doors What no hopes of entring heaven without such a righteous life It is better you were hanged and the whole generation of such Preachers as you are Answ But sinner Ah sinner why so impatient I am not thine enemy I tell thee but the truth I speak the truth in Christ I lie not Christ hath said it and I dare say it again Except thy righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees thou canst in no case enter into the Kingdome of heaven If this single Text is not a witness sufficient thou shalt have it confirmed by the mouths of one or two more read Heb. 12.14 Follow peace and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. So 1 Joh. 3.2 3. Beloved now are wee the Sons of God and it doth not yet appear what wee shall bee but hee that hath this hope purifieth himself as hee is pure I could adde an hundred Scriptures more but here are witnesses enough to arraign and condemn thee What sayest thou now What wilt thou now yet wish mee hanged for telling nothing but what Christ and Paul and John hath told thee No no thou wert but in a passion I do freely forgive thee But oh that my hanging could keep thee from damning how far better that I were hanged and a hundred such Preachers as I am so wee could expiate thy sins and prevent the ruine of thy soul and body for ever Were I tyed to a Gibbet I should bee quickly out of my pain but if thou goest to hell thou wilt never bee out of thine I should be quickly dead but thou wilt never dye as to thy torment Sinner beleeve mee nothing but love to thy precious soul makes mee deal so plainly with thee Sin But how can I perswade my self you love mee when you would put such a yoak of righteousness upon my neck that I nor my Fathers could ever bear Answ It makes no matter whether thou thinkest I love thee or not if I do not I am sure thou wilt confess that Jesus did why man it is not I but hee that doth thus endeavour to put this holy yoak upon thy neck and doth intreat thee to wear it for his sake Matth. 11.29 30. Take my yoak upon you and learn of mee for I am meek and lowly in heart and you shall finde rest to your souls for my yoak is easie and my burden is light And what is this yoak but the holy righteous nature and life which I have been all this while explaining to thee But sayest thou Do I in conscience think that the Commands of Christ may be thus obeyed such a righteous life lived Answ Yea in my very conscience I do think it that both this life may and is lived by thousands yea by all that are in a present state of salvation Nay I verily think that all the Commands of Christ may and are by all sound Christians obeyed excepting some particular acts that with them are not ordinary yea and with such an obedience that quoad speciem though not quoad gradum is perfect that is their love or fear or faith to God and Christ have the true genuine nature of these graces and such as the Command calls for yet I confess none loves or fears or beleeves so much but there might bee several cubits added to the stature of these graces But Reader it is not my desire to trouble thy head with speculations I have got unto thy heart and there I will keep If thou wilt then have thy question answered whe her the Commands of Christ may bee obeyed in thy life look 1 Joh. 5.2 3. By this wee know that wee love the children of God when wee love God and keep his Commandements for this is the love of God or herein it consisteth that wee keep his Commandements and his Commandements are not greevous See how the Apostle tells thee they may not onely bee obeyed but that to them that love God they are not greevous if thou wilt neither beleeve Christ nor his Apostles I despair of finding credit with thee but I will not cherish so hard an opinion of thee I know thou beleevest them both mee thinks I see thy heart relenting and about to yeeld the cause Dâ—th not thy heats begin to cool and thy anger to mee abate Dost thou not begin to see how much thou hast been deceived in the matters of thy soul and to tremble to think how many of thy neighbours have been deceived with thee Art thou not ready to say to mee as King Agrippa once did to Paul Thou hast almost perswaded mee to bee a Christian Mee thinks I see thee kiss the book bedew it with thy tears and hear thee bless God that directed it to thee or thank the friend that put it into thy hand Tell mee then What is thy resolution I cannot must not let thee go I have thy promise already and God will have the performance or will have thy life I have already told thee wherein a greater better and far more noble righteousness consists than ever the Pharisees understood I expect thy answer Sinner Oh Sir Pray have mee excused I am convinced there is truth in what you say but I have such a Trade such a Family to look after such company and wayes I have been many years ingaged in I can have neither time to read or pray or fast to think of God or Christ or heaven or hell or death judgement or any thing else my pride my passion is so strong and I so used to it I cannot master them If I lie not nor equivocate if I cheat not nor overâ—reach my brother I cannot trade and so I cannot live though I have a good minde to what you say and am convinced it is my duty yet I do not think for my part I shall ever attain to live no not so righteously as the Pharisees did Answ Is this thy last and utmost resolution Will no reason nor Scripture prevail with thee Can neither man nor God perswade thee then no more sinner but expect thy doom these excuses shall not must not serve thy turn read it in the last clause of my Text Thou shalt in no case enter into the Kingdome of Heaven Canst thou read so sad a sentence and finde no tear to drop nor groan to fetch the poor Rogue at the Bar is more tender of his life and affraid of the Gallows than thou art of thy soul or hell What is thy heart a rock or thy eyes flint Art thou past all sense or feeling Thou shalt not enter into heaven is that nothing But perhaps thou dost not understand what shutting out of heaven means lest thy ignorance should undo thee I will instruct thee The third part of my Text showing the misery of being shut out of heaven in three particulars 1 TO bee shut out of heaven means all this Thou shalt not see thy God in heaven nor behold his glory thou shalt neither love him
first make bold to press thee to a revew of the text I say unto you Except your Righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees yee can in no case enter into the Kingdome of Heaven This verse is a part of that Bible that thou and I and all the Christian world do take to bee the word of God which is as free from any lye or falshood as the Sun-beams are from darkness I shall not therefore injure thee so much as if I did mistrust thee to ask whether thou beleevest this portion of Scripture to bee true or false but rather dost thou beleeve that it is so written there as here it is transcribed if thou doubtest take thy Bible and turn to the Chapter and the Verse if thou wilt take it for granted on my word I profess I have not I would not deceive thee for a world The first part of the Text opened I say unto you To you Who are those Why those that were present at that time in which Christ was preaching this Sermon they were his Disciples his followers such as owned him for their Saviour and called him Lord and Christ in a word they were such as thou professest thy self to bee that art my Reader 2 I say unto you who is this I It was heâ— that preached the Sermon Jesus Christ it was Christ and not Matthew that did record it it was Christ and not I that am about to plead withthee at this time for thy life And now thou knowest the Author I presume the Text will have some authority upon thy heart I hope thou wilt not say of Jesus Christ as the prophane worldlings say of us his Ministers that wee are a company of prating sawcy fellows and they hope that all is not true that wee say and they are confident that God is more merciful than wee Preachers would make them beleeve But think Reader it is not I nor any Minister on earth that is the Preacher in my Text it is Jesus Christ the Master of us all and canst thou hope it is not true that Christ here tells thee were not this all one as to hope Jesus Christ is a lyar and is not this to make thy self a blasphemer or darest thou bee so impudent to say or think that God is more merciful than Christ hath made him what canst thou think thy gracious Saviour would deceive thee or that the Son of God would make false reports of God his Father he tells thee the contrary if thou hast a minde to beleeve him Joh. 12.49 I have not spokex of my self but the Father which sent mee hee gave mee Commandement what I should say and what I should speak And wilt thou dare yet to unsay all his sayings though hee tells thee hee sayes nothing but what God his Father commanded him If hee tells thee plainly Except thy righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees thou shalt in no case enter into the Kingdome of heaven Wilt thou boldly contradict all and say that notwithstanding what ever Jesus Christ hath said I yet hope to bee saved yea though thou hast no righteousness at all or such as falls short of what the Pharisees had wilt thou give the lye both to God the Father and the Son No sinner no I know thou hast not such hard thoughts of the Saviour of the world to think hee is a lyar Thou callest him Jesus Christ and confessest him to bee the Son of God and that it is impossible hee should lye yea I know thou wilt confess hee here speaks true and what hee speaks hee speaks to thee That except thy righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees thou canst by no means bee saved Doest thou beleeve it Answer mee Doest thou verily beleeve That except thou A. B. by name provest a more righteous man or woman than ever any Scribe or Pharisee was thou canst in no case enter into heaven Come Come I know thou beleevest it as thou lovest heaven then and thine own soul I intreat thee pronounce these words after mee but speak them seriously to thine own conscience I A B Who am reading this book do in the presence of God that searcheth my heart and will judge mee at the last day do unfeignedly beleeve that except I am by the power of the Spirit through the preaching of the Word made a more righteous man or woman than ever any Scribe or Pharisee yea and this before I dye I never hope by any means to enter into the Kingdome of heaven but must assuredly as now I am reading within a few dayes bee in everlasting torments where I shall weep and wail and gnash my teeth without all remedy Hast thou confessed so much yea and unfeignedly yea as in the presence of God the searcher of thy heart Yea. Well said Now let mee tell thee thou hast taken one step towards heaven thou art half way there already Ah sinner bee not so much thine own enemy as to withdraw thy foot and recall thy words why shouldest thou repent that step that is taken towards a Kingdome that is so blessed or draw in that breath that hath filled thysails and will make thy voyage to heaven both quick and easie if it continue For know Reader that when thy soul is once throughly convinced of that righteousness that is absolutely necessary to salvation half the work of thy conversion is done the new creature is half formed in thee and thy soul half saved but when that righteousness is attained that is when it is brought down into thy conversation and thou livest righteously then is conversion finished the new creature perfected thy salvation secured and thou art made a blessed man or woman But thou wilt say What am I the nearer for all this if I neither know how righteous these Pharisees were nor what a righteousness it is wherein I must exceed them pray will you tell mee how righteous they were and how much more righteous I must bee than they Answ I will tell thee but if I do I must have another promise from thee and I profess as in the presence of the living God if I thought that thou wouldest not grant it to mee I would not tell thee what those things mean but rather out of pity to thee suffer thee to lie and dye in thy ignorance tell me wilt thou promise God and mee that when I have told thee what the righteousness is that thou must seek wilt thou by the help of God endeavour with all thy soul and strength to live that righteous life this Doctrine will call for But stay sayest thou There is no haste tell mee what it is first Answ What doest thou scruple Art thou afraid I will deceive thee and make it harder than it is Reader to put thee out of doubt from that I protest solemnly as I shall answer it before the Judge of quick and dead before whom I am confident I must give an account of what
among the spirits of just men made perfect if thou resolvest to seek after it which through the grace of God thou mayest assuredly attain to Second Part shewing what is the righteousness of the Saints that exceeds that of the Pharisees 1 THe Pharisees as righteous as they were did not acknowledge Jesus Christ nor entertain him as the Son of God and the Saviour of the world Now if thou wilt acknowledge him as all this and answerably resolve to beleeve in him relye upon him for pardon and strength against sin if thou wilt love him above thy father mother son daughter house land living above thy sins and lusts and wilt readily part with them all at his command thou hast done something the Pharisees never did thy righteousness shall bee more than theirs and thou shalt enter into heaven when they shall bee shut down into hell 2 The Pharisees beleeved it a sin to commit Murder but they did not count it murder to bee angry with their brethren or neighbours without a cause and to call them Fools or Racha Now Reader if thou wilt strive and struggle all revenge and unlawful passion out of thy heart thou art more righteous than ever the Pharisees were Reader see thou to it it must bee done without thou wilt bee content to bee no more righteous than the Pharisees were do not dispute it Christ will have it so Matth. 5.22 I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall bee in danger of Judgement and whosoever shall say Thou Fool shall bee in danger of Hell fire If thou wilt have it more clear consider 1 Joh. 3.15 Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer and yee know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him As thou likest the casting into hell fire or being accounted a murderer in the judgement of God of being void of eternal life give way hereafter to thy proud peevish revengeful passionate nature 3 The righteousness of the Pharisees condemned the act of Adultery to bee a sin but they did not think that a lascivious look and a lustful defire of the heart after a woman was a sin Now Reader if thou wilt resolve to conquer the desires of thy lustful eyes and heart thou hast attained a righteousness the Pharisees never had stick not at it sinner this Command as the whole yoak of Christ is easie and may bee born Christ will have it and thou must do it if thou resolvest to exceed the Pharisees Mat. 5.28 I say unto you sayes Christ whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed Adultery already with her in his heart Now think if thou wilt still give way to thy lustful eyes and heart know this that the Adulterer God will judge and thou mayest bee such though thounever dost commit the act 4 The Pharisees thought it onely a sin to forswear themselves but the Command of Christ is Swear not at all Mat. 5.34 except it bee in cases that are true certain and certainly known lawful possible and weighty wherein the glory of God and the welfare of thy neighbour is considerably concerned but ordinarily before a Magistrate and then an oath is lawful This I must prove because it is so stifly denied by some in this age inconsiderately enough The onely Objection which they have is founded on that of our Lord Christs Matth. 5.34 But I say unto you swear not at all which saying I confess if broken off from the scope of Christ in his whole discourse seems to intimate so much that it was not onely the corrupt prophane use of Oaths that hee condemneth but that hee intended an utter abolition of the use of all how ever circumstantiated Ans 1 I grant that from this Text not only perjury but that swearing is forbidden 2 I farther grant that all manner of swearing by any creature is expresly forbidden as by Heaven Earth Jerusalem by thy head and that in no case what ever is it lawful to use them and the Lord Christ gives you the reason why But 3 I deny that from this Text may bee proved that it is unlawful to swear by God himself before a Magistrate or in the cases above expressed My reasons are these 1 Because the Lord Christ doth not mention that oath which was onely lawful amongst the Jews but takes up in chiding them for perjury in general and for oaths by creatures in particular which Hierom noted long since Considero inquit quod hic Salvator non per Deum jurare prohibuerit sed per Caelum per terram c. 2 Because the God and Father of our Lord Jesus did constitute the lawfulness of swearing by his Name Deut. 6.6.13 and 10.20 Thou shalt swear by the Name of God Exod. 22.1 The oath of Jehovah shall bee between you Now is it probable that the Son should make that unlawful which the Father made lawful Is not this to establish the old Manichaean heresie That taught that the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New were as contrary as light and darkness and their work was to contradict each other If any reply that it is a granted case that Christ abolished the Cerâ—monial Law that under the Mosaical dispensation was in force at the appointment of his Father and why may hee not then abolish this I answer But then it must bee well proved that an oath was a ceremony and then I pray tell mee what it was a type of But secondly I have far more ground to think it one of the Judicial Laws as being highly subservient to put the other Laws in execution which in many cases might have been suspended or not with so clear justice executed without an Oath to render the testimony evident 3 Because hee expresly sayes of himself I came not to dest roy the Law but to fulfil it and can you perswade your self that hee can say hee will not and yet o it was not there once a Law for swearing have I not proved it But can Christ bee said to fulfil that Law by an utter abolishing of it he being the Substance came in the room of all the Ceremonies which were shadows but prove that an Oath is a shadow and I have done 4 I argue à genere from the nature of an Oath it self which if well understood it is very unlikely that the Son of God should take away the use of it An Oath is an appeal to God wherein hee is beseeched as the onely searcher of hearts that hee would bear testimony to the truth and would punish the swearer if hee know him to bear a false testimony but that all such appeals to God should bee prohibited and condemned by Christ can hardly bee affirmed without blasphemy 5 Let mee reason from the end and use of an Oath which will farther discover it was never the intent of Christ utterly to abolish all oathes 1 An Oath then is that whereby men give to God the praise
wert not blinde whither canst thou turn thy self but thou must see hell and damnation before thee and ready to devoure thee Sinner Oh Sir What shall I do to bee saved I tell thee how there is one way left thee to salvation and but one and my Text hath told it Endeavour to bee exceeding righteous in thy life and that is the way to life let thy love and faith to God and Christ Jesus let thy sincere obedience to all his Commands to the utmost that tou art able let thy thoughts thy words thy prayers thy alms speak thee a more righteous man or woman than the strictest Scribe and Pharisee that ever breathed upon the earth this this is the way to heaven If after all this thou art resolved to continue as thou art thy blood bee on thine own head I have discharged my duty Sinner Lord have mercy upon mee What a blinde wretch have I been thus to mistake my way and think I have been going to heaven when I now see plainly I am in the broad road to hell Well I thank God I am not yet swallowed up of that gulph Mercy hath hitherto kept mee out and I am resolved to abuse long-suffering mercy not an hour longer It is but leaving my drunken companions and my filthy Harlots and who would not leave them to gain the love of God and my blessed Saviour It is but leaving my lying swearing and turning my curses into prayers and blessings and what harm is there in prayers and bessings I am sure they will please my God better and trouble my conference less It is but loving my neighbour as my self but especially my God and Saviour with all my heart soul and strength and to account of gold and silver friends credit and my sins as dung and dross in a compare to them and I am sure that they are better than them all and so they deserve as much and more of love from mee It is but to pray praise and thank them for the offer of eternal life and to relye upon the blood of Jesus for pardon and acceptance and I am sure that Jesus Christ will prove my fastest friend Well my resolution is this God men and Angels shall see I am another man Heaven shall see mee more on my knees in my Closet it shall bee my next work when I have read out this book my Family shall see and hear mee more in reading and praying I and my house shall serve the Lord and all my neighbours shall see mee walk in those very wayes that I have formerly most prophanely laughed and scoffed at I know it will bee my turn now to bee scorned and derided by others yea some of my familiar drunken companions but what care I Christ suffered more for my sake and I remember holy Paul that was once a persecuter of honest hearted Christians was afterwards content to bee persecuted for being such an one himself But let them laugh on I am sure I am a dying man and if I keep on to follow Christ I shall shortly bee in heaven and then above their scorns where I am sure they will never come if they repent not and seek a righteousness above the Pharisees I have read what this righteousness is and now I will try it in my life there is no more time for talk I will up and do Caution Yea and do so thou Son or Daughter of God for so I dare call thee if thou holdest this resolution to the death Onely let mee caution thee 〈…〉 whilst thou art so set and resolved upon the work Remember that of thy Saviour Joh. 15.4 5. As the branch cannot bear fruit of it self except it abide in the Vine no more can yee except yee abide in mee I am the Vine yee are the branches hee that abideth in mee and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit for without mee yee can do nothing And so Phil. 2.13 For it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure Again Rom. 8.26 Likewise the Spirit helpeth our infirmities for wee know not what wee should pray for as wee ought but the Spirit it self maketh intercession for us with groanings that cannot bee uttered 1 Cor. 10.12 Let him that thinketh hee standeth take heed lest hee fall By these Texts I would put thee in minde of thine own weakness and self-insufficiency Set to the working out thy salvation with fear and trembling but look up to Christ thy treasury that hath a stock of grace and strength for thee to spend upon till death and to all eternity and now let mee intreat thee to form thy conclusion thus with the holy Apostle Philip. 4.13 I can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth mee Thou mayest with Christ do wonders but without him just nothing Ask and thou shalt have seek and thou shalt finde knock and it shall bee opened And lastly I say unto thee Watch and pray lest thou enter into temptation Now the Lord bless thee and make thy root to spread on the Mountain of the Lord let his dews fall upon thee and give thee to flourish as a pleasant branch in the Vineyard of thy God Let not that curse come ever near thee It is a barren tree cut it down why cumbers it the ground but bee thou ever laden with fruit that death may finde thee mellow and ripe for Heaven A Postscript I Am sufficiently aware of what exceptions the more curious may make against the management of this small Discourse as 1 That I have observed a method somewhat too loose 2 That I have handled the Species before the Genus that is spoken to the nature of inherent righteousness without giving any account of righteousness in general 3 That I have scarce touched upon the other species of righteousness which lyes in the active and passive obedience of our Lord and Saviour 4 That I have not handled fully the nature of inherent righteousness that is the subject of the whole having neglected in a manner the explication of any of its affections And lastly that I have insisted too little on the Doctrinal part Answ It may bee some satisfaction to thee that I know my defects before thou tellest mee of them but thou must know 1 That I intended to have delivered my whole minde on this subject in one sheet to make it as little chargeable as I could 2 That I intended it for the meaner sort of my people whom by long observation I have found them to understand mee least when I think I speak best and most accurately 3 I do not conceive my method so loose as thou mayest imagine seeing I have all along kept close to the parts of the Text and if I mistake not they lye together in as good a posture as the nature of things in their dependency can well bear 4 And as to my speaking so little to the righteousness of the Saints as is treasured up in the active and suffering life and death of the Lord Jesus I reply thus 1 I have not wholly omitted it but have besprinkled the whole with blood that the attentive Reader may plainly see that I little dreamed that the purest inherent righteousness could bee meritorious 2 And I was bound to follow the intendments of the Text that points most directly at the righteousness of the souls and spirits of men that must act them in their lives 3 And I knew that it is this inward righteousness the common people I speak to see lesse need of and it is their ignorance of this which is the ordinary rock on which they split and it was my duty here to help to save them if I could If this will not satisfie thee I cannot help it I writ not to please all but to profit some if the Lord shall please to bless it to that end it will content mee though it doth not thee FINIS A Catalogue of some Books sold and Printed for Andrew Kembe at his Shop at St. Margarets Hill in Southwark A Vew of holy Scriptures by Mr. Hugh Broughton Fol. Ancient Funeral Monuments within the united Monarchy of Great Britain Ireland and the Islands adjacent their Founders and what eminent persons have been interred The Gospel-Covenant or the Covenant of Grace opened by Peter Buckly sometimes Fellow of Christs Colledge in Cambridge Gods holy minde in ten Words or ten Commands which hee himself uttered and taught his Disciples by Questions and Answers by the late learned and faithful Preacher Mr. Elton late Pastor of St. Mary Magdalen Bermondsy near London 4o. Arraignment of Errour by Doct. Samuel Bolton late Master of Christs Colledge in Cambridge Bounds of Christian Freedome The Exposition of the five first Chapters of Ezekiel with the other three parts 4o. All Mr. Henry Smiths Sermons gathered into one Volume with his Life ' and Picture Mr. Dod on the Commandments 4o. Military Discipline the exactest way or the young mans Artillery wherein is shewn the posture both of Musket and pike Whereunto is added the postures and use of the half Pike joyned with Musket by Col. Wil. Barriff The Art of Dialling or Court of Arts By S. M. Mr. Slater on the fourth of the Romans 4o. Also on the book of Malachy Dariotts Judgement of the Stars containing the whole Art of Astrology Hudsons Vindication of the Church Catholick visible and the priority thereof in regard of particular Churches Also an Addition or Postscript to the Church Catholick visible Mr. Cradicoâ—s Sermon preached at the Spittle 4o. The Guard to the Tree of Life by Dr. Samuel Bolton late Master of Christs Colledge in Cambridge Octavoes Mr. Goodwin on the Sacrament On Family Duties On the Sabbath Bradshaw on the Sacrament Mr. Ford of the singing of Psalms Bakers Arithmetick Mr. Tippin of Eternity Dr. Sibbs on Canticles Amesius upon the whole Book of Psalms the two Epistles of Peter Francis Spira School-Books Farnabies Phrases Farnaby on Seneca Farnaby on Juvenal and Persius Farnaby on Martial Farnabies Epigrams Greek Latine Dux Grammaticus by Mr. Clark Matropedius de conscribend is Epistolis Vigerius Idiotism Graecae Lingua Ovids Metamorphosis Grammatically translated by Mr. Brinsly