general word and mens great backwardness to it rendring them very slow to run it out into all those Particulars which are contained in it to bring this Discourse yet nearer and set it home upon their Consciences I proceed in the second Book to show what those Laws are in particular which we are bound to obey what is the nature of those several vertues and vices which are enjoined or forbidden by them and from what expectations and under what forfeitures we are bound to obey them This indeed I found to be a toilsome work and the most tedious part of this whole enquiry but I thought it extreamly needful to a thorow piety and a well-grounded peace and that made me that I would not pass it over For in the business of Duty and Obedience men will ordinarily go no further than they needs must but stand their ground and dispute it out so long as they have any post in reserve to which they can still retreat First They do not believe that this or that particular vertue which is urged upon them is a Law of God or if they are forced to believe that they think it is not so necessary that Heaven and eternal life should depend upon it or if at last they are made to see that too yet still they are in ignorance or errour about the nature of it and so have no sense of guilt or remorse of mind when they transgress and act against it And therefore to make every particular Law have a full force upon them both its nature and necessity must be evidently laid before them They must be shewed what that is which it requires and under what penalties it requires it And then their Consciences are awakened and their fears are raised and so the Law is set in its full force to oblige them to its performance Thus necessary is such a particular Discourse upon the several Laws of God and Instances of Duty to a pious performance of them and it is no less necessary to a peaceable assurance in them that do For unless a man knows the several instances of Duty and understands what is meant by them he cannot discern when he keeps or when he breaks them and so can have no comfort or promise himself any reward upon his performance of them In the third Book I proceed to shew what sort of obedience is indispensably required of us to all the particular Laws which are described in the Second And the necessary qualifications of it I reduce to two viz. sincerity and integrity In discoursing upon which I endeavour to set out all the Parts and state the just bounds of this obedience and to examine those pretences and confute those false grounds whereby men who are unwilling to perform it seek to evade or undermine it And having in the three first Books proceeded thus far in asserting the necessity and setting out the true compass and just extent of piety I go on to consult more directly the interests of peace in those two that follow In the fourth Book I shew what defects are consistent with that indispensable pitch of piety before described and what destroy it And this being a Point whereupon the peace of Consciences so nearly depends I have been particular in the explication of it and large in the proof Those sins which are inconsistent with it and destroy a state of Grace are such as are voluntary and wilful whereof some only destroy the state of acceptance for the present but others either greatly wound or utterly extinguish that habitual Vertue which should restore us to it for the time to come But others there are which are allowed by it and do not overthrow it viz. all such defects as are involuntary whether they be sins of innocent unwilled ignorance or inconsideration In discoursing whereupon as I have been studious to explain them so particularly that no honest heart might fall into fears and doubts about them so have I been careful withal to adde such marks and limitations to them that no wilfully ignorant or inconsiderate Sinners may take encouragement thence to presume In the fifth Book I shew what is the remedy for all sin and the Gospel-instrument of reconciliation that so when at any time men are possessed with just fears by being fallen into real danger they may again be restored to peace in their own minds by being first restored to Gods pardon And having proceeded thus far in shewing what measures and degrees of piety God will exact of us what failings he will connive at in us and upon what terms when once we have offended him he will be again reconciled to us I have gone in the last place to remove several causeless grounds of scruple which make good men fear where no fear is and condemn themselves when God will graciously acquit them These are the matters treated on in the ensuing Discourse which was at first drawn up to serve the spiritual necessities of a truly pious soul and which I have now sent abroad into the world being made to believe it will not be altogether unserviceable to the Publick If thereby I may promote the great end of my Lord and Saviour in contributing to the growth of piety and the peace of consciences I shall think my self most happy in having been a Furtherer though in a low degree of so noble and excellent a Design But whatever the success in that be I am sure I shall have the reward of a religious Design and an honest endeavour from him who estimates our pains not by their events which are not in our own power but by their natural tendency and our intentions which are In which confidence I send it out into the world depending upon his Grace to set it home upon the Conscience and make it effectual to guide the practice and secure the comfort both of thee and me For which end I hope I shall have the hearty prayers of all good men especially of those if any such there be who shall receive benefit by this Treatise THE CONTENTS The INTRODUCTION The Contents Religious men inquisitive after their future state Three Articles of Christian belief cause such inquisitiveness The Articles of Eternal Life and the Resurrection make men desire satisfaction The Article of the last Judgment encourages the search and points out a way towards it A proposal of the present Design and the matters treated of in the ensuing Discourse page 1 BOOK I. Of the indispensable Condition of happiness in the general CHAP. I. Of Obedience the general Condition of happiness The Contents OBedience the indispensable Condition of happiness The Laws of the Gospel are given as a Rule to it The Promises are all upon condition of it and intended to encourage it All the threatnings are now denounced and will be executed upon the disobedient Of those other things whereto pardon is promised as well as to Obedience Of Metonymy's Of the Principles Of humane actions Of Principles of Obedience
than as it effects obedience nor can we any otherwise confide in it Hereby alone says S t John we know that we know him in that sence of knowledge whereto God has promised life and pardon if we keep his Commandments But he that saith I know him and for all that keepeth not his Commandments he is a lyar and the truth is not in him 1 Joh. 2.3 4. And then as for Faith no man is interpreted to have that Faith which is made the condition of our pardon and acceptance but he who is acted by it and in his works is obedient to it The Faith says S t Paul which in Christ Jesus or the Christian Religion availeth any thing to that Righteousness which all Christians hope for is that only which worketh by Love Gal. 5.5 6. It begins the change within by purifying of our hearts and desires Acts 15.9 and thence goes on to perfect it in our outward works and actions And unless it proceed to this it will never be able to bear us out and to justifie us at Gods Bar for there as S t James tells us by our works we must all be justifyed and not by a Faith only which works nothing Jam. 2.24 Such alas will be wholly useless and of no consideration in that Court it will not any way profit and then certainly it cannot save us For what doth it profit my Brethren though a man be able to say either here or hereafter he hath Faith and hath not works will that be allow'd a sufficient plea in Gods Judgment shall that Faith save him no surely it never will Jam. 2.14 This unworking Faith is not that effectual Faith which the Gospel encourages but its worthless shell and liveless carkass For wilt thou know O vain man that faith without works is dead Even as the body without the spirit is dead so faith without works is dead also vers 20 26. It is Faith only in an imperfect degree and a weak unprofitable measure for it is not arrived to a perfect pitch to that compleat state whereto the Gospel doth at present promise Life and Christ will at the last Day award it till it shows it self in action and our lives express the power of it Our Father Abraham says S t James was justified by works produced by Faith when in an unstagger'd belief that God would make good his promise of a numerous issue by his Son Isaac though it were by raising him up again from the dead he would obey his command which seemed quite to overthrow it and offered up his Son upon the Altar Seest thou how his Faith in Gods Power and Promise wrought prevalently over all opposition to the production of that his strange work and by this justifying work upon it was his Faith made perfect vers 21 22. So that when all is done we see that there is no Life or Pardon promised to any Faith or knowledge which are separate from Obedience but to such only as cooperate to them and imply them There is no belief wherewith our Judge at the last day will be satisfyed or wherein we are safe which either he will accept or we may trust to if our dutiful works are wanting So that this is and ever will be as S t Paul says a faithful saying and such as every good Christian man ought constantly to receive or affirm that they who have Faith or have believed in God be careful to maintain obedience and good works because it is they which at the last day must do all men good are good and profitable unto men Tit. 3.8 Secondly This condition of our acceptance whereto the Gospel promises a happy sentence of Life and Pardon in the last judgment is sometimes called Being in Christ. There is no condemnation says S t Paul to them who are in Christ Jesus Rom. 8.1 The word Christ we must know many times in Scripture signifies the Religion of Christ. Thus the Law is said to be a Schoolmaster to bring us to Christ i. e. the imperfect rule of the Mosaick Religion was fitted for the minority of the world and intended to train men up as Children are by School Discipline for the more perfect and manly institution of the Christian Gal. 3.24 And thus we read of Preaching Christ that is the Christian Religion Phil. 1.15 And S t Paul tells the Ephesians of their learning Christ and hearing him i. e. his Gospel and Doctrine Ye have not so learned Christ if so be ye have heard him and been taught by him or in him Eph. 4.20 21. Heard him and been taught by him i. e. not by his person for he never went beyond Judea being sent as he said to none but the lost sheep of the house of Israel Mat. 15.24 and therefore never travelled so far as Ephesus but by and in his Doctrine or Religion And this is a most usual form of speech to call any institution or profession by the name of its first Author The Doctrine and Religion which was delivered to the Jews by Moses is called by his Name For S t Paul speaks of Moses being read i. e. the Law of Moses 2 Cor. 3.15 and of the Israelites being baptized into Moses i. e. the Mosaick Religion 1 Cor. 10.2 And our Lord himself tells the Jews in the Parable of the Rich Man that they have Moses and the Prophets and bids them hear them Luk. 6.29 where he cannot mean their persons in regard they were dead long before and got without the reach of their hearing but their Writings and Religion And as Christ many times signifies the Christian Religion so is being in Christ the very same with being of his Religion or being a Christian. Thus S t Paul tells us of Andronicus and Junia who embraced the Christian Doctrine whilst he persecuted and opposed it that they were in Christ i. e. in Christs Religion before him Rom. 16.7 They who dyed in the profession of the Christian Faith are said to be fallen asleep in Christ 1 Cor. 15.18 The veil of Moses is done away in Christ 2 Cor. 3.14 The veil of Moses i. e. the types and obscure shadows of the Mosaical Religion are done away in Christ i. e. by the plain clearness of the Christian. Thus I knew a man in Christ is no more than I knew a Christian man 2 Cor. 12.2 and the Churches of Judea in Christ are the very same as the Christian Churches among the Jews Gal. 1.22 So when we read that in Christ Jesus neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor Vncircumcision but a new Creature Gal. 6.15 the meaning is only this that what price soever the Religion of Moses put upon this outward Rite of Circumsion and those other Jewish observances whereof it was the federal undertaking yet the Religion of Christ doth not regard them at all but that all which can avail us in it is only a new Creature And to the same sence S t Peter speaks
continue to separate between him and his God whatever God CAN do yet certainly he WILL not save him The Lords hand saith the Prophet Isaiah to the afflicted Jews is not shortened that it cannot save nor his ear heavy that it cannot hear but your iniquities have separated between you and your God and your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear For your hand 's are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity your lips have spoken lies your tongue hath muttered perverseness none calls for Justice nor any pleads for Truth and since your disobedience is so heinous your hopes must needs be false you TRVST in vanity Isai. 59.1 2 3 4. Christ himself never dyed to reconcile God to mens sins and to procure hopes of pardon for the finally impenitent and unperswadably disobedient So that no man may ever think himself delivered to act wickedness or wilfully transgress Gods Laws and still dare to trust in him But if any are so bold and frontless Christ will rebuke them at the last Day as God doth the presumptuous Jews by the Prophet Jeremiah Behold says he you trust in lying words which cannot profit you Will you steal murther and commit adultery and swear falsly and notwithstanding all that come and stand before me in this house which is called by my Name as Men that owne my service and dare trust in my love and say as in effect you do by such usage we are delivered to do all these abominations Dare you by thus presuming upon my favour in the midst of all your transgressions make me become a Patron and Protector of your villainies And is this house which is called by my Name become a Den or Receptacle and Sanctuary of Robbers in your eyes Behold I even I have seen it saith the Lord and that surely not to encourage and reward but most severely to punish it for I will utterly cast you out of my sight Jer. 7.8 9 10 11 15. God will by no means endure to have his own most holy Nature become a support to sin nor his Religion to be made a refuge for disobedience nor his Mercy and Goodness a Sanctuary to wicked and unholy men So that no man must dare to hope and trust in him but he only who honestly observes his Laws and uprightly obeys him That fear of God then and trust in his mercy which the Gospel encourages and Christ our Judge will at the last Day accept of is not a fear and trust without obedience but such only as implies it We must serve him in fear and obey him through hope as ever we expect he should acquit and pardon us For no fears or hopes will avail us unto bliss but those that amend our lives and effect in us an honest service and obedience CHAP. VII Of Pardon promised to the love of God and of our Neighbour The CONTENTS Of Pardon promised to the love of God and of our Neighbour Of the fitness of an universal love to produce an universal obedience That pardon is promised to it for this Reason The Conclusion EIghthly That condition which the Gospel indispensably requires of us to our pardon and happiness is sometimes called Love For of this S t Paul says plainly that it is the fulfilling of the Law Rom. 13.10 It is the great condition of Life the standing Terms of mercy and happiness We have the same Apostles word for it of our love of God Those things which neither eye hath seen nor ear heard neither have entred into the heart of man to conceive are prepared for them who LOVE God 1 Cor. 2.9 And again Chap. 8. If any man love God the same is known or accepted of him vers 3. And S t John says as much of the love of our Neighbour Beloved let us LOVE one another for LOVE is of God and every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God 1 John 4.7 And again God is Love and manifested his Love in giving Christ to dye for us And if we love one another God dwells in us For hereby by this mark and evidence we know that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us of this loving temper and Spirit of his ver 8 9 12 13. And to the same purpose he speaks fully in the third Chapter of that first Epistle We know says he that we have passed from death unto life because we LOVE the BRETHREN ver 14. Now our hearty love both of God and men is a most natural and easie Principle of an intire service and obedience For the most genuine and proper effect of Love is to seek the satisfaction and delight of the persons beloved It is careful in nothing to behave it self unseemly but to keep back from every thing that may offend and forward in all such services as may any ways pleasure and content them If they rejoyce it congratulates if they mourn it grieves with them If they are in distress it affords succour if in want supply in doubts it ministers counsel in business dispatch It is always full and teeming with good offices and transforms it self into all shapes whereby it may procure their satisfaction and render their condition comfortable and easie to them So that it exerts it self in pity to the miserable in protection to the oppressed in relief to the indigent in counsel to the ignorant in encouragement to the good in kind reproof to the evil in thanks for kindnesses in patience and forbearance upon sufferings in forgiveness of wrong and injuries In one word it is an universal Source and Spring of all works of Justice Charity Humility and Peace Now the Body of our Religion is made up of these Duties For what doth the Lord thy God require of thee O man saith the Prophet Micah but to do justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God Mic. 6.8 Those things which God has adopted into his Service and made the matter of our duty towards one another are nothing else but these natural effects of love and kindness and expressions of good nature towards all men All the Precepts of Religion only forbid our doing evil and require our doing good to all the World And since as the Apostle argues love seeketh all things that are good and worketh no evil to our Neighbour therefore Love must needs be the fulfilling of those Laws which concern them This Commandment for instance as he illustrates it Thou shalt not commit Adultery thou shalt not kill thou shalt not steal thou shalt not bear false witness thou shalt not covet all these and if there be any other Commandment relating to our Brethren it is briefly comprehended in this Saying Thou shalt LOVE they Neighbour as thy self For LOVE worketh none of all these ills to our Neighbour therefore LOVE is the fulfilling of the Law Rom. 13.9 10. Thus doth our Love of our Neighbour fulfil all those particular Laws which contain our Duty
of the elect of God holy and beloved humbleness of mind Col. 3.12 It is this poverty and lowliness of Spirit which must prepare us for eternal happiness Blessed are the poor in Spirit Matth. 5.3 For as our Saviour says 't is by learning of him who is meek and lowly that we shall find both here and hereafter rest to our souls Matth. 11.29 And for all the rest their Sanction is expressed in these ensuing places Labour not for the meat that perisheth but for that which endureth to everlasting life John 6.27 This is a necessary evidence of our being risen with Christ now at present If ye be risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God Set your affections on things above and not on things on the earth Col. 3.1 2 and a necessary condition to our being blessed with him for ever hereafter the blessedness which our Saviour pronounces being to those which hunger and thirst after righteousness Matth. 5.6 Add to temperance patience for he that lacketh these is blind and shall not be looked on as a new man seeing he has forgot that he was purged from his old sins 2 Pet. 1.6 9. The fruit of the Spirit saith S t Paul is temperance or continence and it is against this among others that there is no Law to condemn it Gal. 5.23 And to the Hebrews he says that they have need of patience to inherit the promises of life and happiness Heb. 10.36 and therefore they must not cast away but hold fast their confidence or couragious and open owning even of a suffering Religion which hath great recompence of reward ver 35. It bring to them only who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and immortality that God will give eternal life Rom. 2.7 Dearly Beloved I beseech you as Strangers and Pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul to vanquish and destroy it 1 Pet. 2.11 This abstinence is one chief thing which we were called to at our Call to Christianity God hath not called us to uncleanness saith S t Paul but unto holiness or purity and cleanness For this is the will of God which you are first to perform before you expect his reward your purity or sanctification and particularly in one instance wherein you are so generally defective that you abstain from fornication and every one of you possess his Vessel or Body in purity or sanctification and honour And this Commandment you know we gave you by the Lord Jesus's order so that whosoever among you despiseth it despiseth not man but God 1 Thess. 4.2 3 4 7 8. For the wisdom which cometh from above and which must carry us thither is in the first place pure or chast James 3.17 Love not the world nor the things of the world for if any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him 1 John 2.15 For the esteem and friendship of the world is in very deed downright enmity with God Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God James 4.4 Godliness if it be joined with contentment is great gain saith S t Paul 1 Tim. 6.6 And our being content with such things as we have is reckoned a part of that Grace whereby we must serve God acceptably and be secured from his wrath who where he is angred is a consuming fire Heb. 12.28 to the fifth Verse of the thirteenth Chapter Christ said unto them all If any man will come after me and be accounted one of my Disciples let him deny himself and take up his Cross and follow me Luke 9.23 If ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the Body saith S t Paul you shall live Rom. 8.13 Yea its affections and desires as well as its sinful actions are to be deaded and brought under For they that are Christ's whom he will own for his at the last Day and reward accordingly have crucified the Flesh with the affections and lusts or desires thereof Gal. 5.24 They who would not be accounted in Gods judgment as Children of the night and of darkness S t Paul says plainly must watch and be sober 1 Thess. 5.5 6. For watching is necessary unto bliss Blessed is that Servant whom his Lord when he cometh shall find watching Luke 12.37 And give diligence to make your calling and election sure saith S t Peter for this is one of those things which if you do you shall never fall either from your duty or your reward 2 Pet. 1.10 Thus are all the particular Laws recited in the first Class sobriety expresly bound upon us by all our hopes of Heaven and our obedience to them plainly necessary to our life and pardon when we come to be judged according to them And the Sanction is the same for all the Particulars of the second Class our piety towards God as will appear by the following Scriptures Them that honour me saith God I will honour or make honourable but they who despise me shall on the other hand be as lightly set by 1 Sam. 2.30 And if any man be a worshipper of God him said the man who had received his sight most truly he heareth John 9.31 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned Mark 16.16 For this is the will of him that sent me saith our Saviour that whosoever believeth on me may have everlasting life John 6.40 And what we hear of Faith is also said of Knowledge For this is life eternal saith Christ to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent John 17.3 The good things which neither eye hath seen nor ear hath heard i. e. the joys of Heaven are laid up for those who love God 1 Cor. 2.9 And if any man love God the same is known or accepted by him 1 Cor. 8.3 It is he who believes Christs promises or hopes on him that shall never be ashamed Rom. 10.11 And we trust in God saith S t Paul who is the Saviour of all men especially of those that believe or trust in him 1 Tim. 4.10 And a cheerful dependence upon Gods Providence for our food and maintenance c. and not being sollicitous about them is one of the Particulars of Christ's Law Matth. 6.25 the sanction whereof is expressed in the fifth Chapter in these words He who breaks the least oâ— these Commandments shall be least in the Kingdom oâ— Heaven i. e. according to the Hebrew manner of speaking he shall be none at all ver 19. Pray without ceasing 1 Thess. 5.17 It is this that must bring all blessings down upon us For the promise is Ask and you shall have Matth. 7.7 But no Petition being put up no Grant can in reason
and the perfection as to this particular of the Law of Christ. The Law of Moses was unable to work a general reformation by reason of several defects two whereof I shall particularly mention which in the Religion of Christ are fully supplied and they are the great motive to all obedience eternal life and the great encouragement of all endeavour the promise of the Spirit Eternal life are words that are never heard of in all Moses's Law Indeed the good people under it had all some rude thoughts and confused expectations of it but the Law it self did no where clearly and expresly propose it Whereof this may serve for a probable proof because a whole Sect among them the Sadducees I mean did flatly deny it and this for an undeniable Argument because those very places of the Law which are brought to confirm it by those Jewish Doctors that are most for it are in all appearance so remote from it Nay even our Saviour himself when he goes to prove it against the Sadducees out of the Books of Moses can find no other Testimonies for it than such as are fetched about to speak it by art and brought to it by consequence Luke 20.37 38. So that well might S t Paul say in triumph over all other Religions in the World That life and immortality were brought to light by the Gospel 2 Tim. 1.10 And in the comparison of that Covenant which came by Moses with that other which came by Christ to affirm that the Covenant which came by Christ was the bringing in of a better hope Heb. 7.19 and a better Covenant for this reason because it was established upon better promises Heb. 8.6 And then as for the promise of the Spirit to enable men to do what was required of them of that Moses made no mention By this Law as S t Paul says was the knowledge of sin Rom. 3.20 It shewed men what they should do and denounced a Curse upon them if they failed to do it but it stopt there and went not on to promise any inward Grace and help that might enable them to be as good as it required them No the promise of that was reserved to another dispensation and to be the hope of a better Covenant it was not to come by Moses but by Christ nor to be an express Article of the Law but of the Gospel Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law saith the Apostle that now being under the Gospel we might receive the promise of the Spirit which comes not by the Law of Moses but through the Faith of Christ Gal. 3.13 14. The Law by its prohibition made several actions to be sinful it shewed us what was sin and it threatned the curse to it but that was all that it did towards the extirpation of it for as for any inward strength and ability to overcome it it offered none but left us there to our own selves And because sin was too strong for us and had got possession of our Bodies and executive Powers insomuch that we were quite enslaved to it and as it were sold under it therefore the Law by making more things sinful through its prohibition and not strengthening us against sin through spiritual assistance instead of lessening the Empire of sin proved in the end to encrease it For our lusts not being restrained by it and more of them becoming sinful by being prohibited when the Law entred as S t Paul says the offence did more abound Rom. 5.20 and the Law became not the bane and overthrow of sin but by making its services more numerous it was rather as the same Apostle says the strength of it 1 Cor. 15.56 And forasmuch as the Law did only thus outwardly shew and reveal sin to our eyes but brought along with it nothing of inward Grace and assistance to help us against it therefore is it called a Letter without us opposite to the Grace of the Gospel which is an enlivening Spirit within And since it did nothing more but outwardly shew and threaten sin but did not inwardly assist and rescue us from it it served only to condemn us for what we did from the doing whereof it brought no inward Grace to hinder us and so proved the ministration of death and condemnation not of life and pardon All which is plainly affirmed of it in the third Chapter of the second Epistle to the Corinthians God says S t Paul hath made us Apostles ministers of the New Testament or Covenant not of the external Letter only as Moses and the Ministers of the Law were but of the internal Spirit also For the Letter or old Law shews sin and curses men upon the breach of that which they cannot keep and thereby kills them but the Spirit or new Law enables them to do what it commands and thereby giveth right to life which is the mercy that it promises That was the ministration of condemnation for it shewed men the curse which it did not enable them to shun this is the ministration of justification and righteousness which it both promises and enables them to attain to ver 6 7 8 9. 'T is very true indeed that several of the Jews themselves under the Law of Moses had really such assistances of Gods Spirit as enabled them to do as well as to know what was required of them For David in all his life and behaviour was a man after Gods own heart 1 Sam. 13.14 Zacharias and Elizabeth as to their walking in all the Commandments of the Lord were blameless Luke 1.6 And the Case was the same with a number of other honest and godly Jews But then this assistance which they enjoyed was no Article of their Law although God afforded it yet had their Law no where promised it nor was he bound to it by the Mosaical Covenant For in very truth all this inward Spirit which was vouchsafed to them was reached out not by virtue of the Covenant of the Law but of the Covenant of Grace For the Covenant of Grace was not first made with the World when Christ came into it but was established long before with Adam Gen. 3.15 and after that confirmed again with Abraham and all his Seed after him Gen. 12.3 Gal. 3.8 17. So that under it as well as under Moses all the Jews lived and by the gracious terms and assisting Spirit of it all the righteous people that have been since the beginning of the World were justified It being as S t Paul says by faith which is the righteousness of the second Covenant that the Elders who lived before the Law obtained a good report Heb. 11.2 and that the Jews who lived under it were delivered and justified from all things from which they could not be justified by any virtue of the Law of Moses Acts 13.39 And therefore that which the Apostle affirms of the defectiveness of the Mosaick Law viz. it s having no promise of the Spirit to
temptations or to lusts and desires of evil This Point summed up 63â— CHAP. V. Of two other causes of groundless Scruple to good Souls The Contents A second cause of scruple is their uâ—affectedness or distraction sometimes in their prayers Of the necessity of fixedness and fervency in Devotion when we can and of Gods readiness to dispense with them when we cannot enjoy them Attention disturbed often whether we will or no. A particular cause of it in fervent prayers Fervency and affection not depending so much upon the command of our wills as upon the temper of our Bodies Fervency is unconstant in them whose temper is fit for it God measures us not by the fixedness of our thoughts or the warmth of our tempers but by the choice of our wills and the obedience of our lives Other qualifications in prayer are sufficient to have our prayers heard when these are wanting Yea those Vertues which make our prayers acceptable are more eminently shown in our Obedience so that it would bring down to us the blessings of prayer should it prove in those respects defective A third cause of scruple is the danger of idle or impertinent words mentioned Mat. 12.36 The scruples upon this represented The practical errour of a morose behaviour incurred upon it This discountenanced by the light of Nature and by Christianity The benefits and place of serious Discourse Pleasurable conversation a great Field of Vertue The idle words Mat. 12 not every vain and useless but false slanderous and reproachful words this proved from the place 664 CHAP. VI. Of the sin against the Holy Ghost which is a fourth cause of scruple The Contents Some good mens fear upon this account What is meant in Scripture by the Holy Ghost Holy Ghost or Spirit is taken for the gifts or effects of it whether they be first ordinary either in our minds or understandings or in our wills and tempers or secondly extraordinary and miraculous Extraordinary gifts of all sorts proceed from one and the same Spirit or Holy Ghost upon which account any of them indifferently are sometimes called Spirit sometimes Holy Ghost Holy Ghost and Spirit are frequently distinguished and then by Holy Ghost is meant extraordinary gifts respecting the understanding by Spirit extraordinary gifts respecting the executive powers The summ of the explication of this Holy Ghost What sin against it is unpardonable To sin against the Holy Ghost is to dishonour him This is done in every act of sin but these are not unpardonable What the unpardonable sin is Of sin against the ordinary endowments of the Holy Ghost whether of mind or will the several degrees in this all of them are pardonable Of sin against the Spirit Blaspheming of this comes very near it and was the sin of the Pharisees Mat. 12 but it was pardonable Of sinning against the Holy Ghost The Holy Ghost the last means of reducing men to believe the Gospel that Covenant of Repentance The sin against it is unpardonable because such Sinners are irreclamable All dishonour of this is not unpardonable for Simon Magus dishonoured it in actions who was yet capable of pardon but only a blaspheming of it in words No man is guilty of it whilst he continues Christian. 681 CHAP. VII The Conclusion The Contents Some other causless scruples The Point of growth in Grace more largely stated A summary repetition of this whole Discourse They may dye with courage whose Conscience doth not accuse them This accusation must not be for idle words distractions in Prayer c. but for a wilful transgression of some Law of Pieey Sobriety c. above mentioned It must further be particular and express not general and roving If an honest mans heart condemn him not for some such unrepented sins God never will 700 THE INTRODUCTION ROM viij 1 There is no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit The Contents Religious men inquisitive after their future State Three Articles of Christian belief cause such inquisitiveness The Articles of Eternal Life and the Resurrection make men desire satisfaction The Article of the last Judgment encourages the search and points out a way towards it A proposal of the present design and the matters treated of in the ensuing Discourse AMong all those things which employ the minds of Religious and Considerate men there is none that is so much a matter of their thoughtful care and solicitous enquiries as their Eternal happiness or Misery in the next World For in Christs Religion there are three great Articles which being believed and seriously considered by a nature restlessly desirous of its own happiness and such ours is must needs render it very inquisitive after some security of its future good estate and they are these The Immortality of the Soul the Resurrection of the Body and the great Day of Doom or last Judgment Whosoever is firmly perswaded of these three as every man is or at least pretends to be who professes himself a Christian he assuredly believes that when this Life is over both his Body and Soul shall live again and be endlessly Delighted or Tormented Comforted or Distressed in the next world according as their condition is when they leave this For by the Doctrine of Eternal Life he is assured that his Soul shall live and be adjudged to an Eternal bliss or misery By the Article of the Resurrection he is perswaded that his Body with all its powers shall spring out of the dust and be again enlivened with its ancient Soul to be a sharer of its state and joyntly to undergo an endless train of most exquisite woes or pleasures And since it is the very frame and fundamental principle of our Natures studiously to pursue Pleasure and to fly as fast from Pain to seek good and to avoid evil These states of future Happiness and Misery are such as no man who sees and believes them can possibly be unaffected with or unconcern'd in But whosoever in his own thoughts views and beholds them must needs find all his faculties awake and through an innate care and natural instinct solicitously inquisitive after that lot which shall fall to their own share Now if this endless happiness and misery both of Soul and Body in the next world were only casual and contingent the gift of blind chance or partial and arbitrary favour then would the belief of it perplex us indeed with fears and misgiving thoughts but never encourage us on to any exact care or diligent enquiry It would be in vain for us to seek what we could never find and downright folly to endeavour after satisfaction and certainty in things which are utterly casual and Arbitrary For what comes by chance is neither foreseen by us nor subject to us And what is given arbitrarily without all rule or reason is as fickle and unconstant as Arbitrary will it self is It cannot be prevented by any endeavours because it doth not
things relating to our last doom and shewâ—â—â—oth what in the Judgment shall be indispensably required to our salvation what Defects do not overthrow but consist with it what Remedies when 't is wounded or lost can heal and restore us to it and what and of how great consideration those things really are which being wrong understood do often create causless fears and jealousies in good peoples minds about it Having I say clearly accounted for all these I suppose I may think I have said enough to shew men their Future State and fairly take leave of this Argument BOOK I. Of the indispensable condition of happiness in the general CHAP. I. Of Obedience the general condition of happiness The CONTENTS Obedience the indispensable condition of happiness The Laws of the Gospel are given as a Rule to it The Promises are all upon condition of it and intended to encourage it All the threatnings are now denounced and will be executed upon the disobedient Of those other things whereto Pardon is promised as well as to obedience Of Metonymy's Of the Principles of Humane Actions Of Principles of Obedience All those speeches metonymical where obedience is not express'd and yet pardon is promised THat Condition which the Gospel indispensably requires of us and which is to mete out to us our last doom of Bliss or Misery is in the General our Obedience When we are brought to that Bar and stand to be judged according to those Laws which are proclaim'd to us in the Gospel it is only our having kept them and Repented of all such transgressions of them as we have wilfully been guilty of which can capacitate us to be rewarded by them For 't is just with them as it is with all other Laws they never promise any thing but to obedience but threaten and punish all that disobey Whosoever breaks and despises them is guilty they do not comfort but accuse not acquit but condemn him For there is no Law that is wisely ordered but is sufficiently guarded against affront and back'd with such punishments as will make it every mans interest to fulfil and keep it The evil threatned must always by far exceed the pleasure that is reaped by disobedience so that no man may have any temptation sufficient to bear him out in Sin or ever hope to be a gainer by his transgression This is the tenour of all wise laws whose enactors have both wit and power sufficient to defend them They have dreadful Punishments annexed to them which take place upon disobedience they encourage and reward the obedient but severely punish all that dare presume to disobey And this is most eminently seen in all the Laws of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. He gave them for the compleatest Rules to mens Lives and has annexed to them most glorious Promises to encourage our obedience but has made them breath out nothing but woes and intolerable punishments to all that disobey He has given them for Rules of Life and annexed Rewards as encouragements to obedience He never intended his Laws for an entertainment of our eyes but for a Rule for our Actions not for a matter of talk and discourse but of practice not to be complemented by words of honour and lofty expressions but to be own'd in our lives and served by obedience He is our King and issues out his Laws as the instruments of his Government he is our Lord and they are Rulers for his Service They must be guides of our Lives and Actions it is not enough to know and talk of them but as ever we hope to live by them we must do and keep them For in the end they will be available to no mans happiness but his who has conscientiously performed them In Christ Jesus or the Christian Religion says S t Paul nothing avails but keeping of the Commandments of God 1 Cor. 7.19 Blessed are they saith S t John who do the Commandments for they only have right to the Tree of Life Rev. 22.14 It is not an idle wish or ineffectual endeavour but a thorough practice and performance of Christs Laws which can continue us in his Love and approve us Righteous in his Judgment If ye keep my Commandments says he ye shall abide in my Love Joh. 15.10 Let no man deceive you for it is he only that doth Righteousness who in Gods account is Righteous 1 Joh. 3.7 They only are pronounced Righteous and Sons of God in the Gospels estimation who walk after the spirit Rom. 8.4 who are led by the spirit vers 14. who bring forth the Fruits of the Spirit all words expressing Action and Practice Gal. 5 16-22 No man therefore will be acquitted and rewarded at that Bar barely for knowing and discoursing for wishing or desiring but only for working and obeying Such only the Gospel reckons for true servants now his servants ye are not whom you confess in words but whom in actions you obey Rom. 6.16 And such only he will honour and reward then For it is not every one who fawns upon me in his words whilest he reproaches me in his actions who says unto me Lord Lord that shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he only who doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven Which will he had just then proclaim'd to them in that Volume of Christian Laws which was published in the Sermon upon the Mount whereof this is in part the conclusion Matt. 7.21 He tells us that when the Son of Man shall come to judgment he will reward every man according to his works Matt. 16.27 and he repeats it again in his declaration to S t John Behold I come quickly and my reward is with me to give every man according as his work shall be Rev. 22.12 And so it was in that Prophetick sight of the Last Judgment which this same Apostle had vouchsafed him Rev. 20. For there as we are told when the Sea gave up the Dead which were in it and Death and Hell delivered up the Dead which were in them and they all both small and great stood before the Throne and him that sate thereon they were judged every man according to his WORKS vers 11 12 13. His Laws then Christ has given us not for talk and discourse but for action and practice and his Promises he has annexed to them not as rewards of idleness but only of active service and obedience Wherein if men fail Gods Rewards belong not to them they can make no claim or colourable pretence to them because they cannot show that which is to be rewarded by him Nay further if men disobey they are not only excluded from all glorious hopes but are moreover put into a desperate state of fears and dreadful expectations For God has back'd his Laws with threatnings as well as promises and as they propose most noble rewards to all that are obedient so likewise do they breath out most intolerable punishments to all that disobey
For every Man at the last day will be declared a Child of wrath who is a son of disobedience and he shall most certainly be Damned who dyes without amendment and Repentance in works which are wilfully and deliberately sinful Christs Gospel has already judged this long before-hand and at that day he will confirm it When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels i. e. when he shall come with his Royal attendance to judge the world He will take vengeance says S t Paul on all them that OBEY not his Gospel who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord 2 Thess. 1.7 8 9. When he comes in state with the ten thousands of his Saints it will be to execute Judgment upon all that are ungodly for all the ungodly DEEDS which they have committed Jude 14 15. And when our Lord himself gives a relation of his proceedings at that day he tells us that whosoever they be or whatsoever they may pretend if their works have been disobedient they shall hear no sentence from him but what consigns them to Eternal Punishment I will profess thus unto them says he I never knew you Depart from me ye that WORK iniquity Matt. 7.23 This will be the method of Christs Judgment and these the measures of his Sentence he will pronounce Mercy and Life upon all that are obedient but Death and Hell to all that disobey And indeed it were hight of folly and madness to expect he should do otherwise and to fancy that when he comes to judge us as S t Paul says according to the Laws of his Gospel he should absolve and reward us when in our works and actions we have transgressed them For this were to thwart his own rule and to go cross to his own measures it were to encourage those whom his laws threaten to acquit such as they condemn and in one word not to judge according to them as he has expresly declared he will but against them If we would know then what condition we shall be adjudged to in the next world we must examine what our obedience has been in this We can have no assurance of a favourable Sentence in that Court but only the doing of our duty Our last doom shall turn not upon our knowing or not knowing our willing or not willing but upon our obeying or disobeying It is in vain to cast about for other marks and to seek after other evidences nothing less than this performance of our duty can avail us unto life and by the merits of Christ and the grace of his Gospel it shall And thus we see in the general what those terms and that condition are which to mete out our last doom of Bliss or Misery the Gospel indispensably exacts of us It is nothing less than a working service and obedience the enquiry to be made at that day being only this whether we have done what was commanded us If we have performed what was required of us we shall be pronounced Righteous and sentenced to Eternal Life but if we have wilfully transgressed and wrought wickedness without amendment and repentance we shall then be declared incorrigible Sinners and adjudged to Everlasting Death This indeed is a very great truth but yet such as very few are willing to see and to consider of For obedience is a very laborious service and a painful task and they are not many in number who will be content to undergo it And if a man may have no just hopes upon any thing less than it the case of most dying men is desperate But as men will live and dye in sin so will they live and dye in hopes too And therefore they catch at softer terms and build upon an easier condition And because the Gospel promises Salvation and a happy sentence to faith love repentance our being in Christ our knowing Christ and other things besides obedience they conclude that they shall be acquitted at that Bar upon the account of any or all of these though they do not obey with them They make Faith Love Repentance and the rest to be something separate from obedience something which will save them when that is wanting So that if they be in Christ if they know and believe with the mind and love and repent in their hearts their hope is to be absolved at the last day be their lives and actions never so disobedient But this is a most dangerous and damning errour For it makes men secure from danger till they are past all possibility of recovering out of it and causes them to trust to a false support so long till it lets them drop into Hell and sink down in damnation And although it be sufficiently evident from what has been already said that our obedience is that only thing which will be admitted as a just plea and as a qualification able to save us in that Court yet because I would fully subvert all these false grounds whereupon men support their pernicious hopes and sinful lives together I will go on to prove it still further And this will be most plainly effected by shewing that all those other terms and conditions whereto the Gospel sometimes promises pardon and happiness concenter all in this and save us no otherwise than by being springs and principles of our obedience They are not opposed to our doing of our duty and keeping the Commandments but imply it For when pardon is promised to Faith to Love to Repentance or any thing else it is never promised to them as separate from obedience but as containing it Obedience is that still for which a man is saved and pardoned it is not excluded from them but expressed by them In order to a clearer apprehension of the truth of this I think fit to observe that there is an ordinary figure and form of speech very usual both with God and men which the Rhetoricians call a Metonymie or Transnomination and that is a transferring of a word which is the particular Name of one thing to express an other The use of it is this that in things which have a near relation and dependance upon each other as particularly the cause and its effect have the particular name of either may many times signifie both so that when the name only of one is expressed yet really both are meant and intended And then by that word which in its proper sence stands only for the effect we are to understand not it alone but together with it the cause also that produced it and by that which properly signifies the cause we are to mean not the bare cause alone but besides it the effect which flows from it likewise As for the latter of these the bare naming of the cause when we intend together with it to express its natural consequent and effect too because it is that which chiefly concerns our present business I will set down some instances of it which daily
as a good plea at that Bar when they are separate from Obedience but then only when they effect and work it But when he says that Faith Repentance Love or any other thing shall save us he means not all or any but only a working Faith an obedient Repentance an active Love a Faith Love and Repentance which do not overlook Obedience but accompany and produce it So that first or last Obedience is still that wherein all the rest must concenter and agree that alone condition which our judge will accept and which we may safely trust to And this will fully appear by running over the particulars CHAP. II. Of Pardon promised to Faith Knowledge and being in Christ. The CONTENTS Of Pardon and happiness promised to Faith and Knowledge Of the nature of Faith in general Of natural Jewish and Christian Faith Of this last as justifying and saving Of the fitness of Christian Faith and Knowledge to produce Obedience Pardon promised to them no further than they are productive of it Of Pardon promised to being in Christ. Christ sometimes signifies the Christian Religion sometimes the Christian Church Being in Christ is being of Christs Religion or a member of Christs Church The fitness of these to effect Obedience Pardon promised to them no further than they do FIRST this condition of our acceptance which is to mete out to us our last doom of Bliss and Mercy and whereto Life and Pardon are promised at the last day is sometimes called knowledge or what is only a more particular way of knowing a knowing upon witness or testimony Faith By or upon the account of his knowledge or the knowledge of him shall my Righteous Servant when he sits to judge them justifie many says God of our Judge and Saviour Christ by the Prophet Isaiah Isa. 53.11 And this is Life Eternal says our Lord himself to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent Joh. 17.3 And then as for Faith which is the particular way of knowledge among us Christians who owe all that we know in order to Heaven and happiness to the witness and testimony of Jesus Christ the places which promise Life and Pardon unto it are to be met with in abundance Whosoever believes on me says our Saviour shall not perish but have Everlasting Life Joh. 3.15 16. And again This is the will of him that sent me that whosoever believes on me may have Everlasting Life Joh. 6.40 And when he sends out his Apostles after his Resurrection to proclaim the terms of Mercy and Salvation to all the world he bids them say Whosoever believeth and is Baptized shall be saved Mar. 16.16 Faith or belief in the general is a thinking something to be true upon the testimony of those persons who declare it And herein it differs from other sorts of knowledge because in them we believe upon the evidence and apparent reason of the things themselves but in this upon the witness and authority of those persons who reveal them For then we are said to know when we assent upon the Authority of things but then to believe when we assent upon the Authority of persons when not the evidence of the things revealed but the word and testimony of the revealer make us give credit to his Revelation This is the nature of Faith in general it is a giving credit to a thing or taking it to be true upon the testimony or authority of such persons as declare it And according to the difference of this testimony our Faith upon it is differenced and distinguished also For if we believe any thing upon the bare word of a man it is an Humane if upon the bare word and testimony of God it is a Divine Faith Divine Faith then is nothing else but a belief of Divine Revelations a taking any thing to be true because God has told us it is so And therefore we may be said to have Divine Faith of as many things as God has any way attested or revealed to us And for Gods Revelations they have been derived to us in several ways and by several instruments For some things God has revealed to us by the light of Nature That light came from him and is his Revelation For the spirit of a Man is the Candle of the Lord which as S t John saith in another case of our Saviour enlightens every man that cometh into the world Joh. 1.9 And in this general sence of Faith for a natural Faith or a belief of all natural Revelations all matters of knowledge are likewise matters of Faith because at last all natural light and evidence of things rests upon Gods Revelation that very evidence being no otherwise a proof to us that things are true than we are assured that God is the Author of it and that it is his Testimony and declaration to them that they are so And by this way of Revelation this natural light God has declared to us two great foundations of all Religion his own existence and his Providence that there is a God and that he will love and reward all such as serve and worship him The belief of which Articles so testified S t Paul affirms to be a part of Faith yea a part so fundamental as is absolutely necessary to our pleasing of God and to all Religion without Faith saith he it is impossible to please God for he who comes to God must believe that HE IS and that he is A REWARDER of them that diligently seek him Heb. 11.6 Other things God has revealed not by the light of nature seeing they are such things as that alone could never have discovered to us but either by his own immediate voice or inspiration or by the mediation and message of inspired men By the former he revealed to Noah the Drowning of the old world Gen. 6.13 the belief whereof is called Noah's Faith Heb. 11.7 To Abraham his having a numerous Issue by his Wife Sarah when as yet they had no Child and in all appearance were too old ever to expect one Gen. 15.5 6 and Chap. 17.17 19. the belief whereof is likewise call'd Abraham's Faith Heb. 11.17 18 19. To Moses his passing over all the houses of the Israelites where he should see the Blood of the Paschal Lamb sprinkled for a Token when he would slay all the First-born throughout all the Land of Egypt Exod. 12.12 13. the belief of which Revelation is also call'd the Faith of Moses Heb. 11.28 By the latter he reveal'd his will more largely to the whole people of Israel by the mouth and mediation of his Servant Moses and because both God and Man concurr'd in this Testimony their belief of his message was their Faith not in God only but together with him in his Servant Moses too For because the Law and Religion which they received though it came originally from God was yet derived down to them immediately by his Ministry and they knew no otherwise what
so neither are they to be conquered by one action but by many And since the process in Repentance even from one single Sin is so long and tedious ere it has arrived to a saving pitch and so difficult to a healthy man who has nothing to trouble and distract him what must an universal reformation be to a dying person whose time is short and much disturbed who cannot repeat many resolutions nor make a tryal of the force and power of any one and who is most likely to be weak and languid in all those good purposes which he makes by reason that his thoughts are heavy and his attention broken and all his faculties are oppressed with pain and become weary and unactive through a wasting Disease Surely if the first resolutions of healthy Men are generally so ineffective and insufficient these purposes of dying Penitents which in all advantages for a strong and prevailing resolution fall much below them must needs be generally of this ineffective sort too And when they are so they stand us in no stead in Gods account but are utterly unavailable to any mans Salvation A man who only purposeth but doth not practise who barely wills but is not able to perform is in the way to life indeed but he is far from having yet attained to it He is still in a sad case and under a damning Sentence For he is as S t Paul says in that seventh Chapter to the Romans where he describes him slain by Sin vers 11. It works death in him vers 13. he is yet under as the Law of Sin so the body of Death too vers 24. But the change of mind which God requires of us is such as works a change of practice If he sees it sufficient to effect that he accepts it indeed before the effect follows he takes the will for the deed when he sees the will is so strong as that upon any fit occasion it would produce it and upon this account he accepted the dying Thief Luk. 23.42 But if it be only an impotent and ineffective will and he discerns plainly that no obedient works would follow it it is no such will as he rewards and for such Penitents he will by no means absolve but utterly condemn them And since the change of mind and penitential purposes of dying persons even when they are upon genuine and lasting grounds so as in the following parts of a mans life if God should please to spare him they would do something would yet be weak and insufficient and so unable to do enough here is still a further reason of the ordinary insufficiency of such Repentance and why those dying men will not ordinarily be saved by it but perish notwithstanding it To conclude this point then we see that 't is possible for such New-birth to save a Man as has not yet produced a New practice and for dying Penitents to be accepted upon a change of mind without a like change of life and actions This I say is possible it sometimes is and sometimes has been done but this indeed is very rare and very seldom so that no Man in his sober wits who has time before him will dare to trust to it And the sum of all is this That to men who are so unhappy as to be brought into it it has as is expressed in Salvians determination just so much hope as may excite a good endeavour but to men who are yet out of it it is altogether so desperate as utterly to discourage all delay CHAP. IV. Of Pardon promised to Confession of Sins and to Conversion The CONTENTS Of Pardon promised to Confession of Sins The nature and qualifications of a Saving Confession It s fitness to make us forsake Sin The ineffectiveness of most mens Confessions The folly and impiety of it Pardon promised to Confession no further than it produces Obedience Of Pardon promised to Conversion The nature of Conversion It includes Obedience and is but another name for it FOurthly That condition of Life and Pardon which the Gospel indispensably exacts of us and whereupon at the last day Christ will accept and reward us is sometimes called Confession of our Sins to God When we acknowledge them God will be sure to pardon them he has engaged his word and faithfulness for it and so cannot recede from it If we confess our Sins says S t John God is just and FAITHFVL to forgive us our Sins 1 Joh. 1.9 Now as for this Confession of our Sins whereupon God promises mercifully to forgive them it is not a bare naming of them or giving in an Historical Catalogue of them to Almighty God that he may know them and be informed of them No he sees all our thoughts afar off and our actions long before We cannot inform him when we lay open our transgressions before him for we could never find any place wherein to act them so retired but it was under his eye nor any time and circumstances so secret as to escape his knowledge So that our Confession cannot be to instruct him but only to shame and to humble and to work other effects in our own selves And therefore it must not be a bare recital of such offences as we have committed but an acknowledgment duly qualified and accompanied with such tempers of mind as will lead us on to forsake and amend them It is a Confessing of them with shame with an humble debasement and sense of our unworthiness who could ever be so vile as to be guilty of them And such was Ezra's Confession Ezra 9. O my God saith he I am ASHAMED and blush to lift up my face to thee my God for our iniquities are encreased over our head and our trespasses are grown up unto the Heavens vers 6. It is an acknowledgment of them with hatred and detestation as things that are utterly odious and loathsome to us which therefore we are prone to fly from as from what is most offensive And such is that Confession whereunto God directs the Jews by his Prophet Ezekiel Ye shall remember your ways saith he and all your doings wherein ye have been defiled and ye shall LOATH your selves in your own sight for all your evils that you have committed Ezekiel 20.43 It is a recital of them with sorrow of mind and a troubled heart with such pain as we use to feel in those things which most afflict us which therefore we are forward to avoid as what creates the greatest torment And such was that of S t Peter who when he remembred and made mention of his Sin to God wept saith the Text bitterly Matt. 26.75 And of David who tells us in the 38. Psalm that when he declares to God his iniquity he will be SORRY for his Sin vers 18. It is a Confession of them with a resolution upon all this shame and sorrow which we have undergone for them never more to be reconciled to them or to act them over again and
which he hath given us and by usurping the place of Judg and Governour of the World to make others of our own It is plainly to oppose his Essence to his Gospel by making it bless those whom this condemns and to become Infidels to his Religion and Truth under colour of promoting his Mercy and Goodness It reproacheth his Nature under a pretence of Honouring it by making his Vertues enterfere and his Excellencies inconsistent and robbing him of one most glorious Attribute to exalt another But when he comes at last to judge the World he will effectually assert the truth of his Gospel and vindicate the Honour of his injured Attributes in passing a just censure and inflicting a most severe punishment on all such blasphemous presumptions as these are For it is not an idle trust in God or ineffective recumbency and reliance on Christ for salvation that shall avail any man at that Day No if they have despised his Laws and their lives are disobedient let them be as presumptuous as they please with God and as bold as they will with their Saviour they shall certainly go to Hell in the midst of all their high flown hopes and daring confidences For God will be as good as his Word and punish disobedience according as he has threatned it It is not only in his Word but in his very Nature that he hates and abhors sin so that he can never be brought to reward and encourage it being determined by his Natural Inclination as well as by the Truth of his Gospel eternally to punish and avenge it He is not a God saith the Psalmist who hath pleasure in wickedness no as an Argument of that he will not endure it in his Presence Evil shall not dwell with him The foolish or disobedient shall not be suffered to stand in his sight for he hateth all the Workers of iniquity Psal. 5.4 5. No man therefore must dare to place his hope and trust in God till in his works he honestly obeys him It is only our doing what he requires that can give us sufficient grounds to expect the performance of those mercies which he promises A faithful obedience is the only firm foundation of a sure Trust we must keep his Commandments before we can safely confide in him When God says then that he who fears the Lord shall be blessed and that he who trusts and hopes in him shall not finally be ashamed he speaks not of such fear and trust as are separate from obedience but of such only as are conjoyned with it The Phrase is metonymical our obedient works are implyed although they are not expresly mentioned for we must obey him through fear and do what he commands us in hopes of obtaining those mercies which he promises or else we shall never attain those blessings which we hope for And for this the Testimonies of the Scriptures are many and plain For as for our fear of God it is of no account with him further than it makes us obedient The fear of the Lord says Solomon is to hate evil Prov. 8.13 It must be an instrument of amendment and reformation a fear whereby men depart from evil Prov. 16.6 A means of perfecting our obedience and holy living for that is S t Paul's Character of it when he tells us of PERFECTING holiness in the fear of the Lord 2 Cor. 7.1 and of WORKING out our own SALVATION with fear and trembling Phil. 2.12 It is only when obedience thus follows upon our fear and is effected by it that God accepts and rewards it I will teach you the right way to pardon and happiness said Samuel Fear the Lord and together with that SERVE him 1 Sam. 12.24 25. For if we would hear the conclusion of the whole matter as saith the Wise Man we must fear God and keep his Commandments this obedience and fear together is the whole Duty of man Eccles. 12.13 No man therefore can lay a just claim to Gods mercy at the last day but he who has fear'd him in such sort as out of that religious fear intirely to obey him But whosoever fears so mercy shall rest on him for ever For the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on them that fear him provided that out of that fear they keep his Covenant and his Commandments to DO them Psal. 103.17 18. And then for our trust and hope in Gods mercy it is no saving trust but a blasphemous and bold presumption if we hope in him whilst we are disobedient and rebellious against him A good mans trust is only in promised mercies which are never made to such as wilfully and impenitently transgress Gods Laws but only to those who honestly obey them It is a trust as the Psalmist speaks in Gods Word and not against it Psal. 119.42 And because that word denounces nothing but woes and threatnings to all wicked men therefore as he speaks in another place shall the righteous alone trust in him Psal. 64.10 The hope of a Christian is not absolute but suspended upon his performance of certain terms a hope upon his active service and obedience So that whosoever has it and expects not to be disappointed in it must purifie himself as S t John tells us 1 John 3.3 Disobedience so long as men continue in it is a most desperate and forlorn Condition there being no just hope to any man but in well-doing It is says S t Paul in teaching us to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live godlily soberly and righteously in this present world that the Gospel encourages us to look for the fulfilling of our blessed hope Tit. 2.12 13. And the way to hold fast the confidence and joy of a just hope in Christ firm unto the end he informs the Hebrews is only by hearing and thereupon obeying Gods voice and not hardening their hearts as the Israelites did in the provocation or those transgressions wherewith they provoked him in the day of their temptation in the wilderness Heb. 3.6 7 8. And the full assurance of hope as he again declares to them is no otherwise to be upheld but by mens diligence in obeying and in the work and labour of love which implies the whole of our obedience Heb. 6.10 11. So that as the Psalmist says they must trust in the Lord and together with that do good who are to receive mercy from him Psal. 37.3 If men therefore will dare to sin and yet presume affront God Majesty and still trust in his Mercy they must needs deceive their own Souls to their utter destruction For it is a vain confidence and an impudent presumption in any man to rely upon Gods goodness for the pardon of his sins without repenting of them and obeying him whenas he has plainly told us That his goodness it self shall pity and pardon none but the Penitent and Obedient He trusts to a false hope and leans upon a broken Reed for as long as his transgressions
towards them and in like manner our Love of God fulfils all those other Precepts which comprehend our Duty towards him For all that he requires of us towards himself is neither more nor less than to honour and worship him to do nothing in all our behaviour that savours of disrespect towards him nor by any thought word or action to disgrace or contemn him But now nothing renders any person so secure from contempt as our love and affection for him Affront and reproach are a great part of enmity and despite and so can never proceed from us towards those whom we love and value But this is always certain that if we are kindly affected towards any person we shall not fail to express a due honour of him and bear him a just respect and veneration So that if we do indeed love God he is secure from all affront and disobedience being a most consummate reproach since our Love will not permit us to dishonour it can never suffer us to disobey him Thus mighty and powerful easie and natural a Principle of an universal obedience both towards God and men is an universal Love it doth the work without difficulty and carries us on to obey with ease in as much as all the particular Precepts and Instances of obedience are but so many genuine effects and proper expressions of it The effects of our love are the parts of our obedience the products of our Duty and Religion as well as of our passion So that it is a most natural Spring of our obedient service because it prompts us to the very same things to which God has bound and obliged us by his Precepts But besides this way of an universal love's influencing an universal obedience through this coincidence of the effects of Love and the instances of Duty our Love of God who is our King and Governour were a sure principle of our obedience to him were his Precepts instanced not in the same things which are the effects of a general Love which is the true Case but in things different from them For although our love would not prompt us to perform them by its natural tendency towards them and for their own sakes yet it would through submission and duty and for his sake who enjoyn'd them It would make us deny our selves to pleasure him and produce other effects than our own temper enclines us to to do him service For as Love is for doing hurt to none so least of all to Governours it will give to every one their own but to them most especially Now Duty and Service is that which we owe to our Rulers and the proper way of Love's exerting it self in that is by obedience If we love we shall be industrious to please and the only way of pleasing them is by doing what they command us For there is no such offence to a Governour as the transgression of his Laws no injury like that of opposing his Will and despising his Authority To do this is to renounce all subjection and to cast off his Yoke and so is not to express love but to declare enmity not affectionately to owne but in open malice to defie him But if any man would contribute to his delight there is no way for that but by a performance of his pleasure it is nothing but our obedience that can add to his contentment or evidence our Love For disobedience to our Governours is clearly the most profest hatred as the observance of our Duty is the most allowed instance of friendship and good will So that Love is a Spring and Principle of our Obedience not only because the Commandment and it run parallel and the instances of Gods Laws are the same with the effects of a general Love but also because our love of God would make us obey him even in such instances of Duty as differ from them For all that aversion which we have to the thing commanded would be outweighed by our desire to please him who commands it and although we should neglect it upon its own yet for his sake we should certainly fulfil and perform it And because our Love of God and men is so natural a Spring and so sweet and easie a Principle to produce in us a perfect and intire obedience to all those Laws which concern either or to any other therefore has God promised so nobly to reward it He never intends to crown an idle and unworking love but such only as is active and industrious For when he says that he who loves God and men is known of God and accepted by him and born of him and that God dwells in him and has prepared Heaven for him he speaks metonymically and means all the while a love with these religious effects a love that is productive of an entire service and obedience And to this Point the Scriptures speak fully For as for our love of God himself and of our Saviour Christ that is plainly of no account in his judgment but when it makes us keep his Commands and become industriously obedient If ye LOVE me saith Christ keep my Commandments for he that hath my Commandments and KEEPETH them he it is that loveth me and he only who so loveth me in obeying me shall be beloved of my Father and I will love him John 14.15 21. Whoso keepeth Gods Word saith S t John in him verily is the love of God made perfect and hereby it is by this perfection of Love in Obedience that we know we are in him 1 John 2.5 But if we have only a pretended verbal love or an inward passion for God and shew no Signs or Effects of it in our obedient works and actions we shall be as far from being accepted by him as we are from any true and real service of him He will look upon all our Professions only as vain speech and down-right flattery but will not esteem it as having any thing of sober truth and reality For whosoever hath this Worlds goods and seeth his Brother hath need and obeys not Gods Command of shewing mercy and the Case is the same in other Instances but shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him how dwells the love of God in him 1 John 3.17 And then as for our love of our Brethren it doth not at all avail us unto Mercy and Life unless it make us perform all those things which are required of us by the Laws of Justice Charity and Beneficence towards them My little Children saith S t John let us not love only in word and in tongue but in deed also and in truth For it is hereby by this operative love that we know we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts in full confidence of his mercy before him 1 John 3.18 19. Our love to them is to be manifested as Christs was to us viz. in good effects and a real service yea when occasion requires it and their eternal weal may be very much promoted
and practise all other Vertues that are gainful not because we love God but only because we love mony We may be just and honest and seemingly religious not for the sake of a Commandment but of our own credit because the contrary practice would wound our good Name in the world and stain our reputation And now when our own lusts and vices our carnal pleasures and temporal advantages strike in after this manner with Gods Laws and command the same service which he enjoins us we may pretend if we will and as too oft we do that all is for his sake and that these performances which are really owing to our own self-interests come from us upon the account of Religion and Obedience And when we falsifie and feign thus it is flat dissimulation It is no more but acting the part of an obedient and religious man seeing like an Actor on the Stage we are that person whom we represent not in inward truth and reality but only in outward shew and appearance which is the very nature of hypocrisie But for a man to be sincere in Gods service is the same as really to intend that obedience which he professes It is inwardly and truly to will and do that for his sake which in outward shew and appearance we would be thought to do It is nothing else as the Psalmist says but truth in the inward parts Psal. 51.6 the having our inward design and intention to agree with our outward profession and being verily and indeed those obedient persons which we pretend to be And as for this sincerity of our performance of what God requires viz. our doing it for his sake and because he commands it it is altogether necessary to make such performance become obedience and to qualifie us for the rewards of those that obey For without it we do not observe Gods will but our own his Command had no share in what we did because it had been done although he had said nothing so that in our performance of it we served not him but our own selves And what has God to thank us for if we do nothing but our own pleasure Wherein do we serve him by acting only according to our own liking That cannot be charged on him which is not designed for him and if we do what he commands no otherwise than thus it is all one as if we had done nothing But if ever we expect that God should judge us at the last Day to have obeyed him we must be sincere in our obedient performances For the Lord looketh not on the outward appearance and pretence saith Samuel but he looks on the inward intention and design which is the heart 1 Sam. 16.7 He saves as the Psalmist tells us the upright in heart Psal. 7.10 And again As for the upright in heart they and they alone shall glory Psal. 64.10 For it is not from the bare outward appearance and profession but from the heart says Solomon that proceed the issues of life Prov. 4.23 And this is plainly declared in the express words of the Law it self For it accepts not a heartless service nor accounts it self obeyed by what was never intended for it But thus it bespeaks us The Lord thy God requires thee to serve him with all thy heart and with all thy soul. For he is a great God a mighty and a terrible to all that do otherwise and who in his Judgement regardeth not persons nor to corrupt him taketh rewards Deut. 10.12 17. And the Apostle tells the Philippians that their being sincere is the way to be without offence till the Day of Christ Phil. 1.10 And thus we see that to render our obedience acceptable at the last Day it is absolutely necessary that it be sincere and unfeigned We must do what Gods Laws prescribe not only because our own credit or interest sometimes requires it but because God has commanded it In all our obedient performances our heart and design must go along with him before ever he will recompence and reward us So that 't is plain we cannot obey God either against our will and intention or without them seeing our wills and intentions themselves are the very life and soul of our obedience The prime part of our Duty consists in the directing of our Design for even that which is done agreeably to Gods Command must be aimed and intended for him or else it will never be owned and approved by him But that we may the better judge of this sincerity of our service which is measured by our intention and design we must take notice of a two-fold intention For it is either 1. Actual and express Or 2. Habitual and implicite Now it is this latter which is always and indispensably required to the sincerity of our service but as for the former it is not always necessary though oftentimes it be Intention is the tendency of the soul towards some end which it likes and which it thinks to compass and endeavour after And this is one prime requisite in the actions of men and that which distinguisheth our operations from the actions of brute Beasts for what they do proceeds from the necessary force of uncontriving Nature and instinct but what we from reason and design And the cause of this difference is this Because God has given the brute Beasts no higher Guide and Commander of their actions than appetite and passion whose motions are not chosen with freedom and raised in them by reason and thought but merely by the necessitating force of outward objects themselves and those impressions which they make upon them For they act altogether through love and hatred hopes and fears and they love and hate not through reason and discourse but through the natural and mechanical suitableness or offensiveness of those objects which they act for But as for us men he has put all our actions under the power and in the disposal not of outward things but of something within us even our own free will They are not imposed upon us by the force of any thing without us but are freely chosen by us we are not their Instruments but their Authours they flow from our own pleasure and undetermined choice Now as our actions are at the disposal and command of our wills so do our wills themselves command and dispose of them not blindly and by chance but always for some reason and upon some design For in themselves they are indifferent to make us either omit or act neglect or exert them And therefore to determine our wills one way rather than the other to act them rather than to let them alone they must be moved and perswaded by such Arguments as are fit to win upon them Now that which can move and gain upon our wills is only goodness We will and desire nothing but what we think is good for us and which tends some way or other to better and advantage us For what we
the opportunity of the Sin returns for notwithstanding all the contrary desire this is acted at the next offer Obedience is not desired so much as their ease for they love it not so well as to be at the necessary pains for it It is a squeamish delicate desire it would obey if that could be without trouble but it will undergo nothing for obedience But this is a conceit as strange as it is destructive and such wherewith the simplest of men suffer themselves to be imposed upon in no other matters but only this which most of all requires their care and caution viz. the eternal welfare of their souls and the truth of their obedience For who ever took his desire of gain to be gain his desire of ease to be ease his desire of meat to be food his desire of cloaths to be rayment or his desire of knowledg to be knowledg And why then must that be true in Religion which is always false in common life and the desire of Grace be said to be Grace and the desire of obedience obedience Our desires are one thing but the thing desired is another Our desires are within but the object desired is without us Our desires are our own but the thing desired is wanting For so far is our desire of any thing from being the very thing it self which is desired that it is not always joined with it but we possess one whilst we are without the other For alas we find that those things which we need and have a mind to do not come at the beck of a desire nor are procured by a wish but we must do more than desire them endeavour after them and work or act for them or else we shall sit without them A man doth not presently possess meat because he is hungry or is Owner of a great Estate because he is covetous no he must labour and seek as well as desire both for the one and the other or else let him desire what he will he shall get neither 'T is true a desire of money is a great preparative to get money and a desire of knowledg a good disposition to attain knowledg because our appetites and desires are of all the passions the great and most immediate Spring of our outward works and operations For delight begets love and love ends in desire and desire carries us on to work and labour for the thing desired We seek after a thing because we long for it and take pains about it because we desire it And thus our desires of Grace and Obedience are Grace and Obedience That is Our desire of Grace is not Grace it self nor our desire of Obedience Obedience but a good step and degree towards them It is so metonymically it is the Principle and the Cause of it For therefore we acquire Grace and perform Obedience because we desire them We should take no pains about them were it not for our desires of them but because we have a mind to them therefore we labour after them But till our desires come on to this effect they have no title to the rewards of it Because although they are a gift of Gods Grace 't is true as well as Obedience it self is yet are they not that Grace which in the Judgment shall entitle us to pardon and happiness For the promise to the Desire of Obedience is one but the promise to Obedience it self is another If we sincerely desire to do Gods will i. e. if we desire it so as according to the best of our power to endeavour after it the promise to that is That we shall be inabled to do it For one promise of the New Covenant is That God will grant unto us to serve him in holiness and righteousness Luke 1.74 75 which he will then do when we desire it of him by giving his holy Spirit to them that ask him Luke 11.13 But if we do indeed obey it the promise to that is That we shall be saved by it For Christ is become the Authour of eternal salvation to them that obey him Heb. 5.9 And it is said expresly of them that obey That they shall have right to the tree of life Rev. 22.14 So that to the honest desire of obedience all that God promises is the power to perform and work obedience but that whereunto mercy and life is promised is nothing less than obedience it self For to the working out our salvation it is required as S t Paul says that we be wrought upon not only to will what God commands but also to do it Phil. 2.12 13. The great pretence whereby men of idle unworking desires would plead for their unfruitfulness and support their hopes of a happy Sentence under a life of disobedience is a mistaken sence of these words of S t Paul in his Epistle to the Galatians The Flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the Flesh so that ye cannot do the things that ye would Gal. 5.17 Which words they interpret thus The Spirit in all good men lusteth against the Flesh but not so far as to prevail over it for although they may will and desire with the Spirit yet they cannot do those things which they would And if this be so 't is plain that we have warrant enough to hope for mercy notwithstanding we only desire but are not able to perform But this is a plain perverting of the Apostles words from the Apostles own meaning For although he says that the lusting is on both sides both of the Flesh against the Spirit and of the Spirit against the Flesh yet as for the ineffectiveness or not doing what is willed and desired that he charges only upon one He leaves it purely and solely to the Fleshes share which can indeed lust and desire evil things even in regenerate men but is not able to prevail so far as to work and effect them because the over-ruling will of the Spirit checks and restrains it Through the victorious lusting of the Spirit against the Flesh saith he it comes to pass that you cannot do or do not those things which from the instigation of your Flesh you desire and would do And to shew this to be his sense I need do no more than set down his words in that order wherein they stand which is as follows This I say then Walk in the Spirit and you shall not work and fulfil the lusts of the Flesh. Not work and fulfil them I say notwithstanding you will still feel an ineffective and unconquering stirring of them For the Flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the Flesh and these two are contrary one to the other So that in walking or working as I said after the lustings and desires of the Spirit you fulfil not the lusts of the Flesh which are contrary to it ye cannot do or you do not the things that your Flesh lusts after which yet through its lusting ye would ver 16 17. Whereas
enable men to do what it commanded is true still For the Law did not promise it although several both before and under the Law enjoyed it but they who had the benefit of it received it not from the Covenant of the Law but from the Covenant of Grace and the Gospel which has been more or less on foot through all times ever since the World began And in this Covenant since Christ has given us the last Edition and perfection of it both these great defects of the Mosaick Law which rendered it so unable to work this intire reformation and obedience are fully supplied For in every Page of Christ's Gospel what is so legible as the promise of eternal life The joys of Heaven are as much insisted on by Christ as the delights of Canaan were by Moses And then as for the other promise viz. that of the Spirit it is now as plainly revealed as words can make it For we need not to guess at it by signs or to presume it from probabilities or to believe it upon Syllogism and consequence but Christ has spoke out so as to be understood by every capacity God will give the holy Spirit to them that ask him Luke 11.13 Now because the Law of Moses laboured under these two great defects which are happily supplied by the Gospel of Christ by reason whereof it was very unable to effect that reformation of the World which was necessary therefore doth the Apostle in several places speak very meanly of it as of a weak and ineffective Instrument He affirms plainly and proves also That it neither could nor did make men throughly good and that therefore God was forced in the fulness of time to make known and in Christ's death to establish a better If there had been a Law given by Moses which could have given life then saith he verily righteousness should not have needed to be sought by another Covenant but have been by the Law But this we see it could not for the Scripture hath concluded all those who lived under it to be still under the dominion of sin that so since the Law of Moses could not do it the promise of eternal life of the Spirit and of other things which we have by the faith of Jesus Christ might be given to work and effect it to those that believe Gal. 3.21 22. Something indeed the Law did towards it for it armed their consciences against sin so that they could not take their full swing and transgress without all fear and remorse And this was some restraint and kept them from being so ill by far as otherwise they would have been although it was not able to make them so good as they should And to lay this hank upon sin and to check it in some measure till such time as the Gospel should be more clearly revealed to subdue it perfectly was that very end for which the Law was at first given and whereto so long as it was in force it served Wherefore saith he serveth the Law of Moses It was added to the rude draught of the Gospel-Covenant made with Abraham because of the transgressions of men which grew very high that it might in some degree restrain them till Jesus Christ the seed of Abraham should come to whom as to the head and in behalf of his Church the promise of such Grace as would restrain it fully was made And to fit it the more for imprinting an awe upon peoples Consciences whereby it might lay this restraint upon sin it was ordained at the first giving of it by terrible fire and thundrings made by the Angels which were so dreadful that the people desired of God that those formidable Angels might be no more employed in delivering it to them but that it might be put into the hands of another Mediator viz. Moses who was a man like unto themselves Gal. 3.19 But although this restraint upon Sin were something yet was it far from sufficient so that still it is true of the Law of Moses that notwithstanding it could begin yet it could finish and make nothing perfect but that it was the bringing in of a better hope than was warranted by the Law which should do that Heb. 7.19 And as for this imperfection and faultiness which the Apostle imputes to the first Covenant or Law of Moses in these and other places it is nothing more as he observes than God himself has charged upon it when he speaks of establishing a better instead of it For if the first Covenant by Moses had been faultless and void of imperfection then should no place have been sought for the introduction of the second which it is plain there was For finding fault with them for their breach of the first Covenant he saith in Jer. 31.31 the dayes come when I will make a New Covenant with the house of Israel such as shall make me to be for ever unto them a God and enable them to be unto me an obedient People Heb. 8.7 8 9 10. Now this Inability of the Law of Moses to work a compleat conquest over sin and a thorow reformation which the Apostle affirms so clearly in these other places he sets out more largely and particularly in that seventh Chapter to the Romans For from the beginning of this Discourse which I have taken at the 14 th Verse of the 6 th Chapter to the end of it at the 5 th vers of the 8 th this weakness and inability of the Law is that still which is every where endeavour'd to be made out and which returns upon us as the conclusion and inference from every argument Sin must not have dominion over you saith he because you are not under the Law where is the place of its reigning but under the Grace of Christ at the 14. verse of the 6 th Chapter And in the 7 th it is taken notice of at every turn When you were in the flesh or under the Law which from its consisting so much of Carnal Ordinances and giving the flesh so much advantage is called flesh Galat. 3.3 the motions of sin which were encouraged by the weakness of the Law brought forth fruit unto death but now being delivered from the weak Law you serve in newness of spirit not as you did then in the oldness of the letter vers 5 6. Sin taking occasion or advantage over the weak Commandment wrought in me all manner of concupiscence vers 8. When the weak Commandment came sin revived and I died vers 9. Sin taking occasion or advantage by the Commandment slew me vers 11. by which prevailing over the Commandment it appears to be exceeding sinfull vers 13. And at the end of the discourse at the 8 th Chapter we are told again of the Law of Moses being weak through the conquering power of the flesh which made it necessary for God to send his own Son with a better Law which was strong enough to rescue us not of the dominion of
it vers 3 4. So that upon the whole matter it plainly appears that all that is said in that seventh Chapter of willing but not doing of sinning against conscience and transgressing with regret doth not at all set forth the savable state of a true Christian under the Gospel of Christ but only the state of a midling sinner of a lost Jew who only struggles but cannot conquer being yet under the weakness and imperfections of the Mosaick Law Nay I add further So far is any man who continues to work and act his sin from having any real grounds of hope and encouragement from this place in so doing that in very deed if he rightly consider it it will possess him with the quite contrary It holds out to him a sentence of death and shews him plainly the absolute necessity not only of a willing but also of a working obedience For the man who disobeys thus unwillingly and sins with regret is so far from being in a state of Life and Salvation notwithstanding his sins that he is here expresly said to be undone and slain by them The motions of sin under the law bring forth fruit unto death vers 5. when sin revived by the coming of the Commandment I died vers 9. The Commandment which was ordained unto life I on the contrary found to be unto death vers 10. Sin taking occasion and advantage by the Commandment slew me vers 11. Sin wrought death in me by that Law which is good vers 13. O! wretched man that I am by reason of this subjection unto sin who shall deliver me from this body of Sin and Death vers 24. But on the other side if we would belong to Christ and appear such Servants as he will own and reward at last we are taught in this very place that we must not be worsted by sin but overcome it that we must not work evil but righteousness that we must not walk after those sinfull lusts which are seated in the flesh but after the Law of God which is enthroned in the Spirit Sin shall not have dominion over you if you are under Grace Chapter 6.14 Now yield your members servants unto righteousness vers 19. you are become subject and as it were married to Christ that you should bring forth fruit to God Chap. 7. vers 4. Now being delivered from the Law we must serve not sin as we did under it but God in newness of spirit vers 6. The Grace of God through Jesus Christ hath delivered me from this body of death vers 24 25. The Law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus when I became truly and acceptably Christian hath made me free from the law of Sin and Death Chap. 8. vers 2. So that the righteousness of the Law which it was not able to work in me is now by means of the Gospel wrought and fulfilled in me for since I came under it I am one who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit vers 4. So that all the while we see this is a Truth most sure and stedfast which S t Paul is so far from opposing in this seventh Chapter to the Romans that in reality he avers and confirms it viz. that if we do commit sin and work iniquity it will not excuse us to say that we did it unwillingly The regret in sinning may be allowed as was shewn in the last Chapter to lessen our crime and thereby to abate our punishment but that is all which it can do for it cannot quite exempt us from it And thus at last we see that this fourth ground of shifting off the necessity of this service with our actions viz. our hope of being saved at the last day although we have not obeyed in our works but have wrought disobedience because when we did so it was with reluctance and unwillingness is no less delusive than are all the former It will certainly fail any man who trusts to it and if he will not see it before make him know the falseness of it when it is too late to rectifie and amend it As for all those foundations therefore whereupon men build their hopes of a happy sentence without ever obeying with their strength or bodily powers viz. the conceit of being saved for Orthodox Opinions for ineffective desires for never transgressing but through a strong temptation or with an unwilling mind they are all false grounds snares of death and inlets to damnation But as ever we expect that our obedience should avail us unto Pardon and Life we must obey with our strength or bodily powers as well as with our wills our passions and our understandings If we would have God at the last day to approve our service and to reward and justifie our obedience this and nothing less than this must be done towards it We must not only desire but do it is not enough to will and approve but we must work and practise what is commanded us We must not barely think right in our minds or desire with our affections or choose with our wills but as the Perfection and Crown of all we must put to our strength and executive powers and work the will of God in our lives and actions Without this if we have life and opportunity all other things will signifie nothing For it is he who doth good saith S t John who will be looked upon to be of God 3 Joh. 11. Little children saith the same Apostle let no man deceive you for it is only he who doth righteousness who in Gods judgement is righteous 1 Joh. 3.7 It is this service of our strength or bodily powers in our outward works and operations which makes up our duty and secures our reward Blessed are they that do his Commandments for they only have right to the great reward the Tree of Life Revel 22.14 But on the other side if we do evil and work iniquity no service of our other faculties can stand us in any stead but in Gods account we shall be esteemed wicked wretches children of wrath and heirs of destruction For the words of our Saviour Christ himself who is to judge of it are vehement and plain Verily verily I say unto you whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin Joh. 8.34 He who commits sin is of the devil for whosoever doth not righteousness is not of God but a child of the devil 1 Joh. 3.8 10. And as this working wickedness howsoever we are against it in our thoughts and desires makes us in Gods account sons of sin and disobedience so will it be sure to render us withall children of wrath and destruction If you live after the flesh saith S t Paul you shall die Rom. 8.13 And whatever men think in their minds or desire in their hearts or profess in their words to the contrary if for all that they have sinned impenitently in their actions Christ has told them plainly that he will pronounce when he comes to
I forsook not thy Commandments vers 87. and many now still are my persecutors and enemies yet do I not decline from thy testimonies vers 157. The Holy Apostles of our Saviour conflicted with more difficulties and distress persecutions and sufferings for the Religion and Obedience of their Lord than any men I think ever did or it may be ever will do I think sayes S t Paul that God hath set forth us Apostles last as it were men appointed to the bloodiest which is usually the last scene of all even to death it self For we are exposed to slaughter as men were in the tragical sports of that time upon a publick theatre being made a spectacle unto the world and to angels and to men From the first entrance on our office even to this present hour we both hunger and thirst and are naked and are buffetted and have no certain dwelling place being made as the very filth of the world and the off-scouring of all things from the first to this day 1 Cor. 4.9 11 13. If any straits could authorize an evil action or if any pressures could justifie a disobedient escape sure these would But they knew too well the nature of their Religion ever to dream of a liberty to sin that they might avoid persecution and they were too resolutely addicted to it ever to attempt it For neither the extremity of their sufferings nor the desperateness of their danger could ever make them transgress their duty or go beyond the Laws of their Religion to lessen or prevent them But they obeyed bravely and entirely even in the highest strains even in the most ungratefull instances even in those matters wherein if any where the malice and violence of their enemies would provoke or rather force them to disobey For in the midst of all these pressures sayes S t Paul being reviled we bless being persecuted we suffer it being defamed we do nothing worse than entreat and pray for our defamers 1 Cor. 4.12 13. In patience in afflictions in necessities in distresses in stripes in imprisonments in popular tumults in manual labours in all these things and in the throng and distraction of all our sorrows we approve our selves as the true obedient Servants and faithfull Ministers of God shewing that not by any selfish disobedient politick shifts but by pureness of conversation by long-suffering by kindness even to our very enemies in a word by the most excellent of all gifts and the Epitome of all Duty Charity or love unfeigned 2 Cor. 6.3 4 5. Religion then can never give protection to any disobedience nor our concern and zeal for God be pleaded with any shew of modesty or reason in vindication of our transgressions of any of his Laws or Precepts For Religion needs no defence from times of suffering it can live in them it is improved by them nay some of its most glorious parts and eminent instances are never shown in any lustre but when we fall under them and where it ought to be defended the breach of Laws is in no wise a fit instrument for its advancement and protection For God cannot be honoured nor Religion advanced by disobedience Obedience is so essential and super-eminent a part of its Nature and so preferable to any idle profession or ineffective belief that to transgress Christian Laws for the maintenance of an undisturbed liberty in professing Christian opinions were not to strengthen and preserve but dangerously to wound if not wholly to destroy it This disobedience to Christian Laws that we may avoid suffering for the profession of Christian Doctrines is such as the very temper of the Gospel which is made up in great part of passive Precepts and a suffering Religion plainly contradicts such as its Laws and Precepts strictly forbid such as Christ our Lord and Judg will certainly and most severely punish and such as the most persecuted religious men could never be provoked or forced into either by the greatness of their fears or by the violence of their pains although the most exquisite that could be invented by the most searching wits and keenest malice in the world So that whensoever men sin to avoid suffering and disobey the Laws of Religion to preserve the profession of it from persecution it is not Religion but their Lusts not their love of God but their love of their own selves which makes them disobedient Religion will upon no accounts justifie their transgressions but utterly condemns them and unless their repentance prevents it God at the last Day will endlesly punish and avenge for them But as for Religion in that narrow sense wherein some understand it i. e. the use of religious Ordinances and the profession and belief of religious Opinions if men would shew their care and concern to preserve the free liberty and unpersecuted use of that so as both God and all good men should honour and commend them let them shew it in a pious and discreet management Which they will justly be thought to do if they keep within their own sphere and use even there no sinful and disobedient means and are zealous in the first place for the practice and preservation of religious Laws and next to that for religious Ordinances and Opinions 1. In shewing their care to preserve the free liberty and unpersecuted use of religious Ordinances and Professions they must act within their own sphere We private Christians must not prescribe methods of preserving it to publick Magistrates or censure their proceedings and speak irreverently of their persons and administrations when they determine otherwise than we had thought fitting We must not without consent and approbation of Authority combine in Bodies and associate in solemn Leagues Bonds and Covenants to be aiding and assisting to each other with our Persons Armes and Purses to protect it against all Opposers For these are such things as are no part of our business but God has hedged them in and entrusted them in other hands He has delegated that power to Kings and Governours to take care of the common good and to judge of publick expedience He has put the sword into the Magistrates hands and has authorized him and him only to have power of life and death and to decree and establish peace and war And if any man without his order shall take the Sword and use it against his Brother he may read his Sentence which is writ in plain words already They that take the sword as every man doth when Authority doth not allow or reach it out to him shall perish by the sword Matth. 26.52 These means then and any others which God has appropriated to the care and entrusted in the hands of other men can be no lawful expressions of our care but an unlawful intruding into anothers Office a sinful use of what is put out of ours and committed to an others management Our exercise and use of them is a proud usurpation an unpeaceable encroachment a busie medling in other mens
prohibited not being forbidden universally but some being excepted here again is room for ignorance and mistake about the particular action after we have known the general Duty For we may take that to be a case excepted which is indeed a case prohibited and venture upon an action as an exempted liberty which in truth and reality is a forbidden sin 3. In other actions although we know the general Law yet many times we are in ignorance about the particular action because there are several actions which are not directly forbidden by any Law but are alwayes innocent and indifferent unless when some Law takes hold of them indirectly The action is usually allowed except when it is committed in such a manner as that the transgression of some Law accompanies it There is no Law against it self but only against some thing that is annexed to it For God has not given a particular Law for every sort of actions but has left us in several to govern our selves by other motives and inducements of pleasure honour or interest and not by virtue of a Commandment But although these unrestrained actions are no matter of a particular Law which expresly names them and directly binds us up to one side either in chusing or refusing the whole kind of them yet in our use and exercise of them they may at one time or other fall under the power of several For to illustrate this by an instance there is no Law which directly and expresly either enjoyns or forbids us to play at cards or other pastime but yet several Laws commanding or forbidding other things may be transgressed in our use of them For even in a game at cards we may incur the sin of Covetousness by our desire of money the sin of Injustice by our endeavours to cheat and cozen and the sins of passionateness impatience and unpeaceableness by our repining at our ill luck our quarrelling and contending and the like might be shewn in other cases Now seeing several actions which in themselves are thus innocent and under no Law may yet at one time or other by reason of some thing concomitant and annexed to them be indirectly a transgression of a Law here is still a further reason why when we know the general Law we yet are ignorant of our present actions being forbid by it For the Law doth not look upon it directly but takes a compass before it comprehends it They lie not in the same line and so one may be particularly seen and considered of and much more known and understood in the general without seeing of the other 4. In other actions although we know the General Law which we sin against yet we do not believe that our present action is included in it or forbid by it because another Law happens to clash with it in some instance and seems to injoyn and justifie what we do although that be transgressed by it For it often happens in a Christians Life that two Laws interfere and command differently in the same instance Our Duty is at variance with it self so that when we pursue obedience in one particular another is disobeyed by us How obvious and usual is it for him who would avoid the passion and impatience of discourse to fall into a fault of the opposite extream by fullenness and unsociable moroseness What is more common than for men to be over censorious and troublesomly rigid in conversation who aim at nothing but to be severely virtuous and piously austere It is an obvious errour for any whilst they intend a charitable feasting to run into some small intemperance for inoffensiveness and kind compliance to justle out the due severities of reproof for severity to exceed into ungentleness for affection to degenerate into fondness and which is the great instance of errour upon this score for our zeal for God to disturb the peace and transgress the bounds of charity towards men I do not mean such zeal as transgresses notorious and weighty Laws for disputable nay even for clear and evident Doctrines and Opinions A zeal that will stick at nothing but bursts through all Gods Commands to propagate an Article and ventures upon murders tumults lying slander wars blood-shed and other instances of a most notorious and damning disobedience in practice to promote an Orthodox belief For these are such instances of offence as no honest heart can overlook but if a man has not debauched his Conscience they must needs appear to be of a frightful guilt and of a damning nature Any virtuous temper must abhor and every good conscience utterly condemn them So that no man of an honâ—st and obedient heart can ever hope to serve God by them or think any pretence whatsoever of force enough to justifie the practice of them But then there are other sins which are of a smaller guilt or of a more alterable nature such as either are not greatly or not alwayes evil but only when they happen to have ill effects or are in an exorbitant degree and these an eager zeal doth many times drive men to and they think all is obedience even when they proceed so far in them as to disobey Mens 〈◊〉 for those Opinions which they account Religious 〈…〉 them daily into estrangedness of mind and 〈◊〉 of behaviour into passione disputes and 〈◊〉 reflections into animosities and disquietness and a great breach of mutual charity and love And all these though really they are breaches of their Duty are looked upon as innocent nay praise-worthy they judge them to come from an honest Principle and therefore doubt not but that they will end in an happy reward The duty of pious zeal is the spring although it contract much of humane passion in the passage and that they hope will be acceptable to God which goes under cover of a Commandment and comes to serve him And this was the case in that hot and sinfull contest which happened betwixt those two great lights of Virtue and Learning Epiphanius and Chrysostome For it was a zeal for publick good and against such things as were likely in their opinion to corrupt the Faith or disturb the Peace or pervert the practice of the Church which transported them into that warm contention that ended in an uncharitable breach and passionate imprecation when Epiphanius wrote to Chrysostome That he hoped he would lose his See and never dye a Bishop and Chrysostome replyed to him that he hoped he would come to an untimely end and never return safe into his own city And a real transgression of one Law being thus through the clashing and enterfering of two Laws of Christ in fair appearance an act of laudable and necessary obedience to another Here again is a further reason why when we know the Law which we sin against we yet think that our action is not sinfull because we take it to be justified nay what is more commanded by another 5. In other actions although we know the General Law
notorious and unquestionable Laws to be overturned by them But since he will stick to his wicked Principle even when it destroys obedience and prefer a disputable opinion before a weighty and plain Duty 't is plain to all that he is not willing to obey but industrious to seek a shift and to evade all obligation to obedience As for this enquiry then viz. When our disobedient prejudices get into our consciences by the help of our own unmortified lusts and damning vices from these measures we may make our own souls this Answer If we are usually and in the common course of our lives guided by that lust or vice which our prejudice advances if we saw the disobedient effects of it when we first gave credit to it or if we still adhere to it after that we have been plainly showed the unquestionable and notorious sins which are avouched by it Our prejudice took place by virtue of our disobedience and without our timely repentance it will certainly condemn us If it entred innocently and honestly through the weakness of our understandings or the fallibility of the means of knowledge it would be pardoned and not imputed to us but since it gains admittance by our love to damning lusts and disobedience it is of a deadly guilt and unless repentance intervene will certainly destroy us And thus at last we have seen what ignorance is effected by our prejudices and what is to be judged of those transgressions which are incurred under it And the summ of all is this That our prejudices make us either quite overlook several Laws or even whilst we know and consider of them to venture upon several disobedient actions which really come under them not knowing that they do And if such prejudices entred through the fallibility of means and weakness of an honest understanding they are pardonable and uncondemning but if they took place by means of strong lusts and a wicked heart they are deadly sins and fit to be charged upon us as all others are without repentance to our condemnation But seeing it is much safer and infinitely more eligible to have no disobedient prejudice at all than to be put into all this danger about the pardon and forgiveness of it before I dismiss this Point I will set down one plain Rule and easie Method in matters of Duty and moment to prevent it For by this means we may all of us attain in good measure to that which S t Paul assures us was his utmost care and industrious exercise viz. a conscience void of offence or rather an inoffensive conscience which is no scandal or cause of sin to us and which doth not stumble and cast us down into any breach of Duty either towards God or towards men Acts 24.16 And the Rule which I would press upon all simple and honest minds for that purpose is this Begin with Duty and plain Laws to make them the measure whereby to judge of Notions and Opinions not with Notions and Opinions to make them the measure whereby to interpret plain Laws For our Duty is made plain and open and expressed so clearly as that every man may understand it It is no matter of skill and parts to know Christ's Commandments but an honest and a teachable heart is a better preparation to that than refinedness of wit and philosophick learning For God who gave us Laws knew the measure of all capacities and the compass of every understanding and what he intended that all should practise he wanted not skill to express so plainly that every one might apprehend it Laws are the Rule of the last Judgment and our obedience or disobedience to them is a matter of life or death and that in all reason and equity ought to be revealed clearly and sufficiently to every understanding which every man must for ever live or dye by As for Laws and Duty then they are plain and easie they are expressed in such clear and intelligible words as carry what God means by them in their usual and obvious acceptation So that in judging of them if we begin there there is no great difficulty seeing they are easily and obviously understood by any man who brings along with him an obedient and teachable mind to the obvious understanding of them But as for abstract Notions and general opinions they admit of much doubting and dispute and of great appearance of reason and variety of argument on one side as well as on the other And besides all capacities are no fit Judges of them but those only which have much quickness and much experience that can dispel the darkness by clear evidence and help the confusion by a distinct representation of things that can judge of reasons and of exceptions and of the various degrees in evidence and the just weight of arguments So that they are a matter not for the determination of common heads but for the learned and witty for refined Parts and Philosophers Yea and even among them by reason of their difficulty and doubtfulness they admit of great disputes and beget generally much variety of judgment and opinion wherein if some think true as it is very possible nay often happens that neither do the rest must of necessity be mistaken Opinions therefore and Notions are more dark and difficult less easie to be understood than plain Laws and much more liable to be mistaken So that Laws and Duty are fit to be made a Principle because we may easily understand them and be well assured of them but general Notions and Opinions being more dark and liable to errour and mistake they are not so proper to be themselves a Rule as to be measured and judged of by them And that they should so is further reasonable because in the very designs of God obedience is primarily and chiefly intended to be ministred to by Divine Truths not truths to be served and furthered by obedience For the revelation of religious truth is given by the Authour of our Religion himself in order to religious practice The very end and perfection of our Faith being to produce Good Works to make us overcome the World to save our souls or to deliver us from our sins which are those evils that Christ came to save us from And since obedience unto Laws is the end and general truths are only means whereby to compass it 't is certain that no truth can ever oppose a Duty or evacuate obedience because God would defeat his own end in revealing it should he at any time become the Author of it So that this cannot be a proper at least it is not a safe way of arguing this plain Law in such and such parts and sorts of instances contradicts a truth and therefore it is no Duty whereas we should proceed quite contrary after this manner this or that opinion interferes and undermines this or that plain Law so that it can never be a true opinion For this arguing is
sins are daily slipping from us that our remedy might be as near as our disease our Lord has put into our daily prayers this general petition for our expiation Forgive us our trespasses Matth. 6.12 As for this first sort then our unknown and secret sins a general prayer and repentance is their remedy If we obey all known Laws and particularly repent of all our known transgressions our secret and unknown sins need not lye heavy on us For if we are honestly igrant of them and use due pains and ingenuity about them if we neither overlook them through sloth and negligence nor mistake them through partiality and wilfulness a general and penitential prayer shall serve their turn and restore us unto mercy and reconciliation And then 2. As for all our known sins God has not been wanting to us in them neither but has most graciously provided us of a remedy and means of reconciliation for them of what nature or degree soever they be Whether 1. Our voluntary and wilful or 2. Our involuntary sins 1. In the Gospel God has provided us of a remedy to restore us again to his favour when once we have lost it through our voluntary and wilful sins and that remedy is a particular repentance of them To the pardon of these it is altogether necessary that we particularly amend and forsake them For they interrupt a state of love and good agreement and set God and us at enmity and defiance So long as they are continued in they keep God and men at a distance they interpose betwixt us and his mercy and hinder all the signs of his approbation and all the expressions of his pardoning Grace from issuing out upon us To restore us therefore to Gods Grace and acceptance these voluntary sins must be taken out of the way and by a voluntary amendment and reformation we must undo all that was done amiss in our wilful transgression And of these sins all those places are meant that make repentance which as we saw above includes in it amendment the indispensable condition of life and pardon As when repentance and remission of sins is commanded to be preached to all Nations Luke 24.47 and men are bid to repent that their sins may be blotted out Acts 3.19 or as it is in the peremptory and severe words of our Saviour to repent or else they shall all perish Luke 13.3 And as this particular repentance and reformation is altogether necessary to the pardon of our wilful sins so is it most certainly available and sufficient for them Although they are of a most heinous guilt and provoking Nature yet is not their offence unpardonable or their case desperate For after a man has put himself out of a state of Grace and God's favour by them he is not quite cast off nor need to despair of getting in again He is not presently upon every such offence banished this Kings Court and Presence for ever but upon his particular repentance and reformation he will be allowed to recover his former station For the preaching of the Prophets of the Baptist of Christ and of his Apostles was to call the wilful and all lost Sinners both of the Jewish and Gentile World to this reconciliation Christ as himself informs us coming to save that which was lost and to call all Sinners of one sort or another to repentance Mens very Baptism or entrance into Christianity is a cleansing of them from the guilt of all former sins without exception Repent and be baptized every one says S t Peter for the remission of sins Acts 2.38 and be baptized says Ananias unto Saul and wash away all thy sins Acts 22.16 Nay after men are once baptized and have all their former wilful sins washt off in that water of regeneration yet is not every wilful sin which they are guilty of thenceforward irrecoverably damnable but they are still called to accept of mercy and forgiveness upon repentance as before When men come under the Covenant of Grace and list themselves under the Discipline of Christ they do not subject themselves to a Covenant of Terror and Desperation which takes hold of the first offence and denounces an irrevocable enmity ever after No a baptized offender is under the Grace of repentance as well as others For that repentance whereto we are called by Christs Gospel is not so much an act as a state which S t Paul intimates when he talks of renewing men unto repentance that is unto the condition and standing terms of it Heb. 6.4 6. It is of Gods Grace that there is any forgiveness and in order thereunto any place for repentance at all and of the same Grace we have received a promise of forgiveness upon repentance for all sins and at all times whatsoever If any man among us baptized Christians sin says S t John his case is in no wise desperate for we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the propitiation for our sins as well as for the sins of the whole unchristned world 1 Joh. 2.1 2. The Gospel doth not bid every wilfully offending Christian to despair and conclude himself to be irrevocably lost and fallen beyond remedy into a damned condition But its design is quite another thing to recover them again from that state of death and to call them by repentance to mercy and forgiveness For the Spirit of God himself writes to the back-sliding Church of Ephesus to remember from whence they were fallen and to repent and do their first works Rev. 2.5 And S t Paul finds fault with the Christians at Corinth for not repenting of their uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness which they had wilfully committed threatning to bewail them or to excommunicate them in sorrow and lamentation according to the custom of those times if they did it not 2 Cor. 12.21 Nay in the case of the incestuous Criminal who had committed such a fault as was not so much as named and much less done among the unbaptized Heathens themselves he doth not consign him up to eternal Torments but endeavours by the rod of Discipline and Church-censures to reduce him to repentance that his spirit might be saved in the judgment day of the Lord Jesus 1 Cor. 5.1 5. And as for the other Members of the Church of Corinth who were unconcerned and puffed up at such an enormous accident he reproves them smartly that by bringing them to a sense of their sin he may work them into a reformation v. 1 2. Which good effect when he understood that his reproof had wrought upon them he rejoyces mightily and glories in it in his next Letter I rejoyce says he that by my former letter you were made sorry seeing it was after a godly manner and you sorrowed to repentance For such godly sorrow worketh repentance unto salvation which is not to be repented of 2 Cor. 7.8 9 10. And as he practised thus with baptized wilful offenders
which we sue for obtained although sometimes our prayers are less attent and less affectionate than at other times they are and we at all times greatly desire they might be For our fixedness and fervency are not the only things which procure acceptance for our prayers They are great good things as I said and such qualifications as make our requests fit both for us to offer and for God to hear and therefore we must take care still when we pray in such measure as we are able to be provided with them But although they are some yet are they not the only qualifications of our prayers which prevail with God and move him to hear them For our trust and dependance our submission and resignedness and other spiritual vertues and instances of obedience are likewise dispositions which God respects in them nay indeed which he prizes above all and principally looks at So that if we pray with these God is honoured by our prayers and he will reward them and our petitions shall not be put up in vain although by reason of some bodily dulness or distraction the fixt attention of our minds and the fervency of our hearts which we endeavour after always and enjoy at other times should happen to be wanting Yea I add further so long as our hearts are honest and our lives entirely obedient we are always furnished with those qualifications which are sufficient to bring down Gods Grace and Blessing upon us and which are the principal things that make our prayers themselves an acceptable Offering A good man is drawing down the blessings of Heaven upon himself all his life long and not only whilst he is upon his knees so that if at any time his prayers are less perfect and chance to falter that defect will be otherwise supplied and he will have all that mercy conveyed to him through another means which his prayers should have obtained for him seeing that which makes his prayers procure Gods love and mercy for him will make his obedience procure the very same For I suppose no man is so silly as to imagine that it is the lifting up of his eyes and hands the composedness of his countenance the quaintness of his phrase the eloquence of his expressions the volubility of his language or any other external thing which makes his prayers so powerful and brings down the blessing of God upon them But it is that dependance upon God that confidence in God that love of God and desire of goodness that acknowledgment of his tenderness and power that submission to his Authority and resignation to his pleasure which are all implied in prayer and fitly expressed by it and which make up the very life and spirit of it these I say it is which God looks at in our prayers and for the sake whereof he so graciously accepts and rewards them But now as for all these they are expressed every whit as much by the obedience of our lives as by the prayer of our lips nay indeed much more in as much as our actions are a more perfect expression and certain evidence of all these tempers of a good heart than our words are They differ as much as words and deeds as profession and performance for whereas in our prayers we only speak and profess all this in the obedience of our lives we work and perform it We shew our love and resignation to God when for his sake we deny our selves and give up our own will in obedience to his We acknowledge his Power and Authority most effectually when we obey it and owne his Providence to the best purpose when we contentedly acquiesce in it and patiently submit to it and confess his love and kindness after the most acceptable sort when we throw our selves upon it and work and endeavour all our lives long in hopes and expectations of it In our daily actions of Justice and Charity of Temperance and Sobriety of Meekness Patience Mercy and Forgiveness and in all other instances of obedience we give God the honour to chuse for us to dispose of us to be sought after and intrusted by us We evidence our esteem of him our love for him our trust in him our dependance on him our resignation to him and that most effectually So that whatsoever can move God in our prayers will move him in a higher degree and after another fashion in our obedience the Spirit of goodness which is evidenced in our prayers being evidenced much more in the course of good actions No Rhetorick therefore of our Prayers is like to that of a good life every action of obedience in a good man having the effect of a prayer and calling down upon him the same mercy and the same Grace which would be procured by a supplication Let a man therefore make sure in the first place of a good life and of an honest and intire obedience and then he need not fear to want those things which all good men have need to pray for seeing he will shew so much daily in his life as will make his requests be granted and his prayers be hearkened to He cannot perish for want of those mercies which he prays for although it be sometimes with coldness and distraction because not only the other obedient tempers of his prayers when through some unchosen hindrances a due fixedness and fervency are wanting but also the constant and uninterrupted obedience of his life is daily ascending up and brings them down upon him Let no good soul therefore be further troubled and disquieted upon this account as if because after all his care his prayers are sometimes dull and cold and his thoughts therein are much distracted he should either be eternally punished for them or at least go without those blessings which he desires in them For so long as the Spirit of obedience appears both in his Prayers and in his actions the unwilled distractions of his mind and the dulness and frozenness of his affections at some times shall be no hindrance either to his Suit at present or to his happiness hereafter his request shall not be thrown by nor he condemned for them but so far as God sees it fitting for him it shall be granted and he shall eternally be saved notwithstanding them 3. A third scruple which is wont causelesly to disquiet and trouble good and honest minds is the words of our Saviour Matth. 12. I say unto you That as concerning every idle word which men shall speak they shall give an account thereof at the Day of Judgment ver 36. This seems to be a strict and a severe Saying For in all the crowd and variety of converse in the infinite numbers of Questions and Answers and other occasions of discourse what man in all the World but especially of those who are of a conversation that is free and open courteous and ingenuous cheerful and delightsome which tempers the Gospel doth not only allow but approve of who I say of
utterly unpardonable and hopeless For our Lord himself in this very Chapter encourages their hopes by giving them a promise that some further means should still be used to cure their Infidelity after that they had blasphemed this telling these very men that the sign of his Death and Resurrection with the other evidences of the Holy Ghost which were to ensue upon it should be a further argument to satisfie them in what they inquired after viz. his being the Messiah or the Son of God For when certain of the Pharisees presently upon his finishing this Discourse of their Blaspheming of the Holy Spirit v. 37 made Answer to him saying Master we would see a sign from thee to confirm to us the truth of that pretension he answered as S t Matthew goes on an evil and an Adulterous Generation seeketh a sign and there shall no further sign be given it but only the sign of the Prophet Jonas and that indeed shall For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the Whales Belly and was afterwards deliver'd out of it to go and preach to the Ninevites so shall the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth and after that rise again to preach by his Apostles to you and all the world sending to you for a further evidence still the Holy Ghost v. 38 39 40. So that as for this blasphemy of the spirit wherewith the Pharisees reviled it it was not utterly unpardonable but was still within the possibility of pardon For after they had committed it Christ promised them a further Argument in his Resurrection after the Example of Jonas which should be a new sign added to all that they had already seen to gain them over to faith or belief and thereby to pardon and forgiveness every sin being pardonable to him that believeth And this pardonableness of blaspheming of the spirit our Lord further intimates in that very place by a wary change of the phrase when he comes to speak of the unpardonableness of it calling the unpardonable blasphemy not a blasphemy against the spirit although it was the spirit which was indeed blasphemed v. 24 and whereof he had just made mention v. 28 but a blasphemy against the Holy Ghost which being as S t John says not yet given could not yet be blasphemed v. 31 32. But Thirdly The desperate and unpardonable sin here mentioned which shall never be forgiven neither in this world nor in that which is to come is a sin against the last and greatest evidence of all viz. the gift of tongues of prophecy and of other things called the Holy Ghost In all the other evidence that came before to win men to a belief of Christ's Religion which is the only means of pardon to the World God had still a reserve and resolved upon some further course if they proved ineffectual If the testimony of John Baptist to Christ's being the Lamb of God if the message of an Angel at his conception the Star at his birth and the Quire of Angels at his entrance into the World if the innocency of his life the wisdom of his words and the mightiness of his wonders in commanding the winds and seas in curing diseases in casting out Devils in restoring the weak to strength and the dead to life if all these prove unsuccessful and unable to perswade an Infidel and perverse Generation yet still God resolves to try one means more which before that time the World never saw nor heard of and that is the ample and most full effusion of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles at Pentecost and upon others at the imposition of their hands for a long time after This further evidence shall still be given to subdue the stubbornness of mens unbelief which had proved too hard for all the former When I am departed from you says our Saviour to his Apostles I will send the Holy Ghost who is the Comforter or Advocate unto you And when he is come he shall plead my Cause more convincingly than the operations of the Spirit have done hitherto For he shall reprove and convince the world and those who remained Infidels after they had seen all the evidence of the Spirit of their own sin in not believing on me and of my righteousness and truth in saying I am the Messiah because he shall shew that I am owned above and am gone to my Father whence I have sent him down so plentifully upon you John 16.8 9 10. But when once God had given this proof he had done all that he designed for this is the last remedy which he had decreed to make use of to cure the infidelity of an unbelieving Age. So that if men shall use it as they have done all that went before and if instead of being perswaded by it they shall proceed not only to sleight and despise but what is more to revile and blaspheme it as they have already done with the Spirit then is the irreversible Decree gone out against them and God is unalterably resolved to strive no more with them but to let them dye in their unbelief If they should be won by it indeed and believe upon it be their former offences what they will no less than a blaspheming of the Spirit yet may they justly expect to be pardoned For the offer of Grace is universal Whosoever believes and is baptized shall be saved Mark 16.16 and nothing is impossible to him that believeth Mark 9.23 But when once men have gone so far as to be guilty of it their sin is unpardonable because their Faith is impossible For they have rejected all the evidence which any man can urge for their conviction seeing they have despised all that which God has offered Their infidelity is stronger than can be cured by any Argument that Christ either has or will afford to prevail over it so that they must dye in their sin and there is no hope for them Indeed if God so please there is no question but that after they have once blasphemed it he can still so melt and soften fashion and prepare their minds that afterwards they shall hearken to the incomparable evidence of the Spirit and the Holy Ghost which to any honest mind are irresistible But this sin is of so provoking a nature that when once they are guilty of it he will not He has past an irreversible Decree upon them never more to meddle with them so that they never will be pardoned because as things stand they never will be reclaimed Which is the very reason which the Apostle himself gives of the desperate state of Apostate Christians For by renouncing of that faith which upon the evidence both of the spirit and the Holy Ghost they had been before convinced of they despite says he the Spirit of Grace as it implies both the Spirit and the Holy Ghost too so that as for them it is impossible to renew them again unto
that their grace is in a declining state and sinking down to nothing But this is a very uncertain and dangerous mark for any man in this case to judge by and will very often deceive him that builds upon it For these fervent heats and delightsom transports of Devotion are not so much a duty as a priviledge which all tempers cannot attain to but only those that are naturally disposed for it so that a growth in them is not a growth in saving grace but rather in sensible joy and happiness and renders us not so truly gracious in Gods eyes as happy in our own Besides as an improvement in these religious and pleasing raptures is not a growth in grace it self so neither is it always joyned with it and therefore no sure argument can be deduced from it For 't is easily observable that several persons of devotional tempers who are usually raised up to a high pitch and ravished with most delightsom transports in their Prayers are yet very dangerously defective in many instances of necessary Duty and a holy life They fall oft-times even whilst they enjoy their blissful heats and heavenly raptures of Devotion into damning acts of fraud and injustice anger and malice strife and variance fierceness and revenge they live in them and are habitually inslaved to them and yet for all that they find no want of this delight in prayer nor any abatement of their devout intenseness of mind and earnest fervour of affection still But now these men being so maimed and partial in their service and having no entire obedience to confide in they have not grace enough as manifestly appears from what has been said upon that point to bear them out nor so much vertue as God has indispensably required to save them As for these qualifications of our Prayers then those sensible joys and passionate transports which accompany them they are no instance of obedience and saving grace themselves nor any certain argument that those persons are endowed with it who are allowed to enjoy them They are oft-times found in ill men who so long as they rest there and grow no better cannot go to Heaven And then as for the other more acceptable and obedient tempers of our prayers such as trust and dependance submission and resignedness c. which the men of sober devotion most justly prefer before the former as usually most others do when once their religious heats are over though a growth in them is truly a growth in grace yet a growth in them alone is not enough to save us They indeed in themselves are so many particular instances of obedience and besides that they are also great means and proper instruments to produce others so that our growth in them is a growth in some particular Graces and a very likely way to grow in others also But still we must remember that they are but one part of saving Grace and by no means the whole so that till we are grown in others too we cannot hope to be saved by them They are some instances of vertue and a growth in them is in part a growth in grace but a growth in them alone or in any other particular vertues whatsoever except we are grown up to a saving pitch in all the rest and are come up to an entire obedience is not enough to serve our turn For this is the indispensable condition of the Christian Religion and this the perfect man and just stature in the Christian Faith that we be grown up to an habitual obedience in all our voluntary and chosen actions not only to some few but to all the parts of Duty and the Laws of God But if we would single out some one or some few Vertues from our growth and improvement wherein we may justly presume that we have attained to saving degrees in all the rest S t James directs us to the duties of the tongue in abstaining from back-biting censuring and evil-speaking c. which under all the invitations of conversation and the temptations of common life is usually the last point which good men gain and that wherein they who scarce ever sin wilfully at all or very rarely are wont most frequently through indeliberation and inadvisedness to miscarry If any man saith he offendeth not in word but has attained to an innocent and obedient guidance of his tongue that same man need not be defective in other duties he is a perfect man and able also to bridle the whole body Jam. 3.2 Thus is mens growth in saving Grace not a growth only in some one or in some few vertues but in an universal and entire obedience And this every Christian is bound incessantly to endeavour after The longer he lives the higher improvement ought he to make and to attain every vertue in a larger measure and in greater firmness and perfection than he had before Grow in grace says S t Peter and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 2 Pet. 3.18 Forgetting those things which are behind me and already attained says S t Paul and reaching out after those things which are still before me I press on forward towards the mark that I may acquire a more compleat growth than yet I have And let as many among you as be perfect be thus minded Phil. 3.13 14. Thus are all good Christians bound to advance still further in a virtuous course and the longer they live to be still more uniform and constant firm and perfect in all instances of obedience and a holy life But then this obligation is not always laid upon them under the forfeiture of Heaven but when once they have attained so far as is indispensably necessary to their acceptance only of some higher rewards and greater degrees of happiness which are to be enjoyed there For there are different degrees in happiness answerable to the different measures in mens obedience they that perform most shall be rewarded highest but they who perform no more than is indispensably required although they miss of that accession of reward which by the Grace of the Gospel is due to an eminent height of obedient endeavours shall yet obtain the pardon of their sins and a state of joy and blessedness in Heaven as well as they who have endeavoured and performed more An entire obedience in all chosen actions and a particular repentance and amendment of all those sins wherein at any time we have wilfully disobeyed God is sufficient as has been shown to secure the happiness of the next life According as we have attained to greater or lesser perfection in it so shall the degrees of our reward there be proportioned but if we have arrived to it at all we have as much to show as is just necessary And therefore whilst we are yet in the more imperfect measures of it and only thirst after a more perfect obedience that we may still be more acceptable to God and have right to a more
THE MEASURES OF Christian Obedience OR A DISCOURSE SHEWING What Obedience is indispensably necessary to a Regenerate State and what Defects are consistent with it FOR The Promotion of Piety and the Peace of Troubled Consciences By JOHN KETTLEWELL Fellow of Lincoln-College in Oxford LONDON Printed by J. Macock for Robert Kettlewell at the Hand and Scepter over against S t Dunstan's Church in Fleetstreet MDCLXXXI TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE AND RIGHT REVEREND FATHER in GOD HENRY LORD BISHOP of LONDON And One of His Majesties Most Honourable Privy-Council c. MY LORD HAving published this Treatise to promote as much as in me lies an intire Practice of our Blessed Saviours Precepts and a comfortable expectation of his Rewards amongst us I have presumed to address it to Your Lordship hoping it will find Acceptance in Your Pious Judgment for the sake of those things which are contained in it and because Your Lordship is a most eminent Example as a Christian and a most discreetly zealous and diligent Promoter as a Bishop of the Subject of it In this Work my Great Design has been to press men to a conscientious regard of their whole Duty and to show them how much contentment and cheerfulness of Spirit they have reason to enjoy in the careful observance of it And these are ends so excellent as may well excuse the imperfections of any honest Endeavours which shall be put forth in order to them For what greater service can be done to our Blessed Lord than to exalt his Authority in the hearts and lives of all his Followers What greater honour can be brought to Religion than to promote a pious practice and thereupon a constant joy and cheerfulness in the minds of all its Professors And what more faithful kindness can be shown to the Souls of Men than cleerly to lay before them and most earnestly to press upon them such things as will give them peace and comfortable expectations of God's love and favour in this World and secure their eternal happiness in that which is to come And since I have directed all the Parts and every thing that I have said in the following Discourse to these ends I am willing to hope that notwithstanding all its defects I have therein done no unacceptable service to my Saviour and to all good men who will be much readier to encourage any honest tendences to this purpose than to reprove and throw them by for the sake of those weaknesses and that want of skill which shall be found in them In this hope my Lord I make bold to Present it to Your Lordship whose great and most exemplary Virtue will not I believe be averse from Patronizing that which tends even in a low degree to further and promote it I pray God preserve Your Lordship and continue You what You now are an Illustrious Pattern of all Private and Political Virtues to this Your Native Country That Religion may still be adorned and this distressed Church supported by that exemplariness of an upright Conversation that great Prudence and unwearied Diligence and undaunted Courage and most wise and steady Zeal which Your Lordship has always shown in Your High Station for the things of God committed to Your Care and which have rendred You greatly serviceable to Your Saviour and a most valuable Blessing to this poor Church and Nation This my Lord is the most hearty Prayer of Your Lordships in all humble and dutiful Observance JOHN KETTLEWELL THE PREFACE READER THE design of this ensuing Treatise is to increase the piety and promote the peace of all sincerely honest Consciences by stating plainly and fully what are the terms indispensably required of all Christian men to their eternal pardon and salvation In this I have endeavoured to be as clear and particular as possibly I could For I write upon a Subject wherein all men are infinitely concerned and therefore I have studied to write so as all might understand me I have carried on my Discourse all along with a particular eye to the benefit of the plain and unlearned Reader and suited things as far as their nature would bear and my skill would reach to ordinary and vulgar apprehensions And that they might have nothing to hinder or offend them in their progress I have been industriously careful through the Body of the whole Book to insert nothing of the learned languages but wheresoever any thing of that seemed fit to be added for the sake of others I have preserved the Text unmixt and cast it into the Margine In the whole Work my study has been to speak things useful and necessary to be known that the weight and worth of the matter might purchase a favourable censure for all the defects of Art which shall be found in the composure By what I have here offered upon this Subject I doubt not but it will appear that although our Religion is most strictly pure and nobly vertuous yet is it by no means melancholy or apt in its own nature to engender tormenting fears and endless scruples For the Terms of pardon and salvation are no intricate or uncertain but a fixt and easie thing They are neither over-hard for our active powers nor dark and inevident to our understandings so that by the assistance of God's Grace we may perform them and be very well assured of it when we do God exacts an honest but not an unerring obedience he bears with our weaknesses though not with our wilful failings and this is ground enough whereupon to secure peace and yet in no wise to supplant piety since although our Religion is so exactly holy as utterly to dash all wicked mens presuming hopes yet is it so indulgent still as to tempt no man who is honestly obedient to despair In pursuit of this Argument what piety is indispensably required and what failings shall be indulged that men may know when to hope and when to fear and neither foster a peace without piety nor phansie such a rigour in piety as leaves no room for peace I have proceeded as particularly and perspicuously as possibly I could being unwilling in a matter of this importance to leave my Reader either in doubt by an account which is too general and ambiguous or in darkness by such as is obscure And to give a prospect of the whole business I have laid things down in this order in five Books In the first Book I have shewn what the condition of happiness is in general viz. our obedience to the Laws of the Gospel it being that whereby at the last Day we must all be judged to live eternally And because some are tempted to think obedience needless when they read of pardon and hapiness promised to other things as Faith Repentance c. I have shewn particularly of those Speeches that they are metonymical and that life and mercy are not promised to them as they are separate from obedience but only as they effect and imply it But obedience being a