is certainly perishing and vain These vain Excuses will but condemn you The eighth Excuse I was so enticed and perswaded by sinners to do as they did that I could not deny them They would never let me rest Answ. 1. And were you not as earnestly perswaded by God to forsake sin and serve him and yet that would not prevail with you You could not deny the Devil and fools but you could deny God and all his Messengers Were not Ministers as earnest with you every week to repent and amend What did men entice you with with a little deluding fleshly pleasure for a few daies And what did God entice you with with the Promise of endless unconceivable felicity And if this were a smaller matter in your eyes then the other then you have had your choice be content with it and thank your selves In your life time you had the good things which you chose and preferred before heaven and therefore cannot expect to have heaven besides The ninth Excuse I lived among ungodly persons that derided all that feared God so that if I had not done as they did but had made any more ado to be saved I should have been the very scorn of the place where I lived Answ. And was not Heaven worth the enduring of a scorn Is not he worthy to go without it that thinks so basely of it Dâ—d not Christ tell you that if you were ashamed of him before men he would be ashamed of you before his Father and the Angels of heaven Mark 8.38 He suffered more then scorns for you and could not you suffer a scorn for him and your selves seeing you chose rather to endure everlasting Torment than a little derision from ignorant men take that which you made choice of And seeing so small a matter would drive you from heaven and part God and you as a mock as the wind of a mans mouth No wonder if you be commanded to Depart from him into everlasting fire The tenth Excuse I had ungodly persons to my Parents or Masters or Landlord or Governors who threatned to undo me if I had addicted my self to so strict a life and if I would not believe and do as they did Answ. What if they threatned you with present Death Did not God also threaten you with everlasting Death if you were not ruled by him And whose threatning should you have chiefly feared Is man more dreadful than God Is death more terrible then Hell Did not Christ bid you Fear not them that can kill the body and after that can do no more but fear him that is able to destroy both body and soul in hell fire yea I say unto you fear him Mat. 10.28 Luke 12.4 5. and Isa. 51.7 Fear ye not the Reproach of men neither be afraid of their revilings For the moth shall eat them up like a Garment and the worm shall eat them like wool but my Righteousness shall be for ever and my salvation from Generation to Generation Seeing therefore you have chosen rather to suffer from God for ever for your sin then to suffer small matters for well-doing for a moment you must even bear your own choice Christ told you before hand that if you could not forsake all the world and your own lives for him you could not be his Disciples Matth. 10.37 38 39. And seeing you thought his terms too hard and would needs seek you out a better service even take what you have chosen and found The eleventh Excuse I saw so many follow their pleasures and their worldly business and never look after these higher things and so few go the other way that I thought sure God would not damn so great a part of the world and therefore I ventured to do as the most did Answ. God will make good his word upon many or few Did you doubt of his will or of his power For his will he hath told it you in his word For his power he is as able to punish many as one man What is all the world to him but as a drop of a Bucket as the dust of the ballance He told you before hand that the gate was strait and the way to heaven was narrow and few did find it and the gate to destruction was wide and the way was broad and many did enter in at it Mat. 7.13 14. And if you would not Believe him you must bear what your unbelief hath brought you to What if you had twenty children or servants or friends and the greater part of them should prove false to you and seek your destruction or prove disobedient and turn to your enemy would you think it a good excuse if the rest should do the like because of their example will you therefore wrong God because you see others wrong him would you spit in the face of your own Father if you saw others do so God warned you that you should not follow a multitude to do evil Exod. 23.2 And if yet you will do as most do you must even speed as most speed You should not so much consider who they be as what they do and whether they go and who they forsake and what they lose and what strength is in the Reasons that move them to do this And then you would find It is God they forsake it is sin they choose it is heaven they lose it is hell they run into and it is no true reason but Satans delusion and sensual inclinations that lead them to it And should men be imitated be they many or be they few in such a course as this The twelfth Excuse I saw so many faults in those that were accounted Godly and saw so much Division among them that I thought they were as bad as others and among so many opinions I knew not what Religion to be of Answ. 1. A spot is soonest seen in the fairest cloth And the malicious world useth to make such far worse then they are 2. But suppose all were true that malice saith of some you could not say the like by others 3. Or if you could yet it was Gods Law and not mens faults that was made the Rule for you to live by Will it excuse you that others are bad 4. And for their diverse opinions you should have taken counsel at Gods word which was right Did you first search the Scripture impartially as willing to know the Truth that you might obey it and did you pray daily that God would lead you into the Truth and did you obey as much as you knew Did you joyn with the godly so far as they are all agreed They are all agreed in the Fundamental Articles of Christianity and in all things absolutely necessary to a holy Life and to salvation that all known sin is to be forsaken and all known duty to be done Why did you not so far then agree with them Alas the imperfections of the godly and the false Accusations of the malicious world will prove but
3. That it is a matter of unquestionable certainty I have partly shewed you already and more would do if I were Preaching to known Infidels If the careless world had any just reason to think it were uncertain their carelesness were more excusable Me thinks a man should be affected with that which he is certain shall come to pass in a manner as if it were now in doing 1 Thes. 5.2 Ye perfectly know that the day of the Lord so cometh c. saith the Apostle 4. This day is not only certain but it is neer and therefore should affect you the more I confess if it were never so far of yet seeing it will come at last it should be carefully regarded But when the Judge is at the door Jam. 5.9 and we are almost at the barr and it is so short a time to this Assize what soul that is not dead will be secure Alas Sirs what is a little time when it is gone how quickly shall you and I be all in another world and our souls receive their particular Judgement and so wait till the body be raised and judged to the same Condition It is not a 100. years in all likelyhood till every soul of us shall be in heaven or hell and its like not half or a quarter of that time but it will be so with the greater part of us and what is a year or two or a 100 how speedily is it come how many a soul that is now in heaven or hell within a 1000 years dwelt in the places that you now dwell in and sate in the seats you now sit in And now their time is past what is it Alas how quickly will it be so with us You know not when you go to bed but you may be Judged by the next morning or when you rise but you may be judged before night but certainly you know that shortly it will be and should not this then be laid to heart Yea the General Judgement will not be long For certainly we live in the end of the world Qu. 4. MY next Question is Whether are you ready for this dreadful Judgement when it comes or not Seeing it is your selves that must be tried I think it concerns you to see that you be prepared How often hath Christ warned us in the Gospel that we be alwaies ready because we know not the day or hour of his coming Mat. 24.44.42 and 25.13 1 Thes. 5.6 and told us how sad a time it will be to those that are unready Mat. 25.11 12. Did men but well know what a meeting and greeting there will be between Christ and an unready soul it would sure startle them and make them look about them What say you Beloved Hearers are you ready for Judgement or are you not Me thinks a man that knoweth he shall be Judged should ask himself the Question every day of his life Am I ready to give up my Account to God! Do not you use to ask this of your own hearts unless you be careless whether you be saved or damned me thinks you should and ask it seriously Qu. But who be they that are ready how shall I know whether I be ready or not Answ. There is a twofold readiness 1. When you are in a safe case 2. When you are in a comfortable case in regard of that day The latter is very desirable but the first is of absolute necessity this therefore is it that you must principally enquire after In General all those and only those are ready for Judgement who shall be justified and saved and not condemned when Judgement comes They that have a good cause in a Gospel sense It may be known before hand who these are for Christ Judgeth as I told you by his Law And therefore find out whom it is that the Law of grace doth justifie or condemn and you may certainly know whom the Judge will Justifie or Condemn for he Judgeth righteously If you further ask me who these are remember that I told you before that every man that is personally righteous by fulfilling the Condition of Salvation in the Gospel shall be saved and he that is found unrighteous as having not fulfilled them shall perish at that day Q1 Who are these Answ. I will tell you them in a few words lest you should forget because it is a matter that your Salvation or Damnation dependeth upon 1. The soul that unfeignedly repenteth of his former sinful course and turneth from it in heart and life and loveth the way of godliness which he hated and hateth the way of sin which he loved and is become throughly a New creature being born again and sanctified by the Spirit of Christ shall be Justified but all others shall certainly be condemned Good news to repenting converted sinners but sad to Impenitent and him that knows not what this means 2. That soul that feeling his misery under sin and the power of Satan and the wrath of God doth believe what Christ hath done and suffered for mans Restauration and Salvation and thankfully accepteth him as his only Saviour and Lord on the terms that he is offered in the Gospel and to those ends even to Justifie him and sanctifie and guide him and bring him at last to everlasting glory that soul shall be Justified at Judgement and he that doth not shall be condemned Or in short in Scripture phrase He that believeth shall be saved and he that Believeth not shall be condemned Mar. 16.16 3. The soul that hath had so much knowledge of the goodness of God and his love to man in Creation Redemption and the following mercies and hath had so much conviction of the vanity of all creatures as thereupon to Love God more then all things below so that he hath the chiefest room in the heart and is prefered before all creatures ordinarily in a time of tryal that soul shall be Justified at Judgement and all others shall be condemned 4. That soul that is so apprehensive of the absolute Soveraignty of God as Creator and Redeemer and of the Righteousness of his Law and the Goodness of his holy way as that he is firmly Resolved to obey him before all others and doth accordingly give up himself to study his will of purpose that he may obey it and doth walk in these holy waies and hath so far mortified the flesh and subdued the world and the Devil that the Authority and Word of God can do more with him then any other and doth ordinarily prevail against all the perswasion and interest of the flesh so that the main scope and bent of the heart and life is still for God and when he sinneth he riseth again by true Repentance I say that soul and that only shall be Justified in Judgement and be saved 5. That soul that hath such Believing thoughts of the life to come that he taketh the promised blessedness for his portion and is resolved to venture all else upon it and in hope
A SERMON OF Iudgement Preached at Pauls before the Honorable Lord Maior and Aldermen of the City of London Dec. 17. 1654. And now enlarged By Rich. Baxter Rom. 14.12 Every one of you shall give account of himself to God Iohn 5.28 29. The hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth They that have done good to the Resurrection of Life and they that have done evil to the Resurrection of Damnation LONDON Printed by R.W. for Nevil Simmons Bookseller in Kidderminster 1655 TO The Right Honorable Christopher Pack Lord Maior of London with the Right worshipful Aldermen Right Honorable BEeing desired to Preach before you at Pauls I was fain to preach a Sermon which I had preached once before to a poor ignorant Congregation in the Countrey having little leisure for study in London I was glad to see that the more curious stomacks of the Citizens did not nauseate our plain Countrey Doctrine which I seemed to discern in the diligent attention of the greatest Congregation that ever I saw met for such a work But I little expected that you should have so far esteemed that discours as to have thought it meet for the view of the world as I understood by a Message from you desiring it may be Printed I readily obey your will when it gives me the least intimation of the will of God It s possible some others may afford it the like favourable Acceptance and entertainment I am sure the subject is as Necessaâ—y as common and the Plainness makes it the fitter for the ignorant who are the far greatest number and have the greatest need I have added the 9 10 11 and 12. Heads or Common-places which I did not deliver to you for want of time and because the rest are too briefly touched as contrived for an hours work I have enlarged these though making them somewhat unsuitable to the rest yet suitable to the use of those that they are now intended for The Directions also in the end are added Blessed be the Father of Lights who hath set up so many burning and shining lights in your City and hath watered you so plenteously with the Rivers of his Sanctuary that you have frequent opportunities for the refreshment of your souls to the joy of your friends the grief of your enemies and the glory of that Providence which hath hitherto maintained them in despight of Persecution Heresies and Hell It was not alwayes so in London It is not so in all other places or famous Cities in the world Nor are you sure that it will be alway so with you It doth me good to remember what blessed Lights have shined among you that now are more gloriously shining in a higher sphere Preston Sibbes Stoughton Taylâ—r Stock Randal Gouge Gataker with multitudes more that are now with Christ It did me good to read in the Preface to Mr. Gatakers funeral Sermon by one of your Reverend and faithful Guides what a number of sound and unanimous Labourers are yet close at work in that part of Christs Vineyard And it did me good in that short experience and observation while I was there to hear and see so much of their Prudence Unity and Fidelity Believe it it is the Gospel of Christ that is your Glory and if London be more honorable then other great and famous Cities of the earth it is the light of Gods face and the plenty and power of his Ordinances and spirit that doth advance and honour it O know then the day of you visitation Three things I shall take leave to propound to your Consideration which I am certain God requireth at your hands The first is that you grow in knowledge humility heavenlyness and Vnity according to the blessed means that you enjoy In my eyes it is the greatest shame to a people in the world and a sign of barbarousness or blockishness when we can hear and read what famous learned powerful Minister such a place or such a place had and yet see as much ignorance ungodlyness unruliness and sensuality as if the Gospel had scarce ever been there I hope it is not thus with you but I have found it so in too many places in England We that never saw the faces of their Ministers but have only read their holy Labors have been ready to think sure there are but few ignorant or ungodly ones in such a Congregation Sure they are a people rich in Grace and eminently qualified above their brethren who have lived undersuch Teaching as this At least sure there can be none left that have an enmity to the fear of God! But when we have come to the Towns where such men spent their lives and laid out their labours we have found ignorant sottâ—sh worldlings unprofitable or giddy unstable Professors and some haters of godliness among them O what a shame is this to them in the eyes of wise men and what a confounding aggravation of theâ—r sin before God! Thrive therefore and be fruitful in the Vineyard of the Lord that it may not repent him that he hath planted and watered you The second is this Improve your interest to the utmost for the continuance of a faithful Ministery among you and when any places are void do what you can to get a supply of the most Able men Your City is the Heart of the Nation you cannot be sick but we shall all feel it If you be infected with false Doctrines the Countreys will ere long receive the Contagion You have a very great influence on all the Land for good or evil And do you think the undermining enemies of the Church have not a special Design upon you in this point and will not promote it as far as is in their power Could they but get in Popish or Dividing Teachers among you they know how many advantages they should gain at once They would have some to grieve and trouble your faithful Guides and hinder them in the work and lessen that estimation which by their Vnity they would obtain And every Deceiver will hope to catch some fish that casteth his Net among such store We beseech you if there be Learned Holy Judicious men in England that can be had for supply on such occasions let them be yours that you may be fed with the Best and Guided by the Wisest and we may have all recourse to you for advice and where there are most Opposers and Seducers there may be the most Powerful Convincing helps at hand Let us in the Countrey have the honest raw young Preachers and see that you have the chief Fatherspunc and Pillars in the Church I speak it not for your sakes alone but because we have all Dependance on you The third thing which I humbly Crave is that you will Know them which Labour among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and to esteem them very highly in love for their works sake and
not save you we are not Justified if we Absolve our selves 1 Cor. 4.4 how unable then shall we be against Gods Sentence to Justifie you If all the world should say you were holy and penitent when God knows you were unholy and impenitent it will do you no good You pray every day that his will may be done and it will be done It will be done upon you because it was not done by you What would you have us say if God ask us Did you tell this sinner of the need of Christ of the glory of the world to come and the vanity of this Should we lie and say we did not what should we say if he ask us Did not you tell them the misery of their natural state and what would become of them if they were not made new would you have us lye to God and say we did not Why if we did not your blood will be required at our hands Ezek. 33.6 and 3.18 and would you have us bring your blood upon our own heads by a lye Yea and to do you no good when we know that lyes will not prevail with God No no sinners We must unavoidably testifie to the confusion of your faces If â—od ask us we must bear witness against you and say Lord we did what we could according to our weak abilities to reclaim them Indeed our own thoughts of everlasting things were so low and our own hearts so dull that we must confess we did not follow them so close nor speak so earnestly as we should have done we did not cry so loud nor lift up our voice as a Trumpet to awaken them Isa 58.1 we confess we did not speak to them with such melting compassion and with such streams of tears beseech them to regard as a matter of such great concernment should have been spoken with We did not fall on our knees to them and so earnestly begg of them for the Lords sake to have mercy upon their own souls as we should have done But yet we told them the Message of God and we studyed to speak it to them as plainly and as peircingly as we could Fain we would have convinced them of their sin and misery but we could not Fain we would have drawn them to the admiration of Christ but they made light of it Mat. 22.5 We would fain have brought them to the contempt of this vain world and to set their mind on the world to come but we could not Some compassion thou knowest Lord we had to their souls many a weeping or groaning hour we have had in secret because they would not hear obey and some sad complaints we have made over them in publike We told them that they must shortly dye and come to Judgement and that this world would deceive them and leave them in the dust we told them that the time was at hand when nothing but Christ would do them good and nothing but the favour of God would he sufficient for their happiness but we could never get them to lay it to heart Many a time did we intreat them to think soberly of this life and the life to come and to compare them together with the Faith of Christians and the reason of men but they would not do it many a time did we intreat them but to take now and then an hour in secret to consider who made them and for what he made them and why they were sent into this world and what their business here is and whether they are going and how it wil go with them at their latter end But we could never get most of them to spend one hour in serious thoughts of these weighty matters Many a time did we intreat them to try whether they were Regenerate or not whether Christ and his Spirit were in them or not Whether their souls were brought back to God by Sanctification but they would not try We did beseech them to make sure work and not leave such a matter as everlasting Joy or Torment to a bold and mad adventure but we could not prevail We intreated them to lay all other businesses aside a little while in the world and to enquire by the direction of the word of God what would become of them in the world to come and to Judge themselves before God came to Judge them seeing they had the Law and the rule of Judgement before them but their minds were blinded and their hearts were hardned and the profit and pleasure and honour of this world did eâ—ther stop their ears or quickly steal away their hearts so that we could never get them to a sober consideration nor ever win their hearts to God This will be the witness that many a hundred Ministers of the Gospel must give in against the souls of their people at that day Alas that ever you should cast this upon us For the Lords sake Sirs pitty your poor Teachers if you pitty not your selves We had rather go a 1000. miles for you we had rather be scorned and abused for your sakes we had rather lay our hands under your feâ—t and beseech you on our knees with tears were we able then be put on such a work as this It is you that will do it if it be done We had rather follow you from house to house and teach and exhort you if you will but hear us and accept of our exhortation Your souls aâ—e precious in our eyes for we know they were so in the eyes of Christ and therefore we are loth to see this day we were once in your case and therefore know what it is to be blind and careless and carnal as you are and therefore would fain obtain your Deliverance But if you will not hear but we must accuse you and we must condemn you The Lord Judge between you and us For he can witness that it was full sore against our wills We have been faulty indeed in doing no more for you and not following you with restless Importunity the Good Lord forgive us but yet we have not betrayed you by silence 2. All those that fear God that have lived among ungodly men will also be sufficient witnesses against them Alas they must be put upon that same work which is very unpleasant to their thoughts as Ministers are They must witness before the Lord that they did as friends and neighbors admonish them that they gave them a good example and endeavoured to walk in holyness before them but alas the most did but mock them and call them Puritans and precise fools and thought they made more ado then needs for their salvation They must be forced to testifie Lord we would fain have drawn them with us to hear the word and to read it and to pray in their families and to sanctifie thy holy day and take such happy Opportunities for their souls But we could not get them to it we did in our places what we were able to give them
grieved the Spirit Act. 7.51 As the Spirit witnesseth with the Spirits of the righteous that they are the children of God Rom. 8.16 so doth he witness with the conscience of the wicked that they were children of Rebellion and therefore are justly children of wrath This Spirit will not alway strive with men at last being vexed it will prove their enemy and rise up against them Gen. 6.3 Isa. 63.10 If you will needs Grieve it now it will Grieve you then Were it not a Spirit of Grace and were it not free mercy that it came to offer you the Repulse would not have been so condemning nor the witness of this Spirit against you so heavy at the last But it was the Spirit of Jesus that came with recovering Grace which you resisted And though the wages of every sin is death yet you will find that it will cost you somewhat more to Reject this salvation than to break the Creators Law of works Kindness and such Kindness will not be rejected at easie rates Many a good motion is now made by the Spirit to the Heart of a sinner which he doth not â—o much as once obseâ—ve and therefore doth not now Remember them But then they shall be brought to his Remembrance with a witness Many a thousand secret motions to Repentance to Faith to a Holy Life will be Then set before the eyes of the poor unpardoned trembling sinner which he had quite forgotten And the Spirit of God shall testifie to his Confusion At such a Sermon I perswaded thy heart to Repent and thou wouldest not At such a time I shewed thee the evil of thy sin and perswaded thee to have forsaken it but thou wouldest not I minded thee in thy secret thoughts of the neerness of Judgement and the Certainty and VVeight of everlasting things of the need of Christ and faith and holyness and of the Danger of sinning but thou didst drown all my motions in the cares and pleasures of the world Thou harkenedst rather to the Devil than to me The sensual inclinations of thy flesh did prevail against the strongest Arguments that I used Though I shewed thee Reasons undenyable Reasons from thy Creator from thy Redeemer from nature from grace from heaven and from hell yet all would not so much as stop thee much less turn thee but thou wouldest go on Thou wouldest follow thy flesh and now let it pay thee the wages of thy folly Thou wouldest be thy ovvn guide and take thine ovvn Course and novv take vvhat thou gettest by it Poor sinners I beseech you in the fear of God the next time you have any such motions from the Spirit of God to Repent and Believe and Break off your sins and the Occasions of them consider then what a mercy is set before you and how it will confound you at the day of Judgement to have all these motions brought in against you and that the Spirit of Grace it self should be your Condemner Alas that men should choose their own Destruction and wilfully choose it and that the foreknowledge of these things should not move them to relent So much concerning the witness that will be brought in against the sinner 5. The fifth Evidence that will be given in against the sinner will be The Instruments and Effects You know among men if a man be found murthered by the high-way and you are found standing by him with a bloody sword in your hand especially if there were a former dissention between you it will be an Evidence that will prove a strong presumption that you were the Murderer But if the fact be certain by other Evidence then many such things may be brought for aggravation of the fault So a twofold Evidence will be brought against the sinner from these things One to prove him guilty of the fact the other to Aggravate the fault and prove that his sin was very great For the former 1. The very creatures which sinners abused to sin may be brought in against them to their Conviction and Condemnation For though these creatures shall be consumed with the last destroying Fire which shall consume all the world yet they shall have a Being in the memory of the sinner an esse Cognitum The very Wine or Ale or other liquor which was abused to drunkenness may witness agaâ—nst the Drunkard The sweet morsels by which the Glutton did please his Appetite and all the good creatures of God which he luxuriously devouâ—ed may witness against him Luke 16.19 25. He that fared deliciously every day in this life was told by Abrahâ—m when he was dead and his soul in Hell Remember that thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things and likewise Lazarus evil things but now he is comforted and thou art tormented Though their sweet morsels and cups are past and gone yet must they be Remembred at Judgement and in Hell Remember Son saith Abraham Yea and Remember he must whether he will or no Long was the Glutton in sinning and many a pleasant bit did he taste and so many Evidences of his sin will lie against him and the sweetness will then be turned into gall The very cloathing and ornaments by which Proud persons did manifest their Pride will be sufficient Evidence against them as his being cloathed in Purple and fine linnen is mentioned Luk. 16.19 The very lands and goods and houses of worldlings will be an Evidence against them Their Gold and Silver which the covetous do now prefer before the everlasting Riches with Christ will be an Evidence against them Jam. 5.1 2 3 4. Go to now ye Rich men weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you Your Riches are corrupted and your Garments moath-eaten Your Gold and Silver is cankered and the Rust of them shall be a Witness against you and shall eat your flesh as it were fire Ye have heaped Treasure together for the Last daies Behold the hire of the Labourers which have reaped down your fields which is of you kept back by fraud cryeth and the cryes of them which have reaped are entred into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth Ye have lived in Pleasure on the Earth and been wanton Ye have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter Oh that worldlings would well considâ—r this one Text and therein observe whether a life of earthly pleasure and fulness of worldly Glory and Gallantry be as desirable as they imagine and to what Time and Purpose they now lay up their Treasures and how they must hear of these Things hereafter and what effect the review of their Jovial daies will have upon their miserable condemned souls 2. The very circumstances of Time Place and the like may Evidence against a sinner to his Condemnation The drunkard shall Remember In such an Ale-house I was so oft drunk and in such a Tavern I vvasted my time The Adulterer and Fornicator shall Remember the very Time the Place the Room the Bed vvhere they
to particular acts much less take away its natural Freedom 6. And that till Habits attain an utter predominancy at least there is a Power remaining in the will to resist them and use means against them Though Eventually the perverse Inclination may hinder the use of it The three and twentieth Excuse I have heard from learned men that God doth determine all Actions Natural and Free as the first efficient Physical Immediate Cause or else nothing could Act. And then it was not long of me that I choose forbidden Objects but of him that irresistibly moved me thereto and whose Instrument I was Answ. This is a trick of that wisdom which is foolishness with God and to be deceived by vain Philosophy 1. The very principle it self is most likely to be false and those that tell you this to err Much more I think may be said against it then for it 2. I am sure it is either false or reconcileable with Gods Holiness and mans liberty and culpability so that its a mad thing to deceive your selves with such Philosophical uncertainties when the Truth which you oppose by it is infallibly certain That God is not the Author of sin but man himself who is justly condemned for it is undoubtedly true and would you obscure so clear a Truth by searching into points beyond humane reach if not unsound as you conclude them The four and twentieth Excuse But at least those learned Divines among us that doubt of this do yet say that the will is necessarily and infallibly Determined by the Practical Vnderstanding and that is as much unresistibly necessitated by Objects and therefore whatever act was done by my understanding or will was thus necessitated and I could not help it They say Liberty is but the Acting of the faculty agreeably to its nature And it was God as Creator that gave Adam his faculties and God by providential dispose that presented all Objects to him by which his understanding and so his will were unavoidably necessitated Answ. This is of the same nature with the former uncertain if not certainly false Were this true for ought we can see it would lay all the sin and misery of the world on God as the unresistable necessitating Cause which because we know infallibly to be false we have no reason to take such principles to be true which infer it The understanding doth not by a necessary efficiency Determine the will but morally or rather is regularly a Condition or necessary Antecedent without which it may not Determine it self Yea the will by commanding the sense and phantasie doth much to determine the understanding As the eye is not necessary to my going but to my going right so is not the Understandings Guidance necessary to my willing there the simple Apprehension may suffice but to my Right willing There are other wayes of Determining the will Or if the Understanding did Determine the will Efficiently and Necessarily it is not every act of the understanding that must do it If it be so when it saith This must be don saith it importunatly yet not when it only saith This may be done or you may venture on it which is the common part which it hath in sin I am not pleased that these curious Objections fall in the way nor do I delight to put them into vulgar heads but finding many young Schollars and others that have conversed with them assaulted with these Temptations I thought meet to give a touch and and but a touch to take them out of their way As Mr. Fenner hath done more fully in the Preface to his Hidden Manna on this last point to which I refer you I only add this The will of man in its very Dominion doth be are Gods Image It is a self Determining Power though it be byassed by Habits and needs a Guide As the Heart and Vital Spirits by which it acteth are to the rest of the Body so is It to the soul The Light of Nature hath taught all the world to carry the Guilt of every crime to the will of man and there to leave it Upon this all Laws and Judgements are grounded From Ignorance and Intellectual weakness men commonly fetch Excuses for their faults but from the Will they are Aggravated If we think it strange that mans will should be the first cause so much as of a sinful mode and cannot answer all occuring Objections It may suffice that we are certain the Holy Majesty is not the Author of sin and he is able to make all this as plain as the Sun and easily answer all these vain Excuses though we should be unable And if we be much ignorant of the frame and motions of our own souls and especially of that high self determining principle Free-Will the great spring of our Actions and the curious Engine by which God doth Sapientially Govern the world it is no wonder Considering that the soul can know it self but by Reflexion and God gave us a soul to use rather than to know it self and to know its qualities and operations rather then its Essence The five and twentieth Excuse No man can be saved nor avoid any sin nor believe in Christ but those whom God hath predestinated thereto I was under an irreversible Sentence before I was born therefore I do nothing but what I was predestinated to do if God decreed not to save me how could I help it Answ. 1. Gods Judgements are more plain but his Decrees or secret purposes are mysterious And to darken certainties by having recourse to points obscure is no part of Christian wisdom God told you your Duty in his word and on what terms you must be Judged to Life or Death Hither should you have recourse for direction and not to the unsearchable mysteries of his mind 2. God decreeth not to Condemn any but for sin Sin I say as the Cause of that Condemnation though not of his Decree 3. Gods Decrees are acts Immanent in himself and make no change on you and therefore do not necessitate you to sin any more then his fore-knowledge doth For both cause only a necessity of Consequence which is Logical as the Divines on both sides do Confess And therefore this no more caused you to sin then if there had been no such Degree And its a doubt whether that Decree be not negative A willing suspending of the Divine will as to evil or at most A purpose to permit it The six and twentieth Excuse If it be no more yet doth it make my perdition unavoidable For even Gods foreknowledge doth so For if he foreknow it all the world cannot hinder it from coming to pass Answ. Must God either be Ignorant of what you will do or else be the cause of it If you foreknow that the Sun will rise tomorrow that doth not cause it to rise If you foreknow that one man will murder another you are not the cause of it by foreknowing it So is it