be ready to call you Vngrateful the most odious Reproach that can be cast on any One Nay and wicked Men will not sometimes stick to Bribe you also with Promises and Proposals of Profit and Advantages if you will serve 'em in their ill Designs This One would think not so dangerous a Temptation to Sin because more open and not so Insinuating a way as the former but God knows too many do knowingly and wilfully barter away their poor Souls and plainly sell 'em to the Devil contracting to commit this or that Sin as for Instance to take a false Oath to forge Writings to make a Lie in another's behalf upon the Promise or Intimation of some Reward for so doing Thus will wicked Men some by Kindnesses some by Promises Oblige you if they can to serve 'em by your Sins And some on the other hand will be no less Industrious by Discouragements nay Threatnings to hinder you in the discharging your Duty and a good Conscience Religion will sometimes put you upon doing those things that will Prejudice your worldly Interests and stir up the Wrath of those that are Superiour to you And indeed in this Case a Man's worst Enemies shall be those of his own House and when either you must Sin or Suffer none will be so forward to Tempt you to Sin rather than to Suffer as your nearest Relations and Acquaintance And what must Wife and Children and Family do if you should talk of Forsaking all and of following Christ in the Preservation of a good Conscience will be the Argument that the Friend of your own Bosom will strongly urge you withal But the more common Temptation discouraging Men in the Discharge of their Duty especially such as are of a low Rank and Condition in the World are the Frowns and Threats of those that are above ' em Hence a Minister in low Circumstances shall venture hard if he offers to Reprove a Great Man tho' a Great Sinner And you shall scarcely ever know an Officer tho' never so strictly oblig'd thereunto by his Oath present in order to Punishment the Man of Power and Interest in his Parish for his Oaths his Riots and the most outragious Immoralities which he so scandalously commits I. Kindnesses must not corrupt us to Sin And now what shall be done with reference to these manifold Encouragemetns to Sin and Discouragements to Vertue which you shall meet withal from wicked Men Why in the first Place have a special Care you be not Inveigled by the pretended Kindness of any Person be he who or what he will Let not the Obligations of your Friend or Acquaintance cause you to strain Truth when you are call'd to give Testimony in his Cause Take care you be not then wrought upon by any Sence of Kindness to Perjure your selves for him by declaring either more than Truth or by speaking not the whole Truth when it would make against him Consider what Kindness has been done you if you must sin against God and your own Soul to Pleasure your Friend in Return for it It was but a Bait to take you a Snare to Entrap you and a pleasant Poison given to destroy you You ought indeed as an honest Pagan says excellently well to be assistant to him in his honest Endeavours but not in his Knaveries in his Counsels not in his Tricks in appearing as Evidence for him but not in a Cheat and you must bear a Share in the misfortunes of your Friend but not in his Acts of Injustice II. Promises must not bribe us Secondly As to any Promises wherewith wicked Men may so Tempt you as to Hire you to Sin God forbid there should be a Necessity to bid you Reject and Detest them But if there be any need to Fortify any here against such a Temptation the meer Foolishness of the Bargain you will make will sufficiently move you to spurn at them for if it be an unprofitable a very unprofitable Bargain tho' a Man should Gain the whole World and lose his own Soul as it is said Mark 8.36 Oh! What ill Husbandry what Stupidity is it for a Trifle of worldly Wealth or Advantage to barter it away III. Discouragements must not hinder us from discharging our Duty And Thirdly As for those who shall hereafter discourage you from suffering for Righteousness sake when call'd thereunto by laying before you the Ruine you will thereby bring upon your selves and Families why you must consider that in such Case our Saviour tells us that a Man must even Hate Father and Mother and Wife and Children and Brethren and Sisters yea and his own Life also or he cannot be his Disciple and that whosoever doth not bear his Cross and come after him shall not be his Disciple Luk. 14.26 27. Nor Fourthly must Threatnings or Frowns fright us from it Nor Lastly must a Souldier of Jesus Christ be frighted out of the way of his Duty or aw'd into any sinful or slavish Compliance by the Threats and Frowns of any Man living Shrink not from the Exercise of Religion and Uprightness because many about you and they perhaps Above or Richer than you are profane and lewd and utterly regardless of any thing that is Good and moreover do Discourage and Affront it For this if you should you will most certainly offend your Great Lord and Master the Lord of Heaven and Earth and who has call'd upon you not to fear a mortal Man no tho' he could Kill the Body but to be afraid of displeasing him rather who is able to destroy both Body and Soul in Hell Yea I say unto you fear him Luk. 12.4 And now Lastly I cannot call to Mind any other Temptations Lastly the evil Customs which have prevailed in the World are a powerful Temptation to Sin usual amongst wicked Men to Tempt others to Sin besides some Evil Customs so rife amongst many That the Heathen Idolatries and those filthy Practices committed in 'em were so universally Complied with by all sorts of Men in the Pagan World was because they were Commended and Established by Publick Custom Many of their wisest Men and Philosophers had other Conceptions of God than to think it was fit to Change the Glory of God into the Similitude of an Ox that eateth Grass and thought also he ought to be Worshipt not by Fooleries and Impurities but with a chast Mind and a clean Heart And yet even those Men submitted to Common Custom and whatever they thought or spoke Privately amongst themselves they acted and spoke in Publick as the rest did And it was to the Prevalency of Custom that the Apostle imputed those Enormities of the Ephesians before their Conversion telling 'em that In time past they walked according to the Course of this World Eph. 2.2 And indeed so great is the Power of Evil Custom that it does still amongst Christians constrain Persons to do many ill Things even contrary to their Natures and Inclinations as well
an ill Thing But then observe the force of Religious Principles Such a One will soon bethink himself what he has done his Conscience will quickly smite him and he will be immediately brought to Repentance through the Power of good Principles and his Fall will but make him more careful of his ways hereafter Nay It may sometimes happen that a very towardly Youth notwithstanding all the care of his Parents and Christ's Ministers to bring him up in the Nurture and Admonition of the Lord when got too soon from under the Eye of his Parents and wise Counsellors and falling into lewd Company with which this Age does too much abound may at first be a little Laught out of Countenance by them as is their wont for being too Precise Reserv'd and Melancholly and after that be drawn by degrees into one Compliance after another with them in their Ungodly Revels Nay and at length be so drencht in Sin as to deface the whole Image of God that was wrought upon his Soul so as to be even past all hopes of Recovery This is very rare but yet however too often whenever it is II. To Recover out of it when fal'n therein But even in this case Secondly The Power of those good Principles that were early Sown shall be wonderfully seen to the Glory of God and the Praise of good Education Let Diseases Distresses Poverty or any sore Affliction befal a lewd and sorry Liver as generally sooner or later it does either as the Fruit of their Sin or as a Chastisement from God to reclaim them If the Person afflicted has been One that was never Instructed in the fear of God he is never the better nor shall you hear so much as a good Expression from him nor any the least Signs of Amendment for why He knows not what he is to do nor where he is to begin nor does he distinctly know any good Reason wherefore he ought to Amend for Thanks to the Piety of his good Parents he never had any Principles of Good instill'd into him and therefore as all his Life-time he Liv'd like an Atheist so he now doeâ— Die like a Beast He was ignorantly brought up and he Dies ignorant and wicked both But if it shall happen that One who had receiv'd the Seed of good Principles within him be overtaken with some sore Affliction and God be so gracious to him as not to cut him off quickly in the midst of his Sins but affords him a leisurely Chastisement such a One shall begin to be serious and to bethink himself He will recal to Mind what he once knew of God and of his Duty to him Those good Principles that have long lain Buried under a Load of Sin will begin to stir within him He will water them sufficiently with Tears of Repentance and they will begin to work and revive within And when he is once come to himself so as to think seriously of Matters with the Prodigal Son he will soon resolve to Arise and go to his Father and to say unto him Father I have sinned against Heaven and before Thee and am no more worthy to be call'd thy Son make me as One of thy hired Servants Luk. 15.18 19. The Seed of good and religious Principles sown in your Hearts by Catechetical Instruction may well be compared to Seed sown in the Ground by the Hand of the Husbandman The Husbandman's Seed may lie Buried in the Earth under many Clods so as to be in danger never to recover but if the Rains shall descend from Heaven so as to melt and dissolve that burden of Earth with which the Seed was overlaid it will then begin to work and revive if it was good Seed and may possibly bring forth a very fruitful Crop So here if you do but take care to have the Seed of good Principles sown in your Hearts and should ye afterwards almost extinguish all good Motions within you by laying on a continued Weight of Guilt and Sin and should God in Mercy hereafter not pour down the Fury of his Wrath so as immediately to Destroy you but Rain down upon you the gentle Showers of Fatherly Chastisements so as to melt you into Tears and bring you into a considering Temper the good Principles that lay long Buried may possibly begin to stir and to work in you a Repentance fruitful in good Works Nay Such is the Force of good Principles that even a serious Sermon or but the Discourse of a good Minister especially of him who first sowed them by his Instructions shall stir them up and put them a working to the Conversion and Reformation of a Sinner In a word Such is the Effect of good Principles that by the Grace of God they are the likeliest way to preserve you in Innocency and to prevent your falling into any deadly Sin and then you will be in a happy Condition you will then be of the Number of those happy Persons of whom our Saviour speaks that they need no Repentance Luk. 15.7 that is such a severe and sorrowful and painful Repentance as Backsliding Sinners and all Men of loose and wicked Lives must go through or be forced to Endure infinitely worse Or if you shall unhappily fall into any grievous Sin or a Course of Sin such may be the Force of pious Education or good Principles as by God's good Grace and Providence to recover you out of the Snares of the Devil These good Principles taught you in your Catechism may not perhaps at present be throughly understood by you no more than Children do the use of Letters nor School-boys the use of Grammar Rules at first but they will stick by you as One said and be remembred when you are more capable of Improving them insomuch that it will be uneasy to you if you take care to be well Principled in your Minority to be Wicked and Profane hereafter or if you should prove so which God forbid there will yet be some hopes of Reclaiming you because these things will some time or other revive and awaken your Consciences And this is the last of those good Uses and Ends to which Catechism serves viz. to Instil into you such good Principles as will either prevent your falling into Sin which is much the Happier for you or at least recover you out of it by Repentance and which I have therefore insisted on that I might perswade you to have a due Regard to so useful an Instruction as Catechizing is and to give a due Attendance to it And thus as last Lord's Day I shewed you that one good End to which Catechizing serves is to prepare you for that necessary Work your Confirmation that you may Publickly and with Understanding as those that know what they do profess before the Bishop That you will be Faithful to your Baptismal Covenant So Secondly I have to Day shewed you That it is for the same Reason requisite to prepare you for Receiving of the Blessed
as Religion And when grown prevalent and common it does strangely take off the sence and fear of Hurt in the most Unchristian Practices Custom I say does still amongst Christians constrain Persons to do many ill Things even contrary to their Nature and Inclinations as well as Religion Hence among the Men of Honour as they would be thought shall many become even Self-murderers meerly in Compliance with Custom insomuch that those Persons who of all Men living have most reason to preserve their Lives having all their good Things they can ever expect in this World yet desperately spill one another's Blood in your cursed Duels It is no Inclination in these Men I dare say to be so Prodigal of their dear Lives that makes 'em so desperately throw 'em away but meerly out of a Cowardly Fear they should be branded with Disgrace for not complying with so common a Custom amongst Persons of their own Character So again among Persons of all Ranks you shall have Men of no manner of Inclinations to intemperate Drinking yet when they come to any Great Man's House where it is the Barbarous and Brutish Custom of Drinking Men hard Yet at such times they will not scruple to Exceed very far It is the Custom of the Place they 'll say and they were forc'd to it they could not help it And Custom also when grown prevalent and common among Societies of Men will strangely take off the Sence and Fear of Hurt in the most Unchristian Practices Custom takes off the Sence and Fear of Hurt in the most Vnchristian Practices Hence amongst Sea-men and Souldiers the most outragious Whoredoms and Adulteries and the most execrable Oaths and Curses are hardly accounted amongst the number of Sins And all the Arts of Cheating and Over-reaching nay of downright Lying and Swearing to the Soundness and Goodness of bad Commodities is little scrupled amongst some sort of Dealers the thing is grown so common And Custom it is which is so commonly Pleaded for the Omission of most necessary Duties as well as the Commission of most horrid Sins Hence do Multitudes make not the least scruple of Absenting their whole Lives from the Blessed Sacrament because it is so common amongst many to do so Thus powerful you see are the Evil Customs of the World so as almost to force Men whether they will or no to do many ill things and what is worse to seare their Consciences in the Commission of the worst Sins and in the Omission of the chiefest Duties A Christian must couragiously and vigorously renounce and withstand the Force of all sinful Customs whatsoever And now what must a Christian do in this Case Custom we know is a Second Nature and when it has been of a long Date Time out of Mind as the Phrase is it pleads Prescription and obtains the Force of a Law amongst Men. So that be a Custom never so contrary to Honesty Sobriety to common Sence and Reason or any the Laws of Christianity an old Custom must not be broken it is the Custom of the Place and must be kept up Such are the Sentiments of the Vulgar in this matter But you must resolve with all Courage and Stedfastness like true Souldiers of Jesus Christ to Renounce and Withstand the Force of all sinful Customs whatsoever and not to suffer your selves to be over-born thereby into any sinful Compliances When Christianity was first Preach'd amongst Men such barbarous and brutish Customs had of a long time prevail'd over the greatest Part of the Heathen World that many Practices which the meer Light of Nature would teach Men to Abandon as Sins and Wounds of Conscience Were as the Learned Dr. Hammond observes Embrac'd by whole Nations at once and continued in without any Check as innocent sinless Qualities Nature and Reason being so early engag'd and silenc'd by popular Custom and vicious Education that many knew it not to be a Sin to Steal or Rob if they were so cunning as not to be taken others to Kill and Eat their Aged Parents conceiving that by this means they gave 'em a more Honourable Burial others to throw themselves murderously into the Flames to accompany their Dead Princes out of the World Many the like irrational Sins through some local Customs got the Reputation not only of sinless and lawful but of laudable also But all who Embrac'd Christianity as they were obliged by their Baptismal Vow to forsake those and the like Heathenish Customs for to such this Vow did particularly relate so they did presently beat them down wherever the Christian Religion prevail'd insomuch that in few Ages there were not the least Footsteps thereof remaining And so must you likewise vigorously withstand all Customs that are Immoral wherever and by whomsoever and how long soever they have obtain'd Such only as are Immoral are to be Renounced I do say All Customs that are Immoral For I do not mean that a Christian must turn Cynick a dogged and sower Lump of Earth surly and uncivil and quarrelling with the innocent Modes of Humane Society That is as much a Fault on the other side to think that Christianity the calmest and the sweetest Religion in the World does oblige Men to ill Manners But those Customs the Force of whose Temptations I would have you all to Resist and utterly to Renounce are such as I before mention'd and which are apparently sinful and wicked either tending to lessen the Guilt of Sin or to make it none at all I am sensible there is something of Difficulty in this Part of our Warfare above any other Barely to refuse Compliance with but much more to oppose Evil Men in their sinful Customs and and Practices will mightily provoke their Indignation He sails against the Wind that does so and swims against the Stream He shall have Multitudes will thwart him and will load him with hard Reproaches will call him singular and precise Fool for his Pains and what not He must have a great deal of Courage that opposes a Multitude in doing Evil or will not comply with 'em in it But such must the Souldier of Jesus Christ be One that dares Incur the greatest Displeasure rather than shrink from his Duty and One that will not be afraid to shew his Dislike of any vicious Customs when there is just Occasion for it And this indeed is true Courage The greatest Courage required to this Part of a Christian's Warfare to despise all Opposition in the way of Duty and he that can Unconcernedly pass through a Multitude Reproaching and Vilifying him for his Pains in Pursuit of Vertue is more Heroick and Brave than he that with his Sword in his Hand cuts open a way to the Taking of a Fort. He that Reproves a Sin or Renounces an Ungodly Custom may have more of true Fortitude than he that Pushes on through drawn Swords for it is a sign he fears not those Weapons which wound deepest an embitter'd and
do not know how better to define it than thus Faith is such a hearty belief of God's Declaration concerning his own Grace and Man's Duty as doth effectually cause a Man to expect from God and to act in a way of sincere Obedience according to the Tenour and Import of such a Declaration Or if you will take in the Belief of God's Threatnings against sinners into the definition then it will be thus Faith is such a hearty belief of God's Declaration concerning his own Grace and Displeasure and Man's Duty as doth effectually cause a Man to expect from God and to act in a way of sincere Obedience according to the Tenour and Import of such a Declaration Faith thus defined we have already seen exemplified in Abraham who is the great Exemplar of Believing and the Father of Believers And that it was his belief of God's Promise or Declaration of Grace and Favour to him as it is practical in producing Repentance Self-denial and sincear Obedience by which he was justified and made happy appears farther not only in that it 's said by St. James That his Faith wrought with his Works and was made perfect by them and that he was justified by Works as well as by Faith of which more anon but also in that it 's said that he received the sign of Circumcision which was the Condition upon which God Covenanted with him to be his God and upon the same terms to be the God of his Seed a Seal of the Righteousness of the Faith which he had while he was yet uncircumcised For supposing which is not denied Circumcision to be an outward Sign of inward Grace of the Circumcision of the Heart consisting in Mortification or a Penitential change of the Heart which is the effect of Faith his Circumcision as such was a Seal of confirmation to Abraham that it was upon his former so believing God upon his Promise as thereby to be induced to leave the evil Customs of his Country and his Country it self with his Kindred and his Father's House that God would be his God indeed In which Promise was implicitly promised all that would make him Eternally Happy And God's farther design of giving to Abraham this Covenant of Circumision as a Seal to assure him the enjoyment of the benefit wrapt up in that Promise upon the terms aforesaid was that he might be the Father of all them that Believe whether literally Circumcised or not that is that he might be a great Example and Pattern to all others of obtaining the same benefits in the same way and so might be a means of begetting others to Believe in God and to Obey him as he had done to be a great Instrument to propagate the kind of New Creatures of Men renewed to God to the end they might be Blessed as he was This or somewhat to this effect is doubtless the meaning of Rom. 4.11 12. And he received the sign of Circumcision a Seal of the Rightousness of the Faith which he had being yet uncircumcised That he might be the Father of all them that Believe though they be not circumcised that Rightousness might be imputed to them also And the Father of Circumcision to them who are not of the Circumcision only but also walk in the steps of that Faith of our Father Abraham which he had being yet uncircumcised and it is not unlikely but that as Heart-Circumcision under the figure of Literal-Circumcision was together with Faith made the condition of the Covenant then so Spiritual Baptism which is a Death unto sin and a living unto God is under the Figure of Water-Baptism joyned with Believing as the condition of the Promise of Salvation now Mark 16.16 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved According to which St. Peter having spoken of Noah's Ark saith The like figure whereunto Baptism now saveth us not the putting away of the filth of the flesh but the answer of a good conscience towards God 1 Pet. 3.21 Now as it was in Abraham such a belief of God's Declaration of Grace and Favour as did effectually induce him to Love and Obey God by which he was Justified so I shall shew afterwards it was the very same kind of Faith working after the same manner by which the Saints under the Law of Moses were Saved But Faith as Evangelical and Christian is such a hearty assent and consent unto God's Declaration in the Gospel by his Son concerning Christ himself and his Grace and Favour towards Men by him and concerning their own Duty as causeth a Man to expect from God and to act in a way of duty according to the Tenour of such a Declaration and his own concerns in it And Faith thus defined is fully agreeable to the Tenour of the Gospel Mark 16.15 16. Go ye into all the world and Preach the Gospel to every Creature He that Believeth and is Baptized shall be saved He that believeth What Why he that believeth that Gospel which was to be Preâ—â—hed to every Creature Which Gospel contains a Declaration of God's â—â—â—â—e and Man's Duty and of his Wrath against all Ungodliness and Unrighteousness of Men. For 1. It declares from God that he hath given his Son Jesus Christ to be the Saviour of the World by being a Propitiation for the sin o fit in becoming a Sacrifice to expiate sin 2. It declares That God upon account of his Son's giving himself a Ransom for all hath made and doth establish a New Covenant with the World to Pardon and Eternally to Save as many as shall Believe in his Son and Repent of their sinfulness in changing their Minds and reforming their Lives and becoming New Men in yielding sincere Obedience to the Precepts of the Gospel 3. It declares That those that believe not shall be damned and such as repent not shall perish and that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God This summarily is that which the Gospel declares concerning God's Grace and Displeasure and Man's Duty Now it is the practical belief of all this that is the saving Faith It is not the bare belief that God hath given his Son to be the Saviour of the World and a Propitiation for the sin of it Nor is it a bare belief that he will for Christ's sake pardon and save as many as truly Repent and amend their lives and become New Creatures unless they so believe all this as seriously and heartily to Repent themselves of their former folly and to return to their duty in new Evangelical Obedience For otherwise for a Man barely to believe all this and not act according to his own concerns in it will be so far from being a believing to the saving of the Soul as that it will rather plunge him the deeper in Destruction for living and acting contrary to his own light and belief as holding the truth in unrighteousness the wrath of God being revealed from heaven against all such Rom. 1.18 A Man of this
or in his keeping of it CHAP. II. For what Ends the Law was added to the Promise I Now come to shew in the next place for what end the Law of Moses was added to the Promise And before I do this in particular I shall note only in general That it was not added to cross or confront the Promise or God's Design in it but to be subservient to it Gal. 3.21 Is the Law then against the Promises God forbid For it is not to be thought that God would prevaricate in his Design so that when he had once made a New Law of Grace for the Saving of faln Man he would yet afterwards give any Law but what should one way or other subserve to the same End if Men do not deprive themselves of the intended Benefit by perverting it And therefore to be sure God did not intend to revive the Old Covenant of Works made with Adam in Paradise in the after promulgation of the Law of Nature which we call the Moral Law already broken He did not therein come to demand his full Debt of Innocency in Mans Broken and Bankrupt Condition or to let him know that he would without any other Condition than perfect Innocency cast him into Prison until he had paid the utmost farthing For if he had then the Law indeed would have been against the Promise which declares quite otherwise It is true the Law of Nature as it is a perfect Rule of natural Righteousness founded in God's Nature and Man's Nature doth of it self require perfect Innocency and can require no less being suited to the Nature of Man in its perfect State But when God brings this Law forth and sets it before Men that are now faln from that state as he doth in the promulgation of it it is to let them know indeed what they once were and from whence they are fallen and how unhappy their Condition now is according to the Tenour and Terms of that Law and that it would have continued so for ever if God had not made a New Law of Grace to over-rule that Law and to let all know that they shall still remain in that Condition that wilfully exclude themselves from the benefit of the Law of Grace by not performing the Condition of it But not to let them know they should have no better terms from him than that Law affords them nor to make their perfect keeping of it the condition of their Justification But the Law of Moses entirely taken in all its parts was rather given as an Appendix to the Promise both as a Rule of the material part of that Obedience which God would now require of the Israelites in conjunction with their Faith in the Promise and as a Motive to that Obedience This in general The Question is put Gal. 3.19 Wherefore then serveth the Law And the Answer there is That it was added because of transgression until the Seed should come And it was added because of transgression in more respects than one 1. It was added to discover Sin to make that known to be Sin which was so of it self and in its own nature before the promulgation of the Law For by reason of that grievous Wound which Man got in his Understanding by the Fall and by reason also of a progressive Degeneration in Mankind the natural Sense of Moral Good and Evil was to a great degree worn out of the minds of Men. For the repairing of which decay a promulgate Law the Ten Commandments answerable to the Law of pure Nature in the Spirituality of it was set on foot in the World And by this Law came Sin and Duty to be more clearly known than they were before Rom. 3.20 By the Law is the knowledge of Sin Rom. 7.7 I had not known Sin but by the Law For I had not known Lust except the Law had said Thou shalt not Covet 2. The Law was added not only barely to make known that to be Sin which was so of it self before but to set it out in its Colours to make it known in the horrid nature and consequence of it that Men might be the more afraid to have to do with it The Law entred that the offence might abound That is that by that means it might be rendred the more Criminous and Demeritorious That Sin by the Commandment might become exceeding sinful Rom. 5.20 and 7.13 3. The Law as it discovered Sin and made it more criminous and the People the more sensible of guilt and more apprehensive of their obnoxiousness to punishment was given to set off so much the more the Glory Beauty and Desirableness of God's Grace in the Promise of Pardon and Salvation Rom. 5.20 The Law entered that the offence might abound But where Sin abounded Grace did much more abound By how much the more Sin appeared Sin and was enhanced and aggravated and rendred manifestly mischievous by a Promulgate Law by so much the more Grace appear'd to be Grace in all its Glory that brought Deliverance from it Rom. 5.21 That like as Sin hath reigned unto death viz. by the Law that being the strength of Sin 1 Cor. 15.56 Even so Grace might reign through Righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. After Christ came the Rest which he gave was so much the more sweet to those Jews who received him by how much they had been weary and heavy-laden under a Spirit of Bondage before 4. The Law saith St. Paul was our Schoolmaster to bring â—s unto Christ that we might be justified by Faith Gal. 3.24 That is It was a lower sort of Institution accommodated to the weak and more imperfect state of the Church until afterward it should deliver them over to a more perfect Institution under Christ Parents first teach their Children to Speak and after put them to School to learn Letters Syllables Words and Sentences the use and design of all which they do not understand while they are Children as they do when they come to be Men. In proportion to this hath God dealt with his Church in the World beginning with a lower and more imperfect sort of Instruction Precepts and Promises and so proceeding to those that are higher and more perfect and so by certain gradations to lead on and build up his Church to a more perfect Spiritual and compleat state of Faith and Holiness To all the riches of fulness of understanding of the Mystery of God of the Father and of Christ Col. 2.2 And thus the Law as Schoolmaster had a double end and use The one respecting the time then present The other that which was then future and to come The then present use of it was twofold also 1. To reclaim and restrain them from the Superstitious Customs of the Heathen to which they were addicted in which respect also it was added because of transgression The Heathen-Worship stood in divers Superstitious Rites or Ceremonies And because the Israelites were addicted to a bodily Worship
days upon the Land c. Deut. 32.46 47. Set your hearts unto all the words which I testifie among you this day for it is not a vain thing for you because it is your life and through this thing ye shall prolong your days in the Land wherein ye go The latter words are exegetical of the former Through this thing ye shall prolong your days is the interpretation of those it is your Life And it may be considered also whether this Particle in which if a Man do he shall even live in them may not determine the nature and kind of that Reward which was promised in the first Covenant as it was a present Reward a Reward which was received even while the Work was doing according to that Psal 19.11 In keeping them there is great reward And this is agreeable to what fell out in the event The Lord was with them to prosper them while they were with him but when they forsook him presently Troubles overtook them The pouring out of God's Fury on them to consume them in the Wilderness being put in Ezek. 20 13 21. as the direct contrary to those words which if a Man do he shall even live in them seems greatly to favour this Notion But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the Wilderness They walked not in my Statutes and they despised my Judgâ—ents which if a man do he shall even live in them Then I said I would â—â—ur out my fury upon them to consume them in the Wilderness And indeed one main difference between the two Covenants which I â—ould have here observed lies in this to wit the presentness of the Râ—ward promised in the first and the futurity of that promised in the seâ—ond St. Paul in his Allegorical description of the two Covenants Gaâ— 4.24 c. represents those that adhered to the first Covenant by the Children of the Bond-servant to whom Abraham gave Gifts in presâ—â—t and sent them away as in Gen. 25.5 and those that adhered to thâ— second by the Son of the free-woman Isaac who was Abraham's Heir â—o whom he gave the whole Inheritance at last And the Adoptioâ— of Sons as the Privilege of the New Covenant is opposed to the condition of Servants under the Old Gal. 4.7 And what are they adâ—pted to but to an Inheritance for the future For by Adoption they are made Heirs If a Son then an Heir of God through Christ An Heir of what of an Inheritance for the future an inheritance incorruptible undefiled and which fadeth not away reserved in Heaven 1 Pet. 1.4 And therefore they are said to wait for the Adoption to wit the redemption of their Bodies at the Resurrection Rom. 8.23 Sons and Heirs serve their Father with a free and ingenuous Spirit though they have but little for the present in confidence of what he will do for them â—ereafter in another World when they shall come to Age. But those under the Old Covenant were like Servants who serve with a servile Spirit because they do it with expectation of present pay The one walk by Faith which is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen the other were influenced in their Obedience by the expectation of present Reward because that was it which the first Covenant promised to the observers of it These Promises now insisted on were promises of Reward to the observers of this first Covenant But besides these there was another sort of Promises exhibited in the first Covenant and they were Promises of Pardon in many cases when the Laws of that Covenant were broken There were as I have shewed Laws of Indemnity which made many of the breaches of the Laws of Duty pardonable upon certain conditions And such were all Sins of Ignorance and Inadvertency and some of those also which were committed wittingly But presumptuous Sins and such as carried in them a kind of contempt of the Law these were exempted from Pardon Heb. 10.28 He that despised Moses's Law died without mercy under two or three witnesses But for the other there were promises of pardon upon certain conditions which conditions were not always the same In some cases the offering of a Sin-offering or Trespass-offering was the condition In other cases that with confession of Sin was the condition And in some other cases Sacrificing Restitution and Satisfaction were the condition And afflicting of the Soul as well as the Sacrifice for Atonement oâ— the day of general Expiation was always a condition of forgiveness These things in the particularities of them you have in the 4 5 6 1â— and 23d Chapters of Levit. And then the condition of the Promisâ—s of Purgation of Legal Uncleannesses and the penal effects from theâ— was the observing the Rules prescribed for purifying the Uncleâ—n Now the forgiveness promised by these Laws of Indemnity did â—ot free the Conscience from all obligation to Eternal Punishment but â—nly freed the Person from suffering those temporal Evils which â—ere threatned in this Covenant against those which did not continâ—â— in all things written in the Book of it Neither Sacrifices nor â—egal Purifications Sanctified but unto the purifying of the flesh and to their temporal Concerns only Heb. 9.9 10 13. And here we may observe a five-fold difference in reference â—o Remission of Sin between the first Covenant and the Coveâ—ant of Grace 1. They differ in the nature of those Sacrifices by which Atonements were made and upon which Forgiveness was promised The Blood of the Sacrifice of the first Covenant was but the blood of Bulls and of Goats and the like Heb. 10.4 But the Blood of the Sacrifice of the second Covenant is the Blood of Christ the Eternal Son of God So that the nature of the Sacrifices of the two Covenants upon which the Promise of the pardon of Sins was granted doth differ as much as the Blood of Beasts and the Blood of the Son of God differ 2. Those two sorts of Sacrifices pertaining to two kinds of Covenants differ in the proportion of Efficacy and Virtue to accomplish their respective Ends and Effects There is a greater Richness of proportion in the Blood of Christ to free the Conscience from the guilt of Sin or obligation to Eternal Punishment than there was in the Blood of Beasts to free the delinquent Person from temporal Punishments This is plainly intimated in Heb. 9.13 14. For if the blood of Bulls and of Goats and the ashes of an Heiser sprinkling the unclean sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh how much more shall the Blood of Christ who through the Eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God purge your Conscience from dead works to serve the living God 3. They differ in the nature of the pardon promised in each of the Covenants respectively The Redemption granted in the first Covenant was but Temporal as the Covenant it self was it was but from Evils temporal But Christ Jesus by his Atonement hath obtained
me ye workers of iniquity Matth. 7.22 23. Luke 13.25 26. These had some kind of Faith in Christ by which they Prophesied in his Name and cast out Devils and did many wonderful Works They were such as were Hearers of his Word and Preachers of it too and had eaten and drunk in his Presence And because of this Faith and these Works they had a Hope and Confidence that Christ would open unto them and receive them into his Kingdom and would not be easily beaten off from this Confidence But the true reason why their Faith will stand them in no stead nor their Religious performances neither is because for all that they were workers of Iniquity they never heartily consented to the Terms of the Promise of Salvation by Christ in Repenting They did not first heartily resolve and after sincerely endeavour to turn from every known Sin unto every known Duty And in this very thing doth the defect of that Faith lie which is short of saving VVhich will yet farther appear in that St. James when he would state the difference between that Faith which is saving and that which is not fixeth it here The dead Faith is denominated such by him from its being alone without VVorks Jam. 2.17 Even so Faith if it hath not Works is dead being alone or by it self And again vers 20. But wilt thou know O vain Man that Faith without Works is dead And again ver 26. For as the body without the Spirit is dead so Faith without Works is dead also Meaning by its being dead that it avails a Man no more to his Justification and Salvation than a dead Corps avails to the producing the useful and serviceable effects of a Living Man or than a Tree that is dead avails to the bringing forth Fruit or than a few good words Depart in peace be ye filled and warmed will avail poor people when nothing is given which is needful to the body ver 15 16 17. In all this I do not deny but that there may be in such as do not savingly believe some Consent of the Will to do something towards performing the Condition of the Promise in Repenting and Obeying Such Men may Consent and resolve to forsake some sins and to do some yea many Duties who yet never savingly consent because they do not heartily consent and resolve to forsake All known sin and to do All known duties in which the sincerity of Repentance and Obedience doth consist to which the Promise is made Such Men may not be far from the Kingdom of God but yet must go farther if ever they would have any good ground of hope to enter into it But of this more afterwards CHAP. III. Whence this defect doth proceed I Have shewed before that there is the Faith of assent in the Understanding unto the truth of God's Testimony in some unregenerate Men as well as in the regenerate And in whomsoever the Faith of Consent in the Will to perform the Condition of the Promise is found it always proceeds from the Faith of Assent in the Understanding A Man always in order of Nature at least believes that the promised Benefits shall be made good to him in case he perform the Condition before he Consents to perform it and doth consent to perform the Condition in hope and confidence of obtaining the promised Benefits Now then the Question is whence is it and what is the reason that the Faith of Assent in the Understanding doth not always produce the same Consent in the Will in one as well as another and as it always doth when it becomes effectual to Justification and Salvation Why doth this Faith remain alone in some when as it is accompanied with Works in others I shall offer what I conceive to be the reason of this First in general and than more particularly The difference sometimes may proceed from the different measures and degrees of the evidence upon which the same Truth is believed One Man may have a clearer discerning of the evidence than another which causeth a stronger Assent in the discerning faculty and that stronger Assent in the Understanding may well cause a stronger Consent in the Will and a firm and lasting resolution As on the contrary a weak and partial Consent and resolution in the Will to the Condition sometimes proceeds from a weak Assent in the Mind to the Truth of God's Testimony or Promise and that from the weakness of the faculty in the discerning the evidence of that Truth which is the object of Faith But the reason most commonly why the Assent in the Understanding unto the Truth of God's Testimony doth not work a Consent in the Will to the Condition of the Promise is to be taken I conceive from the opposition which the lower faculties of the Soul the Will and Affections assisted and influenced by the sensual Appetites make against the superiour Faculty the Mind or Understanding so that they do not hearken to its Notices nor obey its Dictates The Will which is the Spring of Action is a middle Faculty between the Understanding and the sensitive Affections or Appetites and is solicited by both As the Understanding calls upon it to obey its rational Dictates in chusing the means which tend to the best end both which the Understanding represents to it from the Word of God so on the other hand the sensitive Affections solicite it to be on their side and to be active in making provision for the Flesh in chusing such things as tend to satisfie its Cravings and Lusts And because the Will hath usually been pre-ingaged to the Flesh and had a share in its Gratifications it 's not without much difficulty prevailed with to be consenting to and active in the crucifixion of those Affections and Lusts Which until the Will do and herein obey the enlightned Understanding the Faith of Assent in the Understanding abideth alone The Will 's obstinate adherence then to Mens fleshly Lusts and carnal Interests in opposition to that belief in the Understanding which puts it upon destroying them as absolutely necessary to the Man's Salvation as believing God touching the necessity of this as a means as well as it doth believe him touching the blessedness of the end this obstinate opposition in the Will I say is the true reason why the Faith which is in some Men is but a dead Faith How can ye believe saith our Saviour which seek honour one of another and seek not the honour that cometh from God only Joh. 5.44 Yes some of them could and did believe so far as to Assent in their Minds that Christ was no Impostor but one that came from God and that therefore his Doctrine must needs be true but they did not believe so as to be converted in their Wills to consent to part with their carnal interest of Honour and Reputation with their Party the Pharisees which they must have done as the case then stood if they would have confessed him
perswading themselves that a meer Assent of their minds to the Truth of these and other Evangelical Verities is the Faith to which the promised Justification and Salvation is made though it hath no such powerful operation upon their Wills as to make them new Creatures to make any thorow change in the temper of their Hearts and tenor of their Lives And many doubtless have been greatly strengthened in this delusive confidence by having been taught that Faith justifies without any VVorks at all And these again perswade themselves that they believe in Christ to the saving of their Souls because they rely on him alone for Salvation and upon what he hath done and suffered for them though they love their sins and live in them still Just like some Jews of old who though they were very bad in their Lives yet leaned upon the Lord and said is not the Lord among us None evil can come upon us Mich. 3.11 Isa 48.1 2 They leaned upon God's Promise of being their God as those do upon Christ's undertaking to be a Saviour although they overlooked the Condition to be performed by them in being a People unto him in loving and serving him as those Christians I speak of also do Though Christ alone is to be relyed on for Salvation as touching all that is proper to the Mediatory Office and VVork yet no Man is to rely on him so as to think he should excuse him if he do not Repent or be not Regenerate or as if he did Repent or were Regenerate for him If they do they promise themselves from him that which he never promised or undertook but hath told them plainly That except they themselves Repent they shall Perish and that except they themselves be Born again they cannot see the Kingdom of God 2 They deceive their own Hearts also in the nature of Repentance their Notion of it being one thing and the Scripture-Notion of it quite another So that tney perswade themselves they have Repented when indeed they have not They know and believe perhaps Repentance to be necessary to Salvation because Christ hath said that except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish But then they mistake in perswading themselves that they do repent because they are frequently sorry for what they have done tho' they cease not to do the same again Indeed when the pleasure of Sin is over and rebukes of Conscience come in the room of them these trouble their minds for what they have done which was the Repentance of Judas and there is no peace to the wicked who are like the troubled Sea Now this they count Repentance though it work no effectual and thorow change in Heart and Life but when that sad fit is over they appear to be the same Men they were before by returning to the same sins And herein the Romish Church hath most unhappily laid a Snare which as is to be feared catcheth multitudes of Souls to their Destruction in asserting Contrition yea Attrition with Confession to be Repentance sufficient to Salvation VVhereas sorrow alone though it be godly sorrow is not Repentance but as St. Paul saith Godly sorrow worketh Repentance 2 Cor. 7.10 But Repentance it self which is Saving consisteth chiefly in a real change in Mens apprehensions of and affections to both Sin and Duty and in ceasing to do evil and learning to do well Others again deceive themselves in taking a partial Reformation for true Repentance Because they have left some sins which they could best spare as blemishing their Reputation or impairing their Estates or their Health And because they have done many things which yet Herod also did Mar. 6. they think they have Repented and are Converted though they retain others which are more gainful or yield them more pleasure VVhereas the sincerity of Repentance can be nothing less then a hatred of and turning from sin as sin and so from all sin by diligent and careful endeavours 3. They deceive themselves by a false Notion of that Obedience which is necessary to Salvation They believe in the gross indeed that Obedience to the Commands of God to the Rules and Precepts of the Gospel is necessary to Salvation because the Scripture so plainly declareth it to be so But then they deceive their own Hearts in thinking and perswading themselves that they have performed this part of the Condition of the Promise when as they have not performed one half of it They have been it may be somewhat careful to be found in acts of External Worship and Devotion both publick and private and to keep themselves from Idolatry Swearing Cursing Sabbath-breaking Murder Adultery Stealing False-witness-bearing and the like in the outward and gross acts of them But all the while have made no conscience of governing their Thoughts Affections and Passions nor their Tongues neither as to many things And in all this wherein do they exceed the Pharisees whom if we exceed not in Righteousness Christ hath told us who best knows that we shall never enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Matth. 5.20 They were strict and zealous in the observation of the Laws for Circumcision Sacrifices Sabbaths Tythes and other positive Precepts and that to a tittle And Fasted often and made long Prayers and gave Alms and made Ostentation also that they were not as others were Extortioners Unjust Adutlerers nor as the Publicans And why would not all this bring them to Heaven Because all this notwithstanding as they had not Faith in Christ so they were Covetous Proud and Ambitious seeking Honour one of another contemning and despising others they were Envious and Malicious Cruel and Ill-natured Unmerciful and Persecuting such as faithfully reproved them They made clean the outside of the Cup and Platter and so far as they did so they did well But that for which Christ denounced Woe to them was that their inward part was full of ravening and wickedness and for want of love to God and of Judgment Mercy and Fidelity God is a Spirit and the Service that is acceptable to him as being most agreeable to his Nature is that which is done in Spirit and Truth And therefore his Precepts are given to govern the inward Man as well as the outward He that said Thou shalt not kill hath said also Thou shalt not hate thy Brother in thy heart nor be Angry with him without a cause or bear a grudge against him He that said Thou shalt not commit Adultery hath said also Thou shalt not lust after a Woman in thy heart And he that said Thou shalt not steal hath said also Thou shalt not covet and the like And therefore they that think themselves to be Obedient Children to God upon account of their abstaining from outward gross Sins and of being outwardly Righteous and do not truly endeavour and make a business of it to mortifie and subdue their Pride Covetousness love of the World Envy Hatred Malice thoughts of Revenge the unruliness of Passions and all
Condition of Repentance and new Obedience together with his Faith gives a Man hope and confidence of obtaining these great benefits upon the terms on which they were promised The hope of this Happiness causeth a Man to be willing to comply with the Condition upon which it is promised in order to the obtaining the Happiness itself There is a Principle of Self-love planted by God in the Nature of every Man by which he doth naturally desire and aspire after the happiness of his own Being And that will put a Man upon the use of such Means and the performance of such a Condition without which he believes and is verily perswaded he cannot be happy Now every Man in whom there is the Faith of Assent unto the Trutâ— of God's Testimony in the Gospel firmly fixed being verily perswaded that everlasting Happiness is not attainable without Repentance Regeneration and sincere Obedience because God hath declared this as plainly as he hath done any thing And it is the nature of Faith to acquiesce in his Testimony The love of the End which is Man's own Happiness makes him in love with the Means such as is Repenting Mortifying and Obeying without which he cannot attain his end in being Happy This Principle of Self-love under the conduct of a Man's Understanding and Reason enlightned and regulated by a Declaration of the Divine Will and influenced by a firm belief of it will work in a Man new Apprehensions of and new Affections to both Sin and Duty and will cause him to abandon the little pleasures of sin which are but for a season that he may come to the fruition of that fulness of joy and those Rivers of pleasure which are in the presence of God at his right hand for evermore when once he knows and firmly believes that they cannot otherwise be obtained Thus by Faith is the victory over the world obtained in all its Temptations from Honours Profits and Pleasures 1 Joh. 5.4 For by such a Faith a Man well perceives that the World offers him to his unspeakable loss though it should offer him all of these that it is able to confer upon him if it be upon condition of doing or omitting to do that by which he shall certainly deprive himself of that Glory Honour and Immortality which he is well assured of through Faith in God's Promise if he overcome We see Men are so commonly governed by a Principle of Self-love in parting with a lesser Good or Conveniency for a greater even in the things of this Life that they are worthily and deservedly counted Fools that do the contrary And therefore those are guilty of so much the greater Folly and Madness who deprive themselves of the Happiness of Heaven by a sinful seeking or possessing of the Honours Profits or Pleasures of this Life As the Happiness of Heaven exceeds the enjoyments of this World in kind and height of Satisfaction and in continuance and duration so Rational a thing it is to live and walk by Faith of unseen things and Unreasonable and Unmanly to be governed by the sense of present things in opposition thereunto 2 Thess 3.2 2. The Faith of Assent in the Understanding worketh a Consent in the VVill to the Condition of the Promise as the passion of Fear is awakened by believing God's Threatnings against such as do not observe and fulfil that Condition There is a Principle of Self-preservation planted by God in every Man's Nature by which he fears and abhors that which he knows and verily believes tends to the infelicity and misery of his Being and which puts him upon the avoiding of that which he believes hath such a tendency in order to the declining the Misery or Destruction itself VVhen a Man receives such sayings into his Understanding as threaten that if ye live after the flesh ye shall die that except ye repent ye shall all perish that without holiness no Man shall see the Lord and the like and doth Assent unto them as the true sayings of God which Assent is his Faith the fear of the Misery threatned and the Principle of Self-preservation work in him a desire and endeavour to have his sinful Inclinations and Appetites Mortified and a care to avoid the outward acts of sin as really and truly as he desires to escape Eternal Destruction itself as believing and knowing they tend thereto and that he cannot escape the one without a sincere desire and endeavour to destroy and avoid the other And in this way Faith is a Believer's Victory by which he also overcomes the World when it tempts him to sin by threatning him with Disgrace loss of Estate or Liberty or with enduring of corporal Punishment or Death itself For he believes the Punishments in the other VVorld to be of such a nature and duration as that the worst things which Man can inflict are altogether inconsiderable in comparison of them By which Belief he is so far guided that he chuses to suffer the less when his faithfulness to God and his own best interest doth expose him to it rather than to expose himself by unfaithfulness to infinitely the greater to avoid the less And thus Faith purifies the Heart of all inordinate Affection to Riches Honour Ease and Pleasures Acts 15.9 III. The Faith of Assent or Credence in the Understanding touching the exceeding greatness of God's Love to Mankind in the gift of Christ for their Redemption and in his great and precious Promises made in him upon a very gracious Condition works in the Will a love to God and so a love to please him in doing those things which he hath made the Condition of his Promise When once the Understanding represents it to the Will as a certain Truth upon clear Evidence that notwithstanding Mens Apostacy from God and Rebellion against him and the Condemnation they are under thereby yet God is Reconcilable to them yea willing and so desirous to Reconcile them to himself that as an Evidence and Proof of it he hath given his own Son Christ Jesus to become a Ransom for them and that he hath made a new Covenant declaring that upon account of his Son 's undertaking for them he is not only abundantly willing to pardon all such as shall unfeignedly Repent of their disloyalty and sincerely return to their Duty but that he will also bountifully reward their future sincere Obedience with perfect and perpetual Happiness I say when all this is represented to the Will as unquestionably true it will work in it a love to that God and Saviour that hath been so loving if it be but kept close to it A manifestation of such love and goodness to Man and that while yet in enmity against God so ill deserving and so obnoxious to the power of his wrath when he hath no need of him nor can be profited by him will create good thoughts of God and reconcile Man's Mind to him and work melting Affections in him to God when heartily
earnestly exhorted Phil. 2.22 and to run so that they may obtain 1 Cor. 9.24 IV. Some to evil affect their own and others Minds with prejudice against Discourses of this nature do suggest That the laying so great a stress upon Duty as to esteem any thing of it necessary to Justification save Believing only doth derogate from the Glory of Christ's great Undertaking in the business of Man's Salvation and that it is a trusting in our own Righteousness But it will appear far otherwise if they will but impartially consider in what sence and upon what account such stress is laid upon Duty which I shall open in two Particulars 1. They that rightly understand themselves in this matter do not look that any of their Duties of what nature soever should of themselves as such be available to their Justification or Salvation but that it is for the sake of Christ and upon account of his Undertaking for us that God accepts and imputes for Righteousness to us such Duty as Faith Repentance and Obedience is and that he doth make promise of Justification upon Condition of these Since the Fall we say all our Duties that are acceptable to God or available to us become so through Christ and for his sake And therefore so long as we attribute and ascribe the benefit we expect upon our Repentance and sincere Obedience or Belief unto Christ and to his great and worthy Undertaking for us we are far from derogating from the Glory of it and from trusting in our own Righteousness in that Notion in which Mens trusting in their own Righteousness is condemned in Scripture or any otherwise than as our Duty is made a Condition without which we shall have no part in Christ nor be qualified for Glory 2. When we lay such stress upon Repentance Obedience c. as a Condition or part of a Condition of the Promise of Justification and Salvation as without which we say we cannot be Justified or Saved by Christ's Undertaking for us yet then this stress is laid and depends upon the Will and Appointment of God by which these Duties are thus made the Condition and not on the intrinsick worth or value of the Duties themselves simply considered without reference to God's Ordination appointing them to that use For if God had not made a New Covenant promising pardon for Christ's sake to such as do Repent and Acceptance and Reward to such as sincerely Obey him they would have had no sufficient ground to have been confident of Pardon Acceptance or Reward though they should have Repented and so Obey'd And the reason is because Men are not Justified in the Eye of the Natural or Moral Law upon any such account as that is So that all the stress which is laid on Duty by them that rightly understand their Duty in this matter doth terminate partly in Christ's Undertaking for them and partly in God's Institution and Appointment who hath made his Promise of Justifying us for Christ's sake so as that he hath made our Duty of Repentance and sincere Obedience a necessary Condition of it And he that trusteth to be Pardoned Accepted and Rewarded for Christ's Sake upon his Repentance and sincere Obedience because God hath promised that he shall trusteth in God and in the fidelity of his Word and Promise And in doing so what more stress doth he lay upon Duty in this kind than they that trust to be Justified and Saved upon their Believing For their Believing is matter of Duty as well as their Repenting and Obeying And their Believing would no more have entitled them to the benefit without the Promise which gives them that Title than other Acts of Duty would do And other Acts of Duty do entitle to the same benefits as fully as Faith itself doth where there is promise of the same benefits annexed to them as Faith hath And that they have I have shewed before So long then as the stress which is laid on Duty terminates in Christ and in God's Will and Appointment in the New Covenant and is regulated by his Word and Promise there is no danger of overcharging Duty It 's true indeed if we should expect that Duty should do that for us which is proper only to Christ as to expiate our sin or the like we should sinfully overcharge it as the Pharisaical Jews did their Sacrifices and other Legal Observances in expecting remission of Sin by them without Christ's Atonement Which Righteousness of theirs is for that cause called their own Righteousness which was by the Law as being no method of Justification of God's appointment but of their own devising which in that respect was indeed but as filthy Rags and loathsome to God But this is not the case with Protestant Christians who lay no such stress upon Duty no not upon Faith itself but do acknowledge that all the power and virtue it hath to justifie depends wholly upon and is derived from the Will and Ordination of God in Christ Joh. 6.40 and 1.12 Ephes 2.8 And we say the same of Repentance and sincere Obedience also And a confidence of being saved in a way of Duty upon such terms is represented in Scripture as trusting in the Righteousness of God through Faith in opposition to ones trusting in his own Righteousness Phil. 3.9 so far is it from trusting in our own Righteousness or from derogating from Christ in the Glory of his Undertaking for us And now for a Conclusion It would be considered whether such as are educated in Christianity are not hardlier brought to live as becomes the Gospel in point of Practice than to believe that Christ Jesus came into the World to save Sinners and that he Died for them and Rose again And whether there is not cause to fear that very many more such do eternally miscarry through neglect of the former than for want of the latter And if there be as doubtless there is then Practical Discourses among such must needs be highly necessary however some of weak minds thirst more after Discourses Consolatory upon account of Believing only Which may serve instead of an Apology for writing this Discourse Saint Paul charged Titus to affirm this constantly that they which have Believed be careful to maintain good Works Tit. 3.8 FINIS 〈…〉 On the Preliminary QUESTIONS and ANSWERS OF THE Church-Catechism Giving an Account of the whole Doctrine OF THE Covenant of Grace And of the Nature Terms and Conditions of the same SHEWING ALSO By whose Mediation it was obtained for us by what Assistance we shall be enabled to perform it and our Obligations thereunto The Third Edition By THOMAS BRAY D. D. LONDON Printed by J. Brudenell for William Haws at the Rose in Ludgate-street 1703. TO THE Right Reverend Father in GOD WILLIAM LORD BISHOP of Coventry and Lichfield Lord Almoner to the KING MY LORD HAving your Lordship's Commands for the Publication of these following Discourses I have reason to hope my Readers will prove candid and
in all the material Parts of the Christian Religion to the Belief and Practice of which you have given up your Names This by the Assistance of God I shall endeavour to do and I beg your Prayers to obtain his Assistance and in the same Method your Catechism teaches you Our Catechism gives an entire Instruction in the Covenant of Grace both generally and particularly and I am sure I cannot choose a better to do it in since whatsoever is necessary to be Believ'd and Practis'd in order to Salvation you have therein taught you both generally and particularly As to a more General Institution you have the summ and substance of the Christian Religion and whatsoever is necessary to Salvation taught you that way in those Three Questions and Answers which I have now read to you The summ and substance of Christian Religion I. Generally in the 3 First Questions and Answers and whatsoever is necessary to Salvation is certainly contain'd within the Covenant of Grace for undoubtedly there can be nothing more of absolute Necessity to Salvation than what God himself has been pleas'd to Promise and Ensure unto us and we our selves have Engag'd to perform And now in these Three Questions and Answers now read to you First You have whatsoever pertains to the Nature of the Covenant of Grace expresly deliver'd I will Instance to you the particulars which pertain to the Nature of it and will point to the Words wherein they are taught And in the first place you are Instructed what are the Terms and Conditions whereof it consists both on God's Part and on Ours in these Words Wherein I was made a Member of Christ a Child of God and an Inheritour of the Kingdom of Heaven which are the Mercies and Favours made over to us on God's Part of the Covenant and in these First That I should Renounce the Devil and all his Works the Pomps and Vanity of this wicked World and all the sinful Lusts of the Flesh Secondly That I should Believe all the Articles of the Christian Faith And Thirdly That I should keep God's Holy Will and Commandments and walk in the same all the days of my Life which are the Conditions to be perform'd on our Part of the Covenant Secondly You have here taught you the Gracious Importance of this Covenant we are put thereby into A State of Salvation Thirdly You have an Account of the Original of it and by whose Mediation you obtain'd so Beneficial and Gracious a Covenant taught you in these Words Through Jesus Christ our Saviour It was through the Mediation of Jesus Christ that we obtain'd the Benefit of so Gracious a Covenant Fourthly You are Instructed by whom and how you have been call'd into this State of Salvation by Means of the Covenant of Grace It was your Heavenly Father who hath called you to this State of Salvation through Jesus Christ our Saviour And Lastly You are admonisht of the very great reason you have to thank God and our Saviour Jesus Christ for so exceeding great a Mercy as his Calling you into it And I thank God our Heavenly Father that he hath called me to this State of Salvation thro' Jesus Christ our Saviour Thus far you are instructed concerning what pertains to the Nature of the Covenant II. You have also declar'd unto you by what Sacrament or Solemnity you first enter'd into it It was in your Baptism wherein you was made a Member of Christ c. III. You have then those vast Obligations lying upon you Faithfully and Conscientiously to discharge your part of the Covenant laid plainly before you This you own in your Answer to this Question Dost thou not think that thou art bound to Believe and to Do as they have promis'd for thee To which you are taught to answer Yes verily so I will IV. You have farther yet the Means whereby you shall be enabled to perform your part of the Covenant The First is the Grace Help and Assistance of God And by God's Help so I will The Second Means both to obtain the Divine Assistance and to enable you thereby to discharge your Covenant is Prayer unto God And I Pray unto God to give me his Grace that I may continue in the same unto my Lives end And Lastly You have also Intimated herein Two material Circumstances relating to the making of this Covenant betwixt God and You viz. 1. The time of Infancy wherein you enter'd into it imply'd in these Words Wherein I was made 2. The Persons by whom as Proxies you were Initiated therein My Godfathers and Godmothers did promise and vow three Things in my Name I will endeavour to Explain all these Points unto you in this First and General Part according as they are here taught you in these Questions and Answers now read as the Text beginning First With what pertains to the Nature of the Covenant of Grace And in order to the Understanding hereof it may not be amiss to premise something concerning the more general Notion of such Covenants as are usually made betwixt Governours and their Subjects And such an One if it be perfect in all its Parts and fully exprest may be Defin'd to be An Agreement between the Two Parties wherein there are Promises The Notion of a Covenant Rewards or profitable Considerations made over on one Part and certain Conditions to be perform'd on the other And wherein also there is an Obligation on the one side of undergoing some certain Penalties in case of not performing those Conditions consented unto by him and impos'd on him by the other A Covenant I say is a mutual Agreement between Two Parties It is a mutual Agreement for if it be not mutual and both Parties are not consenting to the Terms the One to the making good the Promises the Other to the performing the Conditions the Agreement is none at all or it is not Perfected nor is it Obliging on either side There may be indeed a Law given by one that is Superiour in Power and Authority which the Inferior is bound to Obey whether he consent or no because he is plac'd by the Divine Ordinance under the Other 's Command and if he does refuse to Obey he may be justly Punisht but then such a Transaction is to be consider'd as the giving of a Law not as the making of a Covenant Nor is this a slight Difference for where a Superior has given a Law if the Inferior has also Covenanted and consented upon good Considerations and upon the Expectation of promis'd Rewards to obey that Law such a Covenant does withal lay a farther Obligation on the Party on whom the Conditions ly to be perform'd by vertue of his own Consent to do it so that in the Violation of his Duty in such a case he shall be accounted not barely Disobedient but a Covenant-breaker which is added as a more aggravated Sin Rom. 1.31 and therefore deserving a more severe Punishment As
Body the Church there are the Ordinances of Sacraments Preaching Publick and Common Prayers and such like Holy Offices Administred by Persons set apart for that Purpose to be the Conveyances of those ordinary Supplies of his Holy Spirit which he thinks necessary to preserve that Member in Health and Vigour So that thus at length you see how that in keeping in Union with the mystical Body of Christ his Church and with its Lawful Governours and Teachers and in the use of Sacraments and other Divine Ordinances those Conduits and Conveyances of his Holy Spirit to us we shall have spiritual Life and Strength and Vigour derived down to us from Christ our spiritual Head in like manner as in the natural Body of Man the Animal Life and Strength and Vigour is derived down to all the parts of the Body from the natural Head And this is a most singular Priviledge if compar'd with that little or nothing of this Nature which others who are not Members of Christ's Church do enjoy and also it will appear to be a most exceeding great Advantage if consider'd in it self And First If we compare our Happiness with Others I. Divine Grace a most singular Priviledge if compared with what others enjoy of this Nature we shall find it the peculiar Advantage of Christianity which no other Law nor Doctrine so much as pretends to that it not only clearly teacheth us and strongly perswadeth us to so excellent a Way of Life but provideth also Divine Help and Assistance to Enable us to Practice it If God would have Ordinarily and in the way of a Constant Dispensation imparted so excellent a Gift to any to be sure it would have been to the Jewish Church but we are told Joh. 1.17 That the Law was given by Moses but that Grace came by Jesus Christ that is the Graces and Gifts of His Holy Spirit as well as other Mercies and Favours so that tho' Moses deliver'd Legal Precepts it is by Jesus Christ we shall have the Assistance whereby we shall be Enabled to attain unto Holiness And as to that Measure of Grace afforded to Holy Men under the Law whatsoever it were it was through him the Promised Messiah and in Vertue of that Covenant of Grace Confirmed with Abraham before the Law but the more constant Influences of the Holy Spirit and the fuller Measures thereof are derived from him down upon us now under the Gospel And because of that more plentiful Measure of Grace and Spirit Communicated unto us from Christ under the Gospel does the Apostle call the Gospel the Ministration of the Spirit in Opposition to the Law which he styles the Ministration of Death 2 Cor. 3.8 9. And does therefore so assuredly promise himself Success in his Ministry ver 5 6. Such trust have we in Christ to Godward not that we are sufficient of our selves to think any thing as of our selves but our sufficiency is of God who hath made us able Ministers of the New Testament or Covenant not of the Letter but of the Spirit where the Gospel is styl'd the Spirit as for other Reasons so for this in the Judgment of the Learned Dr. Hammond that Grace which is the Gift of the Spirit is now join'd to the Gospel which was not to the Law In a Word and to speak in the Words of a Learned Author Other Laws for want of this are in effect Ministeries of Condemnation Racks of Conscience Parents of Guilt and of Regret Reading hard Lessons but not assisting to do after them Imposing heavy Burthens but not Enabling to bear them But our Law of the Gospel is not such it is not a dead Letter but hath a quickning Spirit accompanying it it not only soundeth through the Ear but stampeth it self upon the Heart of him that sincerely doth Embrace it it always carryeth with it a sure Guide to all Good and a safe Guard from all Evil. II. An exceeding Advantage considered in it self And this Advantage as it is proper to our Religion So it is exceeding considerable in it self The Advantage is that every Member in Christ's Body in what Station soever he be shall have sufficient Supplies of Grace derived down from Christ our Head proportionable to his Necessities by those means of Conveying it which Christ has appointed for that Purpose All the Members of Christ have Supplies proportionable to their Station in the Church I say every Member in Christ's Body in what Station soever he be For As we have many Members in one Body and all Members have not the same Office so we being many are one Body in Christ and every one Members one of another Rom. 12.4 5. that is there are different Members in the Church of Christ some are to be Governours and Teachers of Others and accordingly must be Endow'd with a Spirit of Government and Gift of Teaching and others are of a more private Capacity in the Church of Christ whatever they may in other Respects and their Business is to keep a Conscience void of Offence both towards God and Man and faithfully to discharge their Duties to God their Neighbour and Themselves And whatever I say those several Duties are which arise from their several Stations in the Church they shall have a competent measure of Divine Grace Enabling them to discharge ' em They shall not have Gifts that are necessary to the Discharge of other's Offices but be destitute of these of their own that is a private Christian call'd to no Office in the Church is not to expect nor ought to pretend to have received Gifts of Government and Teaching in a publick Ministerial way For God is not the Author of Confusion but of Peace in all the Churches of the Saints 1 Cor. 14.33 But every Member of the mystical Body by keeping himself united to the Head in such ways as has been shew'd shall have such Graces and Assistances derived down to him from Christ who is that Head as are necessary and proper for him And that too in such Measures and Proportions as according to the different Times and Occasions in the Church are wanting And also in such Measures as according to different Times and Occasions in the Church are wanting Thus in the first Plantation of the Gospel when the Work was so Extraordinary that there was need of Miracles to convince the Jews of the Insufficiency of Moses's Law and the Gentiles of the Falshood of the Pagan Superstition then did Christ bestow upon his Apostles divers extraordinary Gifts viz. Of Miracles Prophecy discerning of Spirits divers kind of Tongues and the Interpretation of Tongues 1 Cor. 12.10 And as to all Christians in general as the malice of Satan did then most violently rage against the Church Persecuting to the Death those who would not Renounce Christ and his Religion so all the Christians in those Times were very extraordinarily Strengthen'd no doubt to resist such strong Temptations But now that the Church is
Abstain from all Appearance of Evil. Some will pretend so they can but Approve their Consciences to God they care not what Men say of ' em But besides that seldom any grow shameless and regardless of their Credit till they have lost all sence of Conscience as well as of their Honour This is at best but a very uncharitable Saying It is every Man's Duty indeed in the first place to take care of doing any thing that is in it self Evil and by which God is offended and if he cannot discharge his Conscience to him in a Good thing without incurring the Offence and and Censures of Men he must in such Case be content to approve his Actions to God only But in Charity to other Men's Souls we must also with St. Paul Act. 24.16 Exercise our selves to have always a Conscience void of offence as towards God so towards men by giving no occasion to suspect us of Evil and that because of giving no Offence Lest our liberty become a stumbling Block to them that are Weak and an occasion of falling in our Brother's way which we are Caution'd against Rom. 14.13 and 1 Cor. 8.9 Besides that if a Person be of ill Fame tho' he may not deserve it all his Speeches and Actions shall be ill Interpreted no Man regards what he says or does his Proposals shall be suspected his Counsels and Rebukes tho' wholsome and just scorn'd and despis'd the Man he speaks for the side he adheres to the Cause he defends and the Business he manages shall suffer Prejudice and speed the worse for the ill Opinion is held of him So that as the Father said Nâ—bis necessaria est Vita nostra aliis Fama nostra Augus de Bon. vid. Cap. 22. A Good Life is necessary to us and a Good Name necessary to our Brethren And as we must labour to have a good Conscience towards God for our own sakes so also to have a good Report amongst Men for our Neighbours So Valuable is a good Esteem in it self so desirable to be Attain'd and so carefully to be Preserv'd Nevertheless even a Good Name is in some measure to be Renounced by us and the Temptations it gives us Nevertheless as useful as is the Honour and Esteem of Good Men even this is in some measure to be Renounc'd by us and the Temptations also it gives us which are not inconsiderable For the natural Desire of Honour and Credit amongst Men is apt to make us too eagerly to desire Praise making our own Glory the main End of the Good we do or at least-wise to make us desire more than is proportionable to our Deserts When possest of Reputation and Esteem we are apt to take it wholly to our selves and not to refer it to God to whom the Glory of all that is Good in us does properly belong and to make it an Instrument of our own Advancement only neglecting to use the Authority which our Credit and Reputation in the World does give us to discountenance Irreligion and to encourage Piety in the World And sometimes Persons do so much over-value their Good Name and Reputation amongst Men as to fly to undue Means of preserving it nay to prefer the Esteem of Men more than the Honour that cometh from God In all which Cases there is great occasion for that Renunciation and Self-denial with respect to that Honour which consists in an High Esteem and Reputation amongst Men. As First we must so far Renounce the Honour that shall accrue to us from our good Works as not to make our own Glory the End and Reason of any Good we do And First It behoves us so far to Renounce and Reject the Honour and Reputation that shall accrue to us from our Pious or Good Works as Not to make our own Glory the End and Reason of any Good we do We must Take heed that we do not our Alms before Men to be seen of them otherwise we shall have no Reward of our Father which is in Heaven Matth. 6.1 But on the contrary the main and chief End of all we do must be God's Glory insomuch that Whether we eat or drink or whatever we do we must do all to the Glory of God 1 Cor. 10.13 And indeed so far should we be from affecting the Honours and Applauses of Men upon the account of any thing well done by us that it becomes us rather to walk as silently and retiredly in the ways of Vertue as we can never endeavouring Ostentatiously to publish and proclaim our Pious and Good Performances declining Fame and Popularity and modestly concealing our own Praises and Excellencies But when either the Glory of God or the good of our Brother is concern'd and promoted in the Manifestation Letting our Light shine before Men then and to the End only that others seeing our good Works they may glorify our Father which is in Heaven Matth. 5.16 For as One well observes We are rather to affect those things which deserve Fame than the obtaining of Fame it self because Honour must be the Effect and Fruit of Well-doing and not the chief Motive or final Cause Or as Senecae expresses it It is good to be Praised but better to be Praise-worthy But then if our Reputation and Praise does come in here it is desirable enough and is very seasonable and comes in its due place as being subordinate to God's Glory And indeed it is most successfully obtain'd when least sought after every one despising the most worthy Performances when they see a Man aim thereby at so low a Mark as Humane Praise and Glory Secondly We must not Affect but Renounce and Refuse those Praises which are beyond or above our Deserts II. We must not affect but renounce those Praises which are above our Deserts We may moderately desire to be well Esteem'd but it must be in proportion to our Vertues For as it is Unjust to assume to our selves Praises of which we are no ways Deserving So it is Vanity and Vain-glory to expect more than we deserve And We must not be desirous of Vain-glory Gal. 5.26 And to this End must therefore take care of Self-love which makes us to magnify our own Parts and to lessen those of our Neighbour Thirdly Persons who have a great Reputation and Esteem amongst Men upon the account of some worthy Performances Must beware of taking the Honour thereof wholly to themselves and of not Transferring it to God to whom the Glory of all that is Good in us or excellently perform'd by any of us does properly belong III. We must beware of takeing the Honour and Respects given us for any worthy Performances wholly to our selves and of not transferring it to God to whom the Glory of all that is Good in us does properly belong St. Paul tho' He labour'd more abundantly in the saving of Men's Souls than all the rest of the Apostles yet was so far from taking the Glory thereof to
Life IV. Wicked Men Tempt others to Sin by their false and fallacious Argueings against the Necessity of a Holy Life One would think there should be none professing Christianity that should openly Plead for Sin but yet such Factors and Agents Satan has amongst us as will openly Avow his Cause and will endeavour to Perswade you that you are not Obliged to that Strictness of Living which we Preachers are continually sounding in Men's Ears And to this Purpose you shall hear them Argue so hotly that God no doubt is a Merciful Being and will not surely for the Sins of a short Life Condemn the Guilty to an Eternity of Woe and Misery And as to the Duties of Religion you shall hear 'em argue that they are hard Sayings and who can bear ' em And as to themselves you shall hear these Men often Pleading that they are made of Flesh and Blood and therefore sure God will not require Men upon the Hazard of Salvation to mortify the Flesh and that they are set in a World full of Temptations and abounding in Delights and Pleasures and that therefore God who has Plac'd 'em in it will not command 'em upon Pain of Damnation to Overcome these strong Temptations and to deny these Pleasures of the World These are the common and pernicious and licentious Argueings of Men to perswade both themselves and others into such easy Notions of God and Religion that they may Sin with more Security and less Fear And this has been a powerful Art in all times and such Arguments as these Men are most ready to Believe because they love the Thing they Plead for because they favour their Lusts and grant 'em so much Liberty in what they long for the satisfying the Flesh and enjoying the World All which wicked Reasonings we must fortify our selves against as when they Plead But do you beware and fortify your selves well against those false Argueings of Sinful men in Behalf of their Lusts and against the Strictness of Religion whereby they would Perswade you as well as themselves into a sinful Security and with-draw you from or slacken you in your Duty They are false and fallacious Arguments that would perswade us to Comply in the least with Sin for there is nothing more plain in Scripture than that Sin must with all possible Care be avoided It tells us positively That we must deny all Vngodliness and worldly Lusts and live soberly righteously and godly in this present World Tim. 2.12 And that all that name the Name of Christ must depart from Iniquity 2 Tim. 2.19 And that all true Christians must be Cleansed from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit and perfect Holiness in the fear of God 2 Cor. 7.1 And in order to Perfection that they must Cut off right Hands and put out right Eyes when they offend 'em that is any Lusts that are so dear and useful to you as these Members are Matth. 29.30 What shall I say It tells us that the Friendship of the world is Enmity against God and that whosoever will be a Friend of the world is an Enemy of God Jam. 4.4 And then as for the Punishment of Sin there is not One but has the Penalty of Eternal Death and Misery if Unrepented of affixt to it Particularly Rev. 21.8 it is said that the Fearful or those who Apostatize from the Faith out of fear and Vnbelieving and the Abominable and Murderers and Whore-mongers and Sorcerers and Idolaters and all Liars shall have their part in the Lake which burneth with Fire and Brimstone which is the second death This the Word of God does assure us and then for Men to raise to themselves Hopes of Impunity so contrary to the express Declarations of Scripture when if they shall be mistaken and find after all God's Threatnings to prove real as there is infinite Reason to believe they shall this is certainly the most desperate Presumption in the World But if you consider these Arguments asunder there is no strength in 'em wherefore any should venture to rely upon ' em For in the first place it is in no wise Inconsistent with God's Mercy for the Sins of a short Life to Condemn the Guilty to an Eternity of Woe and Misery I. That it is inconsistent w th God's Mercy for the Sins of a short life to Condemn the Guilty to an Eternity of Woe and Misery His Mercy is sufficiently satisfied in laying no Tyrannical Impositions upon us as Satan and all false Gods have done upon their superstitious Votaries It is yet a farther Demonstration of his Mercy that our vertuous Performances tho' they are their own Reward here yet they shall be also abundantly Recompenced hereafter He does moreover let us see his Mercy in his long Forbearance of us notwithstanding that by our numberless Provocations we do Grieve his Holy Spirit But he has given us the greatest Discoveries of his Mercy beyond what could ever enter into the Hearts of Men to expect when he gave his own Son to be an Atonement and Expiation for our Sins that his Justice might not proceed against us and when he sent him to us with a Covenant of Grace as an Act of Pardon proposing to us not only a perfect Reconciliation with our offended God but infinite Rewards in Heaven if we would return to our due Obedience and Pay him no other but a reasonable Service I think this is sufficient for Mercy to do and if such immensurable Mercies will not win upon us it is time that as severe a Justice should then take place for we are to consider God as the supreme Governour of Men and Justice is as necessary an Attribute in Government as Mercy Nor is his Severity in Punishing the Sins of a short Life with an Eternity of Woe and Misery but what is agreeable to his Justice and Wisdom as supreme Governour of the World It is necessary in all Governments that the Laws thereof should be enforc'd with such Penalties as shall be sufficient to deter People from the Transgression of those Laws And therefore the Penalties being future it is necessary they should be vastly Great to Over-balance the Profits or Pleasures of Sin which are present It may seem hard indeed at first sight in Humane Governments that a Person for Clipping a Peice of Silver which bears the Image and Superscription of Caesar or for Stealing it from another should forfeit not only his Good and Chattels but also his Life it self but yet since upon the Temptations of present Profit bad Men will adventure to commit such Facts and the Authority of Laws cannot otherwise be kept up nor Men's Rights and Properties preserv'd It is not thought by the Honest Part of Mankind Inconsistent with the Wisdom and Justice of Governours to inflict even such Punishments as extend to the loss of Life It is these alone are sufficient to Out-weigh the present Consideration of Profit to the Offender and effectually to move him
in another Word is ordinarily exprest in Scripture by Vprightness or walking uprightly And to be upright in God's Ways is not to stumble and fall by Sin or Disobedience but to be perfect and entire or wanting nothing in obedient Performances And that our Obedience may be thus entire and upright it must be First The Obedience of the whole Man Secondly To the whole Law And Thirdly perform'd at all times First That our Obedience to the Laws of the Gospel may be entire I. The Obedience of the whole Man that is and so avail us to Life and Happiness it must be the Obedience of the whole Man that is we must take care to obey with all the Powers and Faculties of our Nature We must have our Understandings our Wills our Affections and our Bodily Powers obedient to God's Laws And for this the very Letter of the Law is express for when the Lawyer ask'd our Saviour What shall I do to inherit eternal Life Luk. 10.25 our Saviour ask'd how it is written in the Law who answering that it is written Thou shalt love that is serve as it is Deut. 11.13 the Lord thy God with all thine Heart or Will with all thy Soul or Affections with all thy Strength or Bodily Powers and with all thy Mind or Understanding vers 26 27. When the Lawyer answered him That thus indeed it was written in the Law as it was Deut. 11. our Saviour told him he answered right and bid him do this and he should live Obedience with all the Powers and with the whole Nature is the Means of Life and the indispensible Condition of our eternal Happiness And In the first place of the Mind and Vnderstanding First We must keep all God's Commandments with our Mind or Understanding that is all the Thoughts and Imaginations all the Contrivances and Counsels of our Hearts must be governed by and kept in Obedience to the Laws of the Gospel so that we must not indulge our selves nor entertain in our Hearts evil Thoughts wanton and vain Thoughts nor must we purpose and contrive wicked and unjust Things no more than we must outwardly act them Thus the Apostle 2 Cor. 10.4 tells us That the Weapons of a Christian's Warfare must be mighty through God to the pulling down Strong-holds to the casting down Imaginations and every high thing that exalteth it self against the Knowledge of God and to the bringing into captivity every Thought to the Obedience of Christ This Text forbids all Thoughts and Contrivances of Sin Secondly of the Will Secondly As ever we hope to have our Obedience avail us to Life and Happiness as we must keep our Minds and Understandings so likewise our Wills in Obedience to God's Commands The Choice as well as the Practice of our Duty is plainly necessary to render it available to our Salvation but on the other side he that would sin if he could conveniently and opportunely if he chuse Sin although he miss of opportunity to act it the bare Choice without the Practice is sufficiently to his Condemnation Thus our Lord Himself has determined it Whosoever looks on a Woman to lust after her or so long till his Heart eonsent to commit Lewdness with her if he could though he never meet with an Opportunity to act it hath committed Adultery with her already in his Heart Matth. 5.28 This Text shews us that we may disobey in Willing as well as Doing and that we shall be condemned for a wicked Choice as well as a wicked Practice Thirdly of the Affections Thirdly As we will render to God the Obedience of the whole Man an entire Obedience such as will avail us to Salvation we must regulate our Souls and Affections conforming them wholly to what God Commands That is we must love our Duty as well as do it and not to do it meerly out of Fear but out of Love To pretend Obedience to God and yet to love what he forbids to make a show of his Service and yet in our very Hearts to hanker after his vilest Enemies our Sins whom above all Things his Soul hates this surely is not honestly to Serve but grosly to Collogue and flatly to Dissemble with Him And we must not do our Duty meerly out of Fear I say but out of Love for thus to serve God against our Wills is to submit to him as a Slave doth to a Tyrannous Lord not through any Kindness for him but through a hateful Fear of him But this is such a hateful way of performing Obedience as God will never endure nor accept of for He scorns to be served by a slavish Fear and an unwilling Mind No Man as our Saviour says Matth. 6.24 can serve two Masters for if he loves the one he will hate the other Ye cannot serve God and Mammon By this he lets us know that our Love and Obedience must go together and be paid both to one God Lastly As we will give God the Service and Obedience of the whole Man an Entire Obedience such as he will accept of to our Salvation we must Obey him with all our Strength and bodily Powers That is we must not only Inwardly Approve of God's Commands as good in our Minds and Judgments bear a Love to 'em with our Affections and chuse 'em with our Wills but we must proceed Outwardly to Act and do the Will of God in the Outward and Constant Practice of our Lives we must put to our Strength and bodily Powers and work the Will of God in our Lives and Actions Little Children saith St. John 1 Epist 3.7 let no Man deceive you he that doth Righteousness is righteous That is you will be deceived if you suffer others to perswade you or vainly flatter your selves that there is any thing less than doing and acting vertuously and righteously for which you shall be rewarded as vertuous and religious Persons These Texts besides many others shew you the necessity that our Inward good Motions proceed to Outward good Operations that you must go on to do good Deeds before you are fit for the Great Reward that we must work as well as desire and not only will and like but do our Duty because on nothing less than that we shall at the last Day be accepted This indeed is the severe Service and the distasteful Part This the distasteful part of our Duty A secret Wish or a sudden Desire of Obedience may start up in our Souls unawares and there is not much opposition made to it because our Lusts receive no great hurt from it And therefore they will allow us to think of Good to spend a faint Wish a sudden Inclination or fruitless Desire upon it but if once we would go on to do our Duty and to begin Obedience then begins the Conflict our Lusts then bestir themselves with might and main and set every Faculty on work to resist and defeat it for our Thoughts then begin to argue and to
other mad Frolicks or sinful Extravagances without any deliberation or consideration at all shall nevertheless be judged to have wilfully committed those Sins because he did deliberately and wilfully fall into that Sin of Drunkenness which when he was in by depriving himself of his Reason made those or any other Sins unavoidable at that time So again he that watches not over but indulges and gives way to his Passions and in his Anger kills a Man and he that accustoms himself to a Sin so often that he knows not when he commits it as to swear in either of these Cases also he shall be judged wilfully in God's account to have committed Murder and to have swore because any Man may chuse to indulge and humour his Passions or to accustom himself to that Sin which makes his falling into other Sins so unavoidable And lastly he that wilfully neglects the means of attaining to any Grace or Vertue will be judged wilfully to have omitted his Duty which in the use of due Means he might have done acceptably Thus in either of these Cases when Men fall into any Sin either by Drunkenness or by indulging and not watching over their Passions or by reason of having long accustomed themselves to such Sins or lastly by neglecting the Means of attaining to any Grace or Vertue In any of these Cases he that commits a Sin his Sin will be accounted as indirectly and interpretatively chosen and voluntary because he did willingly do those things which brought and betray'd him into such Sin or wilfully neglected those Means which would have preserv'd him from them And so his Sin will be condemn'd as a chosen and wilful Sin and a Transgression of God's Law and he punished as a wilfully Disobedient Person So that the difference between the Law and the Gospel is not such as that wilful Sins shall be now unpunish'd But the difference is 1st that those who sincerely and entirely obey shall not be called to an account for unchosen and involuntary Sins But here the difference is very great and comfortable and it is this That First As to our unchosen and involuntary Sins which through the Weakness and Frailty of our Nature we cannot always avoid through the Mediation of Christ now under the Covenant of Grace those who sincerely and entirely Obey the Laws of the Gospel shall not be called to an account for such And such unchosen and involuntary Sins are those which we commit either through Ignorance because we did not understand our Duty or through Inconsideration because we did not think of it And unless our Ignorance and Inconsideration be themselves wilful we shall not be condemned for the Failings we have committed through either of ' em The first cause of an innocent Involuntariness Ignorance of our Duty The first cause of an innocent and pardonable Involuntariness is Ignorance of our Duty when we do what God forbids because we do not know that He has forbid it for such Failings as we ignorantly commit we shall not be condemned under the Covenant of Grace for Christ who is our High Priest as St. Paul assures us will have compassion on the Ignorant and them that are out of the way Heb. 5.2 Provided it be not wilful True it is there are those that are wilfully ignorant for either they shut their Eyes and will not see their Duty or they are idle and careless and will not enquire after it So that if they do not know their Duty it is because they do not desire the Knowledge of it or will be at no pains for it they neither read the Word nor come to hear it nor to be Catechized and if they do come neither think nor consider afterwards upon what they have heard nor pray to God to make all those Means of Knowledge effectual to their Salvation And in the neglect of these Means of Knowledg they make themselves wilfully ignorant and so their Ignorance will not be their Excuse but their condemning Sin because it was wilful and chosen But if you have an honest Heart desirous to be taught that you may know and do your Duty and use an honest Industry by Reading coming to be Catechized by constantly Hearing of the Word If thus you do all that lies upon you to be informed what you ought to do and yet afterwards if through Mis-understanding you fail then through the Grace of the Gospel and the Mediation of our Saviour what you have been wanting in will not be imputed to your Condemnation Nor 2d Inconsideration Secondly What you do unwillingly commit through Inconsideration We sometimes do things we do not think nor consider the Evil of 'em when we commit 'em and so their Sinfulness being unseen is also unchosen and these Slips do so steal from us without our Consideration and thinking of 'em several ways either first by Surprize and a sudden Temptation Inconsideration excuses 1. when through surprize And thus St. Paul upon an unexpected occasion was surprized into a sudden Anger and into an unadvised Irreverence towards the High Priest Acts 23.1 2 3. And the beginnings of a single Passion whether of Anger or Envy and the unadvised Slips of the Tongue generally enter this way Or secondly we venture upon several Actions without thinking of their sinfulness through our natural Weariness and the length and constancy of a Temptation Thus in times of Affliction or Sickness 2. When thro natural weariness and the length and strength of a Temptation by the uneasiness of the Flesh and the hardness of a Man's Condition a Person is sometimes tempted to fret and murmur and to be peevish and repining And so we find it was with Job who though a Man patient to a Proverb and one to whom by the Testimony of God Himself there was none Equal in the whole Earth a perfect and an upright Man one who feared God and eschewed Evil Job 1.8 Yet this Man I say of admirable Constancy and Patience was wearied out of his Watchfulness by a tedious trial of Afflictions and in that time of his Unadvisedness uttered many things impatient with his Lips as appears from his whole History And lastly Lastly When by the violent discomposure of our Thinking Powers our Minds are so disturbed that we cannot think what we do we sometimes inconsiderately and unadvisedly do an ill Thing by reason of the violent Discomposure and Disturbance of our thinking Powers when our Mind is so disturbed that on a sudden we cannot think what we do as upon a sudden Grief Anger or Fear And thus 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 God's Command when he should have perform'd it and question where in Duty it became him to Obey for when God
faithful in our Covenant with Him And so likewise it is Thirdly To be an Inheritor of the Kingdom of Heaven III. As Inheritors of the Kingdom of Heaven What restraint will it put upon a young Heir and how careful will it make him to please his Parents when a great Estate is like to descend upon him but yet so that he shall certainly be dis-inherited of it except he behave himself soberly and regularly and dutifully to those his Parents And if so how infinitely more circumspect and wary and diligent should we all of us be to please our Father which is in Heaven by discharging our Covenant-Engagements to him inasmuch as the Heavenly Inheritance is of infinite more value than an Earthly one can be I shall not stand now to give you a Description of that Exceeding Weight of Glory and of those Vast and Immense Treasures of Happiness which are laid up in Heaven for those who shall faithfully perform their Covenant with God I shall only in short shew you that such is the Nature and Constitution of the Covenant of Grace that there is no Hopes nor Expectations of ever obtaining it without a faithful discharge of all our Covenant-Engagements to God and if so then certainly there cannot be greater Obligations possible to the performance of ' em And as to the Nature of the Covenant of Grace surely one would think it were needless to prove that the Conditions of it must be performed or we cannot expect to inherit the Promises This is of the Nature of all Covenants whatsoever which consist of certain Promises and Benefits to be made good on one part not without certain Conditions to be performed on the other Kingdom of Heaven not to be expected but by those who are faithful in their Covenant And why then should any so fondly expect Justification and Happiness to be conferr'd upon 'em except they do Repent heartily Believe practically and Obey sincerely the only Conditions of this Covenant as has been often shewed Why sure none that look into the Gospel and see and consider how that all along Happiness is only promised to the Obedient can ever expect it upon other Terms But so it is that a sort of Antinomian Hereticks do spread abroad their pestilent Doctrines teaching that Christ by his Sacrifice and Satisfaction for us has purchased Justification and Happiness without any Conditions to be perform'd on our part and that what he has done will wholly excuse us from Duty and Obedience But this is one of the most Anti-christian Errors in the World as undermining the whole design of Christ's Coming and his Preaching the Gospel amongst us which was to tie us up to higher Rules of Righteousness than were before given to the Sons of Men. It was infinitely far from the Design of him who came to save and deliver us from the Power and Dominion as well as from the Guilt and Punishment of our Sins to do any thing that should encourage us in Sin and render us secure when at any time we commit it But that which Christ has done for us amounts to this that he has purchased by his Blood-shedding an Abrogation of the First Covenant wherein was no Happiness without an unsinning Obedience and then has procured for us this most gracious Covenant with these abatements of Rigour That we shall have all that unspeakable Bliss and the Inheritance of Heaven conferr'd on us on condition we shall repent of and forsake our Sins and knowingly and willingly not offend him for the future And a most encouraging Argument this will be to all considering and serious Persons to make 'em faithful and diligent to perform their Covenant No People either Jews or Gentiles ever before us had the like The Jews by the Law of Moses or the meer Covenant of Works had plainly and expresly the Assurances only of a Temporal Canaan and the Promises of a peaceable and prosperous Possession thereof to encourage their Duty And the poor Pagans had little Inducements to vertuous living more than the present Tranquility of Mind which arises from the meer Exercise of Vertue neither of 'em Considerations strong enough to bear us up against great Temptations to Sin and the difficulties in the way of our Duty But this one Consideration of an Eternal weight of Glory an Inheritance laid up in Heaven a Crown of Life infallibly ensured to those who shall be faithful unto Death This is enough to encourage us in Well-doing and to preserve us safe and innocent as it has done Thousands before us amidst all the Persecutions of Evil Men on the one hand or the Allurements of the World on the other withdrawing us or frighting us into Sin so that in the strength of the Hopes of such an Inheritance we may be prevail'd upon faithfully and conscientiously to discharge this our Covenant with God And thus you see what mighty Arguments the several Mercies of the Covenant made over to us on God's Part do yield us and what inviolable Obligations they do all of 'em lay upon us faithfully and conscientiously to discharge this our Covenant with God But IV. As having promised and vowed in our Baptism accordingly to discharge our Covenant w th God Fourthly and lastly Another vast Obligation lying upon us to do the same and which ought especially to be here considered is That Promise and Vow made for us in our Baptism accordingly to discharge this our Covenant Do'st thou not think that thou art bound to Believe and to Do as they have promised for thee That is the Question which is ask'd you to which you are taught to answer Yes verily and thereby to acknowledge the vast Obligations lying upon you on the account of that Promise and Vow to perform that your Covenant and a mighty Obligation too it lies upon us there being nothing more sacred and inviolable than a Vow made unto God and more severely punisht if it be ever violated The matter of a Vow sometimes not a Duty 'till vowed A Vow in general is defin'd to be a solemn Promise made unto God whereby we do in a peculiar manner engage our selves unto him to the performance of something And there are two sorts of these Vows which are to be distinguish'd according to the Matter of which the Vow is made For sometimes the Thing which we have vowed to do was not a Duty upon us till such time as we made such a Vow as when a Person does solemnly promise to God that he will set apart such a Portion of his Time such a Day of the Week for the more immediate Service of God in Fasting and Prayer or that he will devote such a part of his Estate or Gains for pious or charitable Uses Secondly again the matter of a Vow Sometimes antecedently incumbent upon us and such is the matter of our Baptismal Vow may be what was incumbent upon us before only the Vow is added to strengthen the
Image of God in the Soul namely that Righteousness and Purity which we had lost by our Fall This I mean by the Divine Assistance The Measures of it proportionable to the necessity of the Church And as to the measures of this Assistance every Member in Christ's Body in what Station soever he be shall have sufficient Supplies of Grace derived down from Him our Head proportionable to his Necessities by those means of conveying it which Christ has appointed for that purpose I say every Member in Christ's Body in what Station soever he be For as we have many Members in one Body and all Members have not the same Office so we being many are one Body in Christ and every one Members one of another Rom. 12.4 5. that is there are different Members in the Church of Christ Some are to be Governours and Teachers of others and accordingly must be endow'd with a Spirit of Government and Gift of Teaching and others are of a more private Capacity in the Church of Christ whatever they be in other Respects and their Business is to keep a Conscience void of Offence both towards God and Man and faithfully to discharge their Duties to God their Neighbour and themselves And whatever I say those several Duties are which arise from their several Stations in the Church they shall have a competent measure of Divine Grace enabling 'em to discharge the same They have not a Promise of those Gifts that are necessary to the Discharge of other Persons Offices but are distitute of those necessary for their own that is a private Christian call'd to no Office in the Church is not to expect nor ought to pretend to have receiv'd Gifts of Government and Teaching in a publick Ministerial way for God is not the Author of Confusion but of Peace in all the Churches of the Saints 1 Cor. 14.33 But every Member of the Mystical Body by keeping himself united to the Head in such ways as has been shew'd shall have such Graces and Assistances derived down to him from Christ who is that Head as are necessary and proper for him Extraordinary Gifts of the Spirit in the first Ages And that too in such Measures and Proportions as according to the different Times and Occasions in the Church are wanting Thus in the first Plantation of the Gospel when the Work was so extraordinary that there was need of Miracles to convince the Jews of the Insufficiency of Moses's Law And the Gentiles of the Falshood of the Pagan Superstition then did Christ bestow upon his Apostles divers Extraordinary Gifts viz. of Miracles Prophecy discerning of Spirits divers kind of Tongues and the Interpretation of Tongues 1 Cor. 12.10 And as to all Christians in general as the Malice of Satan did then most violently rage against the Church Persecuting to the Death those who would not Renounce Christ and his Religion So all the Christians in those Times were very extraordinarily strengthned no doubt to resist such strong Temptations But now that the Church is establish'd Ordinary in succeeding Times and the Truth of Christianity already prov'd and Believ'd God does assist the Ministers of Religion only with the Ordinary Graces of his Spirit in the discharge of their Ministry And as to Lay Christians therefore except it be when the Orthodox are call'd out into any part of the World as sometimes they are to this day to suffer for the Truth they receive no other than ordinary Assistances But this both Ministers and People are sure to do in the use of those Means which Christ has appointed in his Church for that purpose And yet even these ordinary Assistances Even the ordinary Assistances extensively very large so as to repair all the Powers of Nature deprav'd by Sin Blessed be the Infinite Mercies of God towards us therein are extensively very large and diffusive so as to reach to all the Parts and Powers of our Nature which are Evilly Affected Corrupted and Deprav'd by Sin and Intensively very powerful in working a blessed-Change within us And First the Grace of God is extensively very diffusive and large in the Change and Reformation it works within us in that there is no Power and Difficulty in our Natures which by Sin is Corrupted but by his Grace and Assistance is Renew'd I do mean that the Assistances which God does afford us to enable our Weakness to perform the Conditions of the Covenant is so apply'd to us by the Goodness of God that every Power and Faculty within us which is render'd weak by the Corruption of our Nature is strengthned by his Grace to perform its proper part and Duty Are our Understandings dull to apprehend and conceive of Spiritual things as they ought His Grace does enlighten our Understandings Thus we read Luke the 24.45 that our Saviour opened the Vnderstandings of his Disciples that they might understand the Scriptures And to this purpose St. Paul Eph. 1.18 did earnestly Pray That God would give unto 'em the Spirit of Wisdom that the Eyes of their Vnderstandings being enlighten'd they might know what is the Hope of their Calling and what are the Riches of the Glory in the Inheritance of the Saints Are our Wills backward in performing the Conditions of the Promises why God by throwing good Suggestions into our Souls and by Imprinting important Considerations upon our Minds does perswade and bend our stubborn Wills and by degrees works us into a ready Compliance with the Divine Will Thus is God said to work in us both to will and to do of his good Pleasure Phil. 2.13 And upon this account also all our Christian Virtues are call'd the Fruits of the Spirit Gal. 5.22 Are our Affections listless and lukewarm to Spiritual things particularly Are they dull and heavy in our Devotions Why the Holy Spirit helps to raise in us Holy Desires Lise and Quickness in our Prayers Thus the Apostle the Spirit helps our Infirmities making Intercession for the Saints according to the Will of God by Inspiring 'em with such Desires and Groanings that cannot be utter'd Rom. 8.26 27. And Lastly Are our Lusts and Appetites violent to carry us out to gratifie them in unlawful things Why If by the Spirit of God we shall mortifie the Deeds of the Body we are Promis'd that we shall Live Rom. 8.13 which implies that by the Grace and Assistance of God's Holy Spirit we shall be able to subdue those unruly Lusts within us and so shall live Eternally And Intensively very powerful to renew our corrupt Natures And Secondly The Divine Grace and Assistance even in its ordinary Distributions is Intensively powerful and strong enough to Renew our Corrupt Natures This secret Power of the Holy Spirit does not indeed so forcibly and Irresistably work a Change in us as that it will be impossible to Resist this Divine Grace and Efficacy and to render it ineffectual to our Renovation The Grace of God may be resisted and his
calls a Good Name and is more valuable than Riches or precious Ointments 161 It is a more peculiar Blessing than any the greatest Treasures and procures better Security to our Persons and Estates It is a necessary Qualification to the Episcopal Promotion It is comfoâ—â—able to a Man 's own self 162 And smells sweet in the World It renders a Person capable of doing Good in it And active in Promoting it A desire of Reputation and Credit is a thing Implanted in our Natures by God And to preserve a Reputation untainted and unsuspected of Evil is a Duty enjoyn'd us by his Laws 163 Nevertheless even a Good Name is in some measure to be Renounced by us and the Temptations it gives us As First We must so far Renounce the Honour that shall accrue to us from our good Works as not to make our own Glory the End and Reason of any good we do 164 Secondly We must not affect but renounce those Praises which are above our Deserts Thirdly We must beware of taking the Honour and Respects given us for any worthy Performances wholly to our selves and of not transferring it to God to whom the Glory of all that is good in us does properly belong 165 Fourthly We must abhor making a Reputation for Religion an Instrument only to our own Advancement But must use the Authority our Credit gives us to discountenance Vice and to encourage Vertue in the World 166 Fifthly As valuable as is a good Name and Reputation amongst Men we must renounce all undue Means of preserving it Such are Duelling upon the account of Slanders amongst the great Ones Going to Law thereupon usual amongst common People Lastly We must utterly renounce and forfeit the Esteem of Men rather than incur the Dis-favour of God 167 Fourthly How far that Honour is to be renounced which consists in the Applauses of the Vulgar upon what they do account Praise-worthy and Honourable 168 This sort of Honour must be utterly and absolutely renounced Lastly In what Sence and how far we must renounce these outward Expressions of Respect either by Word or Deed which are usually given upon the account of any of the fore-mentioned Honours 169 First No Created Being either Men or Angels must suffer those Respects to be given them whether by word or deed which are proper and peculiar to signify our sence of God's Majesty and Perfections Women therefore must with Detestation renounce those Blasphemous Complements wherein Divine Perfections are usually ascrib'd to them Secondly Every Man must renounce and refuse those Titles and Respects and Precedencies which are not his due but belong to Persons above him 170 Lastly And must in Modesty Humility and good Manners decline his due in this kind and must renounce the Entitleing of himself and permit that to others Objections against receiving Titles of Honour Respect and Precedency answered 171 LECT XVI What is meant by the Pleasures of this World in what Sence and how far they are to be renounced First Rational Pleasure is very Excellent and Allowable 173 But first no Man must make meer Pleasure the End of his Knowledge Nor secondly must that Satisfaction and Delight which arises from the Sence and Conscience of good and worthy Deeds be so much because we are admir'd and applauded for it as because they are really in themselves Vertuous Secondly Sensitive Pleasure which results from the suitableness between the perceptive Faculties and the Objects that affect them is lawful 174 These Pleasures unlawful only when they become Thirdly Sensual As first when we prefer them in our Judgments or Desires either before our spiritual Joys in God or the eternal Joys of his Kingdom 175 Secondly When a Man relishes no Enjoyments like those of Sence Thirdly When he gluts himself so as to surfeit on these Sweets And lastly When the Deliciousness of these Pleasures causes him to load and burthen his Nature therewith so as to render him unfit for the Duties of his Calling and Religion Recreative Pleasures of a middle and indifferent Nature 176 The most Innocent thereof are to be sparingly used 177 The Evils of the World are Poverty Disgrace and Afflictions Poverty and Afflictions instead of Temptations to Sin and Hindrances to Vertue do very often prove Mortifiers to Vice and the great occasions of a holy Life 178 Nevertheless they are often great Temptations to many Sins and Impieties First It behoves those who labour under Poverty or any kind of Affliction to beware of Impatience and Discontent Secondly Those in the worst of Circumstances must not envy the outward Felicity of the Wicked Thirdly A Person that is Poor must be infinitely careful least to Rescue himself out of it he be tempted to Fraud especially to Stealing and Purloyning 179 Nor Lastly must any think that because they are Poor they are e're the more dis-engaged from the Service of God and their Attendance upon him in all the Parts of Divine Worship In what sence and how far we must Renounce Disgrace and the Temptations it gives us 180 First The Callings of the World and how the Temptations they give are to be Renounced Every Man is to betake himself to some Business It must be such as Providence hath fitted him with Abiâ—â—ties for And such he is preparatively Called and Appointed to by God with due Abilities 181 To whatsoever Calling he is appointed he must employ himself therein to God's Glory and his own and the publick Good First All Persons must renounce such Callings and Professions as are directly sinful and wicked Secondly Such as tend to the Hurt not the Good of the Publick 182 Thirdly All sinful Arts in the most useful Callings 183 Fourthly All Levity and Desultory Skipping from one Calling to another 185 Fifthly Any Calling whatsoever is to be declin'd for which a Person is not Qualified both by Education Abilities and Inclinations Especially Callings of great Importance such as the Ministry 186 Sixthly Idleness in any Calling is to be renounced Idleness not allowable no not in Gentlemen 187 It is one of the greatest Temptations in the World to Sin And is it self a very great Sin Lastly No Man must Live above his Calling 188 Secondly Amongst those Things of the World of a middle Nature the different Conditions and States of Men therein are to be considered First A Master hath great Advantages of doing Good But all that Dominion is to be utterly Renounced amongst Christians which treats Servants no better than Slaves and Brutes The State of Servants not in it self Unhappy First It concerns every Person who is to live by a Service to avoid such where there is neither the Means of Religion nor Restraints upon Sin 189 Secondly In the most Irreligious Families a Servant shall happen into he must put on a stedfast Resolution to preserve his Innocence Thirdly The State of Celibacy advantagious to Devotion and in Times of Distress This must be renounced when Persons cannot Contain Lastly The Married State
hath its Advantages First All Solicitations from either of the Married Couple must be renounced which would perswade to sinful Compliances in times of Distress 190 Secondly And Engage too much in Worldly Cares Lastly The Cares of this World the last of those things pertaining to it in some measure necessary First It becomes Christians to renounce a Multiplicity of Cares Secondly Every Worldly Care so far as it does alienate our Affections from God and Heavenly Things 191 Lastly All manner of Worldly Care when advanced in Years 192 LECT XVII Secondly What 's meant by the wicked World and how far and in what sence we are to renounce it Thereby is meant such as make it their Business like that wicked One the Devil to tempt others to Sin 193 First We must renounce that Diabolical Wickedness of becoming Tempters our selves of other Persons It is a terrible thing to have been an Instrument of another's Damnation 194 It is an Injury to Men's Souls in some Cases hardly ever in others impossible to be repair'd Secondly We must renounce to Conform our selves to wicked Men when they shall Tempt us viz. First By their evil Examples Examples have the greatest Influence upon us especially 195 First If Examples of Sin Secondly If common and many Thirdly If of such for whom we have a great Esteem Fourthly If of those of whom we stand in awe 196 We must by all Means renounce and refuse Conformity to such bad Examples For First A Christian is called out to Combat against the wicked Examples of the World as much as against any one sort of Enemy in his Christian Warfare 197 Nay secondly to Confront their bad Examples with an excellent One of his own II. When they shall Tempt and Entice us by their evil Company The Company of the Wicked extreamly infectious 198 Most of the Miscarriages of Men owing thereunto This makes Men Atheists Libertines Thieves and Robbers Drunkards Withdraws from the Worship of God Evil Company therefore of all things to be abhorr'd I. Young Women must shun the corrupt Conversation of young Men. 199 200 II. All Persons of either Sex both Young and Old as they will prevent the Infection of evil Company must take all possible Care to avoid it 201 But Thirdly when Employment and necessary Occasions draw Men forth into the World they must refuse to Conform themselves to the Manners of ill Company First By discountenancing their Profaneness and Riot Secondly By diverting 'em by useful Discourse from both Thirdly If all Methods fail by openly Reproving them To do this Service to God we are particularly Listed in our Baptism We shall be much discouraged from this by Men. But have infinite Encouragements to such Fidelity from God 202 LECT XVIII Thirdly Flattery a great Temptation to Sin The Ground thereof our own immoderate Self-love 204 This Flattery keeping Men ignorant of the good or ill Qualities in 'em thereupon the Good never come to Perfection And the Ill that is in Men does thereby grow Incorrigible 205 First In order to Renounce Flattery we must Cashier every vain Opinion of our own selves Secondly We must so far Renounce the Flatteries of Men as to take it kindly to be Reproved 206 Especially the Reproofs of God's Ministers are to be kindly received and regarded Fourthly Wicked Men Tempt others to Sin by their false and fallacious Arguings against the Necessity of a Holy Life 207 All which wicked Reasonings we must fortify our selves against as when they Plead First That it is inconsistent with God's Mercy for the Sins of a short Life to Condemn the Guilty to an Eternity of Woe and Misery 208 Secondly That the Duties of Religion are hard Sayings which no Man can bear Thirdly That they are made of Flesh and Blood and that therefore sure God will not require Men upon the Forfeiture of Salvation if they do not to mortify the Flesh Lastly That God has set us in a World full of Temptations and abounding with sensual Delights and Pleasures and that he therefore who has placed us in it will not command us upon Pain of Damnation to over-come those strong Temptations and to deny these Pleasures of the World Fifthly Wicked Men will add Kindnesses and Promises to Oblige us to do ill Things and on the contrary will much discourage us nay sometimes Threaten us to forbear our Duty 210 211 First Kindnesses must not corrupt us to Sin Secondly Promises must not bribe us Thirdly Discouragements must not hinder us from discharging our Duty Nor Fourthly must Threatnings or Frowns fright us from it 212 Lastly The evil Customs which have prevailed in the World are a powerful Temptation to Sin Custom takes off the sence and fear of Hurt in the most Unchristian Practices 213 A Christian must courageously and vigorously renounce and withstand the Force of all sinful Customs whatsoever Such only as are Immoral are to be Renounced 214 The greatest Courage required to this Part of a Christian's Warfare Cowardice the Cause of Complying with the Custom of Duelling or any other Custom of Sinning 215 LECT XIX First Thereby were anciently meant those pompous Spectacles Plays and Scenical Representations exhibited in the Roman Theatres 217 Our Modern Plays no less Inferior to 'em in Impiety than in Pompousness And having such a malignant Influence upon Faith and Manners ought never to be frequented by Christians 218 Secondly By Pomps in the sence of the Ancients were meant the solemn Processions of the Heathens in Honour of their Gods The Idolatrous Processions of the Papists in honour of the Saints answerable to these And must not therefore be joined in Thirdly By Pomps reductively may be meant the Revels and Drunken Riots of our Youth at Wakes and Festivals 219 These to be abstain'd from Vanity of the World what First when Persons out-go their Ability in Building and Furniture 220 Secondly It appears in striving for Precedence Thirdly In affecting Titles above one's Quality and to be esteem'd Vertuous above one's Desert IV. In the vain Affectation of costly Apparel and Ornaments As First When Persons exceed what becomes their Rank and Degree in what they wear Secondly When they are proud of their Ornaments Thirdly When they adorn themselves to undue Ends and Purposes 221 222 Lastly When they spend too much time and at unfitting Seasons therein Decency according to what is suitable to Age Sex or Quality the Rule in this Case 223 LECT XX. To know our selves especially our natural Imperfection a most useful part of Knowledge 225 The Flesh variously exprest What is meant by the Flesh 1. The whole Unregenerate Nature of Man Soul and Body 2. The whole Man not as created by God but as he is now in the State of Corrupted Nature 3. As spoiled in his original Frame and Constitution as despoiled of the Image of God and as inordinately tending towards the Creature 226 The original Frame and Constitution of Humane Nature what The Image of God wherein Man was
particularly repented of 278 And in case of Injury to Man if Restitution be made Of high Dishonour to God and Religion if that be repaired by an eminent Repentance The sum of Evangelical Obedience 265 The summ also thereof according to Dr. Hammond 266 LECT XXIV That in the Covenant of Grace we are restored to a State of Salvation How we brought our selves into a state of Misery before How by the Covenant of Grace we are put into a state of Security if we please 268 That by the Mediation of Jesus Christ it was that we obtain'd such a gracious Covenant whereby we are restored to a state of Salvation 269 The infinite Care of God the Father to call us into it 271 The Ever-blessed Son of God no less intent upon this blessed Work How mightily he importuned us to come into this state of Salvation He has left a Succession of Ministers behind him to do the like This great matter of Thankfulness whether we consider 1. The extraordinary Advantage of having God in Covenant with us 272 273 Or 2. Our singular Happiness therein above the fallen Angels or the rest of Mankind 274 LECT XXV Baptism what 1. An outward Rite of our Saviour's own Appointment for the solemn Admission of Persons into the Covenant of Grace 276 To have some outward Rites and Solemnities in Religion agreeable to the Frame and Constitution of Humane Nature as being most apt to receive Impressions from sensible things This especially requisite in the admission into Religious Societies and Covenants The Israelites were initiated both by Circumcision and Baptism 277 The Heathens were initiated into their Mysteries by Purgations or Washings Our Saviour chose the latter as what would be acceptable to both Parties Especially as more significative of Christian Purity And this he has enjoined as indispensibly necessary to our Initiation into the Covenant of Grace 278 Baptism appointed the Rite of Admission into the Covenant of Grace for the better Confirmation and Assurance of its Terms the Promises on God's part and the Conditions on ours it being thus mutually and interchangeably Sealed to betwixt God and us 279 It gives great Assurance of mutual Performances barely to be in Covenant together 280 LECT XXVI The vast Obligations lying upon us both from the Mercies of God and our Baptismal Vow to perform the Covenant of Grace The Obligations thereunto first as Members of Christ's Church 282 The Jews chose from amongst the Nations of the Earth to serve God 283 Christians chose both from amongst Jews and Gentiles to a more peculiar Holiness 284 2. As Children of God Children are bound to the strictest Obedience to their Parents as owing to 'em their Being 285 Children of God as owing both Being and Well-being 286 3. As Inheritors of the Kingdom of Heaven Kingdom of Heaven not to be expected but by those who are faithful in their Covenant 287 4. As having promised and vowed in our Baptism accordingly to discharge our Covenant with God The matter of a Vow sometimes not a Duty till vowed 288 Sometimes antecedently incumbent upon us and such is the matter of our Baptismal Vow 'T is a provoking Sin to rob God of what has been once Vowed and Devoted to him tho' of the former Nature God's Anger observable upon such Occasions 289 'T is much more provoking to violate Vows to perform which we are antecedently obliged by the Law of Nature A Vow is much of the nature of an Oath and therefore to violate it is Perjury 290 FINIS LECT XXVII I. In order to perform our Baptismal Covenant we must put on a fixt and firm Resolution to discharge the same 293 A Summary Recapitulation of the Doctrine of our Baptismal Covenant 294 The Nature of Holy Resolution as it refers to the performance of it 1. It is a Determination of the Will 2. It must be fixt and peremptory opposite to Fickleness and Inconstancy 295 3. It is a Rational Determination opposite to Wilfulness and Obstinacy 4. It is vigorous in the Execution of its Vows and Promises 5. Speedy 296 6. It is vigorous and speedy in the Execution of All those Vows and Promises made in Baptism 7. Notwithstanding all Opposition to the contrary Lastly It must be Publick and Declarative 297 And solemnly made at Confirmation A Resolution so form'd will go a great way towards the performance of our Covenant with God 298 It will effectually baffle the Devil The Flesh The World Especially when solemnly Ratify'd and Confirm'd 299 II. Our Resolution to be faithful in our Covenant with God must be made not in Confidence of our own Strength but of God's Grace and Assistance 300 LECT XXVIII The whole Nature of Man deprav'd 302 Vnderstandings Wills Affections Lusts and Appetites Christ has purchas'd sufficient Grace to renew us throughout What the Divine Assistance is 303 The Measures of it proportionable to the necessity of the Church Extraordinary Gifts of the Spirit in the first Ages 304 Ordinary in succeeding Times Even the ordinary Assistances extensively very large So as to repair all the Powers of Nature deprav'd by Sin 305 And Intensively very powerful to renew our corrupt Natures 306 LECT XXIX The full meaning of Prayer 309 Prayer a most effectual Means of performing our Covenant 1. As it morally disposes us to be obedient unto God 2. As it naturally enforces us to be faithful to him 310 That there are Praying Hypocrites is by virtue of Antinomian Principles 311 3. As it will certainly procure the Divine Assistance 312 LECT XXX Children of Believing Parents have a Right to be baptized prov'd from 1 Cor. 7.14 314 May be prov'd also from several other Topicks 1. Because Infants were initiated by Circumcision into the Evangelical Covenant made with Abraham The Covenant made with Abraham the same in Substance with the Second made with Adam 316 And the same in a more imperfect Edition of it with that made with Christ As he was cut off from the Covenant who was not circumcised so that Person is to be excluded the Church who is not baptized 317 2. Because they were initiated both by Circumcision and Baptism into that legal one delivered by Moses That they were admitted by Circumcision indisputable 318 That they were also by Baptism asserted both by Scripture And by Jewish Writers 319 III. Because our Saviour adopted the Jewish Rite of Baptism for the Sacrament of Initiation without excluding Children from being baptized The Force of this Argument 320 IV. Because in all probability Infant-Baptism was practic'd by the Apostles 321 V. Because it was very agreeable to the End and Reason of Baptism and the Nature of the Covenant of Grace that Infants should be baptiz'd into it Infants not uncapable of entring into Covenant with God prov'd from Deut. 29. As also from the Nature of the thing They are capable of having Priviledges conferr'd upon them 322 And of being bound to Conditions VI. Because it is a great Advantage to Infants to be
Deliver and Bless them that turned to him to serve him only Which seems to be his meaning when he saith he will be sanctified before the Heathen when he should gather them from among the people where they were Captives and that the Heathen should know that he was the the Lord Ezek. 20.41 and 36 23. And by this means he brought them to fear and worship the God of Israel Psal 102.13 15. Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Zion So the Heathen shall fear the Name of the Lord and all the Kings of the Earth thy glory When the Lord turned again the Captivity of Sion they said among the Heathen The Lord hath done great things for them Psal 126.1 2. 6. The whole Law was given to be a Political Instrument of Governing the Israelites according to that state of their minority as a peculiar Republick of which God himself was the Soveraign Legislator But of this more afterward CHAP. III. Shewing by what Faith and Practice the Jews under the Law were Saved I Come now to shew by what Faith and Practice the Jews under the Law were Saved And doubtless whatever it was it became available to that end upon the account of what Christ was to suffer when he should come For as I shewed before that God's Covenant with Abraham and his Seed by virtue of which the Faithful then were saved was confirmed in Christ was established with them in reference to what he was to do and suffer as Mediator afterwards Gal. 3.17 And by means of his Death there was Redemption for the transgressions that were under the first Testament Heb. 9.15 And the Sacrifices and Priesthood were a Figure for the time then present of what Christ should afterwards do and suffer and for what end But when I say so I do not say that all that were Saved did understand so much For we see the Apostles of Christ though they did believe him to be the Messias which the Jews expected yet they did not understand or expect that he should suffer Death as a Sacrifice till he told them so Nay the thing was so far from their thoughts as that they did not understand him when he plainly foretold them of his Death Luke 18.32 And if the Doctrine touching the resemblance that is between the Priesthood of Melchizedech and the Priesthood of Christ was not in the Apostles sense Meat which Babes in Christianity could well digest in their Understandings but was Meat for strong Men Heb. 5.10 14. we may well guess by that how little the Jews understood the Typical and Spiritual sense of those Types about which they were frequently conversant and therefore it 's said that the least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than John the Baptist though he was so great that there was none greater before him Hence we may see that one reason why those Jews were all their life-time under a Spirit of Bondage to fear was the great Obscurity of the Declaration of God's purpose of Grace to the World through Christ and the Way and Method of Salvation by him Moses was but a servant for a Testimony of those things which were after to be spoken and so declared afterwards as that the Typical meaning of them might be understood Heb. 3.5 In the mean while as touching those things they were shut up unto the Faith which should afterwards be revealed Gal. 3.23 It is said of the Prophets whereof Moses was one that not unto themselves but unto us they did minister the things which are now reported unto us by them that have preached the Gospel to us 1 Pet. 1.12 Add we to all this Heb. 9.8 where having spoken in ver 7. of the High Priests entering alone into the Holy of Holies with the Blood of the Sacrifice in behalf of the People once every Year he saith The Holy Ghost this signifying that the way into the Holiest of all was not yet made manifest while as the first Tabernacle was yet standing By the Holiest of all here is meant Heaven signified of old by the Holy of Holies as appears ver 12 24. And the plain meaning seems to be this That the peoples entring into Heaven by the Sacrifice and Blood and Intercession of Christ was not made manifest while the Tabernacle-worship continued For Christ is our Way into Heaven to the place within the Veil by his Blood shed as a Sacrifice Heb. 10.19 20. Having therefore Brethren boldness to enter into the Holiest by the Blood of Jesus by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the Veil that is to say his Flesh But this Way he tells us was not made manifest while the first Tabernacle was standing But as obscure as this way was as to what was to be done and suffered in particular by the Messias yet they had some general grounds of Faith and Hope That upon their Faith Repentance and sedulous Endeavours to walk in all the Commandments and Ordinances of the Lord they should obtain remission of their sins and a future Happiness in another World Among which gounds these were not the least 1. They had the knowledge of the Promise of Blessedness to all Nations in Abraham's Seed and of the Promise of those other Benefits which were promised to Abraham and his Seed 2. They had an addition of several other Predictions concerning the Messias both by Moses and other Prophets that perhaps were somewhat more express such as in Deut. 18.16 Isa 53. Dan. 9. and others These Promises and Predictions put them in great expectations of Special Benefits by the Messias and wrought in them a longing after his Day Upon which account our Saviour said to his Disciples Blessed are your Eyes for they see and your Ears for they hear For I say unto you that many Prophets and Kings and Righteous Men have desired to see those things which ye see and have not seen them and to hear those things which ye hear and have not heard them Mat. 13.16 17. Luke 10.23 24. 3. They had large significations from God of his special Favour to them above all people as in chusing them to be his peculiar People and in declaring himself to be their God in giving visible signs of his Presence among them and excellent Laws and Promises to them and sending his Prophets amongst them and working many Wonders for them and casting out the Nations before them to make room for them and the like Deut. 7.6 7 8. and 26.18 19. Psal 147.19 20. Rom. 9.4 5. 4. They had express Declaration from God of the Goodness of his Nature and of his Compassion towards Sinners and of his readiness to Pardon such as should Repent and return to their Duty in loving him and keeping his Commandments As for instance Exod. 34.6 7. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed The Lord The Lord God merciful and gracious long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity transgression and
sin And when he delivered them his Law with the greatest terrour and astonishment to them yet even then he assured them That he would shew Mercy to Thousands of them that love him and keep his Commandments as in the Second Commandment And in ease of their miscarriage to the drawing down of God's Judgments upon them he bespeaks them thus When thou art in tribulation and all these things are come upon thee even in the latter days if thou turn to the Lord thy God and shalt be obedient to his Voice for the Lord thy God is a merciful God he will not forsake thee nor forget the Covenant of thy Fathers Deut. 4.31 and 30.1 2 3. Levit. 26.39 c. From all which grounds the Faithful among them had such a hope and confidence of pardon of Sin and of a future Happiness in another Life upon their Repentance and sincere Obedience as did effectually induce them to have good thoughts of God to love him and to endeavour to please him by having respect unto all his Commandments This made him say Psal 130.4 There is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared And under this hope and confidence the twelve Tribes did instantly serve God day and night and grounded this Hope of theirs upon the Promise made of God unto their Fathers as St. Paul tells us Acts 26.6 7. And indeed it was the unanimous Faith of the most eminent among them from Age to Age that God had both made and would keep a Covenant to shew Mercy to those that love him and keep his Commandments or that walk before him with all their Heart For that they looked upon as the Condition of God's Promise of shewing Mercy This we may see in Moses David Solomon and in Daniel and Nehemiah Deut. 7.9 Know therefore that the Lord thy God he is God the faithful God which keepeth Covenant and Mercy with them that love him and keep his Commandments So David Psalm 103.17 18. The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting to such as keep his Covenant and to those that remember his Commandments to do them And thus Solomon 1 Kings 8.23 And he said Lord God of Israel there is no God like thee who keepest Covenant and Mercy with thy servants that walk before thee with all their heart So Daniel in his 9th Chap. 4th ver O Lord the great and dreadful God keeping the Covenant and Mercy to them that love him and to them that keep his Commandments And Nehemiah likewise Chap. 1.5 I beseech thee O Lord God of Heaven the great and terrible God that keepeth Covenant and Mercy for them that love him and observe his Commandments This we see was the serious and constant Profession of the Faith of the Servants of God in those Times And in this Faith and Practice doubtless it was that they lived and died and were saved CHAP. IV. That the Law contained a Covenant different from that with Abraham IN the next place I am to shew That the Law of Moses did contain a Covenant distinct and of a different nature from the Covenant which God made with Abraham and his Spiritual Seed Besides the general Promise which God made to Abraham respecting the Gentiles as well as the Jews In thee all Nations of the Earth shall be blessed he made a Special Covenant with him as a Reward of his signal Faithfulness to give unto his Natural Seed the Land of Canaan Nehem. 9.8 Thou foundest his heart faithful before thee and madest a Covenant with him to give the Land of the Canaanites to his Seed In order to the fulfilling of which Promise after he had brought them out of Egypt he united them under himself as Head in one Political Body by a Political Covenant Exod. 19. c. which is the Covenant I am now to discourse of In which discourse I would 1. Shew in what respect the Law of Moses is said to contain a Covenant of a different nature from the Covenant of Grace made with Abraham 2. Prove that it did contain such a different Covenant 3. For farther illustration consider it in its parts and their relation one to another 4. And in what respect this Covenant is called the first Covenant when as the Covenant of Grace was made before it 1. In what respect the Law of Moses is said to contain a Covenant of a different nature from the Covenant of Grace made with Abraham The Law of Moses comes under a twofold consideration 1. As in conjunction with the Promise to Abraham to which it was annexed it made up one entire Law by which the Israelites were to be governed and directed in the way to Eternal Life And in this conjunction the Promise was the Life and Soul as it were of the Body of the Mosaic Law properly taken And in this sense as the word Law signifies the Pentateuch or five Books of Moses which contain the Promise as well as the Law it is sometimes used in the New Testament Gal. 4.21 22. 1 Cor. 14.34 Luke 16. And in this sense doubtless we are to understand the Law upon which David bestowed so many glorious Encomiums as he did saying The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the Soul c. Psal 19.2 We are to consider the Law of Moses as given at Sinai in a stricter sense as it was an Instrument or Rule of Government in the Commonwealth of Israel The Law in the former sense of it promised Eternal Life though but obscurely to those that did believe its Promises and sincerely obey its Precepts In the latter sense it promised only temporal Blessings to those that strictly observed it in all the parts of it and threatned those with temporal Calamities that did not The same Laws materially of this Political Covenant related to both the Covenants As Eternal Life was promised in the Covenant of Grace upon condition of sincere Obedience to those Laws as an effect of Faith in the Promise so those Laws in conjunction with the Promise were as I may so say Evangelical But as temporal Benefits only were promised in that Covenant upon condition of strict Obedience to those Laws and as those Laws were enjoyned under temporal Penalties as they were Commonwealth-Laws so that Covenant containing those Laws was Political and in this Political respect it was another Covenant If the Law of God and the Law of Man command or forbid things materially the same yet if the one command or forbid them under pain of Damnation and the other only under temporal Penalties these Laws are not formally the same The Commonwealth of Israel had no Commonwealth-Laws but what God himself gave them the which Laws they also Covenanted with him to observe by which Covenant they were united under him as Head of that Political Body And therefore when they would needs choose them a King like other Nations God told Samuel saying They have not rejected thee but they have rejected me that I should not