall any man be ever the better by it For when Christ comes to Judgment he will pass Sentence upon men according to what they are then and not according to what they have been formerly If the righteous man turn away from his righteousness saith Ezekiel and commit iniquity and do according to all that the wicked man doth shall he live No by no means For all his righteousness that he hath done formerly shall not be mentioned but in his trespass that he hath since trespassed and in his sin that he hath sinned in them shall he dye Ezek. 18.24 It is only if you continue in my Word saith our Saviour that you are my Disciples indeed John 8.31 You must persevere in obedience if you expect to have the reward of it For he only who endures to the end shall be saved Matth. 10.22 and none but they who by PATIENT CONTINVANCE in well doing seek for Glory and Immortality shall inherit eternal life Rom. 2.6 7. Perseverance is the indispensable condition of bliss we cannot have it cheaper Be thou faithful unto death and then saith Christ I will give thee a Crown of life Rev. 2.10 But as for all those who fall off from a good course and turn Apostates from obedience their case is desperate and their condition extreamly damnable For they grow wicked to the highest degree and their state is almost irrecoverable They have by their continued rebellion and provocations in spite of all the suggestions of Gods Grace and the checks of their own Conscience not only grieved but even quenched the Spirit of God So that God for the most part leaves them to themselves and seeks no further to reduce them For if men are idle and will not use it and much more if they scornfully cast it from them and reject it Christ hath told us plainly that the Grace which any man hath shall be taken from him Matth. 25. 29. And when once God and his good Spirit have deserted them they are under nothing but an unbridled lust and run on without all restraint into an exorbitant pitch of wickedness And this any man may easily observe in the world For who is usually so evil as the backsliding Sinner Who is ordinarily so irrecoverable as the Apostate Saint They are quite lost to all goodness and sin beyond all bounds and past all retrieve No Creatures in the World were ever so much out of all capacity to be restored to Heaven as those Angels that fell from it and no men on Earth are so hardly reclaimed from a wicked to a holy life as they who once knew what it was and yet utterly renounced it For God for the most part lets them alone to enjoy their own choice and to go on in their own way and the good Spirit which has been almost quenched by them contends no more with them nor acts any more
For Christ need never have come into the World for that end since the Law had rendred us accursed and miserable enough already But he came on a quite contrary Errand to be the Minister of Life and Pardon and not to seal us up to eternal Death upon the first wilful transgression but to procure for us remission of all our deadly and damning sins and to restore us out of a state of Enmity and Death to a state of Mercy and Reconciliation He came to find out a remedy for all our evils and to prescribe us a way of recovering our selves when we had fallen by any sin so that although none of us all have lived free from it yet in the event sin shall not be our ruine And that remedy which God has provided us for this purpose is Repentance He doth not abandon us upon the commission of every sin but he is heartily desirous that we should repent of it and when we do so he has obliged himself by his Truth and Faithfulness to forgive it He is heartily desirous I say that whensoever we commit any sin we should repent of it If we dare take his own word he tells us as he lives that he doth not delight in the death of any sinner but that the wicked turn from his way and live turn you turn you as he goes on from your evil ways for why will you dye O house of Israel Ezek. 33.11 And this all the World experience by him in his long-suffering and forbearance with them For he doth not exact the punishment so soon as we have incurred it but expects long to see if we will return and repent that then he may with honour pardon and remit it this being as S t Paul assures us the end of his forbearance and long-suffering to lead us to repentance Rom. 2.4 And what S t Paul says that we all experience For during all that time wherein he bears with us how restless and unwearied earnest and affectionate are his endeavours for this purpose He admonishes us of our faults by his Word and by his Ministers he invites us to return by his Love and by his Promises he moves us to bethink our selves by his Spirit and by his Providences and if we are stubborn and not to be thus gently won by these methods of mildness he seeks to reclaim us by a blessed and a most affectionate force and violence For he corrects us with his Rod and visits us in chastisement and never ceases to try all means of reducing us to a sense of our sin and repentance till we are become plainly incorrigible and utterly rebellious and so fit for nothing but to be swallowed up of ruine And yet even then his desire of reclaiming us is so strong and his love so affectionate that he scarce knows how to give us over How shall I give thee up saith he O Ephraim how shall I deliver thee O Israel Hos. 11.8 And when we do repent I say he has obliged himself by his Truth and Faithfulness most graciously to forgive us This was the Doctrine of the Prophets Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord says Isaiah for he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon Isa. 55.7 If the wicked man says God by Ezekiel will turn from all his sins that he hath committed and keep all my statutes and do that which is lawful and right he shall surely live he shall not dye All his transgressions which he hath formerly committed shall not be mentioned unto him but in his righteousness that he hath done since he shall live For have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should dye saith the Lord God and not that he should turn from his ways and live Ezek. 18 21 22 23. This iâ— the great Doctrine of the Gospel which is a Covenant of remission of sins upon Repentance Repentance is its great Article and fundamental Truth and is therefore called by S t Paul the Foundation of Repentance Heb. 6.1 For that which was taught to all the World in all the degrees of Publication of the Gospel was that now God called all men to repent and that he would forgive them all their sins upon their true repentance S t John the Baptist who was Christs Herald and Fore-runner at his entrance upon that work begins with it John says S t Luke in all the Country about Jordan came preaching the Baptism of repentance for the remission of sins Luk. 3.3 Our Lord and Saviour Christ himself when he comes after to proclaim his own Gospel goes on with it Jesus began to preach says S t Matthew and to say Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand Mat. 4.17 And when he left the World the Commission which he gives to his Apostles is to proceed on still in the Promulgation of it to all the World as he had done to the people of the Jews For at the last time of his being with them just before his Ascension into Heaven when as S t Matthew tells us he commissioned them to preach to all mankind those instructions which he gave to them S t Luke informs us were that repentance and remission of sins should be preached to all Nations in his Name beginning at Jerusalem Luk. 24.47 This was the chief thing which they had in Commission and the summ and substance of their Embassy For that Ministry which was committed to them was a Ministry of reconciling God and men by this means as St. Paul says or a Ministry of Reconciliation so that they were Ambassadours for Christ as though God did beseech men by them and they as Christs Deputies who is the prime Mediator did pray them in his stead to be reconciled to God 2 Cor. 5.19.20 And when the Apostles came to execute their Orders the publishing of this was all their care and practice For they all of them went about preaching in all places and to all persons repentance for the remission of sins St. Peter in his first Sermon thus exhorts the people Repent and be baptized every one of you for the remission of sins Act. 2.38 and so again Act. 3. Repent and be converted that your sins may be blotted out v. 19. And the same he proclaims more generally in his second Epistle assuring all Christians that the Lord is not willing that any man should perish but that all should come to repentance which is sure to prevent it 2 Pet. 3.9 St. Paul preaches to the Athenians that now God had commanded all men every where to repent Act. 17.30 And St. John assures us that by virtue of that Gospel-Covenant which was confirmed with us in Christs Blood if with repenting hearts we confess our sins he is faithful to his word and just to his promise to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from the guilt and stain of all unrighteousness of
noble and excellent reward we are in a safe state and have no need to disquiet our Souls with fears and jealousies lest they should eternally miscarry If any person then has used Gods Grace and improved his Talents to this measure he has not been unprofitable and useless but has profited so far as is necessary to his happiness He is bound indeed still to advance higher and in every instance of Vertue to improve further but this he is not under the loss of Heaven but only under the danger of falling back into such a state of sin as would destroy the hopes of it again and the forfeiture of greater glory and rewards there when an intire obedience in all chosen instances and a particular reformation and repentance of all wilful sins is once secured there is so much growth in grace as is absolotely necessary an exalted pitch and compleat measures of this obedience with more ease and pleasure constancy and evenness with less mixture of voluntary sins which need particular repentance and with a greater freedom from innocent and unwilled infirmities is necessary to more absolute degrees and greater hights of glory but till that can be had this is sufficient to a mans salvation Several other scruples there are which are wont to disquiet and perplex the minds of good and honest people who are safe in Gods account although their Case seems never so hazardous in their own And of this sort are their fears that their obedience is unsincere because they have an eye at their own good and a respect to their own safety since they serve God in hopes to be better by him and out of a fear should they disobey of suffering evil from him They are afraid also that it is defective in a main Point for they cannot love and serve him in that comprehensive latitude which the Commandment requires viz. With all their heart and with all their soul and with all their mind They doubt they are past Grace and Pardon because they have sinned after that they have been enlightned and that wilfully and the Apostles affirms that for such there remains no more Sacrifice for sins Heb. 10.26 These doubts are still apt to disturb their peace and make sad their hearts and some others of like nature But of these and several others I have given sufficient Accounts above such as I hope may satisfie any reasonable man who is capable to read and to consider of them and thither I refer the Reader not thinking fit here to repeat them And thus at last we have seen when an honest and entire obedience is taken care for in the first place how plainly groundless those fears are which are wont to perplex the thoughts of good and safe yet ignorant and misguided people about their state of happiness and salvation And now I have done with all those points which I thought necessary to be enquired into to the end that I might shew every man now before-hand how he stands prepared for the next world and which at the beginning of this whole Discourse I proposed to treat of I have shown what that condition is of bliss or misery which the Gospel indispensably exacts of us and that as I take it so particularly that no man who will be at the pains to read and consider of it can overlook or mistake it what those defects are which it bears and dispenseth with what those remedies and means of reconciliation are which it has provided for us and when all these are taken care for how groundless all those other scruples are which are wont to disquiet honest minds about the goodness of their present state and their title to eternal salvation And upon the whole matter the sum of all amounts to this that when Christ shall come to sit in judgment at the last day and to pass sentence of life or death upon every man according to the direction of his Gospel he will pronounce upon every man according to his works If he has honestly and entirely obey'd the whole will of God in all the particular Laws before-mention'd never willfully and deliberately offending in any one instance nor indulging himself in the practice of any thing which he knows to be a sin he is safe in the Accounts of the last Judgment and shall never come into Condemnation Nay if he has been a damnable offender and has willfully transgressed either in one instance or in many in frequent repetitions of his sin or in few yet if he repent of it before death seize him and amend it ere he is haled away to Judgment he is safe still For he shall be judged according as his works then are when God comes to enquire of them so that if ever he be found in an honest obedience observing everything which he sees to be his duty and willfully venturing upon nothing which his Conscience tells him is sinful he is found in the state of Grace and Pardon and if he die in it he shall be saved All his unwill'd ignorances and innocent unadvisednesses upon his Prayers for pardon and his mercifulness and forgiveness of other men shall be abated all his other causes of fear and scruple shall be overlooked they shall not be brought against him to his Condemnation but in the honest and entire obedience which he hath performed in that shall he live If then we have an honest heart and walk so as our own Conscience has nothing whereof to accuse us we may meet Death with a good Courage and go out of the World with comfortable Expectations For if we have an honest and a tender heart whensoever we sin willfully and against our Consciences our own Souls will be our Remembrancers They will be a witness against us both whilst we are in this World and after we are taken out of it and brought to Judgment Mens Consciences says the Apostle shall accuse or excuse them in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men according to my Gospel Rom. 2.15 Indeed if men have harden'd their hearts in wickedness and sin'd themselves out of the belief of their duty having come to call evil good and good evil then their Consciences having no further sense of sin will have no accusations upon it But if they really believe the Gospel and study to know their duty and desire to observe it and are afraid to offend in any thing which they see is sinful whilst thus their heart is soft and their Conscience tender they cannot venture upon any sin with open Eyes but that their own hearts will both check them before and smite them afterwards They will have a witness against them in their own bosoms which will scourge and awake them so that they cannot approach death without a sense of their sin nor go out of the World without discerning themselves to be guilty If our own Conscience then cannot accuse us of the wilful and presumptuous breach of any of Gods Commandments and we know
and their Faith confirmed by it in giving up our selves to Martyrdome and laying down our own lives for their advantage Hereby says this same Apostle perceive we the love of God because he laid down his life for us And if we would be reputed to have that love which as we are told at the fourteenth Verse wafts us over from Death unto Life we ought upon a fit occasion not to flinch from the most costly service but even to lay down our very lives for the Brethren 1 John 3.16 It is only this obedient and operative love of men which will be owned by Christ our Judg and confer a just claim to Life and Pardon at the last Day Our Love will not be rewarded as a thing that is absolute in it self but only as an Instrument in as much as it makes us as S t Paul says to fulfil the whole Law which makes any thing an instance of Duty towards them Rom. 13.8 But if we only profess love to them in kind words and tender expressions but shew none in our works and actions this idle useless love will be of no account to us nor benefit us more than it profits them For if a Brother or a Sister says S t James be naked and destitute of daily food and one of you gives them only some good words and says unto them Depart in peace be ye warm'd with Cloths and filled with Food but notwithstanding all this affectionate language ye give them not in the mean while those things which are needful for the Body what doth it profit Nothing at all surely nor will it ever advantage your selves as an instance of that mercy which rejoyceth against judgment Verse 13. more than it profits them James 2.15 16. So that when Christ comes to Judgment at the last Day we see plainly that no love either of God or men will avail us but only that which has kept the Commandments we shall never be acquitted at that Bar upon a pretence of love without obedience for all that can possibly stand us in any stead there is a loving service a love which has made us careful and diligent to obey And thus at last we have fully seen that as for all those other things besides obedience whereunto the Gospel promises pardon and happiness they are by no means available to our bliss when they are separate from obedience but then only when they effect and imply it They all aim at it and end in it and are of no account in Gods Judgment further than they produce it It is not either our knowing Christ or our believing Christ or our being in Christ or our trusting in Christ or our loving Christ or our fears of God or our confessions of sins or our pouring out many prayers or any thing else that will save us whilst we disobey No at the last Day we shall certainly be damned notwithstanding them if the obedience of our works is wanting It is only a working service that will please our Judge and which can possibly secure us if we are able in that Court to produce that it will clear us but without it nothing else will Christs Gospel whereby all of us must stand or fall at that Day has fully declared this already and Christ himself will then confirm it So that 't is in vain to cast about for other marks and to seek after other Evidences for our title to bliss and happiness nothing less than our Repentance and Obedience will avail us unto life and through the merits of Christ and the Grace of his Gospel it shall And now at last we see clearly what that Condition is which the Gospel indispensably requires of us and which is to mete out to us our last doom of bliss or misery that in the general it is nothing else neither more nor less than our obedience BOOK II. Of the Laws of the Gospel which are the Rule of this Obedience in particular CHAP. I. Of the particular Laws comprehended under the Duty of Sobriety The CONTENTS A Division of our Duty into three general Vertues Piety Sobriety Righteousness Of the nature of Sobriety The particular Laws commanding and prohibiting under this first Member A larger explication of the nature of Mortification BUT in regard our working and obeying is that whereupon all our hopes and happiness our security and comfort hangs it is very necessary that after all which has been hitherto discoursed of it in the general we go on still further and enquire of it more particularly For if it be our Obedience or Disobedience that must dispense Life or Death to us and eternally save or destroy us at the last Day then whosoever would know before-hand what shall be his final Sentence must enquire what is his present state and what have been his past actions whether in them he have obeyed or no. And the way to understand that is first to know what those Laws are whereto his obedience is due and in what manner and degrees he is to obey them and when once he has informed himself in these he may quickly learn from the Testimony of his own heart and Conscience whether he has performed that Obedience which is indispensably required to his happiness or has fallen short of it And to give the best assistance that I can in so weighty a Case I will here proceed to enquire further in this Obedience and shew concerning it these two things I. What those Laws are which under the Sanctions of Life or Death the Gospel binds us to obey And II. What degrees and manner of obedience is indispensably required to them I. Then I will enquire what those Laws are whereby at the last Day we must all be judged and which under the Sanction of Life or Death the Gospel binds us to obey And that I may render this enquiry as useful as I can I will set down as I go along the meaning and explication of those several Vertues and Vices which are either required or forbidden in the particular Laws that so we may more truly and readily understand whether the Vertues have been performed or the Vices incurred and whether thereby the Laws have been broken or kept by us As for the Laws and Commands of God they are all reduced by S t Paul to three Heads For either they require something from us towards God himself and so are contained in works of piety or towards our Neighbours all which are comprehended in works of righteousness or towards our own selves as all those Precepts do which are taken up in works of sobriety In these three general Vertues is comprized the Sum of our Christian Duty even all that is required by the Gospel as the Condition of Salvation For the Gospel saith he or that Grace of God which brings us the welcome offers of Salvation hath appeared now to all men teaching us as ever we expect that salvation which it tenders to us that denying ungodliness and
three more is comprized the Body of our whole Duty If we adde two or three more I say for besides the several Laws already mentioned there are three particular Duties yet remaining of a more positive and arbitrary nature which Christ has bound all Christians to observe and they are the Law of Baptism of the Lords Supper and of Repentance Baptism is our incorporation into the Church of Christ or our entrance into the Gospel Covenant or into all the duties and priviledges of Christians by means of the outward Ceremony of washing or sprinkling in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost The Eucharist or Lords Supper is our Federal Vow or repetition of that engagement which we made at Baptism of performing faith repentance and obedience unto God in expectation of remission of sins eternal happiness and those other promises which by Christ's death are procured for us upon these terms which engagement we solemnly make to God at our eating Bread and drinking Wine in remembrance and commemoration of Christs dying for us Repentance is a forsaking of sin or an amendment of any evil way upon a sorrowful sense and just apprehension of its making us offend God and subjecting us to the danger of death and damnation And if to all the forementioned instances of those three grand Vertues which by the Apostle Tit. 2.12 13 are made the summ of our Christian Duty we join these three positive and additional Laws we have all that whereby God will judge us at the last Day even all those particular Laws whereto our obedience is required as necessary to salvation And thus we have seen what those particulars Laws are which the Gospel indispensably requires us to obey They are no other than those very instances which I have been all this while recounting and describing But because the Catalogue of them hitherto has been broken and interrupted and therefore cannot be run over so easily as might be desired in a matter of that importance I will here repeat them all again for the greater ease of all such pious souls as desire to try themselves by them and place them all in one view and all together The commanding Laws then whereby at the last Day we must all be judged are these that follow The Law of sobriety towards our selves with all its Train which are the Law of humility of heavenly-mindedness of temperance of sobriety of chastity of continence of contempt of the world and contentment of courage and taking up the Cross of diligence and watchfulness of patience of mortification and self-denial The Law of piety towards God with all its Branches which are the Law of honour of worship of faith and knowledge of love of zeal of trust and dependance of prayer of thankfulness of fear of submission and resignedness of obedience The Law of Justice towards men in all its parts which will be seen by the contrary prohibitions of injustice The Law of Charity in all its instances which are the Law of goodness or kindness of honour for our Brethrens Vertues of pity and succour of restraining our Christian Liberty for our weak Brothers edification of friendly reproof of brotherly kindness of congratulation of compassion of almes and distribution of covering and concealing their defects of vindicating their reputation of affability or graciousness of courtesy and officiousness of condescension of hospitality of gentleness of candor of unity of thankfulness of meekness or lenity of placableness of forgiving injuries of doing good to enemies and when nothing more is in our power praying for them and blessing or speaking what is good of them when we take occasion to mention them of long-suffering of mercifulness The Law of Peace and Concord with all its Train as are the Law of peaceableness of condescension and compliance of doing our own business of satisfying for injuries of peace-making The Law of love to Kings and Princes in all its Particulars which are the Law of honour of reverence of paying Tribute and Customes of fidelity of praying for them of obedience of subjection The Law of love to our Bishops and Ministers with all its expressions which are the Law of honour or having them highly in esteem for their works sake of reverence of maintenance of praying for them of obedience The Law of Love in the particular relation of Husband and Wife with all its Branches which are on both sides the Law of mutual concern and communicating in each others bliss or misery of bearing each others infirmities of prayer of fidelity On the Husbands towards his Wife the Law of providing for her of protecting her of flexible and winning Government of compliance and condescension On the Wives towards her Husband the Law of honour of reverence of observance and obedience of subjection The Law of Love in the particular relation of Parents and Children with its several effects which are from the Parents towards their Children the Law of natural affection of maintenance and provision of honest education of loving Government of bringing them up in the institution and fear of God of prayer for them From the Children towards their Parents besides the Duty of natural affection common to both the Law of honour of reverence of obedience of subjection of requiting upon occasion their care and kindness of prayer for them The Law of Love in the particular relation of Brethren and Sisters with all its instances which are the Law of natural affection of providing for our Brethren of praying for them The Law of Love in the particular relation of Master and Servant with its several expressions which are on the Masters side the Law of maintenance of religious instruction of a just and equal Government of them of kindness and equity in commanding of forbearance and moderation in threatning of punctual payment of the wages of the Hireling of praying for them On the Servants the Law of honour of reverence of observance of concealing and excusing their Masters defects of vindicating their injured reputation of fidelity of obedience of diligence of willing and hearty service of patient submission and subjection of praying for them To all which we may add the two arbitrary institutions and positive Laws of the Gospel Baptism and the Eucharist or Lords Supper and when we transgress in any of the instances forementioned that great and only remedy of Christs Religion the Law of repentance This so far as I can call to mind at present is a just enumeration of those particular Injunctions and Commands of God whereto our obedience is indispensably required and whereby at the last Day we must all be judged either to live or dye eternally But supposing that some particular instances of Love and Duty are omitted in this Catalogue yet need this be prejudicial to no mans happiness since that defect will be otherwise supplied For as for such omitted instances where there is an occasion for them and an opportunity offered to exercise
be expected You have not saith S t James because you ask not James 4.2 Gods mercy is on all that fear him Luke 1.50 I will warn you saith our Saviour whom you shall fear fear God who after he hath killed hath yet further power to cast you into Hell if you are fearless and contemptuous I say unto you Fear him Luke 12.5 In every thing give thanks for this is the will of God concerning you 1 Thess. 5.18 It is one part of our walking as Children of the light to give thanks always and in all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ Ephes. 5.8 20. And the Apostle's exhortation is Offer to God the Sacrifice of Praise continually giving thanks to his Name and that because we have no abiding City but seek one to come Heb. 13.14 15. The Church of Laodicea to the end that she may be rich and cloathed is advised to be zealous and to repent Rev. 3.18 19. And one effect of a godly sorrow and a saving repentance S t Paul saith is zeal for God and goodness 2 Cor. 7.11 In Christ Jesus or the Christian Religion neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor Vncircumcision but keeping of the Commandments of God 1 Cor. 7.19 For it is this only that gives right to life and happiness Blessed are they that do his Commandments that they may have right to the Tree of Life Rev. 22.14 Our Fathers after the flesh corrected us and we gave them reverence and shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of Spirits and live Heb. 12.9 And thus are all the Particulars of this second Class of Duties Piety bound upon us with the same sanction as the former and our obedience to them all made necessary to our being pardoned at the last Day and eternally rewarded by them And the same is further true of the Duties of the third Class righteousness towards our Neighbour For as for the necessity of Justice S t Paul is clear Owe no man any thing but to love one another Rom. 13.8 For if you wrong and defraud one another saith the same Apostle know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 6.8 9. And as for all the particular Laws of Charity their necessity will appear from what follows Be kindly affectioned one to another as if you were of the same blood and near Kindred with brotherly love in honour preferring one another for your Vertues before your selves and much more vindicating each other from the unjust aspersions of others Distributing or communicating to the necessity of Saints given to or earnestly pursuing hospitality Bless or speak well of them which persecute you Bless and curse not Rejoyce with them that do rejoyce in congratulation and weep with them that weep in compassion Be of the same mind one towards another mind not state and high things but be affable and condescend by going even out of your way to bear them company to men of low estate Recompence to no man evil for evil but if thine enemy hunger feed him if he thirst give him drink Rom. 12.10 13 14 15 16 17 20. All which Precepts with several others delivered in that Chapter he gave in Command as he tells them through the Grace or Authority of Apostleship which is here and elsewhere called Grace given unto him ver 3 and that is a plain proof of their indispensable necessity For he that despiseth you Apostles says our Saviour despiseth me Luke 10.16 And if the transgression and disobedience of the Law of Moses spoken to him only by Angels in the Mount received a just recompence of reward such Offenders dying without mercy how shall we escape the same death or greater if we neglect and much more if we despise so great a means of salvation as Christs Gospel and his Laws are which was at first spoken to us by the Lord Jesus himself who is far above all Angels and was afterwards confirmed to us by his Apostles or them that heard him Heb. 2.2 3. The wisdom from above and which must bring us thither is gentle easie to be entreated full of mercy and good fruits James 3.17 And S t Paul bids the Colossians to put on as the elect of God holy and beloved these Vertues viz. bowels of mercies kindness or courtesy meekness long-suffering or forbearing one another and forgiving one another If any man hath a quarrel against any even as Christ forgave you so do ye Col. 3.12 13 15. The fruits of the Spirit saith the same Apostle are love long-suffering gentleness goodness meekness against such there is no condemning force of any Law Gal. 5.22 23. The description which S t Paul gives of Charity is this Charity suffers long in great meekness before it be provoked and is kind or courteous towards all men is not puffed up with supercilious and haughty behaviour for men do not assume state over those persons whom they love but is lowly and affable doth not behave it self unseemly or contumeliously but with much respect and civility seeks not her own Praise and Glory at other mens cost or discredit is not easily provoked or not provoked to the height but mixes mercifulness with anger opposite to rigour rejoyces or congratulates the truth or sincerity and integrity of men and as for their infirmities it bears or covers and conceals all things that are defective believes all things to their advantage in putting the most candid and favourable sence upon any thing which they do or say and where there is no excuse for the present it hopeth all things good for the future and for injuries offered to it self it is not hasty and vindictive but patiently endureth all things 1 Cor. 13.4 5 6 7. And for the necessity of that Charity which includes all these S t Paul is express in the same Chapter when he tells us that although he have all faith and all knowledg and bestow all his goods to feed the poor yea and give his Body to be burned in Martyrdom if still he have not Charity in all these other effects and in that latitude wherein it is here described it profiteth him nothing ver 2 3. I say unto you Love your enemies bless or speak all the good you can of them that curse or reproach you do good to them that hate you and pray for them who despitefully use you and persecute you that by this means you may be the Children of your Father which is in Heaven Matth. 5.44 45. Which Laws are of the number of those which are contained in Christ's Sermon on the Mount at the beginning whereof he declared that whosoever should break the least of his Commandments which he was then about to deliver and should teach men to
necessary for you for even hereunto were you called that you may be like to Christ who has left you an example of such patient suffering for this end that you might follow his steps 1 Pet. 2.18 19 20 21 c. And thus are all the particular Laws of this last relation imposed in the same strictness of obligation and under the same severe sanction with all the rest that went before And as for the Law of Baptism and of the Lords Supper and of Repentance and amendment whensoever we fail in any of the former which are all the commanding Laws yet remaining their necessity will appear from the Scriptures following Except a man be born again of Water as well as of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God says Christ to Nicodemus John 3.5 And when Christ sends his Apostles out to preach to all the World that Doctrine which he commissions them to declare is this He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved Mark 16.16 Take eat this is my Body Do this in remembrance of me For as often as you eat this Bread and drink this Cup you do shew forth the Lords death which you must do till he come the second time to judge us and to punish all impenitent Transgressors as well of this as of all his other Precepts 1 Cor. 11.24 25 26. And this Command he further says he received of the Lord to deliver to them ver 23. And for the fuller proof of the necessity of this Sacrament that is very remarkable which as some have observed the Jewish Doctors have taken notice of viz. that whereas God forbad twenty three things under pain of being cut off from the people to them who committed them yet in the whole Old Testament there are but two things commanded under that penalty to those who should neglect them and they are Circumcision and the Passover which are Types and Figures of and answer to our two Sacraments Baptism and the Lords Supper And for that necessity particularly of the Passover among the Jews which answers to the Eucharist among us Christians where as the Apostle says Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us 1 Cor. 5.7 we have a plain Text at the institution of it Exod. 12. Whosoever in the Feast of the Passover eateth leavened Bread from the first Day to the eleventh Day that soul shall be cut off from Israel ver 15. Repentance and remission of sins thereupon is commanded to be preached to all Nations Luke 24.47 And as Christ ordered so his Apostles practised Repent says S t Peter in his first Sermon and be baptized for the remission of sins Acts 2.38 But without this there is no mercy for any wilful Offenders for except you repent says our Saviour you shall all perish Luke 13.3 And thus we have seen of all the commanding Laws particularly that our obedience to every one of them is plainly necessary to our salvation They are that Rule which God has fixt to measure out to us either Life or Death and which at the last Day we must all be eternally acquitted or condemned by CHAP. VI. Of the Sanction of all the forbidding Laws The CONTENTS Of the Sanction of all the negative or forbidding Laws particularly The perfection of the Christian Law How our Duty exceeds that of the Heathens under the revelations of Nature And that of the Jews under the additional light of Moses's Law AS for all the Vices opposite to the several Vertues in the foregoing Chapter which are the number of the negative or forbidding Laws they must needs be under the same sanction and our observance of them be bound upon us by the same necessity with our observance of the former For whatsoever any of the particular Laws commanding any Vertues threaten they denounce against these opposite Vices which are the several transgressions of them So that in shewing the severe sanction and necessity of the one I have shown it sufficiently of the other also And this might very well excuse me all further trouble in searching after an express sanction of every particular forbidding Law But on the other side I consider that men are infinitely concerned to be fully convinced of the particular necessity of abstaining from every Vice as well as of performing every Vertue And that there is much more force to work this full Conviction in an express and particular proof than there can be in a general and implicite intimation And because I would shun no pains which may be likely to quicken the obedience or secure the interests even of any one soul I will not leave it to mens selves to collect and inferr this necessity although the meanest capacities may do it without any great difficulty but proceed still to set down such sanctions of all the particular forbidding Laws as I meet with in the Scriptures And to take the several Classes of them in that order wherein they are described above for the penalties threatned to all the Particulars of unsoberness they will appear from the places following The works of the Flesh are manifest saith S t Paul which are adultery fornication uncleanness lasciviousness drunkenness revelling emulations of the which I tell you that they who do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God And besides these if we live in the Spirit without which there is no hopes of happiness Rom. 8.6 let us not be desirous of vain-glory provoking one another Gal. 5.19 20 21 25 26. Neither the effeminate those that suffer themselves to be unnaturally abused nor the abusers of themselves with mankind nor extortioners or ravishers and men that commit rapes shall inherit the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 6.9 10. But the fearful and soft the abominable or abusers of themselves with mankind and whoremongers shall have their part in the Lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death Rev. 21.8 Let not filthiness nor foolish or obscene talking nor jesting in filthy jests be so much as named among you For this ye know that no whoremonger or covetous man c. hath any inheritance in the Kingdom of God and of Christ. Let no man deceive you for these things sake cometh the wrath of God upon the Children of disobedience Ephes. 5.3 4 5 6. In the last Days perillous times shall come for men shall be lovers of themselves or of their own Flesh covetous proud Boasters or arrogant incontinent high-minded or enormously haughty in behaviour or insolent lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God or sensual having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof from such turn away for they are men of corrupt minds and reprobate concerning the faith 2 Tim. 3.1 2 3 4 5 8. Being filled with covetousness Back-biters Boasters or arrogant which in the judgment of God are worthy
of death Rom. 1.29 30 32. The Servant that shall begin to eat and to drink with the drunken shall have his portion appointed with Hypocrites in the place where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth Matth. 24.49 51. Many are enemies of the Cross of Christ whose God is their Belly which they carefully serve in voluptuous eating who are altogether worldly and mind earthly things whose end is destruction Phil. 3.18 19. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth and been wanton or ye have lived deliciously and fared luxuriously Ye Ye have nourished or fed your hearts as men use to do Cattle which they intend for the Shambles against or in a day of slaughter Weep therefore and howl for the miseries that shall come upon you James 5.1 5. Love not the world nor covet and ambitiously pursue the rich and splendid things of the world But if any man do love the world I declare this concerning him that the Love of the Father is not in him 1 John 2.15 Blessed is he who shall not be offended in me or not scandalized and turned out of the way and profession of my Religion through any difficulties or persecutions that befal him in it Matth. 11.6 For he who will save his life in this world by fleshly policy and wicked compliances against his Duty shall lose it in the world to come but whosoever shall lose his life or other temporal enjoyments for my sake or for an honest owning of my Laws and Religion that same man shall find it Matth. 16.25 And for the prohibitions of the second Class impiety we have their penalty expressed in the Texts ensuing The works of the Flesh are manifest idolatry witchcraft of which I tell you that they who do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Gal. 5.19 20 21. But the unbelievers and sorcerers and idolaters shall have their part in the Lake which burns with fire and brimstone which is the second death Rev. 21.8 The wicked man hath said in his heart God hides his face he will never see what men do and therefore he will not require an account of it But thou Lord dost behold mischief and spite and that too to punish and requite it with thy hand Psal. 10.11 13 14. Being haters of God without understanding or foolish which in the judgment of God are worthy of death Rom. 1.30 31 32. In the last days perillous times shall come for men shall be Blasphemers unthankful unholy heady and these are men of corrupt minds and reprobate concerning the faith 2 Tim. 3.1 2 4 8. They that despise and dishonour me shall be lightly set by 1 Sam. 2.30 Because thou hast no zeal for me but art lukewarm and neither hot nor cold I will spew thee as men do warm water which the Stomach loaths and nauseates out of my mouth Rev. 3.16 If we deny him he also will deny us 2 Tim. 2.12 And our being ashamed of and not owning and maintaining him and his Religion although it be at a time when impiety is barefaced in an adulterous and sinful Generation is intepreted by him for such damnable denial of him For what is called denying me and my words Matth. 10.33 is upon another occasion repeated in S t Mark and expressed by being ashamed of them Mark 8.38 Ye have heard that it hath been said in old time Thou shalt not forswear or perjure thy self but shalt perform unto the Lord thy Vows But in addition to this I say unto you Swear not at all in your common converse but let your communication or ordinary discourse be yea yea and nay nay for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil Matth. 5.33 34 37. And these Precepts are of the number of those whereof Christ had expresly said ver 19. He who breaks the least of these Commandments shall be least or none at all in the Kingdom of Heaven The Law with its terrors and severe sanctions is not made for a righteous man who would do what it requires without them but for the lawless and disobedient for ungodly for unholy and prophane for perjured persons that by means of its dreadful punishments it might either fright them from sinning or take vengeance on them after they should have sinned against it 1 Tim. 1.9 10. Wo unto him that strives through contumacious and repining carriage with his Maker Isai. 45.9 And for the necessity of observing the prohibitions of the third Head injustice towards men take these places The works of the Flesh are manifest adultery murther of which I tell you that they who do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Gal. 5.19 21. Being filled with all unrighteousness covetousness deceit covenant-breakers or perfidious who in the judgment of God are worthy of death Rom. 1.29 30 31 32. This is the will of God That no man go beyond and defraud his Brother in any matter or way whatsoever whether it be extortion oppression or plain couzenage for the Lord is the avenger of all such as we also have forwarned you and testified 1 Thess. 4.3 6. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Be not deceived neither thieves nor covetous shall inherit the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 6.9 10. In the last Days perillous times shall come for men shall be Truce-breakers false Accusers or Slanderers and Calumniators from such turn away for they are men of corrupt minds and reprobate concerning the faith 2 Tim. 3.1 2 3 5 8. Out of the heart proceed thefts false witness murthers these defile or pollute the man and so exclude him from Heaven where nothing can ever enter that is unholy and unclean Matth. 15.19 20. Thou hast greedily gained of thy Neighbour by extortion therefore I have smitten my hand at thy dishonest gain Can thy heart endure or thy hands be strong in the day when I shall deal with thee Ezek. 22.12 13 14. All Lyars shall have their part in the Lake which burns with fire and brimstone which is the second death Rev. 21.8 And as for all the Particulars of uncharitableness we have their sanction in these Scriptures following Being filled with wickedness maliciousness full of envy malignity whisperers back-biters despightful or contumelious implacable unmerciful who in the judgment of God are all worthy of death Rom. 1.29 30 31. Recompence to no man evil for evil avenge not your selves but rather instead of that give place unto wrath Rom. 12.17 19. For if ye forgive not but revenge upon men their trespasses neither will your heavenly Father forgive you your trespasses Matth. 6.15 Deal thus therefore with your enemies not rendring evil for evil or railing for railing but contrariwise blessing or benediction knowing this That hereunto are ye
called in Christianity to inherit from Christs example this Vertue of blessing or speaking well of them who revile you And this is no indifferent thing For he that will love life and see good days must thus refrain his tongue from evil 1 Pet. 3.9 10. Let all bitterness and anger and wrath or hatred and clamour or brawling and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice Ephes 4.31 And that if you have been taught as the truth is in Jesus to put off the old man and to put on the new ver 20 21 22 24. Exhort and rebuke with all authority and let no man despise thee lest in doing so he be judged as a Despiser of Christ also Luke 10.16 Put them in mind to speak evil of no man to be no Brawlers or Quarrellers but gentle shewing all meekness opposite to surliness unto all men Tit. 2. ult Chap. 3.1 2. In the last days perillous times shall come for men shall be unthankful fierce Despisers and Haters of those that are good From such turn away for they are men of corrupt minds and reprobate concerning the faith 2 Tim. 3.1 2 3 5 8. Charity suffers long before it be provoked and so is not hasty to punish and is also kind or courteous and so not uncourteous Charity is not puffed up doth not swell and exalt it self above others in stateliness or difficulty of access and uncondescension but is condescensive and affable doth not behave it self unseemly or contumeliously seeks not her own praise or pleasure at other mens loss or shame and therefore neither mocks nor upbraids nor reproaches any is not provoked easily or not unto the height but mixes mercifulness with anger in exacting punishment which is opposite to rigour thinks or imputeth no evils or vices to men who are guilty of them in railing and reproach but kindly overlooks or lessens them as we are wont to do with persons whom we love rejoiceth not in evil and least of all in the highest sort of it iniquity of men 1 Cor. 13.4 5 6. And without this Charity all other things whatsoever will at the last Day profit nothing ver 3. The works of the Flesh are manifest which are hatred envying variance or debate Gal. 5.19 20 21. Be not deceived no revilers shall enter into the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 6.9 10. I write unto you that if any Christian Brother be a railer to excommunicate him and with such an one to use no conversation no not so much as to eat 1 Cor. 5.11 And our Lord himself hath determined whatsoever you shall bind by excommunication on earth shall be bound also in Heaven Matth. 18.18 Judge not or be not forward to pass undervaluing and censorious judgments upon what other men do or say that you be not judged For with what judgment you judge others you shall be judged your selves both by God and men who will repay you in your own kind Matth. 7.1 2. Which Precept we must note moreover is one of those whereof Christ affirms That whosoever breaks the least of them shall be least in the Kingdom of Heaven Chap. 5. ver 19. At the Day of Judgment Christ will say unto the uncharitable Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire For in my poor Members I was hungry and you gave me no meat thirsty and you gave me no drink naked and you gave me no cloaths a Stranger and you were unhospitable and took me not in For in as much as ye refused it and did it not to the very least of these ye did it not to me Matth. 25.41 42 43 45. Wo unto the world because of offences or scandals for it must needs be that offences come but wo unto that man by whom the offence or scandal cometh Matth. 18.7 And as for all the prohibiting Laws in the sin of discord their penalty is expressed in these places The works of the flesh are manifest which are these hatred or enmity variance emulation strife or contention seditions or divisions heresies envyings of the which I tell you that they who do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Gal. 5.19 20 21. And if we live in the Spirit let us not be desirous of vain-glory provoking one another ver 25 26. Mark those which are turbulent and contentious or cause divisions and offences among you contrary to the Doctrine which you have learned and avoid them For they that are such serve not the Lord Jesus Christ Rom. 16.17 18. Whereas there is among you strife and divisions are ye not carnal 1 Cor. 3.3 And what the punishment of that is we are told in plain terms for to be carnally minded is death Rom. 8.6 13. Study so as to be ambitious of it to be quiet which directly forbids all unpeaceableness and to do your own business not busying your selves in other mens matters Which are of the number of those Commands that were given them by the Lord Jesus so that he who despiseth them despiseth not men but God 1 Thess. 4.2 8 11. Thou shalt not go up and down as a Tare-bearer among thy people I am the Lord to judge and punish any man that doth Lev. 19.16 I fear when I come there will be found among you debates tumults and I shall be forced to bewail many or excommunicate them with mourning over them as over a dead Body at a Funeral which was the custom of the Apostles times 2 Cor. 12.20 21. And as for the prohibitions in the particular relation of Subjects to our Sovereign Princes their sanction is expressed in the Texts ensuing The filthy Dreamers who despise dominion which implies both dishonour and irreverence of it and speak evil of Dignities were before ordained to condemnation Jude 4 8 9. Let every soul be subject to the higher Powers for they that resist and rebel against the men in power and authority shall receive to themselves damnation Render therefore in fear of that penalty Tribute to whom Tribute and Custom to whom Custom is due Rom. 13.1 2 5 6 7. Submit your selves to every Ordinance of man and be obedient to it for the Lords sake from whom you shall receive a severe recompence of all your disobedience whether it be to the King himself as supreme or unto lower Officers and deputed Governours as unto those who are sent by him 1 Pet. 2.13 14. In the last Days perillous times shall come for men shall be fierce traitors c. from such turn away for they are men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the faith 2 Tim. 3.1 4 5 8. And as for the particular prohibitions in the relation of people to their Bishops and Pastors their penalty is the same with the others already mentioned He that despiseth
or have all the force of a law in his members vers 23. That he sins against his own conscience For what he doth that he allows not but what in his own mind he hates and disapproves that he doth vers 15.19 That to do good although he might wish or approve it he found not v. 18. That he stands in need to cry out O wretched man that I am who will deliver me from this body of death being as yet not rescued from it but labouring under it vers 25. Of the regenerate elsewhere That as for their members they yield them not to be instruments unto sin but unto righteousness because now since their regeneration into true Christians Sin is not to reign in their mortal bodies that they should obey it in the lusts thereof Rom. 6.12 13. In becoming Christians they are dead and crucified with Christ that the body of sin might not be maintained to live and rule in them but destroyed that thenceforward they should not serve sin For he that is dead is freed from sin vers 6 7. The Gospel of Christ or the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath not enslaved but freed them from the law of sin and death Rom. 8.2 So that sin now shall not have dominion over them because they are not under the law through the weakness whereof it tyrannized but under Grace Rom. 6.14 That their body is dead because of sin Rom. 8.10 And that they make no provision for the flesh to fulfill and accomplish the lusts or concupiscence thereof Rom. 13.14 Because if they should they would cease to be sons of God and heirs of happiness and be rendred obnoxious to misery and death For the plain declaration of Christs Gospel concerning the heirs of life and death is this If you live after the flesh in accomplishing its lusts you shall die and 't is only if you through the spirit instead of acting and compleating do kill and mortifie the deeds of the body that you shall live Rom. 8.13 That against them there is no condemning force of any law Galat. 5.23 For the law of the spirit of life hath not left them still enslaved but made them free from the law of sin and death too Rom. 8.2 And being become the servants of God they have their fruit not to sin and death but to holiness at present and the end thereof at length everlasting life Rom. 6.22 That their bodies or fleshly members are temples of the Holy Ghost and sacred places wherein it inhabits and that they glorifie God in their bodies as well as in their spirits seeing both are Gods 1 Cor. 6.19 20. That they hold faith and a good conscience without which of faith in dangerous times they would soon make shipwrack 1 Tim. 1.19 And that they are saved by the answer of a good conscience which comforts and applauds but cannot accuse them 1 Pet. 3.21 That he only who doth good is of God 3 Joh. 11. and that there is no condemnation to them who do and walk after the spirit Rom. 8.1 And that without these new fruits it is in vain to lay any claim to a new nature because as our Saviour sayes if men were the children of Abraham they would do the works of Abraham Joh. 8.39 That the body of sin is already destroyed in them that henceforth they should not serve sin which the other complains so much of Rom. 6.6 For they are delivered from the law upon occasion of the weakness whereof sin brought forth in them fruits unto death to serve now in newness of Spirit Rom. 7.5 So that what the weak ineffective law could not do for them that the Grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord hath done in an effectual deliverance of them v. 25. So that if we will take the word of S t Paul and of the rest of the Apostles in this matter we must needs believe that regenerate men and heirs of heaven are not in any wise such persons as are described in that seventh Chapter to the Romans there being no agreement or resemblance at all between them Their tempers and behaviour are utterly inconsistent and as far distant as Heaven and Hell For one serves and fulfills the lusts of his flesh the other crucifies and subdues them one yields his members servants unto sin the other unto righteousness one is made a perfect captive and sold under sin the other is made free from it one is forced to act against his conscience the other alwayes acts according to it one complains of being oppressed by the body of death the other rejoyceth in being deliver'd from it one can perform and do no good the other doth all good one brings forth fruit unto death the other to eternal life These with others that might be mention'd are the lines of difference and the contrary characters of the person represented in the seventh Chapter to the Romans and the regenerate man described by S t Paul himself in all his other Epistles and in the following and foregoing Chapters of this By all which it appears that they are descriptions contradictory and incompatible which cannot at the same time be affirmed of the same man And that to give such an account of a regenerate man as is there set down would not in all appearance be the way to describe but rather slanderously to libel and revile him If any therefore enquire now how I know that S t Paul doth not speak of himself in that Chapter nor of any other regenerate person but of an unregenerate man who is yet in the state of death and sin he has his Answer full and undeniable already I know he doth not mean so because he cannot mean so the things which he sayes not bearing to be so understood For that meaning would make his speech to be no Apostolical Truth but an open falsehood it would make S t Paul inconsistent with himself and to unsay at one time what he had said most peremptorily at another It would make him flatly to gainsay all that he has taught elsewhere yea even what he had affirm'd almost in the same breath in the foregoing and the following Chapters So that he cannot be understood of himself or of any other regenerate person but must be allow'd according to his usual custome in such odious topicks as this was to speak all in a borrowed disguise and in the person of a sinfull and a lost man For indeed to be yet more particular all that discourse in that seventh Chapter is not meant either of S t Paul or of any other regenerate Christian but of a struggling and contending although yet unconquering and unregenerate Jew For the Apostle is there describing the state not of a perfect debauch nor of a perfect Saint but of a middle man He is one whose Conscience is awaken'd for he delights in the Law of God after the inner man of his mind and reason vers 22. and when he
our own making seeing it was at our own choice whether ever we should have come under it although when once we are subject to it it be no longer at our liberty whether or no we shall be acted by it And since all these sins which are thus indeliberate in themselves were yet so freely chosen and deliberated in their causes they are all imputable to us and fit to be charged upon us They were chosen indirectly and interpretatively in the choice of that cause which made them all afterwards to be almost if not wholly necessary For either we did deliberate or which is all one we had time enough to have deliberated as we ought before we chose our own necessity So that these sinfull actions which are unchosen and unconsidered in themselves are yet imputable to us and fit to be charged upon us as our own because we chose them by an indirect and interpretative volition As therefore there are some sins which are expresly will'd in the particulars by an express choice and deliberation so likewise are there several others which are expresly and deliberately willed only in their cause but in their own particulars are not chosen otherwise than indirectly and by interpretation And both these together take up the compass of our wilfull and chosen sins For either we expresly think and deliberately consider of the sinfull action when we commit it or we expresly and deliberately thought upon that cause when we chose it which makes us now to sin without thinking and deliberation And by all this it appears now at length how considerateness and deliberation is implyed in every wilfull sin For the sinfull action is seen and considered or it is our faults if it be not since we had both time and powers for such consideration either in it self or in its cause and being it is thus a matter of our consideration it is likewise a matter of our choice and a wilfull action And thus having shewn what sinfull actions are voluntary and chosen I proceed now to shew 2. That none of them is consistent with a state of grace but deadly and damning As for our wilfull sins they are all as we have seen of a most heinous nature being indeed nothing less than a contempt of Gods Authority a sinning presumptuously and with a high hand They are a plain disavowing of Gods will and renouncing of his Soveraignty they are acted in a way of defiance and are not the unavoidable slips of an honest and well-meaning servant but the high affronts of an open rebel So that no favourite or child of God can ever be guilty of them or he must cease to continue such if he be Because they interrupt all favour and friendship and put God and him into a state of hostility and defiance seeing they are nothing less than a renouncing of his Authority at least in that instance and a casting off his Law And this lawlesness or rejecting of the Law is that very word whereby S t John describes sin For sin sayes he is the transgression as we render it but more fully it should be the renouncing of the Law 1 Joh. 3.4 In which sense of sin for a wilfull and rebellious one he tells us that whosoever abides in God sins not vers 6 being indeed no longer a child of God if he do but of the Devil vers 8. They deprive us of all the benefits of Christs sacrifice so long as we continue in them and of all the blessings purchased for us by his death This was their effect under the Law of Moses and it is so much rather under the Gospel of Christ. For the sentence which that Law pronounced upon all presumptuous and wilfull offenders was death without mercy The soul that doth ought presumptuously the same by his contemptuous sin reproacheth the Lord and that soul shall be cut off from among his people Numb 15.30 If ever it could be proved against him by that dispensation there was no hope for him For he that despised or contemptuously transgressed Moses's Law died without mercy saith the Apostle being convicted under the testimony of two or three witnesses Hebr. 10.28 For even those very sins for which under the Law God had appointed an attonement were no longer to be attoned for than they were committed involuntarily and through ignorance In the fourth Chapter of Leviticus we are told that as for those sins which are committed against any of those Commandments which concerned things not to be done if they were acted involuntarily and unwillingly they should be allowed the benefit of an expiation and the sacrifices for that purpose are there prescribed But if they were acted wilfully and advisedly then had they no right to the expiation there promised nor would any sacrifices be accepted for them but that punishment must unavoidably be undergone which in the Law was threatned to them For to name no more this we are plainly told of two instances viz. the contemptuous making of perfume and eating of blood after both had been forbidden Whosoever shall contemptuously make any perfume like to that which was commanded to be made vers 35. to smell thereto that soul shall not be expiated by sacrifice but cut off from his people Exod. 30.38 And whatsoever man there be that eateth any manner of blood viz. willingly and wilfully the ignorant and involuntary transgressions of this and the like prohibitions being attoneable Lev. 4. I will even set my face against that soul and will cut him off from among his people Levit. 17.10 Thus severe was the sentence and thus unavoidable was the penalty of all wilfull sins under the Law of Moses And by how much the ministration of Christ is nobler than the ministration of Moses was by so much shall the punishment of all wilfull and contemptuous sins against the Law of Christ be more severe than it was for those against the Law of Moses And this is the Apostles own argument For if that word of the Law threatning death which was spoken unto Moses on Mount Sinai by the mediation only of Angels was stedfast and every transgression of it received the just recompence of that death which it threatned such persons dying without mercy How shall we Christians hope to escape it if we wilfully neglect and contemn those Laws which are published to us by so great a means of salvation as the Gospel is which was at first spoken to us not by Angels but by the Lord Jesus Christ himself who is far above all Angels being indeed the Son of God himself Hebr. 2.2 3. Surely as the Apostle argues in another place if he who despised even Moses's Law died without mercy for that contempt we ought to think with our selves not of how much less but of how much sorer punishment he shall be judged worthy who by wilfull sinning and despising of his Laws doth in a manner tread under foot not Moses but the Son of God
towards them and in like manner our Love of God fulfils all those other Precepts which comprehend our Duty towards him For all that he requires of us towards himself is neither more nor less than to honour and worship him to do nothing in all our behaviour that savours of disrespect towards him nor by any thought word or action to disgrace or contemn him But now nothing renders any person so secure from contempt as our love and affection for him Affront and reproach are a great part of enmity and despite and so can never proceed from us towards those whom we love and value But this is always certain that if we are kindly affected towards any person we shall not fail to express a due honour of him and bear him a just respect and veneration So that if we do indeed love God he is secure from all affront and disobedience being a most consummate reproach since our Love will not permit us to dishonour it can never suffer us to disobey him Thus mighty and powerful easie and natural a Principle of an universal obedience both towards God and men is an universal Love it doth the work without difficulty and carries us on to obey with ease in as much as all the particular Precepts and Instances of obedience are but so many genuine effects and proper expressions of it The effects of our love are the parts of our obedience the products of our Duty and Religion as well as of our passion So that it is a most natural Spring of our obedient service because it prompts us to the very same things to which God has bound and obliged us by his Precepts But besides this way of an universal love's influencing an universal obedience through this coincidence of the effects of Love and the instances of Duty our Love of God who is our King and Governour were a sure principle of our obedience to him were his Precepts instanced not in the same things which are the effects of a general Love which is the true Case but in things different from them For although our love would not prompt us to perform them by its natural tendency towards them and for their own sakes yet it would through submission and duty and for his sake who enjoyn'd them It would make us deny our selves to pleasure him and produce other effects than our own temper enclines us to to do him service For as Love is for doing hurt to none so least of all to Governours it will give to every one their own but to them most especially Now Duty and Service is that which we owe to our Rulers and the proper way of Love's exerting it self in that is by obedience If we love we shall be industrious to please and the only way of pleasing them is by doing what they command us For there is no such offence to a Governour as the transgression of his Laws no injury like that of opposing his Will and despising his Authority To do this is to renounce all subjection and to cast off his Yoke and so is not to express love but to declare enmity not affectionately to owne but in open malice to defie him But if any man would contribute to his delight there is no way for that but by a performance of his pleasure it is nothing but our obedience that can add to his contentment or evidence our Love For disobedience to our Governours is clearly the most profest hatred as the observance of our Duty is the most allowed instance of friendship and good will So that Love is a Spring and Principle of our Obedience not only because the Commandment and it run parallel and the instances of Gods Laws are the same with the effects of a general Love but also because our love of God would make us obey him even in such instances of Duty as differ from them For all that aversion which we have to the thing commanded would be outweighed by our desire to please him who commands it and although we should neglect it upon its own yet for his sake we should certainly fulfil and perform it And because our Love of God and men is so natural a Spring and so sweet and easie a Principle to produce in us a perfect and intire obedience to all those Laws which concern either or to any other therefore has God promised so nobly to reward it He never intends to crown an idle and unworking love but such only as is active and industrious For when he says that he who loves God and men is known of God and accepted by him and born of him and that God dwells in him and has prepared Heaven for him he speaks metonymically and means all the while a love with these religious effects a love that is productive of an entire service and obedience And to this Point the Scriptures speak fully For as for our love of God himself and of our Saviour Christ that is plainly of no account in his judgment but when it makes us keep his Commands and become industriously obedient If ye LOVE me saith Christ keep my Commandments for he that hath my Commandments and KEEPETH them he it is that loveth me and he only who so loveth me in obeying me shall be beloved of my Father and I will love him John 14.15 21. Whoso keepeth Gods Word saith S t John in him verily is the love of God made perfect and hereby it is by this perfection of Love in Obedience that we know we are in him 1 John 2.5 But if we have only a pretended verbal love or an inward passion for God and shew no Signs or Effects of it in our obedient works and actions we shall be as far from being accepted by him as we are from any true and real service of him He will look upon all our Professions only as vain speech and down-right flattery but will not esteem it as having any thing of sober truth and reality For whosoever hath this Worlds goods and seeth his Brother hath need and obeys not Gods Command of shewing mercy and the Case is the same in other Instances but shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him how dwells the love of God in him 1 John 3.17 And then as for our love of our Brethren it doth not at all avail us unto Mercy and Life unless it make us perform all those things which are required of us by the Laws of Justice Charity and Beneficence towards them My little Children saith S t John let us not love only in word and in tongue but in deed also and in truth For it is hereby by this operative love that we know we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts in full confidence of his mercy before him 1 John 3.18 19. Our love to them is to be manifested as Christs was to us viz. in good effects and a real service yea when occasion requires it and their eternal weal may be very much promoted