he hath given greater knowledge and greater abilities to obey him who can deny either of these and if these cannot be denyed certain it is that there is now since the Revelation of the Gospel a greater degree of natural duties required from men where that Gospel is revealed than was accepted or required before the Revelation of it 3. To all this add in the third place that there are now some certain duties enjoyned unto us which the light of nature can in no wise discover to us such are the Sacraments of the Gospel Baptism and the Supper of our Lord such is the worship of Jesus Christ as Mediator and such no doubt is the invocation of the Holy and ever blessed Trinity all which duties purely depend upon Revelation and are not in any wise suggested by natural light howsoever improved If it be said that these duties are not required where the Gospel is not revealed and published this is no answer no excuse for those persons who live where the Gospel is revealed They are required to practise these as well as any natural duties and sure the wilful neglect of them is wilful disobedience to God and therefore renders the guilty person liable to death eternal from all which instances it appears that a belief in Jesus Christ a full belief of his Gospel is absolutely and indispensably necessary for the full and perfect understanding of the duties which God requires from us 2. And secondly it is equally necessary for the clear and full and perfect knowledge of the great motives to those duties namely 1. that of eternal life and 2. the admirable love of God to men declared and evidenced in Jesus Christ and 3. the express and clear promises of the assistance of his Spirit to enable us to perform our duties 1. Certainly the promise of life eternal upon condition of Faith and Holiness is the highest motive to obedience but such a motive as is so far from being clear to the light of nature that there was a sect amongst the Jews who had not only the light of nature but the Law and Prophets to inform them that is to say the sect of the Sadducees who denyed the being of Angels or Spirits and the immortality of mens Souls Nor was there any one sect amongst the Philosophers but either flatly denyed this as the Epicureans and some others or else spake doubtfully in the point as the Academicks or those of Plato's School or had infinitely false as well as useless conceptions of it as the Pythagoreans had of old who held the transmigration of mens Souls out of one body into another yea into the bodies of brute Creatures so that this chief and principal motive to obedience the very immortality of mens Souls much more that of their bodies also was either doubted or disbelieved or else believed in such a manner as rendered it useless to that end amongst the wisest of the Heathen And as for the common sort of people who were led by the fictions of the Poets those did at best no more than fansie a sensual Paradise after death which could no more purge and cleanse them from sensual appetites than the hope and desire of a carnal happiness can make men holy pure and Spiritual 2. But then further what shall we say of the incomparable love and kindness that God hath declared to mankind in the Gospel of our blessed Lord which all the skill of humane wisdom the most improved natural light could never have discovered or imagined That God should send his beloved Son into the world to take our nature upon himself and reveal eternal life to men and shew them the way to attain unto it by the example of his life that he should give him to dye for us to make expiation for our sins that he should raise him from the dead and give him power to raise us and make our very Redeemer himself to become our Head and give him authority to be our Judg who knows our frailties by his own experience and sense of them are demonstrations of such an incomparable love to us such a concern for our salvation as would never have entred into the thoughts of mortal men had it not been thus revealed unto us These were mysteries hid from Ages discoveries of a greater love than natural light could have imagined Eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man to conceive the things which God hath prepared for them that love him 1 Cor. 2.9 Herein is love saith St John 1 Ep. 4.10 not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins And so St Paul Rom. 5.8 God commendeth his love towards us in that while we were yet Sinners Christ died for us Now the Gospel having clearly revealed infinitely more of the love of God to mankind than the light of nature could discover hath likewise given us infinitely greater and stronger motives to love God and trust in him and consequently to obey him than the light of nature could afford 3. Add hereunto the express promise which God made us in the Gospel of giving his Holy Spirit to us to strengthen our faith to confirm our hope to inflame our love to enable us to perform the Duties which we cannot perform by the strength of nature So our Saviour Luke 11.13 If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your Children how much more shall your heavenly Father give his Holy Spirit to them that ask him Could all the skill of humane wisdom or the best improved natural light give us such assurance of God's assistance in order to a holy life as this express Promise gives us Did the Philosophers ever speak at this rate Did they dream of Divine assistance to make them wise and just and holy What saith Tully in the name of Cotta on this Point lib. 3. de natura Deor. Virtutem nemo unquam acceptam Deo retulit No man ever judged he had Vertue from God And afterwards Nunquis quòd bonus vir esset gratias Diis egit unquam At quòd dives quòd honoratus quòd incolumis Did ever any man thank the Gods because he was a good man No but because he was rich and honourable and safe These were the things they ascribed to God but they never dreamed of his assistance to give them Vertue that they ascribed unto themselves Now how could men that never expected God's assistance in the purifying of their hearts and lives ever attempt to arrive at equal degrees of piety with those that expect and verily hope for that assistance How could they hope to overcome their inordinate lusts and inclinations or whatsoever they might hope how could they really overcome them without the assistance of God's Spirit which was a thing they did not only not expect but flatly rejected and denied judged it absurd to look for it Whereas now on the other hand
danger to have it extorted and wrested from us by the dreads and dangers of the world Sometimes an occasion is offered to men to oppress or to defraud their neighbour and by these means to gain Estates and heap up abundance of wealth and riches And there are the like occasions also of gaining esteem applause and honour of gaining them by unlawful means and yet are these and in these circumstances no small temptation unto many And as for sensual satisfactions I need not say what great temptations they are to many how they infatuate how they bewitch the minds of men in strange forgetfulness of themselves and of the accounts they must make to God in the world to come Add hereunto the great provocations unto evil men often offer each to other and that not only by ill example but by many other ways also Who is he that lives without an enemy and what will not an enemy do to blacken the Name to injure the Estate to blast the Fortune of him he hates And shall I need to say how far such injuries and affronts are apt to prevail with most men to anger and malice and animosity And what a dangerous thing is it to admit and entertain these passions Of that St Paul hath said enough Eph. 4.26 27. Be angry and sin not let not the sun go down upon your wrath neither give place to the devil Which puts us in mind of another Tempter who is most busie and most subtle in making all the other temptations we meet withal operative and effectual upon us by his delusion and seductions For he walketh about as a roaring lyon seering whom he may devour 2. Add hereunto in the second place that as we are under many temptations in this world so are our natures of themselves apt to comply with these temptations They are too ready to gather fire from every spark to find occasion of doing evil or lusting after it in the very least suggestion to it What will not those that love the world readily undertake and act when an opportunity of gaining wealth freely offers it self unto them They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition And how many are there that six this Principle in their minds and govern all their designs by it that they will be rich however it be they gain their end I need not say how great a temptation sensual pleasures are to others nor how far others are inclined to popular fame and reputation how proud and stomachful and ambitious and how they swell with rage and anger with envy and malice and animosity when they are opposed and contradicted I need not trouble my self to prove that the nature of man is much corrupted strangely degenerate and decayed What are all the Histories of the World but a Record for the most part of the corruption of humane Nature of Wars and Tumults fraud and falseness oppression and cruelty as an effect of those corruptions insomuch that the wise and learned Solomon after all his experience and observation of the ways and manners of mankind gives us his judgment in this conclusion Eccles 7.29 Lo this only have I learn'd that God hath made man upright but they have sought out many inventions So God made man at the first but they have much corrupted themselves and greatly depraved and abused their nature 3. These things being so that we are under many temptations unto evil that humane nature is of it self apt to comply with these temptations hence it appears in the third place that we have nothing but good Principles assisted by the Grace of God to secure and to deliver us from them Suppose an occasion and opportunity to do an evil presented and offered unto a man suppose the nature of this person does of it self move and incline him thereunto that it be a singular gratification to some predominant lust in him Is it imaginable that this person should refuse to comply with this temptation if he have no firm and stable Principles fixed and setled in his mind to prevent and hinder that compliance If he be not first perswaded fully that the thing is unlawful he is about that it will involve him in great guilt that this will expose him to Gods displeasure and the severe effects thereof If he be not possest with these Principles what should secure him from that sin Will the sensual person deny himself the delights and pleasures of sensuality or he that inordinately loves the world refuse the occasions and opportunities of all unlawful gains and interests or the proud and envious and malicious pine by the advantages that are offered him to revenge himself and hurt his neighbour while he hath no principles and rules of life to resist and oppose these temptations and his own inclinations to close with them Suppose him destitute of such Principles of stedfast purpose and resolution never to vary from God's will to serve and gratifie his own lusts never to lose eternal Glory to possess the advantages enjoy the pleasures of this world and he is left as a naked man against the weapons of his enemy and in no capacity to make resistance No sooner were the Gentile World for the violation of natural light abandoned by God unto themselves and let to the government of their lusts without the guidance of good Principles but that they fell into most prodigious and horrid evils as you may see it at large described in the first Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans They fell into all degrees of evil they persisted and continued in them without the least remorse of mind And when the Jews by their traditions corrupted the sacred word of God when they mistook the rules of life they also degenerated like the Gentiles they were as blind in their superstititions as the other were in their Idolatries Add hereunto that we are so far from being secure from the greatest evils without the fiercest and strongest Principles of hearty obedience unto God that wee find it difficult for those Principles to retain and hold us in obedience Men know evil and yet they do it understand their duties yet neglect them They forsake and omit what they approve they chuse and practise what they believe and know is evil They resist the light they violate Conscience they offer violence to their Principles and while temptations are so strong and natural desires so ill inclined as to lead them Captive unto evil against the convictions of their minds against their Principles and resolutions how much more must the same things have the same and worse effects upon them where they have no Principles to oppose to their temptations they meet withall and their own depraved and corrupt affections The summ of all I have said is this That we are under many temptations unto evil that humane nature is of it self apt to comply with those temptations that we
this comparison when he clearly discerns and firmly judges of all these things as this comparison represents them when he applies this judgment to every instance of life and action is it not an effectual principle to restrain him from every wilful sin to urge and press him to every duty will he chuse what is no way recommended and refuse what is represented to him under all the motives to choice and practice No man chuses or doth amiss but he that is ignorant or forgetful either in the nature of good and evil or in the effects and issues of them If there be nothing of this in the case let the charms of the world entice to evil he knows they are deceits and vanities and cannot believe what he knows is false nor be cheated by what he doth not believe Let the dreads and calamities of the world encomber and perplex his duties he reckons as the Apostle speaks that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us Rom. 8.18 This gives him courage strength and patience and makes him chuse afflicted innocence rather than guilty and short prosperity Insomuch that all the great examples of the highest and the noblest vertues all these victories over the world and all its troubles and adversities that are recorded in Sacred History all the great things that have been done all the great things that have been suffered for the advancement of Truth and Piety have sprung from a setled resolution grounded upon stable judgment never to vary from Gods will and the way to everlasting happiness So Moses esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Aegypt Heb. 11.16 So Christ himself for that joy that was set before him endured the Cross despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God Heb. 12.2 And so did his first and faithful followers for the securing of their innocence and the rewards thereunto belonging patiently endure all their sufferings as knowing that their light affliction which was but for a moment wrought for them a far more exceeding and an eternal weight of glory 2 Cor. 4.17 Thus is the approbation of things excellent that is a clear and stable judgment in all the duties of the Gospel as there declared and recommended not only a perfect cure and remedy of all the diseases of our minds to wit Ignorance Doubt and Vanity but also a constant guide and monitor in the whole course of our lives in the World Which being so 2. Let us now consider what are the means of attaining to it the second head before propounded 1. And here I shall not need to say that since every good and perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of lights Jam. 1.17 it must be sought of God by prayer Men may be rich and great and powerful meerly by the permission of Providence by practices not allow'd by God by fraud and injury and oppression But no man is wise unto salvation but by the special grace of God nor doth he give this special grace but where it is diligently sought of him which was the reason why St Paul so often puts it into his Prayers that God would bless men with this wisdom So he prays for Timothy that God would give him understanding in all things 2 Tim. 2.7 for the Ephesians That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of glory would give unto them the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him Eph. 1.17 for the Colossians that they might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding Col. 1.9 and lastly for the Philippians here that there love might abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment that they might approve the things that are excellent from all which prayers to God for wisdom for sound judgment in all our duties as represented in the Gospel we learn that it is the gift of God and to be sought by fervent Prayer especially seeing that God hath promised to give his spirit to them that ask him and that in a promise confirmed by an argument drawn from common and known experience for so is that Luke 11.13 If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts to your Children how much more shall your heavenly Father give his Holy Spirit to them that ask him 2. Nor shall I need to put you in mind that to our Prayers for the illumination of Gods grace something of industry must be joyned in the study both our of duties themselves and the motives that recommend them to us And yet in truth both these things are partly so written upon our hearts and since the revelation of the Gospel so expresly declared to us that we need not weary or waste our bodies nor vex and torment our understanding to gain the knowledge of either of them We need not now as St. Paul tells us say in our hearts who shall ascend into Heaven That is to bring down Christ from above to reveal the mind of God to us Or who shall descend into the deep that is to bring up Christ again from the dead that he may confirm that Revelation both these things are already done so that now as the Apostle adds Rom. 10.8 9. The word is high thee even in thy mouth and in thy heart that is the word of faith which we preach that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved Where we see the Apostle takes it for granted that he that firmly believed the Gospel could scarce fail in the very practice much less in the knowledge and approbation of what is necessary to salvation so clearly are all our duties revealed and so effectually recommended in the Gospel 3. So that what is now mainly requisite to gain a clear and stable judgment in the good and perfect will of God is so much antecedent probity so much sincerity towards God as that we are willing to do his will when it shall be made known unto us and wonder not that this should be requisite for the gaining of stable judgment in it for this is no more than the very belief that there is a God may produce in every man so believing If a man have nothing of inclination to do Gods will when he shall know it why should God reveal it to him or supposing what is so indeed that he hath revealed it in the Gospel yet how unapt a man is to believe what he is resolved not to practise and what if believed and not practised will be a perpetual anguish to him How easie is it in this case when the interests of powerful lusts and passions bribe and corrupt the understanding for a man to prevaricate with himself and baffle and cheat his own mind But where there
truth thereof those that believe and entertain it are highly improved and bettered by it but those that resolve not to reform upon any motives any incitements whatsoever are forced for their own ease and quiet to abandon the very belief of it and having rejected this belief become exposed to the greatest evils without the restraint and contradiction of any remorses and regrets They have lost that very fear and dread which wheresoever it is retained cannot but put a restraint and awe upon all those sinful inclinations that lead to future death and misery And now if the very fear of God where it is serious and considerate that is to say where it is the thing it pretends to be carry so great a power in it to command and press obedience to him how much greater must that power grow when love being added unto fear turns it into a filial reverence and puts another nature into it Love freely offers what fear constrains Love makes that easie and delightful which was a burden unto fear nay Love itself constrains likewise but without reluctancy and opposition for it removes these very things and this is the meaning of St Paul 2 Cor. 5.14 The love of Christ saith he constrains us we cannot resist its Sovereign Power we cannot oppose its mighty influence but freely surrender all within us all our powers and inclinations into obedience to our Lord who dyed for us and rose again And to refufe him this obedience would be an eclipse of our own joys would be to resist our own desires would be a violence to our selves such an other violence and contradiction as it would be to our Lord himself And this is the reason why our Lord hath represented our love to him as a certain principle of obedience John 14.23 If a man love me he will keep my words He can no more love and offend love and displease me both together than he can chuse to vex himself and willingly practise and embrace a contradiction to his will and although my precepts may engage him to take up his cross for ray sake and his own Salvation yet will not 〈◊〉 grievous to him seeing the 〈◊〉 had for him moved me to do the some thing yea infinitely greater for his sake Now then to conclude this second general seeing that reverence to God Almighty carries both fear and love in it seeing love and fear cannot fail to produce obedience to him hence I conclude that this obedience is such an effect of that reverence as cannot be rent and divided from it 3. Proceed we now to the third general where I am to shew the contradictions to that reverence and those are not only those very acts which are usually styled contempt and scorn and are in themselves expresly so but all such actions and omissions as evidently flow from gross neglect and want of reverence towards God that is to say all deliberate and wilful sins And this appears from the very words of God himself A son faith he honoureth his Father and a servant his Master If then I he a Father where is mine honour And if I be a Master where is my fear saith the Lord of Host unto you O Priests that despise my name and ye say wherein have we despised thy name They wondered it seems and were much surprised that they should be charged with so high a crime as that of despising the name of God that is indeed God himself they were so secure they were so confident that they were not guilty of this crime that they are willing to come to trial they plead not guilty to the indictment they debate and expostulate with God himself and demand the proof of the charge against them wherein have we despised thy name But what 's the answer which God returns how doth he justifie the charge against them ye offer polluted bread upon mine Altar and yet ye say wherein have we polluted thee Is there not a Law which forbids you to offer any unclean or polluted thing upon mine Altar do ye not know that there is such a Law and do you not then despise my name while you wilfully violate that Law which you your selves know to be mine Thus doth God make good his charge against these persons who wifully sinned against his Laws and seeing the very same charge lies against every wilful sinner therefore is every wilful sin a flat contradiction to that reverence which every man owes unto his Maker But now although it be true indeed that every deliberate and wilful sin be a contradiction to that reverence which every man ows to the Lord of all yet are there some particular kinds of wilful sin that are more expresly so than others Some there are that carry the very contempt of God clearly written upon the brow some there are that carry the marks of irreverence to him in more express and legible characters although not all in the same degree 1. The first and greatest of these sins is the derision of all Religion not only neglect but explicite scorn even of the very worship of God in Prayers and Praises and thanksgivings as well as of all other parts and instances of the duties he hath required from us A thing St Peter himself foretold 2 Ep. 3.3 4. Knowing this first that there shall come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lusts and saying where is the promise of his coming Where he describes such persons as deny the coming of Christ to judgment and then in consequence of this errour scoff and despise all Religion now what is Religion but the homage we owe to our Sovereign Lord the great Creator of Heaven and Earth and what is it then to despise Religion but to despise that homage and what is that but a despight to God himself the thing is evident beyond denial and so is another besides that which is that it is not matter of wit to deride and to despise Religion for if it be frenzy it is not wit and if it be not a real frenzy to despise the homage a man owes to God and so to destroy and ruine himself there is no frenzy in all the World 2. But to proceed another sin that carries a signal mark upon it of great irreverence towards God is drolling upon the holy Scriptures irreverent use of the words and expressions therein used the application of those expressions to trivial purposes and occasions prophane allusions made unto them and to be short the using of any thing therein said for mirth and sport and entertainment This is to play with Gods oracles this is to jest upon Gods word and so a reproach to God himself and visibly betrays a very great irreverence to him No man trifles no man jests upon the words of a mortal man turning them into sport and laughter but in derision and flight of him no man doubts but that he that scoffs 〈◊〉 â—â—rides his words brings a contempt upon his person