drift of the Parable is made plain and perspicuous to an ordinary capacity Wherefore now I proceed to handle the particular branches of it of which there are these three most remarkable in the Parable and which as I have already intimated are the designed subject of the subsequent discourse First we have here a graphical description of the state and condition of an habitual sinner before repentance from vers 11. to vers 17. Secondly a type or portraicture of true repentance and turning to God from vers 17. to vers 20. Thirdly an Emblematical representation of God's unspeakable mercy in the gracious reception of such penitents from vers 20. to the end of the Chapter but especially to vers 24. Of these three points I will treat in order according as the series of the Parable leads me But yet because I apprehend it will be not onely profitable in it self but also peculiarly subservient to the present design that before I apply my self to a direct prosecution of the traces of the Parable I give a strict and Philosophical account of the Nature of Sin and the several Stations of Sinners as which will give both light and weight especially to the first of the mentioned particulars and in good measure to all the rest This therefore I will endeavour in the next immediate Chapter CHAP. III. Of the Nature of Sin and of the divers States of Sinners THE CONTENTS § I. A definition of sin the three sorts of Laws mankind is under viz. Natural Divine and Humane All sin is a violation of some or other of them The mischief of mistake herein § II. A law that obliges must be known or knowable Several ways of promulging the Divine Laws The guilt of sin rises in proportion to the clearnesse of the promulgation of that law whereof it is a violation The mischiefs of mistake herein and the remedy § III. All sin is voluntary Cautions for the right understanding of that assertion the proofs of the truth of it and absurd consequences of the contrary § IV. A passage of S. James Chap. I. vers 13. c. explained and the nativity of sin thereby discovered § V. The usefulnesse of the foregoing definition and explication The distinction between presumptuous sins and sins of infirmity and their different effects § VI. Of reluctancy of Conscience and whether that extenuates or increases the guilt of sin § VII Of the several states and mansions of sinners upon the consideration of which return is made to the Parable § I. IF we take just measures of the nature of sin at least so far as it falls under our present consideration for it is not within the compass of my subject to treat of Original sin it is thus to be Defined namely Sin is a voluntary breach of a known Law Or to speak more fully and distinctly there are these three things concurrent to make man guilty or to denominate any action of his sinfull 1. That by some act or omission of his there be a going contrary to and violation of some Law in being 2. That the Law so violated be such as is or might have been known to the Offender 3. That the Action or Omission by which such Law is violated be consented to and the breach voluntary All these three things together in conjunction are the ingredients which make up the deadly poyson of sin And for defect of due consideration of the necessary concurrence of all of them to that unhappy production It is hard to say whether greater Errours have ensued in Doctrine or more Vices in practice whether more perplexities have infested mens Consciences or more uncharitableness hath imbittered their Spirits For if the first ingredient be left out Sin is thereby rendred either nothing at all or of so indefinite and uncertain a nature as that loose and profane men will laugh at it and on the contrary good and devout persons will never be free from suspicions of it If the second be omitted the consequence will be that severe and sad judgments will be passed upon the finall estate of the greatest part of mankind and therewith very unworthy reflections be made upon the Divine Majesty And if the third branch be omitted the number of sins will be vastly multiplied but the nature and guilt thereof so extenuated as that men will be tempted to be more afraid of God then of sinning against him But all this and a great deale more will better appear upon a breif explication of the particulars First then wherever there is sin there is a breach of some Law in being this though it be not the full and adequate notion yet is the first reason of sin And accordingly we may easily observe that in most if not in all Languages the very words that are made use of to express moral evil or sin do all import the breach of some Law or rule of action Especially the Hebrew Tongue which is most significant in this kind hath three words most usuall in the case which we find all together Psal 32. v. 1 2. and all leading us directly to this notion of sin Blessed is be whose Transgression is forgiven whose sin is covered blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not Iniquity The first word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render transgression properly signifying to pass set Bounds or transgress prefixed Limits The second 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we translate sin denoteth a missing of the aim or mark we were to have directed our selves towards And the last of the three 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 iniquity implies the making of a crooked and wandring path So that we see whatever kind condition or degree of sin it be that is spoken of it is still expressed by respect to some Law or Rule in deviation from which it consists The like may be observed in the Greek Tongue in the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. and generally in other Languages But we need not insist upon niceties when that which we are saying is the express assertion of two Apostles St. Paul and St. John the former telling us Rom. 4. 15. Where there is no Law there is no Transgression The other Ep. 1. chap. 3. vers 4. He that sinneth transgresseth also the Law for sin is a transgression of the Law Now for that Law which sin is a violation of it is threefold viz. Either first the Law of nature and reason that is those differences of good and evill which the mind of man is of it self able to collect by attentive consideration of the nature of God and our relation to him the state of the whole Creation and the mutuall aspects of the severall parts thereof upon each other and upon our selves of which we shall have occasion to speak more hereafter Or secondly the express and positive declarations of the Divine will concerning things to be done or avoided by us which is commonly called Revelation or Divine Law Or thirdly the
institutions commands and prohibitions of such men as it hath pleased God to invest with Authority under himself of obliging others which we call Humane Law To these some would adde Custome as a fourth rule of action because they observe there are many cases wherein all the former ceasing wise and good men are wont to govern themselves by laudable and prevailing customs but this so far as it is obliging may be reduced to Humane Law Others also would adde the Law of Charity or of avoiding scandall as a fifth but this is both provided for by the positive Law of God and also deducible from naturall principles Therefore the three aforesaid measures comprize all that which can fall under the notion of Law and consequently every such thing as is to be esteemed a sin must consist in a deviation from or going cross to either all or some one or other of them For it is evident of it self that every thing is free till something restrain and circumscribe it and it cannot be evill but good to make use of that liberty which derogates from no other which infringes no Authority being retrenched by none And it is as evident that we owe account of our selves and carriage only to God ultimately forasmuch as we derive our being and we have and are from him and him only he therefore who gave us our being and all our powers and faculties and their respective accommodations and who continually supports us in the exercise of them may justly prescribe to us and set us what boundaries shall seem fit to his infinite Wisedome Now there are but three ways wherein he hath imposed any obligation or restraint upon us viz. Either by such footsteps of his Will as the mind of man may trace in the order of the Creation those intimations of good and evill which are interwoven in the very nature and order of things and to be observed by naturall reason Or secondly by extraordinary interposition expresly dictating his mind and will to the sons of men Or lastly delegating Authority to those whom his Providence hath constituted in Superiority to prescribe to us in all such things as were not foreprized by the two former i. e. that in all cases where neither the Laws of nature nor the Divine Law were infringed there it was his will we should govern our selves by the Laws of men These I say are all the ways God hath thought fit and all that are imaginable of laying any obligation upon us Therefore wherever there is sin either some plain dictate of Reason is contradicted or some positive Law of God violated or the Sanction of human authority opposed and where neither of these is done there can be no sin upon the forecited reason of the Apostle where there is no law there is no transgression WHICH plain truth we have thus carefully deduced principally for the prevention or remedy of two mistakes very rife in this matter The former is of certain honest and well-meaning but timorous and superstitious persons who not content to approve themselves to the aforesaid measures nor thinking it sufficient for their security that neither the Law of Nature nor any expresse either divine or humane Law disallow their actions are afraid of their own shadows and suspect sin and danger they know not why nor whence their heart misgives them when there is nothing in the case but either that the thing they are about is contrary to the course of their education or forbidden by the imperious dictate of some person to whose usurped authority they have prostituted their judgments Now would such persons be induced to consider that lawfull and unlawfull are relative terms and respect some definite rule or other which must determine any action to be this or that that God is well pleased that his laws be observed and is not so severe and rigid as to oblige us negatively that is that we shall doe nothing but what he commands that there is a great field of liberty interjacent between expresse sin and expresse duty and in that we may expatiate without offence that all actions are good within that scope and though they admit of such different degrees as that some may be much better then others yet none are evil that touch not upon the bounds and limits of Law If I say these things were considered which are no more then the effect of what I said before then would those honest minds be undeceived and enfranchised who for want of such consideration are put to the unhappy choice either to be dispoiled of all liberty or deprived of all peace besides that by such jealousies they tempt both themselves and others to think hardly of God and consequently of that provoke all such men as are strangers to Religion to nauseate and abhorr it THE other mistake which we here seek to prevent is of those that quite contrary to the former are so far from thinking the three Rules of Action we laid down to be insufficient that they persuade themselves it is no great matter for Law or Rule The persuasion of a man 's own conscience an honest intention and a zeal of God are able to bear out and justifie an undertaking though against the expresse and literal direction of some Law in being This conceit strange as it is hath neverthelesse had its Patrons and Proselytes both amongst Jews and Christians and been the cause of mischief enough to both Now it is true that it is within the power of Conscience to make that which was before indifferent in the general to become good and laudable in particular or contrariwise by its dissent to render it evil and vicious because God having given it a judicature its consent is to be had in what we doe in which sense I take it that of the Apostle is to be understood Whatsoever is not of faith is sin and for that reason an erring conscience as I shall shew by and by is also some mitigation of a miscarriage in practice But it is far from that prerogative of being able to legitimate any action prohibited by any of the aforesaid rules for it is but a Judge not a Law and must be governed by the measures forelaid Or if we allow too that the light of conscience is one of those measures as we doe yet must it not bear down both the other that is it is onely a Law and justifies an action when neither divine nor humane Laws have restrained it and not else Wherefore upon the whole matter it is apparent that the three Rules aforesaid in conjunction make up the standard of good and evil every thing is a sin that goes contrary to any of them and nothing is so that doth not § II. 2. BUT Secondly to render any action of ours culpable it is not sufficient that some Law in being be broken unlesse that Law be also promulged i. e. such as is or may be known for otherwise in effect it is no Law
Allegorical way of the Old Testament p. 8 9. Of the Figures and Parables of our Saviour p. 10 11 12. Of the danger and mischief of Allegorical interpretations p. 13. And the caution of the Author in this particular p. 15. CHAP. II. The self-contradiction amongst the Adversaries of Christianity both Jews and Gentiles some accusing it as too difficult an institution others as a doctrine of looseness p. 17 18. A famous but feigned Story of Constantine M. to that purpose p. 19. The special occasion of the Jew's mistake of our Saviour's designs p. 20. Three ranks of the Jewish Religionists a mistake of theirs built upon that distinction p. 23. Their misunderstanding the design of God in the covenant made with them on Mount Sinai and consequently of the meaning of the Prophets p. 25. Vpon account of both which it is no wonder that they mistake our Saviour who therefore vindicates himself by this Parable p. 27. A literal Paraphrase of this Parable p. 28. Particularly who is meant by the Elder and who by the Younger Son p. 35. The division and parts of the Parable p. 43. CHAP. III. The three sorts of Laws mankind is under viz. Natural Divine and Humane and that all sin is a violation of some of these the mischief of mistake herein p. 45. Sin is a violation of a known Law and that God hath some way or other sufficiently promulged his Laws p. 51. The danger of mistake herein p. 54. All sin is voluntary Cautions in that point p. 56. A remarkable passage in S. James paraphrased p. 61. The difference between sins of infirmity and presumption p. 65. Instances of sins of infirmity p. 66. Instances of presumptuous sins p. 68. S. John 1 Ep. 3. Chap. 4. Vers opened p. 69. About reluctancy of Conscience and whether that abates of the guilt of sin p. 71. Of the several stations of Vertue and divers ranks of Sinners p. 74. CHAP. IV. The Sinner's Progress Pride is ordinarily the first beginning of a sinfull course As appears in the Apostasy of Angels the Fall of Man the Temptations of our Saviour and the Method of the Gospel p. 83. Neglect of God's Worship c. the second step towards a wicked life the dependence between Piety and Morality p. 92. Riot and Intemperance the third step towards Hell an account of the Talents God ordinarily vouchsafes men and how vice imbezils them p. 96. When men have abused their faculties and mis-spent their talents they become slaves to Sathan p. 106. The drudgery he puts them to p. 109. The desolate condition of an habitual sinner when the pleasures of sin fail him p. 116. CHAP. V. The import of the phrase when he came to himself That sin is a kind of madness p. 121. Proved by the description of madness and the usual symptoms of it p. 123. An objection against this assertion answered p. 129. The application and conclusion of the First Part. p. 130. PART II. Of Repentance CHAP. I. THE general importance of Repentance and why notwithstanding little notice is taken of it in the Law of Moses p. 135. Three parts of Repentance 1. Consideration What is meant thereby and the great necessity thereof p. 140. It is usually affliction which brings vicious men to consideration prosperity rendring them light and vain p. 149. The special considerations and thoughts of a Penitent p. 153. CHAP. II. Of Resolution the second step towards Repentance What is meant thereby and the force and efficacy thereof against the Devil Sense Custom Example and Reason it self p. 162. The properties of a penitent resolution p. 167. First It is serious and deliberate not rash and sudden Secondly It is peremptory p. 171. Thirdly It must be present not dilatory p. 173. Lastly It is uniform and universal p. 176. The principal motives that bring the Sinner when he considers to a resolution of Repentance 1. That it will be acceptable to God even yet p. 179. 2. Not impossible to reform p. 187. 3. That it is easy p. 191. 4. Absolutely necessary p. 194. CHAP. III. Of Confession and Contrition The nature and instances of hearty contrition p. 199. The efficacy and availableness thereof as doing right to the Divine Sovereignty to his Wisedom Justice and Goodness to his Omniscience to the holiness and pity of his Nature p. 205. It gives security against relapses into sin p. 208. CHAP. IV. Of Actual Reformation It consists in 1. A singular care of God's Worship in all the parts thereof p. 212. 2. Conscientious obedience to his commands p. 216. 3. Submission to his providence p. 221. CHAP. V. A recital of several opinions which debauch men's minds in this great affair of Repentance p. 226. Several arguments demonstrating the absurdity of all those opinions jointly and the necessity of such reformation as is before described p. 229. Exceptions removed p. 238. PART III. CHAP. I. Of Reconciliation THE passionate Story of Jacob and Joseph parallel to this of the Prodigal Son p. 242. The notice God takes of the beginnings of goodness and the use of that consideration p. 247. God's Spirit assists all beginnings of good p. 250. A memorable Story out of Eusebius and reflections thereupon p. 254. God fully and freely pardons all sin upon Repentance p. 257. 1. Great and many sins p. 259. 2. Relapsed sinners p. 261. The Novatian Doctrine 3. Without Reservation p. 263. Applications of the former Doctrine 1. The comfortableness of a state of pardon p. 265. 2. The great obligation to love God p. 267. 3. That we imitate the Divine Goodness in our dealing with our Brethren p. 268. 4. It should lead us to repentance p. 269. CHAP. II. Of Sanctification What is meant by the Best Robe p. 273. In what sense Sanctification goes before Justification and in what sense it follows after it p. 275. Three remarkable differences in the measures of Sanctification in a beginner and in a grown Christian p. 277. By what means those fuller measures of Sanctification are attained p. 284. CHAP. III. Of the gift of the Holy Ghost and that by the Ring this is intimated p. 290. The difference between the motions of God's Spirit and the gift or residence of it p. 291. The great advantages of the residence of the Holy Spirit in several respects p. 293. A passage of the Revel 2. 17. opened p. 297. Whence it comes to pass that some good men have no experience of the residence of the Holy Spirit p. 300. How to distinguish the motions of God's Spirit from our own fancies or the illusions of Sathan p. 303. CHAP. IV. The great trust God reposes in those he pardons and their obligations to faithfullness and activity in his service p. 306. Several ways wherein a pious man may be serviceable to the Souls of men without invading the Ministerial Office p. 312. The peculiar fitness of those that have been converted from an evil course for this purpose in many respects p. 314. A brief description of
in the Gospel 2. It is to be observed in consequence of the former distinction that whereas for the third sort of men of whom they had no great esteem it was accounted no wonder that they being filii terrae men of a meer secular character did hold correspondence and had intercourse with Publicans and Sinners that is such as were proscribed the Cense of Religion Nevertheless for any person of the two first ranks so to have done namely to be found maintaining any kind of society or friendly conversation with such infamous persons was held not only dishonourable and unbecoming but flatly unlawfull For according to a tradition yet extant in their writings it is reckoned as one of the six scandals that those higher Orders of Religionists are charged by all means to avoid namely to dine eat or drink with such Now this seems to be the first occasion of quarrel against our Saviour that he pretending to be some extraordinary person at least a student of the law did not use such branded persons with the same supercile and disdain that their great men were wont to do but familiarly discoursed eat and drank with them For so we read Matth. 9. 10 11. And it came to pass as Jesus sate at meat many Publicans and Sinners came and sate down with him and his disciples and when the Pharisees saw it they said unto his disciples Why eateth your Master with Publicans and Sinners c. Let it be farther noted in the third place That the covenant which God made with this people on Mount Sinai admitted of propitiation by sacrifice and thereby gave hopes of pardon onely to some smaller offences but seemed to exclude all great and notorious transgressors shutting them up under wrath and appointing them to be cut off from amongst their people And the minds of the Jews not being elevated above this literal dispensation nor being able to distinguish betwixt this political transaction and the eternal standard of justice and mercy in the divine mind they were induced to believe that God would exercise mercy upon no other terms then what he therein proclaimed and that he was inexorable and implacable in all other cases beyond the tenour of that indulgence whence it came to pass that they themselves in proportion as they thought to the divine proceedings abandoned all the aforesaid kinds of notorious sinners as castaways conceiving neither hopes of their pardon nor usefulness of indeavouring to bring them to repentance And although the excellent discourses of the Prophets might have instructed them with better and more worthy notions of God yet they superstitiously contracting those Evangelical expressions in the Prophets to the narrow sense of the Law rather then improving the text of the Law by the divine Commentaries of the Prophets continued still under the same mean and narrow apprehensions of divine mercy and consequently thereof must needs pronounce very sad and dismal dooms upon all great sinners But forasmuch as they could not but remember the very great and foul miscarriages of some otherwise very holy men in the Old Testament and particularly of David in his Adultery with Bathshebah and the Murther of Vriah for neither of which sins any sacrifice or propitiation was appointed in the Law but the offender in such cases was to be cut off without mercy therefore that they might not be constrained in consequence of the aforesaid persuasion to exclude such men from all hopes of pardon too they had artifices of extenuating such mens sins as no doubt they had of their own and rather then forgoe their hide-bound notion of God chose against all sense to make those black crimes meer peccadillo's lest by the example of such great men as David c. other sinners should be incouraged to hope for mercy beyond the tenour of their Law Now our Saviour preaching repentance and giving hopes of pardon to the greatest of sinners upon condition of their present hearty and thorough reformation several poor souls who had been reprobated and damned by these severe Interpreters of the Law were marvellously transported at so comfortable a doctrine and with great affection and frequency resort to it Hereupon these demure but dogged Leguleians are offended and insinuate a suspicion of our Saviour that he was a friend and favourer of lewd and vicious persons This I take it is the true state of the case and the rise of the excellent discourses in this Chapter For in answer to their unjust imputation our Saviour who could if he had pleased have shewed the sandy foundation of all their aforesaid Hypothesis by discovering the designs of the divine wisedom in that manner of transaction with that people in that covenant or by large deductions from the Prophets have demonstrated the uncircumscribedness of the divine goodness or with admirable wisedom silenced them by a Philosophick discourse of the divine Philanthropy He I say that could have vindicated his own doctrine and practice and both baffled their arrogance and shamed their ignorance any of these or other ways waves all this and takes a more plain and popular argument confounding them by an appeal to the common sense of mankind much after the manner that God silences the petulant disgusts of the Prophet Jonah Jonah was angry with God for being more exorable towards the Ninevites then he expected and would needs have had a vast and populous City destroyed meerly to make good his own prediction But God convinces him of his unreasonableness by a lively Emblem There was a Gourd suddenly sprung up which refreshed the Prophet with its verdure and covered him with its shadow God who had caused the Gourd to grow quickly smites it hereupon Jonah is angry again and expostulates the matter with his Maker Thou hadst pity on a contemptible Gourd for which thou didst not labour and which came up in a night and perished in a night And should not I spare Nineveh that great City upon their repentance wherein are more then one hundred and twenty thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left c. In like manner our Saviour here silences the murmurings of these hard-hearted Jews by three Parables The first concerning a Lost Sheep vers 4. The second concerning a Lost Groat vers 8. And the third of a Lost Son vers 11. In all which he appeals to common experience and the sense of humanity for evidence of the fitness of his proceedings and the absurdity of their complaints shewing that it is the common course of men to express most solicitude for that which is lost and most joy upon the recovery of that which was given up as desperate And forasmuch as the souls of men must needs be more valuable with a wise God and a gracious Creatour then those other things can be with men he leaves it to them to infer how reasonable it is to think that the divine goodness is both highly pleased with the recovery of
And that government would justly be accounted arbitrary and tyrannical and the Sovereign rather thought to lie at catch for the penalty then to desire just obedience who shall impute that for a fault which he had not given sufficient caution against by a plain declaration of his will and pleasure For non esse non apparere aequiparantur in Jure that which cannot appear is in Laws all one as if it were not at all because an unknown Law can have no influence upon those it should concern neither directing them what to do nor forewarning what to avoid neither giving notice of their duty nor their danger and consequently works neither upon their reason nor their passion and therefore not at all IT is true that all Laws have not the same way and manner of publication for even amongst men several Nations have their several and peculiar forms of doing it The old Romans by Tables hung up in the Market and places of publick congresse some have done the same thing by the voice of a publick Herald or by the sound of Trumpet c. but however they differed in the circumstance they all agreed in the thing that Laws were not perfect and obliging till they were promulged And so it is with the Laws of God Almighty he never expects that men should govern themselves by the secret decrees of Heaven nor leaves them to guesse at the transactions in his Cabinet-Counsel but first publishes his Law and then requires conformity to it though that in divers manners as it seemed best to his divine wisedom Sometimes he exprest himself by an audible voice from Heaven wherein the Angels were employed as his Ministers namely when he gave his Laws upon Mount Sinai other times by inspiration of Prophets and Holy Men and making them the Interpreters of his mind to the world When to give the more full assurance that it was he that sent and instructed them he was wont also to send along with them some miraculous power or other as his Credential Letters under his privy Signet But most gloriously of all did he proclaim his mind when he sent his Son into the world whose every circumstance from the miracles of his Birth to the glories of his Resurrection and Ascension sufficiently proclaimed him the Messias the Messenger of the Covenant AND for the Laws of Nature these though by some perverse men they have been denied to have the nature of Laws obligatory because they have not had the like solemnity of publication as others have had yet forasmuch as these have either been written upon the fleshly tables of men's hearts where all that will look inward may read them or rather as I have intimated already are ingraven and inserted into the very nature of things and texture of the universe where whosoever hath not unmanned himself and debauched his reason may be able to discover them And besides they have manifestly the sanction of rewards and punishments in the constant experience of good and evil attending the observation and contempt of them respectively upon which accounts they must needs seem to all honest and unprejudiced minds sufficiently promulged SO that constantly some way or other according as it seemed best to him God hath always been pleased to make his mind sufficiently and certainly known to all those upon whom he intended it should have the force and obligation of a Law and he never required obedience otherwise then in proportion to such manifestation Accordingly we observe that when he had given Laws to the people of the Jews and proclaimed them very gloriously and solemnly as aforesaid yet in regard such proclamation could not certainly reach to all other Nations for that as well as for other reasons he did not exact of any other people conformity to those institutions nor judged them thereby So the Apostle assures us Rom. 2. 12. Such as have sinned without the Law shall perish without the Law and as many as have sinned under the Law shall be judged by the Law AND it is further very remarkable that even the Gospell it self which was what the Religion of the Jews was not namely an Institution fitted for all Countries Nations and Ages and which therefore our Lord Christ took care by his Apostles as his Heralds to proclaim all the world over This Gospell I say till it was fully published and untill men had time given them to consider well of it and to overcome their prejudices against it made a favourable interpretation of men's unbelief This I take to be the import of those words of our Saviour Joh. 9. 39. 41. For judgment am I come into the world that they that see not might see and that they that see might be made blind If ye were blind ye should have no sin but now ye say we see therefore your sin remaineth And to the same purpose Joh. 15. 22. If I had not come and spoken amongst them they had not had sin but now they have no cloak for their sin And of the truth of this S. Paul himself was a great instance for so he tells us 1 Tim. 1. 13. I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief q. d. I lay under mighty prejudices by reason of my education in the stiff way of a Pharisee and it required a great sincerity to be willing to listen to new proposals a huge sagacity to be able to see through those mists that were cast before my eyes and a most generous resolution to break through these and all other difficulties in consideration whereof God was pleased to make abatements of the guilt of my unbelief in proportion to the temptations I had thereto It is indeed both a well known and as well received a Maxime Ignorantia Juris non excusat that it is no excuse of a fault to say non putâram I did not know the Law because when a Law is once promulged every man is bound to take notice of it and it can be imputed to nothing else but supine and affected ignorance if he shall then continue ignorant Notwithstanding upon the self same supposition it seems to be granted that where the case is otherwise that is where the Law not being sufficiently published cannot be known by an honest diligence there ignorance is no fault because indeed as I said there the Law is no Law THOSE who consider not this point must needs be tempted to passe very dismal and damnatory sentences against the greatest part of mankind and consequently cannot avoid very hard thoughts of God for the prevention of both which great evils as also to confirm what hath been now said there is nothing more usefull then to study well the Parable of our Saviour concerning the Talents Matt. 25. 14. by the due consideration whereof we shall amongst other instructions be led into the apprehension that God proceeds not with men Arithmetically but Geometrically and that the vertue or vice which God rewards or punishes
consists not in puncto but is estimated according to men's diligence or neglect of improving those means and advantages which have been afforded them For as there is the same proportion between 1. and 2. as between 5. and 10. so he that having but half suppose of the advantages which another man enjoyed proves to be as good as that other is really much better Whereas he that having double the advantages is not better then he whom he this way so much excells is not good at all nor will be acceptable to God when he shall be weighed in the balance of the Sanctuary Because whosoever had been furnished with true internal probity of mind and was of an obedient temper and had a sincere love of godnesse would most certainly have advanced in the measures of vertue proportionably to the opportunities he had of so doing i. e. in the words of our Saviour He that was faithfull in little would have been so in much And on the contrary he that under great advantages hath not been proportionable in the improvements of his temper and life it may truely be said of such a man God hath been very good to him but he for his part is not good at all Which consideration will be of use both to make us more wary in pronouncing concerning the final estate of other men and also enable us to passe a better judgment of our own actions and state forasmuch as it hereby appears that it is not the bare conformity or inconformity of our actions to a Law or Rule from whence their value or their guilt arises but respect is had to the knowledge or knowablenesse of that Rule And so we have the second ingredient of sin § III. 3. LASTLY to render sin compleat and perfectly criminal it is neither enough that for the matter of it it be against some Law nor that such Law be known but the act or omission must be voluntary that is not what a man was overborn into by some fatal necessity or compelled to by the force of some violent impression not what he could neither help nor hinder but what was so far subject to his own free choice that he willingly did what he did and could have done otherwise or omitted doing if he had been so pleased For whatsoever is not of this nature is not properly an humane act and therefore cannot involve him in the guilt of sin no more then the effects and productions of natural causes can be esteemed vicious And though men have understanding which those other causes are destitute of yet that being onely the Criterion or Test of truth and falshood not of moral good and evil therefore vertue and vice are not imputable to the understanding but to the will which being the Helm of the soul determines all its motions and accordingly is accountable for them For the more clear understanding of which and of whatsoever I may have occasion to say hereafter touching this matter I think it usefull to precaution these three things 1. THAT it is not to be doubted but that notwithstanding the liberty which the will of man hath to chuse evil yet it is not so uncontrollable in its elections but that it is subject to the power of God's grace to be checked and controlled by him at his pleasure for the divine wisedom may well be supposed to have a thousand ways of diverting man from his course without offering any direct violence to his faculties some of which might easily be instanced if it were needfull nay there is no reason to question but divine omnipotence may if it so please irresistibly incline move and determine it to that which is good of which some instances also may be assigned though these last must be expected to be very rare partly because that ordinarily to invert the nature of things and put his creation out of course makes not so much for his wisedom as it may seem to doe for the demonstration of his power and partly also because thus taking away the natural and evident reason of rewards and punishments would obscure that justice which he designs to glorifie But this is all that is asserted at present that whatsoever God may please to doe either for the hindring of evil or the effecting of good he doth not necessarily determine or over-rule the wills of men to that which is evil but therein they are left to themselves 2. AS some excellently good men may arrive at such a perfection such a new nature and such habits of goodnesse as that it shall be morally impossible they should chuse evil of which I shall treat more at large hereafter so on the other side it is neither impossible nor unusual for evil men to forfeit the freedom of their wills so far as to bring not onely a biass upon their spirits but a kind of fatal propension to evil and render it in a manner necessary that they sin Namely by long custome and inveterate habits of sin they lose the aequilibrium and balance of their souls and thenceforth wholly incline to evil But forasmuch as this wherever it comes to passe is onely the effect of their own choice it contradicts not what we are asserting for whereas the habits were voluntarily contracted the effects are interpretably so too And therefore as we noted before under the former Head that the reason why ignorance of the Law did not excuse a default was because the Law being once sufficiently promulged such ignorance must needs be supine and affected that is voluntary for the same reason such men as we now speak of cannot excuse their miscarriages by laying the blame upon their present necessity or impotency because having first crippled themselves voluntarily their actual halting afterwards is so too in as much as it was free in its causes though not in the special instances 3. BUT that which is principally to be considered is that there is a vast difference betwixt the power or capacity of doing good or of avoiding evil or willing so to doe on the one side and of doing or willing that which is evil on the other For to the former of these there is a necessity of the concurrence of divine grace and assistance which no man can deny without falling in with the Pelagians and therefore when a man is said to have it in his power to doe good that which is true is no more but this that such grace and assistance which is necessary is always ready and at hand which jointly concludes for God's goodness and man's liberty making the actions of man punishable when he doth evil because grace was ready to have assissed him otherwise if he had not refused it and rewardable when he doth well because when he might have refused God's help he did not and in short gives God the glory of what-ever is good because it could not be done without him and leaves no man without incouragement of his diligence and industry because God will
what was good in its kind and happy according to its proportion so especially in this part of his workmanship he prepared and apportioned objects suitable to the aforesaid different capacities and allowed the use and exercise of both onely with this remarkable difference that the objects and entertainments of sense were little and narrow but present at hand those of the intellectual powers great but out of view and at distance by which means it became somewhat difficult but not impossible for those higher faculties to maintain that authority over the inferiour which he designed them for and expected from them 3. THEN further to afford those higher powers opportunity to shew themselves he retrenches in some measure the liberty of the sensitive faculties forbidding some kinds of enjoyments of their proper objects in which case those strong but unjudging faculties being restrained in those things which were natural to them and wherein they found a quick relish and delight have as it cannot be expected but they should a pronenesse and inclination to such things notwithstanding the divine prohibition This is that which the Apostle calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lust and which I think the Schoolmen mean by motus primo-primi and although sin takes its rise hence yet hitherto there is no sin for did the higher faculties now quit themselves as they might and ought and in consideration of the reverence due to the divine Majesty and those boundaries he hath set give check to these inclinations all were well BUT now begins the mischief For whilest those objects of sense continually present themselves to and court their proper powers and reason not stepping in to disturb and forbid the parly that pronenesse or connaturalnesse of which we spake quickly starts up into the desire of such things as God hath forbidden in which consists the first conception of sin and hitherto the higher faculties are guilty as accessories only because they did not interpose to hinder these beginnings But then in the next place phansie and imagination being employed about the object so desired do in that manner paint and set it out or by a kind of Chymistry so wonderfully sublime and heighten it that the value is mightily raised the desire inflamed and in despight of all danger must not be denied Thus the Embryo is cherished in the womb of the soul and gathers strength And now it was high time for the higher powers to correct their first error to rally their forces to call in all the aids of Religion and set in vigorously and stop the further progresse of the mischief But reason either laid asleep by the fumes of sense forgets the danger and le ts fall its scepter or those higher powers either prevented in their preparations or corrupted by the charms of pleasure connive at the disorder and making but a faint and superficial resistance the second errour becomes worse then the first and sin goes on and grows ripe for the birth till at last passion still swelling and reason yielding consents as it were to its own deposition and lust getting the consent of the will hath the reins put into its hands and so all the members of the body are subject to its command and then is sin brought forth perfect and consummate § 5. THUS I have as briefly and plainly as I could opened the nature of sin by the tenour of which discourse we may gain this double advantage first to understand what it is which fills sin with that malignity as to make it the just hate of God and man and secondly to be able to distinguish the several degrees of guilt or principal aggravations of sin For touching the former of these we may easily perceive by what has been said that guilt is not a meer arbitrary stamp that God sets upon actions nor punishment an effect of harshnesse or severity forasmuch as all that which God puts under that character and punishes as such is in the first place a contradiction to the divine will and to that law and order of things he hath constituted in the world and secondly is a contempt also of the divine wisedom in that the sinner either turns his back upon the proclaimed Laws of Heaven by affected ignorance or takes himself to be lawless and confronts God Almighty and lastly there is wilfullness and contumacy in it too for whereas it pleased God out of special favour to endow men with freedom to the intent they might serve him both more honourably and more chearfully they in sinning perversely turn this priviledge against their Maker AND for the second of these though sin admits of many heads of abatement or aggravation as namely either from the matter of it or the Law it violates whether natural divine or humane or from the clearness or dimness of the light under which men sin the greatness or littleness of the temptation which they have to offend and several other considerations of that kind which it is not uneasie to specifie yet the most general and the most usefull distinction is taken from that which I reckoned as the third and last ingredient of sin namely from the consent of the will in the commission of it for so if we observe we shall find that both in the esteem of Scripture and Conscience the degrees of guilt are principally reckoned in proportion to the imperfectness or fullness of its consent and concurrence to any vicious action Insomuch that herein that great distinction of sin into infirmity and presumption hath its foundation namely when there is but an imperfect compliance of the will the miscarriage is of the former kind but when it fully yields and consents it is a sin with a high hand Which being a matter wherein the peace of men's Consciences here and their eternal welfare hereafter is concerned I shall not suspect it will be unacceptable to the Reader that I speak a little more fully to it AND first to reckon up the most common instances of sins of infirmity I take them to be properly such as these following viz. The first beginnings of sin not pursued when a man unadvisedly enters the confines of evil but recovers and withdraws himself as soon as he considers the consequents and apprehends the mischief and danger Or when by the nearness of the allurements of sense and the quick motion of bodily passions he begins to take fire or when the extraordinariness of the temptation surprized him or the mighty prevalence of example overbore him beyond his course and intention before he well understood where he was and he had no time to recollect himself and to call in the aids of Reason and Religion Perhaps a mighty fear may hurry a man to some degree of indecency or an huge advantage may sway him a little aside till he can so far recover himself as maturely to consider and then to set himself upright he bends himself quite the other way Now in all these cases where there was no room
for deliberation there could be no perfect judgment and consequently but an imperfect consent AGAIN whilest a man is bending himself with all his might against some one extreme which he knows to be evil and therefore carefully declines he may perhaps in detestation of that incline too much to the other or whilest a man endeavours diligently to carry on both the affairs of this life and the concerns of Religion too it may happen that the solicitude and cares of the former may sometimes unseasonably crowd in and disturb him in the latter Nay once more through the infirmity of memory compared with the multiplicity of affairs which a wise and good man's care extends to it may not infrequently fall out that such a person for the present forgets or omits some duty of Religion Now it cannot be said that any of these cases are perfectly involuntary because it was not impossible but that extraordinary diligence and watchfullness might have provided against them nevertheless they are not deliberate sins nor was there any full consent of the will to them as is evident both by what we have said already and also by this that such persons we speak of very quickly feel remorse for them their hearts smite them upon the first reflexion upon what hath past and they presently recover themselves and double their watch and guard where they have thus found themselves overtaken These therefore and all other of the nature of these are properly called sins of infirmity BUT now on the other side when the matter of fact is notorious and palpable that it can admit of no dispute whether it be evil or no when a man is not surprized but makes his election doth not insensibly slip awry whilest he was in his right way but takes a wrong course is not overborn by an huge fear but is allured by the pleasures of sense when he hath time to consider and yet resolves upon that which is forbidden him here is little or nothing to extenuate the fact or mitigate his guilt it is a voluntary and therefore a presumptuous sin Such a distinction as this David seems to make Psal 19. 12 13. when he prays that he may understand his errours to the intent that with holy Joh where he had done iniquity he might doe so no more but earnestly begs that he may be kept from presumptuous sins i. e. from such voluntary and wilfull miscarriages as we have but now spoken of so saith he shall I be innocent and free from the great transgression For though sins of infirmity in the most proper sense are not without guilt at least if God should proceed in rigour with men yet in consideration of the goodness of God together with the evident pitiableness of their own circumstances they leave no horrour upon the mind no stain or ill mark upon the person much less a scar or a maim but the other besides their great guilt either terribly afflict or lay waste and stupify the Conscience they harden the heart break the powers of the soul and quench the Spirit of God as we shall have occasion to speak more at large hereafter AT present I think it may be very pertinent to observe that whereas S. John Ep. 1. Chap. 3. vers 4. seems to give a brief and compendious description of sin in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render Sin is a transgression of the Law it is not altogether improbable but that the Apostle intended to express something more then is commonly understood by those words in English for besides that it seems a flat saying he that sinneth transgresseth the Law for sin is a transgression of the Law it is noted moreover by Learned men that the Apostle calls not sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which had been the most proper word to denote a meer breach or transgression of the Law but uses the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies a great deal more namely lawlesness and dissoluteness the living without or casting off the yoke of the Law for so we find it elsewhere used in Scripture particularly 1 Tim. 1. 9. where we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lawless and disobedient or ungovernable joyned together And thus the phrase of the Apostle before us will import not so much the meer matter of sin viz. the violation of a Law but the aggravation of it as a presumptuous sin namely the wilfullness and stubbornness of the sinner And if this gloss may be allowed we shall with much ease be able to understand a following passage in this Apostle which hath not a little exercised the heads of Divines nor less perplexed the Consciences of many serious persons Viz. vers 9. of this Chapter he writes thus he that is born of God doth not commit sin for his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God Now if we take sin strictly and rigorously here for every thing that is contrary to the perfection of the Divine Law then it will be absolutely necessary that by the phrase he that is born of God we can understand none but our Saviour himself which is altogether besides the business forasmuch as he only was without sin in that sense but if we take the phrase in the latitude before intimated that is for voluntary wilfull and deliberate sins then the sense is both easie and comfortable namely that the man who is truely a Christian having not only the profession but the new nature temper and spirit of the Gospel though being a man and so incompassed with temptations and difficulties as every one is in this world he cannot avoid all surreptions yet the powerfull principles of Christianity setled in his heart will not fail to preserve him at least ordinarily from rebellion and wilfull disobedience AND this way of interpreting these and the like passages of the New Testament is strongly countenanced by what we find Luk. 1. 6. where it is said of Zachary and Elizabeth that they were both of them righteous before God walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless That is they were sincerely good and vertuous persons their hearts were principled with the fear and love of God and though they were not without the errours and failings incident to humanity yet they strictly made Conscience of their duty and did not deliberately depart from the way of God's commandments And that passage concerning David 1 King 15. 5. seems sufficient to put the matter out of doubt where it is said David did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord and turned not aside from any thing he commanded him all the days of his life save only in the matter of Vriah the Hittite Notwithstanding the Scripture reckons up several failings of David his passion for Absalom his numbring the People his approaching too near the Lord 's Annointed when he cut off the skirt of Saul's Garment for which his heart smote him his despondency
presence of a grave and vertuous man carries that awe as that the sinner is rendered impotent to his purposes as if he were under a charm the truth of which we see confirmed by frequent experience how much more must needs the thoughts of an omni-present Majesty an all-seeing eye a holy and righteous Judge cool the heats abate the courage and stop the carreer of a sinner To which purpose it is the observation of several Learned men upon that passage of the Psalmist Psal 14. 1. The fool hath said in his heart there is no God They conceive That it might as well and as consistently with the Original be rendered The fool hath said to his heart c. i. e. Wicked men to the intent that they might go on the more comfortably and uncontrolledly in their sins would fain persuade themselves there is no God BUT to speak a little more closely and particularly to this matter forasmuch as I noted even now from S. Jerome that God being an Infinite Majesty we can neither approach him nor depart from him strictly and locally there are therefore these three ways by which according to the language of the Holy Scripture we can come near to God viz. either 1. by acts of immediate worship as prayer and praises and the like or 2. by living under a quick sense of his providence or 3. by yielding obedience to his commands which three things in conjunction make up the whole nature of true Piety and Religion And in respect to these the Holy men of old such as Enoch Noah Abraham c. are said to have walked with God That is they framed themselves to obedience to all his commands they composed themselves to a submission unto and compliance with his providential dispensations and to the intent that they might be assisted and animated in both those they constantly addressed themselves to him by acts of worship for his influence and blessing And again on the other side those evil men who are said to depart from God were such as either cast off the yoke of his obedience or lived without a sense of his superintendence or laid aside the care of his worship And which is further observable these three are hardly to be found separate from one another because of the reciprocal influence they have upon each other FOR as in the former Triad or instances of piety whosoever lives under a sense of a providence will endeavour to propitiate the Divine Majesty to himself by all worshipfull dutifull observance and he that makes Conscience of that cannot ordinarily be so absurd as to hope for the favour of a Wise and Holy Majesty by the meer importunity of his devotions without Conscience of obeying his commands with respect to which it was well said by a pious man in way of advice Leave not off praying to God for either praying will make thee leave sinning or continuing to sin will make thee desist praying Again he that worships and obeys a God most certainly lives under a sense of him for otherwise he could give no account to himself why he should put himself to the trouble of worship and the care of obedience AND then for the other Triad or the three instances of impiety he that lives wickedly will in time lose all sense of a providence and consequently all Conscience of the duties of worship and on the other side he that extinguishes either the belief of a providence or in a fair way to it casts off all care of religious worship will not fail to run riot in his life when he hath rid himself of those awfull principles that did curb and restrain him of the truth of all which we have a memorable example Gen. 4. Cain had betrayed a great remisseness in Religion by the carelesness of his Sacrifice whereas Abel who believed firmly in God thinking nothing too good for his service brought of the fattest and best of his flock to God Cain thought any thing would serve turn and accordingly carried away the tokens of God's displeasure and disdain but vers 8. he invites his Brother Abel into the field where as the Samaritan version intimates some discourse passed between them and the Jerusalem Targum tells us particularly that Cain stiffly denied a providence which Abel as strenuously asserted and this doctrine of Cain was very agreeable to his negligent worship before and his exsecrable practice after for from this denial of a providence he presently proceeds to the murder of his Brother and not long after that vers 16. we read Cain went out from the presence of the Lord he now agreeably to those principles and consequently of such villanous practices cast off renounced and defied Religion And the text further adds he went and sojourned in the Land of Nod which who so listed to interpret allegorically would very agreeably to the series of my present discourse say meant that he vagrant-like wandered on in a course of dissoluteness having now lost all card and compass to direct him BUT what need we farther evidence in so plain a case to which our own experience and the observation of all the world gives testimony for what is it that encourages any man in a generous undertaking where the exercise of vertue is attended with hazzard and difficulty with labour and trouble with patience and self-denyal but the belief of a providence what bears him up that the privacy of the fact abates not his edge nor the tediousness of accomplishment wearies out his endeavours nor the opposition quails his spirit but only this that he sees him that is invisible and having God before him thinks himself upon the most ample Theatre and is sure of success and reward And what is there that keeps alive this sense of God and Providence that neither Atheistical suggestions debauch his Principles nor multitude of ill examples cool his heat and corrupt his resolution but his approaches to God by exercises of devotion whereby he refreshes the worthy notions of his mind and hath them as it were new engraven and made more legible upon the tables of his heart He goes by the duties of Religion like Moses into the Mount of God and returns with the Tables of God's Law written a fresh by the finger of God Such a man is ashamed of sin and disdains every ungenerous action coming newly from the presence of God the approaches of such a glory diffuse some rays upon him and his face shines as the same Moses's did upon the like occasion In short he cannot without great violence to himself condescend to entertain the Devil into his bosome which is yet warm with that divine Guest the Holy Ghost Contrariwise take a man that lives without a sense of God and he hath no care of nor value for himself he hath not a mind large enough for any generous design he is poor spirited hurried by every fear baffled by every danger surprized and carried away by every temptation The vigorous
himself on this wise What-ever my case is now sure I was made in the image of God placed under the eye of his Providence as it were of his Family and Table Heaven and Earth ministred to me I was Lord of the lower and Favourite of the upper World as if the one was made on purpose to exercise and divert me and the other to receive and reward me I have a nature capable of immortality and had eternal life designed for me as the inheritance of a Son and my task of obedience was as easie and honourable as my hopes were glorious For I had no hard burthen laid upon me nothing required of me but what was proportionable to my powers and agreeable to the reason of my mind no restraint was laid upon my passions but such as was evidently both necessary for the World and good for my self that it could not be drawn into an argument of harshness and severity in God nor make apology for my transgression All my faculties were whole and intire I was neither tempted by necessity nor oppressed by any fate I was therefore happy enough and why am I not so still It is true that humane nature hath miscarried since it came out of the hands of God and I carry the Skar of that common Wound yet is the dammage of the first Adam so repaired by the second that mankind is left inexcusable in all its actual transgressions but especially in a dissolute and impenitent course of rebellion Besides I see others whose circumstances were in all points the same with mine and their difficulties and temptations no less to live holily and comfortably having either escaped the too common pollutions of the world by an early compliance with the grace of God or at least quickly recovered themselves by repentance I find therefore that I might have lived in the light of God's countenance in serenity of mind quiet of conscience sense of my own integrity and comfortable hopes of unspeakable glory in contemplation of which I might have defied death and lived in Heaven upon Earth but I have been meerly fooled by my own incogitancy and undone by my own choice For proceeds he 2. I have forfeited all this by sinning against God and been so sottish as to prefer the satisfaction of my own humour before all the aforesaid felicities I have been ingratefull towards my great benefactour broken the law of my Creation confronted the wisedom of the most High been insolent towards a mighty Majesty violated just and righteous commandments sinned against light knowledge and conscience added presumption to folly wilfullness to weakness despised counsels exhortations promises assistances my sins are many in number horrible in their aggravations deadly in their continuance and my perseverance in them By this means I have not onely wrought disorder in the world but disordered my own Soul spoiled my own powers suffered passion to get head of my reason clouded my understanding and so by former sins rendered it in a manner necessary that I sin still For when I would doe good evil is present with me I find a law in my members rebelling against the law of my mind and carrying me into captivity to the law of sin O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death I have driven away the good Spirit of God and put my self under the power of Satan become his slave and drudge I know nothing now of the comforts of innocence of the joy of a good Conscience mine is a continual torture to me I have lost the light of God's countenance and the very thoughts of him are dreadfull to me by all which together life is a burden and yet the thoughts of death are intolerable Such reflections and considerations as these break the very heart of a sinner and resolve him into sighs and tears 3. BUT this is not the worst of the case for in the third place he considers what is like to be the issue of this This miserable life saith the sinner cannot last always death will arrest me shortly and present me before a just Tribunal the grave will e're ong cover me but not be able to conceal me for I must come to Judgment Methinks I hear already the sound of the last Trump Let the dead arise let them come to judgment I see the Angels as Apparitors gathering all the world together and presenting them before that dreadfull Tribunal How shall I be able with my guilty Conscience to appear upon that huge Theatre before God Angels and Men Methinks I see the Devil standing at my right hand to aggravate those faults which he prompted me to the commission of I behold the Books opened and all the debaucheries extravagancies and follies of my whole life laid open Christ the Judge of all the World coming in flaming fire to take vengeance upon them that have not known him nor obeyed his Gospel How shall I endure his presence how shall I escape his eye I cannot elude his judgment nor evade his sentence come then ye Rocks and fall upon me and ye Mountains cover me from the face of the Lamb and from him that sitteth upon the Throne But the Rocks rend in sunder the Sea and the Earth disclose their dead the Earth dissolves the Heavens vanish as a Scroll and I hear the dreadfull Sentence Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels Methinks I hear Christ Jesus thus upbraiding me You have listened to the Devil and not to me I would have saved you but you would not be ruled by me you have chosen the way of death now therefore you shall be filled with your own ways I forewarned you what would be the issue of your courses but you would have your full swing of pleasure for the present whatever came of it hereafter you laughed at judgment and it is come in earnest you have had your time of jollity and sensual transports and now your portion is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth O therefore saith the sinner that I had never been born cursed be the day that brought me forth and the Sun that shone upon me would the womb had been my grave and I had never seen the light Thus my guilty Conscience anticipates its own punishment and I am tormented before my time 4. BUT is there no hope left must I lie down thus in sorrow and despair These things I may justly expect but they are not yet incumbent upon me I am yet alive and they say there is hopes in the land of the living the door is not yet shut against me Hell hath not yet closed her mouth upon me I have heard God is a mercifull God and thereupon I presumed hitherto and abused his goodness but sure his mercies are above the measure of a man if they be infinite like himself he hath more goodness then I have ingratitude Possibly there may be some hope left in the bottom of this
then whatever the merits of the cause be the inferiour powers without dispute apply themselves to the execution For to use another allusion Reason is as the Card which directs the course and shews what is fittest to be done but the Will is as the Helm and Rudder that turns about the whole Fabrick This is that which is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. not a lawlesness or authority to do what we will nor yet an ability to effect whatever we please but a capacity within our selves of determining our selves and making our own choice NOW that we have indeed such a capacity is matter of daily experience for we cannot but have observed that oftentimes when Reason and Religion have recommended such things to us and convinced us of the importance of them yet we have followed our passions notwithstanding and done quite contrary to the clearest dictates of our mind in the words of the Apostle Rom. 7. 23. We have found a law in our members rebelling against the law of our mind and leading us captive to the law of sin And contrariwise sometimes we have checked and subdued the importunities of our passions and cast the Scale on the side of Conscience and Religion and both these out of the freedom of our own Souls It is true that very ordinarily in the former of these cases the Devil may promote the business by his temptations and in the latter it is certain as we heretofore have given caution that there is the concurrence of the Divine Grace and influence of the Holy Spirit but both in the one and the other man acts freely nevertheless suffering no violence nor compulsion For though there can be no doubt but that God who made man and can dissolve him when he pleases by the exercise of his Omnipotence may controul the elections of men or overrule them to whatsoever he will yet it is not reasonable to think he will or doth ordinarily doe so Determine them to evil he cannot upon the account either of his own purity justice or wisedom and for his over-bearing them to the doing of that which is good besides that we cannot understand how it leaves any room for reward in such a case it seems as much to reproach his wisedom in the first creation of such beings as to display his power in controuling their actions and elections and would be as unseemly a Phaenomenon as for him to cross and pervert the common course of naturall causes AND for the Devil though he by the order of his Creation be of an higher rank and of greater power then we yet he is by no means able to force our wills or to rescind the decrees of a free mind God permits him to use his cunning and to shew his malice in contriving baits to allure and catch us and several ways to give us disturbance but if he should allow him to force us we may be sure there should never have been any one good man in the world THE objects that present themselves to us from without can but court our acceptance not obtrude themselves upon us they knock at our door but cannot break in upon us or they present us motives to alter our resolutions but it is in our power still whether we will revoke them FOR Example and the common usage of the world the power of which is so much magnified by some men as if they thought it sufficient to make an apology for all our follies It is so inconsiderable in this case that if we duely consider its efficacy we must pronounce of it that it works only metaphorically not physically and is at most but an Ideal cause if we will call it so sufficient to abuse men of soft and easie minds but not the manly and generous As for the lower and meerly animal powers in us they as we noted before may corrupt the imagination and begin to form a seditious party within us but it is still in the power of the will till it dethrones it self so to suppress them that they shall never be successfull in their rebellion BUT then in the last place for Reason it self which some men governing themselves by an old maxime voluntas semper sequitur dictamen intellect ûs suppose to prescribe so authoritatively to the will as that the priviledge of freedom belongs rather to the former then the latter if that were true i. e. if the will must proceed upon the dictates of reason there would be no such thing as liberty at all because it is not in our power what light our understandings shall have and as I have noted before we cannot believe what we will nor understand things otherwise then they are represented to us therefore if the will have not a power of acting contrary to our understanding as perfect a fatality is introduced as is to be found amongst natural agents Besides we find by constant observation of our selves and the world that in passion in love in the pursuit of riches and honour and most of our prosecutions we sometimes follow our reason sometimes go before it and sometimes quite cross it It is true indeed we ordinarily have some either reason or pretence of reason or other to countenance our elections because otherwise it could not be called choice where there is no end propounded or design aimed at which I think is all that the aforesaid obsolete maxime intends Nevertheless since it is manifest we oftentimes follow that which we know not to be the best reason even then when we follow it we may thereby be sufficiently convinced of the arbitrary power of our own wills THIS which we have been asserting is a truth of that importance that the denial thereof cuts the very sinews of all industry destroys the differences of good and evil takes away all principles of Conscience all arguments of Repentance as we have shewed before and herewith makes that natural passion of ingenuous shame which mankind is peculiarly endowed with utterly senseless and unaccountable But the truth of this supposed we easily understand both the nature and force of Resolution which is the only thing we have aimed at TO proceed therefore The Son in the Text conscious of this truth and as well sensible of his own liberty as certain of the necessity of taking some course or other to relieve himself saith in the words before recited I will arise I will go to my Father I will say unto him c. And the Resolutions of every Penitent are to the same effect viz. I will not fit with my hands folded up as a man infatuated and fitted for destruction I will spend no more time doubting and disputing nor abandon my self to desperation I 'le endeavour both to cease to do evil and to learn to do well I will take shame to my self acknowledge my folly and accept the punishment of my iniquity I will earnestly deprecate the divine displeasure and implore his mercy and pardon In short whatsoever
into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven q. d. It is not all the importunity of prayers or addresses that will avail without obedience So the Apostle St. Paul 2 Tim. 2. 19. The foundation of God standeth sure having this seal the Lord knoweth who are his and let him that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity q. d. The election of God shall not be frustrate nor the ends of Christ's death defeated nevertheless let no man pretend to be concerned in the one nor interested in the other but he that is really a good and holy man And not to heap up Scriptures unnecessarily in so plain a case upon this account it is that Religion is described by a walk a course a warfare a life c. because that which God requires indispensably of men is not an agony or passion for their miscarriages or a resolution of amendment but an habit of vertuous conversation and all this is graphically represented by our Saviour in a Parable not unlike this before us Matt. 21. vers 28 29 c. What think you a certain man had two Sons and he said to the first Son go work to day in my Vineyard He answered and said I will not but afterwards he repented and went And he came to the second and said likewise And he answered and said I goe Sir but went not Whether of them twain did the will of his Father c. The case was this the Scribes and Pharisees and Rulers of the Jews made a great shew of piety they complemented God with prayers and other addresses and seemed ready prest for his service whereas the Publicans and Harlots had lived with as little pretence of piety as morality yet these at last being convinced of their danger come to repentance and really perform what the other did but promise And this puts me in mind of a story in Plutarch very applicable to the present purpose It happened that the Image of Minerva the great Goddess of Athens was to be new made and in a case which they esteemed of so great moment all care was taken to employ the most accurate and able Workman whereupon every Artist both desirous of the honour and profit by some means or other recommends himself to the employment but amongst the rest appears one who in a long and eloquent Oration magnifies his own ability in that kind and drew all men's eyes upon him till at last another rises up and uses only this short but significant saying What-ever that man hath said I will perform This man no doubt was entertained for the employment and most assuredly the man who actually performs his vows and doth what others talk of or make pretences to is the only person that finds acceptance with the Almighty For SECONDLY it would beget in the minds of men very mean and unworthy notions of God as an easy Majesty should he suffer himself to be put off with complemental addresses or divert his just indignation without honourable satisfaction and to think to prevail with him by costly Sacrifices and Oblations would speak him a necessitous Deity that could either be pleased with such trifles or were fond of such empty things as men dote upon it would also take away all the veneration of his Laws and divest him of that glorious Attribute of Justice if he could be supposed to dispense with obedience upon any of these conditions To imagine that sighs and tears and melancholy reflections upon our selves would propitiate him charges him with severity and cruelty as if he took pleasure in the calamities and sufferings of his Creatures it makes him appear like to the Pagan Idol Baal whose Priests not onely with vehement importunity called upon him from Morning till Noon O Baal hear us 1 Kings 18. but in a frantick mood leaped upon the Altar and cut themselves with Knives and Lancets till the bloud gushed out that by this means they might move his compassion towards them And which is worse yet no man that considers these things can reasonably doubt but God may abate his Creatures these things if he pleases and then the consequence is very sad for if he be supposed to require those things as the conditions of his favour which he may abate all Religion is made arbitrary and the most fundamental reason of obedience destroyed and the horrible imputation laid upon God that if he damn any it is because he rigidly insists upon such things as he might have indulged NOW all these things being intolerable it must needs be true that the only way of propitiating the Divine Majesty is by being sincerely good by ingenuous compliance with his Laws by actual reformation for this renders him truely great and just and good this is a reasonable service worthy of his excellency when all the powers of man are made subject to him and we love him with all our might and soul and strength BUT if it be said all this may be done by the resolution of the mind to amend though no such thing actually follow because God sees things in their causes and knowing the hearts of men needs not the fruits since he foresees it in the roots To this I answer that where it pleases God by cutting off the thread of men's lives to interrupt the prosecution of their intended reformation there it is reasonable to hope that he will accept the will for the deed but wherever he affords opportunity of executing men's intentions there at least can be no just expectation that he should admit of less then what is both so agreeable to his revealed will and also so much necessary to the interest of his glory inasmuch as it is fit that the divine sovereignty as well as the justice and wisedom of his Laws all which have been violated by sin should be vindicated and justified by the sinners retracting his own act and doing contrary to that wherein he had offended and that by letting his good works shine before men he may glorify his heavenly Father as heretofore he hath dishonoured him by his neglects and disobedience But THIRDLY if it were both consistent with the declaration of the divine will and also with his glory and interest to admit of any thing less then actual reformation at the hands of the sinner and could God be supposed inclinable to dispense with it yet the very condition of Heaven and the state and condition of the other world will necessarily require it The Apostle tells us Hebr. 6. 9. there are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. some things that carry such a relation to the other world that a man cannot be damned with them nor saved without them Or as the same Apostle saith elsewhere 1 Col. 12. there are certain things that make men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 meet to be partakers of the inheritance with the saints in light and on the other hand it is in the nature of
formerly a great sinner himself and hath known by sad experience the deplorableness of that condition and found mercy at God's hands methinks such a person should with warm affections and tender bowels awaken that man into an apprehension of his danger who is in the condition he himself hath escaped and incourage him to try those mercies of God which he himself hath experimented For if either a righteous man that never needed repentance i. e. such a change of his whole state as we have been speaking of should be less sensible of such a man's case or especially if a proud self-applauding Pharisee despise him yet it will by no means become a Convert to be without compassion For besides all other arguments to this purpose it may be such a man may have just cause to consider whether his own example when he did goe on in the way of sin had not that pernicious contagion as to infect or confirm this man in his wickedness which he sees him now lie under and then it will not be only charity but justice which will oblige him to this duty IT was the opinion if I remember rightly of St. Basil that in Hell the torments of the damned are daily increased in proportion as the evil seed of their corrupt doctrine or the evil example which they sowed whilst they were alive fructifies upon earth but whether that be so or no it is certain men's sins are aggravated by the mischief they do to others as well as by other circumstances and therefore every such Penitent as we speak of must think it his duty and concern to indeavour to hinder the propagation of sin and to stop the infection in others as well as to destroy the malignity of it in himself § II. NOW there are many ways which an honest heart will find out of doing this we are recommending without taking upon him to be a Preacher Solomon tells us A wicked man speaketh with his feet and teacheth with his fingers that is though he say nothing with his lips all his life and actions do teach and instruct the world in wickedness and there is no question but that holy men may most effectually recommend vertue to others by their own practice and example Example insinuates gently works insensibly but powerfully as almost all great Engines do it relieves men's modesty and yet shames their sloth it kindles emulation presses upon ingenuity recommends the excellency convinces the necessity demonstrates the possibility of vertue Besides that there are a great many of the most curious lines thereof that are not to be described by the pencil or that can be expressed by words but are to be observed in the life and conversation of good men For this reason amongst others it pleased God to send our Saviour not only to preach the divine life to the world but to live and converse with men that by his example he might more plainly convince them of it and for this cause also we solemnly thank God for the examples of all holy men that have gone before us AND besides example there are many opportunities and advantages which good men have of propagating a sense of piety and Religion such as the authority of Parents influence of benefactours interest of relations convenience of travelling together society of commerce and all other bonds of conversation Every of which a mind inflamed with the love of God and compassion to the Souls of men will find usefull to this purpose And this was the course Moses advised Israel for the keeping up a sense of God and his Laws in their minds and the propagation of it to posterity Deut. 6. 6 7. These words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart and thou shalt teach them diligently to thy Children and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house and when thou walkest by the way and when thou liest down and when thou risest up c. And for the incouragement of all good men in this business besides the great honour it is to be subservient to God in so important an affair and besides the unspeakable comfort to our own Consciences If by converting a sinner from the evil of his way we save a Soul from death and cover a multitude of sins Jam. 5. 20. and that by such an act of zeal we have also the happiness to efface our own former miscarriages Besides all this I say in present we shall also advance our own glory and crown hereafter for in the words of the Prophet Daniel They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the Firmament and they that turn many to righteousness as the Stars for ever and ever Daniel 12. 3. IT were very easy to inlarge on this subject but that which is most pertinent and the peculiar consideration of this place is to shew the particular aptness of those that have themselves been converted from a wicked life to be instrumental of recovering others which I will briefly give account of in the following particulars and so dismiss this point And in order to this § III. IN the first place it is considerable that those that are of sickly constitutions are generally observed to be more pitifull and compassionate to the infirm then those robust and healthy persons that scarce ever knew what sickness meant and those that have long languished under any painfull infirmity and at last have recovered are both the best able and most willing to give advice to others under the same distemper Upon which account it hath been the custom of some Nations who had no professed Physicians to bring their sick out into the Market-place where all persons that came were obliged by Law to take notice of them that by this means the experience of one that had escaped a disease might afford a relief to him that now laboured under it And so it is reasonable to think that those who have been sick in sin and of sin heretofore must needs by their own experience know the baits that allure men the charms that bewitch them the fallacies of Sathan that impose upon them the folly and perverseness that defixes men in that unhappy estate the workings of passion the regret of Conscience the thoughts and reasonings the objections the prejudices and the very inside of other men in that condition And therefore as God commands Israel Exod. 23. 9. Thou shalt not oppress a stranger for ye know the heart of a stranger seeing ye were strangers in the land of Aegypt i. e. they knew what injuries oppressions insolencies and affronts a stranger was exposed to and what fears anxieties and jealousies he must needs be always under and therefore it having been their own case they ought to think it reasonable to pity such so in the present case the Convert is furnished both with more observations to render him serviceable to the conversion of Souls and more compassion to apply and make use of his experience to