an amends and that their Praying Tythe of Mint Annis and Cummin would serve in stead of Judgment Faith Mercy and the love of God which they are said to pass over as very light and small matters See Matth. 23. 23. compared with Luke 11. 42. And herein the Apostle Contests with these Galatian Christians not only with Vehemency but with some kind of Wonder that when Gospel Light had come among them and that having known God or rather been known of him as Chap. 4. 9. they should attribute any thing to so beggarly Rudiments as these were that is being circumcised and keeping Days and Months and Years c. the things whereon they laid so great stress And because they did so he tells them in that 4th Chapter That he was afraid that he had bestowed labour in vain among them In Summ therefore he makes it his business to evidence to them that both their Justification and their Sanctification must be conjoyned and arise together out of one and the same Root Christ himself and by Faith in him without the Works of the Law as that which must vitally unite them with him and that thereby they should become actually interested in all his Fulness that Fulness of Righteousness which was to be found only in him and no where but in him and withall in that fulness of Spirit and Life and holy Influence which also was only in him so as that the Soul being united by this Faith with Christ must presently die to Sin and love to God Chap. 2. 19 20. And at the same time when he delivered a Man from the Law as dead to it he became to him a continual living Spring of all the Duty which God did by his Holy Rule require and call for and render the whole Life of such a Man a Life of Devotedness to God And 't is here by the way worth the while to observe how the Apostle himself expounds that Phrase of being dead to the Law by being delivered from it Rom. 7. 1 2 3 4 5 6. And no man can be said to be delivered from any thing as it is a good or an advantage to him but as it is an evil and doth him hurt And the Law hurts no man as a Rule of life But as to one stated under the full Power of it 't is a Barr against that great Blessing of the Spirit Chap. 3. 13 14. which by it's yet abiding Curse it keeps off from him hereby occasioning his continuance in sin and then condemning him for it Whereupon how clear is the Current of the Discourse in these Words viz. By the Law I am dead to the Law that I might live to God I am crucify'd with Christ yet I live q. d. The Law it self hath slain me and killed all my Hopes and Expectations from it The same Law that slew Christ hath slain me I am crucify'd with him which supposes his being in him by that Faith by which he was to live ever after In this Faith stood his Marriage to Christ who succeeds into the room of the Law as the case is stated Rom. 7. 1 2 3 c. They that were settled in reference to each other in the Conjugal state as the Law and the Sinner were upon the death of the one which soever it be the Relation ceases and so the Obligation which depended upon that Relation And thereupon says he The Law it self having given me my deaths wound and killed me as to it in the Article of Dying I joyn my self to Christ and yield to be crucified with him but therein acquire with him a New Life Nevertheless I live And how Not I but Christ liveth in me and the life that I live in the flesh is by Faith in the Son of God who hath loved me and given himself for me And this Life I now thus live is a Life of pure and absolute devotedness to God terminated upon his Interest and Glory as the End of it governed by his declared Will as the Rule of it i. e. In summe 't is an holy Life or as before 't is a living to God Whereupon he so copiously distinguishes Ch. 3. between Jews and Jews those that were born after the Flesh and those born of the Spirit the Sons of the Bond-woman and of the Free as he allegorically speaks signifying the latter only born into this new State of life By all which he shews the connection to be most necessary and inviolable between being justified by Faith in Christ and a life of Holiness So little opposite were these to one another that one and the same Faith was to infer both But now that the large extent of this Holiness of Life might more fully appear the Apostle signifies that it must not only exclude those grosser lusts and works of the flesh but also such as because they might seem somewhat more refined might be reckoned by some less Criminal he therefore inserts divers of this other kind also And the state of the Case did equally require it For it appears as it might well be supposed that so far as any were tainted with the false Notions and with inclinations to the impure practices before mentioned they were filled with animosities with wrath envyings and hatred towards them that had not received the taint and they might have too much place with these back again towards them Whereupon there could not but be very great and high Ferments in these Churches Nothing therefore could be more requisite or seasonable than that several Instances of this sort of Carnality should be put into this Catalogue viz. hatred variance emulations wrath strise c. For they were not to be thought as was said more refined as having less but a more subtle Energy or penetrative power of malignity in them Nor indeed hath Christianity and the Christian Church suffered more by any sort of Evils than by those of this sort Others destroy particular Persons These besides their doing so do more directly hurt the Community and tend to wast and destroy the Church Now as to those grosser Carnalities mentioned in this Context I did formerly say somewhat briefly and so I did as to that which seems the central one among those of this latter sort viz. that of Heresie Which I considered according to what it doth import in it self and did design also to consider it in this its Concomitancy viz. of the things here mentioned in so â—ear conjunction and that are of nearer affinity with it hatred envyings and the like I have indeed been since in some suspence whether I should pursue that intention or no But upon serious consideration and solemn looking up to Heaven for direction I have determined not to let this sort of Carnality pass without just Animadversion For I consider that I speak to a Christian Assembly who must be understood all to profess equal and impartial reverence to the Word of God as to a Revelation come down from Heaven for our
there is any wrong done I am sensible the introductive part should have been in some respects otherwise methodiz'd But I am content to let it go as it is tho' I find by the Notes that were brought me that some things were somewhat transpos'd otherwise than was intended in the delivery from a Memory not the most faithful If it do any good it must be from the supply of the good Spirit of God which I admonish all you that read seriously to seek and ask from him who hath promised thereupon it shall be given The very expectation whereof will prevent reading with a vain mind or ill design and the consequent danger of receiving hurt by what you read Your in our common Lord J. H. THE CARNALITY OF Religious Contention Gal. V. xvi This I say then Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh THE last time I spake to you from these Words having largely opened before the Import of Walking in the Spirit I undertook to shew you how the Flesh here is to be understood against the Lusts whereof such walking in the Spirit is the prescribed Remedy In the General you have been told that Flesh is here to be taken morally and in that Latitude as to signifie all sorts of moral Evil or the general Depravedness of our Corrupt Nature For though sometimes in the moral Acceptation the Sense is limited as hath formerly been shewed to grosser Sins in contradistinction to more refined as 2 Cor. 7. 1. and 1 John 2. 16. yet sometimes also it is so far extended as to signifie all Sins as Col. 2. 11. compar'd with Rom. 6. 6. And in this Context it is plain the Apostle comprehends Sins of both these sorts under this one Expression But what particular Evils he more especially intended here to censure and caution these Galatian Christians against under this one Name cannot better be understood than by consulting this Context it self in which tho' we cannot say we have a full Enumeration we have yet very many Instances of the Carnalities against which this Remedy is directed Some of them more gross as we have told you they might be distinguished Adultery Fornication Vncleanness Lasciviousness Idolatory Witchcraft Murther Drunkenness Revellings and some other that may seem more refined not as having less but only a more subtle Malignity in them such as Hatred Vartance Emulation Wrath Strife Seditions Heresies Envyings c. It may here be thought strange that such Sins as these should be animadverted upon in Christian Churches as this Epistle is inscribed to such the Churches of Galatia Chap. 1. 2. so soon after the Gospel was come among them the Apostle himself thought it strange for you find him wondring at it Chap. 1. 5. I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called you into the Grace of Christ to another Gospel Yea and after that with the Gospel they had received the Spirit too For 't is said Chap. 3. 2 3. This only would I learn of you received ye the Spirit by the Works of the Law or by the hearing of Faith And are you so foolish having begun in the Spirit do you think to be made perfect by the Flesh We are therefore to consider whaâ— sort of Persons and Doctrines they were that had corrupted and depraved those Churches and whereby it will be the more apprehensible by what kind of Insinuations they so far prevailed And we may collect in very great part what they were from divers Passages of this Epistle it self and indeed from this very Context Some would have us think the Persons were of that Sect called Gnosticks from their pretended and highly boasted Knowledge We have no Evidence that this Sect was so early known by this Name but it is very likely they were that sort of Men that were afterwards so called The Characters here given them in this and the other Apostolical Epistles do much agree with what divers of the more Ancient Christian Writers and one Pagan one Plotinus say of that Sect Which Pagan an Interpreter and great Admirer of his would sain have pass for a Christian because living in a time when the Controversie between Christianity and Paganism was at the height he says nothing against Christianity it self but speaks very much against these Pseudo-Christians whom tho' that Author mentions not by that Name this his Interpreter often doth it for him inserting The Gnosticks even when he is but translating into the Body of the Work it self But this less concerns us It is however out of question that this sort of Men very anciently called Gnosticks did highly vaunt their great Knowledge A very tempting specious Pretence Tho' their sublimer Notions about the Aeons c. were Imaginations only Phansie and not Knowledge or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Knowledge misnamed or falsly so called as we may borrow the Apostles Expression 1 Tim. 6. 20. tho' those Inventions were later and could only serve to fill the Minds of their Prosâ—lytes with Wind and Vanity But their Doctrines upon which the Apostle animadverts in this Epistle we may collect from the manifest Scope and Design of it and that was to assert Justification by Faith without the works of the Law which they greatly perverted and Sanctification by the Spirit of Christ or the Doctrine of the New Creature which they even quite subverted With which false Doctrines they conioyned a most impurely vicious Life and Practice falling in much with the Jews in their corrupt Doctrines and with the Pagans in their Licentious Practice Which must be equally tempting to carnal Minds And this may make it appear less strange that all these sorts of Carnality that are here mentioned in this Context from ver 15 to the 21st should in reference to the same sort of Men be so put together For it is evident they were partly a Judaizing and partly a Paganizing sort of Christians as for ends of their own they affected to call themselves They held it lawful for Christians to joyn with Pagans in their Solemnities of Worship which they were wont to Celebrate in the Temples of their Idols It is notorious how gross Impurities and Immoralities were in those days incorporated into the Paganish Worship such as made it sufficiently reasonable that Idolatry should have in conjunction with it Fornication and Adultery Vncleanness and Lasciviousnâ—ss And for the addition of Witchcraft it was not unaccountable there being also Sorceries Magical Rites and Diabolical Incantations observed to have been intermingled with the Sacra of the Pagans And for which these misnamed Christians might have the greater kindness also for the sake of Simon Magus the Father of their Sect by whom the Affectation thereof was transmitted to some of his noted Followers that thought it a glorious thing to vie with their Predecessâ—r in this sort of Excellâ—ncâ— Nor is it alien from this purpose to take notice that those Diabolical Rites are said to have obtained
sides even where the Truth lay and where it lay not For we are here further to observe that whereas our Apostle sadly considered that many among these Christians of Galatia were lapsed and fall'n from the Purity and Sincerity of Religion he apprehended too that they who were not so fallen took not the best course for the recovery of them that were Which that Admonition of his must mean Chap. 6. 1 2. Brethren if a man be overtaken with a fault ye which are Spiritual restore such an one in the Spirit of meekness considering thy self lest thou also be tempted Bear ye one anothers Burdens and so fulfil the Law of Christ. It seems he reckoned that the sounder part among them and that ought and 't is like thought themselves to be more Spiritual while they shewed not more of a Spirit of Meekness towards the lapsed were not so Spiritual as they should be and discovered more Carnality than became them more Wrath and Bitterness of Spirit than could comport with the Law of Christ. They will be little aw'd by this and be apt for all this to indulge their own furious Passions that think he hath no Law But tho' one were never so sure he hath the Truth on his side 't is in it self a dreadful thing to whosoever shall allow himself the liberty seriously to think of it For what must we conceive of such Truth that is to be defended in some cases I say that in some cases ought to be so We must surely conceive of it as a Divine a Sacred thing an Heaven-born thing a thing of Heavenly descent part of a Revelation immediately come forth from the very Bosom of God so is the whole Gospel-revelation to be look'd upon Now here is Carnality that lusts such a kind of Carnality as the Context speaks of Wrath Strife Hatred c. Here is such Carnality lusting actually lusting seeking Prey ravening for Food And what doth it feed upon No meaner thing than Divine Truth Evangelical Doctrines Monstrous Thought Consider I beseech you my Friends what this comes to The feeding an impure Lust upon Sacred things or upon that which is Divine I must have my Lust satisfy'd says the proud contentious Spirit Wrath burns Anger boils Sacred things are not spared but fall'n upon as the prepared Food of Lust. It will be fed they are not forborn All Reverence of God is forgotten Heaven is ravag'd the most Sacred Mysteries of God's own Kingdom are violated and torn this way and that O horrid thing by Harpies Vultures by most fierce and furious Lusts. And if a Man would know recognize take knowledge of the most deeply inward Sensations and Intention of his own Heart thus it is I must now apply my Thoughts bend my Mind to consider a Revelation come from Heaven what for the end for which it was given to enlighten purify quicken my Soul towards God renew and form it for God to serve and enjoy him no but on purpose to feed to gratifie a Lust We can too often make neither better nor worse of it but just so it is These things being premised I would now go on a little more particularly to shew you wherein Carnality may appear exerting it self even about such things or what will be manifest Indications of such a Carnality as is here referr'd unto acting about or in reference to the things of God the most sacred and important Truths and Doctrines of his Gospel 1. First When in comparison of some less things wherein we find occasion or pretence to differ little Account is made of the incomparably greater things wherein all serious Christians are agreed and wherein they really cannot but be agreed Let it be considered whether pains be not taken to devise some matter or other to contend about that shews a great Disposition And then having found out some minuter things about which to differ our Differences as little as they are quite swallow up our Agreements The whole Gospel signifies nothing tho' full of the most glorious Wonders in comparison of some Punctilio's either that we have invented or that it may be doubted whether there be any thing in them or nothing Here is some Mystery in all this A Lust is to be gratify'd an Appetite to contend This winds and wriggles this way and that loath to appear but under some specious Disguise of Zeal for Truth Indignation against False Doctrine or the like but it bewrays it self and unawares shews it's ugly Serpentine Head For if the thing chosen out to be the matter of Contest be thought worth so much when it is manifestly either in comparison little or nothing but a Figment Why are not the things on all hands most confessedly great and most evident more highly esteemed lov'd relished and with Gust and Delight fed upon Why do not the greater things signifie more to unite us in Love and Communion with all that agree with us in them than the lesser things to divide us about which we disagree Indeed the Disagreements were in themselves vastly great between the Vntainted Christians of these Galatian Churches and that horrid Sâ—ct that the Aopstles Discourse has manifest reference unto Blessed be God there are not such Disagreements amongst us But while there is less Taint of Error in our Minds as to these things are we nor concern'd to take heed there be not as great a Taint of this vicious Carnality in our Hearts It speaks too much of it when having devised a difference we are prone to overlook and make little account of the great things wherein we are intirely and most professedly agreed If we consider the things which the Doctrinal part of this Epistle doth more expresly refer to as I have noted already how great things in reference hereto are we fully agreed in We are all agreed that a Sinner an Apostale lapsed Creature can never be saved and brought to a blessed state but he must be justified and he must be sanctified He must be justified to make his state safe He must be sanctified to make the Temper of his Spirit good capable of Communion with God in this World and of final eternal Blessedness with him in the other We are agreed that such Justification and such Sanctification are both the effects of most absolutely free and Sovereign Grace that none could be ever justified but by freest Grace that none can ever be sanctified but by freest Grace most absolutely and most Soveraignly free We are agreed That the highest Perfection of Sanctification that can ever possibly be attained unto signifies nothing at all to deserve to procure by Merit our Justification We are agreed that both at they are from the most free and soveraign Grace so do come through the Mediation of Jesus Christ the alone Mediator between God and Man That the Righteousness is intirely and only Christs by which we are justified That the Spirit is most entirely and only Christs by which we are sanctified according to