in any condition or rank of men more than in any other Now being God so plainly threatens death eternal unto the impeitent and disobedient can there be any so great an errour as for these men to presume of pardon and to expect eternal life while they continue so to be The Gospel denounces death upon them they promise life unto themselves and is not then this promise of theirs expresly contrary to the Gospel The Gospel tells them that they must die they say no but we shall live and do they not contradict the Gospel The Gospel saith that they are under Gods displeasure but they presume they are in his favour and where do you think lies the truth in the Gospel or in their presumptions We must believe what the Gospel saith whatsoever it be that they presume and so the Apostle himself believed when he put this truth upon record 2 Cor. 5.10 We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to what he hath done whether it be good or bad for what doth he add to these words Knowing therefore the terrour of the Lord we perswade men we labour to instruct the ignorant we labour to convince the obstinate we labour to awake the drowsy we strive to stir up every person to escape from the wrath which is to come by timely repentance and reformation we know the terrour of the Lord we do not guess but we are assured that it will overtake the impenitent when he shall return to judge the World and therefore use our utmost power to perswade repentance and reformation 5. And now because that impenitent persons even those that abide in wilful sin are wont to ground their hopes of pardon and life eternal on the death of Christ and the satisfaction made by him it will he sit in the last place to shew that his death and satisfaction is so far from giving any countenance to this errour that it doth utterly overthrow it nor need we any further argument to convince and perswade us that this is so than that the death of our blessed Lord is always used in the holy Scripture as a mighty motive to obedience For certainly that very same thing can be no motive unto obedience that gives any just and true encouragement for a man to continue in his sins yet so it is the death of Christ is always represented in Scripture as a mighty motive to obedience unto all obedience to the Gospel and so designed by Christ himself He gave himself for us says the Apostle that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Tit. 2.14 He bare our sins in his own body upon the tree that we being dead to sin should live unto righteousness 1 Pet. 2.24 He gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us from this present evil world that is from the lusts and corruptions of it Gal. 1.4 He gave himself for his Church or Body that he might sanctifie and cleanse it by the washing of water by the word that he might present it to himself a glorious Church not having a spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish Eph. 5.25 c. And that you may see that he was really understood to design this in his dying for us and that his death tends effectually to this purpose with them that understand it aright hear what the Apostle himself speaks upon this point 2 Cor. 5.14 15. The love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that if one died for all then were all dead and that he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which died for them and rose again From whence observe that the death of Christ was so apprehended and understood by the primitive followers of our Lord that they took their very greatest motives their strongest arguments to obedience from it so far was it from giving them any grounds or reasons to cherish and indulge their sins If any man ask what then hath the death of Christ done for the remission of our sins My answer is that the satisfaction thereby made hath gained the pardon of all those sins we repent of not of those whereof we do not repent It operates to the remission of sin of all degrees and kinds of sin when we abandon and forsake them not while we cherish and indulge them and thus it becomes not an encouragement to live in them but to abandon and cast them off 3. Having thus shewed that for God to accept men in their sins to pardon them while they live in them is flatly contrary to his nature contrary to his own decree declared and published in the Gospel I may now very justly conclude the thing which I propounded at the first that a presumption of his pardon while a man continues in his sins is a very great and dangerous errour for so of necessity must that be which is so manifest a mistake both of the nature and will of God and that in a matter of no less moment than that of eternal life and happiness Add hereunto that this is an errour which makes men stupid and secure in the midst of the very greatest dangers lulls them asleep under Gods displeasures charms them with the hope of peace while it is far removed from them They speak peace unto themselves the Gospel speaks quite contrary they judge themselves in Gods favour the Gospel pronounces that they are not so they promise themselves remission of sins eternal happiness and Salvation the Gospel threatens death and judgment In the mean time having reconciled the hopes of Heaven to the fruition of their lusts they enjoy themselves they enjoy their sins without any fear of danger from them for such is the nature of this errour that it infatuates the mind it self removes the force and power of Conscience le ts the corruptions of nature loose leaves no restraint leaves no check at all upon them and so exposes them to destruction till it be discovered and removed 3. I have said enough of the propositions which are implyed in the words before us namely 1. that men may presume of Gods favour while they continue in their sins 2 That this presumption of theirs is a very great and dangerous errour and shall now conclude with what is expressed He that doth righteousness is righteous that is to say he that is hearty and sincere in the practice of all the several duties prescribed unto us in the Gospel he is acceptable unto God he is in grace and favour with him nor will God charge him with the guilt of such lapses and inadvertencies as flow from the frailty of humane nature And what is the use we should make of this It is to awake and excite our selves to all diligence to all sincerity in our duties And
darkest Plots he can defeat the greatest craft he can disarm the greatest Powers and scatter them all into confusion And we are not without very good hopes that he will concern himself for us and imploy his Providence for our help We have a Cause that God hath favoured wonderfully favoured in former times How many Plots against this Cause did he discover confound and punish during the Reign of Queen Elizabeth How did he do the like again when her Successor began his Reign How hath he still preserved and blessed it in many confusions many divisions amongst our selves since that time How hath he now at the present time wonderfully discovered the works of darkness brought hidden and secret evils to light Made those discoveries done those things that we could never have done for our selves God will never be wanting to us or to the Religion we profess if we our selves be not wanting to it Let us therefore awaken all our powers to diligence in our own defence and then commit our cause to God making our daily prayers to him that he would defend his own Truth that he would protect his own Inheritance and water the Vine that himself hath planted Yea let us make our appeals to him whether we or cur enemies be in the right And then O God who art a just and righteous God take the matter into thine own hand do thou judge between them and us Pardon our sins forgive those evils which may provoke thine indignation against us but for our cause for that Faith that we do profess against our enemies that we freely leave to thee we do appeal unto thy judgment and are willing to stand or fall by it Let us therefore adorn it in our lives this is the first and principal way of procuring the blessing of God upon it Let us seek and improve all occasions to gain it credit and reputation And seeing that it hath pleased the King to recommend the rebuilding of St Pauls unto our Charity at this time and himself to set us a great Example let us not be wanting to this Work according unto our proportion It is certainly a Work of Christian piety to build up places for Gods Worship No sooner were the Christians freed from the Persecutions of the Heathen but they did zealously apply themselves to this work and raised magnificent and noble Structures for the publick places of Gods Worship This Church which is now to be rebuilt may be stiled the chief of all the Nation It hath formerly been its greatest glory in its kind and we hope it may be so again What pity were it that such a Work should fail or flag at such a time when we are to give especial evidence of a publick Spirit of free and noble and generous minds The time is an extraordinary time the work an extraordinary work Let us open our hands to a more than ordinary bounty towards it And as for us in this place we have singular reason so to do seeing it pleased Almighty God to preserve our Churches and Habitations from those flames that devoured our Neighbours Now therefore let us at this time honour the Religion we do profess by this particular work of piety as well as in all other instances making our prayers to Almighty God that he would defend his own Truth that he would protect his own Inheritance and preserve the Religion himself planted And thou O God c. The Fourth Sermon Matth. 6.23 If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness how great is that darkness THE great security of mans life as well from the cheats of his own as from the temptations of the world depends upon true and stable Principles of Faith and Piety And the ground of all these Principles is a true judgment of what is happiness what is the great end of life and what are the ways that lead unto it and a choice suitable thereunto This is the thing which our Lord suggests 19 20 21 verses Lay not up for your selves treasures upon earth where moth and rust doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal hut lay up for your selves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt and where thieves do not break through and steal for says he when your treasure is there will your heart be also that is to say that which you chuse to be your happiness that will you place your hearts upon and pursue in all your deliberate actions Having thus exhorted us to take care to chuse that for our chief good which is indeed really so to conduct our lives by true Principles he speaks a Parable wherein he shews the great advantage of so doing and the danger of doing otherwise The former of these in those words vers 22. The light of the body is the eye if therefore thine eye be single thy whole body is full of light The application of which words is this The judgment of the mind is the guide of life Wherefore if the judgment be true and good the life hath a true guide to rule it And then the danger of a false judgment is declared in the words that immediately follow But if thine eye be evil thy whole body is full of darkness And so he comes to the words of the Text If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness how great is that darkness that is if thy judgment be corrupt if thy mind and conscience be erroneous how great and dangerous are those mistakes which thou art then exposed unto Now that which the words thus explained offer unto our consideration is the mighty danger that they are in to lose their souls who are led and governed by false Principles Which will appear if we consider that such Principles 1. Leave them dangerously exposed to sin 2. And not only so exposed unto it but that they also encourage to it I say 1. They leave them dangerously exposed to evil which will be very clear and manifest if we consider 1. First of all that our present condition and state is such that we are under many temptations thereunto 2. That the nature of man is apt of it self to close and comply with those temptations 3. That we have nothing else save only true and right Principles assisted by the Grace of God to prevent and hinder complying with them 4. From whence it most inevitably follows that where those Principles are not found we are most dangerously exposed to evil 1. I shall begin with the first of these which is that our present condition is such that we are under many temptations unto evil The world is full of deceits and snares where-ever we tread we are in danger to fall into them There is no business no imployment no condition or state of life but lies exposed unto temptation Sometimes we are courted by sensual charms by the hopes of favour or wealth or honour to part with our innocence and integrity sometimes we are in great
God for he that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life 1 John 5.12 The Twelfth Sermon Philip. 1.10 That ye may approve things that are excellent ALthough God in his infinite wisdom never enjoined any thing to men but what considering all circumstances of times and places and persons likewise was useful and convenient for them though indifferent in its own nature such were the numerous Rites and Ceremonies of Moses's Law yet are there other instances of Duty which are immutably good in themselves and therefore proper for all Ages So are these two general Duties to love God with all our hearts and to love our neighbour as our selves So are the particular Branches of them to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in the world And so with very little exception are all the Duties of the Gospel Which impartially tryed and weighed cannot but be approved as good even by them that do not practise them But a general assent of the understanding not applied to particular instances of life and action is far short of the approbation which the Apostle here designs For although the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used in the Greek sometimes signifie something less than a bare assent of the understanding that is to try and examine only as where it is required that we prove all things 1 Thess 5.21 yet here it signifies much more Here as also in other places it imports such a clear and setled judgment of what is good as is accompanied with resolution to practise what we judge to be so This appears from what the Apostle joins in the same period with it sincerity and a blameless life and these retain unto the end For so is the tenour of his words That ye may approve things that are excellent that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ The same appears from the Style wherein the Apostle speaks For the words of my Text are part of a Prayer wherein after his usual custom of saluting the persons to whom he writes ver 1. and praying grace and peace for them from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ ver 2. after his thanks rendred to God for their fellowship in the Gospel in the following verses of the eighteenth Chapter he further prays that their love might abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment and that they might approve things that are excellent Being then the Apostle prays this for them as a thing of singular concernment to them and being a cold assent of mind an ineffectual approbation of what is excellent is a thing of no concern at all this cannot possibly be the thing which he so heartily prays for them but what is far more than this such an approbation of the mind as upon a full and clear survey of all the differences of good and evil in their natures issues and effects both in this and the other world ends in a certain determination never to deviate from what is good So then taking this for granted which the Apostle here supposes that the things prescribed to us in the Gospel are things excellent and good for us worthy thy to be commanded by God and reasonable to be practised by us especially upon the powerful motives whereupon the Gospel recommends them the proper subject which these words offer unto our consideration is the approbation of these things that is a clear and stable judgment in the Duties prescribed to us in the Gospel In the handling of which Subject it is most fit that we consider 1. The singular use and advantage of such a judgment in those Duties 2. How it may be gained 3. And lastly How it must be exercised by them that have attained unto it 1. And for the first let it be considered That the judgment which I have now described is of such singular use to us that it is 1. Both an effectual cure of all the Diseases of our minds considered absolutely in themselves and 2. Also a constant Guide and Monitor in every instance of our lives First A Guide to discover our Duties to us and Secondly A Monitor to press the practice of them and steady perseverance in that practice whatsoeever may tempt us to the contrary 1. If we survey the several maladies of our minds the diseases of humane understanding there are First Ignorance Secondly Doubt and Thirdly Vanity Ignorance of what is true and useful or Scepticism and doubt in what is so or Vanity in applying our minds to things impertinent and useless to us though we may have certain knowledge of them First The first Disease of the understanding is ignorance of that which is truly good For as the knowledge of what is so is the proper perfection of the mind because it was made to know this and every thing is perfect in its end so the ignorance of what it was made to know is its greatest malady and imperfection Ignorance is that Disease in the mind which utter blindness is in the eye that imperfection in the understanding which darkness would be in the Sun and Stars 'T is that which Death is unto Life its proper ruine and destruction It hides the face of truth from us it eclipses all the lustre of goodness it puts us under the power of errour which vitiates and perverts our choice and doth not only lead to danger but also reconcile us to it Now just contrary to these effects are those of clear and stable judgment in things pertaining to life and happiness or as the Apostle's expression is of the approbation of things excellent Truth is to the mind as light to the Sun its proper lustre and perfection Besides it powerfully recommends and sets off every thing that 's good it shews it in its native colours and gives it the advantages due unto it so that to use the Apostles words Philip. 4.8 Whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any vertue if there be any praise whatsoever there is that deserves our love it is so represented in the mind when the mind is duly informed by truth that it commends itself to choice and gains the possession of our hearts for as we naturally desire and love what our minds recommend unto us as good in itself and for us likewise so the hearty love of what is good is the gaining the very thing we love for there is this remarkable difference between the love of good or evil and that of all other things in the world that we may love these other things and yet fall short of the things themselves but he that loves good or evil is good or evil by so doing The consequence of which discourse is this that the approbation of things excellent a clear and stable
Lord as the treasures of his own House and what was still more dishonourable to cut off the Gold from the Doors of the Temple and the Pillars which he himself had made v. 15 16. Yet such it should seem was Sennacheribs treachery and false dealing that having as was before related spoiled Hezekiah of his treasure he presently contrary to his promise sends up an Army towards Jerusalem the dread whereof filled that City with great amazement and confusions In these confusions had the Prophet Isaiah an intimation that God would exalt his mighty power in the deliverance of Hezekiah and of the City of Jerusalem from these so great and imminent dangers and also confirm the same deliverance and give secure and setled times The former whereof the Prophet declares v. 5. The Lord is exalted for he dwelleth on high he hath filled Sion with judgment and righteousness the latter in the following words And wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times Stability signifies strength and settlement stability of times safe secure and certain times times not so lyable unto change as that the fear of domestick Troubles or foreign violence should either disquiet the minds of men or interrupt them in their duties to God or their neighbours or themselves And then that wisedom or that knowledge by which the times should be thus established is the knowledge of God and of his will and hearty obedience thereunto in the whole compass of his Laws as well of those which prescribe our duties to one another as of those that direct us in Gods worship I need not say that this is the sense wherein wisdom is frequently taken in the Scriptures for that 's a thing that all acknowledge who pretend to any skill in them nor need I labour much to prove that this is the sense of wisdom and knowledge in the words which I now insist upon for plain it is that what the Prophet stiles judgment and righteousness in the words immediately antecedent is here stiled wisdom and knowledge He hath filled Sion with judgment and righteousness So he speaks in the fifth verse and then immediately adds the effect those things should have under the name of 〈…〉 and knowledge for so it follows and wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times that is to say judgment and righteousness shall be so He varies the words but not the sense for then his discourse would not be coherent Add hereunto that what he had styled wisdom and knowledge in the beginning of the verse is immediately called the fear of the Lord wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times and strength of salvation the fear of the Lord is his treasure Where he suggests that although Sennacherib had spoiled Hezekiah of his treasures which are the usual nerves of War and the common instruments of defence yet that he had such a treasure still namely the fear of the true God as should give stability to his times For as much as this is the truest wisdom and such wisdom the firmest foundation of peace and settlement This reaches all the ends of wisdom and therefore justly bears its name So that the sense of the words in hand is the same with that of those before chap. 32. v. 17. The work of righteousness shall be peace and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever Now the words taken in this sense offer two things to our consideration 1. The former whereof is a blessing promised which is stability of the times setled quiet and easie days 2. The latter the proper means or terms whereby this blessing is procur'd which is obedience to Gods will in the whole extent of his holy Laws styled by the Prophet wisdom and knowledge For so he speaks to Hezekiah and in his person to the nation wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times I shall begin with the blessing promised which is stability in the times a singular blessing to a Nation being such as most effectually tends or is at the least wholly necessary to the producing of all others whether we consider it with relation 1. To the advantages of this World 2. Or those that concern a better life Of the former of these I should not speak being not so suitable to this place were it not proper for the occasion were it not seasonable in point of time and now if ever to be considered when the great Council of the Land is studying how to settle the Nation to confirm our Peace to establish true and firm foundations of future settlement and tranquillity and may expect to have an account of the usefulness of their undertakings opened and laid before the People But being these are our present circumstances I judge I may justly take occasion to insist a while upon those advantages which every Nation may expect from quiet certain and stable times 1. And first of all such times as these give ease of heart vigour of mind a free and chearful and active spirit take off the weights of fear and sorrow that troublesome times generally hang upon men's minds and so prepare and dispose to diligence and give incouragement thereunto by promising good success in it For in such times may every person duly hope to reap the fruits of his own Labours to gain advantage by his diligence to find an account in his undertakings he now believes that he serves himself or his posterity which he values equally with himself And this as it gives a great incouragement to his diligence So it sweetens the labours that attend it and makes him easie to himself as well as useful to publick ends It is not so in troublesome and distracted times In such times every man suspects that one may sow and another reap one may build and another inhabit one may plant and another probably gather the fruit as we have seen in our own age and many felt by sad experience And this is a very great discouragement to every man's diligence in his calling Where is the man that will toyle and labour weary his body or his mind where he cannot hope that he or his heirs shall find advantage by all his pains who will imploy and busie himself at all adventures build or plant or lay up treasure when he hath reason to suspect that he is labouring for a stranger or preparing rich and pleasant spoils for an enemy to feed his lusts upon And what 's the effect of these discouragements but a disconsolate useless sloath or else a diversion from those labours whereby he might profit himself and others to live by spoyl on other persons which when it once becomes common ends in general want and poverty and brings destruction upon a Nation So useful nay so wholly necessary are stable times to give encouragement to care and diligence in those labours whereby every man serves himself as the publick good is served by all 2. Stable and settled times give
have nothing but good Principles to prevent and hinder such complyance From whence it most inevitably follows that where such principles are not found where men are under the power and guidance of evil Principles they are most dangerously exposed to evil This is the least of the ill effects that we can possibly expect from them 2. But then secondly we must consider That as all ill principles in Religion leave us at least exposed to evil so are there many do very highly encourage to it There are such principles to be found as turn the greatest crimes to merit and make men hope for a reward hope to gain eternal glory by the foulest practices in the world by those that tend to eternal misery Our blessed Lord foretold his followers that the time would come wherein they would put them out of the Synagogues and not so only but also that whosoever killed them should think he did God service by it John 16.2 So did the Jews use his Disciples They first accused them of Schism and Heresie and then persecuted them unto death And just so doth the Roman Church to all Christians dissenting from them They pronounce them guilty of Schism and Heresie they excommunicate them out of the Church they flatly deny that they can be saved they doom them all unto damnation they pronounce it lawful to destroy them to destroy the very greatest Princes when they have once judged them Hereticks They make it a meritorious act in those that adventure so to do and lest men should not venture upon it some of them teach that they are obliged and bound to do it extremo animarum suarum perieule si vires habeant ad hoc idoneas Philopator under the pain of the loss of their Souls if they have sufficient strength to do it Could a man have thought that such practices as these are should ever have been undertaking by any making profession of Christianity could he have thought that although these should be undertaken they should be justified and defended nay urged and pressed with great severity under no less a tie and penalty than that of the loss of a mans Soul But this it is to have the mind and conscience defiled as the Apostle himself expresses it Tit. 1.15 This it is as he speaks elswhere 1. Tim. 4.2 to have the Conscience seared with a hot iron If a mans Principles be corrupt his conscience perverted and depraved what will not such a conscience admit and such Principles urge upon him If the very light that is in him be darkness how great then is that darkness And now to apply what I have said upon this point 1. Seeing the danger of false Principles in Religion is so prodigiously and strangely great let this be a mighty caution to us to avoid communion with such persons as govern themselves by such Principles and more especially the Church of Rome It is not imaginable how this Church hath perverted the Doctrine of Christianity and quite overthrown the practice of it in many considerable parts of it There is scarce any one command of God which they have not clouded and perverted by some perverse interpretations And besides all this they have formed and stated general Principles which effectually lead to the overthrowing of all the precepts of Christianity And some of these I shall instance in 1. The first of these is the Doctrine received in the Roman Church of acting according to probable opinions received not only among the Jesuits but by many others as well as them 1. They teach that although an opinion seems to be false to any man considering the reasons that make against it yet that it is a probable opinion if it be maintained by two or three nay by one Doctor of note amongst them 2. And then secondly that any person may lawfully act and govern himself by such an opinion in point of practice by an opinion maintained by others although it seem to be false to himself just contrary to the Apostles Doctrine Rom. 14.23 Whatsoever is not of faith is sin The very words they use are these Ex anthoritate unius tantùm posse quem illam in praxi amplecti licèt à principiis intrinsecis falsam improbahilem existimet that is That a man may lawfully follow an opinion in practice upon the authority of one Doctor though he himself considering the reasons of that opinion judge it to be false and improbable Guimen pag. 55 My Author adds an example to this and that is although a Confessor shall himself believe it to be unlawful to absolve a man in a certain case yet that notwithstanding he may absolve him if others judge it to be lawful Now here I observe in the first place that this is directly against the Scripture which pronounces that to be unlawful which a man acts against his own mind and conscience although agreeably to other mens And then secondly that this opinion gives all men liberty to do whatsoever a few Doctors nay any one of the Roman Church have judged lawful And what is it that some of them have not judged lawful especially against all those persons upon whom they fix the name of Hereticks And if you inquire what is the design of those persons that do maintain this opinion it is most evident that it is this That the spiritual Guides of the Roman Church may have a pretence to lead the people boldly to act what they require although against the minds and judgments of them they lead That is in case a private person judge it unlawful to break his faith to falsifie promise to a Heretick or to deprive him of life or fortunes or reputation yet that he may still lawfully do it if two or three of their Guides and Teachers nay if any one of them judge it lawful 3. But then thirdly they further teach That where there are any two opinions one less probable than another that a man may lawfully guide his practice by that which appears to be less probable So Martial de Prado concludes and abundance of others as well as he as Guimen p. 64. Saepe in praxi licitum est sequi opinionem minùs probabilem relictâ probabiliori It is often lawful in matter of practice to follow a less probable opinion forsaking that which is more probable Which is as much as if they said that a man is not bound to govern his life according to the best of his judgment but may very lawfully do what is worse where he knows and believes he might do better And is this for a man to guide his life according to the rules of Charity or that integrity that sincerity which true Christianity requires from us 4. And yet I must add what is still worse for it is added upon this point in the Church of Rome That it is lawful for any person to follow a less probable opinion rather than one that is more probable and that although the more probable
instances wherein they exercised their hypocrisie 2. The second was that they confined all their Religion to outward actions but all this while neglected the purifying of their hearts S. Paul reporting what he was while he continued to be a Pharisee expresly tells us that he was blameless as to the righteousness in the law Touching the righteousness which is in the law blameless Phil. 3.6 His meaning is that he avoided the outward actions expresly forbidden in the Law that he observed and performed them which were expresly then commanded according to the interpretation which the Pharisees put upon the Law more than this he could not mean he could not possibly believe himself to have been punctually clear and spotless in the inward affections of his foul but only in point of outward action But being so he declares himself to have been blameless touching the righteousness in the Law while he continued to be a Pharisee which plainly shews they thought the Law required no more than a conformity to its Precepts in outward action and behaviour And thus doth Kimchi expound those words Psal 66.18 If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me that is saith he if I only think or design iniquity but do not accomplish the design if I only think or wish the evil but do not act it in overt action God will not impute it as fin to me a gloss just contrary to the Text not an explication of the words but an express contradiction to them 'T is true indeed the Law did say Thou shalt not covet but did not expresly threaten punishment to them that coveted if they did not act the ill imagined Whereupon these Pharisees judged it a counsel rather than a precept in gratification to their lusts and judged themselves exactly righteous when they performed the overt actions the Law required and avoided them forbidden in it Such is the nature of hypocrisie and such was that of the Scribes and Pharisees 3. As they placed their righteousness wholly and solely in outward actions and the omissions of such actions so they performed those actions with abundance of outward pomp and shew that they might be seen and praised of men They gave alms but sounded a trumpet both in the Synagogues and in the streets at the giving of it Mat. 6.2 They prayed much but they loved to pray standing in the Synagogues and in the corners of the streets and this that they might be seen of men Mat. 6.5 They fasted also twice a-week Luk. 18.12 but they put on a soure countenance disfigured their faces that they might appear unto men to fast Mat. 6.16 And this as our Lord expresly tells us Mat. 23.5 they did all their works to be seen of men Which is the nature of hypocrisie and a certain signification of it 4. They were far more nice far more scrupulous in lesser things than they were in things of greater moment far more punctual in the observance of their own precepts and institutions than those that were of Gods appointment and far more diligent in the observance of Gods appointments in ritual matters and constitutions than in the very Laws of nature and things of indispensable goodness These are the things our Saviour often objects to them and more especially Matt. 23. the 23d and following verses Wo unto you Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites for ye pay tythe of mint and anise and cummin and have omitted the weightier matters of the law judgment mercy and faith those ought ye to have done and not to leave the other undone Ye blind guides which strain at a Gnat and swallow a camel which make such scruple in lesser things and none at all in things of moment And yet again in the following words Wo unto you Scribes and Pharisees for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter but within they are full of extortion and excess to wash the cup before they drunk to cleanse the platter before they ate was an institution of their own and this they very duly observed to purge the heart from all extortion and impurity was a Law enjoined by God himself but of this they made no account at all 5. As they much abounded in institutions of their own so some of these were so extravagant that they were contrary to the very Laws of God and nature What Law more sacred and indispensable what more natural and more agreeable to humanity than that which requires us to honour our Parents to relieve and assist them in their wants which is both a part and a signification of that honour yet such was the blindness of the Pharisees that they licensed a man to make a vow to deny relief unto his Father and pronounc'd the vow to be obliging so our Lord Mark 7.10 11. Moses said honour thy Father and Mother and who so curseth Father or Mother let him dye the death but ye say if a man shall say to his Father or Mother it is Corban that is to say a gift by whatsoever thou mayest be profited by me he shall be free and ye suffer him no more to do ought for his Father or his Mother making the word of God of none effect through your traditions inventing a vow flatly contrary to Gods Law and making the former oblige and bind to the destruction of the latter Thus did they use a pretence of Piety towards God to absolve and quit them from their very duty to their Parents used Religion against Religion and made the very pretence of it a ground to neglect and contradict it 6. They prescribed to others what they themselves would not practise their precepts were stricter than their lives to others they were extreamly severe but kind and gentle to themselves whence that reflection of our Lord Matt. 23.34 Do not after their works for they say and do not for they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be born and lay them on mens shoulders but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers an evident instance of Hypocrisie of prevarication and deceit for if the duty though hard and difficult was yet necessary unto others why was it not so to them likewise and if it was not so to them as it should seem they judg'd it was not why was it then so to others why did they then impose it on them why reprove the neglect of it why upbraid the mote or atome which they espied in their neighbours eye while they suffered a beam to blind their own But to proceed to the last instance of the hypocrisie of the Pharisees this lay in the flaming zeal they had to make Proselytes to their Party to make Disciples to their Sect while they made them worse and not the better nay greatly worse by so doing And this is the thing objected to them by our Lord Matth. 23.15 Wo unto you Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites for ye compass Sea and Land to make one Proselyte and when
and awe upon him whereas the mutual love and kindness that Christ hath commanded amongst men and also recommended to us by the highest and most effectual motives would not only restrain the outward actions of fraud and injury and oppression but kill the very lust within wither the very root of biterness and render every man easie and helpful to his neighbour instead of being injurious to him and this is suggested by St Paul Rom. 13.8 9.10 He that loveth another hath fulfilled the Law For this thou shalt not commit adultery thou shalt not kill thou shalt not steal thou shalt not bear false witness thou shalt not covet and if there be any other commandment it is briefly comprehended in this saying namely thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self love worketh no ill to his Neighbour therefore love is the fulfilling of the Law Love throughly accomplishes all those ends which were indeed designed by the Law whence it is said That the Law is not made for a righteous man a man animated and inspired by a living Law of love within but for the lawless and disobedient 1 Tim. 1.9 And thus hath our Lord fulfilled the judicial Law of Moses as well as the moral and ceremonial by the most efficacious ways and methods of setling such a Law within us as would most effectually work and propagate the great design of the Law of Moses which was added as the Apostle speaks because of transgressions till the seed should come to whom the promise was made Having thus cleared both the parts of the words before us it now remains that we reflect upon what hath been said and draw some Observations from it First And first of all since our Lord came not to destroy but to fulfil the Law and the Prophets hence we learn That Christianity that the righteousness and holiness of the Gospel was the thing that God had in his eye the thing that he purposed and intended and that lay at the bottom of his counsels in the whole Mosaical Dispensation as well in all the external Rites as the other parts of Moses's Law God never had any delight or pleasure in the flesh or blood of Bulls and Goats or any Sacrifices of the Law he was never pleased with ritual washings or expiations as things excellent in themselves nor did he institute these Rites for any complacence he took in them but partly as the Ancients observe to typifie things that were to come namely the mysteries of the Gospel and partly to retain the Jews accustomed to such like Rites in Egypt in the worship and service of himself the only true and living God lest being denied their former Rites in the worship of the true God they should have used them unto Idols and to have continued in that apostasie whereinto themselves and the world were fallen at the delivery of the Law Had there been no such Reasons as these for the Rites enjoined in Moses's Law they had never been instituted or commanded nor had God any respect for them any regard to the most zealous performance of them when divided from the essential parts the great Fundamentals of Religion judgment and mercy and the love of God Hence those words of the Prophet Jeremy chap. 6.20 To what purpose cometh there to me incense from Sheba and the sweet Cane from a far Country Your burnt offerings are not acceptable nor your Sacrifices sweet unto me And those of Isaiah chap. 1.11 12. To what purpose is the multitude of your Sacrifices unto me saith the Lord I am full of the burnt offerings of Rams and the fat of fed Beasts and I delight not in the blood of Bullocks or of Lambs or of He-goats Adde hereunto those excellent words of the Prophet Micah chap. 6. verf. 6 7 8. Wherewithal shall I come before the Lord and how my self before the high God shall I come before him with burnt-offerings with Calves of a year old will the Lord be pleased with thousands of Rams or with ten thousands of Rivers of Oil shall I give my first-born for my transgression the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul No He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God These were the things which he accepted nay these were the things which he designed in the very Ceremonies of the Law and in all its symbolical Types and Figures And these are the things which Christ our Lord came to propagate and promote in all he did and suffered for us So constant hath God been to himself and to the advancement of real goodness amongst men in all the Ages of the World before and under and after the Law He still designed the same thing he had still the same end in his eye namely that we should love him with all our hearts and love our Neighbour as our selves on these as our Saviour himself tells us hanged all the Law and the Prophets And the end for which our Lord himself came into the World was more effectually to promote what the Law of Moses had designed and so the Apostle himself assures us Rom. 8.3 4. For what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit Secondly What then remains in the last place but that since our Lord came into the World not to destroy but to fulfil the Law and the Prophets since he â—ath fulfilled them by introducing that Religion which God always had in his eye in all the Shadows of the Law a Religion suitable unto reason a Religion that perfects humane nature a Religion free and disentangled from the load of Mosaical Rites and Ceremonies a Religion aiming at nothing more than hearty love to God and our Neighbour and peace and happiness both in this and the other world what now remains but that we freely embrace and practise a Religion thus recommended to us neither reproaching it by our lusts by foul and sensual inclinations nor yet abusing and obscuring it by vain and useless superstitions It is a reasonable and manly service that God is pleased to require from us it is the cure of all our maladies it is medicine unto all our distempers it is health and soundness to all our powers It is not sacrifice and oblations it is not circumcision nor uncircumcision it is not what is hard and burthensom but what is useful and good for us 't is righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Ghost So that had we no other demonstration of the infinite love of God to us this were sufficient proof of it that he hath made our Religion our happiness Foâ— in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing nor
give a right understanding in all things The Eighteenth Sermon 1 John 3.7 Little children let no man deceive you he that doth righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous FROM these words I have observed these two things 1. That men may imagine themselves to be righteous in the eyes of God to be in Grace and favour with him although they do not do righteousness but live in habitual disobedience to the Laws and Precepts of the Gospel 2. That this imagination is a very great and dangerous errour The former I have already finished and shall now speak unto the latter that is to say to the greatness and danger of the errour Where I consider That for God to judge unrighteous persons otherwise than in truth they are to accept their persons and pardon their sins while they abide and persist in them is contrary 1. To his own nature and 2. To the Gospel likewise 1. This is contrary to Gods nature that is to say both First To his wisdom and Secondly To his holiness First It is contrary to his wisdom So it is to judge of men otherwise than they are in themselves to esteem them righteous just and holy while they are unrighteous and impure It is the nature of true wisdom to judge all things according to truth this is its nature as it is found even in men much more as it is found in God He cannot erre or be deceived even in the deepest obscurest things nothing is hidden from his eye the night and the day light and darkness are alike unto it he tries the reins and searches the very hearts of men discerns whatsoever is in them and judges according to truth Now he that judges according to truth must judge of things just as they are and therefore seeing the judgment of God is always true hence it appears They who are unjust and wicked impure and unholy in themselves are so in the judgment of God likewise so in his esteem and account Secondly If it be said That although it be very true indeed that God cannot judge otherwise of men than according to what they are in themselves not judge the Sinner to be righteous the wicked to be pure and holy yet that he may love and accept the wicked as much as if he were just and holy the Answer is That this is contrary to God's holiness This doth as much thwart the purity contradict the holiness of his nature as the other contradicts his wisdom as is often declared in the holy Scriptures God is of purer eyes saith Habbakkuk than to behold that is to say to approve evil He cannot look upon iniquity Hab. 1.13 So far is he from approving evil or those that indulge themselves in it that their way is an abomination to him Prov. 15.9 From whence it follows That they who judge themselves or others to be in grace and favour with God to be holy just and righteous persons who are not fully and really so ascribe and impute that to God which is quite contrary to his nature If it be said That God is said to justifie the ungodly Rom. 4.5 The meaning is That he justifies those that have been so not those that continue so to be that he justifies and accepts the ungodly when they forsake and leave their sins not while they still continue in them And so we learn from the same Apostle who having given a large Catalogue of sins and Sinners concludes his Discourse with these words 1 Cor. 6.11 Such were some of you but ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God First washed and sanctified by Gods Spirit and then justified and accepted 2. But then secondly as it is contrary to Gods nature to justifie and accept the wicked while they continue in their sins so is it likewise greatly contrary to the Gospel First Expresly to the plainest and and clearest parts of it And Secondly To the whole by evident consequence First It is most expresly contrary to the plainest and clearest parts of it to its most positive Declarations such as those words of St John are which I do now insist upon Little Children let no man deceive you he that doth righteousness is righteous He that is really and truly so he is so and he only in God's account Like unto these are those of St Paul Ephes 5.6 where having mentioned uncleanness covetousness and prophaneness he presently addes this admonition Let no man deceive you with vain words for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the Children of disobedience Whereunto we may add his expostulations 1 Cor. 6.9 10. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Be not deceived neither fornicators nor idolaters nor thieves nor covetous nor drunkards nor revilers nor extortioners shall inherit the Kingdom of God Can there be plainer words than these or can there be any thing more contradictory to the Gospel than what contradicts the plainest words and expressions of it or a greater or more dangerous errour than what so contradicts the Gospel The Gospel declares that the unclean shall not inherit the Kingdom of God the Gospel pronounces the Drunkard likewise declares the covetous and extortioner while they continue in these sins to be uncapable of that Kingdom this it declares in as plain words as can be written or expressed and will these persons still presume of an interest in the favour of God and of a title to his Kingdom If they will it is their folly so to do it is a folly of that nature as doth not only expose them to the greatest danger but shut the door to all possibility of escape while they persist and continue in it Such is the presumption of God's favour of being reconciled unto him while a man continues in his sins Secondly And secondly as this is expresly contrary to the clearest passages in the Gospel so to the whole by evident consequence To its commands and exhortations to all the promises and threatnings of it and what is more to the very design of Christ's death the very thing which men abuse into an indulgence to their sins To promise our selves the favour of God and acceptance with him while we continue in our sins it is a presumption expresly contrary First To the Precepts of the Gospel These require and strictly charge us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world Tit. 2.12 These require that we put off concerning the former conversation the old man which is corrupt according to deceitful lusts that we be renewed in the spirit of our minds that we put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness Ephes 4.22 and following Verses In a word the Laws of Christ require us to love God with all our hearts and to love our neighbour as our selves Now