other men are extortioners vniust adulterers or as this Publican There is his exemption from common prophanenes I fast twice in the weeke I giue tithe of all that I possesse There is his outward iustice and religious solennities But you must not conceiue that the formall hypocrite doth proclaime this in publicke with such grosse and palpable ostentation Nay perhaps when it arises hee lets it not rest long in his owne thoughts left by this vanity his vertues lose their grace and he his comfort But certaine it is a consciousnes of his being free from infamous impieties of his morall honestie performance of outward duties of religion and some inward in some measure though not vniuersally nor to the degree of the children of God is one of the best grounds he hath for his assurance of being in state of saluation Parallel to this of Luke is that Prou. 30. vers 12. There is a generation that are pure in their owne conceit and yet are not washed from their filthinesse That is they imagine their temper of religion their pitch of holinesse their formall Christianity to bee the very right path to heauen when indeed they were neuer truely humbled with a sense and sight of their sinnes out of the law and iudgements of God They were neuer acquainted with the pangs of conscience in a new birth or the mysteries of saluation But within are full of hollowheartednesse lukewarmenesse and much bitternes against true godlinesse and the power thereof The second reason whereby the formall hypocrite is moued to thinke his state to be good and the way of his life to be right is a preiudice which he conceiues from the imputations which the world layeth vpon the children of God such as are Pride Hypocrisie Singularity Melancholie Simplicitie and the like But before I descend to these particulars giue me leaue to propose vnto you the fountaine and ground of them which I take to bee that great and eternall opposition which is naturally betwixt light and darkenesse the life of grace and a death in sinne sincerity and prophanenesse the children of God and the wicked Gods children you know in this world liue as sheepe amongst wolues In the stormie times of the Church their persecutors are indeed euen wolues in the euening for their insatiable crueltie and vnquenchable thirst in drinking vp the blood of the Saints And in the Halcyon daies and fairest times of the Church yet they haue those which will bee pricks in their eyes and thornes in their sides If they cannot vexe them in a higher degree yet they will bee sure to lay on loade with base indignities disgraces slanders and lying imputations And their hatred is of that strange nature and quality that it is discharged euen against the goodnesse of the godly their zeale their forwardnesse in religion their faithfulnesse in their calling and the like as against it proper obiect This is plaine in Ieremie Ieremie neither borrowed on vsurie nor lent on vsurie hee was free from all colour of giuing offence or doing wrong Nay his gratious heart was so wholly melted in compassion that he wished that his head were full of water and his eyes a fountaine of teares that he might weepe day and night for the destructions of his people And yet of that people euery one contended against him there was not a man but hee cursed him The onely reason was because whatsoeuer the Lord said that he faithfully spoke and kept nothing backe but shewed them all the counsell of God It is yet more plaine in Dauid Psal. 38.20 They also that reward euill for Good are mine aduersaries because I follow goodnesse The word there in the originall insinuateth such an extreme and deadly hatred that from thence comes the diuels name Satan So that howsoeuer this enmitie betwixt the world and the children of light be many times bridled by the restraining spirit of God sometimes by the ingenuousnesse of the wicked or their morall vertue or policie or some by-respect or by accident bee turned into loue because by the presence and praiers of the godly they many times escape iudgements and receiue blessings Yet I say howsoeuer it be thus bridled in it selfe it is more then ordinary or naturall and hath in it some degree and mixture of hellish virulencie Ordinarie hatred expires in the downe-fall of his aduersarie Nay any one of generous mind out of the interest he challengeth in the common state of humanitie will commiserate the distresse and affliction euen of his greatest and basest enemie but much more of one of noble spirit and eminent worth and more then that of one that hath followed him with all offices of kindnes and loue yet the flame of this hatred is so fiâ—rce so set on fire by hell that it is not extinguished euen with the blood of his supposed Opposite but barbarously sports in his miseries with insoleÌ„cy tramples vpon his desolations This appeareth clearely in the example of Dauid Psal. 35.15 But in mine aduersity they reioyced and gathered themselues together the abiects assembled themselues against me and I knew not they tare mee and ceased not Who without indignation can thinke vpon these leaud companions and base drunkards that with the false scoffers at bankets gnashed their teeth and cruelly insulted ouer the miserie and disgrace of that man that was a man after Gods owne heart of incomparable excellency and so kindly affected towards them that when they were sicke he clothed himselfe with a sacke he humbled his soule with fasting and mourned as one that mourneth for his mother You see then the fountaine both of the greater stoods of bloodie persecutions and the lesser streames of inferiour vexations as slanders railings and false imputations To some particulars whereof I now come First for Pride It is most certaine that Pride truely so called is the most pesâ—lent and incompatible Opposite that Grace hath and therefore hee that is most sanctified most fights against it For besides that this fiery dart is deepely impoysoned in our corrupted nature Satan knowes out of his owne experience how to manage it with notable cunning and he followes this weapon with such eagernesse and confidence that after it is broken vpon the shield of faith yet he labours with might and maine to fasten some splinter or other euen in the soule humbled for sinne and vowed vnto the seruice of God as I told you in the first part of priuie hypocrisie But I appeale vnto the consciences of the children of God whether many times the world doth not interpret that to be pride in their actions and cariage which is nothing else but a gracious freedome of spirit arising from a consciousnesse of their innocencie and independancy whereby they are inabled to stand with courage against corruptions and the sinnes of the time to follow good causes with boldnesse and with resolution to defend a knowne and warrantable truth and indeed to prefer the saluation of
which is a horrible and feareful curse euen esteeme them foolishnes The third reason shall be taken from the example of Nicodemus Iohn 3. Nicodemus I am perswaded was an honest and an ingenuous man I am sure he was a great man and a teacher of Israel yet when he comes out of his ciuill honestie and naturall wisdome to reason and confer with Christ about the saluation of his soule and eternall happinesse hee is strangely childish and a meere infant For when Christ tels him Except a man be borne againe he cannot see the kingdome of God he replies How can a man be borne which is old can he enter into his mothers wombe againe and be borne A replie which may breed an astonishment in all that shall euer reade this story vnderstandingly vnto the worlds end nay it seemes to seeme strange to Christ himselfe by his interrogatiue admiration afterward Art thou a teacher of Israel and knowest not these things And no maruell for who would think that one of the best of the Pharises a ruler of the Iews a profest Doctor in the Law and the Prophets and one carefull to saue his soule should be so grossely and palpably ignorant in a most materiall and necessarie point of saluation especially hauing many times no doubt read it in Moses and the Prophts Amongst many places he might see Ezech. 36.26.27 most cleerely laid downe the great and glorious worke of our new birth A new heart also will I giue you and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take the stony hart out of your body and I will giue you a heart of flesh c. But when he comes from teaching and reading of this and the like places to be examined in the practise and experimentall feeling of these graces of regeneration vpon his owne soule why hee talkes of a man that is old entring againe into his mothers wombe from whence he should certainely returne with a doubled pollution and corruption of nature and once more the child of Satan then he was before But so it is where the hart is not seasoned with sauing grace let the vnderstanding be neuer so great with swelling knowledge the practicall powers of the soule neuer so pregnant with wisdome and policie and perfected with morall vertues yet there is nothing to be expected from that man in matters and mysteries of saluation but darkenes and blindnesse childishnesse and stupiditie Fourthly the young man in the Gospell may be a fit instance for our present purpose He was vnreprooueable in the externall iustice and outward obseruances of the second table wherein ciuill honesty doth principally consist but how farre hee was from inward sanctification the state of grace and happinesse of Gods children appeares in the story For when the sacred and powerfull words of our blessed Sauior had insinuated into the secrets of his soule and strucke at his sweet sinne of couetousnesse the young man is presently cast into a fit of melancholie Christ is too precise a preacher for him he cannot digest such a strict and seuere course he will not abandon his pleasures of worldlinesse his palaces his possessions to follow Christ the Lord of heauen and earth in this life though he assure him of the rich treasures of eternall blessednes in the life to come When the young man heard that saying he went away sorrowfull for he had great possessions Whereby we may see that a man may be ciuilly honest and vncensurable in outward workes of iustice and yet harbour and nourish some close corruptions and sweet sinne in his heart from which rather then he will part he will lose his part in Christ the bottomlesse fountaine of endlesse ioies and comforts and his portion of vnualuable glory in the new Ierusalem This point being thus manifest for conclusion I will lay downe certaine differences betwixt the righteousnesse of faith and sanctification and the righteousnesse of ciuil honestie that a man may haue some directions to examine his soule and conscience in this respect First the fountaine and originall of righteousnesse of faith is the sanctifying Spirit of God I call it the sanctifying spirit because the spirit of God may by a generall influence concur to the illumination of the vnderstanding with knowledge and a ciuill reformation of the wil euen in the vnregenerate but the sanctifying spirit by the miraculous operatiue of sauing grace doth purge and mortifie the inmost affections plant iustifying faith in the heart renew al the powers of the soule and reinuest them in some good measure with the blessed image of holinesse and integritie which they lost in Adam But the cause and fountaine of righteousnesse of ciuill honesty may bee goodnesse of constitution and ingenuousnesse whereby a man may not be so apt and inclinable to notorious sinnes or want of trials and prouocations or feare of lawes and temporall punishments or desire of reputation and rising or a vaine hope to stay Gods iudgements for inward corruptions by ciuill outwardnesse or at best the restraining Spirit of God by which hee doth onely represse the furies and outrages of the wicked and reduce them to some moderation and honestie for the quiet of his Elect and conseruation of Kingdomes For if God did not put his hooke into the nostrils of prophane men and his bridle into their lippes euery one of them sith euery man hath in his corrupt nature the seedes of all sinnes that euer haue are or may be committed I say euery one of them might become a cruell Senacherib a railing Shemei a traiterous Iudas a bloodie Bonner an hellish Fawkes fierce Woolues and Lions against the sillie and innocent Lambes of Christs fold Secondly righteousnesse of ciuill honestie in outward actions may make a colourable pretence of pietie and vprightnes but indeed hath many secret relations to pleasures to friends to profit to preferments to reuengement to passions partialities and euents and such like by-respects not easilie discernable but by him whose eies are tenne thousand times brighter then the Sunne But righteousnesse of faith hath in all actions for the maine scope and principall end the glory and honour of God and if infirmitie doe sometimes distaine them with some mixture and adherence of respects for who can say my heart is cleane euen the purest actions are mixt with some spice of corruptions it workes in the faithfull soule much griefe sorrow striuing against repentance and humiliation Thirdly righteousnesse of faith doth labour watchfully religiously and conscionably in that particular calling wherein Gods prouidence hath placed a man and in all the parts and speciall duties of godlinesse and obedience But ciuill honesty wanders in the generalities of religion and many times in impertinent vnsetled and vnlimited courses Fourthly righteousnesse of faith doth striue with greatest earnestnesse and contention of spirit for spirituall comfort and a good conscience before God But ciuill honestie is fully and finally satisfied with credit and plausiblenesse amongst men Fifthly
irregular and stirring heads of some busie and pragmaticall fellowes shadowed onely with a number of faire shewes and pretences but really existent and acted no where And that they may more securely and obstinately rest vpon this persuasion he furnisheth them with a notable art of misconceiuing and misinterpreting the actions of grace and of making by odious exaggerations a little hole in the coate of a sound Christian as wide as hell Hence it is that Dauid is many times made sport with and merrilie iested vpon by them with the false scoffers at their feasts and bankets and hath things laid to his charge with much confidence but without al conscience which God thou knowest he neuer knew Hence it is that many times those actions in which for the truth and vprightnesse of his heart and the iustnesse and innocency of his cause he dare appeale to the tribunal of God the impartiall searcher of the inmost thoughts and seuere reuenger of all falshood yet are racked by vile and base misconstructions and interprâ—ted to be the workes of darknes and deceit And if they take a godly man but tripping in some lesser error in his cariage and that perhaps but forged in their owne wilfull misconceit they thence raise matter not only of triumph and insultation but which is much more feareful of chearing applauding and confirming themselues in their present wretched state But if Satan meete with a man that by the grace of God is already entred into the panges of his trauell in the new birth and with sorrow for his sinnes is smitten downe into the place of dragons and couered with the shadow of death then he eagerly striues to stiffle the new man in the wombe and by presenting to his view the vgly visage of his many and outragious transgressions the curse of the Law and the wrath of God which he yet makes more grizlie and fierce by his owne hellish malice to plunge him into the bottomlesse gulfe of irrecouerable horror and desperation But if by the mercies of God hee sinke not but betime lay hold vpon the iustice of Christ and that boundlesse compassion which neuer knew how to breake the bruised reed or quench the smoaking flaxe but holds a broken and contrite heart farre more pretious then a sacrifice of the beasts on a thousand mountaines and then ten thousand riuers of oile why then he stands like a great red Dragon in his way at the very first entrance into the Kingdome of light and profession of sinceritie and casts out of his mouth flouds of persecutions vexations and oppositions that so he may ouerwhelme and crush him before he come to any growth or strength in Christ and a full comprehension of the mysterie of grace And to this end hee sets on foot and fire too and whets with keene razors many a leaud and prophane tongue to scoffe disgrace and discourage him in his narrow but blessed passage to immortalitie by reproches slanders exprobration of his former life by odious names of Hypocrite Singularist Puritane a fellow of irregular conscience and stirring humour of a factious and contradictious spirit and such like But if hee also passe these pikes and these sharpe swords for so Dauid calles spitefull tongues out of a consideration of that truth in Paul Euery one that will liue godly in Christ Iesus shall suffer persecution and that in the calmest time of the Church amongst many other he shall be sure at the least to bee continually scourged and vext with strife of tongues for euerie faithfull Christian knowes by good experience that euer now and then as he shall stirre in a good cause stand against the corruptions of the place where he liues with conscience and faithfulnesse discharge his calling hee shall presentlie haue the spirit of prophanenesse to slie in his face with brutish and implacable malice and insolencie But yet I say if he be able with his Lord and Sauiour to endure this speaking against of sinners and to esteeme it as it is indeed his crowne and comfort why then Satan casts about another way and hee labours sometimes to fasten vpon him some vnwarrantable opinions thereby scandalously and vnnecessarliy to disquiet him to defraud him of an entire fruition of the comforts of holinesse and to hinder and interrupt him in the prosecution of his glorious seruice of God Sometimes to puffe him vp with a selfe-conceit of his owne excellencie seeing himselfe aduanced as farre aboue the common condition of men and the richest and happiest worldling as heauen aboue earth light aboue darkenesse endlesse happinesse aboue eternall miserie that so as the Apothecaries ointment by a dead flie his good actions and spirituall graces may receiue staine and infection by priuie pride of the nature and remedies whereof I haue before discoursed These and many others be the temptations of a babe in Christ and fitted to the infancie of regeneration But if Satan meet with a strong man in Christ he tempts him by those two methods I told you of before somtimes by wasting his zeale sometimes by weakening his faith and a thousand moe Amid which infinite varietie he is for the most part constant in one point of policy and that is this He coÌ„ceales his greatest fury his most desperate assault vnto the last He reserues his fieriest dart his deadliest poison his sharpest sting his Gunpouder-plot vntill he meete vs on our deaths bed Wherefore beloued in Christ Iesus we had need euery man to be strongly and soundly prepared and armed against that great and last encounter with Satan vpon which depends our euerlasting estate either in the ioies of heauen or paines of hell Oh at that day and we little know how neere it is it is not our deepe reaches and vnfathomd policies and proiects the countenance and patronage of great personages our merrie and plesant companions or the pluralitie of liuings and preferments that can yeeld vs any comfort or assistance in that terrible and fearefull combat Nay though we now little thinke vpon it all the worldly contentments that we haue either indirectly purchased or vnconscionably imploid he will then turne vnto vs into Scorpions stings and wormes of conscience Onely at that day a good conscience will hold out as armour of proofe which as it hath bin on earth a continuall feast so their it will bee vnto vs a great and euerlasting Iubilee for euermore By this time you easily perceiue and I am very sensible of the digression I haue made but I haue done it onely to giue you a taste of that part of diuine knowledge about the depths of Satan and spirituall state of sanctified soules and afflicted consciences which I take to be Gods childs peculiar and in which the formall hypocrite hath little skil or exercise For the deepe and diuine ponderations of this nature vpon these points doe not much take vp or trouble his mind and meditations It is a pretious knowledge abstracted by an holy experience from