All those speeches metonymical where Obedience is not express'd and yet pardon is promised p. 8 CHAP. II. Of pardon promised to Faith Knowledge and being in Christ. The Contents Of pardon and happiness promised to Faith and Knowledg Of the nature of Faith in general Of natural Jewish and Christian Faith Of this last as â—ustifying and saving Of the fitness of Christian Faith and Knowledg to produce Obedience Pardon promised to them no further than they are productive of it Of pardon promised to being in Christ. Christ sometimes signifies the Christian Religion sometimes the Christian Church Being in Christ is being of Christ's Religion or a Member of Christ's Church The fitness of these to effect Obedience Pardon promised to them no further than they do 20 CHAP. III. Of pardon promised to Repentance The Contents Of pardon promised to Repentance Regeneration a New Nature a New Creature The nature of Repentance it includes amendment and obedience The nature of Regeneration and a New Creature It s fitness to produce Obedience Some mens repentance ineffectual The folly of it Pardon promised to Repentance and Regeneration no further than they effect Obedience In the case of dying Penitents a change of mind accepted without a change of practice That only where God sees a change of practice woulâ— ensue upon it This would seldome happen upon death bed resolutions and Repentance The general ineffectiveness of this shown by experienâ—s Two reasons of it 1. Because it proceeds ordinarily upon an inconstant temporary Principle viz. nearness of Death and present fears of it Though it always begins there yet sometimes it grows up upon a Principle that is more lasting viz. a conviction of the absolute necessity of Heaven and a Holy Life 2. Because it is ordinarily in a weak and incompetent degree All TRVE resolution is not able to reform men Sick bed resolutions generally unable Such ineffective resolutions unavailing to mens pardon 34 CHAP. IV. Of pardon promised to Confession of Sins and to Conversion The Contents Of pardon promised to confession of sins The nature and qualifications of a saving Confession It s fitness to make us forsake sin The ineffectiveness of most mens confessions The folly and impiety of it Pardon promised to confession no further than it produces Obedience Of pardon promised to conversion The nature of conversion It includes Obedience and is but another name for it 55 CHAP. V. Of pardon promised to Prayer The Contents Of pardon promised to Prayer Of the influence which our Prayers have upon our Obedience Of the presumption or idleness of most mens prayers Of the impudence hypocrisie and uselessness of such Petitions Then our prayers are heard when they are according to Gods will when we pray for pardon in Repentance and for strength and assistance in the use of our own endeavours Pardon promised to Prayer no further than it effects this Obedience and penitential endeavour 64 CHAP. VI. Of pardon promised to our fear of God and trust in him The Contents Of pardon promised to our fear of God and trust in him Of the influence which mens fears have upon their endeavours and how they carry on ignorant minds into superstition but well-informed judgments to obedience Of the influence of mens trust in God upon their obedience The ineffectiveness of most mens trust Of the presumption and infidelity of such confidence That pardon is promised to fear and trust so far only as we obey with them 76 CHAP. VII Of pardon promised to the love of God and of our Neighbour The Contents Of pardon promised to the love of God and of our Neighbour Of the fitness of an universal love to produce an universal obedience That pardon is promised to it for this reason The Conclusion 85 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 94 CHAP. II. Of LOVE the Epitome of Duty towards God and men and of the particular Laws comprehended under Piety towards God The Contents Of the Duties of Piety and Righteousness both comprehended in one general Duty LOVE It the Epitome of our Duty The great happiness of a good nature The kind temper of the Christian Religion Of the effects of LOVE The great Duty to God is Honour The outward expression whereof is Worship The great offence is dishonour Of the several Duties and transgressions contained under both 106 CHAP. III. Of the particular Duties contained under Justice and Charity The Contents Of the particular Duties contained under Justice and Charity Both are only expressions of Love which is the fulfilling of the Law Of the particular sins against both Of scandal Of the combination of Justice and Charity in a state that results from both viz. peace Of the several Duties comprehended under it Of the particular sins reducible to unpeaceableness Of the latitude of the word Neighbour to whom all these dutiful expressions are due It s narrowness in the Jewish sense It s universality in the Christian. 114 CHAP. IV. Of our Duties to men in particular Relations The Contents Of our Duties to other men in particular Relations The Duties enjoined and the sins prohibited towards Kings and Princes Bishops and other Ministers The particular Duties and sins in the relation of Husband and Wife Parents and Children Brethren and Sisters Masters and Servants Of the two Sacraments and Repentance A recital of all particular Duties enjoined and sins prohibited to Christians Of the harmlesness of a defective enumeration the Duties of the Gospel being suggested not only outwardly in Books but inwardly by mens own passions and consciences 134 CHAP. V. Of the Sanction of the foregoing Laws The Contents Of the Sanction of all the forementioned particular Laws That they are bound upon us by our hopes of Heaven and our fears of Hell Of the Sanction of all the particular affirmative or commanding Laws 168 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 190 BOOK III. What degrees and manner of Obedience is required to all the Laws forementioned CHAP. I. Of Sincerity The Contents THE first qualification of an acceptable obedience that it be sincere Two things implied in sincerity truth or undissembledness and purity or unmixedness of our service Of the first Notion of sincerity as opposite to hyyocrisie or doing what God commands out of a real intention and design to serve him Of a two-fold intention actual and express or habitual and
Acts 10.28 And upon the account of this freedom which he then took the Christian Jews who were of the Circumcision contended with him when he came up to Jerusalem reproving him for this That he went in to men uncircumcised and did eat with them Acts 11.2 3. The Woman of Samaria wondred that Jesus being a Jew should vouchsafe to ask so much as a Cup of cold water from her who was a Samaritan this being the stiffness of the Jewish Principle To have no dealings with the Samaritans John 4.9 Nay to that height of unkindness had they arrived as to deny even the most common Offices of humanity and Charity to show the way or give directions for a journey to any Gentile man Which several of the learned Heathens have smartly reproved and most justly complained of All which they did upon a supposition that the Neighbour to whom love and kindness was required by their Law was only a Fellow-Jew a Brother-Israelite and a man of their own Nation Which narrow and contracted sense they thought they had good reason to fix upon it from an expression in their own Law Lev. 19. where in the repetition of this great and general Duty of Love to our Neighbour the Word Neighbour is set in conjunction with and explained by one of the Children of their own People For thus 't is said Thou shalt not avenge nor bear any grudge against the Children of thy People but thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self verse 18. Thus limited and confined was the Jewish Love God had chosen them out of all the Nations of the World for a peculiar people and had hedged them in from the rest of mankind by peculiar Laws and a peculiar Government And upon this they concluded that whatsover God required of them he did it as their political King and as the particular Head of the Jewish Nation and that he intended those Laws which he gave them as Rules for their behaviour towards their own Brethren and Fellow-Subjects not towards Strangers of Foreign Nations But as for our Lord and Sovereign Jesus Christ he is a Governour and has enacted all his Laws not for the guidance of any one Nation or People but of all the world He told his Disciples when he sent them out to preach the Gospel That all power was given to him both in Heaven and in Earth and thereupon commissioned them to go out and proclaim his Laws not to the Jews alone but to all Nations Matth. 28.18 19. And by this universality of his Empire he has taken away the partition-wall which was between Jews and Gentiles having made them both one Ephes. 2.14 So that now there can be no further colour or pretence for a limited and restrained affection all the World by this means being now again made one People Fellow-subjects and Brethren and Neighbours unto one another Whatever the Jews conceived of their Laws therefore 't is plain that all the Laws of Christ which command all manner of Justice Charity and Peaceableness and forbid all expressions of uncharitableness injury and unpeaceableness towards our Neighbours make these things due to all mankind It is not either distance of Country nor contrariety of interest no nor what is most of all presumed to exempt us from the obligation of these Duties diversity of opinion or perswasion in matters of Religion which takes away from any man his right to all that kindness and advantage from us which all these forementioned Laws give him But of whatsoever Country Calling or Religion he be he is the Neighbour here meant to whom all these instances of Love which are the particular Laws of Duty must be performed And this our Saviour has determined once for all in his Answer to the Lawyer Luke 10. For when he put the Question to him Who is my Neighbour to whom the Law commands all these things to be done ver 29. Jesus answers him by a Parable that it is every man in the World whom he may at any time have to do with although he be never so much a Stranger nay of a party and opinion in Religion never so contrary unto his For what Religion was ever more odious unto any one than the Samaritan was to the Jews So great a detestation had they of it that when they would give a Name of the vilest ignominy and greatest hatred to Christ himself they told him he was a Samaritan and joined with it such a farther Character as they thought would best suit with it his being possessed with a Devil Say we not well answer'd they that thou art a Samaritan and hast a Devil John 8.48 But yet for all this height of enmity between the Jews and Samaritans he tells the Jewish Lawyer who demanded of him who was his Neighbour that a Jewish man fell among Thieves who wounded him and left him half dead and that a Samaritan coming by had compassion on him and bound up his wounds and took care of him Hereby insinuating That any man though so contrary to him in Religion as these two were to one another is the Neighbour whom the Law intends and therefore in full answer to his Question he bids him Go and do so likewise Luke 10.30 to 38. CHAP. IV. Of our Duties to men in particular Relations The CONTENTS Of our Duties to other men in particular Relations The Duties enjoined and the sins prohibited towards Kings and Princes Bishops and other Ministers The particular duties and sins in the relation of Husband and Wife Parents and Children Brethren and Sisters Masters and Servants Of the two Sacraments and Repentance A recital of all particular Duties enjoined and sins prohibited to Christians Of the harmlesness of a defective enumeration the Duties of the Gospel being suggested not only outwardly in Books but inwardly by mens own Passions and Consciences BUT besides all these Laws contained in the general Command of Love to our Neighbour which require something of us to be performed or forborn towards all mankind there are yet some more particular instances of it which make some things due from us not as we are left at random towards all men indifferently but as we stand more peculiarly related towards some whether that relation be 1. Publick and Political of Prince and Subjects Ministers and People 2. More Private and Domestick as is that between 1. Husband and Wife 2. Parents and Children 3. Brethren and Sisters 4. Master and Servants For in all these special Relations Love to our Neighbour exerts it self in special effects which are all such peculiar Laws as bind us not towards all men indifferently but only towards them whom we stand so related to To begin with the first 1. The first relation from whence result several effects of Love and instances of Duty towards some particular men distinct from what we owe to the rest of all mankind is that which is between us and our Publick or Political Governours and Rulers And because we are
tenderness of love and kindness which should result from the intimate nearness of their relation is estrangedness and as proceeding higher to ill-will and expressions of an imbittered mind as it causes for the present wrangling and debate it is strife or contention and as festring into an habitual displeasure and lasting regret it is hatred or enmity and as breaking out in a proclamation of each others weaknesses evil speaking or publishing each others infirmities 3. As doing no good to each other themselves so seeking none from God which is not praying for each other 4. An avoidance of each others Bed and being false to the Marriage Covenant about it which is adultery But if this unfaithfulness really be not but through the suspicious temper of one side is only groundlesly presumed it is jealousie 2. Such as are peculiar and concern one particularly towards the other either 1. The Husband towards the Wife and here the effects of hatred will be 1. A neglecting to use his power for her benefit through an insensibleness of her wants and regardlesness of what hardships she struggles with either as to necessaries or conveniencies which is not providing for her or not maintaining her or as to injuries and affronts which is not protecting her 2. Vsing all his authority over her by a harsh and magisterial peremptoriness of Command which is imperiousness or by an unyielding inflexibleness of will and pleasure which is uncompliance uncondescension 2. The Wife towards the Husband where it will produce a light and low opinion of him which is dishonour which being joined with a contemptuous and fearless behaviour towards him is irreverence And this will effect 1. A backwardness and utter averseness to do unbidden what will delight and please him which is non-observance or what is commanded by him which is disobedience 2. A refusal or open reluctance in undergoing that restraint which he imposes which is casting off his yoke or unsubjection So that in this relation of Husband and Wife the effects of hatred or Laws forbidding are to both Parties the Law against unconcernedness in each others condition against not bearing each others infirmities against provoking one another against estrangedness against strife and contention against hatred and enmity against publishing each others infirmities against not praying for each other against adultery against jealousie To the Husband towards the Wife the Law against not maintaining her against not protecting her against imperiousness against uncompliance or uncondescension To the Wife towards her Husband the Law against dishonour against irreverence against unobservance against disobedience against casting off his yoke or unsubjection 2. The second domestick relation is that of Parents and Children and in this the effects of Love and particulars of Duty are either 1. On the Parents side towards their Children as are 1. From the extraordinary nearness that their Children have to them being parts even of their own Bodies that most heightened tenderness and kindness which because it is found in all Animals in nature towards their own Offspring is called natural affection 2. From their Childrens helplesness and wants their care over them Which is taken up 1. With respect to this world and that in behalf 1. Of their Bodies by providing for them all due necessaries and conveniencies both whilst they are under them and against the time that they go out from them which is provision maintenance 2. Of their whole persons both Body and Soul by training them up in the best ways they can whereby to render them profitable in their station and useful Members of Society which is good and honest education In the management whereof the using of their power over them not in a rigorous and austere but a tender obliging way is loving Government 2. With respect to the next world and that is by causing them to be duely instructed in Religion and stamped with vertuous impressions which S t Paul calls bringing them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord Ephes. 6.4 And for those things which they cannot procure for them by themselves begging of them from Gods bounty by prayer for them 2. On the Childrens side towards their Parents where besides the Duty of natural affection common to them with the Parents Love effects 1. An opinion of their preheminence and authority over them which is honour and this when it is joined with an awful regard to them and a fear of offending them is reverence 2. Whilst they are under them a ready chearfulness in performing all that they command which is obedience and in bearing and undergoing all that they impose which is submission or subjection 3. When either they are under them or gone from them a readiness upon occasion to requite all their care and kindness in supporting and relieving them which the Apostle calls requiting their Parents 1 Tim. 5.4 4. And in such things wherewith they cannot supply them of themselves entreating God on their behalf which is praying for them So that the effects of Love and instances of Duty in this relation 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 the Law of honour of reverence of obedience of subjection of requiting upon occasion their care and kindness of prayer for them And opposite to these effects of Love which are so many commanded Duties the effects of hatred in this relation which are so many particular forbidden sins are these that follow 1. In Parents towards their Children it will produce a coldness of heart and unconcernedness for them which is being void of natural affection Which will effect 1. As to their care for them a neglecting to provide for their present maintenance or future support which is condemned by S t Paul under the name of not providing for those of our own house 1 Tim 5.8 2. As to their Government and Conduct of them an untoward exercise and employment of it where there is no just need or a neglect of it where there is For it will produce 1. As to things that are good and necessary for the Children an utter carelesness of them when the Parents neglect to teach and inure them to such things as may render them dutiful to God and useful in Society and contrariwise accustome and bring them up in idleness vanity or wickedness which is irreligious or evil education 2. As to things that are unnecessary and indifferent a great strictness and severity whether it be in commanding or imposing things without reason necessity or convenience or convenient things with imperious harshness or unreasonable rigour only out of wantonness of authority and plenitude of power which instead of exciting them to a cheerful obedience is apt to move in them an irksome regret which is provoking them to anger 3. And instead of praying for
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
the truest interpreters of our hearts and minds declare there is no such thing this is to add mockery to sin and a fresh affront to our former disobedience It is most grossly to play the hypocrite and in the most fulsome fashion to dissemble with him It is an endeavouring to put tricks upon the Almighty a tryal of his skill a seeking to delude and impose upon an infinitely wise and all-seeing God by such thin pretences as cannot but be seen through and discovered by any ordinary Man But let no Man vainly deceive himself for God is not mocked nor can all the arts of Earth and Hell out-wit and go beyond him No he sees clearly through all this hypocrisie and he will most severely punish it And when he comes to judge of mens Confessions at the last day he will then in the face of all the world distinguish reality from complement an acknowledgment of Repentance from one of form and custom and will for ever reward the first whilst he punishes Eternally the latter He will Pardon no Confession of our Sins at that day but only such as is sorrowful penitent and obedient we must amend those faults that we confess before we can with reason hope that he will accept us And for this the Scripture is clear It is only our returning upon Confession that shall be rewarded and forgiven If they Repent says Solomon and SAY we have done perversly we have committed wickedness and so RETVRN unto the Lord with all their heart and all their soul Then HEAR their Prayer and forgive thy people that have sinned against thee 1 King 8.47 48 49 50. And to name but one place more these words of Solomon are full and home to the purpose He who Confesses and FORSAKES his Sin shall find mercy Prov. 28.13 That Confession of our Sins then whereupon Christ our Judge will at the last day accept and Pardon us is such only as ends in Reformation and Obedience The service of our lives must go along with that of our lips we must do as we say and avoid what we condemn before we can safely trust that God will Sentence us to that Mercy and Life which are not the rewards of idle acknowledgments but only of a confessing obedience Fifthly This Gospel condition of Life and Pardon is sometimes call'd Conversion Without this we can have no hopes of happiness For except ye be CONVERTED says our Saviour and become as little Children as void as they are of all former impressions and courses and free to enter upon new ones ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Matt. 18.3 But if our Conversion goes before Gods Pardon is sure to follow after that being the duty and this the reward Repent and be CONVERTED says the Apostle Peter that your Sins may be blotted out Act. 3.19 Conversion sets us without the reach of Death and beyond the precincts of Damnation for he who Converts a Sinner from the error of his way doth save a Soul from DEATH Jam. 5.20 Now our Conversion from Sin to God is nothing else but our Obedience in another word For it denotes a turn and a change not only of our wills and desires but withal and that principally of our works and actions For our course of actions is in the familiar and customary use of the Scriptures call'd our way our Conversation walking and our particular actions so many several steps and our turning out of a course of Sin and Transgression into a course of Righteousness and Obedience being like the turning out of a wrong way into a right is call'd our turning from Sin and our turning to God i. e. in one word our Conversion So that to be Converted is nothing else in the Scripture language but to have the course of our works or actions turned and from workers of sin to become workers of obedience When Mercy and Life then are promised to our Conversion they are not made over to any thing which is separate from Obedience but to that only which denotes it and is but another name for it We are not Converted until we obey so that Obedience still is that which must procure our peace and capacitate us for Pardon and happiness when Christ comes to judge us CHAP. V. Of Pardon promised to Prayer The CONTENTS Of Pardon promised to Prayer Of the influence which our Prayers have upon our Obedience Of the presumption or idleness of most mens Prayers Of the impudence hypocrisie and uselessness of such Petitions Then our Prayers are heard when they are according to Gods will when we pray for Pardon in Repentance and for strength and assistance in the use of our own endeavours Pardon promised to Prayer no further than it effects this Obedience and penitential endeavour SIxthly That condition whereto the Gospel promises a gracious sentence of Mercy and Life is sometimes call'd Prayer or calling upon God The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him says David to all that call upon him in truth Psal. 145.18 Thou Lord art good and ready to forgive and plenteous in mercy to all that call upon thee Psal. 86.5 For so surpassing is his goodness and the riches of his grace that any thing may be had of him for asking to them who desire it he can deny nothing Ask and it shall be given you says our Saviour for EVERY one that asketh receiveth Matt. 7.7 8. And that in all things equally one as well as another if they do not distrust him and disbelieve his Love For ALL things WHATSOEVER you shall ask in Prayer BELIEVING you shall receive Matt. 21.22 So that if men want any thing which they desire that God would bestow upon them it is because they do not beg it of him Ye have not says S t James because ye ask not Jam. 4.2 For not only the overflowing goodness of Gods own nature but besides that the interest of his Son Jesus Christ our MEDIATOR at his right hand gives us a full security in all our requests that we shall obtain any thing which we ask in his name Ask any thing says he in my name and I will do it Joh. 14.14 Nay so dear is he to Almighty God that although he himself should not move in it yet through the strength of Gods inexpressible love to him they who beg in his name can miss of nothing In that day says he after I am taken from you you shall ask ME nothing Verily verily I say unto you whatsoever you shall ask the FATHER in MY NAME he will give it you And I say not that I will PRAY the Father for you for the Father himself loveth you BECAVSE ye have loved me Joh. 16.23 26 27. And seeing as the Apostle says that we have so great and powerful a High Priest at Gods right hand whether our suit be for pardon or strength or for whatsoever else Let us come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain Mercy for
pardon of past sins and find grace to prevent future and to help in time of need or in the most fitting season Heb. 4.14 16. Now our Prayers and calling upon God are a mighty means and instrument of our serving and obeying him And as all the forementioned means had a natural fitness and tendency to make us do the will of God so have our Prayers a supernatural and help us to fulfill the Divine Laws not so much through any efficacy of their own nature as through the aids of divine grace For we have great difficulties to conflict with and great hindrances to overcome in the doing of our duty There is much hardship in a holy course to make us unwilling and if we have a will to it we yet find much weakness in our selves that renders us unable to continue in good living and to perform constantly all those good things which God has commanded us For we have much ignorance of what we should do and much other business besides it and as for that moreover which we do know we are apt many times to forget it or through the throng of other things through suddenness and surprize not to consider of it when we should use it or when in our minds we do clearly see it yet full often we cannot bring over our wills to choose and embrace it For our lusts and passions prove many times of more force with our wills than our reason and Religion and we are either born down by the weight and strength or wearied with the tediousness and length of a temptation And now to supply all these defects and to support us in the doing of our duty notwithstanding all these infirmities we have an absolute necessity of the help and assistance of Gods grace We want the good timeing of his providence to have temptations assault us when we are best able to overcome them and our duties stay for us when we may most easily perform them We stand in need of the suggestions of his spirit to cure our forgetfulness of the aids of his grace to enlighten our minds and clear up our notions and bend our wills and establish our resolutions and so to make us unmoveable in a good course So that we have an utter necessity of his help both in the disposals of his providence and in the concurrence of his spirit to enable us to obey his Laws and make us as S t Paul says both to will and to do what he requires of us Phil. 2.13 But now it is our Prayers which bring all these divine aids down unto us They obtain for us a good providence and a powerful spirit which in spite of all our natural weaknesses shall work out our Obedience God will not deny us these when we ask them For as our Saviour argues unanswerably If ye being EVIL will yet give GOOD gifts to your Children how much more shall your heavenly Father whose GOODNESS infinitely exceeds yours and who cannot be tainted with any of your ILLNESS give the HOLY SPIRIT that best of gifts to them that ask him Luk. 11.13 And since our Prayers procure such a never failing aid and so Almighty an assistance for us they must needs be a certain cause and instrument of our active service and obedience They imply in us an hearty desire of having and fetch down to us a sufficient power of doing our duty and keeping Gods Commandments And when there is both a preparedness in us to use and a readiness in God to give us grace sufficient with it to do his will there is nothing further wanting to our performance of it And forasmuch as our Prayers imply the one and procure the other because they fetch down Divine aids and express our forwardness to obey with them therefore have they so much favour shown them and Life and Pardon promised to them For God never intends to reward an idle and unobeying Prayer but such only as is industrious and obedient Our Prayers must first make us do what he commands before they obtain those mercies for us which he promises For when he tells us that they who call upon him shall find favour and mercy he speaks metonymically he includes obedience although he doth not express it He means them only who pray for mercy and pardon and obey in order to it and who ask for grace and strength and work with it after it is granted No prayers are of any account with him but the prayers of the obedient so that if ever we expect to be saved by them at the last day we must obey with them The Prayers indeed which are generally offered up to God have little of this in them For if men pray for mercy and pardon they take no care to come furnished with Repentance and Obedience which is that indispensable condition whereupon the Gospel doth encourage us to ask and hope for Pardon And if they pray for any vertue or grace they expect it should drop into them without any endeavours of their own and will take no pains to cooperate with and use it Their prayers for Mercy are generally presumptuous and their prayers for Grace unendeavouring and idle Obedience all the while is the least in all their thoughts and has the least of all their care For their petitions are all put up for pardon whilst they continue in their sins or for vertue and grace whilst they put forth no endeavours All their Religion is only to be often upon their knees to keep up Prayers in their Families morning and evening to send up a great many Lord forgive me 's Christ help me 's they are a praying and desiring but not a working and obeying people They are of a sordid niggardly Religion which would receive all and give nothing their petitions look altogether on the reward but quite overlook the duty they would take all from God but do nothing for him But this is such a way of praying as will most certainly delude men but can never do them good It is inconsiderate hope and downright folly to expect that ever God should hear our prayers for Pardon whilst we continue in our sins For since he has so frequently so plainly and so peremptorily declared That at the last day he will Pardon none but the penitent and obedient it is impudent incredulity to beg pardon whilst without any amends we continue to sin and disobey It is to desire of him that he would break his word that he would Pardon and acquit us when his Gospel condemns us It is to beg of him that he would frame another Religion and another Law than that of his Son Jesus a Religion that would save us when that kills and destroys us By such asking forgiveness from him whilst we go on in rebelling against him we do as good as desire that he would cease to be governour of the world and leave us to our own selves that we might have no law but our own wills
it vers 3 4. So that upon the whole matter it plainly appears that all that is said in that seventh Chapter of willing but not doing of sinning against conscience and transgressing with regret doth not at all set forth the savable state of a true Christian under the Gospel of Christ but only the state of a midling sinner of a lost Jew who only struggles but cannot conquer being yet under the weakness and imperfections of the Mosaick Law Nay I add further So far is any man who continues to work and act his sin from having any real grounds of hope and encouragement from this place in so doing that in very deed if he rightly consider it it will possess him with the quite contrary It holds out to him a sentence of death and shews him plainly the absolute necessity not only of a willing but also of a working obedience For the man who disobeys thus unwillingly and sins with regret is so far from being in a state of Life and Salvation notwithstanding his sins that he is here expresly said to be undone and slain by them The motions of sin under the law bring forth fruit unto death vers 5. when sin revived by the coming of the Commandment I died vers 9. The Commandment which was ordained unto life I on the contrary found to be unto death vers 10. Sin taking occasion and advantage by the Commandment slew me vers 11. Sin wrought death in me by that Law which is good vers 13. O! wretched man that I am by reason of this subjection unto sin who shall deliver me from this body of Sin and Death vers 24. But on the other side if we would belong to Christ and appear such Servants as he will own and reward at last we are taught in this very place that we must not be worsted by sin but overcome it that we must not work evil but righteousness that we must not walk after those sinfull lusts which are seated in the flesh but after the Law of God which is enthroned in the Spirit Sin shall not have dominion over you if you are under Grace Chapter 6.14 Now yield your members servants unto righteousness vers 19. you are become subject and as it were married to Christ that you should bring forth fruit to God Chap. 7. vers 4. Now being delivered from the Law we must serve not sin as we did under it but God in newness of spirit vers 6. The Grace of God through Jesus Christ hath delivered me from this body of death vers 24 25. The Law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus when I became truly and acceptably Christian hath made me free from the law of Sin and Death Chap. 8. vers 2. So that the righteousness of the Law which it was not able to work in me is now by means of the Gospel wrought and fulfilled in me for since I came under it I am one who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit vers 4. So that all the while we see this is a Truth most sure and stedfast which S t Paul is so far from opposing in this seventh Chapter to the Romans that in reality he avers and confirms it viz. that if we do commit sin and work iniquity it will not excuse us to say that we did it unwillingly The regret in sinning may be allowed as was shewn in the last Chapter to lessen our crime and thereby to abate our punishment but that is all which it can do for it cannot quite exempt us from it And thus at last we see that this fourth ground of shifting off the necessity of this service with our actions viz. our hope of being saved at the last day although we have not obeyed in our works but have wrought disobedience because when we did so it was with reluctance and unwillingness is no less delusive than are all the former It will certainly fail any man who trusts to it and if he will not see it before make him know the falseness of it when it is too late to rectifie and amend it As for all those foundations therefore whereupon men build their hopes of a happy sentence without ever obeying with their strength or bodily powers viz. the conceit of being saved for Orthodox Opinions for ineffective desires for never transgressing but through a strong temptation or with an unwilling mind they are all false grounds snares of death and inlets to damnation But as ever we expect that our obedience should avail us unto Pardon and Life we must obey with our strength or bodily powers as well as with our wills our passions and our understandings If we would have God at the last day to approve our service and to reward and justifie our obedience this and nothing less than this must be done towards it We must not only desire but do it is not enough to will and approve but we must work and practise what is commanded us We must not barely think right in our minds or desire with our affections or choose with our wills but as the Perfection and Crown of all we must put to our strength and executive powers and work the will of God in our lives and actions Without this if we have life and opportunity all other things will signifie nothing For it is he who doth good saith S t John who will be looked upon to be of God 3 Joh. 11. Little children saith the same Apostle let no man deceive you for it is only he who doth righteousness who in Gods judgement is righteous 1 Joh. 3.7 It is this service of our strength or bodily powers in our outward works and operations which makes up our duty and secures our reward Blessed are they that do his Commandments for they only have right to the great reward the Tree of Life Revel 22.14 But on the other side if we do evil and work iniquity no service of our other faculties can stand us in any stead but in Gods account we shall be esteemed wicked wretches children of wrath and heirs of destruction For the words of our Saviour Christ himself who is to judge of it are vehement and plain Verily verily I say unto you whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin Joh. 8.34 He who commits sin is of the devil for whosoever doth not righteousness is not of God but a child of the devil 1 Joh. 3.8 10. And as this working wickedness howsoever we are against it in our thoughts and desires makes us in Gods account sons of sin and disobedience so will it be sure to render us withall children of wrath and destruction If you live after the flesh saith S t Paul you shall die Rom. 8.13 And whatever men think in their minds or desire in their hearts or profess in their words to the contrary if for all that they have sinned impenitently in their actions Christ has told them plainly that he will pronounce when he comes to
and revengefull they have caused us to thirst after their blood and to be in pain when they escape to measure our Religion and the soundness of our piety by a reproachfull spitefull and implacable usage and behaviour towards them All which are tempers and practices most contrary to those Laws of forgiving injuries of loving enemies of praying for our persecutors of returning good to all that have evilly entreated us of meekness and patience mercy and placableness towards the worst of men yea even the worst of enemies which are so much the soul and spirit of that Religion which we pretend to be so zealously concerned for And if we look into our Zeal for our several parties how many other Laws shall we find to be daily transgressed I will not say for the preservation but even where that is sufficiently secured for the higher advancement and encrease of them For what rude and unmannerly envious and ill-natured reflections are daily cast upon those persons especially Ministers and men of Note and Eminence who differ from us How forward are many among us to undervalue and disparage to contemn and affront them to heap reproach and infamy upon them thereby to render their persons ridiculous and their pains useless For are not several of us perpetually censuring and speaking evil of them undervaluing all their real virtues putting hard and uncandid interpretations upon all their actions prying diligently and maliciously into all their defects and aggravating all their faults or follies raising continually and spreading to their disparagement uncharitable and envious yea oft-times false and slanderous reports We envy and hate reproach and censure revile and slander bite and devour one another and all this fierceness and uncharitableness we use for that meek that charitable gentle quiet thing Religion For in its service we take our selves to be engaged and so long we fancy that we have a liberty of saying or doing any thing Thus full of Sin and Disobedience is this sanctified pretence It is the cover for every offence and the common shelter for all transgressions for we boggle not at any Sin so long as it tends to preserve us in the prosperous profession of our endangered or oppressed Religion But if men would consider calmly and have patience to look beyond the surface and bare outsides of things they would soon discern the vanity of this pretence and how far it will be from excusing any such sinfull and disobedient practices as they seek to justifie and warrant by it For as for true and substantial Religion for protection on whereof they would be thought to venture upon all these transgressions it stands in no need of their help to preserve it in persecuting times although they should use innocent and just means not such as are sinfull and disobedient It would live then without their care and whether they went about by any politick means to preserve it yea or no. For Religion is not lost when Religious men are persecuted it doth not suffer when they do that profess it seeing it is not one jot impaired when men are buffetted and imprison'd nay bleed and dye for it Indeed as for the freedom of the outward means of Religion viz. the publickness of preaching the community of prayers the unrestrained use of Sacraments and the like they are much straitned by persecutions and we must expect to feel either a great want or at least a great difficulty in them when Times are troublesome A persecuting Government can in great measure deprive us of them when after our utmost use of all such means as are no wayes undutifull or against any Law of Christ we are not able longer to preserve them But as for the substantial part and main body of Religion it self which consists in sound faith and upright obedience and which those outward means are appointed to beget in us no state of Times need make them wanting For they are within our selves and depend altogether upon Gods Grace and our own Free Wills so that all the Powers of Earth and Hell are never able to rob us of them Could the violence of persecution have oppressed our Religion it had been stifled in the birth For it entred in a persecuting age and yet it was not overborn by the pressure of its sufferings but bravely overcame them It begun grew up and conquer'd all the world in the very heat of affliction and opposition the more it was burdened the more still it spread and the more men sought to straiten it the further was it enlarged the common observation then being this that the unparallel'd sufferings of its professors were the true prolifick cause of the vast encrease of the Church And indeed what should hinder Religion from thriving in evil times For the same Religious Duties which are practised with more ease in a prosperous are exercised also but with greater honour in an afflicted state of things To believe and do well to be pious and pure chast and sober just and charitable meek and gentle quiet and peaceable with all other instances of a substantial and acceptable Religion are indifferent and undetermined to any turns of Providence They may be shewn under fines and imprisonments axes and halters as well and much more honourably than in times of ease and softness Nay some of its most eminent parts and noble instances are not capable of being exercised at other times For the duties of patience and taking up the cross of forgiving injuries and doing good to enemies of praying for them that persecute us and despitefully use us which are the most exalted strains and glorious heights of our Religion are such for which a peaceable and prosperous a favourable and flourishing age affords no famous opportunities For we must be in a state of suffering evil and labouring under a load of persecution before we can sufficiently evidence how readily how magnanimously how meekly how charitably and Christian-like we can undergo it So that as for Religion and Sufferings they are at no such distance but that they may very easily be made to meet they bear no such mutual opposition but that they may very well consist together nay I add farther but that they may honour and ennoble and in many instances enlarge and improve each other And therefore Religion needs not to be preserved from sufferings since it can not only live in them but is also much extended heightned and advanced by them But where Religion wants our help and calls for our assistance yet is it not possible for us to please God or to secure it by sinfull means but only by such as are either virtuous or at least innocent It is not possible for us I say to please God by sinfull means although we intend them for his own service For what is there in God that should be served by our sins Is his Love for any thing greater than his hatred is for sin so as the gratefulness of that should make
all Piety towards God by complying readily with all his Laws depending upon his Providence and resigning our selves up to his pleasure in all purity and soberness being free from all lust and intemperance all sinfull pleasures and covetous practices in all justice and charitableness doing right and keeping peace and shewing mercy towards all men This sayes S t James will pass for pure and undefiled Religion before God and the Father at the last day if in such instances as these we have expressed not our Opinions but our Obedience by visiting the fatherless and widows in their affliction and by keeping our selves unspotted from all filthiness and disobedience of the world But if any man pretends to be religious who is destitute of this obedience that mans religion is vain Jam. 1.26 27. Secondly Another great part and object of Religion is the Doctrines of the Gospel And agreeably another act or instance of Religious Service is Faith or Orthodox Belief And this is intended by God himself as a means to produce the former Faith being the great instrument in working out our obedience For this is that victory sayes S t John which makes us conquerors and overcometh the world even our Faith 1 Joh. 5.4 An obedient practice is all that a righteous faith aims at it is its end and perfection that which consummates and compleats it It being as S t James assures us by works which faith co-operates and concurs to that faith is made perfect Jam. 2.22 And this all the points of our Christian Faith are most admirably fitted to effect in us For in that epitome and compendious account of them whereinto they were contracted by the Apostles and which is usually called the Apostles Creed there is not any one purely speculative Article or point of idle notion and meer belief But every one is influential upon our practice and helps on our obedience as any man of competent skill and abilities may discern by running over the particulars These two then viz. Knowledge and Practice or Faith and Obedience take in the compass and integrate the nature of our Religion Obedience is the chief thing and first in Gods design and Faith or Knowledge is the great means which God has prescribed us whereby to compass and effect it So that Religion in that sense wherein the Scriptures use and God at the last day will reward it is the same as obedience to the Gospel proceeding from a belief of it or in Saint Paul's phrase an Obedient Faith or a Faith which worketh by Love Gal. 5.6 And now let any man who considers this bethink himself and tell me whether the transgression of Gods Laws can ever be called Religion in the Scripture-sense or whether it be possible for men to evidence themselves to be Religious by their disobedience For the making us obedient to Gods Laws is the great design and ruling part of all true and acceptable Religion and the belief and profession of Gods Truth is an exercise and instance of it that avails us only so far as it concurs to and effects this Religion of Obedience So that Religion is not preserved but lost by breach of Duty it is never strengthned by disobedient and sinfull means but is alwayes wasted and destroyed by them Let no man therefore ever dare to make Religion a cover for unlawfull Lusts or dream of protecting it from sufferings and persecutions this way For God will by no means endure such gross mockery and hypocritical pretensions as for men to feign piety in the breach of Duty but if they wickedly transgress his Laws and continue impenitently to disobey him let their Forms and Professions of Religion be what they will he will take severe and endless vengeance on them for their impious and irreligious disobedience If they are scandalized at the Cross that is if they fall off from religious and obedient walking into irreligious transgressions to prevent those crosses that in persecuting times are annexed to a religious practice and profession they are scandalized or offended in him The Cross is to them a stumbling-block and a rock of offence it makes them trip and turn out of their duty because they will disown their Lord and break all his Laws rather than undergo it And this is a most provoking sin and subjects men to a most dreadful punishment For as God will abundantly recompence any losses which befall us through the exercise of an obedient Religion and a pious conscience so will he also inflict such torments as infinitely surpass all those light and present advantages which we may at any time promise our selves from our politick disobedience For whosoever by sinfull means will seek in perillous and persecuting times such as those were to save his life in this world he shall certainly lose it for ever in the next world but whosoever shall lay down his life for Christs sake in taking up that cross which is laid upon a Christian profession and a Christian practice that same man shall save and encrease it eternally Luk. 9.23 24. So that no dangers in obedience can ever render it secure for any man to disobey But that which God indispensably exacts of us in perillous cases is this Fear not them which kill the body but after that is done have nothing more to fright you with being utterly unable to kill or so much as touch the soul but fear him who exacts obedience of you even at such times as your bodies are like to perish for it for he after he hath killed the body which is all that they can do is able eternally to destroy both body and soul in hell Mat. 10.28 No dangers then can make obedience cease to be our Duty nor any sufferings make it cease to be our Interest So that neither Religion nor Prudence will ever allow of sinfull means but every Religious yea every wise man must take up the Cross and patiently bear any sufferings that come upon him for Religion rather than use any breach of duty or unlawfull wayes either to prevent or remove it And this the Saints of God and Religious men alwayes did For no dangers or hazards no pains or sufferings in obedience could ever draw them to seek for shelter by disobeying David was tryed with hazards and persecutions of all sorts but neither sense of present nor fears of future evils could ever chase him from his duty or make him seek relief from iniquity and sin He could not be forced upon it by the most apparent dangers even of the most affecting loss the loss of life it self The wicked saith he have laid a snare for me yet I erred not from thy Precepts My soul is continually in my hand ready to be snatched out of it yet do I not forget thy Law Psal. 119.109 110. He was not grieved or frighted into it either by the pressure of his pains or by the number of his persecutors They had almost consumed me upon earth but
fallibility of the means of knowledge and these do not destroy but consist with a state of Grace and Salvation They get not into mens understandings by means of an evil and disobedient heart For it is not any love which they have for the damning sins of pride ambition sensuality covetousness unpeaceableness faction or the like which makes them willing to believe those Opinions true that are in favour of them When they take up their prejudice they do not see so far as these ill effects nor discern how any of these sins is served by it and therefore they cannot be thought to admit it with this design to serve them in it Nay further what is the best sign of all that lust or disobedience which the prejudice happens to minister to in some instance is mortified and subdued in them and so cannot have any such influence upon them For sometimes those very men who in such instances as their prejudice avows it are irreverent and disrespectful pragmatical and disobedient to their Governours or the like in all other cases wherein their Opinion is unconcerned are most respectfull quiet and obedient Humility and modesty peaceableness and quietness submission and obedience are both their temper and their practice For they love and approve and in the ordinary course and constant tenour of their lives conscientiously observe them and nothing under such prejudicate Opinion as makes them believe them to be unlawfull in some cases could over-rule that love and obedience which they have for them and prevail upon them so far as to act against them So that with these men it is not the disobedient temper of their hearts which makes their conscience err but the errour and prejudice of their conscience which makes their practice disobedient In such men therefore as are thus qualified who do not see those sins which their prejudice ministers to when they admit it and in all the other actions of their lives except where by this prejudice they are over-ruled shew plainly that they have mortified and overcome it 't is clear that the prejudice did not get into their consciences by any influence of an evil and disobedient heart But that which made way for it was only their natural weakness of understanding or the fallibility of the means of knowledge They are not of an understanding sufficient to examine things exactly when they embrace their prejudice for their Reason then is dim and short-sighted weak and unexperienced unable throughly to search into the natures of things and to judge of the various weight and just force of reasons to sift and ransack separate and distinguish between solidity and show truth and falsehood But those arguments whereupon they believe and upon the credit whereof they take up Opinions are education and converse the instruction of spiritual guides the short reasonings of their neighbours and acquaintance or the authority of such books or persons as they are ordered to read and directed to submit to These are the motives to their belief and the arguments whereupon they are induced to think one Opinion right and another wrong and the only means which they have of discerning between truth and falsehood But now all these means are in no wise certain they are an argument of belief indeed and the best that such men have but yet they are far from being infallibly conclusive Sometimes they lead men right but at other times they lead them wrong for they are not at all determined one way but in several men and at several times according as it happens they minister both to truth and falsehood In matters that are primarily of belief and speculation in Religion they lead a hundred men to errour where they lead one to Truth For there are an hundred Religions in the world whereof one alone is true and every one has this to plead in its own behalf that it is the Religion of the Place and Party where it is believed The Professors of it are drawn to assent to it upon these Arguments viz. because they have been Bred up to it by the care of their Parents and Teachers and confirmed in it by long Vse and Converse It was Education and Custome the Authority of their Spiritual Guides and the common Perswasion of their Countrey which made them both at first to believe and still to adhere to it And every one in these points having these Arguments to plead for his own belief against the belief of every other man who differs from him since of all these different Beliefs one alone is true these Arguments must be allow'd indeed to minister to Truth in that but in all the rest to serve the Interest of Falsehood In matters of Duty and Practice 't is true there is infinitely more accord and good agreement For almost all the laws of nature w ch make up by far the greatest part of every Christians Duty are the Catholick Religion of all sober Sects and Parties in the world So that these Arguments of Custome and Education are tolerably good and right guides to mens Consciences how ill soever they are to their speculative Opinions because although they carry them into a wrong belief yet will they lead them into a righteous practice But although in these practical Notions and Opinions they are commonly a right yet sometimes and to several persons they prove a wrong instrument For even in matters of Duty and Practice men are no more secure from errour than they are from disobedience nor more certain that they shall have no mistakes about them than that they shall not go beyond them They have and till they come to Heaven ever will have erroneous Opinions as well as practices so that these motives Education and Custome and Authority will never be wanting in the world to instill into weak and undiscerning minds such Opinions as will in some instances and degrees evacuate and undermine some duties And since there will never be wanting in the world such fallible Arguments and means of knowing nor such weak and unexperienced understandings as must of necessity make use of them 't is plain that several disobedient prejudices will in all times get into mens minds not through any wickedness or disobedience of their hearts but only through the natural weakness of their minds and the fallibility of the means of knowledge And when any prejudices which lead to disobedience enter this way they do not put us out of Gods favour or destroy a state of Grace and Salvation but consist with it For in our whole action of disobedience upon them there is nothing that should provoke Gods wrath and punitive displeasure against us He will not be at enmity with us either for acting according to our erroneous Conscience or if the errour was thus innocent for having an erroneous conscience for our rule of action He will not be offended at us I say for acting according to our erroneous conscience for whether our conscience be true or
fair and likely and withal it is most secure It is sure to preserve obedience because it admits of nothing that interferes with it and it is also very likely to preserve truth for it is most certain that no Doctrine can ever come from God which encourages or justifies any wickedness so that not only an obedient heart but even a free and impartial reason must quit the Principle if it appear to draw after it an evil consequence To settle Principles and Rules of Judgment then especially for simple and unlearned minds the first enquiry ought to be not what is true or false but what is good or evil For since the knowledge of this is more plain and obvious easie and accessible to all but to them most especially 't is evident that as all others so particularly they if they would secure even Truth as well as Duty must begin with Laws as their Principle and from thence make their inference to Doctrines and Opinions To avoid sinfull errours and disobedient prejudices they must use Laws and Duties as the measure whereby to judge of notions not notions and opinions as the standard whereby to measure and interpret plain Laws CHAP. VII A sixth cause of ignorance of the present actions being comprehended under a known Law And of the excusableness of our transgressions upon both these sorts of ignorance The CONTENTS All the forementioned causes of ignorance of our present actions being included in the known Law are such to knowing and learned men Besides them the difficult and obscure nature of several sins is a general cause of it to the rude and unlearned Sins upon this ignorance as well as upon ignorance of the Law it self unchosen and so consistent with a state of Grace and Salvation Where there is something of choice in it they extenuate the sin and abate the punishment though they do not wholly excuse it The excuse for these actions is only whilst we are plainly ignorant they are damning when we are enlightned so far as to doubt of them but pardonable whil'st we are in darkness or errour This excuse is for both the modes of ignorance 1. Forgetfulness 2. Errour All this pardon hitherto discoursed of upon the account of ignorance of either sort is no further than the ignorance it self is involuntary The willfulness of some mens ignorance The several steps in voluntary ignorance The causes of it Two things required to render ignorance involuntary 1. An honest heart 2. An honest industry What measures necessary to the acceptance of this industry Gods candour in judging of its sufficiency This discourse upon this first cause of an innocent involuntariness viz. ignorance summed up THus upon all these accounts which are mention'd in the two former Chapters we see it will often happen that although in the general we do know the Law which forbids any sin yet shall we still be ignorant of our present actions being comprehended under it For the small and barely gradual difference between Good and Evil the limitedness of most Laws the indirect obligations which pass upon some indifferent actions the clashing and enterfering of some of Christs Laws sometimes with other commands and sometimes with our own prejudices and prepossessed Opinions are also many reasons why after we know the General Laws that forbid them we shall still venture upon several particular actions through ignorance of their being forbidden And yet besides all these which are causes of such ignorance to the most knowing men and to those who have great parts and learning there will be moreover one great and general cause of it to the more rude and ignorant and that is the difficult and to them obscure nature of the sin it self which in the Law is expresly and by name forbidden For how many of them who hear it may be of the Law against censoriousness lasciviousness uncleanness carnality sensuality refusing of the Cross and other things do not well understand what those words mean Alas the greater number of men in the world have but very rude and imperfect notices of things they see them only in a huddle and by halves And as it is in their knowledge of other things so is it in their understanding of Sin and Duty likewise For their sight and sence of them is dark and defective and albeit they have some general and confused apprehensions of them yet is not their knowledge so clear and distinct as that they are thereby enabled to judge of every particular action whether it falls under any of them or no. And since they have but such half and imperfect notions of several sins it is no wonder although they know the General Law if they venture upon several actions which really come under it not knowing that they do And thus we see that besides the ignorance of the Law it self there is also another sort of ignorance which will be a cause of sin to several men of all sorts and that is their ignorance of their present actions being comprehended under the letter of the Law and meant by it But now as for those transgressions which men of an honest heart are guilty of through this ignorance of their own actions being included in the Law when they do know the Law that includes it They do not put them out of a state of Grace but consist with it For this Ignorance is mens unhappiness rather than their fault it is not an Ignorance of their own choosing seeing their will and choice is against it For they desire to be free from it and strive to prevent it and endeavour according to those abilities and opportunities which God has afforded them to get right and true apprehensions of all Gods will that they may perform and of every evil action that they may avoid it But it is the difficulty and intricateness of things which renders them ignorant and that is not of their making For the sins forbidden are not easily distinguished from the Liberty allow'd or from the Duty commanded in some cases and therefore it is that they mistake them and are ignorant of the sinfulness of their present action when their knowledge of it should enable them if they would to avoid it And since it has so little of their own will and the men even when by reason of their ignorance they transgress are industriously desirous to know their Duty and prepared to practise it so far as they understand it it shall have nothing of Gods anger It is altogether a pardonable slip and a pitiable instance and that is enough to recommend it to Gods mercy For he is never rigorous and severe in a case that is prepared for pity and pardon so that he will not punish but graciously forgive it And if it were otherwise who could possibly be saved For this ignorance of their present actions being comprehended in the words of the known Law is such as the wisest men have been subject to and they among the rest who were
be ignorant of their Duty and that is the reason why they do not understand it For either they shut their eyes and will not see it or they are idle and careless and will not enquire after it or they bend their wits at the instigation of their lusts to dispute against it that after they have darkened and confounded it in their own thoughts they may mince or evacuate mistake or disbelieve it So that if at last they do not know it it is because they do not desire the knowledge of it or will be at no pains for it or take pains against it to supplant and disguise it And these are they who are not ignorant against their wills but as S t Peter says willingly ignorant 2 Pet. 3.5 And as for such ignorance as this it will by no means excuse us before God but if we will be ignorant God's will and pleasure is that we shall suffer for our sinful ignorance and for all those sins that we commit under it which we might and should have seen and avoided For all those Laws which are ignorantly transgressed by us threaten death and the ignorance being of our own chusing takes nothing off so that death and damnation rest upon us But that ignorance which can be pleaded to excuse us before God must be an ignorance that is involuntary an ignorance which in the constitution of our nature is imposed upon us and is not chosen by us And a right understanding of this difference in ignorance being of so great moment I shall before I dismiss this Point observe when our ignorance is voluntary and when it is involuntary First I will show when our ignorance is â—â—voluntary As for the knowledge of our Duty like as of all other things it doth not spring up in our souls as an Herb doth out of the ground nor drop into us as the rain doth from a Cloud but it must be sought for and endeavoured after and unless we use the means of acquiring it we must be content to live without it The means of obtaining the knowledge of God's Laws and of the innocence and sinfulness of our own actions are the reading of his Word the attendance upon his Ministers the thinking or considering upon what we read or hear in our own minds and praying to God to make all these means effectual for our information and if ever we expect to know God's will we must put these in practice But now whether we will make use of these or no is plainly in our own choice and at our own pleasure For if we will we may exercise and if we will we may as well neglect them And when both these are before us if we refuse to make use of the means of understanding and wilfully neglect the methods of attaining to the knowledg of sin and Duty good and evil if we sit down without the knowledg of Gods Law it is because we would our selves and our ignorance is a voluntary and a wilful ignorance And this is the first way of our ignorance's becoming voluntary viz. when it is so upon a voluntary neglect of those means which are necessary to attain knowledge And this in the Schools is called a supine slothful careless ignorance And if it be of such things as lay near in our way and might have been known without much pains or much seeking it is called gross or affected ignorance But besides this sort of wilful ignorance of our Duty through a wilful neglect of those means which are necessary to the knowledge of it there is another which is higher and more enormous and that is Secondly When we do not only sleight the means of knowing God's Law but moreover use those of confounding or mistaking it For our knowledge of things is then made perfect and useful when it is clear and distinct and our assent and belief of things is then gained when their evidence is represented and duly considered of But now as for the employing of mens thoughts in clearing or confounding believing or disbelieving of the Laws of God it is perfectly in their own power whether to use it on one side or on the other And commonly it is their pleasure to use it on the worse For they will consider only of the difficulties and intricacies of Gods Laws which may darken and disturb confound and perplex their thoughts about them and attend only to such exceptions as they can make against them which may unsettle their minds either about the meaning or the truth of them so that after all their reading and considering of them they shall not understand but err and mistake them As it happens to all those who had disputed themselves out of the knowledge of their Duty until as Isaiah says they call evil good and good evil put darkness for light and light for darkness Isai. 5.20 And when men are ignorant of their Duty because they chose thus to endeavour it and take pains for it this ignorance is voluntary and wilful with a witness These two reasons of mens being ignorant of their Duty viz. their neglect of such means as are necessary to the knowledge of it or their use of the contrary means of confounding or discrediting it are the causes of their wilful ignorance And that which makes them guilty of both these is either the gross idleness or the profligate wickedness of their hearts which are wholly inslaved to some beloved lust or sin They are wretchedly idle and therefore they will not learn their Duty because that is painful they are greatly wicked and so care not for the knowledge of the Law because that would disquiet them Men love darkness says our Saviour better than light because their works are evil they hate the light and will not come to it lest their deeds should be reproved by it John 3.19 20. Because they hate and fear the Law they neglect the means of knowing it nay they pick quarrels with it and endeavour all they can to perplex or darken to evacuate or disparage it So that our ignorance is then wilful when we are therefore ignorant because we neglect the means of knowledge or industriously endeavour to be mistaken And that because we are either too idle to learn or too wicked to care for the knowledge of our Duty The idleness and wickedness of our hearts is the first spring and the neglect of means and industrious perverting of the truth are the great productive instruments of our wilful ignorance Which is therefore called voluntary and wilful because the Principle and the Instruments the motive and the means to it are both under the power and choice of our own wills And these things making our ignorance wilful viz. a wilful neglect of the means of knowledge or a wilful perverting of those Laws which we are to know we shall easily discern Secondly What ignorance is unwilled and involuntary namely that which implies a freedome from and an absence
of both these so that unto it there is required First An honest heart Secondly An honest industry First In all involuntary ignorance it is necessary that we have an honest heart We have S t Paul's word for it that our receiving of the love of the truth is necessary to a saving belief and understanding of it They who believed not the truth but believed lyes fell into that miscarriage by this means says he because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved 2 Thess. 2.10 11 12. And our Saviour has taught us that an obedient heart is the surest step to a right understanding If any man will or is willing to do God's will he shall know of the Doctrine which I preach whether it be of God John 7.17 The heart or will must in the first place be obedient and unfeignedly desirous to know Gods will not that it may question and dispute but practise and obey it For a failure here spoils all besides because the Heart and Will is the Principle of all our actions and if it be against obeying any Law it will be also against understanding it and so will be sure to make us neglect and omit more or less the means of coming to the knowledge of it To prevent therefore all wilful defects afterwards care must be taken in the first place that our hearts be honest and truly desirous to be shewn our Duty be it what it will They must entertain no Lusts which will prejudice them against Gods Laws and make them willing either to overlook or to pervert them But they must come with an entire obedience and resignation being ready and desirous to hearken to whatsoever God shall say and resolv'd to practise it whensoever they shall understand it Of their sincerity in which last besides their own sense and feeling they cannot have a greater Argument than their being careful to be found in the practice of so much as they know already without which it is not to be expected that they should be perfecter in their practice by knowing more This Honesty and obedience of the Heart then is necessary in the first place to make our ignorance involuntary because we should wilfully omit the means of knowledge and become thereby wilfully ignorant if we wanted it But then as an effect of this Honesty of the heart to make our ignorance involuntary and innocent there is yet further required Secondly An honest Industry For the knowledge of our Duty as was observed is not to be got without our own search but we must inquire after it and make use of the means of obtaining it before we shall be possessed of it We must read good Books which will teach us Gods Will but especially the Bible we must be constant and careful to hear Sermons attend diligently to the instructions of our spiritual Guides whom God has set over us for that very purpose We must submit our selves to be catechised by our Governours taught by our Superiours and admonished by our Equals begging always a Blessing from God to set home upon our Souls all their instructions And after all we must be careful without prejudice or partiality to think and meditate upon those things which we read or hear that we may the better understand them and that they may not suddenly slip from us but we may remember and retain them All these are such means as God has appointed for the attainment of spiritual knowledge and laid in our way to a right understanding of his Will And they are such as he has placed in every mans power for any of us to use who are so minded So that if we are ignorant of our Duty through the want of them we are ignorant because we our selves would have it so But if ever we expect that our ignorance should be judged involuntary we must industriously use all those means of knowledge which are under the power of our own wills whereby we may prevent it And as for the measures of this industry viz. what time is to be laid out upon it and what pains are to be taken in it that is so much as in every one according to their several abilities and opportunities would be interpreted an effect of an honestly obedient heart and of an unfeigned desire to know our duty by any honest man For God has not given all men either the same abilities or opportunities for knowledge and since he has not he doth not expect the same measures from them He doth not reap where he has not sown but that which he exacts is that every man according to his opportunities should use and improve that talent be it more or less which was intrusted with him as we are taught in the Parable of the Talents Mat. 25. And to name that once for all we have this laid down by our Saviour as an universal maxime of Gods Government unto whomsoever much is given of them shall much be required Which is the very same equitable proceeding that is daily in use among our selves For to whom men have committed much of him they will exact the more Luk. 12.48 If any man therefore is industrious after the knowledge of Gods will according to the measure of those abilities and opportunities which God has given him he is industrious according to that measure which God requires of him All men have not the same leisure for some are necessarily taken up by their place and way of life in much business some in less some have their time at their own disposal some are subject to the ordering of others And all have not the same abilities and opportunities for some are able by study and reading to inform themselves some have constant need of the help and instruction of others some have most wise and understanding teachers and may have their assistance when they will others have men of meaner parts and attainments and opportunity of hearing them more seldom But now of all these whose leisure and opportunities are thus different God doth not in any wise exact the same measure No one shall be excused for what another shall be punished but if every man endeavours according to his opportunities he has done his Duty and God has accepted him And in the proportioning of this where there is first an honest heart God is not hard to please For he knows that besides their Duty men have much other business to mind which his own constitution of Humane Nature has made necessary and he allows of it The endeavours which he exacts of us are not the endeavours of Angels but of men who are soon wearied and much distracted having so many other things to employ us But he accepts of such a measure of industry in the use of all the means of knowledge as would be interpreted for an effect of an hearty desire to know his Laws by any honest man For where there is first an obedient heart God will not be equalled and
In which wicked action that which moved them was envy and malice but that which prevailed with him was his fear of their calumnies and of the anger of the Roman Emperour For in his own heart he was minded to release him being convinced of his innocence and afraid to have any hand in the Blood of one who called himself the Son of God But because he called himself a King which his own mind could not but suggest to him as the Rabble did afterwards was a Title whereof the Emperour would be extremely jealous therefore he gives him up to their will fearing lest if he did not he should be traduced as no Friend to that most jealous Prince Tiberius Caesar. And when Christ himself comes to pass Judgment in comparison of his offence and theirs He who delivered me unto thee saith he hath the greater sin Joh. 19.11 Those discomposures then of our knowing Faculties which are innocent and fit to excuse our inconsiderate slips which proceed from them are such as spring from an unwill'd sudden grief or anger but especially from an unwill'd sudden fear To make it unwill'd I say it must be sudden for if our fear it self which is a passion that amazes more than all the rest doth not presently effect any thing but stays some considerable time and reigns long before it produces any sinful action then it is a matter of our own choice being it is a fear of our own indulging We give it room and entertainment we feed it or give way to it and that makes our fear to become our sin which can never serve for our vindication For a true Christian must be as bold as a Lyon and fear nothing so much as the disobedience of his God and the breach of his Duty But as for other things which men use to be afraid of whether they be loss of Fame of Estate of Friends of Liberty or even of Life it self though he may justly fear and avoid them when he can innocently yet if they are the burden of the Cross imposed upon the doing of his Duty he must chearfully take it up and not fear and fly from but overlook and contemn them For God will make us an abundant Recompence in the next World for any thing which we part with for his sake in this And therefore he indispensably requires us as in all reason he very well may not to fear and shrink from the loss of any thing even of life it self when he calls for it but in Faith of his Promises and in hope of his Rewards most couragiously to undergo it Persecutions and Dangers which are the great objects of our fears are the chiefest tryals of our obedience for which reason they are so often in Scripture called Temptations and therefore their business is to evidence how much we will part with for obedience but by no means to excuse us when we disobey But in relation to them Christs command is this Fear not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul but fear him who can cast both body and soul into Hell Mat. 10.28 And if we suffer our fears of them to chase us away from the owning of his Religion or to drive us from the performance of his Will his Sentence against us is plain and peremptory Whosoever is ashamed of me and my words and dare not owne them although it be in a Generation that is sinful and adulterous wherein he will be sure to suffer for the profession of them of him shall the Son of man be ashamed when he cometh in the Glory of his Father with his holy Angels Mark 8.38 As for all Fear then which drives us from our Duty it is our fault and if we stand and pause upon it and have time to deliberate and arm our selves against it if we fear still our fear is our wilful and deadly sin and doth not excuse but deserve our condemnation And such was the fear of Peter that made him deny his Lord which cost him so many penitential tears to wash off the stain of it Mat. 26.75 And in an instance of a smaller crime such was the indulged fear of Abraham when to save his own life he exposed his wife Sarah and Pharaoh King of Egypt to the danger of an adulterous mixture Gen. 12.11 12 13 15 c. Concerning which action S t Chrysostome thus discourses He participates in the Adultery of his wife and doth in a manner minister to the Adulterer unto his wife's reproach only that he himself may avoid a present death And this he did because his mind was still subject to the Tyranny of death the sting of it was not yet taken out nor his fears of it subdued but the face of it was ghastly and terrible above his courage And a like sinful practice upon a deliberate fear we meet with in Isaac in the same case who was a true Child of Abraham in his infirmities as well as in his piety Gen. 26.7 But that Fear or Grief or Anger which makes excusable and innocent discomposure must be sudden and surprizing It must seize on us suddenly and disturb our thinking powers unawares and carry us on to transgress before we can recover our selves from the discomposure And when it doth so it is forced upon us and is not chosen by us we are hurried into it without our own consent and cast upon it whether we will or no and since the inconsideration it self is thus involuntary the slips upon it are excusable and such as God will not severely punish but has been always prone to pardon and dispense with David the man after Gods own heart when he received the sad 〈◊〉 of Absoloms being slain was suddenly transported into a most impatient and indecent height of sorrow 2 Sam. 18.33 and Chap. 19. v. 2 4. Samuel who was a person so dear to God that if he could be intreated by any man he tells us it would be by him or Moses standing to intercede before him did yet in an instance that would have drawn him into the hazard of his life dispute Gods command when he should have performed it and question where in duty it became him to obey For when God bid him go and anoint David King which service was sure to draw upon him the cruel and implacable hatred of Saul through the sudden force of that frightful thought instead of obeying he answers again saying How can I go for if Saul hear of it he will kill me 1 Sam. 16.1 2. And a like instance we have of Moses's infirmity when God was for sending him upon an Errand as hazardous and much more difficult viz. his deliverance of the poor oppressed Israelites from the cruel Bondage of the powerful Egyptians Exod. Chap. 3 and 4. And Paul and Barnabas two great Apostles and most eminently pious Servants of Jesus Christ in the bitterness of dispute and heat of quarrel
of Christ's Gospel whereby at the last Day we must all be judged Alas they know not of any such Laws nor ever think of being tryed by them In the Gospel 't is very true they are all recorded and by Christs Ministers at one time or other they are all proclaimed and by some exemplary good men although God knows they are very few in one place or other they are duly practised but yet for all this a great many Christian men are ignorant of some or other of them For either they cannot read the Scriptures where they are mentioned or they have not opportunity to hear the Preacher when every one of them particularly is taught or they are not in sight and observation of those patterns of piety by whom they are practised so that still they do not understand them Or if at last they do come to know them yet is it some time first and they acted several times against them before they saw that they were bound by them So that still we see there is room in the World for sins of ignorance from mens not knowing of the Law which they sin against Several particular Laws which lye more remote and are not so plainly of natural obligation nor startled at by natural Conscience are oftentimes and by many persons transgressed because they do not perceive themselves to be bound by them And as for this ignorance of one Branch or other of their Duty it is some mens unhappiness rather than their fault they do not so truly chuse it as through an unchosen necessity fall under it For it is necessary to all people whether they will or no for some time and to some for all their lives It is necessary I say to all people whether they will or no for some time For by the very constitution of our Nature which is before any thing of our own chusing we are born ignorant the mind of man being as Aristotle compares it like a blank paper wherein is nothing written No man ever since Adam came into the World in the free exercise of his understanding and with his perfect wits about him And when after some time we do begin to know yet even then is all our knowledg gradual and by little and little For we first learn one thing and then another and so by several steps attain at last to a competent pitch of knowledge When therefore any man doth begin to know Gods will and to discern his Laws yet is it not possible that he should understand them all at once but some of them every man must needs be ignorant of till he has had time to learn and know them all To some people I say it is necessary for their whole lives to their dying Day they do not arrive to the understanding of some things which God has required of them And that because they wanted either abilities or opportunities neither of which is of their own chusing They are of a slow understanding and have not those means of instruction or that time and leisure to attend upon it which others have And that by reason of their place and low condition in the world wherein it was Gods pleasure and not their own to dispose of them But now this ignorance of some or other of Christ's Laws being thus involuntary it must likewise be innocent For there is no damning sin and disobedience but in our own choice so that as long as the heart is true to God he will not be at enmity for any thing else which may seem to be against him And since our ignorance it self is innocent the sinning upon it will never be rebellious and damning For the disobedience is not any way chosen neither in it self nor in its Cause we do not chuse the sin because we do not see that the action is sinful nor do we chuse not to see it because we cannot help it But where there is no choice there will be there no condemnation So that the action which is done against the Law shall not be punished by the Law if we were thus innocently ignorant of the Law whereof it was a transgression And that it will not is plain For God never did nor ever will condemn any man for the transgression of a particular Law before he has had all due means and necessary opportunities such as may be sufficient to any honest and willing heart to understand it The Jewish Law obliged none but those whom it was proclaimed to who had the advantages of being instructed out of it It is they only says S t Paul who have sinned in or under the Law who shall be judged by the Law Rom. 2.12 The Law of Christ did not bind men until they had sufficient means and opportunities of knowing it and being convinced by it If ye were blind or wanted abilities says our Saviour to the Pharisees you should have no sin John 9.41 And again if I had not given them sufficient opportunities of knowing come and spoken unto them they had not had sin but now since I have they have no cloak or no pretence or excuse for their sin Nay if I had not given them all due means of conviction and done among them the works which no other man hath done they had not had sin still John 15.22 24. These slips of honest ignorance of our Duty are no more punished under the Gospel of Christ than they were under the Law of Moses For Christ our High Priest doth attone for them by virtue of his Sacrifice of himself as well as the Aaronical Priest in behalf of the ignorantly offending Jews made an attonement for them by his sin-offering Levit. 4.2 3 c. This S t Paul tells us in his comparison of Christ's Priesthood with that of the line of Aaron In his interceding to God and offering Sacrifice for sins he can have compassion on the ignorant Heb. 5.2 Ignorance therefore of the general Law which makes any thing a Duty so long as it is not wilful and affected by us through the merits of Christ's Sacrifice and the Grace of his Gospel renders those offences which we commit under it pardonable transgressions such as do not destroy a state of Grace but consist with it And this is the very determination which S t Cyprian gives in the Case of transgressing our Lords institution in the participation of the Lords Supper For some Churches in those Days were wont to make use of Water instead of Wine in which way of communicating several of them had been educated and brought up having received it ignorantly and in the simplicity of their hearts as they had done other things of their Religion from the practice and tradition of their Forefathers Now as for the usage it self S t Cyprian declares plainly that it is a breach of Duty and a custom very dangerous and sinful It is says he against our Lords Command who plainly bid us do what he did i. e.
make use of bread and wine which were those things that he used The blood of Christ is not offered if there be no wine in the cup to represent it and how can we ever hope to drink wine with him in his Fathers Kingdom if we drink it not at his Table here on Earth So that in the good Fathers judgment the Duty was express the Law binding and the transgression dangerous But yet as for those innocent and well-meaning souls who had no opportunity to be told of it but were bred up in a contrary way under the authority of a tradition that opposed it and therefore in the simplicity of their hearts were ignorant of it They says he even whilst they do transgress shall go unpunished Their simplicity and ignorance shall excuse them whilst our knowledg will certainly condemn us they shall be pardoned because they could not know it but we shall be punished because when we might have known and kept it if we would we neglected and despised it In the mean time herein is Gods great mercy shown to us and for this should we return most hearty thanks to him that even now when he plainly instructs us in that which under pain of his displeasure we are to do hereafter he at the same time pardons us for all that which through simplicity and honest ignorance we have already done And as this innocent unwill'd ignorance of the Law it self excuses all those transgressions which we incur by reason of it so doth 2. The second sort of ignorance viz. the ignorance of the thing it self which the Law injoyns or forbids when we know not that our present action is included in it or meant by it Gods Laws as all others run in general terms and never go to reckon up all particular actions which are with them or against them but leave the judging and discerning of that to our own selves He tells us that theft and revenge are sinfull but leaves us to inform our selves what actions are thievish and revengefull He teaches us that Covetousness is forbidden but he puts us to see of the action before us that it be covetous and the same he doth in every other Law For that which he expresly mentions is the general name of the action which he forbids but as for the particular application he leaves that to our own selves Now here is the wide place for the ignorance and errours of all sorts of men For what Arrian sayes of happiness and misery is equally true of sin and duty in the application of the acknowledged notion or law to particular things or actions is the cause of all our evils here the great scene of ignorance in morals the field of doubting and dispute lies The great controversies which men have either in their own thoughts or with Gods ministers is not so much whether evil-speaking back-biting censoriousness unpeaceableness drunkenness sensuality or any such prohibited vice be a sin For as to that the Law is express the very word is mentioned in it and he that reads or hears the Law if he attend to what he reads or hears cannot but observe and understand it But the great doubt is whether this or that particular action which they are about to commit be indeed a censorious an unpeaceable a sensual or a drunken action And the Reasons of this are several For 1. In some actions although we know the general Law yet we know not whether the particular action be comprehended under it because what is forbidden in the Law differs from what is innocent not in kind but only in degree For a great part of our appetites and actions are neither determined to good nor ill in their whole nature but only as they are in certain measures The use of meats and drinks within due bounds is harmless but beyond that 't is intemperance the desire and search of money in a moderate degree is lawfull but above that 't is Covetousness the modest pursute of honour and promotion is innocent but when it exceeds it is ambition to have just thoughts of a mans self is allowable but to be puffed up with over-high conceits is pride and so it is in several other instances A great many passions and actions are not alwayes sinful but so far only as they are deficient or exceed Which holding true of several virtues and vices made Aristotle lay it down as a part of the nature of virtue in general that it is something consisting in mediocrity and agreeably that vice is something consisting in defectiveness or excess Now the actions which are prohibited by several Laws not coming under the compass of the Laws in their whole natures but only when they are arrived to certain measures and degrees herein after we have known the general Law lies the difficulty and unresolvedness whether or no the present action falls under it For it is a very hard thing and it may be impossible to any humane understanding to fix the exact bounds and utmost limits of virtue and vice to draw a line precisely between them and tell to a tittle how many degrees are innocent and the just place where the excess begins Here the Wise and Learned themselves are at a loss and much more the rude and ignorant so that in Laws of this nature they may many times mistake their sin for their liberty and allowance and go beyond the innocent degree when they do not know it 2. In other actions although we do know the general Law yet many times we are ignorant of the present actions being comprehended under it because the Law is not absolute and unlimited but admits of several exceptions whereof we may mistake the present action to be one The great and general Laws of Christ as of any other Legislator have several cases which are not included in the general name of the duty injoyned or of the sin prohibited in the Law but are exempt from it What Duty is injoyned in more universal words than that of Peace but yet in several cases we not only may but out of Duty must nourish contention For we are bid to contend earnestly for the Faith which was once delivered to the Saints Jud. vers 3. We must be concerned for God and Religion when others concern themselves against them We are not tamely and unaffectedly to see Gods Laws cancelled or our countries peace disturbed but must strive and contend with as much wise zeal and active courage and with infinitely more honour and peace of mind to maintain and defend than ill men do to oppose and destroy them Again what Law is delivered in fuller and plainer terms than that of forgiving injuries but yet there are several cases wherein we may justly seek amends for them For we may bring a malefactor to condign punishment or an injurious man to restitution and the like is observable of other Laws Now those actions which come under the general name of the sin