Mercy and judges himself as incapable of it as the damned in Hell when Gods Spirit has left him so that he can neither pray nor do any thing to relieve himself but lyes as a condemned Caitiff a Malefactor sentenced past all hopes of Pardon and only expecting Punishment and the last stroke of Vengeance this is a sad a deplorable condition which I have known many a Sinner in under a Wounded Spirit and had one great instance before me when I was writing this These Wounds are not felt indeed by many a Sinner in the heat of Blood in the career of his Lusts and the hot persuit of his Sins when in his high frolicks and jovial diversions he drowns the noise of his Conscience or lulls it asleep with charming Pleasures or full Cups or some unthinking madness but it will awake one time or other and like a sleeping Lyon when 't is roused up by some Judgment by some Sickness or Affliction it will fall terribly upon him with rage and fury and tear and consume him then all the wounds which sin gave it will bleed afresh and it will feel them afterwards unless they have been cured by a timely repentance if they have festered and gangrened and mortified the Soul for a time yet when it comes to it self it will feel them with unexpressible pain and anguish which nothing can asswage I mean when a Man has sin'd away his Life and Death and his Sins are set together before him and 't is hard to know which is the more terrible When the Sting of Death swelled up with Sin and Guilt strikes as deep into a Man's Conscience and wounds his Spirit as Death it self strikes into his Body with its fatal dart so that he suffers a double death at the same time and the Spiritual far more painful than the Bodily I take a Wounded Spirit here in the highest and most common sense and though when a Mans Spirit is dejected and sunk with any thing 't is very hard to bear it which may be the sense of the Wise Mans words in the forequoted place when the strength of a Mans Mind is lost which should support him under all his infirmities that he is subject to from without yet nothing does so sink it so wound and destroy it as Sin and Guilt especially when it is come to such a degree and to such a sad condition as we commonly mean by a Wounded Spirit i. e. a Mind deeply pierced with the sense of its own Guilt and of Gods Anger upon it This likewise admits of degrees and in some cases 't is a very happy thing for a Sinner and 't is to be sure alwayes a just Punishment I shall therefore in the Third place briefly consider what is the proper Cure and Remedy of such a wounded Spirit or troubled Mind for there is no Spiritual Illness but what is curable if we take it in time by Religion no Wound of Soul but what there is Balm for in Gilead in Christianity there is no Disease too great for our Heavenly Physician but what the Gospel has a proper and certain Remedy for if we duely and timely apply it A Man may tarry too long indeed and not use the Physick till it be too late till Death comes and puts an end to the time of Tryal and the time of Repentance and then a Wounded Spirit i. e. the extremest Sorrow for a Mans Sins the deepest Contrition of Soul for them cannot come up to true Gospel Repentance to which there is a certain promise of Pardon and Forgiveness for that is only upon turning to God and leaving all our Sins and leading a new Life and bringing forth the Fruits of Repentance by Obedience to the Gospel for the future which is a necessary condition by the terms of the Gospel which he cannot perform whom God cuts off before he can do it and therefore such an one must be left to the Infinite Mercy and Righteous Judgment of God to be dealt with by such measures as are not within the Covenant of Grace or the Terms of the Gospel for by those I cannot see any title he has to Pardon But in other Cases a Wounded Spirit may be the greatest Mercy and even the very beginning of Health or of a Cure to a Soul when God does not suffer a Man to go on senslesly in his Sins till he come to a seered Conscience and a reprobate Sense and to hardness of Heart and blindness of Mind but by some methods of his Grace and Providence alarums his Conscience and awakens his stupid Mind and brings his almost sensless and stupified Soul to some Spiritual sense of his condition Then his Soul will be wounded as Davids was when he reflects upon those Sins which he committed without consideration and he will be sore struck and smitten as every Penitent must at the remembrance of his evil wayes All Repentance is such a wounding of the Soul as makes its Heart bleed within it and its Blood and Spirits melt into Tears and Sorrow for what it has done 't is not such an easie thing as most men think it to be 't is such a Pain such a Wound to the Soul that the Pleasure of the greatest Sin is but a poor trifle to it and no man that rightly understood it would venture upon any Sin from the reserved hopes of it Repentance is a bitter Remedy made up of very strong and unpleasant ingredients and we must go through a long course to purge out the old Disease and take away the root of it so that before a wicked mind can be cured by it it must be cut and lanced and wounded and have very severe applications made to it The work of Regeneration or the New Birth cannot be wrought without many pangs or throwes nor does God ever almost bring a bad man to become a good one without some trouble and disorder of Mind There is a trouble of Mind indeed which is excessive and unreasonable for every Sinner ought in some measure to be troubled in Mind and he has not a due sense of his Sins if he is not but there is a trouble of Mind which takes away the hopes of Mercy and throwes Men into despair which is commonly called a Wounded Spirit and 't is so in the highest degree and whether there is any Remedy for that and what it is and what advice is to be given in such a case and what judgment to be made of it I shall briefly consider 1. Then this is often joyned with Melancholly of Body which is very hard to be cured and till it be so it is apt to darken the Mind and bring a cloud over the Spirits and to fill the Soul with very black Idea's and Imaginations and to hinder it from making true judgment of it self or its own actions and this is as pityable and ought as much to be remedied by Physick and Care as other Diseases of Body for I have known
competency and sufficiency with food and rayment as the Apostle has fix'd a competency 1 Tim. 6.8 with what answers the wants of Nature and the circumstances of our Condition but to be alwayes craving after more without any use or occasion this is that immoderate desire of Riches which we call Covetousness and so in other things 't is the Excess the Irregularity the immoderate and the vicious Abuse not the Natural Passion and Inclination it self that is to be denyed restrained and mortified 3. To do this we must so check and restrain and deny even our Natural Appetites that we may have the power and government alwayes over them Now if we let them loose and lay the reins upon their neck and let them take their utmost liberties and go alwayes to the furthest bounds of what is lawful they will hardly be kept in as they ought to be but we shall walk upon the brink of danger and the side of a precipice where it will be hard to escape falling sometimes and our Sensual Inclinations will grow more heady strong and ungovernable by being alwayes indulged and not used to a more severe discipline and management which all wise Men have therefore prescribed by the Rules and Precepts of Mortification and Self-denyal 4. To abate these Lustings and Desires of the Flesh and increase and raise those of the Spirit let us consider how little and mean are the objects and gratifications of the one in respect of those of the other How the one are low sordid and Brutish the other Rational and Angelical such as the highest order of Beings next to God are capable of How little is there in all the Riches and Greatness and State of this World how much less in all the mad frollicks of Debauchery and all the beastliness and filthiness of Brutish Lusts in all those things that make up Carnal Enjoyments and are the summe as the Apostle reckons them up of all that is in the World The lust of the flesh the lust of the eye and the pride of life 1 John 2.16 How much greater and nobler is it to have a wise and sober and vertuous Mind easie Thoughts and a chearful Conscience Spiritual Desires and Affections set upon things above and strong and well-grounded hopes of an Eternal Life and a Glorious Immortality These are the Objects of our Spiritual Desires and we should increase those by representing the worth and value the greatness and excellency of these above any other things that we can choose or desire or any enjoyments of the Animal and Sensual Life 'T is a vain fancy and opinion of the latter whereby we raise our imagination and heighten our expectation of something great and extraordinary in them 't is that kindles our Affections and inflames our Desires after them but did we wisely consider how vain and trifling and inconsiderable they are and how poor and little and short and sorry gratifications they afford this would wean us from such weak fancies and opinions of them and so slack and cool our Desires and Lustings after them Lastly We must use all Religious Means and Methods to mortifie and abate the Lustings of the Flesh and strengthen and increase those of the Spirit by the Acts and Exercises of Religion Piety and Devotion 'T is in the growth and prevalence of the latter lyes our Moral State and the greatest exercise of all Vertue and in the right ordering and governing of our Passions Appetites and Inclinations so that we must use all possible Methods to keep the lower Appetites under and obedient to the superiour and not let them dethrone our Reason or disobey Religion and therefore we must use all the helps we can have from Religion and Philosophy and the Divine Grace and Assistance to tame our inordinate Lusts by Fasting by Watching by Prayer by due watchfulness and circumspection over our selves and over all the weak places of our Nature that Sin do not enter in at some of those inlets that are unguarded and do not surprize and easily beset us when we are unprepared and unarmed by Religion against the assaults of it and there is nothing so helpful to this and to increase and strengthen our Spiritual Desires so that they shall alwayes prevail over the Lusts of the Flesh as the constant and uninterrupted exercises of Piety and Devotion These give life and vigour and nourishment to our Spiritual Desires and keep them alwayes warm and heated and intent upon their proper Objects whereas a neglect of those begets a carelesness stupidity and senslesness of all those things and sinks Men into a meer Sensual and Animal and Worldly and Brutal Life Nothing is therefore so proper to bring us to these Spiritual Desires and to make those alwayes prevail over the Lusts of the Flesh as Devotion and Piety which raise the Mind to things above the Body and above this World and take off and abstract the Soul from Sensual and Carnal Enjoyments and make it live up as near as it can to that Life it shall have in Heaven when it shall be all Spirit and have no Flesh or Lusts to contend with or be contrary to it I shall in the next place consider another thing which befalls many a Sinner and which tho' a due effect of his Sins and an evidence of the sad state they bring him to and so may be of great use to be duly considered on this account yet is a kind of Excess of Repentance and sometimes too great an extream that way and what ought to have the nicest Resolutions and best Directions given about it to cure and remove it I mean Trouble of Mind or a Wounded Conscience which many a Sinner lyes under and which I shall briefly Represent and Discourse of by considering how great a Misery it is above all others in this World and what Cure and Remedy there may be for it or for those who are fallen under it SECT IV. Of Trouble of Mind or a Wounded Spirit THE greatest part of our Happiness or Misery lyes in our Minds and Spirits in those inward Faculties and Sensories which are distinct from our Body and outward Senses We feel very often more pleasure or pain in those distinct from the Body than the Body it self is capable of for these are quicker and more sensible than Matter and Body can be and are the proper subject of perception of any Pleasure and Pain and of all Rational Happiness or Misery A Mans inward Thoughts do often give him more torment and uneasiness anguish and disquietude of Soul and more real pain and misery than any Bodily torment or even Death it self and therefore some have chosen Death and have willingly endured any Bodily pain rather than lye under the greater pain agonies and horrours of their own Minds and many that have been under those yet have felt an inward ward joy comfort and satisfaction of Mind that has supported them under the worst pains and sufferings of
greatest motive to Repentance that can possibly be given for nothing is so strong and powerful upon most Men as their fears which is the quickest and strongest Passion in Humane Nature and is apt to make a very great impression where nothing else will and nothing can be so much an object of our fear as Hell and Eternal Misery which is the utmost and most dreadful Evil that can be either felt or imagined I shall particularly and largely offer and represent it to the Sinners thoughts both as to its Nature consisting in the greatest pains and torments of Body and Mind and in the most wretched and miserable state and condition and as all this is Eternal and shall never have end Both which if heartily believ'd and seriously consider'd would have a mighty power and almost irresistible force to bring Men off from their greatest Sins I. Then let us consider its Nature as consisting of the greatest pains and torments both of Body and Mind and in the most wretched and miserable state and condition I shall not attempt fully to describe or draw a picture of this place of Torments our imagination is to be help'd out with all the known instances of Misery and so to form an Idea of that future and unknown and invisible one It is certain it must be adapted to those two parts of which we consist our Bodies and our Minds and what are the proper Evils to either of those we very well know sensible Pain and great Anguish and Sorrow and other tormenting Passions and these we must suppose in the highest degree to belong to Hellish Misery for as Heaven is the utmost good our Natures can possibly receive and are capable of so Hell is the greatest evil and as such is represented to us by that Revelation which assures us of it attended with the most sad and woful circumstances that can be imagined I shall offer the thoughts of it to the Sinner under such Ideas and Representations as are given of it by the Holy Ghost in Scripture And 1. We must conceive a horrid dark and dismal dungeon in some deep cavern of the Earth designed for horrour and fill'd with the blackness of darkness and inhabited only by cursed Fiends and frightful Ghosts and Devils into which the wretched Caitiff is to be thrown bound hand and foot and so cast into outer darkness Matth. 22.13 and delivered into chains of darkness 2 Pet. 2.4 Darkness is the Natural image and symbol of horrour and disconsolateness as Light is of comfort and pleasantness so that the Scripture expresses Happiness by the dwelling in light as it does Misery by being cast into outer darkness where there is not any beam of light nor any the least glimpse of joy and comfort And thus to be shut up for ever in a place of darkness and horrour and confined to this dismal and infernal Prison to all Eternity would be a dreadful Misery were there nothing else but they are to be tormented there as well as imprisoned and that with the most exquisite pains and tortures as they are described to us in the second place 2. By Fire and Burning which is the most terrible the most keen and painful of Bodily punishments which enters the tender parts with pointed and piercing fury and dissolves and distorts them with its rapid motion and has nothing to abate its extreme cruelty but that it quickly consumes and dispatches and spends it self with its own rage and violence as well as destroyes its subject But this is the dreadful Nature of that infernal Fire that it never goes out but is as the Scripture calls it unquenchable and that the miserable wretches that are condemned to it shall endure the pain and the rage of it for ever and shall never be consumed or destroyed by it but shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy Angels and in the presence of the Lamb and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever and they have no rest day nor night Rev. 14.10 11. Let us then set before us a burning Lake of liquid Fire and melted Brimstone like Nebuchadnezzars fiery Furnace heat seven times hotter than any thing we here know and the damned wretches cast into it and like Dives sadly tormented in those flames over all their parts so that the Tongue is swelled with heat as in a raging Feaver and nothing would be so comfortable to it as a drop of Water to cool it and to slake and abate the scorching Calenture Some are inclined to think all this but Allegory and Metaphor and painted Fire but the Scripture speaks so often of it that I cannot but think it may be literally true and that Fire is made the instrument of those Bodily pains that are there to be suffered and inflicted after the general Judgment and Resurrection Or however that as great pains of Body are thereby signified and exprest and shall really be endured some way or other as by burning in Fire For if the Holy Spirit to help our weak thoughts and assist our imaginations has made use of those known things only as emblems and pictures of some real pains yet they are certainly as great or greater than any of those by which they are shadowed out and represented as the pleasure of Heaven is much greater no doubt and does far exceed that of a Feast a Wedding a Crown or any such Earthly resemblance As to the proper pain and torment of the Mind which is the other and the greatest part of Hellish Misery for the Mind has a more quick and keen and immediate sense than the Body that is represented in Scripture by the worm which never dyes Matth. 9.46 i. e. by a Passion that bites and gnaws and corrodes and pains us within as the Fire or something else torments the Body from without and this includes in it all those dismal and reflecting thoughts and apprehensions which the Mind has upon its dreadful state and condition As 1. A direful perception of the Divine Anger Wrath and Displeasure which when it lyes heavy upon the Mind in the highest degree will press it into the deepest gulph of Misery and fill it with the most terrible Ideas and most dreadful apprehensions Even in this World when a Sinner tasts but a little of the Cup of Gods Fury 't is a cup of trembling and a cup of astonishment as the Scripture calls it Isa 51.17 Ezek. 23.32 and what will it then be when all the dregs of it must be drunk up When God hides his Face but a little there is all trouble and horrour and what must it then be when he hides it for ever The sense and apprehension of lying under the displeasure of Almighty Power and provoked Justice and abused Goodness and all these highly incensed against a Man and never to be appeased must be very dreadful and make sad impressions upon the Mind The Presence and the Favour of God giveth
Life and Comfort what Death and Misery must it then be to be banished for ever from both with a Depart from me ye oursed 2. The Mind will reflect upon what is past with infinite remorse and anguish and with great regret curse its own folly and madness that has brought it to this sad condition when God had put it in its power to have made it self for ever happy had it been wise and considering as it ought to have been This will be the great sting of its Misery that it wilfully brought it upon it self and for a few foolish and rash and finful actions undid it self for ever and for some trifling reasons and pitiful temptations the little pleasures or profits of Sin which are now all gone made it self thus wretchedly and eternally miserable How with rage and envy will it look up to that Happiness it has lost and sees others enjoy and vex it self with fury that it should refuse and reject that when it was offered to it and this one thought will double and increase its Misery and make it curse and tear it self that it was its own choice 3. As the Mind with looking back will be filled with remerse and anguish upon its past Sins and past Madness so by looking forward and seeing no end of the Misery it is in it will be filled and overwhelmed with Despair which is a Passion of Mind so perfectly and so unspeakably miserable that I shall not venture to describe it for 't is beyond any thing we can imagine and it properly belongs to the next head which is the eternity and endless duration of these Torments and Misery which though it be but a circumstance of time and not properly that wherein they consist yet is the most dreadful perfection and completion of them which I shall consider by and by Let us now but seriously think with our selves what a dreadful state it is to be under all this torment of Mind and pain of Body to lye thus upon the rack of the greatest tortures both from within and without and that in such extremity that they shall make dreadful and hideous signs and expressions of it in weeping and mourning and lamentation and gnashing of teeth Matth 22.13 when they shall gnaw their tongues for pain and blaspheme the God of heaven because of their pains Rev. 16.10 11. And yet all their bitter cryes and dolorous exclamations shall only blow up and kindle the rage and fury of the surrounding flames for none of their sighs shall put out nor their tears extinguish any the least spark of those flames which are kindled by the Wrath of God who is a consuming fire Who can express or imagine the keenness and sharpness of those pains of Body or the pangs and agonies of Conscience the passions and anguish and remorse of Mind and nothing to take off or divert or give the least intermission to all these but an angry God above a dark and bottomless pit of burning Brimstone below and frightful and ugly and insulting Spirits like so many executioners all about it and no friend to call to to pity or to help it O sad and miserable and intolerable condition Who would not do all he could to warn others and himself that they come not to that place of Torments What pleasure or profit can there be in the most tempting Sin that should make a Man venture the enduring all this for the sake of it Who would endure this but one day or one month for all the things this World can afford Who would suffer it for so long a time as this life of Sin here lasts for all that he gets by it Who would endure it a thousand years for all the Kingdoms of this World and the Glories thereof much less who would for a trifling Lust or a sinful Inclination for a little unjust Gain or unlawful Pleasure endure it for ever Which is the next thing I am to speak to That II. This is Eternal and shall never have end This is the dreadful and amazing circumstance of this Misery and that which must confound him that suffers it that it shall last for ever so that there shall never be any hopes of having an end of it after never so many thousand years but there shall be still an infinite Eternity behind and so as much as there was at the first beginning Who can think of this without the utmost horrour and amazement and having his thoughts swallowed up with the dreadful consideration of it It is so great that some have had their Reason overcome and overwhelmed by it so that they have thought it unagreeable and inconsistent with Gods Goodness and Justice to inflict so long and so great a Misery upon any of his Creatures and have therefore endeavoured to limit this Eternity to a shorter compass of time and not to extend it to an absolute but a limited Eternity as sometimes it is understood in Scripture and therefore to reconcile all those places of Scripture to this notion of it and to interpret them so that Eternity in the fullest and utmost sense may not be understood by them I shall therefore briefly examine this Argument which on the one side seems very careful of the credit and honour of the Divine Justice and Goodness but on the other takes off extremely from the utmost terrour of Hellish Torments in denying them to be Eternal so that it may tend in great measure to take off the power and force of those which are the greatest restraints that God could lay upon Sin and Wickedness and since so few are prevailed upon by them though under the doctrine and perswasion of their being Eternal how much fewer would be so if they thought them otherwise I shall therefore First Briefly show how this Eternity of Hellish Torments is agreeable to Gods Goodness Secondly How it is plainly and undeniably proved from Scripture and Revelation First How ' tls agreeable to Gods Goodness to punish the few Sins of a short Life with such great and never ending Torments when in all Governments and all distributions of Justice the Punishment ought not to be so disproportioned and so much greater than the Crime And besides how a good and tender and pitiful God should keep a poor Creature in being for ever meerly to let it suffer and be miserable and endure infinite Torments To this I answer briefly 1. Whatever Punishment is necessary to secure the ends of Government to preserve Obedience to Laws and to keep bold and daring Men from breaking and violating them whatever is necessary to this end is just and necessary and agreeable both to the Goodness and Wisdom and Justice of the best Government for otherwise there must be no such thing as Government in the World but God must give up his Authority and throw the reins loose upon the necks of his Creatures if he have not a power to threaten and inflict such Punishments as shall be sufficient to
of God as when ye called me wine-bibber and glutton and a friend of Publicans and Sinners but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost if ye use any reproachful sayings against the Spirit of God by which I do my Miracles this shall not be forgiven neither in this world nor in the world to come Neither here nor as some of you vainly expect hereafter but shall be certainly and severely punish'd in both Now here is no mention at all nor the least intimation of those other Sins in which some have placed this Sin against the Holy Ghost as in final Impenitence which the Pharisees could not then be charged with not Apostacy from Christianity which they had not at all professed nor were by this very likely to do nor denying the Truth for fear of Suffering as in the instance of Francis Spira which is often said to be his Sin nor any of the six Sins in which the Schoolmen have placed it as Envying our Brothers Graces Impugning the known Truth Obstinacy Impenitency Desperation and Presumption which two latter are unluckily put together to make this one Sin when they are so contrary to themselves Whatever mixture there might be of these or any of these or the like Sins in the Minds of the Pharisees who committed this Sin against the Holy Ghost yet those are no more this particular Sin here meant by our Saviour than Pride and Covetousness and other Sins that might go a great way and be no small causes to bring them to this Sin and dispose their Minds for it but St. Mark sets the thing beyond all dispute in chap. 3. ver 28.29 30. where he relates these words of our Saviour thus Verily I say unto you all sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost shall never have forgiveness but is in danger of eternal damnation And then he gives the reason of our Saviours saying all this to them namely because they said he hath an unclean Spirit i. e. a Diabolical and impure one which makes it as manifest as can be desired that this their Sin was their blaspheming and speaking so reproachfully of the Holy Ghost which was in Christ as if that were not the Holy Spirit of God but an unclean and a Devilish Spirit How great and horrid a Sin this was will appear from these four Considerations 1. It tended to destroy the whole Truth of Christianity and consequently to rob the World of all the benefit it has by it There could nothing so malicious be contrived to undermine the Foundation of the Gospel as this assertion of the Pharisees that our Saviour wrought his Miracles by the help of an evil or unclean Spirit for this was to make him a Magician a confederate with the Devil and so to represent his Religion as a work and contrivance of Hell that could tend only to the mischief and destruction of the World For if no good thing could come out of Galilee as in a Proverbial derision they gave out to the People to be sure no good thing could come from Hell and from evil Spirits The Devil would never lend his Power had he been able to promote or establish any thing but a false Religion that should withdraw the World from the Worship of the true God The greatest demonstration for the Truth of Christianity were the Miracles of Christ as he often appeals to them John 10.37 38. John 14.11 Mat. 11.4 and if these were done not by a Divine but a Diabolical Power and by a compact with the Devil they are then the greatest Arguments against it for then it may be only a mystery of iniquity brought into the World by him whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness 2 Thes 2.9 20. as Antichristianism is described 2. It tends not only to undermine the Truth of Christianity but of all Revelation whatever from God The greatest proof and demonstration that can be given to any Prophet that comes from God to reveal his Will to Men is his working of Miracles and satisfying those he is sent to that he has a Divine Authority and Commission by his showing his Credentials from God who would never suffer a Cheat and Impostor to do such mighty works as must necessarily cheat and deceive those that see them Now if notwithstanding that he teach nothing contrary to the Nature of God nor of Good and Evil and yet perform such wonderful Miracles as can be done only by the Finger of God and by a Divine Power if we will still suspect this then we can never be satisfied of the truth of any revelation from Heaven and so the Pharisees did not only undermine Christianity but even their own Law for it might with as much reason be said that Moses and the Prophets who pretended to come from God and wrought Miracles to show they did so yet were only the Prophets and Embassadors of the Devil and did all their Miracles by his Power as of Christ 3. This must proceed from a very spightful temper and malicious humour that made them speak this against their Consciences and the sense of their own Minds Sure they who were eye-witnesses of his Miracles and so had the best and fullest evidence of the truth of them and who heard the excellency of his Discourses and Sermons in which was nothing contrary to the Worship of the true God or the Moral Duties of Religion they must as our Saviour once told them know both him and also whence he was John 7.28 When they must be convinced that he was both an innocent and good Man himself and that his Doctrine commanded the highest Vertue and Goodness and tended to destroy the whole Power and Interest of the Devil in the World they could not surely believe themselves or think this their black charge was true but when they saw the People amazed at his healing a Demoniack and saying Is not this the Son of David Matth. 12.23 And so they feared that they should have lost their Power and Authority together with their Law and that the People should have left them and followed him then they gave out this vile and abominable reflection upon him that he did all this by the Power of the Devil which was the utmost shift that Malice could invent to blind the eyes of others against a Truth which they could hardly be supposed not to see themselves 4. It was the most taunting reproachful Slander against God and his Holy Spirit that could possibly be and therefore is alwayes called Blasphemy which is the most daring provoking and transcendent Crime against God that can be and proceeds from the most contemptuous and scornful most wretched and depraved temper of Mind To slander and calumniate the Son of Man was a great Sin to call a sober and temperate Person a
is and hinder Men from ever becoming better 2 Let us take care to avoid all manner of wilful Sin and especially all those great ones that come near and any way approach to this Sin against the Holy Ghost A very wilful Sin in a Christian especially is in some fense a Sin against the Holy Ghost 't is a grieving a quenching and a resisting the Spirit in the language of Holy Scripture That Blessed Spirit is concerned as the great promoter of Vertue and Goodness in the World and as the great Principle of it in the Hearts of Men and whenever we do any wicked thing we offer violence to that and by our rude and vicious carriage we affront and grieve and at last banish and drive away that Blessed Guest out of our Souls Whatever is Wicked and Sinful is so contrary to his Pure and Excellent Nature that it is highly offensive to him and if we go on in a course of long and customary Wickedness we sin the more against him and come the nearer to that sad and wretched state that is unpardonable I do not think indeed that any one Sin or particular Act of any Sin whatever puts us into that condition but as every Sickness and Indisposition of Body is a tendency to Death and Mortality so every wilful Sin is a corruption of the Mind and an approach to a state of Spiritual Death And there are some Sins that bring this sooner upon us as the acting against our Consciences and the sense of our own Minds an opposing the Truth that is evident to us a scoffing at Religion and making a mock of Sin an abusing the Scriptures and ridiculing the Holy Word of God an obstinate resistance of all the motions of Gods Holy Spirit upon our Minds These and such like gross and obstinate impieties though I do not think they are any of them the very Sin against the Holy Ghost for that ought not to be extended further than we have a warrant from Scripture yet they are so many approaches as it were to it and have more of the ill symptoms of that upon them and therefore we ought especially to avoid them lest they bring us by degrees into that sad state which is unpardonable for though one Sin I believe do not do this yet a great many may and especially such as those which do so waste the Conscience and corrupt the Mind as to make it uncurable And this is the saddest State and Condition in the World next to the State of Hell and Damnation tho' it be not the immediate Sin against the Holy Ghost Having endeavoured to give the plainest and fullest Satisfaction I can to the most doubtful and scrupulous Minds about this Sin of the Holy Ghost I shall now Discourse of some other things of a Lesser Nature which many Penitents and good Men are apt to be greatly dissatisfied with and have dark and wrong thoughts about As I. Concupiscence the Lustings of the Flesh or struggle between that and the Spirit which they find in themselves II. Trouble of Mind and a wounded Spirit which many lye under by reason of their Sins or by reason of Melancholly or both together SECT III. Of Concupiscence the Lustings of the Flesh or struggle between that and the Spirit THE right understanding of our selves is very necessary to the right understanding of Religion Religion is fitted and adapted to Humane Nature in its present state and capacity in this World and is designed not to destroy it but to perfect and improve it and raise it to its true Happiness and Perfection We cannot be like the Angels in Heaven nor like pure and glorious Spirits whilst we live here upon Earth and have Bodies of Flesh and Blood united to our Souls God who made us and knows our Frame did not intend to destroy and undo his own Creation by the Precepts of Religion nor make us cease to be Men by becoming Christians We find indeed in our selves a great many weaknesses and corruptions strong passions and sensual inclinations which if we did not wisely govern would be great occasions of Sin to us and if we let them loose would carry us into a thousand Mischiefs as well as Sins and Wickednesses They who give the reins to those and the full swinge to their Natural Lusts and Passions run into all Vice and Debauchery and commit all uncleanness with greediness And the best of Men cannot be wholly free from that Original Concupiscence and those Sensual Motions and Desires that are not alwayes agreeable to Reason and Religion but they complain of this bondage of corruption and this body of death which they cannot be delivered from Rom. 8.21 and 7.24 Grace and Religion though it gives us another Principle and conveys new powers of a Divine and Spiritual Life into our Souls yet whilst the Animal and Sensual Life remains and whilst we are compounded of Flesh and Blood as well as Spirit and Reason and have a Carnal as well as Spiritual Principle in us there will be a mighty struggle and a great contest between those two and a kind of civil war in our breasts between those different Parties and which of those shall be uppermost and have the chief Power and gain the Victory is the great point and the great concern of all Vertue and Religion since in all of us as the Apostle sayes The Flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the Flesh and these are contrary one to the other so that we cannot do the things that we would Gal. 5.17 And this we know by Experience as well as by Revelation Now this Concupiscence that remaineth in good Men is often matter of great trouble to them and they know not what to judge of it or how far it is a Sin and ought to be Repented of and what way they may best overcome it I shall therefore to clear and satisfie their thoughts about this matter of the struggle or Lusting between the Flesh and Spirit show these three things First That mere Lusting on either side is not what makes either Sin or Vertue or denominates a bad or a good Man Secondly That these are the proper matter of Vice or Vertue in which the tryal and exercise of them lye Thirdly That we ought to lessen the Power of the Fleshly Lusting and increase that of the Spirit and what are the proper means to do this I shall briefly consider First That meer Lusting on either side is not what makes either Sin or Vertue nor what constitutes or denominates a bad or a good Man For this Lusting is in both good and bad though according to several degrees and measures in the one the Lusting of the Flesh prevails and in the other that of the Spirit and 't is from this the prevalency of either of these and not the meer contention of them that we are counted good or bad before God The best of Men may have the same Passions Appetites and
Bodily Inclinations with others and may be disposed thereby to such Lustings and Desires of the Flesh but they do not let those carry them to unlawful Practices to undue Obâ—ects to consent to what is sinful or commit any thing that is forbidden by a Divine Law The worst of Men may have some ineffectual Desires and good Motions stirred up in their Souls now and then and it may be with some force and violence that they overcome the tender sense of their own Minds and the strugglings and rebukes of their own Consciences and their own Spirits and the Spirit of God may strive within them against their Lusts and sinful Inclinations but the latter is too hard for them and the Temptations of Sin and Wickedness prevail over all their faint Desires good Wishes Purposes or Resolutions 'T is certain no Man can be wicked but against the sense of his own Mind the smiting of his Conscience the convictions of his own Reason and Judgment and a strong inward Principle that makes Vice troublesome and uneasie to him at its first commitment before he has worn off Natural Shame and Innocence and is hardened by Custom and long continuance We have Naturally in us a Principle of Vertue as well as of Vice they are both indeed blended and mixt in our Nature and therefore the Spirit does as truly Lust against the Flesh and has strong Natural Motions against that as the Flesh hath against the Spirit We have the Natural Seeds of Probity good Nature Pity Charity Kindness Modesty and other Vertues sown in our Hearts and appearing in the first tender indications of undisguised Nature in Children and Infants as well as the seeds of Vice and Wickedness and all manner of Pravity and Corruption that grow up afterwards in Mens Lives There is an Original Lust and Concupiscence to Good as well as to Evil and as there is an Original Sin in our Nature in a true sense and meaning so there is an Original Righteousness still remaining in us as not only Nature and Experience but St. Pauls words here of the two Lustings of the Flesh and Spirit do plainly suppose and demonstrate But because some have thought that the first Motions of Concupiscence or the meer feeble and ineffectual Lustings and Desires of the Flesh after Evil or undue Objects is truly and properly a Sin I shall clear and consider that Point and take off the trouble that some have thereupon in their Minds 1. These meer Lustings or first Motions of Concupiscence cannot be Sin because they are Natural and result from our very Frame and Make and Constitution and as an Argument that they are so and so come from pure Mechanism of Body and the Temperament of Blood and Spirits they are the same both in us and in Brutes who have such Bodies as we have and who never were capable of Sinning or Falling or being punish'd as such Now nothing that is purely Natural can be Sinful for as such it is the work of God and part of his own Creation which he has pronounced to be good and it plainly serves such good ends and designs for the benefit of the World as God thought necessary and as are wisely appointed by him 'T is therefore making God the Author of Evil or with the Antient Hereticks making an Evil Principle to be our Creator to suppose any thing in us that is purely Natural to be Sinful 2 These Lustings and first Desires were in our first Parents before the Fall for they are only the inclination of our Animal Nature to its proper good and a suitable Object when they beheld the forbidden Fruit and saw that it was good for food and pleasant to the eyes and a tree to be desired Gen. 3.4 Had they gone no further but only seen it and thought it fair and lovely to the eye but checked this their Desire and Lust after it with the Consideration of Gods Prohibition and of the Punishment he had threatned against the eating of it they had not then lost their Innocence nor broken Gods Command nor incurred the grievous Penalty of it 3. Those Natural Desires and Inclinations were even in our Blessed Saviour who was in all things tempted like unto us yet without sin Heb. 4.15 Who as he increased in Wisdom and Stature and grew up as a Man so he hungred and thirsted and felt pain and was extremely sorrowful even unto Death and prayed that the bitter Cup might pass from him which all showed that he took our Nature with its Weaknesses and Infirmities upon him and that those are not Sins unless they go further and make us do something unlawful which he never did but his Vertue would not have been so great nor could he have been tempted by the Devil or rewarded by his Father for his Obedience had not he had the same Natural Desires and Inclinations that belong to Flesh and Blood 4. These first Motions are unavoidable and not under the power or command of our Will any more than such sensations and perceptions from Objects suited to such Faculties and inward Powers so that we can no more help such Motions and Desires arising from such causes than the seeing things when they are set before our Eyes or having our Ears struck with such sounds as are near us The Mind is as suddenly struck with such a Desire and Inclination from such an Object making impression upon it agreeable to its Nature and Capacity as it is by our outward Senses Indeed the Mind can judge of this afterwards and has a power to determine it self as it pleases either to choose or refuse such a Motion offered to it and this we call Will and if it does choose it and consent to it then as St. James sayes Lust hath conceived and brought forth sin James 1.15 but it is not Sin before it hath thus conceived and brought it forth and though the Action be not yet produced yet when the Mind has consented to it from thence it derives its Sinfulness and all its Blame and Guilt and there wants nothing in it self but only Power and Opportunity which are things without it to bring it into Act So that as a weight is the same though its tendency downwards be stop'd by what it lyes upon so is the pravity of the Will when it consents to an unlawful Desire though it be hindered from executing it But I shall show this further in the Second Head of Discourse namely 2ly That these Lustings and Desires of the Flesh and the Spirit are the proper tryals of our Vertue and the chief matter of our Obedience and according as either of these prevail upon us so we are fix'd in our Moral state here and our Eternal state hereafter The Flesh sollicites us with the temptations of Bodily Pleasures and Delights with the enjoyments of the Animal Life and the sensible and present good things of this World and if we choose those without regard to the Laws of Vertue and
Body and the greatest outward evils that could ever fall upon them and their Minds and Spirits have been chearful and erect and despised the threatnings of Tyrants and born the greatest tortures of Body and the hardest calamities of this World Thus did all the Martyrs and thus do many good Men and good Christians enjoy an inward happiness of Mind a peace and comfort and delight of Conscience under a painful and sickly Body a poor and necessitous Condition and under a great many outward Evils which they are here subject to but there are some closer and more inward Evils felt by others a guilty and uneasie Mind a troubled and disquiet Conscience a scaring dread of a Divine Vengeance hanging over their heads and a fearful expectation and looking for of Judgment which shall devour them in a little time these are such dreadful Evils as sink down a Mans Mind and oppress it with an insupportable burden greater than it can bear and swallow it up in a gulph of unspeakable and intolerable Misery This is the greatest and the worst of Miseries to which no other Misery nor no other Evils here that we are subject to are comparable As the Wise Man observes Prov. 11.14 The spirit of a man may sustain his infirmities but a wounded spirit who can bear I shall consider three things relating to such a Wounded Spirit or Troubled Mind I. How little all other Evils are in respect of this II. How dreadful and insupportable that is III. What is the proper Cure or Remedy for it I. All Worldly Evil or all that we can call outward Misery to a Christian is in respect of that but like a small Wound to a sound Body a little scratch upon the Skin which though it may pain a Man a little and be something uneasie yet may be well enough born and will heal of it self or by the help of proper Remedies so long as it touches not the Vitals nor comes near the great Vessels of Life but inward Misery the pain and anguish of a Man 's own Mind caused by his Sins and an evil Conscience is like a dart struck through his Liver like a sword piercing into his Bowels or his very Heart like a prick upon a Nerve or the most tender and vital part of us which puts us into Convulsions and Agonies and scatters all the force and power of our Animal Spirits When any outward Affliction falls upon a good Man he has something to support himself His heart standeth firm or is fixed trusting in the Lord Psal 112.7 He has inward springs of Comfort rising up in his Mind that supply it with fresh vigour and overflow and refresh it with constant recruits Under the greatest losses and disappointments here he is sure he cannot lose Heaven if he take care to live well nor be disappointed of his expectations hereafter and that at present he has a good Providence that will not leave him destitute or unprovided but do what is best for him Under the greatest Calumny and Slander that others may load him withal which is as uneasie as any thing to an ingenuous Mind yet when a Mans Conscience acquits and vindicates him though all the World should reproach and accuse him he has more peace from thence than disturbance from all the noise and clamours of others Under the greatest Sickness or the fears of Death when that most terrible thing comes near him and stands before him though he may not be wholly without fear yet he is not without hopes and comfort too but now what shall a wicked Man do under all these when his Mind is sick as well as his Body when Death scares him and comes as he thinks to torment him before his time when he is afraid to dye and yet thinks he must dye when ever he is a little ill how often does such an one dye how often does he taste the bitterness of Death and how does he feel something in his Mind worse than Death to his Body and the agonies of his Conscience are the foretaste of that second and Eternal Death This shows how dreadful and unsupportable a Wounded Spirit is which is the second thing I was to consider but I have prevented my self in some measure with what I have said already and I dare not undertake fully to describe that which they who have felt tell us it is impossible to represent or give account of What horrours they have been in what dismal terrours they have layn under how they have suffered as they imagine the very torments of Hell so great have the torments been above any thing else they could ever conceive or have an Idea of So that I take this to be a sensible proof and demonstration of a Hell and if a Fiend had come from thence and with the ghastliest look and the frightfullest appearance had told us what he felt there it could not have been more convincing nor more affecting than what an old and despairing Sinner has both felt and confessed before he came thither when God has made him preach this without rising from the dead to warn his Brethren from the like Sins and if it were possible to make them Repent and not come into that state of Torments when without going to the other World or having a Messenger come from thence they have seen and heard him cry out in the anguish of his Soul like Cain that his sins and his punishment is greater than he can hear Gen. 4.13 When the wrath of God has layn heavy upon him and the arrows of the Almighty have stuck fast in him and he has been forced to drink of the wrath of the Almighty as Job expresses it Job 21.20 Or as the Psalmist more fully when he tells us Psal 75.8 In the hand of the Lord there is a cup and the wine is red it is full of mixture and he poureth out of the same the dregs whereof the wicked shall wring out and drink of them This bitter Cup of Gods Wrath mixed with all the poysonous extracts of his own Sins the wicked has been forced to drink and has found that these are not vain and empty words but real and sensible things that we want proper words to express for all the terrible Idea's and representations come very short of the things themselves to be whip'd with Snakes and lash'd with Scorpions to have hot burning Torches and flaming Swords held and applyed to us which were the Metaphorical descriptions of these tortures of Conscience are far short of what they are in themselves and nothing indeed can come nigh the sense of them nor is what we feel in pain or pleasure to be ever drawn fully and to the life in picture When a Man feels something in himself that nothing else is like when his Soul is overwhelmed with the deep Passions of remorse anguish and despair when God hides his Face and takes away all Comfort from him when he has no more hopes of
very good Persons subject to it and one of the best means to cure it is to know that this is one cause of that trouble of Mind which will be so much abated when one is perswaded from whence it often comes or is heightened For Melancholly is not curable by Religion or Divinity and they who are subject to it should take the more care of their lives that there be no true and great cause to fall in and joyn with the Melancholly of their Bodies and they should make a judgment of themselves in their best tempers and when their thoughts are clearest and should trust others and especially their Spiritual Guides to judge for them since they are so unfit generally to pass judgment upon themselves 2. This Trouble of Mind which makes Men despair of Mercy is most unreasonable and contrary to the whole tenour and design of the Gospel for there is Pardon held out to the greatest Sinner by the Blood of Christ and to the greatest Sin or the greatest number of Sins if we Repent of them and leave them and become good Men before we dye This is as certain as the Gospel is true and therefore no Man has any just cause to despair for the greatest Sin or Sins who is so heartily troubled for them that he would not for the World commit them again and who resolves never to do so by the Grace of God but to practice the contrary Vertues and who makes good this Resolution by a Vertuous and Pious and Religious Life this Man will as certainly be happy as if he had been alwayes innocent and never had offended God I cannot say he will be in a state as comfortable and free from trouble though if he has thus Repented and become a good man he has good reason to be so but he will be as safe and if he has still some trouble of mind remaining upon the remembrance of his Sins though never so long past and he cannot see the Pardon of them with the same certainty and evidence that he knows he committed them yet this shall not hinder his Pardon nor affect his Salvation if he has truly and fully Repented of them For 3. And Lastly This Trouble of Mind which proceeds from judging too hardly or severely of himself is rather an Infirmity than a Sin and God will not condemn a Man for it though he may condemn himself for God will not condemn a Man unjustly though he should unjustly condemn himself much less because he does so Despair is indeed a sad state but I cannot say it is alwayes a damnable Sin or want of Faith as some think for it may arise not from a disbelief of the Gospel or of the Divine Goodness or the freeness and fullness of Gods Grace in and through Christ but meerly from a false and mistaken and too hard and humble an opinion of a Mans self and this is a fault not of a Mans Will but of his Judgment and a weakness and imperfection in his Understanding for which he shall never be condemned by a Righteous God but he will reverse this false Judgment which he made of himself when he lived or when he dyed and set it right in the Court of Heaven and do Justice to him at the great Tribunal though he did not do it to himself here That God will judge Men according to their Works is plain in Scripture but no where that I know that he will do so according to their Thoughts their vain Hopes and presumptuous or vain Fears and Troubles and Doubts and even Despairs of themselves So that tho' this Trouble of Mind or this Wounded Spirit be a comfortless and unhappy state yet it truly depends upon the cause to make judgment of it or to conclude any thing from it and true and timely Repentance is the best and certainest Remedy for it CHAP. IV. The ill Consequences drawn from the Priviledge of Repentance Obviated and Prevented THE most wicked and greatest of Sinners who have any thoughts of their Souls and of another World though they are not prevailed upon by this to become better yet make this reserve and refuge to themselves that they will Repent hereafter at some time or other and so escape the Wrath to come They know and are very sensible if they have not shaken off all Religion and all thinking and considering of these things that except they repent they shall all perish but they hope and intend to prevent this by the benefit of Repentance and so make use of that not to bring them off from their Sins but to encourage them in them with hopes to avoid all the miserable consequences of them and yet live in them and so by this priviledge of an after Repentance they set aside the present necessity of a good Life and wholly destroy or supersede all Religion I shall therefore endeavour to prevent that most common and most fatal abuse of it for I am confident there are more Souls perish by that than by any other mistake whatsoever and a thousand times more than by down-right Infidelity and Disbelief of all Religion which is a very rare thing and 't is hard to find out any certain instances that have ever been of it in the World 't is so much against the Natural Sense and Reason and Apprehension of Mankind but the other is the commonest thing in the World even for Christians perhaps above any others to make false Reasonings to themselves from this priviledge of Repentance which we have in the highest degree from the Gospel to think they may secure and save their Souls and yet indulge and allow themselves in the present enjoyment of their Sins because they may set all right by Repenting of them hereafter I shall therefore against this errour and abuse of Repentance and to obviate this mischievous Consequence offer these following Considerations 1. Can we think a Wise God would make such a Grant and Concession to his Creatures as should destroy all Religion and make void the necessity of Obedience and a good Life which according to these Mens thoughts is unavoidably done by this Gospel-priviledge of Repentance For since say they a Man is as certainly safe who comes in at any time upon Repentance and shall be as certainly saved by the Terms and Conditions of the Gospel as if he had spent all his Life in the strictest Vertue and Religion What need is there of such an early and constant and perpetual Obedience and spending a whole Life in the servitude and drudgery of Religion when coming in at the eleventh hour and working but a short space at the latter end of the day will have as much Wages and as sure a Reward and be as certainly accepted by God Shall not a Sinner when ever he returns and repents find Mercy Is there any time or bounds prefix'd to his Repentance so that he may not do it so many years hence as well as at present and after he has
shall deliver me from this body of death he comfortably replies to himself I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord ver 25. i. e. there is a remedy for it by Christ and Christianity and the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death ver 2. chap. 8. The Answer to the other Objection will be fully given in the next Section SECT II. The Differences of Sins what are and what are not consistent with a good State THAT all Men are Sinners not only Experience but the Scriptures do in many places assure us that there is not a righteous man upon earth who sinneth not that in many things we offend all and that if we say we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us by which is not only meant that no Man is wholly free from all manner of Sin in the whole course of his Life or can pass all his dayes without falling into some Sin or other but that no part of his Life even when he is come to his best State a State of Grace and Vertue is so perfect as to be quite sinless and without any Sin of what kind soever so that he should not be obliged to beg Pardon of God and say dayly Forgive us our Trespasses Now this as it is matter of Humiliation to the best Men so it is turn'd to another use and quite different purpose by the worst they comfort themselves in all their greatest Sins that all Men are Sinners as well as themselves that none are free from all Sins and let them that are so cast the first stone at them they plainly confound hereby the different states of good and bad Men and are not willing to distinguish or make such a true judgment as the Scripture does plainly between them for the same Scripture that tells us all are Sinners and hath concluded all under Sin yet declare that every wilful Sin is damnable and that they who commit it and live in the practice of it shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven and that he who shall keep all the law besides and yet offend in any one point is guilty of all and shall be punish'd as truly though not so fully for one wilful unrepented Sin as for more There is no way to reconcile this and take off any seeming difficulty about it but by that plain difference which both Scripture and Reason allow between Sins that some of them are Sins of Frailty and Infirmity which are unavoidable to us in our present state and which are consistent with a good one and which the best of Men cannot live wholly without whilst they are in this Body of Flesh and Blood and that others are wilful and presumptuous known and deliberate Sins which are committed with full consent of the Mind and against a plain Law of God and with that presumption and disobedience that makes them unpardonable without a particular Repentance and a perfect Amendment It concerns us very carefully to distinguish and know the difference between those and not to erre to be sure on the wrong side by judging too kindly of our Sins and calling those Infirmities and Weaknesses which are Sins of Wilfulness and Presumption nor can we without judging right and avoiding Mistakes on either hand judge truly and comfortably of our selves and know what our Spiritual state is or what condition we are in as to God and another World The only way to be safe is to avoid every Sin at least every wilful Sin and to grow up to as high a degree of Vertue and Goodness as we can and to get as much mastery over all our Imperfections and Infirmities as is possible but since some Sins and Frailties will cleave to us whilst we carry this body of Sin and of Death about us we may use the Psalmists excellent Prayer both for our Instruction and our Devotion Psal 19.12 13. Who can understand his errors Cleanse thou me from secret faults keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins let them not have dominion over me then shall I be upright and I shall be innocent from the great transgression where he gives us an account of several sorts of Sins 1. Such as he calls Errors and secret Faults by which are meant Sins of Ignorance and Infirmity which we are to pray God to forgive and free us from as well as from others 2. Presumptuous Sins which implye such as are both known and wilful and those 3. such as have dominion over one a reigning habitual prevailing power now if we be kept free from these latter though not the former we are safe and out of danger in a state of sincerity and favour with God and shall be treated as Righteous and Good Men notwithstanding those lesser Faults Then shall I be upright and I shall be innocent from the great transgression i. e. from any such Sin as shall indanger my Soul and expose it to Misery and Damnation I shall consider and explain these several sorts of Sins 1. Errors and secret Faults Sins of Ignorance and Infirmity such as we knew not to be Sins when we committed them either by a downright ignorance and not knowing any Law of God that forbad them or by thoughtlesness surprize and inconsideration being unawares engaged in them before we could think or consider As to Sins of Ignorance our Saviour told the Pharisees John 9.41 If ye were blind ye should have no sin i. e. If ye had been perfectly ignorant of the Messiahs coming into the World and had had no knowledge of this by the Prophesies of old and by the Miracles which ye see me do then your Infidelity and Unbelief had been excusable and without Sin Where Christianity is not revealed as to the Heathen World where Faith is not proposed to Men with those Arguments and Reasons which should perswade to it there God will not condemn them for their Ignorance which they could no way help and which was only their misfortune and not their fault Our Blessed Saviour sayes of the Jews If I had not come and spoken unto them they had not had sin Joh. 15.22 i. e. the Sin of Disbelieving and Rejecting him as to other Sins known by their own Law those they had been answerable for to God as St. Paul sayes As many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law Rom. 2.12 and as many as have sinned without law shall perish without law i. e. the Gentiles who had not the Law of Moses shall be condemned for their Sins by the Law of Nature It has been an uncharitable Question whether any of the Gentiles should be saved Now tho' they cannot be saved in an ordinary way by Vertue of the Christian Covenant to which they have no title or claim yet God may in extraordinary Mercy let all Mankind have the benefit of it and save them by Christ though they know him not
unlawfully had it power and opportunity for those first Motions and Inclinations are necessary and unavoidable arising from the frame and constitution of our Nature and the Mechanism of our Body Blood and Spirits so that we can no more help or prevent them than we can the senses of Pain and Pleasure or the Appetites of Thirst or Hunger or the Motions and Impressions of outward Objects made upon our Senses and therefore they are not simply evil but good in themselves so far as they are Natural and intended by God to serve the good of the World and of particular Persons and the wise ends of Providence but as they are irregular and inordinate excessive and immoderate and destroy those ends for which God intended them so far they are sinful and when any of those Natural Appetites or Sensual Inclinations grow too strong and unruly and are not kept under the government of Reason or within the bounds of Vertue and Religion then they carry Men to all loosness and wickedness and make them commit Sin and Uncleanness with greediness A good Man may with St. Paul be very sensible and complain of this body of sin and of death and of the law of sin that is in his members of many irregular Appetites and undue Passions and weak and foolish imaginations and unreasonable desires and inclinations of too quick gusts of Sensual things and too much deadness of Spiritual of having too many thoughts and designs for Earthly and present things and too little zeal and affection for things Heavenly that are a thousand times more valuable These are imperfections that are in the best of us and we see that they are so and are very sensible and complain of them but yet we cannot wholly avoid them but after all our thoughts and all our care they still return upon us and the Flesh will lust against the Spirit and there will be a perpetual war and struggle between them but if the Spirit do so far prevail by the helps of Grace and considerations of Religion that it do never yield to any wilful Sin it shall then be rewarded as a Conquerour which though it did not wholly subdue and drive out that homebred enemy yet kept it alwayes under and made it submit to its Government and not keep up an open Rebellion against it Of this I have largely discoursed in the Third Section of the Third Chapter I proceed now to those Sins which are known wilful and presumptuous habitual and reigning in us any one of which is inconsistent with a good State and excludes us out of Gods Favour here and Heaven hereafter such as the Psalmist in the forequoted place prayes against Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins lest they get the dominion over me All known and wilful Sins are presumptuous as being done in defiance of a Divine Authority that we know has forbid them and in contempt of God and his Laws to whom we owe all Honour and Obedience and notwithstanding all those threatnings and severe punishments that God has denounced against them He that sins wilfully after he has received the knowledge of the truth of these things there remains nothing for him but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries This is despising the Law of God thus wittingly and wilfully to break it and is sinning with a high hand and a most presumptuous boldness when we choose to do that which we know is most highly displeasing to Heaven and which God has laid all the obligations he possibly can upon us not to do When any such Sin gets dominion over us so that it becomes customary and habitual to us it makes us the Devils slaves and captives at his Will and shows that he is our Master and that we are the Servants of Sin and overcome by that and brought in bondage to it that it prevails upon our Minds above all the Power of Reason and Principles of Religion and that we choose it above all the great things of Heaven and another World that Religion offers to us and think it more desirable than any of those and had rather gratifie a paltry Lust and a foolish Inclination than save our Souls and have all the favour of God that we prefer it before any other good and let it have the ascendant in our Love and Affections above all other things for it is utterly inconsistent with any Love of God or any due regard to him and banishes all Principles of Religion out of our Minds and destroyes all sincerity and uprightness of Heart towards God and abandons us to a state of enmity with him and everlasting destruction hereafter This I have shown is true of every wilful and chosen and known Sin I shall now from the distinction I have given you of these Sins from those of Infirmity Ignorance and Inadvertency make the following Inferences and Remarks 1. That those Sins of Infirmity are to be Repented of i. e. we are to be sorry for them and pray God to forgive them Though they do not destroy our good state nor deprive us of Gods Favour here or Heaven hereafter yet they are such as are to be matter of Trouble and Sorrow and Humiliation to us and we are dayly to pray God to forgive us our Trespasses as Christ has taught us in the Lords Prayer and the Psalmist in the place before mentioned prayes God to cleanse him from his secret faults as well as to keep him back from presumptuous Sins For 2. These are true and proper Sins and though they are not charged upon us to our Condemnation yet this is by the great Favour and Mercy of God and by Vertue of the Gracious Covenant made in Christ with Mankind for otherwise God in Rigour and Justice might punish and condemn us for them The Papists hold a distinction between Sins Mortal and Venial in their own Nature i. e. that some Sins are in themselves damnable and others not which the Protestants have generally opposed for this Reason because all Sin is in it self Mortal and in its own Nature deserves Death as being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a breach and transgression of a Divine Law whose sanction is Death but it is pardonable only by Gods Mercy on the account of its circumstances which make it more excusable with a good and merciful God but that it is not of it self venial or so little as not to deserve Punishment they prove from hence that we are bound to pray God to forgive it Now it is pure Grace and Favour for God to forgive and what he is not obliged to and if he is not obliged to pardon it he may punish it were it not for his Mercy and Goodness and the Gracious Covenant he has made with us in the Gospel This should therefore 3. Make us very sensible of Gods infinite Mercy and kind dealing with us by the Covenant of Grace How many innumerable Sins and