9 Psal 6 ver have respect to all Gods commandements and hate sin indifferently his own sins as well as other mens and his hatred should shew it self especially against those sins to which he seeth the greatest proneness and propensity in his own heart They are very few but they have their hearts set upon some sins or other they suffer them to lie and roust there they will not part with them or purge them out The bent of their affections is not set against sin is not set upon good their heart meditateth mischief and they stirre up strife and contension all the day long They may blear the eyes of the world with dawbing policies and skin over their corruptions but their heart is not right neither toward God nor toward their neighbour Indoluit orbis Christianus factum se videns Arianum The whole Christian world was overspread with Arianisme and Scismes and Heresies they abound in every place and multitudes of men there are that cause sects and divisions sins and surfetings they increase and multiply continually and sinners they thronge in the streets All tables 28 Isaiah â— ver are full of vomit and filthiness from the least of them unto the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness and from the Prophet unto the 6 Jer. 13 ver Priest every one dealeth falsely Some few onely excepted as S. Iohn hath it the whole world lieth in wickedness 1 Joh. 5 c. 9 ver tumbleth and walloweth in this sinful condition their hearts are uncleansed unsanctified unreformed even sinkes of sin and the spreading contagion of sin and iniquity it overrunneth all places and persons and few there be that are not infected with this plague and leprosie of sin Some have it in their forehead and it riseth up as it did in Uzziah his 2 Cor. 26 c. 9 ver 3 Isaiah 9 ver They declare their sin as Sodom they hide it not Others have it in their heart their sore rankleth and festereth inwardly and their wound is in curable others their loins are filled 38 Psal 7 ver with a loathsom disease and there is no whole part in their flesh others their feet are swift to shed bloud others 1 Prov. 16 ver 49 Gen. 5 ver 55 Psal 20 ver 69 Psal 23 ver their hands are instruments of cruelty others their eyes are blinded that they see not they have the eyes of their understanding darkned so that they know not what sin is and how should they then amend it Many too many there be who have not one but many sins reigning in them who walk and war after the flesh and fulfil the desires of their evil and corrupt mindes so that it is no marvel though the Apostle setteth it forth in the plural number They that are in the flesh Having thus described the Natural Condition of being in the flesh having shewed what it is to be in the flesh and having made it plain that there are numbers and multitudes of men who live and lie in this sinful condition overrun with iniquity and drowned as I may say in the lusts of the flesh It remaineth that I come to shew what it is that maketh this condition so miserable and so deplorable a condition It may seem to be a happy condition and no marvel if there be multitudes that are in love with sin and the greatest part please themselves in their natural condition and have some sin or other which they propound unto themselves as their cheifest happiness felicity and contentment in this life for sin it is sweet and the task of repentance it is tedious bitter and irksome and the child-bearing pangs of a woman in travail are not so painful and laborious as are the travailing pains of those that are born again in whom new birth is wrought A troubled conscience and a minde disquieted with the burden of sin it is above all the troubles and tribulations that can happen to a man in this life Seeing then sin is so sweet and the task of repentance so bitter tedious and irksome not to strive against sin but to enjoy the pleasures and profits of this life there is no misery at all in this condition but a great deal of happiness and if it were not for that which followeth in this text of Scripture who might not wish to remain still in his natural condition without purging sin out of his heart So then that which maketh this condition so miserable a condition it is this that men while they are in love with this supposed happiness they lose that which is their true happiness their summum bonum and their chief felicitv Gods favourable countenance Nothing can content the soul but God nothing can satisfie the heart but the Trinity and while men remain in this condition without purging sin out of their hearts they are deprived of this felicity they are debarred of this happiness So then this condition of being out of the state of grace maketh men miserable because those that are out of the state of grace and not truly regenerate cannot please God And so I pass to the third thing the 3 Doctrin inference that the Apostle doth inferre and the conclusion that he gathereth to set forth the misery of those that are in their natural condition They cannot please God The Apostles meaning when he saith those that are in the flesh cannot please God Is not that it is all one whether they do good or whether they do evil their vices and their virtues finde the like acceptance at Gods hands their gloriousest virtues are but glittering sins their best actions are abominable they are in the flesh out of Christ and whatsoever they do they cannot please God These are the exceptions that the Sectaries of these times make not onely against the actions of those who are meer natural men unreconciled unconverted but against the actions of those that are spiritual and more truly engraffed into Christ then themselves And these Sectaries they do dilate and spread themselves every where and where there are fewest of them there are two many of them Yet for my part I am and ever shall be so charitable as to believe that there are among them some ignorantly seduced Christians who desire above all things to fear God and to serve him and for the elects sake that are among them shall speak unto them all as unto Saints and unto brethren and all that I shall at this time say is but this If these men cannot be perswaded to have a little more charity it were to be wished that they would be perswaded to have a little more humility if saith Iob I wash myself with snow water 9 Job 30 31 ver and make my hands never so clean yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch and mine own clothes shall abhor me And the holy Father S. Augustin sheweth how imperfect the actions of the best are that none
can be found innocent if God should deal with them according to the rigour of his justice Vae August confess laudabili vitae hominum si remota miserecordia discutias eam Wo unto the most praise-worthy life of men if God shall examine it without mercy And so Arnobius Arno. in Psal Vae nobis si quod debeamus exegerit vel quod debet rediderit Wo unto us all if God should exact of us what we owe or are indebted unto him or return unto us according to our deserts I beseech you beloved brethren whosoever you are can you do any thing to please God have you any righteousness that is not stained survay your own best actions abhor your selves in dust ashes your most lovely virtues your goodliest actions they receive such a tincture from the corrupt channel from whence they proceed that you must needs see nothing but a menstruous cloth have you any thing to glory of before God take heed least he enter into judgement with you you will find that all flesh hath corrupted it self before God and that you have nothing but what others have imperfect goodness But yet goodness it is Gods gift and the effect of our Saviours sufferings and though it be imperfect in all in regard we are not subjects capable of perfect goodness yet God as he wroketh it in all so he loveth it and is pleased with it in all that he worketh it And whether he worketh it by restraining grace in those that are in their natural condition or by saving grace in those that are in their spiritual condition he is pleased with it accepteth it will reward it for Christs sake Some good works that are wrought by restraining grace they are as lovely in the sight of men and as pleasing in the sight of God as are those that are wrought by saving grace And God as he worketh so he is pleased with and accepteth of goodness in every body It was Gods speech to Cain if thou doest well shalt thou not be accepted He accepteth of every body when they do well he will reward his own works and will be no mans debter for goodness He hath rewarded you he will reward you he doth reward you for works of piety for deeds of charity for any thing that is good So then this is not the meaning of the words howsoever some please to descant and paraphrase upon them that those that are in the flesh their best actions are abominable their goodness imperfect and they cannot please God for so are the actions of the best Saints living and some actions that are wrought by restraining grace are as perfect as those that are wrought by saving grace though both of them are imperfect and God is pleased to accept of imperfect goodness for Christs sake and reward it Onely herein is the difference those good deeds that proceed from restraining grace they have the promise onely of a temporary reward but those good deeds that proceed from saving grace they entitle men to heaven and salvation So then the meaning of the Apostles words as it may appear plainly to those that are not minded wilfully to pervert the Scritures is this They that are unreconciled unconverted unrenewed in the spirit of their mindes they cannot so please God that he should accept of their imperfect obedience and entitle them to heaven and deliver them from hell This then is the miserable condition of all those who have not felt the inward Covenant the circumcision of the heart in whom restraining grace hath wrought onely a hatred of some few sins and a love of some few vertues and the saving grace of Gods Spirit hath not inlightened the understanding with the knowledge of all sins which by the search of reason can be found to be sins nor reformed the will that there should be a hatred of all sins nor rectified the affections that so this hatred of sin should increase more and more But they do good by fits and by starts as they are taught by custome and example of others as they are induced unto it by Gods mercies and his judgements or as it pleaseth him sometimes to work extraordinarily in their hearts by his word and the good motions of his Spirit Such as these they are in the flesh and cannot please God that is they are out of Gods favour the wrath of God abideth upon them they have no hopes of heaven nor of happiness after this life And what more miserable condition can there be then this It is a life no life when Gods frowning and ireful countenance is toward men When men have no assurance of heaven no hopes in their death their consciences tell them that they have lived so that they shall never see God nor enjoy the company nor presence of the blessed Angels but shall have their portion 20 Revel 10 ver in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone with the devil and his angels Sure the wrath of God for sin it causeth men to pine and languish away in despair When thou with rebukes 39 Psal 11 ver doest chasten a man for sin thou causest his beauty to consume away like a moth fretting a garment and who can 76 Psal 7 ver stand when thou art angry saith the Psalmist If God please to hide away his face from his Saints from his servants for a moment in a little 54 Isaiah 6 ver wrath nothing can afford them comfort And when he teareth the wicked in his wrath for the multitude of their transgressions as some time his hand is heavy upon them here for their sins his wrath is a burden unsupportable Let then their own experience of the heaviness of Gods wrath when he afflicteth them for a short time for their sins in his wrath teach them what a miserable condion it is to be such men with whom God will be angry for ever If so be then that God be pleased with mens good works with their hearty sighes and earnest groans their weeping and howling and their repentance for sin If God see these things and be pleased with them yet if he be not so pleased with them that he should accept of mens good works of their repentance for sin that so they should be delivered from his wrath and have hopes of heaven and happiness what are they the better And yet unless men be inwardly renewed in the spirit of their mindes and have felt a change of the whole minde of the whole man they shall not be intitled to heaven they shall not be delivered from hell This then is the misery of those who remain unreconciled unconverted whose hearts are unchanged unaltered they are liable to Gods curse and eternal damnation Heaven they have no part nor portion in it Christian Reader whosoever thou art think now think I say if it be possible for thee to conceive the greatness of this misery what a miserable condition it is when men
in the flesh cannot please God The text it is a conclusion drawn from foregoing premises The Apostle having in the sixth ver laid down what a miserable condition it is to be carnally minded and what a happy condition it is to be spiritually minded to be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace In the seventh ver he laieth down the incompetibility between these two conditions and sheweth that the natural man is not and the impossibility that he should be subject to the law of God the carnal minde is enmity against God for it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be And then from hence he doth inferre this necessary Conclusion So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God In which words the Apostle doth note three things unto us 1. He doth 〈◊〉 imply that some may be involved in this natural condition here described and set forth unto us they may be in the flesh 2. He doth grant that a great many are involved in this condition ye see it is set forth in the plural number They that are in the flesh and 3. There is the inferrence that the Apostle doth inferre or the conclusion that he draweth from thence They cannot please God First then I will speak of that which the Apostle implieth here which is that some may be involved in this natural condition here described and be in the flesh I purpose not to lay down all the acceptions of the word Flesh in Scripture but to propound onely so many as may make for the necessary explication of the meaning of the holy Ghost in this place where he saith They that are in the flesh cannot please God Flesh then it is taken for the body as it consisteth of bones sinews ligaments bloud arteries all that material massie fleshly lump which we carry about us and for this body informed with a living soul and so it is taken in the 1 Cor. 15. chap. the 50. verse where the Apostle saith flesh and bloud cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven and so it is taken 1 Pet. 3. chap. 18. verse where the Apostle speaketh of our Saviour that he was put to death in the flesh And in this sense are the Apostles words to be understood 1 Phil. the 24. verse where he telleth the Philippians that for him to abide in the flesh was more needful for them that is for him to continue in the body and live upon the earth was better for them Or else flesh may be taken for the remainder of natural corruption in the regenerate So it is taken in the 5. of the Gal. 17. ver the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh And so to be in the flesh it is to live in this frail body incompassed about with sins and infirmities and so the Apostles words may be understood 2 Cor. 10. chap. 3. ver Though we walk in the flesh yet we do not warre after the flesh Or lastly flesh is taken for natural corruption for the pravity of our nature for the proneness and propensity of the heart to evil and the indisposition thereof to do good when the evil desires and motions of the flesh reign and bear sway and rule in the heart and so the Apostles words are to be understood in the 7. Rom. 5. ver where he layeth down that when we were in the flesh the motions of sins which were by the Law did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death Properly in the Apostles meaning they are not said to be in the flesh in this place who live in the body for so we are all in the flesh Neither are they said properly to be in the flesh according to the Apostles meaning in this place in whom the reliques of natural corruption do remain For so likewise we are all in the flesh and the reliques of sin they will still remain in us so long as we live in the flesh until such time as we put off the flesh and this mortal put on immortality But according to the true meaning of the Apostles words in Rom. 6. 12. this place they are said to be in the flesh who suffer sin to reign in their mortal bodies that they should obey it in the lusts thereof And so the Apostle describeth the natural condition of all the sons of Adam and of all sanctified and regenerate persons before their conversion the 2 of the Ephesians 3. ver we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of the flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the minde and were by nature the children of wrath This is the condition that all have been in and some must needs acknowledge themselves to be still in They have no knowledge of of Christ or of God their understanding is not enlightned with the saving doctrine of Christ and his kingdom Christ crucified is a stumbling block unto them they esteem it foolishness when they hear it preached they mock at the resurrection of the dead and the principles of Christian Religion are so absurd to their natural sence and reason that they will not down with them by any means Sinâ—â— they know not what it is they have no sight of it or if they have they have no sence nor feeling of the hainousness of it and for the inward corruption of the heart they suffer it to lye there without mortifying it and it is the constraint of the laws of the land that restraineth them from the actual commission of sin for otherwise they give full sway and swinge to their crooked and corrupt affections free scope and liberty to themselves in sin and run their full career in wickedness and if they can but extricate themselves out of the briers so that the laws of the land should not lay hold of them they care not to commit all manner of iniquity and impiety Yea though they hear that the law of God is spiritual and requireth the obedience of the inward man and that God looketh more to the heart then to the outward actions and that a little sin such a sin as it is a question among a great many whether it be a sin is exceeding hainous in the sight of God if mens hearts be set upon it so that they will not part with it Though they hear out of the Scripture that God will call men to account for idle 2 Mat. 36. ver 5 Mat. 28 ver Pet. 2 ch 14 ver 5 Matth. 22 ver 3 Gen. 42. 20 Exod. 17 ver words for wanton looks for lascivious gestures for spleeny passions and revengeful meditations for but purposes to enrich themselves by the gain of oppression yet they suffer these euil motions of their corrupt minde these desires of the flesh to domineer and bear sway and reign and rule in their hearts And as for the works of the flesh which the Apostle reckons up in the 5 of the
Galatians 19 and 20 verses The works of the flesh are manifest which are these adultery fornication laciviousness uncleanness Idolatry witchcraft hatred variance emulation wrath strife seditious heresies envyings murders drunkenness revellings and such like they are exceedingly in love with these and spare not to commit them so far forth as they come not within the compass of mens laws to be punished yea and many times they leap over the laws of God and the land wallow in swinish pleasures and sinful surfeting follow their brutish appetites their sinful and sensual desires give no law to their unbridled passions to their loose carriages to their dissolute behaviours to their unjust practises the restraint neither of Gods laws nor of mens can keep them within bounds but they break both and pursue their evil courses with all vehemency and violence And are such as the Scripture speaketh of the unjust Judge They neither fear God nor 18 Luke 4 ver regard man but oppress the poor grind their faces undo the fatherless and widows against all law and equity and yet they have no sence nor feeling of their sins they are touched with no remorse for them The terror of the law which doometh death and damnation to the breach of the least of Gods Commandments the horror of their own guilty consciences when they see their sins laid before them in their own ugly plight shape and form doth not make them so to groan under the burden of their sins that they should see what a sweet thing it is to have a Saviour what a happiness it is to be a Christian They are not so wearied with the heavy load and burden of their sins that they should seek and finde rest in Christ Jesus But they 5 Wis 7 8 ver weary themselves in the way of wickednes and never say what hath pride profited us Or what good hath riches with our vanting brought us till they groan out this in hell where they are never like to have part in God or inheritance in Christ These now are the wicked and such as these they are in the flesh and fulfil the desires of the flesh and of the minde and sure some such men as these the Apostle yieldeth and granteth that there may be They have not their understanding informed nor their reason rectified Their talk is of bullocks and they know 〈◊〉 how to give the kine fodder or their discourse is of their wares and their merchandise and they know how to buy and sell and get gain But they are strangers in Israel unacquainted with the mysteries of Christ and his kingdom That Christ came down from heaven and 13 Act. 23 ver was inclosed in the virgins womb that he was born of the seed of David and took flesh for our redemption his Priestly his Princely his Prophetical office his being God his being Man the necessity of his being both for our redemption His humiliation his exaltation his humility that he humbled himself and became obedient to death even the death of the Cross his exaltation his rising again from the dead his glorification his leading captivity captive These are things that they have small knowledge of or if they have some confused knowledge of the fall of Adam of the corrupt state and condition of all mankind since the fall of the impossibility of keeping Gods Laws and Commandements and of the necessity of a Saviour to free us from the curse of sin which is death and from the punishment of the breach of Gods Laws which is damnation have they now a lively 5 Gal. 6 ver faith that worketh by love to purge their consciences from dead works to serve the living Lord Do they believe in Jesus Christ and him crucified yet they believe that there is one God and one Mediator between 2 Tim. 2 c. 5 ver God and man the man Christ Jesus Yea S. Iames telleth them that the 2 Jam. 19 ver devils believe and tremble But do they believe that Christ died for their sins and rose again for their 4 Rom. 8 ver justification yea they believe that Christ died for the sins of the whole world and more particularly for 1 Tim. 4 c. 10 ver theirs and they are ready at any time when they are weary and heavy laden with the burden of their sins to apply Christ and his merits to themselves for the remission of them and therefore they make no question but they are truly engraffed into Christ and made lively members of his body yea they weary Christ with the load and burden of their sins and make him their pack-horse to bear their iniquities and as God speaketh by his Prophet He is pressed under them as a cart is pressed that 2 Amos 13 ver as full of sheaves But do they so groan under the burden of their sins that they desire to be rid of them and to purge them out of their hearts Doth their faith in Christ for the remission of their sins increase their hatred of 2 Cor. 7 c. 1 ver sin and their desire to cleanse themselves from all filthiness both of flesh and spirit Hereby they shall know whether they be in Christ or no They that are Christs the Apostle telleth us have crucified the flesh with the affections 5 Gal. 24 ver and lusts Unless therefore men crucifie the flesh and mortifie their earthly members fornication uncleanness immoderate affection evil concupiscence covetousness and the like they are not in Christ but are still in the flesh and whatsoever right or title they may plead to Christ they are carnally they are earthly minded Let not sin reign in your mortal 6 Rom. 12 ver bodies that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof If then mens hearts and consciences tell them that they are not renewed in the spirit of their 4 Eph. 23. minde their hearts are set upon evil the thoughts of their hearts are evil and 6 Gen. 5 ver that continually the evil desires of the flesh they swarm there and the carnal desires of the mind they nourish and cherish them please themselves in them take a great deal of delight to suffer their mindes to wander after vain pleasures and sinful delights and as for the inward corruption of the heart they give no stay nor stop to it For the proneness and propensity of the heart to evil and the indisposition thereof to do good they see it not or if they do they love it with all their heart and desire to live and die in this polluted estate this corrupted condition over run with sin and iniquity Their heart is corrupt their conscience defiled and yet they are touched with no remorse for the inward pollution of their souls for the outward defilement of their bodies but make sin their solace and iniquity their pastime and if God do so work by his word by the good motions of his Spirit by
his mercies by his judgements as to restrain them from some open enormious crimes If there be some few virtues that they love and some few vices that they hate and their corruption doth not shew it self in the commission of them yet when they hear of an inward change of the whole minde of the whole man of a general hatred of sin and a general love of goodness that so God might accept of their imperfect obedience for Christs sake and intitle them to heaven and salvation this they cannot endure To fear all their waies with the holy man Iob and to refrain their feet 1 Job 5 ver 119 Psal 101 ver from every evil path with the Psalmist this they will not admit of They have not onely one but many sins reigning in them and many virtues there be which Gods Ministers have made appear to their understanding are exceeding lovely and yet they will not practise them Their heart is not whole within them the mass of corruption lieth there still The old leaven is not 1 Cor. 5 c. 7 ver purged out that so it may be a new lump There is the same proneness and propensity of the heart to evil and the same indisposition to do good And excepting that the restraining grace of Gods Spirit doth restrain them from the commission of some sins and enable them to do some good their practise for the general it is to do evil and not to do good Such as these there are and such as these they are in the flesh and make 3 Rom. 14 ver provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof And thus I leave the first thing implied in the words that some may be involved in this natural 2 Doctrin condition and be in the flesh As the Apostle yieldeth that some may be in this condition so he further granteth that a great many are in this condition it is set forth in the plural number they that are in the flesh And so I proceed to prove that which is plainly expressed and come in the second place to show that there are numbers and multitudes that are in the flesh our Saviour in the seventh of S. Matthews Gospel telleth us that wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there be that go in thereat And every where in Scripture we have the multitude of wicked men described and set forth unto us S. Paul layeth it down in his Epistle to the Romans as the Psalmist had before set it down and the wiseman in his Proverbs 3 Rom. the 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 verses They are all gone out of the way they are together become unprofitable there is none that doth good no not one their throat is an open sepulchre With their tongues they have used deceit the poyson of aspes is under their lips whose mouth is full of cursing and and bitterness their feet are swift to shed blood destruction and misery are in their waies and the way of peace they have not known there is no fear of God before their eyes And the Psalmist bringeth in God wondring at the multitude of wicked men Have they no knowledge that they 14 Psal 4 ver are all such workers of mischief eating up my people as it were bread and call not upon God Nos numerus sumus fruges consumere nati we were all of us so in our natural condition and no doubt but there are still a number a multitude of Epicurean people who think they are born onely to eat and to drink 12 Joh. 19 ver and to enjoy the sinful pleasures of of this life Though the world went 6 Joh. 26 ver after Christ and the multitudes followed him yet it was but for loaves for carnal and by respects and he had but few true disciples and they were not many in whom the word of God did take place They were not all Israelites that were of Israel Neither are they now all truly converted that live in the bosome of the Church Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea a remnant shall be saved They are but a remnant a few a small company that have saving grace whereby the soul should be converted Many are called but few 20 Matth 16 ver 2 Tim. â— c. 21 ver are chosen to be vessels of honour sanctified and meet for the masters use The many the number the multitude they have not felt the inward 31 Jerm 33 ver Covenant the circumcision of the heart whereby God should put his law in their hearts and write it in their inward parts there is no truth in their inward parts their inward parts are very wickedness They say 5 Psal 9 ver as it is in Iob Depart from us we desire not the knowledge of thy wayes 21 Job 14 ver God would have healed them but they would not They love to lie in this polluted estate this sinful condition And as for the inward corruption of the heart they do not desire that it should be abolished they will not purge it out yea and many multitudes there are of such kinde of men They go by companies into 23 Prov. 20 ver 5 Jer. 7. ver 64 Psal 5. ver the Taverns they assemble themselves by troops into the harlots houses they meet together and commune of laying snares they encourage one another in unjust practises and their onely care is to buy 5 Jam. 13 ver 1 Thes 4 c. 6 ver and sell and get gain and go beyond their neighbours in bargaining but among these multidudes of evil men there are but a few godly Christians a few good men A world of sinners there were in the dayes of Noah but one Noah a preacher of righteousness A great many of filthy and unclean Sodomites but one righteous Lot whose soul was vexed with the filthy Conversation of the unclean Sodomites And S. Peter reckoning up the multitude of sinners that were in the dayes of Noah and in the dayes of Lot sheweth that there should be the like multitude of sinners in the world unto the worlds end And as Gods vengeance did not sleep against the multitude of sinners that were in the days of Noah and in the days of Lot so neither should it sleep against the multitude of sinners that shloud be in the world unto the worlds end But cheifly Gods vengeance should shew it self against those who walk after the flesh in the lusts of uncleanness presumptuous are they self-willed they are not afraid to speak evil 2 Pet. 2 c. 10 ver of dignities Wilful sinners then there are who walk after the flesh and commit all uncleanness with greediness And many such evil disposed persons there are who make a sport of sin and pastime of iniquity and who is there almost that his heart should stand affected as the Psalmist speaketh that he should