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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A26811 The sure trial of uprightness open'd in several sermons upon Psal. xviii, v. 23 ... / by William Bates. Bates, William, 1625-1699. 1689 (1689) Wing B1129; ESTC R24838 61,106 151

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will not justify us before God. The Mercy-Seat sprinkled with his Blood affords Protection from the Avenger to all relenting returning Sinners but Justice will tear the presumptuous Sinner from the Horns of the Altar The most rigorous Penance will not avail without mortifying the Affection to Sin the most severe Discipline to the Body is but like a Mountebanck's applying the Salve to the Weapon without dressing the Wound that cannot work a found Cure. The dispensing of the Treasure of Merits to penitent Pay-Masters and giving mercenary Bills of Exchange to receive Righteousness from others is so wretched and transparent a Fallacy that were not the Minds of Men prodigiously stupified it is impossible they should believe it will avail them before the Judgment-Seat of God. Let our Prayers be never so frequent and earnest they are of no prevalency with God whilst the beloved Sin is retain'd The Condition of our favourable Audience is set down by Solomon in his Divine Prayer at the Dedication of the Temple What Prayer or Supplication soever be made by any Man or by all the People of Israel which shall know every Man the Plague of his own Heart and spread forth his hand to Heaven then hear thou in Heaven and hearing forgive If they shall be sensible of the Bosom-Sin of its pestilential Malignity and with repenting Sorrow acknowledg and forsake it they are prepared Objects of Mercy David saith If I regard Iniquity in my Heart the Lord will not hear my Prayer God sees through all the Disguises of Hypocrites and has a bright prospect into the Heart if any insinuating Infirmity be cherish'd there it will make him averse from our Persons and Requests 'T is not the performance of religious and charitable Duties that will purchase Indulgence for a beloved Sin. The most costly Sacrifices the most liberal Charities are neither pleasing to God nor profitable to us without an unfeigned renouncing of our Sins 'T is a carnal Shift that many use to excuse the Practice of a chosen Sin by the doing some good things many strict Observers of the Rituals of Religion are dissolute Epicures as if they might compensate for their voluntary Defects in one Duty by their care in another But if Conscience be not so far stupified that it can neither hear nor see nor speak 't is impossible but the guilty Deceiver must be terrified with the words of St. James That whosoever shall keep the whole Law yet offend in one point he is guilty of all The most strict Observance of one Precept will not excuse Disobedience to another the voluntary continued Transgression of any Command involves a Man under the Guilt of breaking the entire Law the Divine Authority being despised that makes it binding I will instance in one kind of Sins Many that have increas'd their Estates by Craft and Circumvention or by Violence and Rapine will bequeath part to pious uses presuming by a kind of Composition with God to be discharged of their guilty Gains St. Austin observes that some in his time thought it to be Obedience to the Command of our Saviour Make your selves Friends of the Mammon of Unrighteousness that when ye fail they may receive you into everlasting Habitations This is to defile and debase the Name of the Righteous and Holy God 't is to make him altogether like to corrupt Men as if he would be brib'd to patronize their Wickedness And in other cases thus monstrously Carnal Men bend the Rule of Rectitude to the Obliquity of their Desires They are willing to deceive themselves and imagine that only Ministers of a preciser strain will terrify them with eternal Judgment for one retained Sin they desire and are apt to believe such a Mercy as will bring them to Heaven with their Sins in their Bosoms But the Apostle warns us Be not deceived God is not mocked as a Man sows so shall he reap There are sure and tender Mercies for the Upright but strict and certain Justice for the Wicked Sincerity is so amiable and pleasing in God's Eyes that he graciously passes by many Infirmities upon that account It is said of Asa that his Heart was perfect all his days and notwithstanding some gross Faults God accepted him But when the Heart is corrupted by the love of some pleasant or profitable Sin it renders a Person with the most specious Services odious in God's sight In short indulged known Sins that Men habitually commit in hopes of an easie Absolution are not the Spots of God's Children 'T is so directly contrary to the Divine Nature to that holy ingenuous Fear of offending our heavenly Father resulting from it that only the Wicked are capable of such a disposition Presumptuous Sins are a contumelious abuse of Divine Mercy and exasperate that high and tender attribute to the confusion of Sinners at the last Do good O Lord unto those that be good and to them that are upright in Heart As for such as turn aside to their crooked Ways the Lord shall lead them forth with the workers of Iniquity 2. We may by Divine Grace subdue the strongest Lusts that from our Nature and Temper or from Custom and the Interests of the Carnal State have rule over us The New Covenant assures Believers that Sin shall not have Dominion over them because they are not under the Law but under Grace The Law strictly forbids Sin but the Gospel furnishes with strength to subdue it 'T is true inherent Corruption has so devested Men of spiritual Strength that they cannot free themselves from the Power and Infection of Sin and when any Lust is fomented by Temptations and has been frequently gratified 't is more hard to be subdued The Apostle speaks of some whose Eyes were full of Adultery that could not cease from Sin they were in a state of Carnality and lov'd to be so When Lust is imperious and the Will servile Men cannot wean themselves from the poison'd Breasts This disability consists in the depraved obstinacy of the Will that aggravates their Sin and Judgment Yet so foolish are Sinners as to use this Plea to make them excusable for their habitual Lusts Conscience checks them and some faint Desires they have to avoid their Sins but they cannot change their Natures They colour Licentiousness with the pretence of Necessity they complain of their Chains to let loose the Reins of their exorbitant Desires in a course of Sin. But natural Corruption that involves us under Guilt cannot make us innocent 'T is true if in our original Condition the humane Will had been stamp'd by Fate with an unalterable inclination to Sin we could not have been guilty for if there be no Principles of Liberty all the Names of Good and Evil are cancell'd and all moral Means Instructions Persuasions Threatnings are but lost labour In Brutes there are some natural Resemblances of Vertue and Vice yet not worthy of Reward or Punishment only so far as by Imagination they